#like all you needed to do was hit us with a 'the people repurposed the parts'

[unironicallycringe]

Zelda lore when they make a new game in a further spot on the timeline or different place: "don't worry about the weirdness" yep that's fine ✅

Zelda lore when they make a new game <10 years out from the original and in the same exact place: "don't worry about the weirdness" no shut up ❌

That's actually super annoying - using the same explanation is no longer in the realms of "suspension of disbelief", now it's an excuse used to justify lazy storytelling. I enjoy the game, but this is why I ignore the story for the most part. It's just lazy. It's the type of fanfiction for a sequel that remains a simple daydream. Totally fine for fanfiction sequel, not for a 70 dollar game.

If they wanted to stay in the same place without explaining certain things, they needed to change the timeline wildly. If both Zelda and Link went to the past - there you go. You may now delete the Sheikah tech and no one will be bothered. Anything you want to retcon can be explained via "the history was inaccurate for reasons". Adjust some factions to match the time. *Done.

*I'm not rewriting the whole game in a Tumblr post I know this would require more changes

what if i explode into a million pieces out of sheer anger

[something-about-sunflowers]

ALRIGHT, *cracks knuckles* let's get into that teaser, shall we?

Should I itemize this? I think I'm going to itemize it lmao.

So:

Starting here because this is a baseline for Stede, he's got no neckerchief here. This is likely early in the season, probably the very start.

Man's got a fuckin' ARM.

This is Ed. You can see the bare right arm in both shots.

Red neckerchief. Ed's scrap of silk? Beat to shit if it is, which, he did toss it out to sea so, it would be.

Ed's not wearing the knee brace. Or gloves for that matter. I know the knee brace being an actual mobility aid is unconfirmed canon/fanon but it does make me :(c to see him without it. Either it wasn't actually considered as a mobility aid or he's lost it like he's lost his gloves OR he's going without it because he doesn't care if it hurts.

Closer shot of the neckerchief.

I just wanted to point out all the knives stabbed into the table. Also, those look like bits of paper on the windows, did they keep some of the books to repurpose for window blocking purposes?

THERE HE IS!!!!!!!! Other people have already pointed out the makeup and his ring still on his tie, along with the whip on his hip cjizzy real. He's got a new baldric but I also think his clothes look. Darker? Than in season 1? This is a darker/heavier contrast setting but it carries into other shots of him too I think? Like they're less sun/saltwater faded or something?

Other thing to note: If I have my orientation right, this is to the right of Stede's bed nook and to the left of the library, which means this shelf is the one with the auxiliary wardrobe opening mechanism. Which I bring up because:

This little guy seems to be in the place of the mannequin. Ed kept the auxiliary wardrobe and gothed up the mannequin to justify it still being there.

SO much here. This is, I'm fairly certain, Benjamin Hornigold. This camp he's set up (along with what he's wearing) looks like it was made out of a shipwreck. Ed's barefoot and missing his jacket and gloves, and his shirt's torn up at the sleeves. Definitely where he washed up from his dip in the ocean.

Note the trees and the lighting, that comes up later. Ed shoots here and Ben moves with the shot but it doesn't look like he was actually HIT by it to my eyes.

'Wanted. |Blackbeard| Villainous Pirate. Murderer, thrice over. $400 Reward for the criminal responsible for: theft - brigandry - larceny - arson - tax evasion ➡' Presumably there are more crimes/info on the back, though we see the reverse side in the next cut and it's either blank or all in very small text, I couldn't quite tell.

The poster to the right says 'Port' something which has me wondering Port Royal but that's just the only 'Port' something I know, could def be somewhere else.

(Also, just for fun:

Here's how much abouts Ed's capture would be worth now.)

Wider pic than it needs to be but I didn't wanna cut out Olu lol. ANYWAY. Neckerchief again. Also the back of the poster, see what I mean about it either being blank or very tiny?

Babygirl. . . But also that Bride Ed figure kinda slays. Little bralette with the midriff showing, I see you Babygirl. When will he be allowed to just rest and do silly little crafts WITHOUT heartbreak looming over him?

Well. Four is not nine. So. There's that. The other five could be used or out of frame though, of course.

OH. He's back to his fingerless gloves! They might actually be different from his original ones though, they look different at the wrist to me, not quite sure though.

The BOYS!!!! Frenchie looks like he's having a GREAT time. Considering he suggested they turn the hostage into a table and complained about the Republic of Pirates being a bit gentrified I'd say this is more in line with what he's used to in piracy. I 100% buy he was going along with Stede's way because he knew it was an easy ride compared to real piracy. This wouldn't necessarily be a return to form for him but definitely something he's more used to? And he gets to be kitty :3c

And FANG!!! Look at him showing a bit more skin!! Good for him!!

Everybody say 'Thank You David Jenkins'. Right now. Look at this Mad Max shit. Fuckin' Imperator Jimenez right there. LOVE that tye added the 'beard' after the 'fuck's wrong with your face?' bit in 1x10. Full 'it looked weird on you but I slay' energy.

Jim

Izzy

Fang

Near as I can tell at least. I can't make out if Frenchie is in the shot and I'm pretty positive Ed isn't cause he stayed by the cake when they charged in.

Man, yknow I know we were all kinda clowning on it a bit at the end of 1x10 but this look really is so JARRING. Like, in the dark it's menacing but in the light? It's unhinged and that reads as more dangerous imo.

Also just for comparison's sake the pre-Ed-ified version of the bride figure. He really did full on customize that thing lol.

I DON'T THINK ANNE KISSED STEDE HERE. It feels out of character of the show to pull the 'It's fine if a woman does it to a man' kind of thing with regard to unwanted kissing. This is the frame the scene starts on in the trailer. She's leaning back from him and isn't nearly close enough to his mouth to say for certain that's where she was coming from. My money is on her leaning in to whisper something into his ear, maybe under the guise of it being an advance/intended kiss, which would also explain the annoyed look when she's interrupted. She either got ACTUALLY interrupted or it's part of the act. Stede doesn't look nearly as uncomfortable as he would be if she'd kissed him or tried to, he looks confused.

Izzy going for his sword when this guy tries to get the drop on Stede. He either is starting to care or he knows how much Ed needs him alive.

Also, this is the other potential source of Stede's neckerchief. Mr, Knife right here has a red one and Stede doesn't have it in this scene. I do think this one is a little less distressed than the one Stede has though so it could just be coincidence.

See? No neckerchief. He DOES have a sword at his hip tho! So this, I think, is after Izzy's started training him.

Also, he actually looks really good in red lol.

Baby. He's definitely missing the ring in this shot. It sits higher than the baldric is covering. I want to give him a little kissie on his ouchie and then let him have a nap, he needs that.

The pants match the coat. Also, black shirt. Stede is kinda slaying ngl.

Still missing her head :(c. Isn't that bad luck?

Maybe yall didn't hear me properly with the Jim pic. I'll repeat:

EVERYBODY SAY 'THANK YOU DAVID JENKINS'.

I can't get over how Stede's just standing there politely with his arms behind his back lmfao.

Also, Izzy's got his right leg up, he's putting his weight on his left. . . 'foot'.

I SAID EVERYBODY SAY-

I know tits and all but also. The belly. I would like to. Bite.

*ahem*

ANYWAY. On the left (our left) side of the barrel you can see the tip of his right boot so he's def got that leg off the ground. Perhaps someone is trying to relearn their footwork? Now that they've got a different balance than they're used to? And perhaps a difference in sensory input in the leg he's standing on? Possibly?

This is the same beach Ed was on when he did the fuckin' RAD takedown of the other officer but it definitely looks like different times of day. Having both in the teaser is def meant to be a red herring. He doesn't have the neckerchief in this shot either.

Bra för honom. (Is how google translate tells me you say 'Good for him' in Swedish.)

Is Jackie's hair the same here as it is in the VF pic with Ed? Or like, similar enough to be a 'later in the day after some Fun™ messing it up a bit'?

Roach!!! Fully sleeveless now, added a belt, got some flowers tied to the strings/straps of his apron. Looks like he's having fun lighting that cannon lol. Pretty sure this is the same scene as that one leaked photo of him dancing with Fang and Izzy's green screen sock. He had the flowers in that, right?

[Ran out of allowed images, please hold]

[grimesgirll]

like your weapons trainings or conditioning, getting to rick’s place for bedtime had become a nightly duty.

and okafor stressed the importance of being on time to you. after all, he needed his best soldier bright eyed and bushy tailed in the mornings.

you had to have your ass in rick’s bed by the time he was ready to hit the hay. it didn’t matter if he was planning on fucking you that night or just enjoying having another warm body around. okafor had clocked that you somehow increased the average hours of sleep rick gained each night and assigned you to a semi-permanent sleepover.

you watch from your elbows as the handsome man in front of you brushes his teeth.

this isn’t the first time okafor’s utilized your “girlish charm” or whatever the fuck he sees in you to get what he wants.

this is the farthest he’s ever asked you to go however. it was always innocent before; distracting important people, taking advantage of certain perversions to finish the mission. you shouldn’t complain. okafor did get you the job of your dreams, all things considered.

where else could you spend hours designing maps, establishing operation routes, and do it all with the help of formerly world renowned military engineers and some of the most advanced technology still left on the planet?

besides, the lieutenant colonel had kept his word; there isn’t a thing you want for at the moment. aside from the occasional homesickness which was gradually dulling into a numb, nearly nonexistent feeling, you didn’t yearn for much - only rick.

so now you spend your days in your new state of the art geospatial mapping studio and on your rare but highly anticipated surveying trips. okafor had reviewed your past surveying maps of the delaware valley with general beale and other senior staff - including rick - and your work proved fruitful enough to allow you a small team to continue surveying operations under the umbrella of logistics.

in all reality, okafor’s rewarding you handsomely.

and so is rick.

his southern drawl breaks you from your staring.

“huh?” utterly oblivious, you fall under his deep blue gaze.

“i asked you if i can turn the lights off." he repeats, fingers hovering over the light switch.

you nod. "yeah, i'm ready for bed."

the bed dips with rick's weight and like routine, you're drawn into his crushing embrace. rick liked to cuddle before bed. you don’t ask but there has to have been some wife or some woman somewhere who used to be in your position.

the soldier is stoic and stands on business, but that sour expression had begun to soften since you’d first seduced him on his sofa. little bits and pieces of a southern, east coast kind of background popped up through the twang of rick’s accent. anyone with a history with law enforcement instantly picked up on his past as a cop. you’d playfully asked if he had to cuff anyone before and just received a dim smile that started to sour until you threw yourself into his lap and cast away whatever storm clouds you’d brought on with kisses.

he’ll never outright tell you why he sleeps better with you or how he slept before he was even a consignee, but you don’t mind. the cozy embrace really gets you conked out every night, without fail. his dick does too.

that’s how you end up backing against him and tempting the hard outline that never seemed to disappear due to his size.

rick chuckles behind you but doesn’t move, just pulls you closer. "good night." he says with a kiss to the back of your head.

"night," you return, like you’re not jutting your ass backwards into him.

you’re shocked that he hasn’t said anything. rick doesn’t always take your touch so lightly. he’d punished you for teasing him in front of some of the air fleet’s officers by fingering you until you were begging to come in the repurposed law library next door just the other day.

the man only speaks up once your tight ass is rounding indisputable, deep circles against his groin. you couldn’t be anymore obvious with the gasp that flies out of you like a kite as soon as rick’s newly throbbing length twitches through his sleep pants.

“honey.”

“please, rick!” you pull out the begging already, having expected you would be fucked silly tonight.

“tonight’s not the night, darlin’.”

needy and craving the man beside you, your knees squirm. it’s only when you’re lightly kicking rick that he pays you any mind; your legs are shut closed by the force of his human hand and the prosthetic digging into your soft flesh.

the look he gives you is lacking patience. “now, what’re you doin’?”

