#like sorry but i will ALWAYS cheer for the underdog and in this case it's the brits. check your assumptions PLEASE i BEG you

[queermarzipan]

exploding things with my mind like matilda. as an irish person who speaks english only BARELY removed from british english, and who uses the euro (WHICH THE UK DOES NOT, BY THE WAY,,),

you are not funny for forcing us culture on britain. britain sucks. i agree. the us sucks more in this case

Too tired to draw but I still need everyone to be aware of this bizarre interaction I had at work this morning

[startanewdream]

*Harry looked at his mother."Stay close to me," he said quietly.* Could you write something about Harry having this moment with Lily, but in your world where Jily lives? Perhaps after Dumbledore's death, or at the end of the War, after Voldemort died. I don't know, I feel that Harry would be very attached to his mother in these important moments, and maybe if you want, your world where Jily lives is just perfect <3

Hey! Thank you so much for this prompt @sweeethinny! I love writing Lily and Harry’s moments together and this one is so special in the books!

Now, in the world I imagine, there are actually few moments that Harry needs his mother and she isn’t there. Then I thought about Voldemort’s ressurrection and the duel after, because this version of Priori Incantatem would have no James or Lily appearing. So Harry is alone... and he really needs his mother afterwards.

And then I finally wrote a version of the Third Task through Lily’s eyes, which is pure angst, really, but full of Lily’s mother love.

It’s on AO3 or below:

Their hug is so fleeting that Lily wonders if that moment will haunt her later.

She admonishes herself for ever thinking about that. Nothing will happen; it’s the Third Task and soon, whether Harry wins or not, this damn tournament will be over.

So for now, she hugs Harry but lets him go quickly, knowing he feels embarrassed of being hugged in public, and watches as James slids his hand fondly through Harry’s hair to mess it as much as he can. Harry smiles at them, nervous and a little excited too, and then he leaves them with the other champions.

James squeezes her hand as they sit again at the table, though neither is hungry anymore. In front of them, Hermione gives her a comforting smile, while Ron shakes his head.

‘Wanna bet he will end up winning this thing after all?’, he asks, turning to his brothers. Lily watches as they start betting on how long it will take for Harry to get out of the maze with the Cup in his hand, coins passing through their hands.

Her heart fills with a warm glee. They are betting on Harry. Never against him. 

They walk to the Quidditch Field, James and Ron complaining about the mess they’ve made in the field and discussing how it will be the next season, how much Harry will need to train in the Summer for making up for the year he lost without any match.

‘He caught an egg dragon’, Ginny notes brightly, right next to Hermione. ‘What is a Golden Snitch after that?’

They laugh and Lily lets that sound warm her too; she has been shivering ever since they left the castle, though the summer night is warm. There is just something in the air tonight that makes her feel ill. A calm before the storm, with just the wind announcing the change that will come.

It’s probably just the nervousness. She couldn’t show to Harry, during their free day at Hogwarts, how apprehensive she was, but now her nerves are probably catching on with her. These tasks seemed so dangerous after all, and Harry is still so young…

The air around her is calmer than in the other tasks, however. People are talking excitedly, everyone wondering who will be the champion; now and then, even amongst students of other schools, she hears Harry’s name. He was the underdog, but now he is a favourite - not because of being the Boy-Who-Lived, but because of his achievements so far. First with that dragon, with the way Harry had flown nearly perfect, acting smart and dancing around it, much better than his parents’ original suggestion of attacking it in the eye; and then, during that boring Second Task, when it was announced that Harry had taken longer only because he was worried about all other hostages, not just his.

Lily had been worried with his delay, but she had no heart to chide him later. He was never in danger after all, and Harry was just being his usual selfless; he always had a tendency to defend others. Lily could not complain about her son being a fair player.

‘He will be okay’, James whispers to her as they take their places at the stands, and Lily forces herself to smile. 

The sound of the whistle, marking the beginning of the Third Task, makes her jump, but with all the noise and confusion around her, no one seems to notice it. That’s better. She doesn’t need to infect her worries with others.

There doesn’t seem to be anything for her to worry, though. The first hour passes quickly. They can’t see anything inside the maze, but Bagman provides a few commentaries about what the champions have just faced - a boggart, an acromantula, a hole in the ground, blast-ended skrewts (though Lily is not sure she knows that), a disorientation fog, riddles, giant snakes.

And then it’s announced that the Beauxbatons champion is out. Lily remembers seeing that beautiful girl and wonders what happened to her, feels sorry she had to leave.

Ten minutes later, when Bagman announces the Durmstrang champion has left too, the crowd explodes in glee and noises around her. Now it’s only Harry and the Diggory boy on the run, which means a Hogwarts’ win in any case.

And now, for the first time, so close to the end, Lily really wonders how it would be if Harry really wins the tournament, instead of just surviving it. She can see the way he would beam, surprised and proud, how he would raise the cup and people would cheer around him; how Harry would be really happy because he won on his merits, and not because of something he did when he was one-year-old. That would be Harry’s victory, only his.

