#just like how the core six is technically family but when they’re together it FEELS more like friendship in the way they interact | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

arielxlazarus · 4 years ago

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I almost forgot about that fanfic appreciation week, but I wanted to at least do something for it! So here's a rec list for some of my favorite fics in the one piece fandom!

This list is not at all exhaustive btw (there's still loads of other fics in the fandom that I love), so please don't feel bad if you weren't included! Also if anyone wants more recommendations from me, you can check out my bookmarks on my ao3!

Who Knows (what could happen) by Chromi

Rating: T

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: For as long as he could remember, he had wanted to set out to sea as an adventurer. His father, unfortunately, dictated that he was to follow the family tradition and become a doctor instead.

Following a lifetime of hurt and sorrow at the hands of his family, he eventually breaks free and takes to the sea alone - determined to keep it that way. Fate has other ideas in store for him; fate crosses his path with Portgas D. Ace's, a brand new pirate.

And what does he hate more than pirates?

Nothing.

Or: from Sixis to the Moby Dick - the lives of the Spade pirates.

First Time by Chromi

Rating: E

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: "Because it is Ace, and it will only ever be Ace, that he wants to see like this, and he wants to be responsible for unravelling him down to his core and loving him to his very center."

In which Ace and Deuce go all the way for the first time.

@chromiwrites

Seabound by AnkhPosts

Rating: T

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Ace is a selkie, making one of his periodic stops on land to catch a breather and get some ridiculously tasty human food, maybe see some sights if there are any. His pelt is safely hidden, he'll stay a day or two at most and be on his way.

Deuce is a mer, alone on the sea and traveling as he pleases for the first time in his life, and while he might not be terribly interested in actually interacting with humans it's hard not to see them as fascinating.

Ace meets Deuce. Deuce meets Ace. Neither knows the other isn't human.

@ankhposts

Death is only the beginning by Chizyk

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: “Ankhreshet?” he whipped his head round at the sound of a raspy voice so fast he almost got whiplash. He could feel his body going completely cold as he saw the mummy’s empty eye sockets staring right at him.

@chizyk

I'm Still Here (part of a series) by theprodigypenguin

Rating: M

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace (also Izou/Sabo later in the series)

Summary: "When I do die, don't bother burying me in that empty grave. Put my body in a boat and set me out to sea. Let me sleep eternal on the ocean that my father loved so much; because before everything else in this world, I am a child of the sea, and when I die, I want to return to it. Put me in a boat and set it aflame so I can go down in the same fire I lived."

Forget-Me-Not Fall by theprodigypenguin

Rating: M

Pairing: Izou/Sabo

Summary: “Most of the nobles I’ve met tonight look meticulously put together. They look like they were built to portray a certain image paralleled a hundred times over. People who were copied and pasted. Flawless clothes, flawless faces, flawless makeup, flawless hair.”

“Not me though,” Sabo stated, and Izou hummed.

“It’s comforting.”

“Huh?”

Izou met Sabo’s eye. “Everyone else in this place hides their worst attributes with a mask they modified to fit their faces. They don’t seem to comprehend that those perfect masks only make their worst characteristics more pronounced and defined.” His expression was terribly gentle as his eyes wandered across Sabo’s face. “It’s comforting to be approached by someone not trying to be something else.”

Sabo tilted his head. “How do you know I’m not manipulating you like some common Goa aristocrat?”

Izou smiled. “There are a few reasons.”

@theprodigypenguin

A Light To Guide You Home by TheSkyIsMyHome

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: In a world that despises mutants, Ace lives purely to protect his little brother.

Until the flames inside him find their perfect match and opposite, and he doesn't know what to feel anymore.

The Phoenix's Mate by TheSkyIsMyHome

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Marco is a handsome man. Ace really can't be blamed for being attracted to him. Nobody minds, either.

But Marco isn't always a man. Ace still loves him regardless, and his sexual urges are catching up to that fact.

Marco indulges him, but he might just find himself enjoying it more than he thought he would.

@evvazi

ASL in Red (series) by Kereea

Rating: G-T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law (both asexual), Koala/Sabo, Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks/Benn Beckman, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante/Aokiji | Kuzan, Roronoa Zoro/Sanji, and several other minor ones

Summary: In an alternate universe, forces conspired to put Ace, Sabo, and Luffy in the care of the Red Hair pirates as children.

The Grand Line would never know what hit it.

Mates (part of a series) by Deubatty

Rating: E

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Deuce just wanted to go searching for plants! A nice walk in the woods. Except, he ends up becoming the mate to a very persistent naga

His First Mate The Mermaid (part of a series) by Deubatty

Rating: T

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Instead of finding another person on Sixis, Ace finds a mermaid

@masked-writer

Being Human by MaiKusakabe

Rating: E (no smut)

Pairing: None (heavy focus on the platonic relationships between Marco, Whitebeard, and the rest of the crew as they form)

Summary: The line that differentiates human from object appears to be clear, but sometimes it blurs to the point where it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

The Unknown Devil by MaiKusakabe

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Ace hadn’t expected his last week of imprisonment before his execution to be any different from all the years preceding it. Then again, he hadn’t expected to have Marco the Phoenix as a cellmate for that week, or that Marco’s presence would shake his bleak world so much.

Ripple Effect by MaiKusakabe

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: After the incident with Shanks, Garp didn't take Luffy to Dadan's, unaware of how much that would change the life of his other grandson.

@maisstories

To Build a Home by endlessblankpages

Rating: G

Pairing: None (heavy focus on the platonic relationships between the ASL bros and the Whitebeard Pirates)

Summary: The ASL pirates are used to being accused of crimes they didn't commit. But when they're accused of destroying a small village in the New World, it sends them hurtling toward a deadly confrontation with the strongest man in the world, Whitebeard. The results are not what they were expecting.

Persistence & The Impossible (part of a series) by dragonsfall

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: In order to keep himself from losing his job, Ace takes on an impossible story. Get an interview with the ever-elusive Phoenix. Guess he might as well kiss his job goodbye.

Self Discovery (part of a series) by dragonsfall

Rating: E

Pairing: Izou/Sabo (sort of, it's technically masturbation)

Summary: Sabo has been waiting for a day like this for a while but it doesn’t go quite how he planned it.

@clockworkpanic

A Breach of Intention by Depths

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: It was unspoken, but some pirate crews and mermaids had an unspoken solidarity. Pirates throw their enemies overboard, and the merfolk will take care of them.

mer!ace au

@leviathiane

Running on All Sixes by lunarshores

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace, minor Izou/Thatch

Summary: The Whitebeard gang might be one of the most influential in the city, but to Marco they're just his family. Though he sometimes wishes they'd just leave him alone, especially when Izo's playing matchmaker, and Ace is his usual oblivious self. When a brother betrays them, they'll have to fight to show why no one ever messes with their family.

nothing is impossible with you by lunarshores

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Five times Ace and Marco accidentally mixed their flames on accident and one time that was entirely on purpose.

@lunarshores

I Want You to Look at Me by shockandlock

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: One night, Marco is missing from dinner, so Ace decides to bring dinner to him. He's surprised to see Marco wearing glasses and now he can't stop thinking about the way he looks. Now with additional chapter(s) including more miscellaneous MarcoAce PWP!

To My Dear Fire (part of a series) by shockandlock

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Living in the city is a new thing for Ace. After being raised near a cozy coastal mountain town through his childhood, it's definitely a change of pace, but it doesn't help when he loses his new job after an unfortunate encounter with actor Marco Newgate. He just wants to live-- and meet his long time pen pal, Phoenix.

Marco knows that being an actor is hard, so he takes the little things when he can: writing his pen pal (and honestly one of his best friends) Fire Fist, flirting with the cute new waiter at his favorite café-- not that he has a chance after a disaster on social media. But maybe fate really does give him a second chance when Ace shows up at Four Emperor Studios...

@shockandlock

Uncharted Territory by silverwolf_fox

Rating: E

Pairing: Masked Deuce/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: This was by far one of Ace's most ridiculous ideas.

When Deuce keeps getting flustered everytime he tries to dominate Ace, they created an opportunity where he didn't have to be afraid of messing up.

Now he's free to do and try whatever he wants...

...so long as Ace doesn't wake up.

Watching the Sunrise (part of a series) by silverwolf_fox

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Many years have passed since Rouge gave up her life for her son’s...except she didn’t die, but she thinks Ace did. Living her life on Baterilla, she’s mourned each and every day until the morning she receives his bounty poster. She sets off immediately to find him, but finds their meeting isn’t as easy as she’d imagined.

@the-devil-fruit-tree

never shall i forget, how you climbed out of a dream by siojo

Rating: T

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: “Kaido,” Ace smirks, flames burning around his feet as he shifts in preparation for Kaido’s next attack, already trying to decide what he’s going to do in response. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? You’ve seemed to have been enjoying yourself here.”

“I thought you would be smarter than this, Portgas. You’ve never tried to fight another Yonko before, your bounty won’t matter much when you lose.”

Ace barks a laugh, his teeth bared in a facsimile of a grin, “You must have missed out on the brawl I had with Big Mom after she sent two of her daughters and a son for me to consider marrying. This is a bit more personal than that.”

@wordsdrippinginink

Reborn in Fire by aerle

Rating: M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Fireman Marco has earned the nickname 'the Phoenix' by saving numerous people from a certain death. After an accident however, he has to relearn to walk and gets a new job as arson inspector at a different fire station. There he gets confronted with a boy from his past, now all grown up and gorgeous.

Three's a Crowd, Four's a Double Date by aerle

Rating: M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace (main), Izou/Thatch (secondary)

Summary: "We're not dating," Marco said definitively. "That we're sharing a bed tonight is a total coincidence."

@aerle

Universal Dive by EmpressKira

Rating: M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Ace had been making his way through the city to go to one of his favorite cafes. Well, that was until this hole ripped in the sky and some pirate fell out with the flaming bird guy following. Getting targeted, he is dragged into a different world with pirates and everything defying the reality he is used to. Will he make it home? Will he go back when the time comes?

@empresskira

Blue moon (series) by de_Winter

Rating: T-M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Urban fantasy AU, werewolf Marco and witch Ace

Red Velvet by de_Winter

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: Ace already knew their routine by heart, just from observing them for a couple of mornings when he had early delivery, and from Izou’s daily long winded—and probably sexually frustrated—rants. Big Blond would come out of the bakery wearing a shirt too tight for him and too thin for the weather as soon as he was done setting up the tables inside the storefront, holding a take out cup and a small box in his big hands. They looked really, pleasantly big from where Ace was standing, and he honestly wished he wasn't standing that far away.

@dee-de-winter

We'll Look Back and Laugh at Ourselves by JuHuaTai

Rating: M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace, minor Gol D. Roger/Portgas D. Rouge

Summary: Between his new boyfriend and his workaholic boss, Marco felt like he was surrounded by family issues of the father and son dispute variety. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Or maybe he should've listened to the office gossip more. Maybe then he'd figure it out sooner.

Gratitude of the Phoenix (part of a series) by JuHuaTai

Rating: M

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: [Based on 'The Crane Wife' Folklore]

One day, he saved a bird from freezing to death in a trap. Then, a stranger saved him from suffering the same fate, and a request to stay for one night turned into having someone to fill the void left in the small cottage and in his heart ever since his brothers left.

These two incident doesn’t seem to be related to one another, but they both changed Ace’s life in ways he could never have imagined.

Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud) by stereden

Rating: T

Pairing: None (heavy focus on Buggy, Shanks, and Crocus)

Summary: The Roger Pirates disappeared after their Captain's death, and were happy enough to let the Marines forget about them.

Until the Marines decide to execute their Captain's son, that is.

@stereden

This Bites! by Xomniac

Rating: M

Pairing: None (heavy focus on a main character oc and the strawhat pirates)

Summary: Sea Kings, sea-sickness, sunburns, a 95% genocidal Navy and more than a million and one other assorted ways to die. It's official: Being inserted into an anime sucks ass... Buuut I guess it could be worse. I mean, look on the bright side: At least I'm sailing with the future king of the pirates.

A Fortune that Never Grows Old by imperialmint

Rating: E

Pairing: Marco the Phoenix/Portgas D. Ace

Summary: It's one thing to get butterflies in your stomach when you seen an attractive person but it's another thing entirely for Marco to want to stomp out a courtship ritual and lay foundations for a nest when he meets the navy's new (hot) secret weapon.

@imperialmint

Most of the authors on this list have many other excellent one piece fics I'd definitely suggest checking out! Enjoy your reading and try to show them all some love if you can!

201 notes · View notes

lumosandnoxwriting · 4 years ago

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Into the Light - George Weasley

Title: Into the Light Pairing: George x Fem!Reader Warning: NSFW!! Unprotected sex, dirty talk, fingers, female receiving oral, breeding kink Summary: All George has ever wanted is right at his fingertips, and he’s willing to go the extra mile to make his dreams a reality. A/N: part 2 to wanting something more!! You could probably read this on it’s own but it might make more sense if you’ve read the first part! This is some smut with fluff because I couldn’t help myself!! Feedback is always welcome! Tags: @sociallyawkward-princess @obsssedwithjustaboutanything @pigwidgexn Read part 1 here!

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George takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he watches Y/N sleep. Her head is resting on his chest and the moonlight flooding into the room illuminates her face. He can feel her shoulders rising and falling with every slow breath she takes, and every once in a while a quiet noise leaves her lips. George knows he should be sleeping but try as he might he can’t fall asleep. His fingers brush through her hair gently, letting the silky strands slip through his digits. They’ve been together for just over six months, and George still can’t believe this is his life.

He used to lie awake at night too plagued with thoughts of Y/N to fall asleep. She had been the one who got away, and in the cover of darkness George would let himself wonder what their life would’ve been like had he just worked up the courage to tell her how he truly felt. But now he gets to lie awake at night with her in his arms, too entranced by her beauty to fall asleep. When his mind wanders to their future it no longer fills him with dread, but overwhelming glee and anticipation. The things he yearned for in the dark are now finally able to be brought into the light.

At some point George does manage to fall asleep, his hand still entangled in Y/N’s hair and images of small red headed children running in a field playing on a loop in his head.

“He’s so good with her, isn’t he?” Ginny muses as she comes and leans against the counter next to Y/N.

Y/N hums in agreement, and finally tears her eyes away from where George is playing with Victorie so she can look at the younger girl. Sundays are reserved for family dinners at The Burrow, and Y/N has spent the last 10 minutes watching George hold little Victorie’s hand as she zoomed around the living room on the toy broom he bought her for her first birthday. He’d just lifted her up off of the broom so he could toss her in the air and catch her when Ginny interrupted.

“Does it make you feel mushy things?” Ginny teases, nudging her playfully.

Y/N rolls her eyes as a blush spreads across her cheeks. “How much money did George pay you to come over and say that to me?”

“Five Galleons. I talked him up from three,” Ginny says proudly with a grin. “Though if I knew I’d be found out this fast I would have asked for more. I figured this would be a recurring job.”

“Hey, you should feel accomplished. Ron only got One Galleon out of him last week and Harry did it for free the week before,” Y/N chuckles.

Ginny shakes her head as she snorts in laughter. “Merlin, you better give him a baby soon or he’ll run out of money.”

Y/N bites her lip and turns her attention back to George. Victorie is giggling wildly as George chases her around the living room, his arms outstretched and his fingers moving as if he’s tickling her. “I think he’ll run out of family members to bribe before that ever happens.” Just as George’s hands grab Victorie he looks up, winking at Y/N when their eyes meet.

“Boy is he laying it on thick today.” Ginny pauses so she can watch Y/N for a moment. “Is it working? Or should I tell Hermione to ask for ten Galleons next week?”

Y/N shrugs, watching as George hands Victorie over to Molly and starts to head over to them. “It’s not like I haven’t thought about it. Of course, I want to have kids with George. I’m just worried that it’s too soon.”

George reaches them then, and he leans down to press a brief kiss to Y/N’s lips. “You ladies talking about anything interesting?”

“No not really. Just about how you keep bribing your family members to convince me to get pregnant,” Y/N responds with a glare.

George’s face turns beet red, and Ginny laughs as she starts to walk away. “You’re not getting your money back, by the way!”

“To be fair Harry did it for free,” George reminds her with a chuckle, wrapping his arms around Y/N’s waist. He hasn’t stopped thinking about having a baby with Y/N since the day they got back together, when she had begged George to fill her up with his cum and knock her up, so everyone would know who she belongs to. Not only had it been extremely arousing, but it made him realize how deeply he wants to have kids with her.

“Whatever, no need to get so technical,” she teases with an eye roll. Y/N wraps her arms around George’s neck and pulls him down so she can whisper in his ear. “I would much rather have you tell me how badly you want to knock me up while I’m pinned to a mattress and cumming around your cock.”

A shiver runs down George’s spine and his cock twitches in his trousers. “Fucking hell, you know what that shit does to me. Are you trying to give me a boner in front of my family, Y/N?” When all Y/N does is wink George groans and presses her up against the counter harder. “Just wait until we get home, Y/N. You’re not going to be able to walk tomorrow when I’m done with you.”

The second they apperate back into Y/N’s flat George has her pressed up against the nearest flat wall. He kisses her hard, one of his hands gripping her hip while the other shoves up her shirt. “I can’t fucking believe you, Y/N. Getting me all worked up in front of my family. Bet you wanted me to take you to the bathroom and fuck you right there, didn’t you, baby?”

Y/N tangles her hands in George’s hair and tugs hard, moaning as he starts to suck on her neck. “You just fuck me so good, Georgie. Want you anywhere I can have you.” She moves her head to the side to give George more room to kiss and tugs on his hair again. “Always wanna be full with you, Georgie. Your tongue, your fingers, your cock.” Y/N pauses and uses her grip on George’s hair to pull his head away from her neck so they’re looking each other in the eyes. “Your cum.”

“Fuck, baby. Who am I to deny you these things, hm? Gonna make sure you’re nice and stuffed.” George leans forward and nips at her earlobe. “Especially with my cum.” He kisses Y/N again as he grips her thighs, hoisting her up. George deepens their kiss as Y/N’s arms wrap around his neck, and he licks into her mouth as he starts to carry her to the bedroom. He tosses her on the bed as soon as it’s near enough, and George pulls his shirt off before he crawls up the bed towards her.

Y/N takes her shirt off as George comes towards her and once she’s thrown it away Y/N cups George’s jaw and pulls him down into a slow kiss. She whines against George’s mouth as his calloused hands run up her bare torso, and she arches her back into his touch.

One of George’s hands rests on Y/N’s back, keeping their chests pressed together, while the other undoes the clasp of her bra. He breaks their kiss so he can throw her bra off, and his mouth starts to trail open mouthed kisses from the base of her throat down to the tops of Y/N’s breasts. “I’m never gonna get tired of this, baby.”

“Better not, cause you’re stuck with me forever whether you want it or not.” The end of her sentence falls out into a low moan as George’s tongue starts to flick at one of her nipples. She can already feel arousal pooling in her belly, and she thrusts her hips forward in search of friction on her aching clit. “No teasing Georgie, please,” she whines as he starts to pinch the nipple he doesn’t have in his mouth. “Need you so badly.”

George chuckles as he pulls away from Y/N’s chest, letting his eyes roam over the few marks he’s left over her neck and chest. He spent so long being hesitant to make Y/N his, so now he marks her up every chance he gets to prove to everyone else, and himself, that he really is the one she comes home to every night. He ghosts his fingers down her sides, watching goosebumps explode in their wake. “What do you need, baby? Want me to lick that pretty pussy of yours to get it ready for my cock?”

“God yes Georgie, please,” Y/N begs, dragging her nails down his torso. When her hands reach the waistband of his jeans she starts to work at the button, desperately needing to feel his bare skin against hers.

George hooks his fingers around the band of Y/N’s leggings, and he gives her a wink before pulling them down around her knees. He runs his hands back up her thighs and starts to toy with the band of her panties. “Should I take these off too, baby? What do you think?”

“Unless you plan on eating my cunt through the fabric then I’d say so,” Y/N teases, lifting her hips up.

“You wanna be cheeky huh?” George asks, letting the band go so it snaps against her skin. “I guess you won’t mind me doing this if you need your cunt eaten so badly.”

The way George says cunt sends a shiver down her spine, and just as Y/N opens her mouth to ask him what he’s talking about a sharp gasp leaves instead, as he rips her underwear off of her body. He tosses the shredded fabric aside and Y/n pulls him down into a hot kiss. “I liked that pair you fucking prick.”

“Don’t worry baby I’ll buy you as many pairs of panties as you want once I’m done ruining your pretty pussy, okay?” George gets off the bed and pulls Y/N’s leggings all the way down and off before he starts to get rid of his own bottoms. “Though I much prefer it when you don’t wear any at all.” He gives her a wink as he finally takes off the rest of his clothes. “Easier access.”

George kneels on the end of the bed and takes one of Y/N’s knees in each hand before he pulls her legs apart. His eyes are immediately drawn to her core, and he lets his eyes roam over her dripping heat. “So wet for me already, baby. You sure you need my tongue to get you ready?”

Y/N’s chest heaves with deep breaths as George starts to press open mouthed kisses up her thigh towards her pussy. “Listen to me very carefully, George,” Y/N starts, threading her fingers into his hair. “If you ever wanna cum inside of me again, you’re gonna stop giving me so much shit and just fucking eat me out already.” She tugs on George’s hair so he looks up at her. “Understand?”