“i need you tonight, rick,” you state plainly.

he scoffs and lets go of your thighs. “c’mon, honey, why don’t you just lay down and get a good night’s rest?” the gears are turning in your head and you’re lifting your legs and shifting between his legs before he can even try to draw you back to your pillow. he croaks your name when you start pawing at the drawstring of his pants. “honey, you need to-,”

“you need this,” you insist.

you’re not giving him enough time to complain with his sensitive head already on your tongue. rick curses his traitorous groans, and himself when he does nothing to fight against the firm hand you're utilizing to usher him onto his back.

"so, you want to relax?" he manages, despite the shudder inducing way in which fully go for it and swallow around him. midway down your throat, a light thrust and a near gag from you is all he needs to know your answer.

rick can only lean back and take what you give him. he's pretty sure that you're going to have him coming in your mouth but before he knows it, you’re face to face again. there’s no reason to be disappointed by the firm hold you still have on him with your hand. a few more sluggish licks and you’re readjusting, straddling him to tease his tip with the slick of your entrance.

"what about you?" rick’s rasping, not yet prepared after you removed him from your sweet mouth.

"what if i told you i came here ready?"

the statement has his cock jumping. you swivel slightly, clit bumping his own sensitive slippery skin. spit strewn, his head falls back at the feeling of his dick dipped into your engulfing heat - even half an inch.

“you sure, honey?”

“mhmm,” you confirm with a kiss and a grind onto him.

“really wanted it, didn’t you, darlin’?”

your confirmation comes out as a whimper. "i just wanna be full before bed. i wanna be full of you rick," and once those words leave your mouth, rick is decided and sending you from your knees to your back. he could never say no to those watery eyes.

a courtesy finger and some intricately placed kisses on your knees, thighs, and clit have you straining upwards. you're not burning for long because rick is ready to indulge you just as you wished tonight. without warning - not that you were wanting it tonight - rick fit himself as far inside your thick muscle as he could on the first thrust.

the stretch is familiar but striking enough for you to nearly double over onto him. you won’t fold in the face of your reward - at least not yet. determined to hold on, you plant two hands on the older man’s chest as you sink onto his thick length. his groans and your steady breaths are enough to lower yourself, and even fuck yourself you and down on him.

"thank you for fucking me tonight, rick." you cry through swollen lips and damp lashes. "i really need you to fall asleep," you confess in a tone no higher than a hushed hiss.

you don't know if you're expecting an answer but the quickened pace is to be expected. without a doubt, the man is sinking deeper inside of you as he forces his hips flush to yours.

"does this satisfy being full enough to fall asleep?"

the jolt he’s sending through your abdomen with each maddening plunge into you, has you fluttering around him.

“rick!”

you wake up with a hand on your ass and a breath behind you in your hair. it doesn’t last though. rick is gone before you know it and you’re left aching, craving him. you get him out of your system with your early morning physical training - pt - and a meal with your favorite fellow soldiers.

you’re not expecting to see rick again soon.

the office facing the arboretum and the airfield is typically a still place, plagued by the constant thrum of the planes and helicopters, yes, but those who worked in the building had grown accustomed to the white noise. you're so grateful everyone in your division is out at lunch when rick slams the thick wooden door open.

stirred from your half drafted map of the midwest, your head surges up. you don't have time to open your mouth before rick is talking at you in his sergeant's voice.

“there are ten minutes until i need to be down at the helicopter hanger. you need to get me off in eight.”

stunned, the command doesn't urge you to your feet just yet. it's the sudden slamming of the door that jostles you from desk to the plaid loveseat where you settle onto your knees on a cushion facing sideways.

rick shakes his head. "no, i want you on your knees on the floor in front of me. now." you sigh and carry yourself down to the polished wooden floors. "i don't have time to sit."

"why?"

"because what i said was an order. don't question it."

with that preamble, you waste no time finding his belt and expertly undoing the buckle in record time. your hands move as fast as they can given all of the work this bulky uniform requires. somehow you breeze through the layers and ignore the ache growing in your knees. your second pt of the day is going to destroy you.

as you strip down rick's thermal boxers, you wonder if he's keen on fucking you now too. perhaps you'd gotten your allotted pounding last night and this would be it for the week. you really can never know with rick.

the issue of time returns to your mind however, so when you grip his length, you only lick up and down enough to get him taking coordinated breaths through his nose and tautening.

“you’ve been demandin’ lately, doll.”

your thighs squeeze together at the nickname.

“maybe i want to be a little demandin’ of you.”

a gloved hand shoves your head down. the incentive to keep your moans quiet doubles when you hear commotion outside your office. right on time; your colleagues are returning to lunch.

“think you can quiet that big mouth enough?”

no words leave your mouth, you just swallow around his length, glancing up into his expanded pupils; almost void of blue. hollowing your cheeks, you remember the time crunch he’s in and put a little more pep into your step. this leads to you rocking a bit on your knees.

rick snorts once he catches sight of the development. “so needy, even just with a cock in your mouth, huh?” his teasing is cut off by the orgasm building up as he throbs against your tongue.

putting in the effort to counter more than a couple of gags, you allow your jaw to slack so rick can enjoy the unobstructed tightness of your throat - perfect for him to come without the mess, leaving it to your mouth.

you weren’t prepared to suck rick off in your office today but you’re determined to leave no trace of this interaction. when he spills down your throat, only a little bit remains on your reddened puffy lips. you wipe your mouth nonchalantly once rick flops out of your mouth, still gazing down at you.

“clean me up.”

an order is an order.

exhaustively, you trace patterns from his base to the spit covered tip that’s still twitching. “fuck,” he utters when you take him into your mouth again. “don’t have time for this,” he’s scolding and palming himself back into his pants, grabbing your hand to stand you up with him for some scattered kisses across your forehead.

he presses a kiss to your temple, traveling lower to embellish purple marks on your collarbone. you’re sure he’s about to do more than just wantonly groping your perky tits but a few more moan inducing punches for your nipple and he’s sealing the interaction with one wolffish kiss. you’re nearly stumbling after him when he pulls away, tugging the last of his belts on.

the door is flung shut and that’s that. rick’s gone.

you’re on rick’s bed before he retires for the night.

“good to see you again today.” you purr, nearly kicking your feet. “i’m feeling spoiled seeing you three times in one day.”

the soldier rolls his eyes. he drops his tactical bag on the ottoman in front of the bed. “you here to sleep? or mess around?”

you shrug. “your choice.”

hints of a sly smile are on the sergeant’s face but he walks away shaking his head before you can call him down to bed just yet.

you could just sleep tonight. rick had been turning you on enough for you to take a night off, preferably drifting off in his arms until you had to wake for your quarterly river survey with the geologists, engineers, and biologists in your neighboring divisions. you had a lot to prepare for come the morning. it wouldn't be terrible to unwind by getting off tonight.

the thought's put on pause once rick's arms wrap around you as he sinks into the soft, bedding. smelling of fresh toothpaste and some kind of beard balm, he’s more than ready to hold onto you like a vice for the night.

“hey.” you coo.

“hey there,” an arm escapes you to turn out the wall light still on over on his side of the bed. only the dim glow of the hallway light touches the darkened room now.

you turn slightly so rick can at least see the outline of your face - your eyes, nose, and lips in the dark. “what was that all about early?”

“hmm?”

"the asshole act earlier?"

“you needed to remember rank.”

an exasperated heave almost sends you to a seated position. “rank?”

“yes.”

the lack of playfulness in your voice has you wondrously thankful that he can’t see your eye rolls in the dark.

“that’s kinda fucked, rick.”

“says the one who just loves getting fucked.”

you shut up.

“getting on her knees, i don’t remember you complainin’ once i got you beneath me earlier today.”

you can’t say that you recall complaining either.

it feels like muscle memory when he gets you onto all fours.

set up on his knees with your cunt under his nose, rick licks a devastating stripe from top to bottom. then he’s coming back up again and squeezing muffled shrieks from you.

“you like that, honey?”

“i do, rick,” you reply breathlessly. you dig a clenched fist into the comforter. “fuck!” tears threaten your waterline already.

“like my tongue?”

“mhmm,” you writhe as he makes it his mission to bury his warm, wriggly appendage as far inside of you as he can. he’ll never be as deep as his cock but the difference in sensation has you nearly folding into the mattress.

the added finger has you squirming in conjunction with the taunting, flickering tongue working back out to your clit. eventually there’s a two pronged attempt to open you up. you’re clenching around his fingers when you hear him ask, “do you think you’re ready?”

“one hundred percent,” you breathe.

“‘kay, i need you to be one hundred percent sure of that, soldier.”

you tease on top of him at the mention, nearly jumping once you feel him at your entrance. lust centered, you nod your head assuredly. “yes, sergeant. i’m ready for your cock. ready to fulfill the mission.”

rick’s smirk and tousled curls are the last thing you see before you’re manhandled like a rag doll into the mattress.

then that rhythm that had you so worked up is paling in comparison to how full you feel with just a few inches of rick. whispering sweet praise and reminding you of the task at hand, you exhale and puff soft cheeks. the biting kisses from rick as he settles inside of you have your eyes already rolling back. his newfound rhythm only fulfills the trance you knew only ne could put you in.

crammed tight full of cock, you’re chanting his name and he’s petting your hair, praising you as you squeeze around him just excellently.

“you gonna come on my cock, soldier?”

“only if you’ll let me, sergeant.”

his balls slap against your clit, wonderfully matching the dull tap he’s testing on your cervix. it doesn’t matter though as he’s repositioning constantly and brushing the forlorn parts, placing his fingers in a painstakingly strategic position on your clit.

“want you so bad, rick.” the words tumble out as rick brings another hand from the fat of your ass to your tit. the touch has you arching, gasping and clawing at the sheets. “rick, rick!”

“love hearin’ you say my name,” he’s grunting into your hair when he lowers himself down to fuck you deeper.

this new angle that rick’s fucking you at has you incoherent. hips pistoning you into the mattress and closer to the mounting heat in your core that was threatening to ruin rick’s sheets. the pressure has tears cascading down your cheeks. if it was lighter you’d see them on the sheets but your bleary eyes only take in pillow, as your cunt takes all of rick.

a palm pushing down on the flat of your back. you sink further into the bed, allowing rick to penetrate you deeper. this newfound depth has you face down with a single trembling clawed hand to the sheets.

“rick,” you’re croaking, crying out for him.

one more thrust of his hips and you swear he’s going to break you.

he mutters a “fuck” and croons deep;

“michonne.”

pt. 1

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Just One Reason: A Shoulder to Cry On

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Character: Lloyd Hansen

masterlist - to be added

Summary: A chance encounter at the sandwich shop doesn’t end how you expect.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging ❤️

You admire the sparkly blue polish as streetlights flicker in passing. Lloyd's care is warm, almost too warm as he blasts the heat, and you're exhausted from the impromptu, somewhat coerced, self-care session. Your social battery is flagging, meanwhile Lloyd seems to never tire. 

You yawn up at the night sky. You can smell the spa on you. Jasmine clings to your skin. You run the filed edges of your nails up your pantleg. 

"Next time you should try tips," he says. "Most girls like them." 

"You must know a lot more girls than me," you say. 

"Huh, no, that's not-- no, I mean, girls... I get around but, ya know... down season." 

You could laugh at the unexpected reaction to your innocent statement. You've never really seen him flustered. And why should he be? Your friends. You wouldn't judge him. 

"I wasn't meaning anything," you assure softly. "Really. Guess I just never noticed my nails very much." 

"They look nice. It's a nice colour," he insists. "Damn, maybe I should gone wild. Clear coat? What was I thinking? Pink is my colour." 