James will make sure to keep the cup in the middle of their living room; he will tell everyone how his son just won the Triwizard Tournament (‘and all the other champions were already of age, but Harry did not let that scare him, he fought bravely and won all the tasks! My son! Triwizard Champion!’).

And Lily can’t help but think that it’s her son, the son of a muggleborn witch, who will win the most traditional tournament, and what this means to her and other people like her. Oh, she will not mind gloating about this for once.

But the minutes go on, and there are no more announcements, Bagman’s voice silent and the excitement from the crowd is turning into whispers, questions, worries.

There is something wrong, Lily thinks, and she doesn’t need to say out loud because now not even James is frowning, quiet.

There is a commotion in the field, a bright colourful light that lasts for a second (‘Was that a portkey?’, James asks, confused), then she watches Dumbledore and the Minister rushing forward, but she can’t really see anything else. Then the whispers begin, those same words repeated in a crescendo as more people know about it and pass it on, a deadly song.

‘He is dead. Dead!’

She holds James’ hand as not to fall now. Everything is dark around her, and Lily is in a nightmare she can’t wake up, thinking of that last fleeting hug she gave on Harry; she should have hugged him more, refusing to let him leave the safety of her arms for the unknown. Why did she let him go? She feels the fire of the dragon burning her skin alive, the coldness of the deep of the lake and the still air of the maze that Harry entered to never come out -

‘Cedric Diggory! Dead!’

And it’s the first breath of air as she leaves that horrible nightmare, a relief beyond words, a lightness that comes to her as Lily understands it is not Harry that died…

Then it is guilt, a horrible feeling of being the worst person on the planet, because how can she be happy that someone else is dead? How can she actually smile when another parent will mourn their child today?

But there is no easy answer, no trying to understand what happened, just a primal urge to get to Harry and to make sure her son is safe.

She will worry about everything else later.

________________

‘Now I have work for each of you. Fudge's attitude, though not unexpected, changes everything’. Dumbledore is saying, looking at them all, and Lily knows what he will ask even before he says it.

She glances at Harry instead.

His face is pale, his eyes more troubled than a fourteen-year-old should have the right to be, and yet she can see he is watching everything with attention. He is trying to understand what is happening right now, as if witnessing Voldemort’s return and the crazy lunatics of that fake Mad-Eye Moody was not enough.

He needs to sleep - a dreamless sleep so he can begin to recover, as hard as that it will be.

Dumbledore turns first to Snape, asking him to do something if he is ready, and from the corner of her eyes Lily sees Snape’s eyes flickering briefly in her direction. She pretends not to have noticed it, as she has done every time they happened to meet before - it is easy because most of the time Snape doesn’t even seem to be able to look at her. And tonight she has more pressing things in her mind than an old friendship.

She knows Dumbledore will turn to her and James as soon as Snape leaves the room.

And he does, asking for their help to gather the old gang. The Order of the Phoenix.

Lily thinks of everyone that won’t be there for this second time and tries not to let this crush her heart. She doesn’t have time for old grieves today either. Harry needs her.

And, by God, how he needs. She sees the bandages in his arm, in his head; there are dark spots under his eyes, giving him a spooky look - he slept so little before he was awakened with the cries in the hall. And now the world he knows is falling around him, even if he doesn’t understand the full extension yet…

Everything will change now.

‘I will go’, James says softly, and Lily sees him watching her and Harry. James looks somber, much more than she has seen him in the last thirteen years, with that expression she didn’t really miss: the face of a soldier that was getting in a war he didn’t want to, but he would because he believed in everything he was fighting for.

She doesn’t want him to go, but someone has to, Lily knows. It is very important that people know the truth before it can be muffled, and they need to be ready. They need as much advantage as they can get.

Still, the idea of being away from James right now hurts her almost physically, an old familiar feeling of the unknowns that a war brings.

‘But… Dad…’, Harry’s voice is weak, but it is his tone that scares Lily. Harry sounds afraid for the first time that night - as if he too understands the possibility that James will walk off the door and not return.

She thinks of Cedric Diggory. His parents watched him enter a maze and he never returned. She can’t promise safety for Harry, not anymore; his trust in it has been broken forever.

He has faced death now.

‘I will be back before you awake, Harry’, James says soothingly, patting Harry’s feet over the blanket. ‘Right now I must do what I can, okay?’

Harry doesn’t look like he agrees, but he whispers: ‘Okay’.

James glances back at Lily. In those few seconds, she can read the fear in his eyes, not for himself, but for them; being away from his family at this moment doesn’t feel right for him either. But there is a fierce resolution in his eyes too, a notion of duty that James Potter will do everything he can for them, and Lily answers with a soft kiss on his lips.

Come back for us, is what she says in that kiss. If you want to do something for us, then come back.

‘I love you’, James whispers quietly, only for her, and she hears his promise of return in his voice.

And then he is gone.

She turns to Harry, sitting at the edge of his bed. Dumbledore tells him he will talk to the Diggorys and Lily closes her eyes as he leaves, fighting back a will to cry. It is the easiest thing to imagine what the Diggorys are going through and that scares her a lot.

Oh, God, Lily thinks to herself. Voldemort has returned only for a couple of hours now, the war has not even really begun, and she is fearful of everything already.