Instead of answering George leans in and licks a stripe from Y/N’s entrance up to her clit before sucking the sensitive bud between her lips. Her hips grind down on against his face, and George lets out a moan, letting his lips vibrate against her clit. He’s rewarded with the most beautiful noises he’s every heard come out of Y/N’s mouth, and he slips a finger into her pussy in return. George fucks her with his finger slowly, as he eagerly sucks her clit, letting his teeth lightly brush it every so often.

“So good, Georgie,” Y/N moans, working her hips down against his mouth. She knows George would eat her out for hours if she let him, since he’s done it before, so she tugs on his hair to get his attention. “More, please. Wanna be nice and ready for you cock.”

George hums in laughter, adding another finger alongside the first. He flicks at her clit with his tongue as he starts to fuck her faster, letting his fingers curl inside of Y/N. “Come on my fingers, baby. And then I’ll give you what you want.” He goes back to sucking her clit harshly, and starts to curl his fingers with every thrust, letting the tip of his middle finger brush her g-spot.

“So good, Georgie. You always eat my pussy so well.” Y/N clenches around George’s fingers, her orgasm steadily approaching. She brings the hand that’s not in George’s hair up to her breast and starts to roll her nipple between her fingertips. Her hips are working feverishly against George’s face and her toes curl as her climax nears. “Gonna cum, George, fuck.”

George curls his fingers against her g-spot as he nibbles on her clit, and Y/N’s back arches off of the bed as she cums, George’s name leaving her lips and her hand tugging on his hair. Her thighs shake as she comes down from her high, and George slowly pulls his mouth away and lets his fingers fuck into her slowly to help her come down from her high.

“Feel good?” George teases as he crawls back up her body. He presses a few brief kisses to her mouth, his hips moving to allow his cock to drag against the soft skin of her thigh. George feels like he’s been hard for hours, and he desperate needs to feel Y/N wrapped around him.

“I know what would feel better,” Y/N responds. She hooks one of her legs around George’s hip and pulls him in closer as she leans up on one of her elbows, so her lips just barely brush his earlobe. “Got my pussy nice and ready for you Georgie, can I have your cock now? Pretty please?”

George lets out a groan and pushes Y/N back against the bed as he grips the base of his cock. He lines himself up with her entrance and just barely presses his head against her heat. “You sure you’re ready for me, baby? I could always give you my mouth again.”

Y/N bites her lip and lets her hands run all over her torso, occasionally stopping to pinch or flick at one of her nipples. George’s eyes get even darker, and she lets out a quiet moan. “And I could always just get myself off, Georgie.” Y/N starts to trail one of her hands down towards her core and a small gasp leaves her lips when George grips her wrist tightly.

“Oh please,” George chides as he hikes her leg higher onto his hip. “Nothing makes you feel as good as my cock.” To prove his point George slams his hips forward, burying himself completely in Y/N’s wet heat. She tips her head back and a long whine leaves her lips, prompting George to slowly roll his hips. “But if you think your fingers can do better than me.”

When George starts to pull out Y/N wraps both of her legs around his hips and pulls him back in. “Don’t even fucking think about it George.” She pushes her hips down against him and they both let out breathy moans. “How are you gonna knock me up if you don’t fuck me good?”

“Fuck,” George groans, before he starts to move his hips, setting a fast pace. He slams back into her with every movement of his hips, watching her tits bounce with every thrust as her mouth drops open in a low moan. “So pretty, baby. Always look so good when I ruin you with my cock.” George picks Y/N’s lower half up higher so he can fuck into her deeper and they both whine at the new angle. “Fuck, baby. How does my cock feel, hm? Tell me how good I fuck you.”

Y/N’s fingers dig into George’s shoulders and she’s unable to control the noises coming out of her mouth. He’s hitting her g-spot with every thrust, and with the pleasure from her first climax still thrumming through her body, Y/N imagines she won’t last much longer. “So full, Georgie. Love having your big cock stretching me out. Love being full of you.”

“That’s right,” George growls, bring one of his hands to her core. He starts to rub harsh circles on her clit, and he moans when Y/N’s walls clench around him even tighter. “That’s not all you want though, is it, baby?”

“Want your cum Georgie, please,” Y/N begs. “Need you to fill me up. Wanna feel you deep inside me please.” Her words spur George on, and he starts to slam his hips harder, bringing her to her climax. Y/N shouts George’s name as she comes, her nails digging into her shoulder as he back arches off the bed. Pleasure is coursing through her body and ger walls are fluttering and twitching around George’s cock.

George leans down to kiss her, mashing their mouths together messily. He can feel his orgasm approaching and he grips Y/N tighter. “Fuck, Y/N. Gonna come soon, baby. Your pussy feels so fucking good, so tight for me.” George’s hips start to lose their rhythm and he takes a deep breath to try and calm himself down. “Where should I finish, hm? On your tummy? Maybe on those pretty tits of yours?”

“You know where I want it George, please.” Tears have started to leak out of the corners of her eyes from the overstimulation, and shockwaves of pleasure continue to move through Y/N’s body.

“You want me to cum inside you, hm? Want me to shoot my load up into you, get you nice and full of my cum. Knock you up so you can be nice and full with my baby?” When all Y/N does is not George slams into her harder. “Use your fucking words. Wanna hear you say it.”

“Please finish inside me,” Y/N pants. “Wanna be so full of your cum, please.” Y/N swallows thickly, looking up into George’s eyes. “Knock me up Georgie. Want everyone to know what a whore I am for your cum. Put a baby inside of me, please.”

George closes his eyes as his orgasm rocks through his body, his hips stilling as his cock starts to twitch, forcing his release as deep into Y/N as it can go. “Gonna get you nice and knocked up,” George pants as he starts to come back down. Once he’s fully emptied himself into Y/N he slowly pulls out, before slipping two fingers back into her wet heat. “Can’t let any leak out,” he teases.

Y/N whines as George lays down next to her, clenching around the two fingers inside of her. She’s terribly sore and sensitive from her orgasms, but she loves the feeling of George’s fingers inside of her. “Kiss me Georgie, please.”

George chuckles and leans down, kissing Y/N slowly. He curls his fingers before slowly pulling them out as their mouths move together and his cock twitches when Y/N moans into his mouth. “Full enough, Y/N?” he teases as he breaks their kiss.

“Depends, we’ll have to wait a few weeks to see if I’m full of your baby or not,” Y/N responds with a wink.

“Ugh,” George groans, dropping his head to rest their foreheads together. His free hand comes to rest on her stomach, pressing down slightly. “You can’t tease me like that, Y/N.” He presses their lips together softly for a moment.

Y/N bumps their foreheads together softly, prompting George to look her in the eyes. “Who said I was teasing?”

George’s fingertips dig into her stomach and his heart feels like it might beat out of his chest. “What? What are you talking about?”

“I stopped taking my birth control. A few weeks ago, after you somehow convinced Harry to talk to me about having a baby,” Y/N reveals, a blush taking over her cheeks. “I don’t care, that we’re not married or that we haven’t been together for that long. I’ve been wanting something more with you since I was seventeen and I don’t see the point in denying myself that any longer.”

“I love you, Y/N. So much. And I can’t wait to start on this new journey with you.” George pauses so he can kiss her sweetly. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”

George takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he watches his daughter sleep. She’s resting on his chest, with Y/N pressed close to his side. He watches her little chest rise and fall as she sleeps, and the first rays of sunshine illuminate her face. George knows he should be asleep, catching as much rest as he can while the baby does, but no matter how tired he is he can’t seem to fall asleep. He rubs his daughter’s back slowly, watching her eyelids twitch as she dreams. She’s already six days old, and George still can’t believe this is his life.

He used to walk around with a dark cloud over his head, too plagued with thoughts of never having this life to allow himself to bask in rays of sunshine and happiness. But as the sun starts to rise and his daughter starts to fuss on his chest, he finally allows himself to soak it all in.

A new chapter of his life has been thrust from the dark corners of his mind and into the light, and he can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

#George Weasley #George Weasley imagine #George Weasley smut #gw #golden

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kiivg · 4 years ago

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.I decided to just go with my three heroes instead of like all my dragon age romances because I’ve got someone for Blackwall, Gaspard, and I’ve got a mind for someone with Dorian too. Then I’ve got a whole load of OC x OC as well, and trying to draw all of them would be time consuming. However! During drawing this, I realised that, technically, Andrastopher, Anders, Marcus, and Zevran, have all slept with one another. Whether that’s between two people or more just depends on when in the timeline haha…. ,’:)c.

.Anyway there’s some things about my Heroes and their love interests below :), thank you for asking! I’m always excited to talk about my OCs.

...

.Andrastopher and Zevran’s relationship starts out as quite a basic thing. Something that’s not talked about in camp or on any of their journeys, but everyone knows it’s happening. On Andrastopher’s side, it’s something to make him forget for a little while, something to take his mind of everything that’s happening to him. Zevran, after all, offers this to him as more of an incentive to keep him alive knowing that Andrastopher most likely will end up killing him. Something that Andrastopher wasn’t exactly quiet about, he did actually plan on presenting Zevran’s head to Arl Howe at some point.

.Of course, everything changes with the course of time. Fighting beside one another in such dangerous situations, it was bound to leave them closer than before. They save each other’s lives, they tend one another’s wounds, and one night, Andrastopher doesn’t slink back to his own tent with a satisfied hum in his belly and stays curled around the other man. There’s a tenderness that blooms between them both, and what was not talked about before, is shown more and more openly.

.Zevran, I think, falls in love with Andrastopher before Andrastopher falls in love with him. He’s too broken to glue himself back together long enough to even think about such a thing. It probably doesn’t help that Zevran had started off by complimenting him on his looks above anything else, and Andrastopher knows he’s a weird looking man; more of a curiosity than a crush to anyone who looks at him. Anything Zevran had said after that was taken with the knowledge that the man would be lying.

.By the end of the blight, something that Andrastopher had hoped to die in, he’d found a reason to live again. Completing Morrigan’s ritual was a risk to take, but one he did so willingly so he could waken next to Zevran another day. However odd their beginnings were, neither man was willing to see the other one gone.

.After the blight, Andrastopher struggles with everything he knows. There’s no place for him in the world, and he cannot hide in Zevran’s arms as if there is nothing wrong. He takes a year to himself, sacrificing himself to the Qun, accepting that he needed a restriction in being who he was meant to be. It was a hard time apart, but the reunion was a sweet one. Though time and work takes them apart for perhaps months at a time, they remain loyal to one another. They marry at some point, a small thing which really only included the pair themselves, a chantry Mother, and Oghren who was both amused and embarrassed about it all.

.To this day they remain together, and regrets have been spoken about how they had initially started out. Andrastopher knows he should have treated Zevran better, something the man has forgiven him for over and over throughout their years.

...

.Marcus and Anders’ relationship was in-game the rivalmance because it’s so much more delicious than the basic romance. But, in my mind, it’s different.

.They start off butting heads in Kirkwall, Marcus needs Anders’ help, and Anders’ needs Marcus’ help. The idea of anything between them isn’t really on the table at the time since Marcus has been spending his time between Meeran’s legs more often than not. They both find each other insufferable for a variety of reasons; Marcus is egotistic, narcissistic, overtly cocky, and spends most of his time either fighting or fucking or playing that ridiculous lute he won in the Hanged Man. Whilst Marcus thinks Anders’ fight has been blown to unrealistic proportions, and he’s championing something that can be overcome easily enough, the man has a hero complex that grates on his nerves. Marcus is a Fereldan apostate who lives freely, and he can’t understand why people don’t just escape from the circle; his father did easily enough.

.After the Deep Roads expedition, coming home after eating nothing but mushrooms and drinking rock water for weeks, just to return to Carver’s newfound templar job really makes him rethink his attitude in Kirkwall. Marcus becomes openly supportive of the Templars, he has no choice; Carver’s relation to a mage has him under valiant watch, and though money helps, Marcus has to be on his best behaviour. Being seen with Anders can only damage his reputation, but they had kissed in that foggy desperation in the Deep Roads, not that they’d spoken of it, but it remains a memory that tasted sweet despite their breath.

.Marcus spends most of his time in the Blooming Rose in the next few years, wealth and desire letting him flaunt his time in rented beds. Anders yet plays on his mind, pulling him back time after time whenever he hears the man needs his help. They fight and disagree, snapping with magic curling in their fingertips. Anders feels like Marcus is betraying the very core of himself; denying that he’s a mage in every positive song he sings of the Templars. He hates the man with an intensity that boils over in the need to return to that time in the Deep Roads; when mages and templars didn’t matter, and the once fat Fereldan apostate gave away his shares of tasteless fungi to the mage who knew how to heal wounds. They fight and kiss, biting at each other with teeth and nails, and it is Marcus who storms away; burning with confusion and singed footsteps, and awaiting a visitor at the end of the night.

.When things get particularly bad, Marcus gives in to Anders’ way of thinking, apologising for what they had been through over the years. He gives him a key to the Hawke estate. It’s a safe place to hide, a safe place to smuggle mages in and out. He warns him on Carver’s inclusion, Marcus can’t be seen helping; it would only come back upon his brother and he’s not willing to risk such a thing.

.Anders stops by the estate more and more, and the animosity between them settles into something of a comfort. The man is there when Leandra is killed, he is there to stop him from killing Merrill just a few nights after, he is there to drag him home from the Blooming Rose when he drinks too much to remember where he lives. Marcus knows he doesn’t deserve any of it, and he is selfish when he kisses Anders for the first time in years, selfish when he tries to drag him into bed, selfish when he asks him to stay the night. Marcus’ rise to Viscount is the only thing that keeps Anders safe, and is the only reason that Anders is able to be smuggled from Kirkwall after the explosion.

.It’s a year and a half before they see each other again. Justice has been calmed over the months, and Marcus’ attempts at keeping Kirkwall sane had slowly been overthrown by a group of zealots. A mage couldn’t hold position for any longer, and he had no choice but to flee. He’d spent six months building a home for himself in the ruins of Lothering, and he welcomes Anders with laughter and disbelief when he sees the man again. Years had passed since they had first met in Darktown, but seeing Marcus with a small herd and a weight settling in his gut, it’s the most real he’s ever been.

.They settle together, never intending for it to be permanent. But there is a loneliness that could only be combatted together, and when mages begin to find them it’s hard not to fall in love with one another when they work to rebuild what was once lost. A small village sprouts around them, mages seeking safety and succour found under the guidance of a heavy stranger named Conchobhar, and that taller fellow named Jarl.

...

.Goddard and Yetta’s relationship isn’t actually an in-game thing, since he’s seventy-one at the beginning of Inquisition, and like what options do I ever have apart from making him a sugar daddy (I missed a thing there for sure AH), so I gave him a wife called Yetta.

.Essentially, it’s an arranged marriage for them. Which begins terribly, because neither want to marry the other; Goddard is still holding out hope that he will find his first love again, and Yetta was betrothed to him since she was a child so she’s never had a choice. Their wedding is awkward, Goddard tries to convince his little brother, Milward, to take his place, and Yetta is caught trying to escape from the actual event. Goddard also turns up in Orlesian finery in an attempt to insult Yetta’s family and to remind them that he spent a good few years in bed with a chevalier. It works, but, the wedding still goes ahead, and they’re both miserably married by the end of the day.

.Despite his tactics, Goddard promises Yetta that he’d stay truthful to her regardless of whether or not they end up in bed together. And, in the beginning, neither of them wanted to. Goddard spends his nights sleeping on the floor, and there’s a more than obvious rumour floating around that they haven’t yet slept together. Despite all the pushes and shoves they receive; Goddard being pushed into Yetta’s room as she dresses for the day, Yetta being forced into the bathing chambers whilst Goddard is alone in there, conversations of sex being brought up at their meal times, and even being locked in their bedchamber for so long that Goddard ends up bum rushing the guards who bring them food at meal time.

.It’s not the best beginning, but there is a camaraderie that begins between them in their joint frustrations. Their attraction to one another begins in the written letters they send over the years. With Goddard working in Ferelden, and Yetta remaining in Ostwick, it’s the only way of communicating they have. And though it takes years, it’s hard to deny the way that their feelings grow each time Goddard gets some weeks away from the military.

.Together they have three children over the years, agreeing to stop trying after that due to Wakefield’s complicated birth. They remain happy together until this day, accepting a few blips over the years, and the rather gargantuan blunder of Goddard having an affair whilst incapacitated and presumed dead in Ferelden. Everything that is thrown at them is tackled head on and together, and it is obvious in almost everything that the do together, that their love grows ever stronger every minute they spent beside one another.

.TL:DR: all my heroes are happy and loved and alive :)c.

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seerofmike · 4 years ago

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The Writing In Apex Kinda Sucks And Also They Use Ship Bait As A Plot Device I Hate It Here

a stupid essay/rant encouraged by @zombiegloss that originally started as a youtube video script so if its like. weird at points. this was intended to be a verbal rant SNZISKSIA

basically i'm gonna talk abt the caustic-wattson-crypto relationship drama and how i think it was mishandled and how much the writers kind of Suck because i Can

you are free to disagree with me on any of my points and think that this aspect of the story was handled well, this is just my opinion, and i'd love to hear your thoughts and counterpoints !

first, addressing some things:

i know this is a battle royale and not necessarily a story-based game, so i can’t expect it to have masterful witcher-style writing.

but with the direction the game seems to be going; putting quests, evolving interactions, and comics in the game, plus coming out with a lore book and hinting at something bigger in the future, i think it’s fair to criticize it for lackluster writing, especially since what i’m criticizing has been something present since Apex’s story technically began.

secondly, i am not a professional writer. i’m a high schooler who writes as a hobby. i don’t have the decades of experience that some of the apex writers do, and i can’t claim to be a better writer than they are--but i also don’t have to be a five-star chef to realize that something tastes bad. when i critique something and give suggestions, i am not saying i could’ve done it better. i’m just bringing up what i think could have worked.

third, before i upset anyone , when i say a relationship is badly written, i’m not telling you that you can’t ship it or that your ship sucks. i’ll briefly touch on the shipping aspect of this and how it’s a detriment to the story but Ye

okay, so with that out of the way, let us Begin

relationships are often the emotional core of a story, and how strong your reaction is to conflict in these relationships depends on how the story sets them up. if you want the audience to care about these characters and what they go through, you need to develop them and establish the type of relationship they have well. it’s why so many people cried in the last episode of telltale’s the walking dead. you’ve spent roughly 12 hours bonding with clementine and protecting her, and your relationship with her is part of several story beats as well as character beats for lee.

when these two characters’ relationship reaches its peak at the end of the game, it’s powerful, and it’s emotional. you care. you feel something, and the fact that you have to choose what to do to lee only makes it more gut-wrenching.

now, the walking dead is entirely story-based and especially character-driven, so it may be unfair to compare it to apex, but i just wanted to lay the groundwork down for what i think is a strong relationship that makes you feel something when conflict arrives, in this case the conflict being lee getting bit and clementine having to decide his fate.

the broken ghost in general is kind of not-good sometimes, tom casiello previously wrote for soap operas and you can really, REALLY tell sometimes.

this story feels like it should’ve taken place a little later, and that we should’ve had a season to actually set up the characters and their relationships, but that’s a story for another day.

to put it bluntly, the set-up for the crypto, wattson, and caustic conflict is done poorly. for caustic and wattson's relationship it’s a little better, but not by much.

wattson and caustic having a relationship was hinted at in season 2, when her lore indicated that caustic was among one of the Legends who comforted her after her father died. In season four lore materials posted on Twitter, an email from Jacob Young states that Caustic is acting paternal towards Wattson. In season five, interactions get added to the Game, and this is the first time we actually see their relationship in action, as they have unique revive voice lines for each other. in the quests, when wattson is injured, caustic lashes out at loba and attacks her out of what seems to be anger at wattson’s current state.