You laugh and lean heavier into the seat. You don't know why you feel so meh. So drained. Maybe all the aromas got to you. 

"Everything okay, tootsie?" 

"Yeah, I'm...good," you answer as you watch through the windshield. There's still that nipping doubt. Nice car, nice shoes, nice hair... then there's you. Thrifted and repurposed and worn out. 

"Don't worry. I'll get you home and cozy. Want me to come up? Make you a hot chocolate?" 

"Please, Lolly, you've done enough," you say. 

"Ha, usually people tell me that in a much different tone," he muses as you recognise the street signs. You're close. 

"Like cashiers?" You wonder. 

"I told you, it was a bad day," he sniffs. 

"Mhmm." 

You glance towards you block. Strange. The dark blue sky seems to turn amber in that direction. As he steers down a side street, the smell of smoke overwhelms the lingering jasmine in your nose.  

You sit up as he turns the corner. No. Not that's not possible. Your mouth falls open as a blaze licks up the side of your building. You feel a similar heat creeping under your skin. 

"What-- oh my god!" You point ahead as Lloyd slows. He leans forward to see better and hits the brakes completely. He blinks up at the flames and you face them in speechless awe. Your apartment. Shoot! 

Without a thought, you hit the button on your seat belt. You flip back the lock and push the door open as Lloyd calls your name. You barrel through the snow, pumping your legs against the thick powder. How can the fire be that bad? There's snow all around. 

As you cut across the neighbouring lawn, a man in a neon suit turns and catches you. He stops you from getting any closer to your building. The firetrucks flash red light across the ivory carpet of snow. 

You hear snow crunching and Lloyd grumbling. You fight the large man in his equipment. He grunts as you writhe and reach past him. You need to get inside! 

"Hey, tootsie, you can't go in," Lloyd catches your arm from behind. "Are you mad?" 

"I have to! I have to!" Your eyes well at the thought. The fire is so high. It could already be too late. 

"Come on," he tugs on you as the fire fighter continues to block you. "Let them do their job." 

"You don't understand!" You shriek as he grabs your other arm and pulls you away from the man. "You don't-- you don't--" 

You thrash helplessly as he hooks his arms around yours, trapping you in a hug as he holds you against him. You kick your legs desperately.  

"Tootsie, nothing in their is worth your life." 

There's a sudden crack and more flames spurt out from the brick. The other residents gasp as they stand watching, just as helpless as you. Some have their pets, other have snagged a few possessions, but you got nothing. No, you lost all you had left. 

As the top of the building folds in, you wail and your legs give out. No. No. It's happening again. You're losing him. Your father! 

Your eyes spill over and you bend over Lloyd's arms to catch your tears. You sob helplessly as your life crackles in the air, ashes floating down into the snow. 

Your father's urn sits next to your bed, kept safe in your nightstand. And there's a picture of him with it. The only picture you have of him. He always hated cameras. No, not anymore. It's gone. It's gone. 

Your father's dying in front of you all over again. 

“Tootsie roll, it’s... it’s things. Okay. You’re alive. Could you imagine?” Lloyd angles you around, shifting an arm onto your shoulders as he brings his other hand to cradle your face. “If I hadn’t come, you could’ve been trapped inside.” 

You bat through the wall of tears and look at him with an ugly snivel, “it’s gone. All gone.” 

“Honey, please,” he pets your cheek. “I’m just happy you’re safe.” 

“No, no, no,” you babble dumbly and cover your face again. 

He slides his hand around your head and stands straight. He draws you into a hug and holds you to him. The smell of smoke threatens to choke you. Your head pounds as the world falls apart around you. 

You’re just happy you’re not alone. 

“It’s all gonna be fine. You can come crash at my place. Hm? How about it? Like a sleepover, huh?” He rocks you as he coos, “don’t worry, tootsie roll, I’m gonna take care of you.” 

You can barely understand what he’s saying. You can only cry as grief floods over at last. You thought those days of endless tears were gone. No, you’ve just been keeping your head above the water. Now you’re drowning in it. 

[teacasket]

spilled

genre: fluff au: non idol au warnings: none word count: 0.6k   pairing: gn!reader x bang chan

Even with your thumb sealing the top, your straw still won’t go through the thick lid. You raise your arm higher, aim, and stab at your drink again, but that only results in a bent straw. Someone behind you murmurs something inaudible over the crowd of customers, and your ears burn. You’ve been standing at the pick-up counter for at least a minute, fighting with plastic.

“45!”

You step farther to the side to let the person grab their order. They take a straw from the holder, and you do the same.

“46 and 47!”

Another small step to the side. With envy, you watch from your periphery as they easily punch their straw through the covered hole on the lid. Why new tea houses won’t stick with the traditional cheap plastic sealing is beyond you, but you suppose it’s a reason why they charge more.

“48! Hey, do you need help?”

You startle at the voice. The barista, the cute one who didn’t take your order today but did last time, gestures at your cup. You feel your blush traveling down to your neck.

“You’ve been here for a while. I can give you a hand, if you want.”

You shake your head and peel back the paper holder of your fresh straw. “I’ve got it, thanks.”

“Okay. Let me know if you need anything.”

You smile gratefully and turn your attention back to your drink. Help—you don’t need help. All you need is a good, forceful hit.

One, two, three!

Something pops, and a flood of green rushes down the counter. You instinctively step back to protect your white shoes and finally realize that you’re holding the source of the mess. A black straw pokes out through both ends of your cup.

A good, forceful hit was what you asked for.

“Sorry,” you say, repeating it every single person standing behind you. Miraculously, no one got hurt or stained.

You grab a wad of napkins and try to start cleaning up. Ordering something with matcha was a mistake; it all looks like milky slime or snot. No one tries to help. They couldn’t anyway since there’s barely any room for them to do so. The air conditioning in the shop isn’t enough to cool down your embarrassment.

When you reach to get another stack of napkins, the same barista comes to the counter to ask, “Everything okay?”

You hold up your mangled cup as an explanation. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t worry. I can remake your order,” he says. “What was it?”

“Uh, thanks, but everything spilled. The counter and the floor—it’s all over. I’m really sorry about that. I probably should’ve let you help me.”

He cracks a smile. “I’ll get someone on it. What was your order?”

You tell him and wedge yourself into the nearest corner as another employee comes out the back with a mop and a bright yellow sign. You scroll on your phone, trying to appear invisible. Everyone knows it was your fault. Hell, you even saw someone point in your direction. You keep your head buried as you wait.

“Matcha green tea latte, no ice and 75% sweetness.”

You walk to the second register which has been repurposed as the pick-up counter.

“I already put your straw in for you,” the barista says. “A lot of people struggle with it, too.”

You doubt they do, but it’s sweet that he’s trying to console you. “Thanks. Sorry again about the mess. Do you guys have a tip jar or something? I didn’t see one around.”

“It’s built into the payment system. You can leave us a review and mention me and Jisung, though. Say we did a good job or something. You can keep it vague.”

“Sure. What’s your name?”

“Chan. I’ll see you around.”

You smile and say goodbye. Cute as he is, you can never come back here. You’ll leave a nice review, but dear God, you are never coming back.

[writtentodeath]

Hero x villain were the hero had been captured and the villain is slowly corrupting them to the villain side?

Thank you I love your work so much! If you were an AO3 writer I'd follow all your fics!

The morning of the sixth day, Hero awoke to find they weren’t alone. Villain sat across the room, silently watching. It made Hero’s skin crawl- though if they were honest, the itching, burning feeling wasn’t just disgust. They hadn’t seen anyone in days. 

“Finally decided to visit?” they said, voice cracking over the words. They cleared their throat. 

Villain tilted their head, continuing their silence for a moment too long. Hero was about to open their mouth for another cutting remark when- 

“I didn’t mean for it to take so long. I apologize.” 

Hero blinked. They looked at Villain again, closer this time. They weren’t just being quiet to creep Hero out they looked… worn. If it were anyone else, Hero would call them exhausted, but Villain was tireless. Wasn’t that why they were stuck here in the first place? 

“I suppose you want me to ask why it took so long,” Hero said, feigning boredom. They moved out from under the covers of their bed as nonchalantly as they could. 

Villain smiled a bit. “I missed you.” 

Did they. Hero’s jaw clenched, efforts to move the blanket freezing them in place. And wasn’t that something Villain would say. I missed you. As if they had the right. 

“That why you locked me up and then left?” 

“I was doing something for you. Actually, I have a present. That’s why I left.” “To get me a present?” Hero said, aghast. 

“To get you this,” Villain said, and tossed a bag at Hero. 

They caught it before it hit them square in the face. “I don’t want anything from you.” 

“You already have it,” Villain said, “just open it, why don’t you?” 

 “This better not be a severed head.” 

Villain’s face fell. “Oh. I-” 

“You didn’t.” 

Villain grinned, then winked. “I didn’t. But I couldn’t help teasing.” 

Hero sighed, the tension leaving their shoulders. The bag itself was nondescript, black, and bulging in odd places. They reached in and pulled out a strange orb-like device. 

“What is this?” 

Villain moved closer, staring at it. “I did actually consider bringing you a head. I thought you might appreciate something from one of your enemies, but then I remembered that a lot of your enemies are people I work with, and while they will need to go at some point, I didn’t know if you would like it enough to make it worth the bad blood.” 

“I wish it was your head in here,” Hero said, though there was no vitriol in the words. They were too busy staring at the strange device. It had a number of metal pieces sticking out of it at odd angles, and place where it looked like it plugged into something else at one time. “Is this what I think it is?” 

“That, dear Hero, is the core from Chief Sommer’s Ortega. If you want, you can use it to build a machine capable of infinite creation. Obviously, Sommer used it to control the populace through threat of violence, but I thought you might have some better ideas for how to use it.” Hero had missed everything after the word Ortega. They had been trying to take down Sommers for years- it was what got them into the game. The abuse of power, the injustice. It was in their hands. They were holding it. Finally, they tore their gaze away from it and up to Villain’s face. 

Villain was looking at them.

They cleared their throat, looking back down. “You got this- you stole? This?” 

“Well. The chief wasn’t going to be able to use it anymore, so I figured someone should take it.” 

“Me?”

“You. Us. I have the resources you can use to repurpose it. I’ll let you use that, use my resources, and all you have to do is work on it here. It’s where you’ll be anyway, in order to get that thing working again.” 

Hero swallowed. They weren’t stupid; they saw the ploy for what it was. Villain didn’t do anything out of the goodness of their heart. But this… Villain just handed them the key to everything. 

“When can I start?”

[revryebread]

wild wild west

The door opens with a slam, and one of Bruce’s animatronics- Stuart- was in the door way, holding it’s leaking side. “Sheriff Wayne! There’s been- The Una Gang- they’re here, and they’re breaking people outta the jail!” It’s voice comes strained from behind it’s porcelain face, the gears in it’s voice box struggling to run on less fuel. 

It gets it’s message out, and it collapses onto the floor- a oily handprint smearing from the doorframe as it slumps into a pile of metal, the gears grinding to a halt. Bruce Wayne gets up and tries to level his emotions. He’d been prepared for this. He’d put away so many other problem citizens in his time, Trish Una and her crew would fall just like the rest. His hand is shaking when he grips the brim of his hat, and settles by the time it goes over his head. The title is something he hides behind. Bruce can be scared, but Sheriff Wayne has to be strong, else the people of this town would be helpless.

There’s a part of him who reminds him how he got this job, and who he was before he had the hat and gun, but he shakes it off. No time for second guessing now.

He moves to the doorway and kneels down to pick the badge off the deputy in the doorway, and pulls up his mask as he moves out into the sun. As soon as he steps into the heat of day, he can hear it- the sound of people yelling, the sounds of chaos and disorder. He narrows his eyes and begins to slowly walk towards the other end of the street where the prison is. He had taken over the old Saloon and repurposed it once the jails were full, and then next came the general store, and eventually an entire block of the town had been quarantined as a prison for people he’d found guilty.