But she puts on her brave face. Later, when she is alone (or rather with James, his arms around her, preferably in the bedroom of the house they built together), she will let her feelings flow. Now, she needs to be there for Harry.

Lily opens her eyes, looking around. Ron and Hermione are staring at Harry, biting their lips as if they are on the edge of speech, but Harry’s eyes are fixed on the ceiling and nobody talks for a while.

She grabs the bottle of potion in the bedside cabinet, brushing the sack of gold as she does it. The sack falls in the ground, the sounds of metal coins echoing in the room. Harry winces as if that pains him.

‘You need to take your potion, Harry’, Lily tells him kindly, picking up the sack on the floor.

‘I don’t want it’, Harry murmurs. ‘The gold, I mean, I shouldn’t have won it. Ced… Cedric should have it’.

Lily tries to stop her hand from shaking as she uncorks the bottle of potion. It doesn’t work, but Harry doesn’t seem to notice as he holds the potion she gives him.

His brows are furrowed as if he is trying very hard to control himself. 

‘It wasn’t your fault, Harry’, she tells him, knowing she will have to repeat it a thousand times until he believes it.

‘It is’, he argues emotionless. ‘I told him to come with me. He was… the spare’.

Lily doesn’t know what he means by that, but she can’t ask right now. Harry is breathing through his mouth now, his lips trembling and he absolutely refuses to look at anyone. She knows his expression.

It’s the same on her face when she can’t cry at the moment.

Harry doesn’t want an audience. He was never one to feel comfortable with his emotions in public.

‘Drink your potion’, she orders gently, trying to force him to lie down, though he remains sitted. ‘We will let you rest -’

‘No’, he cuts her off, taking her hand in his. Harry looks around briefly, his head down as if he doesn’t want to meet anyone’s eyes, and then he whispers: ‘Stay... stay close to me’.

It’s the way Harry says it that breaks her. His voice is guilty as if he doesn’t want to be this weak, this dependant, the words seemingly escaping his mouth against his will. He is pleading to her, asking for comfort as he did when he was three-year-old and the thunder scared him and he was ashamed of it; Lily remembers him refusing James’ company, asking specifically for hers instead.

It is a son’s plea for his mother.

‘I’m always with you, Harry’, she promises him, bending down and placing her arms around her. She thinks Harry should hate her, because she feels a liar - she wasn’t there for her son tonight. Harry faced everything alone, as brave as he could, but all by himself, him against Voldemort, no lingering ghost of his parents to support him.

And yet Harry doesn’t yell, doesn’t accuse her of anything. He accepts her, raising his arms to hug her too almost desperately, and Lily hears him sobbing. It is a cry of misery, a cry that speaks how tired her teenage son is and how sorrowful he is for everything that happened, even when it is not his fault.

‘I’m here’, she tells him softly, caressing his hair, urging him to feel he is loved and protected by his mother.

There is a loud noise and they break apart. Harry’s face is drenched with tears and, as Lily blinks hers away, she realizes she was crying too. She dries them away quickly, before quietly wiping Harry’s face too. He is refusing to meet her eyes now, looking embarrassed and so young.

She kisses his forehead tenderly.

'Sleep, Harry', she whispers.

Harry takes the potion, drinking it in one gulp, and then his head is falling heavily on the pillow. Lily arranges his hair, then smoothes his blanket. Now, at least, in a dreamless sleep, Harry looks calmer, more like the fourteen-year-old boy he should be and yet never will.

She sits back on the chair, in a quiet vigil, waiting for James to return so they can be there, together, for when Harry wakes up.

[bellamyroselia]

Who could replace Hades as the new big bad? Overly long essay

Like pretty much everyone else in this fandom, I love Hades. Guy’s your typical pure evil villain with a personality larger than life itself and he’s having so much fun with it that it’s contagious. Every time he pops up, I’m delighted to see him. It’s so fun to see him do his shtick and have the time of his life with it, which also makes beating him feel so great. After all the crap he has put the main cast through, it’s so satisfying to blast him into the face because for a moment that confidence finally breaks and once it's all over, people cheer because they don’t have to live in horrible fear for a while at least. This characterization is mostly rooted on the sheer fear factor Hades had in the eyes of ancient people - even in civilizations which have rather chipper afterlife people tended to prefer living over dying, and this of course meant that they were absolutely terrified of the Underworld deities. Hades was mostly addressed by epithets in texts because people thought that if they called him by his name, they were drawing his attention and the last thing a sane person wants is the attention of an powerful god who has power over the dead. So if a god has this level of appeal, be it positive or negative, you may not even need excessive amount of mythological content to create a frame for a character!

This being said, I don’t believe his chances of coming back are as the big bad of a next game are high - that is unless we have to wait another 15-20 years to get a new game, but I’d like to be more hopeful than that. So if he isn’t coming back, who could possibly replace him as the new big bad of Kid Icarus? It’s not like the writers could ever run out of source material because there’s so many monsters to deal with and every god is more or less morally grey, meaning that there’s many possibilities for new bad guys regardless of the scale.