Side Note this plot point was really stupid and done for cheap drama because she literally wakes up like two chapters later and they don’t even give her anything to say it’s just suddenly oh yeah crypto and wattson are working together. the same exact injury thing happens to octane later but nobody gIVES A SHIT because again, it’s just cheap soap opera drama.

their relationship might seem a little bit sudden for anyone who wasn’t on top of twitter lore drops, but like, it’s okay, i guess. i’ll give it the slightest credit for at least establishing something between the two in terms of voice lines and stuff, even if for some it might seem like it came out of nowhere.

what did come out of nowhere, though, was crypto and wattson’s friendship. in the quests, crypto and wattson are tasked with rebuilding the broken ghost because of their respective skills, and they’re seen talking in chapter six while they work on it. we’re not really given a clear timeline on how long the story in the broken ghost is, but i think it takes about a week, maybe.

unlike wattson and caustic, their relationship has been given absolutely zero material to work with before now, not even a passing glance in the trailers--which is a little weird considering crypto took down the repulsor tower and destroyed wattson’s home, but. Whatever.

tl dr of the chapter: crypto and wattson talk to each other while doing nerd shit, crypto laughs at wattson’s bad pun, and then suddenly they’re BESTIEEEES, until a couple dozen lines later in the same chapter. then they’re Not.

crypto’s drone gets hacked by revenant while everyone was kind of on edge after the reveal of a spy in their midst, he gets framed as the spy by caustic, anddddd wattson gets upset.

before i get into how dumb this storyline is, i’m gonna talk about the set-up to this conflict.

we have been given no reason to believe that these characters have ever talked to each other, and quite frankly, their friendship doesn’t really make sense.

ignoring the fact that crypto destroyed wattson’s home--which she probably doesn’t know about, so that’s forgiven for now--crypto is a paranoid guy. in the lore book he makes people stand on fucking footprints in his house so he can scan them for weapons and listening devices, and he apparently doesn’t stick around much after the games and nobody knows anything about him because he doesn’t talk to them.

a key part of crypto’s story is the fact that he is undercover and afraid of anyone finding out anything about him ever. him becoming friends with wattson kind of comes out of the blue, and we’re not even given a reason as to why they supposedly became close in the first place. i would kind of understand if like, maybe he draws parallels with her and mila in his mind and it makes him open up a little more, but that doesn’t happen. he just laughs at her joke and suddenly they’re friends.

maybe they’re trying to go for this ‘wattson can become friends with anybody’ angle, kind of hinted at with caustic but not really we’ll get into that, but that also? kind of doesn’t make sense since so many of her voice lines straight-up say she doesn’t understand people and electricity is more her thing, but honestly, she also does have those really friendly elements in her voice lines too, so its not as egregious as what they did with crypto.

their sudden out-of-the-blue friendship would’ve been fine if they spent a little more time fleshing it out, and giving us something to work with, but instead, the story immediately tries to rip it apart and frame it as this grand conflict where crypto is framed as the mole, crypto then accuses caustic, and wattson feels betrayed.

except it doesn’t really work, because we don’t give a shit. for several reasons.

one: crypto and wattson became friends and then ended their friendship in the same exact chapter. they did not speak to each other onscreen until this chapter began, you can read the entire quest on the wiki and see for yourself that their interactions up until that point were nonexistent aside from mentions in the narration that they were building something together.

the reason wattson feels betrayed is kind of stupid too. why does she really care that much if one of them betrayed loba? nobody else really cared about the fact that one of them was a spy, in fact, nobody even seems to like loba that much, and they just found out that loba’s been lying to them this whole time, and wattson was conscious for that conversation and had a speaking line, so she’s fully aware of the situation.

maybe it’s just like, the idea that one of them lied, but that’s still kind of a weak reason.

this entire betrayal thing is just dumb, and it gets even worse when you realize that there could have been an actual legitimate reason for wattson to feel betrayed by crypto--even if it still would’ve come across as weak conflict because of their newly established friendship, it would’ve made more sense than this.

Crypto destroyed Wattson’s home. He took down the tower and then all the flyers and stuff invaded Kings Canyon and made it their bitch. Not only that, but Wattson considers the Syndicate her family. The Syndicate are the very people who framed Crypto for murder and he’s trying to take them down.

They could’ve set up actual conflict with these things, and it almost seemed like they would, because Caustic briefly brings up that Crypto could be working with Revenant because he has something against the Syndicate but then that doesn’t really go anywhere and we’re just back to Wattson feeling betrayed because either Crypto or Caustic was a spy and she doesn’t know who.

Weak conflict could’ve been made better by a strong relationship and a weak relationship could’ve still been interesting with strong conflict, but both the relationship between Crypto and Wattson and the conflict that drives them splitting up as friends were really weak and didn’t make much sense.

It would’ve been ten times more interesting if Wattson found out Crypto ruined her home, the arena she grew up in, and was now participating in the Games to take out the people she regards as her family. That’s where her distrust could’ve manifested and conflict could’ve began, but instead it was the stupid betraying loba thing. why do you care. you just started talking to this guy like 2 hours ago.

also caustic’s whole reason for framing crypto feels stupid as fuck. he didn’t just frame crypto randomly, he framed him specifically because he doesn't want him to influence wattsob because he likes her Big Brain, but this is the FIRST time we have seen those two interact.

what influence is he talking about? wraith and wattson have been shown to be friendly with each other in the trailers, according to tom’s tweets, and in the story too so why doesn’t he frame her? at this point the audience had slightly more build-up for those two’s relationship than crypto and wattson and a betrayal storyline would’ve felt a little more deserved if still weak.

this is the point where i briefly want to touch upon shipping, and the fact that part of this conflict feels driven by shipbait.

aside from their relationship coming out of nowhere and the writers trying to make the stakes seem high and deeply emotional to the characters involved (despite this essentially being the first time they’ve ever interacted) tom casiello literally addresses shippers in a tweet regarding chapter seven, and as the story between these characters progresses, it becomes clear to me, at least that the crypto-wattson thing is just bait for shippers, and it’s lazy.

it’s easy to get away with giving your characters little to no relationship development if you’re just counting on shippers to do the heavy mental lifting for you

why should i put any effort into making this relationship seem believable? people are going to see a young guy and a young girl having bare minimum interaction and assume there’s romantic interest! then i don’t have to do any work, see look, it’s a ready-made relationship wrapped in a bow for me! all that’s left for me to do is give them conflict so i can keep teasing shippers with lines like ‘you never deserved her’!

i think it’s reasonable for me to suspect shipbait, since tom casiello likes doing darksparks shipbait on twitter, and i’m like, eighty percent sure mirage and bloodhound suddenly being childhood friends in the book is shipbait too, because these characters were the number one ship in apex for a long time despite little to no interaction, and then all of a sudden in the lore book they’re childhood friends despite this literally never being mentioned before?

like bloodhound is set up to be mysterious and nobody knows what they look like, or where they’re from, or who their family is--except for mirage Apparently, who played with them when he was a kid on their home planet, and has seen them with their mask off, because bloodhound did not wear a mask when their parents were still alive.

its weird.

i’m pretty sure they’ve said somewhere they were working on this book before apex even came out, so i could just be completely wrong and they always planned for mirage and bloodhound to know each other, but if that’s the case, why did they never mention it like they did octane and lifeline?

i refuse to believe MIRAGE never brought it up either like ‘heeeeyy bloodhound remember when we used to throw eggs at our parents lab haha wanna go do to that to bangalore’s room’

[silence]

‘good talk buddy’

ANYWAYS I GOT OFF TOPIC. POINT IS, shipping is a detriment to the story because the writers don’t feel like they actually have to put any work into establishing or developing the relationship between characters when they know the community’s just going to do it for them anyways, and that they can put in shipbait and it’s fine and it makes sense when it really doesn’t.

imagine watching captain america civil war after not seeing a single other marvel movie.

why would you care about the avengers splitting up or tony and steve butting heads or steve’s commitment to bucky? you wouldn’t care, at least not as much as someone who’s seen all the movies and knows the relationship between the characters and why the sokovia accords exist in the first place. you don’t have context and you don’t have any reason to be emotionally invested in these characters’ relationship.

this feels like that. the writers tried to squeeze this relationship and stuff into a single chapter and we don’t fucking care unless we were already invested in the idea of their relationship (shippers) because we barely spent any time with it.

so to summarize this little section, the set-up of this storyline Kinda Sucks! crypto and wattson barely seem to know each other, because we the audience barely saw them together and the writers are relying on shipbait in place of a relationship.

wattson and caustic are a little better but not great, but the conflict is stupid and it only gets stupider.

moving onto summarizing the rest of the broken ghost, gibraltar and caustic talk, caustic LITERALLY confesses to being the mole and says he framed crypto so he couldn’t corrupt wattson and to appear innocent because his identity was suspected, then that wraps up the season storyline.

season six begins with new voice lines, where wattson has had enough of crypto and caustic’s shit and is all passive-aggressive and going ‘this doesn’t change anything’. she has to decide who to trust, and how to figure out The Truth for herself because she’s not a little girl anymore. crypto and caustic are both trying to convince her they’re innocent and it creates some interesting conflict.

just kidding. it’s terrible conflict. you want to know why?

BECAUSE GIBRALTAR TRIED TO TELL HER THE TRUTH, RIGHT AFTER THE SEASON 5 QUEST HAPPENED, AND SHE LITERALLY REFUSED TO HEAR IT.

LIKE THERE’S A SEASON 6 LOADING SCREEN WHERE HE’S TELLING EVERYONE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED, AND WHEN HE GETS TO WATTSON AND IS LIKE HEY I KNOW WHO THE MOLE WAS AND WHY THEY DID IT, SHE JUST GOES i dont wanna hear it. i need to think

IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH WHY ARE YOU REFUSING TO HEAR IT

SHE SPENDS ALMOST TWO ENTIRE SEASONS MAD AT CRYPTO FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO BECAUSE SHE TOLD GIBRALTAR TO FUCK OFF WHEN HE TRIED TO TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED

ITS SO DUMB

i think it was towards the end of season 6 or the beginning of season 7 where apex posted this picture of wattson asleep at her desk where she has a letter from gibraltar on it that looks like it tells her the truth, so she knows now, she knows what happened, but NOW her issue is the fact that she doesn’t know anything about crypto.

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT IS YOUR GODDAMN DAMAGE. YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT BLOODHOUND EITHER ARE YOU THIS UPSET WITH BLOODHOUND TOO?? HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO PATHFINDER. DO YOU HATE PATHFINDER TOO

oh but she was friends with crypto and now she’s mad that he lied to her EXCEPT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WASN’T BUILT UP WELL SO IT JUST FEELS STUPID. THEY SPENT LONGER BEING NOT-FRIENDS THAN THEY SPENT BEING FRIENDS. THEY BECAME FRIENDS IN ONE CHAPTER AND THEN IMMEDIATELY AT THE END OF THAT CHAPTER THEIR FRIENDSHIP ENDED AND THEN WATTSON SPENT LIKE 2 SEASONS MAD AT HIM FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO .

AND THE WRITERS TRIED TO RECTIFY THIS BY SAYING OH SHE’S NOT MAD ABOUT THE TRAITOR THING SHE’S MAD BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM AND IT’S LIKE WHY THE FUCK DID YOU NOT MAKE THAT CLEAR WHY DOES SHE SAY ‘IT DOESN’T CHANGE WHAT YOU DID’ IN HER VOICE LINES WHY DOES SHE CALL HIM A TRAITOR IF HER CONFLICT WAS HER NOT KNOWING MUCH ABOUT HIM . WHAT DID HE DO.

HE JUST STOOD THERE AND LAUGHED AT HER JOKE AND THEN HE GOT FRAMED AND THEN THAT WAS THE END OF THE CHAPTER AND NOW SHES SUDDENLY LIKE IM ACTUALLY MAD BECAUSE YOURE A LIAR AND I CANT TRUST YOU EVEN THOUGH I NOW KNOW YOU WERE FRAMED I STILL DO NOT LIKE YOU AND HES LIKE YEAH THATS MY FAULT

The Caustic voicelines are stupid too, again his reason for framing Crypto was stupid and a lot of his voicelines just seem to be that shipbait thing again but like from the angle of overprotective dad who doesn’t like the new boyfriend. it’s stupid but not as egeregious as this next part which is

crypto telling wattson his identity.

CRYPTO was framed for MURDER and is paranoid and can’t trust anyone and doesn’t talk to anyone and the last time he did talk to someone he got framed for Another thing and the person he was talking to turned her back on him and actively refused to know the truth for like 2 seasons and then he went This Is Fine I Can Tell Her My Identity

the stupidest update to this storyline was crypto telling wattson the truth

why did they do it on the dropship where there are presumably syndicate members and other legends around.

why didn’t he scan wattson for listening devices like he did for pathfinder in the book.

why is he telling her his identity when he knows she has very close ties to the people that FRAMED HIM for MURDER. Does he trust her that much? WHY? They spoke to each other in a chapter and then spent two seasons not talking to each other beyond passive-aggressive BS. why are you so fucking stupid taejoon

their relationship was so poorly set-up that even if the writers maybe intended for them to come across as close friends who had spent weeks bonding, it really feels like they became friends in a single conversation, had a falling out, and now crypto suddenly trusts her with his identity after an undetermined amount of time because he wants to be friends again.

that does not make SENSE this conflict feels contrived AS FUCK and the resolution feels even worse and unearned UGGGHHHH

it honestly comes across as crypto feeling desperate for friendship, and maybe this would’ve worked better if that’s the angle they played it as.

he’s been alone for roughly two years, and just wants a friend, and he’s honestly so lonely he just breaks down to the first person who’s really talked to him. it could’ve been an interesting little part of his character, and they could've gone into depth about how much this situation has affected him, but that’s not what they’re doing. he’s still paranoid and anxious and doesn’t trust anyone, except for wattson, because the plot needs him to or else there won’t be any stupid soap opera drama.

and to rub salt in the wound, wattson’s new voice lines with caustic have him telling her that she forgave crypto.

WHAT ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR. ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR BEING FRAMED? WHY DID HE HAVE TO APOLOGIZE TO YOU WHEN YOU WERE THE ONE WHO REFUSED TO HEAR THE TRUTH?

did the conversation just go hey my real name is taejoon park and something bad happened to me and she went aight i forgive you WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

Caustic’s new voice lines to Crypto where he’s like ‘what did you tell her’--YOU TOLD GIBRALTAR STRAIGHT-UP YOUR EVIL MASTER PLAN LIKE A SUPERVILLAIN AND NOW YOU’RE SURPRISED WATTSON AND CRYPTO ARE ON GOOD TERMS NOW?!

THAT’S LIKE TELLING SOMEONE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND THEN BEING SURPRISED WHEN YOU BECOME THE VICTIM OF IDENTITY FRAUD. YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR THIS WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE CRYPTO DID SOMETHING SINISTER OR LIED OR WHATEVER. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY DO YOU HAVE LIKE 3 BRAINCELLS

this is at like ten pages already so i’m going to just try and wrap this up quickly.

it’s frustrating seeing this storyline play out when there are actually good relationships and storylines written into apex. i’m kind of getting tired of the loba and revenant conflict, but we at least had set-up to it in the form of a few animated shorts and it doesn’t play out as stupidly as this story does. bangalore and loba’s friendship is actually developed well, even if the point between the end of season 5 and season 6 where they suddenly talk like each other feels like it could’ve used a little more.

where crypto and wattson having an established friendship in the broken ghost failed, lifeline and octane’s established friendship works because we’ve been told since octane’s release they were childhood friends and given lore materials that indicate they’ve known each other for a very long time.

apex wants this storyline between crypto and wattson and caustic to feel dramatic and tense and ultimately rewarding when crypto and wattson did become friends for real and stuff, but instead it just comes across as hollow and empty.

there’s nothing there. it’s a case of tell, don’t show, and it looks like this stupid conflict is gonna keep going for another couple of seasons at this rate.

side note: this entire script was written before the new twitter comics

please tell me ur thoughts and feel free to respond with ur own lil essay

also believe it or not this is not the "shipping is a detriment to apex's story" essay i was gonna write this is a completely different essay that has some overlap SKXISOSOW

#apex legends #apex critical #crypto #wattson

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tanoraqui · 5 years ago

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AU: Hányǐng-jūn

(”Shadowbearing Lord”, translation by @lyratalus)

(see, this is my problem. I decide, “yes, damnit, I AM going to write this longfic!” and then 0.0003 seconds later I’m absolutely swarmed by other plot bunnies.)

anyway, Yiling Patriarch!Lan Wangji but, like...better

Lan Wangji gets out of seclusion and 3 days later takes a mostly sleeping Lan Yuan, a couple days' worth of provisions, and leaves for Yiling. Lan Xichen somehow catches him just outside of Cloud Recesses and LWJ freely admits that he's going to Yiling - the city, not the Burial Mounds themselves - and he's going to raise A-Yuan there and cleanse the Burial Mounds like Wei Wuxian was starting to do with the life he brought back to them

Lan Xichen lets him go, doesn't even bother to play the "shouldn't A-Yuan grow up somewhere healthier and wealthier" card, bc a) cheap shot, b) he knows Wangji has already thought of it (he's right), and c) this is doing NOTHING to convince him that his brother won't commit some sort of passive suicide if he doesn't get to keep that child. God damn, he thought they were over this phase of mourning but Apparently Not

so Lan Wangji gets a house in Yiling, has to deal with 50 tons of gossip - of a new variety; he's used to political gossip and "isn't he hot" gossip but wow he was not prepared for small town "ooh new hot single dad" gossip with a side order of random advice from elderly women about how to care for a six-year-old

(he is, in fact, very grateful for the advice)

(there is no way in hell that Lan Wangji knows how to be the sole provider for a six-year-old)

in the internal war between "do not let A-Yuan out of my sight" and "do not take the vulnerable child to the death mountain", I think the former wins, considering the small child already lived on the death mountain for about a year, and seemed fine except for malnutrition. Which was...well, yes it was a problem with the death mountain, but not directly. Lan Wangji has money and they live in town and commute to the Burial Mounds each day for LWJ to play Cleansing while A-Yuan runs around catching imaginary butterflies or practicing reading; it's fine

...though possibly the nosy grannies convince him to get a babysitter

and maybe to take a break?

oh no i would want so many OCs of just Lan Wangji's neighbors in this

anyway, it doesn't take long for it to become clear that even playing Cleansing all day every day is like being a bird scraping its beak once a millennia on a mountain. Sure it works, technically, but...not really. Frankly, the resentful energy grows back if he stops for a single day. And even Hanguang-jun only has so much power and endurance

he's going to have to handle the resentful energy himself. If he wants to do this, wants to leave some sort of positive legacy for Wei Wuxian, he's going to have to demonically cultivate himself. Siphon the stuff off, and do...something with it. It won't just vanish. Subdue corpses and monsters, probably? Go back to night-hunting?

I dunno how or how fast word gets out, but I guarantee you Jiang Cheng is the first person of note to hear about it and come furiously flying. The fight that follows is raw and possibly literally bloody, and 99.99% about Wei Wuxian (of course.) I think the only reason it stops is that even though they took it outside, A-Yuan wakes up (as does most of the neighborhood) and pokes his head out the window to ask what's going on, and Jiang Cheng puts two and two together with the kid he saw when he visited to disown Wei Wuxian and-

He can't quite bear to destroy something even halfway adjacent to family He wants Wei Wuxian to have a slightly good legacy, too He storms off.

the only reason he doesn't pass Lan Xichen in the air is that they aren't quite coming from the same direction. This night is becoming very long but Lan Wangji is happy to explain himself to his brother: the careful methods he's started to use, never very much resentful energy at once, and the careful checks he has on himself, meditation and Cleansing and purification rituals. Lan Xichen isn't happy, but he has to concede that it all seems sound, and the goal is certainly a righteous one, and...there are worse ways to mourn

so when an emergency sect leader cultivation conference is called, because the news that Hanguang-jun has not only moved to Yiling but started practicing demonic cultivation has spread like wildfire, Lan Xichen calmly stands forward and defends his brother, states that Lan Wangji is working on noble goals with careful precautions and the full support of GusuLan, he can confirm it himself as Sect Leader but of course any who wish are welcome to visit Yiling as well and judge Hanguang-jun's precautions for themselves.

I cannot put in words how close Jiang Cheng comes to punching him in the face

So that’s what happens: people visit, see what careful measures Lan Wangji has in place, and are convinc- ha ha lol no it’s politics. But it works out. i wish I could say that it's some sort of tie between who Jiang Cheng hates most: Wei Wuxian for everything, but particularly for not even bothering to try to make it safe like LWJ clearly is; Lan Wangji for thinking he can just get away with this shit; Lan Xichen for helping him do it; everyone else for going along with it when they couldn't give Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and YunmengJiang a single shred of goodwill; or himself for not standing up for either Wei Wuxian (a la Lan Wangji, however post-mortem)/his brother (like LXC)

but we all know it's nowhere near a tie

so...Lan Wangji doesn't plan to teach Lan Yuan (he's still a Lan! They're both still Lans!) any sort of demonic cultivation, but no matter what he does there's still So Much Dangerous Stuff around here, and they have no backup nearby, and demonic cultivation is just so much easier for those without a well-developed golden core yet -

so he teaches him, you know, some basic chords to make a ghost or corpse go the fuck away

(to start)

UNFORTUNATELY I'm pretty sure the timing is such that the Yi City Affair happened mostly while LWJ was in seclusion? Or at least, the start of it, such that the finding of Xue Yang by the side of the road happened either shortly before or shortly after he got out (and, in this case, went to Yiling)

and they have no reason to visit Yiling, so...all that...plays out. as in canon

no reason to visit Yiling, that is, until Xue Yang is sitting on the floor of the coffin house clutching a bag containing the shards of Xiao Xingchen's soul and feeling something like remorse for the first time in his life and he HATES it, he hates it SO GODDAMN MUCH, he wants to burn everyone who contributed to this to the ground and then torment their ghosts for centuries

so, he might then visit Yiling and the man said to be some sort of inheritor of the Yiling Patriarch's power. He almost certainly tries to play nice and helpless, just a good young man who made bad choices and lost his friend, and Lan Wangji probably tries to give him the benefit of the doubt and...yeah that does not last long.

especially if A-Qing has anything to say mime about it

Xue Yang has a fierce corpse on call and the won't-stay-down attitude of a feral weasel on crack who hates you personally, but Lan Wangji has a the home court advantage, including extensive practice siphoning and applying power from the Burial Mounds, and he's fucking Hanguang-jun.