A troublesome individual with a book was the first one who was running his way, quickly spotting Sheriff Wayne and trying to go for his book at his side. He was met with the business end of a gun, hitting him in the shoulder that was bending to reach for the book. He looked to him and tried to speak, but the words couldn’t cut through to the Sheriff, he had moved on to the next prisoner escaping, trying to scan for Una.

And there she was- standing at the stables with her crew. Two of them up astride the horses looking down. “What are you doing? People are going to get killed.” the voice he uses for the Sheriff is booming- deeper than his normal cadence. It’s an attempt to make himself more intimidating, and it usually works, but not for her.

She pushes away from her crew- the dark haired boy looks to the Sheriff and- it gives him a stop. He’s looking at him like he’s already a corpse, and he looks pitying about it. Like he’s never seen something more destined to happen. Trish pushes past people on her walk over, and the boy whispers with a voice that Bruce can almost hear- “You need to run.”

“How long?” Trish shouts over the crowd, and it parts for her, as if a ravine was cut from her to the Sheriff. “How long have you been in charge?”

The question is absurd to him- but he answers. “Four years. I’ve been here four years “ The weight of tose years sit on him- but he’s done the best he can in that time. There is so much evil in this world and he’s just one man. He says as much, but Trish narrows her eyes. She’s not listening anymore.

She asks him another question- a non-sequitor. “What sound does a train make?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Look- just help me get everyone under control here and you and your friends can walk free. Just stop wha-”

A gunshot cuts him off. His eyes dart down to the growing red on his chest, and then back over to Trish, who was holding her signature revolver, with a rose gold inlay to give it that pink sheen. She fires again, and again, and again- and when she empties that one she reaches to her other holster and pulls out a reddish gun that has had whatever inscriptions and markings shaved clean by a nail file. She unloads all 12 bullets into Bruce and flips the cylinder out, letting the empty casings drop to the ground.

He’s frozen in place, slowly falling backwards. He sees the boy with the bowlcut reach to the girl and the two of them share a nod, and leave on horse back in separate directions like they’re the only things moving at a normal speed. Trish turns her head and sees that they’ve left- beginning to run back through the crowd to her other crew member who’s still standing there. Her last crew member.

He hits the ground and sees the sky- letting his last breath out of his lungs. He sees a woman step over him and reach down to grab his hat off his body- the hat that used to be hers.

[thatdogmagic]

So, there's some posting going around, and after being alerted to what exactly is being made public, it's pretty clear I can't go with my initial inclination which is 'leave this alone.'

First things first:

a) I'm not going to fight any accusations of having done something potentially racist. I'm a white person raised very white; when I was made aware that the default ways I was responding to things were reading very poorly in the context of a white person and a black person, I apologized. No matter how I feel about what's happening *currently*, I still am sorry about it. I really hadn't thought of how it would come off until I saw it in hindsight.

I can't say for sure what all is being referenced aside from that instance. I'm not going to be the best judge, for the reasons mentioned above. The best I can do is absorb, apologize, keep learning to be better, and continue to chip away at the boneheaded 40yo white person shit.

b) re: ableism, the sad irony of the screengrab posted is that I was having an autistic meltdown at the time (which, no, is not an excuse). Use of the r-slur, in reference to myself, is a very sure sign I'm in the middle of one, reaching for an impact word and choosing a really terrible one. Like the verbal equivalent of hitting yourself, giving voice to what are, yes, at root, ableist thoughts that live in my head about my own diagnosis. I can and do get very frustrated with my autism sometimes, especially when I 'fail' to learn fast enough to manage it (read: fail to prevent a meltdown).

I'm also genuinely sorry people had to see that, both people in the chat and now, everywhere. I did, yes, delete it because I hated it being there, and I didn't want especially that to be the footprint I left on the server, if it was ever repurposed/the channels weren't recycled (brief note on that later).

Anyway yeah it's something I really need to work on. And it's disheartening to see it cherrypicked when everyone there was aware of the context, but yea; if you see some really wild shit from screencaps, please keep in mind that a lot of it has already been extremely cherrypicked/context is going to be missing. If the whole conversation isn't present, ask to see it.

That's the heaviest stuff that needed addressing.

The accusations of character theft are another thing, because that involves Ependa, and a conversation I had personally with Jackal that was settled amicably a year ago. Or so I thought.

It's the one conversation I did think to save in its entirety, because I just-- had a feeling it might end up being in the cherrypicked pile, or removed from the record entirely. I didn't expect to have to need it this soon, but here we are.

So here it is, in its entirety:

All of that is true, on my end. I was the one who told Ependa to go with a darker complexion on Lacey, and it really didn't quite occur to me at the time that it'd be much of an issue. It should have. The characters are distinct to me in a variety of ways, but as said in the screengrabs, it's a small pond. Past that, if there was more we could do to differentiate then it wasn't discussed with either of us, and we were both open to making further alterations as-needed.

This is not the first time this conversation has been had among werewolf creators, fwiw, or the first time we've had to chat amongst ourselves about potential crossover. I've had to have a similar talk with another artist I know and respect because there were a few too many similarities going on with a set of pieces I was already working on.

Ependa had to recently have that conversation with Trashasaurus (which I'm paraphrasing a Ependa's request), re: commissions that had requested a character that had taken a lot of visual inspiration from both Lin and Toska. She'd noticed Toska's traits and vibe and wasn't entirely comfortable with it, and upon learning they had been requested asked Trashasaurus not to take on those commissions anymore. Trashasaurus agreed and that seemed to be the end of it, save to drop some warning about the 'Lacey talk' which-- well. See above. That's it, in its entirety.

If Ependa wants to post the logs of her conversation, she can, but I'll leave that up to her.

So, that's the heart of the matter at the moment.

It's yet another fallout of yet another failed project by yet another group of artists. It's a tale as old as time, and I would've really loved to have not given it fuel, but the r-slur thing backed me into a corner and needed to be addressed. And if that was being addressed, then others things needed to be addressed, too.

The thing about character theft, though-- yeah, IDK. If there was a problem, there was a year to solve it, and the offer made to post publicly about the oops/acknowledge it right there in that moment was genuine. So far as anyone knew, this had all been settled, and any time it was brought up after there were a million assurances that it wasn't an issue.

Last: I deleted my presence on the server because I a) wasn't sure if it was going to be repurposed and wanted a lot of very personal conversations/old images removed if that happened, b) was frankly concerned about something like this happening; cherrypicked conversations getting tossed up online if things got any worse. I used undiscord, which deletes chronologically, because deleting everything is easier than finding specific conversations/image files.

Because the worst of the fights happened last, well. Yeah it's gonna look like I'm deleting the worst parts first.

I also wouldn't have willingly agreed to be on a server using third party logging software/deleted message retrieval plugins, either, had I known that was in play, but that's a 'live and learn' moment for me, unfortunately.

Anyway that's it, that's all. I can't tell anyone how to think or feel about any of this. I'll be here and will continue to post art, though, for those who still feel like sticking around.

[bepisconsumer]

New from the people who brought you Car-dependent infrastructure:

Plane-Dependent Infrastructure!

-Tired of being stuck in traffic?

-Sitting at stoplights for hours on end?

-You can rest easy, now that all infrastructure will be based around Air Travel!

-Parking Garages and Lots will be repurposed into hangars

-City streets will be repurposed into runways

-Highway? More like FLY-way!

-You can use helicopters too I guess idk kinda weird though why would u wanna do that

-Family-sized Jets will now be available at plane dealerships

-Computers are good enough at this point we don't actually need a real life person doing Air Traffic Control at runways, it'll be fine just automate it

-Drunk flying won't matter (what are you gonna even hit lmao ur in the sky)

-Seatbelts optional!

-Speed enforced by land craft!

-we have electric planes right? Yeah I'm like 70% sure those exist. Low carbon emissions! Yay!

-Now you won't need to pay hundreds of dollars for plane tickets, just fly the plane yourself! (Fuel and maintenance might cost something but I doubt it's much in the grand scheme of things)

-Smoke all you want! The only airways you'll be clogging are your own! (And your family's but that's irrelevant)

-A wide variety of anti hijacking measures are at your disposal, including but not limited to:

Your own personal TSA branch at your house!

Rent-An-Air-Marshal!

Gun

Eject Passenger Compartment Contents button!

-Why wait? Switch to Plane-Dependent infrastructure today!

[alkalineleak]

when i think of gillion and caspian, one of the first things to IMMEDIATELY pop into my mind is their relationship regarding the undersea, specifically leaving. be warned, this is a bit of a LONG ramble:) for the sake of time, ill only be focusing on gillions side of things

leaving home is one of the biggest things you can do because then you either learn to govern yourself or be controlled by what was taught by you.

its a very strict binary that tears you up from the inside out as you switch sides, for the better or for the worst. i look at this and i look between those two it is immediately so FUCKING apparent how the cycle of learning and restructuring your thinking process is stored between them. thats how they live, thats how they dance around each other in each others head

gillion is pretty obvious. when he was a child he was cold.

the thousands of pounds of pressure did not make up for a lack of warmth that was offered and redirected into an inhumane idol to be looked and wished upon like a shooting star. in the same way i think he learned that he will not last forever, and so the moments he have have to hold some merit, some sort of worth. now imagine him, kicked out of a home he didnt want to miss, a family who was kept in the dark and left to the fate of the seas. and the seas decided he would live. So it had to be for a purpose, correct? thats how the ocean works, it kills it births and then it repurposes whatever is left as food for whatever is lucky enough to make it out alive. hes been repurposed from whatever failure he was in that damned city to be something greater, something new.

Then comes along Caspian, right? And he wrecks all the things gillion thought he knew.

He values leisure, the small simple things. hes a man who could run his hands across anything just to feel the textures YET, he knows how to fight. fight better than how gillion does, though not surprising. he was always told he was subpar for a hero handpicked by gods and a cannibilistic sea This brings him to a crossroad. he has his goals - live comfortably, enjoy things while you can, hes one of the biggest epicurists he could think of, and gill shares a ship with chip whos impulse drives mistakes and successes alike. and there, he finds the difference between the different flavors of hedonism: calculation.

Caspian is fucking smart.

gillion can see it in how he weaves between people and shops respectively, in how he can change his demeanor to achieve a goal. his charisma has a motive every time he uses it, it has a purpose every damn time he employs a joking manner or a flirtatious tone. its all calculated to hell and back, and it entices him because THAT is what he was meant to do and learn. he follows him helplessly because he has parts of his home with him, both negative and positive he NEEDS to see how to do it all, what it all fucking meant (maybe along the way hed find what he was missing all these years). but every time he tries he hits a roadblock because caspian, free and live, contradicts EVERYTHING the elders taught him. hes impossible to exist as a paragon.

And then without having the chance to ask himself, caspian offers out his hand, and offers to teach him.

ANOTHER time he got chosen, he dreaded it when it happened. hes nothing but a follower. from the prophecy to Careless elders to Awful teachers, its what he does worst. He accepted regardless. he was impulsive like that. a decision like that could get him killed one day. hed get scolded for acting so quickly on something he barely knew, but its just a wound to post pone treating. just like every other one hes ever had

he tries to bring his familiarity with harsh treatment and punishment, but instead every time hes prepared to learn something, he gets something to heal instead

Its fucking frustrating, to be completely honest. FIRST, it is a gentle fixing of his mistakes as if this happening in the real world could cost him his home and people. he has more targets than ever, yknow. from chip and jay, to ollie and wherever he came from, to every person hes protected and saved in every individual island, as well as the sea and everyone on it. every single person the moon protects with her waves and every person the sun scorches too harshly. its all up to him hes tried to bring it up, but caspian just tugged at his determination to learn and improve, and gillions a follower before anything. he follows a prophecy, he follows chip and jay over an unfamiliar world, he follows wherever his blade lands to avoid a hit.