This took a lot longer than I originally expected and I’m sorry for that - there’s no worse idea than to jump into a rabbit hole and bringing a shovel with you because things will quickly spiral out of control into new interesting directions. The more info I gathered, the more interested I was on looking more into it and sometimes it even spiraled out of mythology into history and philosophy. If you’re interested on some specific reasons for why this took so long, here’s few: myths are long and there’s many different versions of them, epics are even longer, Peloponnese people couldn’t be bothered to write their own things down so I had to look what travelers wrote down, it takes Plato way too long to get into the point, Herodotus never gets into the point, someone translated the term metic as resident alien of all things which I thought was the funniest thing ever and Ludovisi Ares is really pretty.

This is the point where I give the obligatory warnings, so here - since I'm discussing mythology here, it's inevitable that there's some talk about violence and death. I'm not going to linger on the gruesome details, but know that it's there. At couple points this will spiral into a full-on history lesson because I thought that understanding the historical context was important regarding the topic I was discussing. Also this is a one long essay - and by long, I mean really, really long. If you want to read it all at one sitting, prepare some time for yourself. But with that all out of the way, let’s jump straight into the discussion on who could be the next possible big bad, shall we?

I’m limiting this mostly to the main 12 Olympians with the addition of some other big names to keep things simple - while some smaller mythological figures such as Arachne or Arke would work fantastically as villains, they don’t have that recognition or presentation the more well known characters have. We’re trying to speculate who could fill Hades’ shoes as the new main bad guy here after all, not who we could add on the list of great yet less significant antagonists like Medusa, Pandora and Thanatos. I’m excluding Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus and Demeter from this list for rather obvious reasons - Zeus because the the guy seems to be MIA for good so Palutena could rule the place, Athena and Hephaestus because Palutena and Dyntos practically are them and Demeter because Viridi pretty much is Mycenaean Demeter on steroids in a package way too small to contain all that anger within. I also don’t think her relationship with Pit and Palutena will change drastically, so she’s sitting comfortably on her friendenemy-zone.

As for already existing characters, I don’t think anyone of them could snatch the title of the big bad. Viridi is off the competition for already mentioned reasons and I don’t see anyone from Forces of Nature defecting to become the new main villain. Pyrrhon is either gone for good or went back to whatever is this world’s equivalent of Egypt to lick his wounds, so I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon - and if he’s coming, I don’t think he’s coming back as a main bad guy since he really wasn’t one to begin with. Thanatos’ only major mythological appearance is the myth of Sisyphus capturing death which doesn’t exactly strike confidence on his abilities in general and if that version of Thanatos couldn’t do his job correctly when meeting one guy too stubborn to die, do you really think that I believe our Thanatos has any chances of becoming the new big bad? Bringing back Medusa would be beating a dead horse at this point unless they really twist the formula and I don’t think that’s going to happen, so Medusa is off the competition. Pandora wasn’t all that big of a threat to begin with, so if she comes back she most likely stays that way. So it’s definitely going to be a new character, but who could it be?

As for who for sure can’t replace Hades as the new main bad, it’s Hestia. She probably has the lowest chance of any big Greek god to even appear in a possible future Kid Icarus game simply because there’s next to no material of her and that’s for a good reason. She was the goddess of hearth, domesticity, family, home and state. Most of these were and still are considered private, so that explains why there’s very little material of Hestia actually doing anything - we don’t write epic poetry about cleaning the house, making a macaroni casserole for dinner or going to bathroom and so didn’t the ancient people. With Hestia, you’re dealing with the bare bones of a character because she’s so passive and non-confrontational figure. It would be hard to make her a central figure in any kind of plot, especially for a one centered around action, so she’s out.

Hermes is also a figure I don’t think would work as a big bad or as an antagonist in general and I don’t really have any concrete reasons for why I think so. I just feel that he would be unfit for the role. He’s a trickster who started his shenanigans on the day he was born and the rest is mythology - by cunning escapades and underdog tactics he became the messenger of gods and from that point onward he kept collecting even more jobs such as becoming the god of merchants, shepherds and thieves, being a psychopomp, guiding dreams and helping heroes whenever he felt like it. He has a lot of going on but he’s always regarded as someone who knows all the tricks and isn’t afraid to use them, not all bad for a guy whose name was derived from a word meaning a pile of rocks.