Result: Lan Sizhui gets a sad fierce corpse uncle and a cheerfully-refusing-to-pass-on ghost-jie

HARD CUT uh...10? Ish? Years later? Wei Wuxian aka Mo Xuanyu is quickly giving up the idea of subtle launching fierce corpses at this hand bc at this point it's either out himself or people die, and the latter is not acceptable. He's just about to whistle them in when a ghost whips in and probably saves someone's life by knocking them out of the way. One of the Lan babies shrieks and hides behind another one - but a third points excitedly to the sky and shouts, "Oh, it's Lan Sizhui! Sizhui, over here!"

and who should descend by sword but one Nice Young Man(TM) with a guqin that he plays while switching effortlessly back and forth between spiritual and resentful energy, which, damn, Wei Wuxian didn't even know that was an option. I mean, it wasn't, for him, but...damn! What a clever kid! Did someone teach him?!

oh yeah, imminent danger of death by angry left hand -

Wei Wuxian does have to openly intervene, or at least, obviously intervene by fierce corpse and shouting some instructions at the kids, and then letting this Sizhui kid take the credit for the fierce corpses and trying to book it but, uh...getting caught. By aforementioned Sizhui kid. Who is polite and formal and, Wei Wuxian points out, extremely un-GusuLan-like, what with the bothering him and also the demonic cultivation. There's probably still the ghost of a teenage girl following them and making rude gestures at Wei Wuxian for insulting her little brother

"That's because I'm from the Yiling branch," Lan Sizhui admits, a little shame-facedly except that it's definitely fake shame.

"Hmm?" says Wei Wuxian, like he knows what that means but is curious for more information (as opposed to have no goddamn idea what that means and desperately wanting more information)

"I, ah, study with Hanying-jun" says Lan Sizhui, who doesn't want to make a big deal out of his parentage.

"Hmm?" says Wei Wuxian, who is fucking Dying here "I thought I might escort you home with me, so you can get properly cleansed after manipulating those corpses. One must be careful, of course." He sighs in a slightly teenagerish way. "It'll take most of a day, probably, after that arm. I try to use only spiritual energy on night hunts, but that was...pretty bad."

Wei Wuxian, internally: okay, CONS: getting spiritually cleaned by Lans, even possibly Cool Lans - ugh, why are Lans always like this. PROS: finding out who the fuck this "Hanying-jun” is, bc...what the fuck. In Yiling? Is he stealing MY schtick?? And I can't just ASK, because clearly this kid expects me to recognize the title, which means Mo Xuanyu would probably recognize the title, and even a Lan who practices some sort of resentful energy manipulation isn't just going to be okay with suddenly meeting the Yiling Patriarch...And i can always run if I have to.

WWX: I mean...okay! I don't have anything else to do!

except they do detour to Dafan Mountain a little because Lan Sizhui wasn't raised quite Lan enough to beat out the rebellious teenager streak and he wants to fight a big monster, and Jiang Cheng nearly fucking draws Zidian on sight bc he really. Hates. The Yiling Lans. And then Lan Wangji shows up just bc he heard about a ruckus and figured it was a good place to find his son

and then goddess statue, Wen Ning, terrible bamboo flute...

it's definitely not 'til after Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng have started and maybe finished fighting before Wie Wuxian finds out that the mysterious bastard who totally stole his spot as Dark Lord of Yiling is Hanguang-jun

or, you know...different title now

apparently

and then LWJ takes him and orders him bathed and - wait actually if they've developed elaborate formal spiritual purification rituals to balance handing resentful energy, he. he probably does order Wei Wuxian bathed

and then brought to his room

oh wow

beautiful

AND THEN PLOT RESUMES AS NORMAL?!? except possibly several questions of romance and Lan Sizhui's history get cleared up much faster

also Lan Wangji - Hanying-jun - doesn’t have as peerless a reputation to trade on. Public opinion is probably fairly split between camps of, like, “he’s doing a good and noble thing, cleaning the Burial Mounds” vs. “the Lans say it’s okay so it must be, but wow that seems dangerous and/or useless” vs. “demonic cultivation is always eeeevil!” Among cultivators specifically, it’s more the first two, but...performatively more the first, genuinely more the second.

#mdzs #the untamed #lan wangji #lan sizhui #lan xichen #jiang cheng #wei wuxian

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traumantic-a · 5 years ago

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HOW TO INTERACT WITH JORDAN ( A PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET )

so, you want to write your muse against jordan, but you have no idea what to do? have no fear! plotting can be pretty daunting—I know I always blank on ideas the second I go to approach someone about something, or I’m always afraid I’ll suggest something that’s overdone or that the mun isn’t particularly interested in. hence, this guide! keep in mind everything here is just a suggestion, so if you have ideas that don’t really fit what I’ve put in this guide, that is fine! throw them my way! and happy plotting!

MEET JORDAN RILEY ( aka a really quick character cheat sheet )

she’s a college student. specifically, she’s currently in her junior year as a graphic design student and is also a resident assistant, because it’s the only way she could afford to continue to attend school ( #justcollegethings ). like many students, her preferred study method is coffee and tears, and thinking too far into the future freaks her out, so she copes by screaming inwardly and pushing on even though she needs to relax ( whatever that means ).

she’s also a resident assistant. and surprisingly, taking the job wasn’t all about the money, though that was a big motivator. jordan genuinely enjoys the position; not so much the paperwork and having to enforce rules all the time, but getting to decorate her floor, help freshmen navigate campus life and academics, and plan fun programs and activities for them is something that makes her feel a sense of accomplishment. of course, the perks of having a room and bathroom all to herself make it extra nice.

she’s very involved. if she’s not working on projects, she’s designing layouts for one of the student-run magazines; if she’s not doing that, she’s hosting a radio show with one of her friends; if she’s not doing that, she’s at improv practice; if she’s not there, she’s probably stress crying in the shower, tbh. either way, she likes keeping busy whenever she can; sometimes to a fault.

she hates talking about ‘it.’ not the movie; no, she enjoyed both chapters, even if she hasn’t made her way through the brick that is the novel yet. no, she hates talking about her past traumas, she absolutely hates talking about the whole rothfield murders fiasco and the fact that she was a target because she spoke up about being assaulted, which is understandable, because all of that is shitty. she’s trying to move on from it all; she wishes the rest of the world would, too.

PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS ( aka a starting point for fleshing out dynamics )

be a resident in her building. this one is especially great if your muse is a college student; rothfield university is a big school and there are roughly six thousand students living on campus; 250 of those students live in williams hall, split across four floors. while williams hall tends to have a mix of underclassmen and skews heavily toward having primarily incoming freshmen reside there, it isn’t unusual for juniors or seniors to stay in the building because it’s cheaper than trying to rent an apartment on their own, and they don’t have to pay for a parking pass that they rarely use because there’s never any place to park. jordan has to keep in contact with the residents living on her floor, do regular academic and wellness checks, etc.; but beyond that, she genuinely wants to help them adjust to campus and college life, and likes being a mentor.

be a fellow art student/classmate. technically jordan’s major of study falls under the college of communication and information, but she’s on track to learn a bachelor’s of fine arts in graphic design, and she spends a lot of her time in the art building attending studio classes and pouring over projects. she has other courses she has to take to fill requirements for her core classes and the like ( such as art history, algebra, sociology, etc.); if your muse is a college student, why not make them a classmate of jordan’s? especially if they’re in different majors but happen to be taking all the same ‘core’ classes; it’s always great having a note-sharing buddy, if nothing else.

be involved in a club/organization with jordan. she’s an illustrator for a student-run general interest magazine, she has a radio show, and she’s in an improv group, and usually auditions for productions through the school of theater and dance whenever she has the time. make your muse a member of the editorial team on the magazine, or a blogger, or a fellow DJ, or someone who enjoys performing; I’m sure they’ll cross paths with jordan somehow, some way!

be one of her professors/mentors. chances are there’s a bullshit course your muse could teach if they don’t fit in ‘traditional’ courses of study like history, economics, etc.; my university offered two different courses on glass blowing; there’s no limit to what can be taught on a college campus to fill credit hour requirements. jordan’s degree of study requires a lot of liberal arts credits and she’s definitely the type to take a course on analyzing tone and message in zombie movies because, what else is she going to do with $800 dollars in grant money? she’s a good student, and tries not to skip classes, and will usually keep quiet in the back if she’s not up to participating. she also attends office hours when she’s not grasping something, and if she likes a class she took because of the professor, she usually tries to take more of their classes.

work at/in rothfield in some capacity. be another resident assistant, work at the coffee shop frequented by students, be part of campus security, be an event coordinator with campus, be that one lady who walks her three rescue dogs on campus every evening; there’s really no limit here ( the lady with rescue dogs was a thing at my school and I ended up befriending her, and she turned out to be the dean of the women’s studies department and is generally the coolest person I know, ANYWAY ); if any of this appeals to you, hit me up and we’ll flesh out the details.

be a townie. whether your muse is a student who graduated and never left rothfield or is a born-and-bred local that can spin a yarn about the history of campus, or just likes showing up at house parties for the hell of it, this is another great way to cross paths with jordan and strike up a friendship.

THINGS I WANT TO EXPLORE ( aka a living document of my wishlist tag )

jordan opening up to someone. jordan’s assault and the trial from her high school years were pretty well-publicized; while her name was never printed in the news stories surrounding the case, it’s not hard to put the pieces together when people find out where she’s from. this only becomes more apparent after the rothfield murders that take place over spring break 2019; being the ‘sole survivor’ of a revenge-murder rampage takes its toll in some unusual ways. it takes time for the trauma of the murders to fully sink in for jordan; initially, she’s relieved that her abuser is dead and gone and she never has to see him again, but that relief is short-lived. it doesn’t change the fact that she hasn’t fully healed from her past traumas and that she needs to be more vocal about her feelings and emotions; she needs a support system, especially considering her family is hours away and the only other person she’s confided in outside of her parents and sister goes to school in another state. I’d love to develop some close friendships where jordan feels comfortable opening up to others she knows she can trust and lean on when she’s having bad days; likewise, she’d do the same for those she loves dearly. she’s loyal at her core and if she trusts you, she will always be there for you.

more to be added as ideas come to me

THINGS I’M NOT INTERESTED IN ( aka...... it’s pretty self-explanatory )

your character ‘fixing’ jordan. through love, through friendship, through whatever; while all of the above can definitely help people dealing with trauma heal, it is not the sole, solitary thing that will get the job done. jordan will never rely on one person to be the sole thing that makes her happy and makes her feel whole again; it’s not realistic and it’s a harmful cliche that I don’t wish to perpetuate here. she absolutely needs friends she can trust, and she is capable of being in a loving relationship, but those are not going to automatically fix all her problems.

toxic ships. I don’t really feel the need to go super in-depth with this; while I’m not opposed to exploring shitty or toxic friendships or relationships, because those do happen, I’m not interested in doing so in the sense of “they’re toxic because they care!” again; very harmful cliches and stereotypes that I do not wish to perpetuate here. if I explore anything like this it’ll likely be with close rp partners I’ve had for a while and know I can trust.

fetishizing/‘fixing’ demisexual people. it’s a spectrum, folks; jordan needs an emotional connection with someone deep enough before she feels comfortable with intimacy. I’m not interested in anyone being the ‘exception’ to this for obvious reasons. if you come to me with anything related to your muse ‘fixing’ jordan’s demisexuality ( which existed before her trauma and was amplified by it, both of which are valid ), I will hard block you.

FINAL THOUGHTS so, I didn’t intend for this to get as long as it did; as far as the last section goes, a lot of that is common sense, but I’ve included it anyway because I’ve had similar experiences on blogs before with people coming to me with plot ideas that were inherently toxic and glorified to be something bigger/better, and felt it would be best to address what I’m not comfortable with and why directly out of the gate. keep in mind that all of this is a guideline, and if you have ideas that expand outside of what I’ve placed here, I’d love to hear them! don’t hesitate to approach me to plot, especially if you want to expand on anything I’ve listed in this cheat sheet. <3

#PSA.#WISHLIST.#ask to tag /

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crowkingwrites · 6 years ago

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Battle of the Bands (Ch.15)

Pairing: Robb Stark x Reader, Jon Snow x Reader, Viserys Targaryen x Reader, Ramsay Bolton X Reader

Summary: You just moved into the city for the first tie all by yourself. After you get your dream summer job working for a small magazine, you find yourself in the middle of the city’s rock festival: Battle of the Bands. Local rock bands throughout the city compete to win a record deal that could change their lives. Your job? Get close to them and write about them online.A single girl in the city surrounded by rocker boys during the summertime. What could possibly go wrong?

Words: 2701 // AO3 Link

Chapter One // Chapter Two // Chapter Three // Chapter Four // Chapter Five // Chapter Six // Chapter Seven // Chapter Eight // Chapter Nine // Chapter Ten // Chapter Eleven // Chapter Twelve // Chapter Thirteen // Chapter Fourteen

You couldn’t sleep much last night. You had spent it watching whatever you could find on Youtube. Music videos of Blackfyre, cute puppy videos, and some conspiracy video about how Joffery Baratheon was actually his uncle’s, not his father’s. You turned off the Internet after that one.

When you did finally wake up from what sleep you had, you were greeted with both Margaery and Loras in the living room. In front of Loras, a bag of tacos sat. The scent of the cilantro and chicken wafted into your nose. Both of them looked up to you, waiting for something.

“Morning,” you said and looked down.

“I bought you some tacos. Margie told me what happened last night. I told her what happened with Renly. So—

“You guys know everything now. I get it,” you responded in a short voice. “Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.”

“It’s okay,” Margie stood up and offered you her seat. “Want a cup of coffee? I made us some this morning!”

“What is this? What are you guys doing?” you narrowed your eyes at the siblings.

“We don’t want you to leave,” Loras came out with it. He had always been up front with you especially when he didn’t need to be. Once he told you his honest opinion of your new boyfriend while he was sitting in front of him. Needless to say, that relationship didn’t last long. Loras sighed and looked at his sister before continuing. “You just got here. You’re gonna fail, you know? I think you’re being harsh on yourself.”

“I don’t. I fucked up everything.”

“No! No you didn’t! Because you helped Loras and Renly get together right?” Margie shot a look at Loras.

“Oh! Yeah! Definitely! That was a major win!” Loras smiled. You looked at the bag of tacos and snatched it. As you unwrapped the first one, Margie put down some coffee for you. You shoed the first tacos in your mouth and you wondered why you even messed with boys in the first place. Who needs boys when you can have drama-free tacos?

“You should listen to Loras,” Margaery said. She tied up her hair in a messy bun and elaborated. “You just got here a few months back. You can’t leave now. You can’t give up on yourself like that.”

“I’m…not…giving,” you said between bites with as much breath as you had. “…up…on myself.”

“You are,” Margie raised an eyebrow.

“But I told you,” you started to cry a little. “I messed everything up.” Loras rubbed your back as you started to cry into your tacos. So much for drama free tacos. You should return the damned things. Who are you kidding? Who the fuck returns tacos?

“Do you still have friends?” Margie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you have your job?”

“Yeah.”

“And you have a place to live,” Margie told you. “You haven’t fucked up as badly as you think you did. Please stay. The fest is almost over now anyways and all of this business will go away. I can even help you find a different job if you wanted me to.”

“She could,” Loras agreed. “I heard Robb’s a bad boss. You should probably quit anyways.”

“Loras! Not helping!” Margie snapped.

“Why? He can be such an ass sometimes. I don’t like the way he talks to you,” Loras responded. “Oh, and because Viserys talking to her was any better,” Margie rolled her eyes. “Look, you just had a weird fucking summer. Don’t go, ok?”

“No,” you shook your head. “You weren’t there. Robb walked into the office, holding his face. Then, I watched him yell at his dad that Jon was the problematic child.”

“See? Bad boss,” Loras nodded.

“No. Not the fucking point, Loras,”you clarified. “I did that. I caused that fight between them. I made them fight over me and they’re really angry at each other. I tore them apart. Then, I thought of what I wrote about Viserys and now he’s losing everything. He has a real reason to sue me. And Ramsay can’t ever play music again and it makes him so happy, and—

“You’re spiraling,” Margie grabbed your wrist before you put the fourth tacos in your mouth. “Breathe.”

You closed your eyes and inhaled. You held it for three seconds and then you let go. You still didn’t feel much better, but it was an improvement.

“I still want to go home,” you confessed. “I just don’t feel good here anymore. I could go back home and work in my dad’s bookshop. He’d be really happy to have me, I think.”

“Are you really that set on it?” Loras nudged you.

“I think I am,” you nodded.

“Then that’s that.”

“WHaT? nO!” Margaery reacted. “Y/N are you hearing yourself? You can’t go back home! It’s—

“Margie. It’s done, ok?” Loras shot a look her way. “This is what she wants to do. We should support her.” Margie sat back and looked away for a moment. She lit a cigarette and exhaled the smoke behind her.

“Alright,” she said defeated. “But, I’m helping you go home, ok? No Dornish goodbye shit.”

“Dornish goodbye? That’s a good name for a rock band,” Loras nodded. “Sexy.”

After you packed all of your books, you took a break. You opened your laptop to your article about Viserys. 50K shares and thousands of comments. You closed your eyes and said ‘Fuck’ to yourself. You closed your laptop and grabbed your phone.

No messages from anyone. No phone calls. Just an empty home screen with increasing number of shares on the Viserys article. You dialed your mom.

“Hello? Honey?” Your mom’s voice was the best thing you heard in weeks. Her sweet, caring tone always hit you where it hurt the most.

“Hi mom,” you had tears in your eyes again.

“Oh honey! What’s wrong?”

“I wanna come home, Mom. I mucked it up pretty bad here. I don’t wanna be here anymore.” You felt an anxious wordy waterfall about to spill from your core.”

“Oh…,” you heard her shifting around. “Oh, sweetheart. Come home. It’s alright. I’ll take a few days off of work, and I can bring you home. Does that sound ok?” Your parents weren’t aware of your more careless lifestyle. Both of them were incredibly conservative. When you told them you were moving into the King’s City, your father fought on you it tooth and nail.

“Thank you, Mom,” you smiled through your tears. “That sounds okay. I just need to, uh, put my ducks in order. Can I call you later?” It was happening. You were going home. You thought of yourself when you first moved here. You remember getting your job and celebrating at the Sunspot. Then, your smile was covered in cheap beer and taco sauce.

Now, you sat in a room with a fourth of your things packed. Your room was getting emptier each second. You turned off your phone and curled up into your bed. You weren’t too proud to admit it, but you left your phone off for three days. Margie would check in on you from time to time, and she would help you pack.

But she wouldn’t push or try to convince you to stay. You stayed in your bed mostly for those three days. You watched countless hours of all the Netflix you could handle. On the fourth morning, you woke up. No, you wouldn’t spend your last days inside your apartment, feeling shitty about yourself. You were better than that. You deserve better than that.

You got properly dressed in a band t-shirt and shorts. Your favorite pair of dirty converse shoes carried you all the way back to the Battle of the Bands. The first thing you noticed was the yellow ticket. Everyone had a yellow ticket in their hands. You saw a few new yellow tents that hadn’t been here before. When you walked over, you realized what it was.

The final voting for the battle. Everyone was deciding who would win.

You quickly picked up one on your own, and walked away from the crowding line. You saw entries for Favorite Folk Band, Favorite Rock Band, Favorite Solo Act, and so much more. At the bottom, you saw the last final contest: Winner of Battle of the Bands – Favorite Act. Your pen itched between your fingers.

You could pick Viserys. Blackfyre was a fun band to watch, and you enjoyed their rock music. Maybe Viserys could forgive you for what you wrote, and maybe you wanted to forgive him for pushing you away like that. There was something between you two that you couldn’t let go. When you were around him, he made you feel like the only person in the room.

You left him hungry. Viserys was fucking dragon after all. He was hungry for kissing, hungry for attention, but hungry for you the most. Was he about to be a world-famous rock star? Maybe. Was he a good kisser? Of course. Did you want him after breaking it off with you? You didn’t know. If you picked Viserys, you could tame the dragon yourself.

Or you pick Jon. Jon wasn’t technically part of the Battle of the bands, but you wrote about him anyways. You knew he deserved the attention. People flocked to the pub to see him after you wrote about him. There’s something about Jon that you found so hopelessly romantic and true. Jon who was your friend first and defended you in front of anybody—including his own family.

You admired his loyalty to you, but you were scared of what that meant. Commitment was never your strongest point, and you didn’t want to hurt Jon. You knew how much his heart meant to him. He wanted to give it to you so badly that he was willing to wait for you. If you picked Jon, you may be picking forever with Jon.

Ramsay wasn’t boyfriend material by any means. You couldn’t even write his band name down because they were cut. Ramsay was the type of individual who did stupid shit because he could. Being an awful ass was the best twenty-four hour job he loved the most. Any time his hands were on you, you felt an electricity that surged through you. Ramsay was bad and exciting.

He wanted you. He had a hold on you stronger than any other man. He liked competing for you. He liked chasing you, and maybe you wanted him to keep chasing you. You shook your head. Ramsay would be the stupid choice, but it would be the most fun one. You didn’t want to fix Ramsay, you wanted Ramsay to break you. If you picked Ramsay, you would be buying your ticket to Hell.

Then there was Robb. From the moment you met him, everything seemed like a perfect, romantic Hollywood movie. From his bluest eyes to his good protective nature, he seemed so perfect. Robb believed in you. He gave you your first job on your own. He gave you front page, resources, and his help. He wanted to make you better.

But he was also possessive and cruel and cold. He was a true wolf. Fiercely loyal to his pack and attacked whenever provoked. You never knew if Robb was happy or upset with you. One minute he’s kind and wonderful, and then the next he makes you feel like the worst person in the room. One thing was for sure, he cared for you. You knew the way he looked at you because you looked at him the same way. If you picked Robb, you picked a love that was more than yourself.

All four of them swam in your head constantly circling like spokes on a wheel. That one’s on top, and that one’s on top, and on and on it spins. It was time to break the wheel.

You grabbed your phone and did the bravest thing you did all day. Your cell had been off for three and a half days now. You pressed the power button on your phone to turn it back on.