Gillion started noticing how smoothly he started moving

it was terrifying, despite being his active goal. It got less scary when he started hearing caspians smile creep over from the caunch shell after what had to be a hundred hours of calling and training

its different from jay or chip teaching him the world, because if it truely disturbed gillion to stop the stagnation carved into him he could just chalk it up into a cultural difference.

in cases where he clung on desperately to what he built himself around, he could go as far as to simplify it all into a moral inferiority, something he needs to teach instead because hes a hero. he must spread good and purge evil. unfortunately those sometimes meant damaging his fucked up sense of honor and pride for something he wasnt even familiar with beyond scrolls that keep getting manipulated in translations and a sword thats awkwardly weighted when he held it.

gillion would say its alien, but he keeps catching details of his home

he sees it in the 23 pieces of jewelry across caspians face. he sees it in the way he dances, always caught slightly offguard that he isnt in the air as long as he wanted to be. he sees it in the small amount of times gravity caught his friend by surprise, even if a change in which foot caspian placed all his weight hid it to everyone else. he sees it in how caspian taught him the dances for songs he could only ever hear behind closed doors.

He keeps seeing suggestions that maybe his home was harmful in general, but thats bullshit. Could a purely cruel place make his sister? his mother who fought to keep him? his grandfather who was the only one who knew how to properly teach him his own history? No.

And Caspian all but confirms it. the ocean is not inherently harmful, it just wants to live in the same way he keeps repressing.

He builds a new home for himself above water, but not absent of it.

[icharchivist]

Ad for the fa service it might either be the new director or simply competition

It's something that I've noticed for around a year or two now but ha ha game characters get more and more horny bait... Heck few days ago on Twitter there was a mess for the FUCKING COOKIES for making a sexy cookie with tiny waist long legs and heavy make up and giving a bunny suit to a minor

I fear this might only get worse with time when the whole genre starts to dip into that and it's sad af

No yeah, totally agree.

I mean it was always kind of a part of the genre and tbh Granblue was always sexualized, but trying to be more daring than what it used to do ends up. being way worse.

The new director is probably a possible cause. He's been taking over for the past 3 years they said and it really is when things started to go really downhill.

Like it's just. genuinely frustrating when it applies to any characters regardless of reasons. Like at least Hekate or Metera have reasons to be sexy. I still remember cringing at Mirin's summer uncap because it felt so out of character (and rightfully so when we saw the artbook: it's repurposed concept art from someone else, i think it was Dark!Jeanne).

I get that it's competition on the gacha market, and i get that it's probably more dire than ever considering how many gacha there are nowadays + the hit covid likely had on the economy of these games (ex: gutting the price from in-person events from the profits and/or people spending less on gacha when they have more urgent things to spend money on)

but it's genuinely losing me.

It fucking sucks for the cookie also, btw. It's gacha for you i guess but. man it wasn't always this bad. Not Granblue at least. It had bad moments but. man.

And i just read the preview to Flo's FE and i'm even more pissed. It's fully unrelated to what just happened in the event AND it's a whole "what! how did you not know that i, a girl, love fashion? but i'm too old (30, you know, a grandma) to wear what i like to wear!" and it's just. Oh this is what we're doing. This is what female characters can only have. Dalmore is at war, Florence is a powerful witch who went as far as cursing her own brother to try to protect him, but of course we need to release an episode about how she really likes fashion to justify putting her in a dress with a major decoletage.

I'm sorry but this is genuinely losing me, the sexualization was one reason i didn't want to play gbf at the time my friends recommended it to me, and eventually i caved in because Percival pretty, and eventually because i loved the plot i decided to stick around, i got used to the sexualization enough i didn't see it as a deal breaker anymore and all, esp since it usually touches draph girls which i already was ignoring bc their sexualization annoyed the fuck out of me..... and it just keeps getting worse in worse and now it goes to some of my favorite female character while stripping them of individuality.

this genuinely pisses me off like man.

[salarta]

Thoughts about Polaris and Fall of the House of X #1

This post will have SPOILERS SPOILERS YOUR MILK IS GOING TO SPOIL SPOILERS you've been given fair warning. I'm also not including pictures cause I figure you cool people have seen them already.

Background

First, some background leading up to this issue. Context matters.

Last time we saw Lorna before this issue, she was at the treehouse from Duggan's X-Men book, crying about her father's death. It took about a year after his death for readers to see that or any reaction from Lorna (which I have a very strong suspicion as to why, but will keep out of this post).

Shortly after this, Orchis burned down the treehouse. We didn't know at the time what happened to Lorna. Was she inside and burned alive? Was she out somewhere off the grid? It was a mystery. This issue answers some of those questions while leaving some gaps of what happened between then and now, which might be explained later in this series or by a future writer.

Thoughts on Issue

Throughout the issue, there's a few characters that Xavier directly contacts via telepathy asking them to leave a Cyclops break-out plan to take part in a different plan he has in mind that he says needs to be done right this moment. Lorna heads off to Knowhere before Kitty arrives to give her the go-ahead for pre-made plans.

Now, where we're at right now with this first issue, we actually don't know what prompted Lorna to head to Knowhere. The running theme of characters running off for Xavier's plan suggests Lorna may be playing a part in it, but we have no actual confirmation one way or another. No scene showing Xavier reaching out to Lorna, no scene of Lorna saying or thinking that it's something Xavier asked her to do, etc. Maybe those things happened in the background after all and Duggan just didn't waste panel time on it. Or, it could be that Lorna is simply doing this of her own accord, using what she knows to hit Orchis hard. We'll have to see in future issues as they unfold.

A second key and interesting detail is how Kitty goes to find Lorna on the island where Magneto originally operated the Brotherhood, Island M. As you can see from the wikia article, there's other interesting details (repurposing for Krakoa into Cradle Two, a history with the Ancients/Great Old Ones, etc), but I think the Magneto Brotherhood elements are the most interesting and most valuable for Lorna. We've spent the time since Magneto's death seeing Storm used as the focal character for just about everything regarding Magneto's death and legacy, including running the Brotherhood, while Lorna was shown with no reaction at all to her own father's death until the gala. So I think touches like this are a way to tell us in the gaps of the story that Lorna's been thinking about and dealing with these things in-universe even though the company wasn't properly addressing it until now.

Kitty also finding Lorna's minidress ensemble is a meaningful choice. They could've decided not to show that, but it's valuable for how it symbolically represents a change in attitude for her. From the laidback casual approach while on the X-Men book, to the warrior about to take on Orchis. Goes a long way to demonstrate Lorna as the multifaceted character she is.

Costume Thoughts

The costume change is the most visually and symbolically striking development, but I put it last because I think to put that front and center as the first (possibly only) discussion topic is a mistake.

The story is more important because keeping that focus improves Lorna's chances of doing meaningful things in future stories. Focusing TOO much on the costume runs the risk of certain people at Marvel thinking that she doesn't need anything more than a fresh coat of paint.

I think it's Lorna's best costume to date. Not that it's the best of her potential for costumes, as I think there's a lot of things they could do or change to make it better. But of what's been done so far, it's the best IMO.

Her headgear design is apparent with the helmet. The helmet itself is reminiscent of Magneto without being just a duplicate of his helmet. On repeated views, I've come to notice that it's a neat concept for a helmet - whereas Magneto's covers all, Lorna's leaves her ears exposed and allows her hair to come out the back. It feels like a meaningful evolution from her tiara that keeps her character identity intact.

The varying shades of green do a great job of mixing up her color without undermining her core of green. It retains her cape too, and I've said before that I think her headgear design and her cape are the two most important visual identifiers she has.

The one thing I can say right now that I wish it did differently is her bodysuit. Especially in this scenario, I wish it looked more like battle armor. She's going to war, and battle armor can be a powerful intimidation factor (aside from being greatly protective when augmented by her powers). But what's here is still good.

And that's all I've got for this round! I encourage buying and reading this one.

[mariacallous]

Charli XCX said it, so it must be true: Brat Summer is over. In a tweet so echoey it got several news hits, the club rat/pop girl said goodbye to the season that may come to define her career—and America’s political future. It was September 2, 87 days after Charli released the album Brat and 43 days after she declared that Vice President Kamala Harris “IS brat.” Normally, the fall, spooky end-of-summer vibes don’t really start until, like, the end of the month, but being online has always been a surefire way to warp one’s sense of time.

This year, though, that warp comes at warp speed. As Bethy Squires pointed out at Vulture this week, the internet seems to be “starting spooky season early.” Perhaps Demure Autumn didn’t give people enough of what they needed; maybe everyone just wants to get in a lot of Halloween before everyone has to start preparing for the holidays on October 1(ish). A few TikTokkers are advocating for a fall dedicated to Magdelena Bay’s album Imaginal Disk.

More than that, though, I’d say this all has something to do with the fact that being extremely online means observing one’s own calendar, one slightly aligned with the Gregorian one but with its own set of holidays and traditions.

You already know them: Galentine’s Day, Beyoncé’s birthday (which was just honored on Wednesday), that time in spring when everyone starts posting “It’s gonna be May” with an image macro of Justin Timberlake’s grinning mug. Right now, perhaps a bit early, Spooktober and a new Pumpkin Spice Latte/PSL Season is upon us. Like many others, that last one, similar to National Doughnut Day, is one that while perhaps not entirely the product of a corporate marketing whiz, is definitely one that benefits Starbucks. #Brands like hopping on #trends. Now, when they know there’s a surefire way to be a part of something, like Pride Month, they put it on a calendar and roll out a whole campaign.

This is perhaps how things got here in the first place. Everyone from Gen Z TikTokers to the Dunkin’ social media manager needs to know when to get on the trend and when to get off. Presumably this is why the Kamala HQ X account has already removed its Brat Green hue. As my colleague Leah Feiger discussed with writer Hunter Harris a few weeks back, as the US gets closer to Election Day in November, the pop culture moment around Harris will likely shift back to a more political one.

I’d like to point out the possibilities here for a crossover moment. Rather than committing to Brat Autumn or admitting it’s time to get out the ghosts, what if there was just Scary Brat Season? Consider, if you will, Lewis, the super-tall Target jack-o-lantern/queer icon who took over TikTok last year. He’s back, he’s got friends, and, idk, they all seem pretty brat. Elvira seems pretty brat. So do most slasher villains. Just imagine the stripes on Freddy Krueger’s shirt a slightly slimier shade of green. Maybe we all need to go to Michael’s and repurpose July’s “Lesbian Halloween” trend.

See? This is what a lifetime on the internet has done. My brain tries to find the meme in every thing, every season.

[zarvasace]

More Than You Can Chew

(febuwhump day 12, I like this one!)

Summary: At the end of the Roaring Twenties, Warriors has to come clean about his vampirism so they can track down who kidnapped Wind.

Prompt: "Can you hear me?" Warriors POV, Wind-centric. Historical setting, vampires, blood and gore. 4k words, rating this Mature for gratuitous violence near the end. This is very dumb and so much fun. Set in 1931 America. CWs for the gore and WWI trauma. :) AO3 link!

---

Warriors pulled his hat off as he ducked through the bar's front door. Conversation and laughter nearly drowned out the record playing near the wall, some popular singer he didn't know. A haze hung low in the air from all the pipes and cigars. Warriors just held his breath. 

A few people called out at him, and he gave them his best smile and a wave before heading into the back rooms. If his heart was in the habit of beating, it would be in the running for a race. 

He felt the tension as soon as he entered the club room in the back. The others looked up when he arrived. 