As for why I think Hermes would make an terrible antagonist is mostly because of his status as the god of thieves and how it’s pretty much the easiest way to turn him into an antagonist. The thing here is that I just can’t stand antagonists whose main thing is that they’re amazing thieves and/or tricksters in games. While I think they can be enjoyable in other forms of media if they’re written on a smart way, in games this is almost never the case because gameplay and story don’t always match perfectly and writers need to use cheap tactics to make the character work - and by cheap I mean either A.I stands for artificial incompetence and the character is simply bad at being a thief/trickster despite all the characters and lore saying otherwise or that the game just starts cheating against the player to make them feel dumb even though they did nothing wrong. Thieves and tricksters are just really hard to balance in a game when it’s not the player character doing the deceiving. That perfect sweet spot for a great character is too goddamn tiny and if the thief/trickster isn’t exactly in there, you have an annoying character either because they’re incompetent at their job or because computer is a cheating bastard. So while there’s many enjoyable antagonists who share traits with Hermes, combine them all into a one character with the problems I already mentioned and most of the time you have a figure everybody hates due to how infuriating they’re to deal with. We’re trying to make people interested of going on and seeing what happens next here, not trying to annoy them to the point where they can just drop the game and never pick it up again. As for another reason I don’t think Hermes would work all that well as an antagonist is because his whole shtick is that despite his incredible powers, he still manages to be an underdog. Needless to say, the way underdogs are represented in media is vastly different from the way major antagonists are and while it can work, it’s hard to pull off. And of course there’s the thing of Hermes being portrayed almost always as a positive figure in myths, meaning that I and many others have a hard time imagining him as a bad guy. At his most evil we imagine Hermes doing stuff such as saying to his nephew that grandpa equals target practice, not anything that could threaten the world. Though if Hermes is included into the cast of a future game, I can image him having a theme that sounds similar to the BW rival theme for some reason. It has that I’m a one chipper fella but I’m also extremely busy right now so goodbye for a moment, see you soon-energy in it that I associate with Hermes.

As for what kind of role Hermes could be playing, he could work rather well as a quick cameo like Poseidon was in KI:U, where he offers help in some form. If one wants to go deeper into it, he could possibly run some service since he was the god of merchants and trade as well - though if one want to involve the fact of him being the god of thieves in addition to previously mentioned things, make him an occasional scammer because that’s what one would expect from a trickster. Or have him as a boss in a training gauntlet. Works either way.

______

If Artemis was introduced into the series, I don’t think she would be antagonistic. I can totally see her having a cold personality and her being bit of a hard person to deal with, but I don’t see her being actively malicious character - only example of Artemis being overly cruel towards figures KI-characters seem to be based on would be her sending the Calydonian boar to cause chaos in Calydon. It’s interesting if you believe Magnus and Gaol are at least partially inspired by Meleager and Atalanta like I do, but I don’t think it’s enough to make Artemis an antagonist, much less the main villain so she’s off the competition. Not to say she isn't wrathful, I looked into it and her wrath far outnumbers her blessings, though it's rather messy at times and some of them even can't co-exist the ones about Orion and Callisto definitely can't but her wrath is divorced from the main KI-cast. You'd have to create new characters to excuse it and KI already has a rather large cast, so I don't think it would be all that wise to create new characters just for the sake of goddess cursing them for a plot line that's resolved in couple chapters. Maybe she’s just a cameo or possibly a boss in a training gauntlet.

Apollo would be an antagonist. I just don’t see any other way how he could be introduced into the series. He has potential to be a charismatic, funny and mostly harmless antagonist who isn’t there to cause any trouble, he just really hates Pit and only Pit. But why would he hate Pit? It’s not like the mythological Apollo dislikes Icarus or Perseus and that’s indeed true, but there’s one more thing. For a god who we associate with a celestial body mostly made out of hydrogen and helium, Apollo has extremely high levels of sodium chloride within him - which is to say that he has been salty starting from the moment Hermes robbed him that one time and that lake of salt inside him has only become larger ever since. That salt is directed at people he dislikes and while he doesn’t dislike Icarus or Perseus because he never met either of them, guess who he does dislike? Angel-like gods, or just Eros to be more specific.

The story goes that Apollo’s enormous ego took the better of him one day and so he started to mock his nephew for what he thought was mediocre use of the bow and arrow. Insulted Eros decided that Apollo had officially lost his uncle-license which led him to curse Apollo to have the worst love life imaginable, starting with Daphne. And as we all know Cupid is Roman version of Eros and Pit is named after Cupid, so this was hatred made in heaven and it would be disappointing to not use the opportunity when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And you don’t even have to come up with an detailed and intriguing story to explain why Apollo hates him - something could’ve very well happened during the three years Pit’s consciousness was in that ring. His body may have ruined Apollo’s chances to hit it off with people because it was destroying their cities or something similar. Or just leave it as a noodle incident that’s referenced multiple times, everyone wonders what the heck actually happened but only Apollo knows, refusing to tell the story because he just assumes that everyone already knows it and they’re just messing with him by pretending to not know. Either way, Apollo should be an antagonist if he’s featured in a sequel. Not a villain, definitely not the big bad but fun antagonist to deal with.