At first, you thought it was a glitch. Nothing came until one missed call showed up. Another missed call showed up. Text messages spilled through. Snapchats and Likes and Mentions and Comments. Voicemails and emails filled your inbox.

You saw a lot of backlash and celebration for your troublesome article. You couldn’t bring yourself to read some the hurtful comments hardcore fans left for you. You went to Snapchat and saw your sister’s new puppy. It gave you a smile.

And then you saw it. 52 missed calls. Several text messages. You looked at Robb’s first.

Robb to you: [So you’re leaving? Are you serious?] Robb: [Come on, you’re not serious serious, are you?] Robb: [Please answer.] Robb: [I’m really not kidding please answer me I swear to you that you have your job, okk?] Robb: [We can work together on this. You don’t have to run away from this.] Robb: [Are you mad at me?] Robb: [Look, Renly just told me. Loras told him. He told me. You can’t go.] Robb: [I don’t want you to go.] Robb: [I want you here. Please don’t leave. Please tell me you’re not leaving.] Robb: [Why aren’t you answering?] Robb: [Listen, I called you like 12 times. I think your phone’s off. But ugh] Robb: [Y/N. I really, really want you here. I’ll do anything, ok?] Robb: [I don’t know where you are. I hope you’re okay.] Robb: [I want to talk to you. Just meet me at the Sunspot. I will go there every day for lunch. Just come see me before you leave.]

You felt your heart dropping that you didn’t answer any of these. Then, you opened Jon’s voicemail. His sweet voice gave you relief.

“Okay, so this is my sixth time calling you? I heard you’re leaving the city. I don’t know what Robb’s told you, but I’ll go with you. I’m so tired of this place. The people…the scene. It’s all wrong. We can go together, you and me. Ugh, what am I even saying? Are you getting any of these? Are you ok? I’m worried about you. Please answer me.”

You heard his voice breaking at his last words. You felt a small part of your heart break off and disappear into your blood streams. It felt like a pinch in your side or that tickling pain after laughing too hard. It didn’t feel as good as you wanted. Another glance at your phone helped you move on. Ramsay left you with one voicemail and one text message.

“This is really suspicious. Your phone’s off. Your phone’s never off. What the hell is happening?”

Ramsay to You: [You’re leaving. I tried to talk to you, but Margie stopped me. She was carrying up boxes for you. We need to talk. Now.]

You put your phone away and kept walking through the fest. Your heart was too heavy to carry right now. You found yourself wandering through the crowds of people. Some pushed you out of the way. You avoided others because of their selfies. Direction was out of your mind when everything else filled it. You should’ve paid attention to where you were going.

“Y/N?” Viserys said.

“Oh fuck me,” you said aloud. You quickly covered your mouth. “Sorry! Not ‘fuck me’ as in like ‘Fuck me’, but as in ‘fuuuuuuck me’ like I’m so screwed and I’m really screwed and this---

“Shut up,” Viserys interrupted. “Why are you here?”

“I…I don’t know,” you said, defeated. “I just needed some air.”

“You need some air?” Viserys said angrily. “What? Did you and Ramsay get into a little fight?”

“What? No. I haven’t seen or talked to him in days. I was planning to leave. I’m going back home.”

“What?” Viserys reacted. “You’re not with Ramsay? But he said—

“You’re suing the whole magazine and this was all my fault. I—

“Did Robb Stark fire you?”

“No, well—

“Why are you here?” Viserys asked. His voice was different this time. It held no anger or rage, but confusion. “Did you come for me?”

“I…

Note to Self: Choose carefully.

How this story ends is up to you! These next chapters are the five different endings to Battle of the Bands. You can read one ending, or you can read all five. Up to you entirely. This is the first time I’m doing this and I’m really excited to see what kind of feedback I get for this story.

In this order:

Chapter 16 - Ramsay's Ending Chapter 17 - Viserys' Ending Chapter 18 - Jon's Ending Chapter 19 - Robb's Ending Chapter 20 - Your Ending

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mvadowes · 6 years ago

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DORCAS CLEMENTINA MEADOWES is 26 years old and works as a DRAGON RESCUER/SPY and is loyal to THE OOTP. she was a RAVENCLAW and is a MUGGLEBORN. SHE looks like DIANE GUERRERO. ( and it’s cami, bitch !! )

dorcas was born into a rather large working-class family in leeds, and quickly stood out ( some would say, for all the wrong reasons ). the meadowes were quite proud of the respectable reputation they’d earned inside their social circles over the years, and expected their children to be models of just that - quiet, obedient, polite, soft edges.

she was different from them all long before she knew magic ran in her veins

the mere concept of reputation always felt absurd to her, even as a little girl who dared to look in the eyes those who’d even consider glancing at her. her parents thought her daredevil and somewhat cynical behaviour would tire itself out and she’d eventually copy her siblings, but they were wrong.

something fiery in her was intensified by the weird occurances she couldn’t explain, and when her tongue grew sharper, more imaginative, she was uncontrollable. sometimes even to herself. dorcas meadowes was born a wild card.

the very muggle meadowes didn’t take lightly the news that their odd girl was a witch, and that aversion never really went away. inside the household, the reactions would always range from complete disinterest in anything magical to terror of what she could TECHNICALLY do. she’d accidentally won the power struggle in the family. she simultaneously held it all and none. the double edge sword of her status made it so that no one even tried controlling her anymore, but also left her lonely and lacking affection, regardless of how much she insisted she did not need it.

ravenclaw, home of the curious, imaginative, individualistic sharp-witted. dorcas fit right in, although that didn’t stop her from being in all other common rooms at all times. hogwarts was the biggest playground she could have asked for - somewhere new where no one knew who she was; somewhere magical where her curiosity could be fulfilled; somewhere where suspension of disbelief was common; a bubble she could experiment with. of course she’d tried lies back at home ( how many times had her mother bitterly called her a liar anyway ? ) but this was storytelling. dorcas sharpened her lying skills like one sharpens a weapon, and after some trial and error she found her tricks. after that, the options were limitless. she was a social butterfly, telling 10 different life stories in the same day, carrying them over for months. once she fooled a single hufflepuff into thinking for 4 weeks that she was in his house and year. even got a hufflepuff tie.

despire hogwarts being where she truly learned how to lie and how to put up fortresses around her, it was also when she was at her most internally chaotic. her identity was still shaky and between her crisis and her offputting ways, she truly opened herself up, more than before and certainly more than after. she holds dear to her heart the friendships she’s made back at hogwarts, with a special place dedicated to the so-called d squad, or dick squad. she’s made up so many stories about they all met that she now can’t pinpoint how exactly they all came together, but the four wild cards that are dorcas meadowes, daisy hookum, mundungus “dung” fletcher and caradoc “doc” dearborn eventually united and brought terror upon hogwarts. marauders who? golden trio who? the dick squad was chaos and friendship and family - she cares for all of them very specially and very individually, and to this day they’re the ones she always goes to.

hogwarts was also where she found her love for magical creatures. growing up, she’d bring home bugs and lizards, tried to take in stray cats, wanted to be a vet. magic opened up a new world of animals and her personal favourite - dragons. giant flying lizards that burned down entire fields? y e s.

after a few summer internships, she graduated with a job at a dragon reserve, but it wasn’t fulfilling. not just yet. after falling victims to too many of her lies, her superiors realised where she’d be able to put those skills to use, and as such she became a dragon rescuer. with no real experience, she was tasked with giving herself a cover, a way into a dragon smuggling ring, get vital evidence and then let the authorities tear it down. she succeeded. it was addictive.

soon she built up her little network of other spies, ID forgers, crime connections - dorcas is represented in every seedy corner, hears talks in every dark bar, has covers to pick and choose from. the latter, the criminal world is one she dips her feet in far too often, honestly just for the thrill of it. a lot of what she does can be justified with that.

the order too knew how to use her skills. when she isn’t on dragon missions or visiting a reserve to help out, she’s spying for the order. once again, contacts everywhere, dorcas meadowes is always listening.

is she way in over her head? yes. dorcas is young, reckless, only has SIX years of experience in spying and is honestly just making it up as she goes. does she see that?absolutely not. that’s her mortal flaw; she can’t see mortality. even in a war, surrounded by death, the concept is foreign. it’s a mix of her bravado and her detachment from reality what causes it. it’s this what gets her killed in a year.

activist to her very core. can always be seen arguing about something, especially animal rights. has been arrested for trying to free the gringott dragon. will keep on being arrested.

openly anti-government. anti-capitalism. anti-separated muggle and magical worlds. long live the anarchy.

part of her misses being a full-time dragon carer. even though most of her missions are animal traffic and animal cruelty related, she doesn’t spend quite as much time with the dragons as she used to.

loves the punk rock underground scene and all of her muggle friends are from it. catch her going to weird secret bars and rocking out to ‘noise’.

she has very few things grounding her, since for the most part dorcas is like a ghost. she has no home, living off a backpack and couch surfing, has no telephone, no fireplace, very few photographs. disappears for missions or just to satisfy a need to not be stuck in the same place far too often. dorcas meadowes will come into your life after two weeks of radio silence, with two dragon eggs and a simple ‘i’m staying with you this week’.

gets in trouble far too often. always did like to hang around the wilder more out fringe groups of society, and can also usually be found in the company of aurors. has a need for danger and excitement. would light up a car just to see how that happens. doesn’t lead the healthiest life, far too much alcohol and party drugs but hey at least she always sleeps a lot ??

she does have a fascination with fire. lieks to watch things burn, gets lost in the beauty of flames !!

lowkey just needs to learn how to be more emotionally honest and how to accept the rawness that comes with it, and to not run away every time something arises. lowkey needs to learn how to emote and live like other people. lowkey never will.

basically ??? she’s an irresponsible couch surfing slightly pyromanic compulsive liar anarchist, with a passion for animal rights and especially the breathing fire type, and an intense lack of emotional abilities

character parallels: gina linetti, eleanor shellstrop, cristina yang, elektra natchios, doug judy, veronica mars, natasha romanoff, malia tate, daisy johnson, heather davis, mazikeen, jason mendonza, gilderoy lockhart, peter quill, ilana wexler, jo wilson, titus andromedon, daenerys targaryen

some wanted connections:

- hogwarts enemies: dorcas got in everyone’s business all the time and also spread lots of fake rumors just for the fun of it. she’s bound to have upset someone.

- post hogwarts enemies: the exact same thing from the first one IHFBGJSHDBV

- a different life: people who know dorcas but as someone totally different. different name, story, maybe even looks due to polyjuice. oops.

- the name is bond: SPY PALS. people dorcas has worked with or against, who happened to meet through their missions or their contacts and understand each other, the way they live in lies...

- hot: someone please fuck dorcas. she loves fun so yall can’t tell me she isn’t boning at least one person. no feelings needed, just screw her.

- okay but someone love dorcas please

click here for a bad pinterest board and hmu for dorcas to come ruin ur life

#maraudrs:intro #animal cruelty tw #animal abuse tw

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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Game of Thrones - ‘Winterfell’ Review

Six episodes over two months to close a story the author hasn't been able to finish in 20 years.

It could work.

As 'Winterfell' kicks off the show's ultimate season, I can't imagine I've been alone in a certain trepidation that Things Might Just Go To Hell. George Martin has only delivered "sporadic verses" pertaining to the saga over the last seven years, and I couldn't help but feel certain parts of last season uninspired, as if the showrunners were treading water through key parts of the storyline, hoping against hope that George might finally get his thumb out of his... ehm, and actually deliver.

Surely after one paltry episode it's too early to tell, but my feeling is that David and Daniel have given up that hope, and the show might be better for it. While hardly a perfect installment, sometimes even a bit clumsy in execution and dialogue, what I am left with is a true sense of urgency and a driving force set in motion.

By now it's painfully clear that George has painted himself into a corner – twisting not one but two dozen knots on himself and finding it impossible to reach the end in any graceful fashion. Fortunately, the producers have not. It's always been stated that safeguarding against a disaster (as in Martin relocating six feet under,) the producers were provided with an outline of how the show must end. Some people doubted this. I was mildly skeptical. Now I'm certain.

George may be tasked with his own impossible standards. While I'm certainly no world-class author, considering my own erratic output lately... I could relate.

The writing team of Benioff, Weiss, Sandhu, and Antonucci – the second pair both young and remarkably scoring their very first writing credits at this super-heavyweight event – are not similarly burdened. They are television writers and producers; their job is to write scripts and produce, and from what it seems they're hellbent on doing it. Also, their task is to work towards a known end, and that might be a rare luxury for people in the business. The whole essence of 'Winterfell' is purposeful setup, as they are dealing the hands for the final run.

This review won't talk about the great scenery, the music, the technical aspects of the direction or any of that. You've all seen that and I may not even be qualified to say much on some of it. The main reasons being I don't watch anything for technical aspects or to count the occasional missteps or insignificant blunders. I watch for content, and 'Winterfell' serves plenty, some not even quite that obvious.

Thus this review will just focus on a few key scenes of the episode.

The first one would be the reunion of Jon and Arya. The show's been pouring these sentimental moments over us lately, to the point where there's gone inflation in the Stark hugfests, but even if they aren't really that important, this one had merit. For one, it's the one reunion scene all fans of the show have been rooting for since the very first episodes. For the other, this has to be the first time we get to see Arya smiling and happy, almost acting like a little girl again, since her father was decapitated. Even her look of awe as she first lays eyes on her brother again, heading the giant army marching into their home, is absolutely fantastic.

The second, less pleasant and more significant, involves Cersei's decision to task Bron with murdering both her brothers, veering dangerously close to putting her in comic book villain territory. Killing Tyrion? Sure, I can buy that, I'm wondering why she hasn't been harder at work on it for years.

Jaime? No. True, they did not depart on the best of terms, but this is the closest thing Cersei's had to that "one true love" in all her life. Furthermore, I can't even think of an earlier time where Jaime openly defies her will, and his motive isn't even to spite her – it's to make good on his word. One could argue that an extension of their unofficial family motto. Making sense of her reaction, one could assume she isn't capable of entering any real emotional relationship where the counterpart isn't her slave and she isn't in total control of everything.

Crossing this line strips her of all redeeming qualities as a person, and her subsequent bored hookup with Euron – arrogant and self-assured like the Jaime of old, but also a perverted and sadistic thug with no moral stature or higher calling whatsoever, but a shade or two removed from Ramsay Bolton – feels both earned and appalling.

I don't know why the show takes this step. It could be a catalyst to bond the two feuding Lannister brothers together, or maybe the writers are prepared to sacrifice some of Cersei's believability as a character for some central purpose. That doesn't make it good, and I'm left on the fence on this one.

The third scene is Jon and Dany's romantic getaway with the dragons. Like Jon and Arya, this is heavy fan-service – the kids want dragons, we got to give them dragons, and hey look, how cool, Jon's riding a dragon!

Reducing it to that would overlook the dramatic purpose of the scene, which is easy and something I've tried to hammer in for years when it comes to writing couples in conflict. Jon and Dany need a happy moment. The audience needs to be shown they're in love and know what they're fighting for as well as what they have to lose.

...shipping it.

And this brings us to the fourth scene, namely, Dany's standoff with Sam over her murder of his father and brother. Now, this was truly heartbreaking, and its importance cannot be overstated, as this may mark the beginning of her undoing.

It could be exaggerated or plain wrong as things play out – though I really don't think so – but I'd wager that dramatically, this is the episode where Daenerys the Protagonist dies. At the very least, the poison's in the wound. She started the victim, progressed the hero and is now found out the would-be tyrant.

It's true, other people considered both noble and worthy by the show have killed many men by the laws of their lands, but what Dany is guilty of is executing prisoners of war in order to scare her foes into submission, and that's hardly noble. Through this episode, circumstances cause the perfect storm to have her cruelty come back to bite her – in a rare occasion for Game of Thrones, this is the one bad deed that won't go unpunished.

Anyone who'd think this could go away – we've never seen Sam truly angry before, hurt to his very core and or using all his guns to hurt someone as he does Dany through the revelation of Jon's birthright. For such a gentle soul, this is quietly frightening. He's both clever, determined and arguably even righteous in his hatred. This will only solve through the destruction of the other party, and Sam's been Jon's best friend since the very first episodes.

Some people thought the show was sweeping Dany's flaws under the rug to keep her the shining figurehead. That was wrong. On the contrary, the way the scene plays out shows a nuanced understanding of the spirit of the source material on the part of the screenwriters. It doesn't even matter if it's the same understanding as the original author's, since it's now the show's ultimate job to succeed on its own merits.

While I guess nobody really cares, one month ago I developed a case of serious loathing of American television and cinema, their overused tropes and painting-by-numbers morality, to the point I could no longer stand to watch any.

Remarkably, Game of Thrones, the biggest American show of the decade, broke through, simply through the virtue of understanding and staying true to itself.

Thanks for that.

Thomas Ijon Tichy

#Game of Thrones #GoT #Jon Snow #Daenerys Targaryen #Tyrion Lannister #Sansa Stark #Cersei Lannister #Game of Thrones Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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rachelbrosnahanweb · 6 years ago

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New Update has been published on Rachel Brosnahan Web

New Post has been published on http://rachel-brosnahan.org/2018/12/07/press-marvelous-mrs-maisel-star-rachel-brosnahan-on-exploring-love-and-privilege-in-season-2/

Press: 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Star Rachel Brosnahan on Exploring Love and Privilege in Season 2

[This story contains spoilers from season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.]

The award-winning actress talks with THR about the sophomore season of Amazon’s critical darling — and how Midge’s estranged husband Joel fits into the picture.

Rachel Brosnahan’s buoyant and nuanced performance as housewife-turned-comedian Miraim “Midge” Maisel was one of the highlights of last year’s TV slate, and has been deservedly lauded since by critics and awards bodies alike.

Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel presents some unique technical challenges for its star, who must deliver lengthy stand-up comedy monologues with spontaneity — since Midge’s style is often stream-of-consciousness and off-the-cuff — and at the lightning speed that creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s world demands. Season two, now streaming on Amazon, gives Brosnahan even more opportunities to shine, as Midge’s new life as a rising, struggling comic scrapes up against her old one as a perfectly content housewife. Featuring extended jaunts in Paris and the Catskills before following Midge and her manager Susie (Alex Borstein) on a multi-state tour, the new episodes see Midge grappling with the realities of the path she’s chosen, and what she may have to give up in order to truly succeed.

Below, Brosnahan speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about Midge’s season two journey; her relationships with Susie, estranged husband Joel (Michael Zegen) and new love interest Benjamin (Zachary Levi); and how the comedy world is impacting her social skills.

Did filming season two feel different from season one, now that you know how successful the show is?

Fortunately, no, it didn’t. It still feels like we’re shooting in a vacuum a little bit, because it’s a really intense show to shoot. We have a lot of pages in a very short period of time, really long hours, and so we do get to escape. We got to dig deeper into almost all the relationships on the show this year, and I’m so fortunate that as Midge, I have relationships on the show with almost every other character. I enjoyed getting to work more with so much of our core ensemble, and to be able to shoot more together. That was one of the biggest differences between season one and two, is that in season two, you get to see a lot more of the whole family, and the whole ensemble together. Those scenes were fun to shoot — crazy, psychotic, but fun, just to get to see each actor and character have moments to shine.

Starting the season in Paris must have been an interesting change of pace.

The Paris scenes were actually the first that we shot, which was very strange! It was all of our same people, but we also had partially a French crew, and it was a bit of a strange note to start the show on for season two, to be somewhere else. But it was a blast — we got to go to Paris and hang out and shoot in beautiful locations and eat 12,000 baguettes!

So the first stand-up scene you shot for this season was the one in Paris, where Midge has a translator?

Yes, which was strange mostly because with the translator, the timing is a little bit different. You really have to wait for that laugh, and it was nerve-wracking, and also most of our audience [in the scene] only spoke French and genuinely had no idea what I was saying without the translator. It was an entirely French background [cast], and we had a French coordinator, so having the French translator was useful!

Was it harder to get back into character because you were in a new location?

The challenge was less getting back to the character in a new location, and more getting back into the character after having had six months away. We’d only shot one season and it was eight episodes, so there’s always that fear that you’ve forgotten how to play them! About halfway through Paris, we were all collectively like, “Oh, we do remember how to do this, we know these people still,” and it was like putting back on a comfy old sweater.

Joel is still a big part of the show this season, and there’s a lingering question of whether he and Midge might give it another shot. What’s your take on that?

The big question at the end of season one is whether or not Midge and Joel are going to get back together, and it’s something that we’ll continue to explore throughout season two. I remember Amy saying to me before we shot the pilot that Midge and Joel have children together, so they’ll never be able to be completely out of each other’s lives. And while there may be various points — as you saw at the end of season one — in which they may feel like they’re back on the same page, almost as quickly one of them will always take a step forward while the other takes a step back, or sideways, or on a diagonal. They will, as is true for so many relationships, continue to just miss each other, perhaps forever.

Episode five ends with an incredible moment where Midge realizes that Abe (Tony Shalhoub) is in the audience halfway through her set, and has to keep going. What was that scene like to film?

It was crazy! Midge is a fast talker anyway, but I have never talked so fast in my entire life. All I can think about when I think about that scene is the days leading up to it, where I drove every single member of our crew insane, running around the set just saying that entire speech over and over and over again, at lighting speed. Susie says early on that it’s the biggest crowd that Midge has ever performed for, and it was also the biggest crowd that I have ever performed for. It was genuinely nerve-wracking, doing stand-up in front of Tony. He’s never been around for any of those scenes — nor has anybody but Alex, and Michael I suppose — and it was petrifying and exhilarating and he was so wonderful. There was something really cathartic about it, to have it all out in the open, for it finally to come out in such a Midge way. Because man, she can’t shut up!