"Anything?" Time asked, standing at the head of the repurposed, paper-strewn pool table with his hands behind his back. He'd loosened his tie, and he didn't seem to notice the coffee stain on his white sleeve. 

"Yes," Warriors responded before he could back out. 

Hyrule perked up from where he sat in the corner with Wild, both of them fussing over a table laden with Bunsen burners and beakers. A concerning stream of colored vapor rose into the air from one of their experiments. Their experiments looked like magic, sometimes.

"What did you find?" Hyrule said.

Warriors shrugged his jacket off and hung it up beside the door, trying to collect his buzzing thoughts and delay the inevitable. He pulled out one of the mismatched chairs and sank down into it, rubbing at his mouth. He should've had something to drink before coming, perhaps that would've calmed his nerves. 

"It's bad, isn't it?" Sky asked quietly, noticing the hesitation. Next to him, Twilight pressed his lips together, looking up from the map of the city. Four took a break from writing and sat back to wipe at the inkstains on his fingers, waiting for Warriors to begin. Legend similarly looked up from his knitting—he'd never quite gotten over the childhood wartime habit. 

"It's not good, no," Warriors responded. He had everyone's attention, now. No backing out, he reminded himself. His words seemed to leave him, and the only thing that came out was—"Wind is older than me."

Legend stared at him. "Hyrule, check him over, I think he hit his head."

"No, I'm being serious." Warriors shook his head at himself. "I'm sorry. That was an awful way to begin."

"Do you know where Wind is?" Twilight asked impatiently. "Yes or no?" 

"I have important context for his disappearance. It'll lead us to him, eventually. Or, just me, I don't… if you…"

"Warriors. Spit it out," Time interrupted. Steel glinted in his eye, a far cry from the scared young adult Warriors remembered meeting in France. 

Under that gaze, Warriors found himself sitting straighter, despite the memories. The others knew he'd fought in the Great War, same as Time had, though they didn't know the extent of it. Warriors appeared too young to have been a soldier, at least one who hadn't lied about his age. He knew Sky had, in order to get in at the end.

"Yes, sir. This is going to sound a little bit crazy, everyone, but you need to bear with me. Time, you may not remember, but in your very first unit as a soldier, I was in command." Warriors watched the confusion float over Time's face, echoed in a few others around the table. "When that slew of reorganization came through, you transferred out, and Wind transferred in."

"What?" Sky asked slowly. "Wind wasn't even born then, Wars." 

"I know what it sounds like, Sky. Look, I knew he had to be too young to have been honest on the enlistment form, but there he was, and we needed people, so I didn't push it. I just made sure to watch for him, and got a bit attached, I admit. He was always a reckless kid." He got a few snorts from that. Four looked thoughtful, though most of the others still frowned like they thought Warriors was insane. 

He continued. "We were in the trenches. Our unit was scattered, I was terrified they'd throw in some gas, and all I could focus on was finding Wind." Warriors smelled dust as he remembered. Dust and blood. "I found him, alive apparently, covered in blood. I managed to tackle him before he got hit with shrapnel from a shell. I got hit with it instead, felt the bits lodge in my lungs. I was definitely going to die. He screamed at me for saving his life, but what was I supposed to do?" 

"Wars," Time said in warning. The lamps tossed darker shadows over his face than usual. 

Warriors shook his head and tried to get to the point. "To make a short story even shorter, he asked me if I wanted him to save my life. Instead of dying that night, as I perhaps should have, I stopped aging."

"What are you saying?" Wild asked. He'd wandered over to listen to the story. 

"Wind and I are vampires, and I think his recent disappearance has to do with that."

The sudden silence in the room pressed in on Warriors's eardrums. He felt like the static in his head would become visible any second now. He had no idea how they'd react, though based on past evidence, he was mildly confident it wouldn't be with metaphorical pitchforks. Or literal ones. Honestly, he'd be somewhat impressed if they found literal pitchforks out here in the city. 

"Hm… that changes a few things about our theories." Four broke the silence, picking up a red pencil and standing on his chair to reach over the table. He drew a few confident lines, dividing the city map into pieces. 

Wild tapped one of the lines. "Move this over to Emerald Street, that treaty was signed last week."

"Oh, was it?" Four erased that border and redrew it where Wild indicated. "I didn't think the Eldins would capitulate."

"They didn't," Twilight said, "until the Farons increased the offer, something like two hundred thousand total." 

"Hm, that's more than I expected."

Warriors let out an entirely mortifying squeak. "How the hell do you three know so much about recent vampire politics? Four, those are the clan territories!" 

"Obviously. You don't get very far in the supernatural side of the city without working around them." Four finished his edits to the map and stood back. 

"Okay." Time held up his hands and took a visible breath. "I think we need to reevaluate. If you are aware of the supernatural in this city, and were before this conversation, raise your hand."

Warriors did so, of course. Four, Wild, Twilight were unsurprising after the recent conversation. Time, Sky, and Hyrule followed. 

Legend burst out laughing and dropped a knitting needle to raise his own hand. "I was wondering when this would happen! We've all been hiding each other from each other, and it's been hilarious."

"You knew?" Twilight asked, dropping his hand. "And you never said anything?" 

"I tried," Legend responded. He picked his knitting back up. "But you all brushed me off. I gave up. I asked Wind what was in his flask once. He told me it was vodka."

"It usually is vodka," Warriors said. His brain began to work again. 

Wild tilted his head. "Not blood?" 

"No, that's disgusting, stored like that, and barely does anything for you."

"Oh. Storing it works for me." 

Warriors narrowed his eyes in utter bafflement. 

"Half," Wild said by way of explanation. He shrugged. "My father's side. Hateno clan."

"Huh." Warriors crossed his arms. "Well, to get us back to the point—I recently learned that hunter activity has been increasing subtly the last few months, and I know where a few of their lairs are."

Sky looked startled. "You think hunters have him?" 

"That's an unfortunate conclusion," Time said, leaning over the table to stare at the new version of the map, "but I don't think you're wrong. Mark where those lairs are, if you would, Warriors." 

With a nod, Warriors stood and got to work. As they talked and adjusted their ideas, their true natures came out bit by bit. Hyrule and Time were partly fae, with Four and Legend different sorts of almost-fae as well. Sky had strong air elemental ancestry, and ties to that community. Wild was, as he'd said, half-vampire, and Twilight was his cousin on the human side. 

It was relieving to hear Wild make a pun about blood-sucking and the laughter that followed. Even in his wildest dreams, Warriors had never imagined such an outcome. The best he'd hoped for was a ready acceptance and curiosity, but that had felt out of reach. Although he was worried for Wind, Warriors's hope in a successful rescue grew.

They made a plan to find and save Wind. 

---

It took two more days, but through a combination of investigation and good, old-fashioned breaking and entering, the eight of them figured out where Wind would be. The restaurant was a good place to hold secret vampire hunter meetings, Warriors thought. At several floors tall, it had many hiding spots, and the clatter of patrons and the kitchen would hide most sounds of a struggle. Nobody would blink twice at people visiting often, either, unlike a brothel or a bank. 

Time, Twilight, and Wild had entered earlier, getting a table and smuggling in a tiny, winged Hyrule in Time's jacket, and Four inside Twilight's shadow. Legend sat outside watching the exits and keeping an eye out. He said he knew a guy for a getaway vehicle, so they let him work that part out. Sky and Warriors snuck in through the maintenance entrance, gaining surprisingly easy access. They wandered the halls with aprons and brooms, looking like they knew where they were going. 

"This feels too easy," Sky muttered. "We're in a hunter's den and we just waltzed right in."

Warriors winced and took the next turn, following the faint smell of blood. "Don't remind me. I keep worrying that some light will go off somewhere and an alarm will sound and all the doors will lock and someone will start screaming about vampires."

"We're all here with you. You have nothing to worry about."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but there is rather a lot to worry about at the moment. Have you seen anyone yet?" Warriors paused as a woman in a long coat passed, stalking more than walking down the hall. He caught a glimpse of silvery weapons under that coat, but she didn't glance at them as she swept past. 

Once she left, Sky answered. "No. Not yet. Of course, I'm not exactly practiced at looking for fairies and shadows, so I could have missed them."

Warriors stumbled just a little when the scent he followed changed abruptly. He regained his balance and picked up the pace. "He's this way."

"How do you know?" Sky hurried to catch up. "You can smell him?" 

"Yes. I've been following a faint trail of blood, but this is unmistakably Wind. I'd know his scent anywhere." Warriors walked slower past the next few doors, and his patience was rewarded with a dim hallway hidden behind one of them. It was silent back here. 

Sky closed the door behind them. "You said he saved your life. He turned you into a vampire?"

"Yes. It was painful."

"I'm sorry." Sky got the hint and dropped the subject. 

"Ugh, everything back here reeks," Warriors complained, "The trail is muddied too much to follow."

"The hallway isn't so long, we can listen at each door and open them if we have to."

Warriors took the right side, and Sky took the left, pausing at every door. Though Sky said to listen, the oppressive silence amplified the sounds of their clothing and Sky's breathing until that was all Warriors could hear. Sky could hear very well, so he listened, while Warriors relied more on his nose, even with all the ambient scent throwing him off. 

Near the end of the hallway, Sky sucked in a breath. "Wars. This one."

They put their brooms down. Warriors was the one to try the door handle. Upon finding it locked, he attempted to break the wood with his elbow, but only succeeded in taking off a few splinters. It must have been reinforced. He stepped back, frustrated. 

"Allow me," an unexpected voice said, and Four appeared practically out of nowhere to pull out his lockpicks and crouch in front of the doorknob. 

Sky startled. "Four! Where did you come from? My heart nearly stopped."

"Mine nearly started," Warriors added, mustering a joke but not quite a smile to go along with it. 

Four shook his head in amusement and started wiggling his pins inside the lock. "Hyrule and I have been following you for a while. Hyrule's outside that door back there, holding up a spell to keep people away from here."

"That's handy," Sky said. 

"Mhm." Four lost interest in conversation as he worked. It took a few tense minutes, but soon enough, the lock clicked open, and he smiled. "There."

Warriors put a hand over Four's before he could open the door. "Hold on. I don't know what shape he's in right now, and I know he wouldn't want to hurt anyone. Go tell Hyrule to let one person in, someone we don't mind killing."

Four glanced at him sharply, then seemed to understand. He nodded, and his form under Warriors's fingers melted away into shadows. 

"You stay here," Warriors told Sky, "for the same reason. I doubt they fed him, and having you so close might hurt more than it helps. Whoever Hyrule lets back here, subdue them and toss them in."

Sky looked troubled. "You think we need to kill someone?" 

"Like I said, I doubt they fed him. He's a vampire. He needs blood. Depending on how much they hurt him, he could need an entire adult to come back to himself." Warriors tried to impress the severity of the situation to Sky through his gaze, and Sky backed down.

"I… suppose there are worse places to find a victim than a vampire hunter's den." 

Warriors nodded, then took a breath and slipped into the room.

The single small window had been blocked first with paint, and then with several boards nailed onto it from the other side, letting in no light. Besides the blood-streaked floral wallpaper and bare floorboards, the room was devoid of any decoration. A chain hung from a closed hook bolted into the ceiling, trailing down to wind on the floor like a coiled snake. The chain ended in a pair of small manacles, locked around thin wrists. 

Warriors hurried to Wind's side, kneeling down and gathering him up in his arms. He had a split lip and discolored throat, and his blue shirt had been torn down the side. His skin was cold in Warriors's hands, which told him right away that Wind had to be starving. No real heartbeat, no breath, no signs of life except for the very slight fluttering of his eyelids. 

"Wind? Can you hear me?" Warriors asked quietly. "Don't fall asleep for twenty years again, like you said you did that one time. Come on, kid." 

Wind made a soft noise in his throat and stirred. He opened one eye. "Wars? Mm… not a kid."