______

This is something that most of you probably already know or at least you would know if you’ve actually read something other than Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or as I like to call it Jaded man screams at Emperor Augustus because apparently telling the Roman citizens to go all out on every monument the prude ever built clearly wasn’t enough, please tell me you have but Medusa isn’t an only child. She’s in fact one of Phorcys and Ceto’s seven children, both of them being somewhat monstrous primordial ocean deities - Phorcys has been described as a merman with red skin and crab claws, Ceto’s name in the other hand just literally means sea monster. Besides Medusa and the two other gorgons Stheno and Euryale, the list of their children includes the graeae sisters, serpentine dragon Ladon and Echidna, which is quite a lot of snake monsters for two deities who themselves don’t have any snake traits. There’s a lot of potential in this group but ideas of any of them becoming the new big bad end up falling apart because just like Medusa, they’re all rather bland characters like you’d expect from a mythological monster. They’re less like characters and more like plot devices that the hero needs to deal with. The only two members of this family besides Medusa who actually get to do something of importance are Ladon and Echidna and even those acts aren’t all that interesting. Echidna gets to have her many monstrous children with Typhon and then she’s apparently is killed by Argus, Hera’s servant-giant while sleeping on a cave just like her sister. Ladon guarded the garden of Hesperides which was well known for its golden apples and he doesn’t get to die with much dignity either, since Heracles just shoots him in the back and literally the next day other Argonauts find nymphs looking at his still twitching body. Alternatively Heracles just tricks Titan Atlas to do all the apple picking, which leaves Ladon alive.

Possibly one of the biggest problems writers have to deal with is setting. Ladon is very strictly tied into the garden setting and Echidna was cave dweller who never left her home, so writers would have to come with rather specific situations for them to appear. Of course if one wants to be lazy, Underworld could possibly serve as their home. It could very well house caves big enough to house a snake monster and Greek Underworld does have Elysium, which is basically Paradise and it could very well also function as a garden. But honestly even with the right setting, I don’t think either of them would make all that interesting big bads. They would definitely work fantastically as large-scale villains, but they don’t really have that much intimidation factor all things considered - you can blame Argus and Heracles for that.

But I’m not done with this family yet as there’s one character connected to them who’s probably the most feared monster of all Greco-Roman mythology and that’s Typhon, Echidna’s mate. He’s essentially an ancient Greek equivalent of a kaiju, more a destructive force of nature than a monster and everyone fears him - and by everyone, I mean everyone. There’s couple of versions of what happens but the most popular one goes that when the gods saw him, their first instinct was to shapeshift into animals and flee into Egypt. Those who did stay behind such as Hades were said to cover in fear in their homes while Typhon ravaged the land. Zeus tried to fight him but when he went for the kill, Typhon caught him and cut off his sinews, then threw him into a cave under the watch of another snake monster Delphyne. This didn’t stop Hermes and Pan from getting the sinews back and saving Zeus, and once his strength has been restored he and Typhon fought once again. Zeus eventually wearied Typhon down and then either casted him down into Tartarus or dropped a mountain on top of him, that being Mount Etna.

He could work very well as a big bad, problem here are just how high the stakes need to be for him to work. He’d had to be the ultimate villain if that was the case, the stakes need to be higher than they were with Hades. And considering how Hades was pretty much your typical pure evil villain causing chaos, what separates Typhon from him? Just some more chaos and no wisecracking dialogue because everyone is too scared to talk? He comes off as way too similar to Hades without all the fun personality. Maybe if KI:U became a KI:U-trilogy he could work as the ultimate big bad of the last game, but I got to say no otherwise. The bar for making him work is already sky-high due to how destructive he is and we don’t want to repeat the plot of Uprising here. So while he definitely can work, maybe save him for later.

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Hera and Poseidon both have potential to be serious antagonistic forces, but I don’t think they have it to be main villains. Hera simply fits the bill because most of the times she’s the antagonistic force actively trying to make people’s lives worse, all because she can’t direct her anger at correct people. Some times she’s just blatantly evil, like how she imprisoned her own daughter Eileithyia or you may better know her as Lucina to prevent the birth of Artemis and Apollo or how she tricked her pregnant great-granddaughter into disintegrating herself Semele is her great-granddaughter by the way. As for examples of Hera being wrathful which don’t involve Zeus being horny, she was said to be the one who sent Sphinx to Thebes, no reason given why or if there’s one, I couldn’t find it. Works either way.

Because she might as well be the personification of divine wrath, it’s pretty easy to see why one would think she would make a great villain. However that wrath also gives us a big problem, it being that her evil escapades are mostly rooted on anger and spite - while wrath is a good driving force for a villain, it needs more to work. With Hades, he does evil things for fun and is having a blast while doing it. Hera on the other hand just rages and most of the times it’s because of Zeus, who seems to be out of the picture. She’s not there to have fun and when you add her general lack of charisma on the top, you don’t end up with the most endearing character. While wrath can serve as a character motivation, it can become stale very quickly and this means that unless the story regarding villainy her is short (as in solved in 1-3 chapters) it starts to feel like dragging. I overall think that Hera does have very low chances to appear in general, but if she does appear as an antagonist she should preferably be a minor one in the same way Viridi was. You know the meme of what makes villain a supervillain and the answer is presentation? Hera doesn’t have that presentation. Writers can certainly just give her that which is what they did with Hades whose mythological counterpart was more or less a basement dweller, but why go trough all that trouble when there’s so many better candidates to work with?