What’s happening in Midge’s mind in that moment?

Midge is one of those people who, when the elephant is in the room, she cannot stop talking about the elephant. About what it looks like, how much it weighs, how it’s standing in the corner, how nobody else is talking about it — she’s a master of observational comedy, and she cannot keep her mouth shut. She just shoots herself in the foot over and over and over.

Zachary Levi’s Benjamin introduces a completely new dynamic for Midge. What does he bring to the show?

His character is so much fun, and such a good foil for Midge. The thing about Benjamin is that he is just as smart as she is, and just as stubborn as she is, and that makes for some very entertaining and frustrating scenes between the two of them. They are both weird, and they’re a funny pair, they both make complete sense, and make no sense at all. Zach is a wonderful actor, he’s so funny, and it was a blast to have him join our crew, we’ve been kind of a tight group for such a long time and it was nice to have some fresh blood.

What does Benjamin represent for Midge?

Joel and Ben couldn’t be more the opposite [of each other]; and on paper, Benjamin is everything that Joel wasn’t, and everything that Abe wanted. Benjamin is a doctor, he’s tall and handsome and traditional. I guess he’s getting married a little bit late, but he is stable and has money, and once they get past their initial tension he treats Midge very well, treats her like a queen, lifts her up. That’s appealing to those around Midge, but also to Midge in some ways. For someone who thought her entire life had imploded, maybe it’s possible to have a second chance at the life she’d always dreamed of with someone like Benjamin.

How does Midge and Susie’s relationship develop this season?

I love their relationship so much. It’s really the core of the show, this budding womance, as Alex lovingly refers to it. They are such an odd couple, and they’ve chosen to link arms and walk down this unbeaten path together, and they’re going to be faced in season two with the reality of what that looks like. They’ve been on this steady uphill climb, but they’ve hit kind of a block in the road as it relates to Sophie Lennon and Harry Drake and the goons, and they’re going to have to overcome this obstacle together. And they sometimes have different ways of doing that. The stakes are a lot higher for Susie, so they butt heads a little bit this season.

It feels like Midge’s privilege, in contrast to Susie really having to hustle, is being emphasized more this season.

I appreciate that this season, Midge is confronted more with her privilege and the idea that she has a safety net to fall back on. Even if she doesn’t always feel that way, it’s there, and that gives her a kind of confidence that Susie has never been afforded the opportunity to have. It’s all or nothing for Susie, this is it. For Midge, there are things that have the potential to pull her off this path, and I think Susie keeps Midge grounded and Midge forces Susie into her feelings a little bit more and embrace the softer side of herself. Midge is interested in the idea of them being friends. To her, that’s what really marks their relationship as something more permanent. Alex said something really interesting that I think is totally true: Susie’s never been afforded the privilege of having friends. She’s just been trying to scrape by, and I think Midge is maybe helping her relax into that idea a little bit more, the idea of having a support system.

Midge gives an incredibly misjudged wedding speech in episode three. Is her stand-up career impacting her ability to socialize in normal life? Yes, as she says to Susie later on the phone, she’s losing her societal filter. I think it’s happening with the more time she spends with Susie, but also the more time she spends immersed in this world of comedy, where there really are no rules as long as it’s funny. If it’s funny, anything goes, and that isn’t really true in real life! I think the lines are blurring for Midge, and she’s losing track of where the line is. That seemed kind of a foreign idea to me, but a good friend of mine is also a stand-up comic, and she told me she’d had the same experience in real life. Suddenly she found herself, in real life, just grossly offending people with things that she would just sling around backstage when she was doing shows, and she was having trouble keeping those worlds separate. That’s something that Midge is definitely struggling to maintain in season two.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

#Interview #maiseltv #midge maisel #mrs. maisel #press #rachel brosnahan #the marvelous mrs. maisel #Press #Television #The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

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musicprincess655 · 7 years ago

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“I can’t do this.”

“Jun,” Tetsu said patiently. “We already did the hard part.”

“I beg to differ. This is most definitely the hard part.”

“What about a party is the hard part?”

“The part where everyone we know stares at us while we get married!” Jun snapped.

“We’re already married.” Technically, it was true. They’d already gone to the municipal building to fill out the paperwork to get married. Legally, Jun’s family name was Yuuki now. They’d already done all the heavy lifting – and quickly, considering they’d gotten this all settled in the week after Tetsu had proposed. While it had been a bit of an impulse, he’d had every intention of asking Jun to marry him after he finished school. He’d just moved up his timetable in light of recent events.

It had gone mostly without a hitch. Tetsu had tried to pretend that the weird look the man at the municipal building had given them was because they were two men, even while knowing it was because he was a human marrying a werewolf. Still, everything was in order, and Tetsu was ready to celebrate that fact.

“That’s so far from the point,” Jun complained. “We’re doing vows in front of our friends. Vows.”

“Do you not have yours written?”

“Do I…of course I have my vows written!”

“Then you have nothing to worry about.” Tetsu opened the door to the restaurant they’d rented out. Masuko had taken care of decorating, with the help of Sawamura judging by the number of streamers. It was just the level of over the top to be perfect.

Almost everyone was there already, cheering when they walked in.

“The happy couple arrives,” Ryou said. Despite his tone that could never really drop that note of sarcasm, he looked genuinely pleased for them.

“Let’s get this party started!” Sawamura cheered. He was probably more excited about this party than Tetsu was, and he was very excited about celebrating his marriage.

“Thank you, everyone, for coming,” Tetsu said, bringing the room to order. It was almost funny how fast everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him. “Before we get to the open bar and the cake, there’s just one thing Jun and I have to do.”

“I know this is the least traditional wedding you’ve ever been to, but we’re still saying vows, dammit,” Jun added, to laughter throughout the room. They made their way to the front, Jun trying to hide the way he was fidgeting. Tetsu decided that meant he should go first.

“Jun,” Tetsu started. “In the six years that I’ve known you, I’ve been surrounded by a world of magic. I call witches and fae and familiars and vampires and werewolves and everything in between my friends, and that’s all because of you. My world shines brighter now than it did before I met you. You’ll probably say that it’s because I have magic in my life now, and you’re right, but you’re wrong about where it comes from.”

Jun looked like he was deciding between grinning and punching him. He might do both. Tetsu took a deep breath and continued.

“You are the magic in my life,” he said. “You are the reason the stars shine a little bit brighter and the moon fills the sky. You’re the reason the sun feels warmer and colors are more brilliant.”

Jun was neither going to grin nor punch him, because Jun’s eyes were filling with tears.

“I could go to all of those places you always talk about,” Tetsu went on. “I could find places humming with magic to their core, the places where magic is born and where it grows wild, and I would still come back, because what I would be looking for would be here with you the whole time. Whether you can do magic or not, you’re still the reason I see it every day, because I fell in love with the magic inside of you.”

Tetsu pushed the ring they’d picked out the day after he’d proposed onto Jun’s ring finger. Jun was full on crying now.

“Dammit,” he laughed weakly, scrubbing at his eyes. “You’re not supposed to make me cry at our wedding, you asshole.”

Tetsu decided not to point out again that, technically, they were already married.

“Tetsu,” Jun said, fire in his eyes even as the tears lingered. “I used to think this was going to be the most difficult thing I’d ever have to do. I was shaking as I walked in, and I never really thought we’d get this far. But dating you, marrying you, loving you, it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Now Tetsu felt tears stinging at his eyes.

“Even when I was sure we’d never make it, that we’d just be another bad memory, choosing you has always been so simple,” Jun continued. “No matter what life threw at us, we were okay, because I took the simple path, and that path was always with you. I love you more than I have the words to say, and that’s never going to change.”

Jun pushed the ring that was a mate to the one already on his finger onto Tetsu’s. They were a perfect match now, as they had been for a long time now. The room burst into applause. Tetsu jumped. He’d legitimately forgotten that he and Jun weren’t the only ones in the room.

“Alright, that’s enough of this sap!” Jun roared, still wiping at his suspiciously wet eyes. “There’s an open bar and I expect you to make this a night to remember!”

That went over well with everyone. Masuko started playing music as everyone moved out of the orderly rows they’d formed to watch Tetsu and Jun say their vows, scattering to the bar or to the small space that formed a kind of dance floor. Usually, tables would fill that area, but the staff had moved things around since the entire restaurant was rented out anyway.

“Oh gods,” Jun groaned. “Who let Sawamura into the bar?”

“He’s legal.”

“Excuse me?”

“He’s a second year in college, he’s twenty,” Tetsu said. “He can drink.”

“Gods we got old. He still seems like the team baby.”

Jun wasn’t wrong.

“Uga.” Masuko’s voice over the microphone got everyone’s attention. “It’s time for Tetsu and Jun’s first dance as a couple.”

“It’s…what?” Jun asked helplessly. Tetsu just shrugged. He wasn’t in on this either.

“It’s tradition!” Sawamura chimed from wherever he’d moved in the crowd. Tetsu looked and found him next to Miyuki. Of course.

“We can’t argue with tradition, can we?” Tetsu asked. Jun rolled his eyes, but they’d long gotten used to going with the flow with their friends.

Tetsu didn’t recognize the song Masuko queued up, but it made Jun’s eyes go misty again, so he figured it was a good choice for a first dance. He picked up Jun’s right hand, moving his other to Jun’s hip. Neither of them really knew how to dance, but just swaying back and forth to the music, staring into each other’s eyes while their friends looked on, was enough for both of them.

As the song morphed into something more upbeat, other people started to join them on the dance floor. Tetsu tapped out after the first song, pulling Jun along with him. They sat on the edge of the room, just observing. The alcohol had started to take effect, and that meant the dancing had moved from awkward swaying to skilled.

Ryou and Kuramochi stuck out immediately. Ryou was a wickedly good dancer – apparently being alive for over five hundred years really was good for something – and he made Kuramochi look good by association as he moved his feet and popped his hips, although Kuramochi’s dynamic movements were nothing to scoff at. He was eye catching, if nothing else, and he matched well with Ryou.

They faded away as the music went back to another slow song, lively dancing muted by the change in beat. Now Haruichi and Furuya were the ones that were obvious, if only because it was funny to see such a height difference moving so well together in spite of it. Haruichi was leading, hand on Furuya’s waist, although that might have been just to spare him from reaching for Furuya’s shoulder. They had soft looks on their faces. Even though they were a bit of an odd couple, they fit together in a way that was different from Ryou and Kuramochi’s vibrant partnership. Furuya and Haruichi together were like looking at a calm lake.

Almost surprisingly, as Tetsu scanned the dance floor, he saw that Sawamura had managed to drag Miyuki on, albeit only to the very corner. Neither of them looked like they had any idea what they were doing, but like a lot of things involving that pair, it was working for them.

“So how long do you think it’ll take before they’re together?” Jun asked conspiratorially.

“They’re not dating?” Tetsu asked. They were so obviously gone over each other. It reminded him of right after Ryou and Kuramochi had started dating.

“They’re idiots custom made for each other,” Jun said. “Don’t say anything about it to them. You’ll mess up the betting pool.”

“There’s a betting pool?”

“Yes, and I refuse to let Ryou win. He says before Christmas, I say New Year’s Eve.”

“Kissing at midnight?”

“You know it.”

“That’s very romantic.”

“I know.” Jun looked proud of himself. “You want in on this?”

“I know better than to bet against Ryou.”

“Coward.”

Maybe they should’ve joined in the dancing, but Tetsu was content to sit and watch. It was strange to think that everyone in this room, minus a few exceptions like his little brother Masashi, would be in battle in a few months. They all looked so young as they laughed and danced and talked and drank and lived.

“That’s a weird look you have on your face,” Jun told him.

“I was just thinking that there are a lot of people I care about because I met you,” Tetsu replied honestly. He never would’ve been anywhere close to involved in this whole death curse nonsense if he’d never met Jun, but he also wouldn’t have this large group he was proud to call friends.

“Don’t say embarrassing things,” Jun said, red coloring his cheeks.

“We literally just professed our love for each other in front of everyone we know.”

“Still.”

Tetsu laughed, draping an arm over Jun’s shoulders to pull him closer and drop a kiss on the top of his head.

“I’m glad I met you.”

“Glad I met you too,” Jun grumbled. “Best screaming match I’ve ever had in a Starbucks.”

“Does it count as a screaming match if I never yelled back?” Tetsu asked, amused.

“You started it,” Jun said. “What kind of person looks like you and orders a pumpkin spice latte? I expected a break and instead I got you.”

“It worked out for us.”

“Yeah it did.” Jun looked out over their friends. Tetsu got the feeling they were both thinking the same thing. “Whatever happens, I’m glad I got married to you.”

“Don’t talk like you’re going to die.”

“You proposed because that was a possibility!”

“And now I’m saying it can’t be,” Tetsu replied. “I’ve decided that I like being married to you too much. Whatever happens, you have to come back to me.”

“I…” Jun trailed off. “Yeah. I like being married to you too. No plans to stop that in the immediate future.”

“Good.”

“Oi!” Tetsu glanced up to see Kuramochi glaring at them. “No sitting on the sidelines at your own wedding.”

“Technically we were already married before this,” Tetsu pointed out.

“That’s beside the point,” Ryou said silkily, arm around Kuramochi’s waist. “You’re the men of the hour. Come be the centers of attention.”

It really was hard to say no to Kominato Ryousuke.

Regardless of what was coming, Tetsu and Jun headed back out to the dance floor to laugh in the face of death.

#tetsujun #juntetsu #miyusawa #kuraryou #furuharu #daiya no a #dna #ace of diamond #my writing #magic au #dyfam

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starwarsnonsense · 8 years ago

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The Best Films of 2017 - Mid-Year List

There have already been many great films so far this year, so I felt it worth doing a run down of my favourite films of the year so far. These all reflect the cinema releases we’ve had so far in the UK in 2017 - for that reason this list includes some films that were released in the US in 2016. Enjoy, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the best films of the year so far!

Honourable mentions: Their Finest, Colossal, Gifted

1. Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele

This film really knocked me for six, to such an extent that I simply had to see it twice in the cinema. It got even better upon a re-watch, when I was able to watch it with full knowledge of the characters’ underlying motives and the things to come. It’s a terrifying concept (the racism of an all-white suburb is taken to a horrifying extreme) executed with incredible panache, and you feel every emotion that Chris goes through thanks to Daniel Kaluuya’s excellent performance. Get Out also represents one of the most brilliantly communal experiences I’ve ever had at the cinema - I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that the audience erupted into spontaneous applause at a key moment in the climax. Simply fantastic.

2. The Handmaiden, dir. Park Chan-wook

This film is exquisite - it’s first and foremost a beautiful boundary-smashing love story, and an absolutely marvellous tale of female defiance. It transplants Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith to 1930s Korea, and the story is effortlessly adapted to become intrinsically interwoven with its new setting. Sookee is a talented pickpocket plucked from a thieves den and sent as a handmaiden to trick a rich heiress into falling for a conman. To say any more would spoil the twists, but this film is just a masterwork of suspense, keeping you guessing throughout a series of interlocking pieces that take their time to reveal their secrets. I’ve seen the theatrical cut and the extended version, and they’re both great - you’re in for a treat with either.

3. Jackie, dir. Pablo Larrain

This is a film that soars on the strength of Natalie Portman’s incredible performance, which is complemented by Mica Levi’s haunting score. Portman’s performance is painfully vivid, with her agony and wretchedness coming through so intensely that it’s often uncomfortable to watch. Jackie is probably the best portrait of grief I’ve ever seen, and it sucks you into a famous historic event by providing an incredibly intimate perspective on it. This is great cinema, but be prepared for suffering.

4. A Cure for Wellness, dir. Gore Verbinski

This is a delightfully strange Gothic fairy tale of a film, and I’m amazed and impressed that a Hollywood studio gave Gore Verbinski a budget sufficient to pull it off with such beauty and style. I’ve seen this film attract love and hate in equal measure, but I adore it - the trailers set you up for a rehash of Shutter Island, but nothing could be further from the truth beyond the isolated setting. If I had to compare this to anything, I would compare it to Roger Corman’s Poe cycle of films from the 1960s - it has a similarly lurid sensibility and a deep-seated sense of fantastic romanticism at its core. Great if you’re after something uncompromisingly bonkers.

5. Wonder Woman, dir. Patty Jenkins

This film represented pure joy for me - I couldn’t have anticipated how emotional I was going to get at witnessing a (wonder!)woman crossing No Man’s Land and deflecting bullets with her bracelets. This simultaneously rejects the wry self-awareness of the Marvel films and the grim self-importance of the previous DC movies, instead unabashedly depicting a superhero who triumphs thanks to her overriding belief in love and compassion. Patty Jenkins adds endless little touches - from funny moments to quiet scenes where characters talk simply to learn about each other - that enrich the film and make it feel vivid and intimate in a very rare and special way.

6. Silence, dir. Martin Scorsese

This is truly the work of a master filmmaker, and it represents a stunning artistic achievement and a moving and intelligent investigation of the threshold of faith. Scorsese tried to get this made for decades before finally succeeding, and his passion for and belief in the project shine through in every painstakingly crafted frame. Silence is equal parts beauty and brutality, and it uses this contrast to illuminate the painful questions that the faithful must ask themselves when faced with the harsh reality of the present world. It’s heavy stuff, but well worth your time if you’re up for a film that raises more questions than it answers.

7. In This Corner of the World, dir. Sunao Katabuchi

I had no idea this film existed until a few days before I saw it, but I was really struck by its poetic treatment of the joys and tragedies of life. This film follows a young bride who moves to live with her husband’s family in WWII-era Japan, and while it deals unflinchingly with the trauma and horror of war - particularly the bombing of Hiroshima - it’s also surprisingly funny and ultimately hopeful. The power of this film comes through in the little moments of human connection and the way that the full potential of animation is exploited to maximum effect.

8. La La Land, dir. Damien Chazelle

A lovely ode to the classic Hollywood musical, La La Land is a technical marvel that sticks with me because of its heart and humanity (those words are recurring a lot, right?). It tells a very small story of a love affair between two dreamers in Hollywood, but it feels much bigger than them because of the way in which their story is told. La La Land draws from influences across the spectrum of cinema, and its homages to the classics are joyful and loving. The final ‘what might have been’ sequence represents the perfect marriage of raw emotion and filmmaking virtuosity.

9. Okja, dir. Bong Joon-ho

Not many films can balance flatulence jokes with uncompromising critique of capitalist greed, but Okja pulls it off with aplomb. The core story hinges on the innocent and endearing friendship between a young girl named Mija and a bio-engineered super pig called Okja, and the film succeeds because you totally buy their connection and desperately want the two of them to have their wish and live together in the mountains. I'm delighted that Netflix gave Bong Joon-ho a platform to make such a weird beast.

10. Logan, dir. James Mangold

Logan may be bleak, but that isn’t what makes it great - Logan is fantastic cinema because it remembers that superheroes are still people who struggle with their own souls as much as super-villains. This film features the best character work managed in any of the X-Men films, and Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and - in particular - Dafne Keen give heart-rending performances that really ground the film and give it an emotional core. I hope we get more superhero films like this, and that the takeaway from it for the industry is the importance of stressing character rather than frantic spectacle.

Most anticipated films still to come: War for the Planet of the Apes, Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets, Dunkirk, The Beguiled, Mother!, Logan Lucky, Blade Runner 2049, Murder on the Orient Express, The Shape of Water, Annihilation, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

#film #cinema #logan #the handmaiden #get out #jackie #okja #in this corner of the world #a cure for wellness #silence #wonder woman #la la land #best of the year

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ramajmedia · 5 years ago

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The MCU's 10 Most Badass Black Widow & Hawkeye Moments

Out of the core six Avengers, arguably the two closest friends are Black Widow and Hawkeye. They were the only two who had a history together before Nick Fury assembled the team, having completed missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. all over the world, and as a result, they’ve shared some of the most awesome moments in the MCU. It hasn’t yet been confirmed if Clint Barton will be making an appearance in the Black Widow prequel next year, but it would be a no-brainer to include him in her long-awaited standalone debut.

RELATED: Black Widow: 5 MCU Characters We Want To See Return (& 5 We Don’t)

Here are The MCU’s 10 Most Badass Black Widow And Hawkeye Moments.

10 Black Widow punching Loki’s mind control out of Hawkeye’s head

Hawkeye and Black Widow form one of the most endearing partnerships in the Avengers movies, but in the first half of Joss Whedon’s first installment, they didn’t get to spend an awful lot of time together, because Loki was controlling Hawkeye with the Mind Stone and he was technically an adversary of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

When he attacked them on the Helicarrier, Black Widow ended up fighting him, and knocked Loki’s mind control out of his head by slamming it into a metal railing. It was a gut-wrenching moment, and it had to hurt, but at least it did the trick.

9 “You and I remember Budapest very differently.”

Perhaps we’ll get to see the legendary Budapest mission that Black Widow and Hawkeye carried out for S.H.I.E.L.D. in the former’s solo prequel next year.

During the Battle of New York in the first Avengers movie, as everyone’s favorite pair of experienced secret agents face off against a threat that neither of them have ever faced before – a militant alien invasion – Black Widow says, “Just like Budapest all over again!” and Hawkeye quips back, “You and I remember Budapest very differently.” This is an early example of the mid-battle character moments that would make the MCU feel so special and personal.