"Yeah, I know, you're a very powerful vampire, born sixteen-ninety-whatever, grew up in the Golden Age of Piracy, I get it. You remember that, right?"

"Mhm. 'Course. Tired."

Warriors lifted him up a bit as he heard a scuffle outside. "How about hungry?" 

"Not thinkin' about that." 

The door opened, and Sky appeared. He hauled an older man into the room by the arms, straining a bit to drag the weight. Warriors wasn't very hungry, but the scent of the man's bleeding head wound hit him hard, especially against the stale smell permeating this room in particular. 

Wind groaned and turned to hide his face in Warriors's shirt. "Go 'way, Sky."

Sky hesitated, but Warriors impatiently gestured him and the body in. "He just doesn't want to hurt you."

"That's not a reason to come closer!" Sky said, though he continued to pull the man toward Wind. 

The nearer he got, the tighter Wind held onto Warriors, who winced at the trust. It wasn't that he planned on breaking it, of course not, it was just odd to play this side of it. Wind had held him back from indulging his baser instincts more than once, when he was figuring things out. The bloodlust was hard to fight, and Warriors knew how strong Wind had to be to keep his head and not attack Sky right there. Warriors kept a hand on Wind's head.

"Where do you want him?" Sky panted, once he'd successfully dragged the man within five feet. 

"Drop him there and go."

Sky hesitated, but he dropped the man's arms. "Do you need anything else?" 

"We're fine." Warriors hugged Wind a little closer and gave Sky his best smile. It felt like a wince. "We've done this before."  

"Right. We'll make sure the way out is clear." Sky left, just a little hesitant. 

Once the door shut again, Warriors relaxed his hold on Wind. "There we go. Take as much as you want."

Wind had moved beyond the point of understanding words. As soon as Warriors let him go, he pounced, chain rattling as he attacked the man. 

Warriors sat back and let him at it. Wind had never been a very clean eater, for as long as Warriors had known him, but he always went out of his way to try to not hurt whoever he took blood from. He'd passed on a few of his techniques to Warriors, who'd adopted a similar strategy. 

Right now, Wind was too far gone to bother with any of that. If the man hadn't been dead before, he definitely was now, with his throat half-ripped out and the rest of him quickly exsanguinated. 

After several minutes, Wind slowed, and soon stopprf. He hung his head over the bloody corpse for a few long seconds, then pushed himself to his feet and turned to face Warriors. 

In the dim light, with half his face and front soaked with fresh blood, his bruises healing with the excess running through his veins, Wind looked every inch the two-hundred-year-old vampire he was. He looked down at the red-slick manacles around his wrists. 

"Four picked the lock to get in here, he can probably pick that one, too," Warriors offered. He stood, too. 

Wind lifted his hands to look at the metal. "He doesn't need to." Two sharp pops rang out through the room, and the manacles dropped to the ground. Wind adjusted his broken thumbs back into place with his teeth and allowed them to heal. 

Warriors rolled his eyes. "That's unnecessary. You were just starving."

"Well, now I'm not starving or chained up." Wind offered a bright smile, and something in Warriors's stomach loosened. This was probably barely a blip on Wind's meter of inconveniences. "Did you say Four?" 

"Yes." Warriors opened the door, and Sky stood up straight. 

"Wars! Everything all right?" Sky peeked past Warriors to see Wind, who still stood there in all his bloody glory.

Wind froze, then hesitantly, futilely tried to wipe his chin off with a hand just as red as his face. "Um…"

"It's okay," Warriors told him, looking both ways down the hallway before exiting the room. "I told them all."

"You told them all?" Wind hissed, shoving past Warriors. 

Sky offered Wind a single handkerchief, one clearly soaked by blood before and imperfectly cleaned. It would never be white again. It would also never hold quite as much blood as it would neeed, to clean Wind off. It was a nice gesture anyway. 

"He did," Sky said as Wind narrowed his eyes. "As it turns out, all of us thought we were hiding the supernatural from everyone else."

"You're kidding." Wind hesitated, but took the handkerchief and wiped his mouth off. It only mostly worked.

"Not at all," Warriors confirmed. "Come on, we need to get out." 

Wind crossed his arms as they started back toward the main hallway. "I don't want to just get out, Wars, I wanna burn this place to the ground."

"No. There are civilians here, Wind, it's a restaurant. Someone would notice."

"I've gotten away with arson before," Wind grumbled. 

Warriors shook his head. "Not today."

"There is a fight going on, though." Sky put his hand on the doorknob. "It sounds like Time and Twilight are doing somewhat poorly out there. I don't know where Wild and Hyrule are, but I think Four is avoiding the fight to keep watching."

"How do you know?" Wind asked. "Wait, I can ask later. Don't die so I can ask. First, if there's a fight against these hunters, I'm going to get my revenge. Sweet, cold revenge."

Sky glanced at Warriors with mild concern. 

"That last bit of blood in someone's veins is the strongest," Warriors said by way of explanation. "There are advantages to killing. He'll be riding high on that wave until he burns it out. It's not a bad idea to let him run wild for a bit."

With a shrug and an expression of 'So help me, Wars, I hope you know what you're doing,' Sky opened the door onto a shambles of a fistfight. 

As Sky had thought, Twilight and Time struggled against the vampire hunters and thugs that had gathered in the area. There were more than Warriors had anticipated—more than ten, less than twenty. It wouldn't be an issue with all nine of them, but with only three or four… Twilight held his arm stiffly, and Time was backed into a corner. Four had joined the fight, but some of the hunters' tools were clearly bothering him. Wild was visible down the hall, running toward them with a black frying pan in his hand and a full-sized Hyrule right behind him. 

Wind kicked the door open the rest of the way, banging it against the wall and drawing everyone's attention. He grinned, bloody fangs on full display. 

"Did you know," Wind said, stepping out into the hallway, "that most vampires were killed off in the fifties? The seventeen-fifties, mind you. Hunters like you did their damndest, but could never kill me." The fight had stalled, everyone hypnotized, possibly literally. Warriors had never received a straight answer about that particular rumored ability.

"I'm one of the only old ones left. You know what that means, don't you?" Wind paused as if waiting for an answer, but none came. "You've bitten off more than you can chew, hunters."

The spell broke, and Wind launched himself wholeheartedly into the melee. He laughed as he dug his fingers into sternums and ripped apart ribcages. He tore his teeth into flesh and cracked open skulls like eggs. 

With a full, hopped-up Wind on their side, unafraid to let loose, the tide of the scuffle quickly turned. Despite the carnage, Wind always managed to identify friend from foe. He kept well away from hurting Twilight or Wild or any of the others. Sky and Warriors didn't even bother joining the fight after seeing how it was going. 

Once every enemy had been felled, Wind stood up and threw aside a handful of entrails. They landed on the wall with a wet splat and slid down to the baseboard, leaving a streak of blood. "That's it?" 

"That should be it, for now," Time said, unfazed. "We should go before someone calls the police. Are you all right, Wind? You seem a little… manic."

Wind sucked a bit of blood off of his hand. If Warriors had thought he was bloody before, that was nothing compared to now. It was caked in his hair, and he'd probably start complaining about it once it began to dry. Sky's handkerchief wouldn't even make a dent. "I'm fine. That took care of all the extra energy. I could go for a nap." 

"Come on. Legend should have a ride ready," Sky said, ushering Hyrule and Wild over the mess of body parts. He wrinkled his nose. "We can get everyone baths and a change of clothes." 

"That sounds nice." Wind grabbed Warriors's sleeve and hung on as they headed toward the exit. "You hungry? You could go grab one of those for the road."

"I don't need your leftovers," Warriors said flatly. He smiled easily, though. Wind was always looking out for him. And he'd always look out for Wind. 

Wind scoffed. "Pfft. Picky baby."

---

Ending A/N: Hyrule had to go looking for a guy to kill, and he found some dude yelling at a waitress because she wasn't responding to his solicitations. He deserved to die.

Wind was born 1696 and turned into a vampire around 1710, during the golden age of piacy. He is eternally 14. Sorry, Wind. He mentions vampires dying in the 1750s, and unfortunately that included Tetra and her crew. He's a little bitter about that and will take any chance to get back at hunters for them.

I liked this AU! I might do more with it! :)

[natlacentral]

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Boss on Adapting Beloved Anime: ‘It Was a Balancing Act’

Albert Kim needs you to know that he is an “Avatar: The Last Airbender” superfan.

The writer and executive producer of Netflix’s live-action retelling of the Nickelodeon cartoon took on the role of showrunner after creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko exited the series — but he was already part of the writers room and a longtime “Avatar” fan before that.

“I did work with [DiMartino and Konietzko] for a short period, and we overlapped while we were here and I got along great with them,” Kim told IndieWire ahead of “Avatar”s February 22 premiere. “I was excited just as a fan to be able to dig in and ask my own nerdy fan questions about Zuko’s mom and who Aang’s parents might be, and all the fun stuff fans like to talk about.”

Since diving into and immersing himself in all things “Avatar,” Kim may have unlocked a new level of fandom. During a 30-minute chat with IndieWire, he references details both in the animated series and in his own version, specific musical pieces, and the number of rings at the Pohuai Stronghold. But when it came to turning the adventure-of-the-week cartoon into an eight-episode drama, he knew he had to look at the story differently.

“The first thing I did was layout all 20 episodes of the original series on a big whiteboard, and then took a step back and looked at the whole arc and said, ‘What are the elements that can go together? Where the narrative through lines that connect?'” Kim said. “When you take a look at the overall arc, you realize there are certain things that go together just naturally, thematically. You have a character like Jet (Sebastian Amoruso) who is someone who’s pushed to an extreme place because of the war, and then you have a character like the mechanist (Danny Pudi), who is also someone who has been pushed to an extreme place because of the war. They both have good intentions, but they find themselves on opposite sides of the line. In the original, those stories take place in completely different locations, so we thought what if we bring them together? That felt like a natural way to create a thematic throughline.”

That also meant making sacrifices, whether it was because of new story directions (the break in to Avatar Roku’s temple) or for practical reasons like scale and budget. The writers room was a mix of diehard fans and the uninitiated, as was the set (there may have been some “Avatar” tattoos), to create accountability for which story points were essential and which could be repurposed.

“It was more a matter of getting the right ratio — mixing and matching the familiar elements with the new elements, whether or not something felt true to the spirit of the original,” Kim said. “That allowed us to explore new stories, which is also hopefully what fans will expect. They want to see all the familiar stuff, but they also want to be surprised. You don’t want to do a direct one-to-one translation. You want to be able to say this is a fresh story in its own right.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

IndieWire: The show really feels like it’s made for fans. How important was it to you to hit that but also make it accessible to newcomers?

Albert Kim: Well, that’s the whole game, isn’t it? It’s about making sure that millions of diehard fans aren’t disappointed, while also being appealing to a whole generation of new viewers who know nothing about the original — and that was a tough tightrope to walk. Every step of the way we just tried to remind ourselves that we can’t get too caught up in our own cleverness, and had to remember there are some people who don’t know who any of these characters are or what the bending is or what this world is, and we had to make sure that everything felt accessible to them. 

At the same time, we knew there were plenty of people who had very specific things they wanted to see from the show, so we tried to make sure we worked in as many of those as we could. It was a balancing act. Luckily, it wasn’t necessarily exclusive. It wasn’t like including a great action scene involving Aang (Gordon Cormier) and Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) precludes new viewers from getting into it. So the main thing with the diehard fans is making sure that they’re aware this is a new version of the story. As familiar as it might seem, we are telling our version of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” so things will change, things will feel different, but hopefully in a way that also feels familiar. One of the things we told ourselves throughout production is it should be fresh, but familiar.