On to Poseidon, who’s an important figure in the founding myth of Athens - it’s honestly quite odd how it’s never mentioned in any shape or form in KI:U despite Palutena being based on Athena. But then again, considering how much “care” this series put on the names of its cities and towns, this being ignored doesn’t really surprise me even if it does disappoint. He was a really big deal during the Mycenaean period, besides being the god of ocean he was also seen as the head god and the ruler of the Underworld. Then the Late Bronze Age collapse happened and Poseidon was nerfed in the lack of better words - during the Dark Age, Zeus became the new head god and Hades popped seemingly out of nowhere, taking over Poseidon’s role as the god ruling the Underworld. On the other news Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is somewhat dwarfed by the fact that most of his escapades involve banging and they don’t really feature any figures the main cast of KI seem to be based on. It’s annoying because he does so much but because it’s mostly banging people and either helping or bullying very specific heroes, it’s just not something that’s all that relevant in the context of KI. But there’s couple myths and stories that would make him an easy bad guy, first one is that of Atlantis - and we’re going to jump straight to the source material because on it’s core, it’s technically just another tale of Athena and Poseidon having a conflict. Fish people under the sea is fun as well, but by using the source directly it gives us the most potential.

So Plato tells in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias that when Athenian statesman Solon visited Egypt, he found some interesting records about certain events during 10th millennium BCE and translated them into Greek. Only thing here that’s true is Solon visiting Egypt, everything else was made up Plato - if you need more proof, know that 10th millennium BCE was during the stone age for context, Britain wasn’t sharing a land border with just France, but also with Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark during this time. It was that far into the past. As for the actual story, it begins by gods choosing lots of land for themselves and Poseidon chooses Atlantis. He then falls in love with a mortal woman Cleito, builds her a luxurious home, they have five sets of twin boys together and once the kids have all grown up, they divide Atlantis into ten parts and so is born ten different lineages of kings. But by each generation the kings become more and more human, meaning that it’s much more easier for their wealthy lifestyle to hit them in the head - compare that to Athenians in the story, who’re not tempted by luxuries and have quite Spartan lifestyle interestingly enough. This wealthy lifestyle of the Atlanteans quickly leads into colonialism and war mongering, leading into them trying to take over the Mediterranean but they’re are stopped by Athens because naval warfare was the only type of warfare Athenians actually excelled at. Zeus eventually looks down to see what the heck is going on and then tells Poseidon to do something because this racket is technically speaking all his fault. Poseidon agrees, causes an earthquake and then sweeps Atlantis under his rug, that being the ocean. So Atlantis is pretty much an antithesis of a perfect society, a concept that’s discussed more in Republic and the lesson here is that being consumed by hubris in the search of luxury leads to ruin - but since we’re not here for philosophy lessons, let’s forget all of that and think what kind of plot one could craft out of this mess.

Island nation in search of wealth is a good set-up for some action, so I don’t think there’s much that needs changing. Have Atlanteans attack some cities which alerts Palutena and that leads Pit into a mission in which he tries to tell Poseidon what’s going on. After 2-5 chapters of war against Atlanteans, Poseidon deals with the problem either willingly or by force - whether he just destroys the place or makes Atlanteans full on aquatic folk who can’t survive on land meaning that they have to give up the conquest is up to writers. It’s honestly quite refreshing to have the original tale working so well, because usually everything related to Atlantis in media is so divorced from what Plato told. Sure, a submerged city full of fish people could still work but by using the original tale as base we get a story with clear beginning and end which makes perfect sense in context of KI. Or maybe have the a plotline inspired by the original story first and then later have something related to the submerged city with the fish people. Best of both worlds, amazing!

Also orichalcum, the metal Atlanteans were said to have aplenty, is pretty much just copper. Reddish metal and only gold is more valuable than it, it couldn't be anything else but copper. The term even translates into mountain copper! So why is it never portrayed as copper in fiction?

Besides Atlantis, Poseidon has couple other myths I’d like to talk about too. The first one has him and Apollo losing their divine authority for a while and as punishment they have to serve Trojan king Laomedon father of king Priam and grandfather of Hector among some others if you’re wondering. The king makes them to build the legendary walls of Troy and he promises them great rewards, but once he doesn’t deliver them Apollo sends the plague upon Troy and then Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize the place Heracles kills it if you’re wondering. There’s also certain another situation which I’ve actually already talked about on a different post and how with little shaking it could work nicely on a future game - what I said was that Pit should do something Poseidon is going to hate to the point that the god is screaming for his head and that he wants to settle things on court.

The myth I used as reference was that of the supposed first trial in history, in which Ares kills Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius for assaulting his daughter and Poseidon loses his marbles over it. The gods gathered on Areopagus which is a real place in Athens, fun fact and I’ve heard two versions of how the trial goes. In the first version everyone agrees that Ares’ actions were justified and in the second one gods side with Poseidon, but goddesses side with Ares and since there was more goddesses present than gods, their words mattered more. Either way, Poseidon loses the trial and Ares gets away scot-free.

Were a future KI-game do their own twist with this myth, Pit would obviously take the role of Ares. Besides the fact that we’re trying to make Poseidon more antagonistic, Pit just being on a situation similar as Ares makes sense thematically speaking and I’m going to talk more about this later since it’s rather interesting. As for why the trial happens in the first place, it could very well be over anything. Maybe mix it with the one where Poseidon sends a sea monster to terrorize Troy just replace Troy with some unimportant city as this series always does and he’s so attached to it that seeing it getting slayed deeply saddens and angers him. You don’t even need to get rid of the idea that it was over a girl, even if the motive for killing the monster is changed along with what kind of relationship the girl could possibly have with the main cast. This is something I’ll get back into later because there’s in fact one other character who I’d like to talk about and how their most cruel and personal form of villainy happens to bound to a certain girl.