8 Black Widow going to Tokyo to bring back Ronin

Hawkeye traded in his bow and arrow for a katana (and his alter ego for “Ronin”) in Avengers: Endgame after his family was killed by Thanos and he felt that there were plenty of other people out there – namely gangsters – who deserved to die more than them.

When Earth’s mightiest heroes started planning the “Time Heist,” Black Widow flew out to Tokyo to talk down Ronin and get him to come back and help them. Anyone else who tried to bring him in probably would’ve gotten themselves killed. The only person who could’ve done it and gotten out alive was Nat.

7 Nat uses Morse code to tell Clint where Ultron has imprisoned her

Midway through Avengers: Age of Ultron, Earth’s mightiest heroes intercept the titular android’s attempts to create a synthetic being powered by the Mind Stone. Hawkeye’s part of the plan involves flying the Quinjet to grab “the package” and take it to Iron Man.

RELATED: 10 Awesome Black Widow Moments In The MCU That Prove She Deserved Better

However, Black Widow unexpectedly got swept up with Ultron’s crew and became his prisoner. Luckily, she was able to contact Clint and use Morse code to tell him that Ultron had taken her to Sokovia, leading the Avengers into their final stand against Tony’s very own Frankenstein’s monster. It’s a good thing Nat and Clint are trained spies.

6 Clint helps Nat out of her Scarlet Witch brainwashing

While all the other Avengers were getting targeted for a good ol’ brainwashing by Scarlet Witch, Clint Barton was one step ahead of her. He jammed one of his electrified arrows onto her forehead to scramble her mind long enough to escape her grasp.

Then, he found his old pal Natasha Romanoff, deep in the throes of her own mutant-induced vision, taking her back to the Red Room where she was trained as an assassin as a young child. All of the Avengers needed help recovering from their Mind Stone visions, but Hawkeye focused his attention on Black Widow, because she’s his best friend.

5 Hawkeye pulling his punches in Civil War’s airport battle

Hardly any MCU fans would disagree that the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War is one of the franchise’s greatest action set pieces. However, some of its moments don’t pack a real punch, because at the end of the day, the heroes on either side of the Sokovia Accords debate are friends.

There are still some moments of real impact, like the Vision accidentally shooting Rhodey out of the sky and Cap dropping a hallway on Spider-Man’s head. Hawkeye and Black Widow didn’t want to hurt each other, so they were basically sparring – and Scarlet Witch called him out for pulling his punches.

4 Assembling with the Avengers

A lot of passive fans mock Black Widow and Hawkeye, based on the assumption that a spy who can scissor-kick and a guy with a bow and arrow aren’t much use to a team with a god, a super-soldier, and a Hulk. However, they’ve proven their usefulness time and time again.

In what is possibly the MCU’s most memorable shot, the camera sweeps around the assembled Avengers team as they look up at the extraterrestrial threats they have to face in New York. Black Widow and Hawkeye are right there alongside everybody else. Relatively speaking, they might not have a lot to offer, but at least they offer it.

3 Clint’s kids calling Natasha “Aunt Nat”

It was surprising to see that Hawkeye had a family in Avengers: Age of Ultron, even if it did seem like a shallow attempt by Joss Whedon to answer criticisms that the character was boring by unwittingly making him even more boring. While the other Avengers had no idea Barton was hiding a wife and kids from them, it quickly became apparent that Romanoff was in on the secret, because the kids were calling her “Aunt Nat.”

In fact, when they arrived, Clint’s wife Laura was pregnant, and she was planning to name the baby after Nat (of course, this was before Quicksilver died).

2 “This is a long way from Budapest.”

This little call-back in Avengers: Endgame alluding to the Budapest reference from The Avengers was a fun way of reminding viewers just how much fun they’ve had with these characters over the years. But it’s also a sweet moment between Black Widow and Hawkeye. Their fabled Budapest mission was a distant memory even during the Battle of New York.

RELATED: 10 Times Hawkeye Proved He's Not As Useless As Everyone Says

It was the craziest thing that could’ve happened to them prior to their time with Earth’s mightiest heroes, fighting aliens alongside gods. Now, they’re flying to a foreign planet to collect a stone that controls the universe. They’re a long way from Budapest indeed.

1 Fighting over who would sacrifice themselves on Vormir

Although this was one of the more controversial scenes in Avengers: Endgame, it is a scene that exemplifies not only Clint and Nat’s individual heroism, but their deep love for each other. They knew that one of them would have to go over that cliff and make that sacrifice to secure the fate of half of all life in the universe.

Clint lost his family, so he was willing to give anything to ensure they’d be brought back, including his own life, but Nat simply wouldn’t let that happen. When Clint’s wife and kids came back to life, she knew he needed to be there to see them.

NEXT: 5 Reasons Why Black Widow's Sacrifice Was Justified (& 5 Why It Should've Been Hawkeye)

source https://screenrant.com/mcu-most-badass-black-widow-hawkeye-moments/

#screenrant

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doomedandstoned · 6 years ago

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A Freeform Conversation With C.T. From RWAKE

~By Shawn Gibson~

Some weeks back, Doomed & Stoned tracked down Christopher Farris Terry, frontman of the beloved Little Rock progressive sludge six-pack RWAKE to catch up on what's been happening since Rwake's last album, 'Rest' (2011) -- including the more recent project Mutants Of The Monster fest and the super-group Deadbird, which released 'III: The Forest Within the Tree' (2018) just months ago. They also compare notes on southern barbeque, tripping balls, Danzig memes, raising teenagers, and their mutual love for Guns N' Roses. Finally, we catch wind of a new Rwake record in 2020, which is exciting news indeed for the diehards among us. As usual, I'm presenting Shawn Gibson's interview in the most organic fashion possible, so you can appreciate the flow of the conversation. (Billy)

☿

C.T. how's it going, man?

I'm doing good, man. Doing good.

I'm glad we're able to do this. Thanks for your time.

No, thank you! Man, I was telling someone the other day this is all done. Anything to do for the Mutants [Of The Monster] thing is all resources. I'm not as punk as punk rockers are! (laughs) It's all DIY, you know? It’s friends helping out to do stuff. So, yeah, it means a lot, us talking like this.

Right on! That's how I feel. It's underground music for underground people by underground people. It's that nice little family, like the patchwork. Friends helping friends out! I wouldn't think you'd see it too much in other genres and styles of music. True camaraderie!

No. It's a cool little community threaded out. It's like it's our own little thing throughout the country, ya know?

Definitely! Throughout the world.

Totally, totally.

You told me you have a new project or you've got something coming up, right?

Dude, I got like 50 things going on. (laughs)

I'm sure you do! I can only imagine.

Yes, it's the Mutants [Of The Monster] show. It's coming up soon. I hate to even call it a fest, because compared to another fest in the country, it's not really that big. In Arkansas, to the underground, it's pretty big -- especially when you take a bunch of shows that usually draw fifty to a hundred people and we're getting like three hundred people at it. That's everybody you know going to those shows in these parts!

Rest by Rwake

I started listening to punk and metal in middle school in Charleston, South Carolina. We would have to really go to some hole in the wall type places to see some shows. You get people showing up and you’re glad as shit people showed!

No, real glad! About ten years ago, we did this at Downtown Music, our old venue. It's like a weekend. We did it three years in a row, mostly locals and then we would bring in a couple of out of town bands. Through the years, I started helping a friend with another thing and it stopped happening. Then it made sense to do this. Do something, because something was going to happen. I was having all these bands hitting me up. They all wanted it on a specific weekend. The first thing you think is, "Do I want to do two shows in a row?" If it's a regular show, I want everybody to come to one of them. I had to make the decision: "I'm going to do two in a row!" We're going to make this something that everyone is coming out to.

Nice!

Last year, it turned into what it did with all the good bands that were involved. Before last year was even done, we were already starting to book the bands for this year.

Gotta love that! Sometimes as the fan and audience member you might have to decide which day you’re going, if you might not be able to go to all events or days. "Man, Friday they have these guys. Saturday they have those guys!"

It's the people who have driven in. They are there for the whole shebang. The locals are the ones that they're not copped to the fact of the whole thing and they look at it like, "I want to take this night off." So you have to make something worth them taking off the entire weekend, but I'm going to save up a lot of money. (laughs)

Shit yeah, man! When you go, you got to get merch.

Everyone seems to buying the hell out of merch. Last year was a really positive show. This year, it seems like it's going to be doing the same thing.

What's the name of it?

Mutants Of The Monster, after the Black Oak Arkansas song.

Wow! They are badass.

Yeah. (laughs)

I dig those guys and they are still playing, right?

Oh, yeah.

I saw a year ago they were playing shows. Badass!

Atlantic Records paid me and I made like a webisode. It was a full documentary mixed in with Royal Albert Hall concert.

What?

They played it on VH1. I didn't get to watch it. (laughs)

Damn, man!

I was in the studio with them, like a week recording everything. It was pretty wild!

I love their music. I love Goatsnake's cover of "Hotrod."

Yeah that's a rad song!

I like in the song where they are talking about going to the show, then giving Jim Dandy a ride.

Yeah. I let my wife hear that for the first time. She was like, "Did that really happen?" Who the fuck knows? (laughs)

No telling!

In the world of Jim Dandy...

Those guys have stories for days!

Yeah, completely.

What are some other projects you have going on?

It seems like I got a lot going on, but there's not really any work going on at all. I play in Deadbird. I do samples and chords. Any of that auxiliary kind of stuff, backup vocals. We play on cool shows. (laughs) We played that Migration Fest last year. That was sick! We have a show with Phobia and EYEHATEGOD coming up that's sold out. We have some shows this summer. Even though we have a new album came out, we already got new songs in the works. It's fun.

Always have a little something on the back burner, something in the pocket.

The guys in Deadbird -- Jeff that's in Rwake, the drummer, is in Deadbird also -- we are like the new guys in the band. We are the only ones that live in like central Arkansas, like Sherwood area. Everyone else is spread out. They are the core members. It's two brothers, the Schaaf brothers on guitar on drums. Alan Short is also on guitar and vocals. They all do vocals. We always have a thread going and always sending new riffs, new ideas. Getting together with them is a lot of fun! It's not like any other band practices. It's weird. It's like a bunch of cousins getting in the room and drinking. (laughs) It's fun!

A lot of camaraderie. You guys are tight and have a very good vibe.

Everyone's working so much and we all have kids. When everyone goes out of their way to drive down, like three hours for a band practice. We make a weekend of it. We are cooking out. We’re hanging out. We don't get to do that a lot. Even though I might be putting on a lot of good shows, I don't go to all of them. I can't. Even if I do, I don't get to run into any of my old friends, ya know? It's like a new scene. It's the times. So Deadbird practices, yeah, they're the best! (laughs)

Stories for a later time. A separate interview, huh?

Totally! I'm also working on moving the [Mutants Of The Monster] fest to Hot Springs Arkansas. I've been going up there and having meetings about raising money for artists. All the venues will be in small theaters, really original shows. So yeah, I've been working on that. Even though I should be concentrating on this year's, I'm already working on next year's.

How much goes into all that? Is coordinating with venues tough? The reward is worth it, but what are the technical aspects of putting together a fest?

Technically, I have a crew of buddies. This buddy of mine, Drew, we started cooking catfish together at like nine, I think. We just got tight in a kitchen doing what we have to do, you know what I mean? Get through the weeds, to have everything come out on time. A few years later, I started booking in a local venue. It started out as a nightmare. It's come around 180 degrees and brought it to a really good spot. He was the manager at that time. When it came down to doing this last year and it was getting way too big for me to fuck with. My mind was...

...turning to mash potatoes! (laughs)

It really was! I don't even know if I reached out to Drew. He's the kind of buddy that probably reached out to me and asked: “Yo, what are you going to do? This is the situation. This is what I would do here." He started going over everything. We have a small crew of guys, two other buddies. One hardcore buddy, Jordan, who was always by the stage with Drew. Then we had a floater buddy, Corey, who would be the kind of guy who is like, "Oh, they need this?" and run to the store or run to Guitar Center if we had to type of situation. It always left Drew and Jordan managing the stage. The sound guy didn't even have to worry about any of that just because they had it down so well. When it comes to that, I don't worry about any of that stuff. I'll say this: last year we were almost an hour ahead of time with so many bands.

Damn! That's rare with shows. That's on it!

That is something that never happens! I mean nev-er! (laughs) Seven bands in a time period from like seven-to-midnight, ya now? It’s just that we were on top of our shit.

Voices of Omens by Rwake

Right on. From writing, having had a radio show, and being a fan in the audience, you get there at doors and see the first band two hours later or something. I can imagine it's a headache for musicians and promoters putting on shows.

This year, we've taken on some more. We've added a band onto the list. I think we are going to be good. The only thing I usually worry about at this point is when I wake up in the middle of the night and think, "Eight thousand dollars I got to come up with or whatever!" (laughs) I lose sleep. "How am I going to get this out?" It seems like all that has past, because once the poster is done I start getting a little more attention to eyebrows being raised. Stuff like this where you and I are talking and I'm already watching the ticket sales meet up to the guarantee. This year, there's something I've never had: sponsors.

It helps.

Dude, it helps everything.

Big time.

Man I'm incredibly grateful for that! I had a friend, Kyle he's one of the sponsors. He came to me with the idea. He's kinda like Drew, who runs the stage; it was his go-for with the sponsors, ya know? He was like, "I know people that want to back you. I know people that would back you, especially 'cause they know you can get artists here. It pushed me so hard! Knowing these people were doing this, I just wanted to get more quality stuff, ya know? I wanted to impress them as much as I could on the level I could without killing myself. (laughs)

Of course.

It's really nice! It's doing real good this year. Okay, like you said something about venues. It's such a small town, we really don't have that many venues that deal with original music, ya know? It's not like Austin Texas, where it's like seven venues on one street. They all look the same almost and you just go back and forth, ya know? Dude, if we have to change venues, they're not next door to each other. The venues have been really cool working with me. I want to do something more original. That's why I want to move to Hot Springs. It’s a fest, but it's only three hundred people max, you know what I'm saying? Compared to the festivals, at least in our country, it's not really ["huge"]. But here in Arkansas, it's a big deal for the underground. Not just Arkansas, I'd say mid-south. The whole mid-south is like the butthole of the country! (laughs)

It is! There's a lot of good music here in the south. I try to represent and music that you'd never hear on mainstream radio, especially from the south. I love this shit and been doing it many years. There's a lot of good music from the Carolinas.

Totally. It's affordable to do things in the mid-south too. The price range jumps once you get out of it. It's easier to get a venue. When I move to Hot Springs, I could send you pictures. They are in nice theaters. Technically, there's no more seats than three hundred. It looks nice. It looks amazing. It looks dramatic. You'd be like, "Wow, if I could see Cough in this room!" (laughs)

That would be badass.

When we move to Hot Springs the numbers will be the same, but the quality's going to be different. Like on a steamboat on a river. The sky's the limit as far as doing original performances. I know you heard about Sunn O))) playing in a cave!

Oh yeah! That's where it's at!

That's the kind of stuff we can pull off in Hot Springs, because the entire city is an art city and they back you. "Oh you want to play on the top of the hill that overlooks the whole city?" They back that kind of stuff. So hopefully this year is sick and we move to that.

What makes you laugh?

Most everything. I'm easily amused. I laugh at tragic stuff. (laughs) I don't mean it in like a bad way.

It's a nervous laugh. Sophomore year in high school they came in and said, "Mrs. So-and-so passed away." I had the nervous laugh come out.

Yeah it could be like, "She ruled!" or "She sucked!" (laughs) Right now my daughter has this smartass little attitude going on. We gotta nip it in the bud, but it sounds so clever. (laughs)

You try not to smile! You put your hands over your mouth when you smile.

I put my hands over my face!

You look at your wife, "Take care of this. I can't handle it right now."

Dude!

My thirteen year old son has an attitude problem right now, as well. I keep yelling at his ass! I get it.

I'm laughing easy and I need it, too, because I'm easily just as stressed! To wake up, catch a smile even if it's from an old Warrant video! It'll make my day ya know?

What's been an awkward moment in any of your bands: Rwake, Deadbird, Ash Of Cedars?

Hmm. They are there. I don't know if they could be like addressed at the moment.

Like you are on acid and you go into a grocery store and there's like six cops buying doughnuts! (laughs)

In the Rwake days, I wish it would get awkward. We always pushed it to where it was past awkward and to the point of are we going to live through this!? Are we going to jail? (laughs)

That's one of the reasons I love Rwake! You can hear how out there the music is, so I'd imagine how out there you might have been in the moment.

I wish there were awkward moments! We fought each other on tour and it never got awkward. Still raging the whole time. We never acknowledged the moment, ya know? If something is happening like we get pulled over and we're all going to jail and there's drugs all over the place. It's not awkward anymore. (laughs)

Damn, man.

It's like, "Well everything is fucked at this moment." There was this one time, maybe. We played with these punk rock kids. It was 2003 in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the band was Stab City Slit Wrist. It was two singers, female and dude, and they were just like fucking crazy crust punk, but bigger. We were all on substances at this time. (laughs) My mind was out there on stuff. This was the night I chose to break out my leather pants. (laughs) There was also like a punk GWAR kind of band that opened before us, an artsy band dressing up and did theatrical kind of stuff. My friend gives me these leather pants and I was like, "I'm going to bring em on tour!" The band was like: "Dude, you keep those put up the whole time we are on tour!" (laughs) They were like, "Do not bring that shit out!" I remember like, "This is the night!"

Get real toasted and put 'em on!

Dude, I was trippin’ like out of my mind! I already justified doing it, because I'm on a spiritual plane of existence. I was just like, "No one can touch me!" We go and we spent the night at these peoples house and I'm burning up. It's Arizona and I'm wearing leather pants ya know? Dude out of nowhere I took my shirt off and was like, "Who gives a shit ya know?" The singer of Stab City goes, "Oh, it's that kind of party!" Every dude in the audience takes their shirt off! (laughs) Rwake looks over at me like, "You fucking asshole!" (laughs) This is what Alice Cooper's original band must have felt like. It wasn't awkward to me, of course! I remember looking at Rwake. I say Rwake, I mean Brittany. Brittany looks over at me like, "You motherfucker!"

So you're like Jim Morrison out there? (laughs)

Yeah!(laughs) Leather pants, snake skin boots, no shirt.

WOO!

The after party at the house was shirts versus skins! That was semi-awkward, but not for me! We made really good friends with them.

What are some other projects you're involved with at the moment, besides Mutant Of The Monster?

I do a radio show and make compilations of all the local stuff. I play in another band, Iron Tongue, but we don't play that much either. It's like most of the stuff I do, I don't do it that much. I could say I play in a lot of bands, but it's stuff that doesn't happen that often. Rwake played last year at the Mutants fest and that was a really cool thing. It was cool to get together and play a new song -- that was really cool! Rwake, we have a whole album written, recorded basically. Not recorded to put out, but like a demo.

Wow!

You know, we have to figure out how we're going to do it as a band. Reid [Raley] is busy all the time. If he's not touring in his other bands, which they tour a lot, he is constantly on the road. He's a real busy dude! Our other guitarist, John, lives in Nashville, Tennessee or Murphysboro. So it's tough for Rwake to get it going, but it's there when we can figure it out. We've all put it on our radar for 2020.

Awesome!

We are hoping to record the full album by then, somehow. We have a full album written and more stuff. We are going to do the Black Sabbath thing.

Oh, yeah! Volume Four, Magnetic Eye. It's the redux. They did 'The Wall' -- fucking amazing record. Did you hear that one?

Yeah. ASG, Pallbearer are on it.

They did a damn good job, great covers of classic Floyd!

Yeah. We are ridiculous Zakk Wylde fans, so when we saw he was going to be on there it was like, "Oh god!" (laughs) Rwake's not a working band, like a lot of bands. We really didn't expect to get on it. Then they put us on the other one that's going to be coming out. We are going to do "The Writ," so it really seems like we have just stepped in it! (laughs) It's like the biggest song in the world. That's a no matter what, we are doing that! It is supposed to come out in 2020. As a band, that's some of the stuff I'm doing. We are talking about how are we going to record this, what is the structure going to be like? The Deadbird thread is up and constantly going. If we are not talking about new songs, we are joking about something. We had this awesome thread going on about Danzig. Jeff sent this picture of Danzig's left breast, then I put puppy dog eyes on it. Then we were also talking about Danzig's cover of "N.I.B." sounds like he's saying, "Your loaf of meat."

(Both of us try our best Danzig impressions)

I saw something that said Danzig will cover Elvis tunes. That made me spit my beer out! I also imagine him wearing the white suit with the cape.

He's takin' it so over the edge there. He was born for this!

Is he going to wear the suit or what?

Oh, wow! Probably black leather, ya know? That's what he did. Remember the Misfits video, where it's just them on stage. There's a pyramid. That, to me, when I see that, is like you just ripped off Elvis' live video. That's how his concert was on stage like that. Small band and he's sitting in a chair with a guitar. He wore the black leather suit. I think it was Elvis '69 or something I saw what he was doing. I appreciated it, I push for it. Danzig you go, girl! (laughs) Just do it! Feel good about yourself! Don't hurt nobody!

Don't practice your Jeet Kune Do on anybody!

Practice on the stage in front of us while we're down on the floor watching you. (laughs) Shit, I'll pay extra for that!

Hell Is A Door To The Sun (Reissue) by Rwake

I like to ask folks in southern states if they have good barbeque where they are from. How's it fare in Arkansas?