I would love to know more about the decision to move up some of this season 2 stuff, not only Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) and Azula (Elizabeth Yu) but even some of the Omashu stuff.

It was all part of that same process of looking at the entire arc thematically and seeing what worked best. At certain points we found there were certain elements from later seasons that worked really well in our story. We had the benefit of hindsight; we could look back at a completed series, the three seasons of the original series and knew what was to come and what was going to happen there. So we were allowed to pick and choose a little bit without hopefully disrupting too much of the future seasons. The decision, for instance, to have more Azula and Ozai in the first season, that felt natural to me because I wanted to be able to balance out the story a little bit and show more of the Fire Nation than they did in the original. They are the antagonists so you want to know more about them, we want to know more about what went into Zuko’s (Dallas Liu) makeup and psychology and why he is the way he is, as well as tee up Azula and Ozai a little more for the subsequent seasons. Those felt very natural to me; again, I’m sure some fans are gonna have an issue with that, but I’m comfortable with those decisions. Again, there’s also practical reasons; The Fire Nation storyline gave us standing sets and locations we could cut to, whereas we’re going from different locations with our heroes every episode, so it provided storytelling balance in that sense too.

And then what was particularly exciting or daunting when you got to actually filming and being on set? It sounds like the visual effects and the budget was a big looming factor.

There are things you can do in animation that prove extremely difficult to do from a practical and financial reasons in live action. A sequence like the escape from Pohuai in the animation, which is incredibly epic sequence, is a very challenging one to do live action. We knew we wanted to do it because it was such a memorable thing, but we had to cut some corners here and there. I’m sure diehard fans will notice that our version of the Pohuai Stronghold only has two rings as opposed to three — that was cost savings thing. Hopefully it didn’t affect that sequence or the storyline that much. There were little corners we had to cut here and there to make those things work. It’s about being able to do something in live action that may be a little easier when it comes down to just illustrating.

Who’s your favorite character to watch or to write for — or both?

Oh, that’s always hard to answer because they all feel like my babies. They’re each great in their own way. Who doesn’t like Sokka (Ian Ousley) and his sense of humor? It’s so much fun to write for that. Or Aang and his optimism and childlike sense of hope? It’s incredibly refreshing to be able to write a character like that, and dare I say it’s something that’s needed in this day and age, so that was great. Katara (Kiawentiio) is probably the most emotional of the characters, so that’s catnip for writers. I would argue Zuko is probably the most popular character from the original series because of his incredible redemption arc; I think one of my favorite episodes of our series is all centered around Zuko; the sixth episode may be my favorite of the whole season.

I was really struck by how much Aang really seems like a little kid in this version. Was that conscious or just a byproduct of casting Gordon?

One of the things I’ve talked a lot about as being authentic in the show. That means being culturally authentic, being authentic to the original series, and also being age authentic. Aang is 12-year-old, and I wanted to make sure we cast a 12-year-old — actually Gordon was 11 when we cast him but he became 12, we had his birthday on set — and same with Katara being 15 and Zuko and Sokka as well. I didn’t want to cast a 25-year-old to play a 15-year-old. I know that’s a convention that happens in Hollywood, but that didn’t feel right to me because the journey of these characters is the journey of a bunch of kids, and it’s their outlook as kids that ends up changing the world. So it was very important for me to cast age-appropriately. I think fans will be surprised because it’s one thing to see a 12-year-old as a cartoon as another to see a real life 12-year-old, but I think it’s right for the story and hopefully people will will accept that.

It was very hard to watch him cry! He’s baby.

It makes you automatically feel for him when he’s a live-action 12-year-old kid — not that the original cartoon didn’t either, but there is more immediacy to seeing a live person going through those emotions, especially when they’re a child.

As a fan of the original, do you participate in shipping? I can’t help noticing certain choices in this show… Cave of Two Lovers, no Aang? Interesting…

I know better than to get into that debate. There’s no winning if I start talking about which ships I’m into. Fortunately for me, that becomes a tomorrow or later-season problem as you get into the original series and where those actually start to develop. It’s not something we had to address a whole lot in the first season. There were choices — like you said, with the cave of two lovers, but that was less about any kind of future romance or relationship and more about thematically what worked best for that story. That was a time in our season season where Katara and Sokka were in conflict, and it felt like the right move to have them go through the tunnels and be hit with the message of “Love is brightest in the dark.” It was less about shying away from any potential romance or relationship and more about what felt right for that story at that moment.

Having now filmed and watched it, what is something that has really struck you to see now on live action?

Seeing the final VFX go in and witnessing the epic nature of the story has been incredible, because even knowing what’s to come and having been there while we shot those scenes, it’s still not until you can see it on the screen with all of the VFX in place that you realize the emotional impact of certain scenes. Aside from that, it’s actually seeing the performances of these actors. Having been there on the day in production and seeing them is one thing, but then seeing them on the screen as an episode cut together, it’s just so much more moving. The ending of 106 I’ve watched so many times I’ve lost count, but it still brings a tear to my eye every single time. That’s something that I never get tired of.

Paul’s (Sun-Hyung Lee) performance during the episode with the funeral of his son is another scene that brings a tear to my eye every single time. As great as the original was, it didn’t have that kind of impact on me back then. I mean, “Leaves From the Vine” can make me misty every single time I hear it, but seeing Paul do that scene at his son’s funeral was just shattering.

The finale ends with Zuko recognizing that he has been manipulated by his family, and the comet coming back. Because of those back-to-back scenes, I feel like they’re positioned as equal conflicts, which is another significant change.

The comet was an interesting element in the original because it provided a ticking clock for the story. Aang and the others knew that they had to complete their mission before the comet returned. We didn’t have that available to us for a very practical reason which is that we didn’t know how long it would be before we can shoot a Season 2 or 3. However, I always knew that the looming threat of the comet had to be there, so we added it as that very end scene, to show that we were aware the threat is out there. It’s coming. And as it so happens, it ends up capping Zuko’s arc for the first season as well. That’s what creates that parallel that you’re talking about. That’s another thing that we had to consider in making the transition from an animated show to a live action is how do we account for the time span of the story? In the original series, pretty much all three seasons took place within the span of a calendar year. That was not something we’d ever be able to do, and it’s not something we can even try to do because human actors actually age and grow older and change. We had to account for that going into the first season.

It bookends Zuko’s arc but then you also have the very clear parallel of the comet in the beginning in the comet at the end, which I thought was a nice touch.

We wanted to do that bookend — to your point, new viewers might not even recognize what that is, probably won’t. But there’s that bookend there both for the fans of the show, but also if you go back and rewatch it you’ll see it begins and ends with the comet. Another way we bookended the series is the opening episode highlights Firelord Sozin’s (Hiro Kanagawa) strategy of misdirection and how he used that to attack the Air Nomads; and at the very end you see Firelord Ozai use the exact same tactic and reveal that he used the misdirection to conquer Omashu.

I’m still so curious how people who don’t know this world at all are going to respond. How would you pitch this show to someone who knows nothing about “Avatar,” who is just opening up their Netflix on February 22?

I would say that “Avatar” is this epic fantasy about a group of kids who set out to bring hope back to a world that’s in desperate need of it. Along the way they become a family, and bring that sensibility to everyone they meet on their journey. At heart, that’s what it is to me emotionally. On top of that, there is epic action and adventure with fantastical creatures, incredible environments, and bending effects that will blow you away.

They will airbend you away! Sorry. It sounds like you’re bracing yourself for some criticism, but what would you say to fans after they’ve watched these eight episodes, knowing that Season 2 or 3 may or may not be on the horizon?

I hope that they recognized and felt the love that we all had behind the scenes for the show and the story and the characters. We, like them, approached it as fans first and foremost, and respected what they expected from the show, and hopefully delivered on that. It sounds a little obvious, but I get the impression some people actually question our fandom level of the show itself, so I hope that comes through.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is now streaming on Netflix.

[teamchasez]

JC Chasez Unveils Meow Mix Campaign, Discusses the Power of ’90s Nostalgia and New Music: Exclusive

And just try to resist the sheer adorableness of the *NSYNC member’s feline costar, Tyler Snuggles

Cervanté Pope

February 16, 2023 | 3:15pm ET

They just don’t make boy bands like they used to. The same can be said for commercial jingles, for that matter. Catchy, ear-grabbing melodies don’t seem to hypnotically hit their way into your psyche in the same way anymore, but one of the catchiest of them all is changing that with another comeback.

Over the years, Meow Mix, the cat food cats ask for by name, has repurposed its advertising tune into many different forms since the original in 1980. There’s been a little something for everyone in a categorical sense, from metal, R&B and country being only a few of the genres the brand’s ReMix campaigns have taken on. The newest one is doing it even bigger by including a little help from a familiar face with a proven track record for creating catchy ditties himself: JC Chasez of the forever loved and adored *NSYNC.

“I grew up with a cat, so this was a no brainer,” Chasez tells Consequence about deciding to take on the project in the first place. “I think a lot of people tend to do obvious things, and I liked the fact that this wasn’t an obvious thing that people would see coming for me.”

Fun, silly and completely unobvious pretty accurately describe the upcoming commercial focusing on the Tabby 5, a cat version of the ‘90s boy bands we all had plastered on our walls back in the day. Consider Chasez — a certified cat person himself — the boy band consultant to the kitty group. He guides the cats through all of the classic, golden era of pop band tropes, from coordinated dance routines on their hind legs to singing in the rain in the most random locations like airplane hangars and basketball courts.

It’s the best of both worlds, marrying the collective love for cats with the collective need to return to a simpler time, all for the sake of kitty cat wet food. Yum.

But even if you aren’t a cat person OR an *NSYNC person (and seriously, how could you not be?), there’s still an immense amount of joy to get from this nostalgic homage. The Ulf Johansson-directed ad is set to begin airing in March, but be careful — if you thought the original tune lived rent free in your head, this one isn’t paying rent or utilities, and it’s eating up all your (cat) food. In a good way, of course.

Below, check out the full Q&A and get a first look at photos from the cat-astrophically adorable campaign with JC and Tyler Snuggles.

Consequence: Take us through the premise of the commercial for Meow Mix.

JC: They’re putting together a campaign that’s based around a cat boy band called the Tabby 5. I’m stepping in and helping out with a little bit of expertise and showing them the ropes because they’re doing a ‘90s nostalgia-based kind of remix in this whole cat world that we’re living in. I met one of the members today, which was a lot of fun. I spent some time with a cat, Tyler, and he’s one of the lead singers in the Tabby 5. I actually got to hang out with a cat on set today that’s a member of the band and which was, again, a wild world to be a part of but super fun, actually.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that sounds like such a perk for work — just going and hanging out with cats.

JC: It’s not a bad gig. It’s a-meowzing to be a part of this. This literally came out of out of nowhere, it came out of left field, and it’s been super fun.

Why did you decide to partner with Meow Mix? Are you a cat person?

JC: There’s actually a lot of layers to this. Yes. I grew up with a cat. Yes, I like cats. The fact that when they were reaching out to me they said they’re doing a boy band, and I was like, “Okay, this is a no-brainer.” I like to do things that are interesting… I think a lot of people tend to do obvious things, and I liked the fact that this wasn’t an obvious thing that people would see coming for me. So yeah, I actually loved the idea of coming from left of center, doing something a bit different and fun and a bit silly, you know?

Do you have anything else in the pipeline that you can tease?

JC: I’m always in the studio working on stuff. I’ve actually written two musicals during COVID. They’ll take forever to get made but I’ve written two so we’ll see what happens with them. There’s always something bubbling under, but right now I’m literally in London today, having fun. I hung out with a cat all day today. I said meow about 10,000 times while doing it so that’s where I’m at. That’s… that’s life.

Your life sounds awesome right now.

JC: It’s kind of hilarious and wonderful, yeah.