There is this place that is growing called Whole Hog, which originated here. When you walk in there, there's trophies out the ass. They're sauces mostly. There is a place right down the road called Pig and Stick. It's the fucking bomb! There's a place that's been open since the seventies, in Levy, called Mick's BBQ. It's ran out of this small little room. The smokers in the back are bigger than where you'd eat. That's where I learned to cook barbeque when I was a kid. He opened up a restaurant and it didn't last long so he just went back to his original place and he's still open. That's where I learned to put it on, to spin it, how long that kind of stuff. There are multiple places here. You can tell that about them when you show up to these places in a small town. When you look at the back in the smoking room and you think: "Jesus, this place has been up since the '20s!" (laughs)

Some of the best places I have gotten barbeque from looked like sheds or shacks. There are several like that in Savannah.

They are not winning the awards, but...

...they have some badass barbeque.

Yes, they do! Yes they do. We have good catfish places here, too.

Nice! I love catfish.

You want to find a place that makes their own hushpuppies -- that batter their own shit up. Those are the places. Grandpa's Catfish has been around awhile. That's where Drew and I worked together. I worked there almost ten years. They were ran out of the house. They were there since the early '70s. The house was falling down and they had to move into a restaurant. When they were in the house they were famous, because right when you came to the table you got this bowl of peanuts to crack and eat. What was so cool is they didn't care if you dropped your shells on the floor. So every time anyone would walk across the floor, you'd here crunch, crunch, crunch of peanut shells. As a seven or eight year old kid, "I want to go to Grandpa's!" and throw peanut shells on the floor! When they moved into an actual place is when they're like, "You can't do that!" It's not legal to do this. We're like, "Okay." They make the best hush puppies I've ever had. Even working there and I was making it, I still couldn't understand the magic. I never got sick of it. There's a magic in hushpuppies!

What's some damn good books you've read?

I recently finished the Slash novel, his autobiography. I'm about to start the Duff book.

Duff's awesome! Love his attitude. He's always smiling.

He did a show of his book and I kind of didn't like it. This is kind of weird man. I read excerpts from the book and I know it's awesome. Have you read this book at all? Slash book?

No, not yet.

It's incredible! His mother was David Bowie's stylist, like made all of his outfits. She actually started dating him and going on tour. The Ziggy Stardust outfits and everything after that was designed by Slash's mom.

Wow!

He was heavy into BMX as a teenager. Dude, the Guns N' Roses stories are mind blowing! Just the shit on Axl! (laughs) I have all the KISS books. The only one that seems halfway honest is Ace's book. The other ones seem like they are talking a lot of shit. You don't know if it's made up or what, ya know? Slash's is all real. You can tell. The stories are so precise. The first time he met Izzy [Stradlin], Slash drew a picture of Joe Perry in a high school notebook at a party and he left it there at the party and left. While he was working at Tower Records, Izzy showed up and was like, "Did you draw this?" Slash was like, "Yeah," and Izzy was like, "Cool." (both laugh)

Dude, all the way down to the heroine stories are mind blowing! They opened up for Alice Cooper in a coliseum in LA. The whole band is there but Slash left to go find heroine. He was gone for two days up until that show. They couldn't find him! All the way up until a minute before the concert he was like "I didn't have a guitar around my neck." At that time he didn't even have a fucking guitar! He pawned all his shit! While he was recording Appetite For Destruction, the only guitar he had was that red Mockingbird. It was getting pawned, getting out, getting pawned, getting out. He never had Les Pauls. The Les Paul that he recorded that album with, there's two made in the entire world and they are mocks, they're rip offs. They are not Les Pauls. That's what he recorded that album with. There was one other one, "Oh, I borrowed this from a friend." So he shows up for the show. He walks past security through the back, where only a band would or someone working would walk through. Until he found his way through, he kept telling everyone that he's playing tonight, "where's Guns N' Roses?" He said everyone was pissed off and didn't want to talk to him. He said to that day every time they would play with Alice Cooper, Alice would look at Axle and ask, "Where is your guitar player?" even if Slash was standing right there.

Damn!

It's funny, because Slash has recorded songs with Alice. His last two albums he's played on with Alice. That's just a story to come up with the tone of the recording for Appetite For Destruction and him trying to find that tone for the rest of his life. (laughs) Dude he was like "we were in this shitty little room with a rented head." He rented this Marshall head. The company would not sell it to him. He rented it for the next two years and would not return it. They were like, "You got to fucking return this!" He returned it and re rented it. All during the process they were looking for producers during the Appetite for Destruction. It was a two-year lull before they actually went in and recorded the album. That's the whole reason Live Like A Suicide came out. None of that is live. It's all demos they recorded in one day getting ready to sound check for Appetite for Destruction. They threw a live track over it like people were there and they called it that.

So they are looking for producers and all that crap. Paul Stanley reaches out to them because he is looking for bands or whatever. He's heard of Guns N' Roses. They set up a show. Slash says, "Dude, there's this one bar we would play." It was the seediest bar in LA. No one knows the name, because it was never popular and it was where their fans would go, where the dope fiends would go. It was dark, dungeon-like place. "Our best shows have been there." He said he tried to kick heroin two days prior to this. He is drinking a lot of whiskey to try to make up for it. He also mentions his guitar tech, who still works with him 'till this day, was his first night working for Slash. This was a year-and-a-half before Appetite for Destruction was ever released. They are signed, they have money behind them. Slash said he's going behind the amp and throwing up the entire night. He's coming off heroin, but constantly drinking whiskey. Those were his two things: whiskey and heroin. He did coke, but he didn't make it sound like it's a big deal. (laughs)

He said the backstage of this venue was a slender concrete hallway that went to this backdoor to an alley. So he said they played that show and Paul was like, "That was interesting." A few months later, they do an interview for Billboard, because Appetite for Destruction is coming out. Slash still doesn't have any guitars yet. They are talking about doing some shows and they make fun of KISS in the interview. They are about to go on their first major tour. Slash loves B.C. Rich. That is his guitar all the way up until he got labeled a Les Paul, dude. Slash calls Paul Stanley, three months after bashing KISS in the Billboard interview, "Paul, you have an endorsement with B.C. Rich, I'm really struggling for a guitar right now. Is there any way you could help me out?" Paul was like, "I can help ya out, but I'm not gonna!" (laughs)

Damn it, man!

He was like, "You should watch what you say in interviews!" Slash said he realizes what he said. They were at the KISS honors and Slash walked up to Paul that night and apologized to him. Slash was going on about how sorry he was and he's not that guy anymore. Paul told him to shut up, because they were on live TV. "Who gives a shit about that stuff, man?" (laughs) Slash said "Okay, I just had to apologize." One last one and you won't have to read the book! (laughs)

Sure.

In that Appetite For Destruction lull, Slash became best friends with Dave Mustaine.

Oh, wow.

This was right before So Far, So Good, So What? came out and he had already written most of the songs. Slash was not doing heroin at the time. He got on this huge crack kick with Dave Mustaine.

What the fuck? (laughs)

They are smoking it like crazy! (laughs) They are both B.C. Rich dudes, ya know?

That's hilarious.

He said he would go to Dave's house and smoke crack and play guitar. Dave would play all of the So Far, So Good, So What? stuff. Dave Mustaine told Slash that he wanted Slash in Megadeth. Slash had to make the decision: Guns N' Roses or Megadeth. This is when you're signed to a major label, but you don't have a producer. You have this, but you don't have that, ya know? Do I join Megadeth or stay with my band that's trying to do this? He finally had to say, "I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do it." That's crazy, ya know? Think about So Far, So Good, So What? with Slash playing guitar on it!

That blows my mind thinking about it.

Slash gives Dave Mustaine a lot of credit to this day. "He may be a better guitar player than me." Slash was showing up everyday smokin' Dave's shit and keeping up until he made me that guy. Ok, I'll be done. There's thousands! There's so many cool Duff stories. It makes me want to dive right into the Duff book.

Xenoglossalgia: The Last Stage of Awareness by Rwake

That's what people want. I want to know what makes these guys tick. What do you do when you’re not on tour, recording, or writing? I love that shit. I love finding out what we have in common.

It's cool to find out why it took three fucking years to record Use Your Illusion. It's wild hearing those stories alone. I'm trying to think, Slash might have been twenty-two or twenty-three. It's crazy! You know that Guns N' Roses Ritz show?

I believe so.

The classic Live At The Ritz show. It was on MTV. They sound like shit. (laughs) That was a fluke. Guns N' Roses shared a manager with Great White. Great White was supposed to play that. Slash would talk about the manager pushing Great White on Guns and Roses and mentioned touring. Slash said, "Stop pushing Great White on us, dude!"

(both laugh)

Great White was supposed to play that MTV performance and they pulled out for whatever reason. The manager was like, "Guns N' Roses, you gotta do this!" They got on the road and went straight to New York to play that show. I was in seventh grade when I watched that motherfucker. It’s the one where they played "Knocking On Heavens Door" for the first time. Appetite for Destruction was out three or four months and "Sweet Child of Mine" wasn't even a single yet. Dude, Axl's wearing a Thin Lizzy t-shirt, the snap on leather biker hat. Slash is so not on, that it is on! Duff McKagan is the entire band! The come on with "It's So Easy" and you're like, "Where is that second vocal coming from?" It's carrying the entire song, and it's Duff.

Duff's the man!

They come out like a goddamn missile at that show! It's insane! My seventh grade mind could have had to watch Great White that night! (laughs)

You would have taken a different path.

I like Great White, don't get me wrong. I think the whole world would have taken a different path if it wasn't the Guns N' Roses show at the Ritz.

You can appreciate hard rock and punk edge that early Guns N' Roses had. Now you might find Guns N' Roses t shirts at Walmart. Now they're a classic rock band with the likes of AC/DC, Metallica, and so on. When you see GnR playing Moscow, Monsters of Rock tour, and there are millions of people there! It looked like Woodstock!

Man, that Slash book is so good about details. They talk about Use Your Illusion tours how they had two keyboard players, six back-up players, saxophonists. There is a point where he is like, "With all these musicians really we are a stripped down band again." I took breaks from the book to watch YouTube videos of these performances and Slash was right. The music was stripped down. The part in the book where Slash talks about touring with Aerosmith! Somebody videotaped it from the crowd. Dude, it's so awesome where GnR introduces "Patience" to the crowd for the first time! It's there! Fuck this is so awesome! [Aerosmith] are coming on stage, blown! I'd hate to be Aerosmith having to follow that.

Have you seen Walk Hard?

Oh yeah!

Where Dewey Cox has to follow Elvis and he says, "Mr. Elvis, that a hard act to follow!"

Yeah! It's a good time. I wouldn't trust the Axl book if it ever came out. Steven Adler, just 'cause of his health, I don't know where he's at with writing. The stories that were told about him in that book were incredible. He was the hottest dude in the band. Chicks went to the shows to see Steven Adler. They were like nobody wants to fuck us! (laughs) Slash told a story about going to these parks where people would play basketball or whatever and they were open all night long. If you wanted to get a basketball game at 3AM, you could. He said Steven would take his entire drum set and set it up at like midnight and would play for three hours. He said it was wild pulling up on Steven and he's playing solos in LA, ya know? I would love to hear his story.

The first two Guns N' Roses shows were Tracii Guns from LA Guns It was Tracii, Izzy, Axle, a different bass player and Steven. Duff and Slash were the new editions to Guns N' Roses. Axl Rose originally sang in LA Guns. They broke up LA Guns to start a new fresh band called Guns N' Roses. It was members of Hollywood Rose, I knew that before reading the book and then members of LA Guns. I just never knew the particulars. They played two shows and had a blowout fight at the second one where Tracii quit and went back to LA Guns. Axl was like fuck it, we'll fill their positions. Slash tried out for G'n'R for a while. Axl wanted Slash, and Izzy is a standoffish dude, so Izzy came to band practice one day and walked out. He was like, "You didn't tell me this dude was showing up." Axl yelled at Izzy, "This is Slash! I want him to be in the band!"

Izzy had just as much pull as Axl at the time, because he was such a weird avant artist. He'd be like, "You jam with him. I'm out of here." He had already done the "Did you draw this picture?" two years before that. (laughs) Slash remembers the first time and what he had to do to get with Izzy, to be on his side. Slash had to get on Izzy's good side to get in that band. I love KISS, but they have no stories like that. It's probably the most anti-rock and roll stories. Gene got really gross and personal with all his sex stories. I mean, which could be the most lewd shit that would stand up to drug taking (laughs) or just being a weird stand up artist, ya know? Which I -- sure, 'cause Izzy was on heroin, too. Duff wasn't like them. They all dabbled in the stuff, but not even Axl. He wasn't like that. The heroin dudes were Izzy and Slash. From what I get from it, is that Slash probably got in with Izzy that way, being heroin buddies. That's exactly what it is.

Crazy shit.

It's such a good book. It is real rock and roll. It's like shit Rwake would have done really early on. (laughs) "Well, I guess we are all going to walk back home from Jackson Tennessee together and leave all our gear on the side of the road. Well, we really didn't think about it. It's a van, it ran to the gas station when we filled it up with gas. We thought it would have made it to Nashville!" (laughs) I see those connections.

Truly living in the moment.

Yeah, yeah. Fun times!

Is there anything else you want to push or plug?

No, I think I sold Slash's autobiography pretty good! (laughs)

I liked hearing that. I'll have to check those books out.

It's hard to pull yourself away from it. I really want to plug the Mutants Of The Monster coming up. The THOU set is going to be amazing!

Goddamn, yeah!

There are going to be sets throughout the entire weekend that I'm not supposed to talk about. -(16)- is flying in just for this!

Nice!

Fingers crossed that a lot of these bands will do second sets.

Anytime you got something going on let me know and I'll gladly share and promote it.

Thank you! Hell ya dude! Hopefully we will have some Rwake out some time soon.

Sweet!

Cool! It means a lot Shawn! Thank you, dude!

Right on! Thank you!

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laniakeabooks · 6 years ago

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February Wrap-Up

I technically read 12 books this month, four of which were novellas, and since said novellas have been compiled into one collection I’ll count all four of them as one (even though I did read them all individually). So, that said, I read 8 books this month!

Gasp by Lisa McMann - ⭐⭐⭐

After narrowly surviving two harrowing tragedies, Jules now fully understands the importance of the visions that she and people around her are experiencing. She’s convinced that if the visions passed from her to Sawyer after she saved him, then they must now have passed from Sawyer to one of the people he saved.

That means it’s up to Jules to figure out which of the school shooting survivors is now suffering from visions of another crisis. And once she realizes who it is, she has to convince that survivor that this isn't all crazy—that the images are of something real. Something imminent.

As the danger escalates more than ever before in the conclusion to the Visions series, Jules wonders if she'll finally find out why and how this is happening—before it's too late to prevent disaster.

Good conclusion to the Visions series. I really didn’t like how Jules was so hell-bent on saving perfect strangers but then essentially hated her dad for being mentally ill (namely depressed). If anything, it was her dad who needed saving the most, and unfortunately, she didn’t make the character arc to that realization.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver – ⭐⭐⭐

In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?

I remember DNFing this book a few years ago, but it was mostly because I wasn’t into reading as much back then. But I finally got to this OG YA book and finally understand the hype that surrounded it back in the times of The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. This is a much less gruesome dystopia, but a scary concept non the less. I can’t imagine not being allowed to love my family or my friends.

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr - ⭐⭐⭐

Seventeen-year-old Flora Banks has no short-term memory. Her mind resets itself several times a day, and has since the age of ten, when the tumor that was removed from Flora’s brain took with it her ability to make new memories. That is, until she kisses Drake, her best friend’s boyfriend, the night before he leaves town. Miraculously, this one memory breaks through Flora’s fractured mind, and sticks. Flora is convinced that Drake is responsible for restoring her memory and making her whole again. So when an encouraging email from Drake suggests she meet him on the other side of the world, Flora knows with certainty that this is the first step toward reclaiming her life.

With little more than the words “be brave” inked into her skin, and written reminders of who she is and why her memory is so limited, Flora sets off on an impossible journey to Svalbard, Norway—the land of the midnight sun—determined to find Drake. But from the moment she arrives in the Arctic, nothing is quite as it seems, and Flora must “be brave” if she is ever to learn the truth about herself, and to make it safely home.

I... what...? This book went in so many different directions very quickly. I don't know of I like how it went, but it did evoke some emotions which is a sign that the book did something right, especially since I rarely get emotional over books.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver - ⭐⭐⭐

The old life is dead. But the old Lena is dead too. I buried her. I left her beyond a fence, behind a wall of smoke and ﬂame. In this electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller Delirium, Lauren Oliver sets Lena on a dangerous course that hurtles through the unregulated Wilds and into the heart of a growing resistance movement. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

I decided I’m just going to marathon this entire series, novellas included, and I’ll just write a review on the entire series as opposed to writing a little blurb for every book.

Annabel by Lauren Oliver – ⭐⭐⭐

Lena Halloway's mother, Annabel, supposedly committed suicide when Lena was only six years old. That's the lie that Lena grew up believing, but the truth is very different. As a rebellious teenager, Annabel ran away from home and straight into the man she knew she was destined to marry. The world was different then—the regulations not as stringent, the cure only a decade old. Fast forward to the present, and Annabel is consigned to a dirty prison cell, where she nurtures her hope of escape and scratches one word over and over into the walls: Love.

But Annabel, like Lena, is a fighter. Through chapters that alternate between her past and present, Annabel reveals the story behind her failed cures, her marriage, the births of her children, her imprisonment, and, ultimately, her daring escape.

“Delirium book 0.5”, I will include my thoughts on this novella in my series wrap up.

Alex by Lauren Oliver - ⭐⭐⭐

When Alex sacrificed himself to save Lena, he thought he was committing himself to certain death, but what he got was almost worse. Imprisoned and tortured by the guards, his mind forces him to relive a past he would rather forget. But in the dark he grows stronger. Both hopeful and terrified, he fights to find his way back to her and the love he still clings to.

In this digital story that will appeal to fans of Delirium and welcome new admirers to its world, readers will learn of Alex's time after the events of Delirium, as well as the dark past that he has tried to forget.

“Delirium book 1.1”, I will include my thoughts on this novella in my series wrap up.

Hana by Lauren Oliver - ⭐⭐⭐

The summer before they're supposed to be cured of the ability to love, best friends Lena and Hana begin to drift apart. While Lena shies away from underground music and parties with boys, Hana jumps at her last chance to experience the forbidden. For her, the summer is full of wild music, dancing—and even her first kiss.

But on the surface, Hana must be a model of perfect behavior. She meets her approved match, Fred Hargrove, and glimpses the safe, comfortable life she’ll have with him once they marry. As the date for her cure draws ever closer, Hana desperately misses Lena, wonders how it feels to truly be in love, and is simultaneously terrified of rebelling and of falling into line.

“Delirium Book 1.5”, I will include my thoughts on this novella in my series wrap up.

Raven by Lauren Oliver - ⭐⭐⭐

As a teenager, Raven made the split-second decision to flee across the border to the Wilds, compelled to save an abandoned newborn—a baby girl left for dead and already blue from the cold. When she and the baby are taken in by a band of rebels, Raven finds herself an outsider within a tight-knit group. The only other newcomer is an untrustworthy boy known as the Thief until he finally earns himself a new name: Tack.

Now she and Tack are inseparable, committed to each other, the fledgling rebellion, and a future together. But as they both take center stage in the fight, Raven must decide whether the dangers of the revolution are worth risking her dreams of a peaceful life with Tack.

As her story hurtles back and forth between past and present, Raven transforms from a scared girl newly arrived in the Wilds to the tough leader who helps Lena save former Deliria-Free poster boy Julian Fineman from a death sentence. Whatever the original mission may have been, Raven abides by a conviction that she believes to her core: You always return for the people you love.

“Delirium Book 2.5”, I will include my thoughts on this novella in my series wrap up.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver - ⭐⭐⭐

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight. After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from the perspectives of both Lena and her friend Hana. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

I’ll really get into it in my series review but, wHAT KIND OF A FUCKING ENDING WAS THAT???

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender - ⭐⭐⭐

Colette Iselin is excited to go to Paris on a class trip. She’ll get to soak up the beauty and culture, and maybe even learn something about her family’s French roots.

But gruesome murders are taking place across the city, putting everyone on edge. And Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks suspiciously like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her popular, status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they uncover a shocking secret involving a dark, hidden history. When Colette realizes she herself may hold the key to the mystery, her own life is in danger…

I read these books purely for shits and giggles, and I think if you go into this expecting just that, you won’t be disappointed.

Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered in the jewel-studded palace that was his prison and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late.

Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price—Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster.

With only their relentless hunt for a violent, intelligent killer to unite them, Jason and Mahiya embark on a quest that leads to a centuries-old nightmare… and to the dark storm of an unexpected passion that threatens to drench them both in blood.

I just love this whole series. I was missing my fave Illium but you know what, this book gave me a whole new appreciation for Jason. Also, I discovered I love Mahiya so yeah, all in all, me happy!

Number of books read: 8

Number of pages read: 2647 Average rating: 3.2

Favourite book this month: Archangel’s Storm. As I said, I adore this series and will continue on with the… billions of other books Nalini pumps out.

Least favourite book this mouth: Requiem. I was just so disappointed in the end to that entire series…

See a book you’d like a review for in depth? Let me know!

Keep up with me on Goodreads! (https://www.goodreads.com/LaniakeaBooks)

#books #book #booklr #bookstagram #ya books #young adult #young adult lit #goodreads

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