So back to Hera and Poseidon. There’s definitely potential for them to be antagonistic, but I’d say they would work much better as arc villains rather than as the main bad guy. There’s only so many things you can do with characters whose actions are rooted on anger or wrath, especially when they don’t have all that striking personalities.

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As for someone who could well work as the big bad, Dionysus is the first serious candidate. It’s partially due to how inconsistent his characterization has been, which I guess is something one should expect from a figure who has been around since the Mycenaean times and who happens to be the god of insanity, vegetation, orchards, fruit, grape-harvest, winemaking and wine. Does this sound like someone you’d expect to be a member of Forces of Nature? Because it sure does for me and I’d honestly be surprised if he wasn’t one if he was introduced to the franchise.

Symbolism behind Dionysus’ birth is pretty neat, my favorite version of it is the one written down by Diodorus of Sicily in Bibliotheca Historica and in that one Demeter is his mother. It starts the usual way in which the poor kid is killed shortly after his birth by Titans and Demeter comes back just in time to gather his remains to allow his rebirth shortly after. It references the harvest process and wine making - the god wine is born from the union of rain and earth just any plant is, he’s torn apart and boiled alive symbolizing the harvesting and wine-making process, his remains represent the fallen bare vines which become fertilizer for the earth and lastly wine itself is supposed symbolize the now reborn Dionysus. All of the versions of his birth myth do have this symbolism to a certain degree but I’d say this version has it the strongest because unlike his other the mother candidates, Demeter is a nature goddess first and foremost and also the goddess of agriculture.

This next point is somewhat tied to the previous one which is that he actually has valid reasons for his absence, that being his meanderings. Long story short - Hera’s angry over the fact that he exists, she injects him with madness and he wanders around like a madman for a while, then Rhea cures said madness and tells him to go on a journey so he could teach people how to make wine. So he goes and wanders around the world with the exception of Britain and Ethiopia for some reason teaching people the art of winemaking and does some other things in the meanwhile, such as apparently founding a city it’s told that on his campaign Alexander the Great came across a city that was supposedly founded by Dionysus. And this is a fun fact, apparently Dionysus’ popularity exploding around late 4th century BCE can be directly linked into Alexander, which is pretty neat. Once he comes back home he firmly establishes his place as a god and then he starts doing shenanigans much more familiar to us, such as giving king Midas his golden touch and marrying Ariadne.

So why do I think Dionysus is the first real contender for a possible new big bad? Well, do you know what’s the first thing he did once he came back to Greece? According to Bacchae, he brainwashed a city to worship him, caused an earthquake, set a palace on fire, gleefully watched when his worshipers teared a man into pieces and then turned some other people into serpents. Now that’s an entrance Viridi would be proud of!

Besides this, there’s also two similar stories in which Dionysus meets some pirates and they both show him as an unhinged god. They capture him and in the first one Dionysus shapeshifts into a lion and unleashes a bear against his captors, causing the scared pirates to abandon the ship and then Dionysus turns them into dolphins. In the other one he turns the mast and oars into snakes, fills the ship with ivy and the sound of flutes to make the pirates go mad and once again when they abandon the ship, Dionysus turns them into dolphins. The tale of him giving Midas his golden touch could also count as him being antagonistic since the act gives Midas nothing but suffering. So while he is much more friendly towards humans than your average god, Dionysus definitely has an antagonistic flare deep inside him and a place in the Forces of Nature and you can’t change my mind.

If Dionysus was a major antagonist or the big bad, I could see the plot going a lot like this - he comes home, causes some racket because he feels neglected, Viridi is happy about all of this and tries to control it while keeping him on this state of mind because who wants a happy party guy when you can have a chaotic deity, for a while she can do it but not for long before things snowball out of control and he becomes an unhinged god dead set on causing chaos. As for how he’s defeated, I can’t really come up with anything concrete on a fly but I don’t think Dionysus would be defeated the same way Hades was. And while he has the personality and presentation needed for a main antagonist, I just can’t see him as a pure evil villain like Hades was. He’s very much redeemable in my eyes and as for what happens to him after his defeat, I could see it leading to him mellowing down kind of like how Greek wine was watered down before it was used for anything - he’s still part of Forces of Nature and perfectly capable of doing all the same stuff he did as a major antagonist, but he would prefer partying with humans over destroying them. Viridi probably isn’t going to be all too happy about this, but it’s not like she’s going to be all that angry about it either.

Also fun fact at the end - in Dionysiaca, Ariadne laments if Eros and Anteros hate her because she had amazing dream about a wedding, only for Theseus to piss off and abandon her on Naxos. But as we all know, she would soon meet Dionysus who she does end up marrying so hey, the dream just wasn’t about the guy she thought she would marry. So if Dionysus isn’t going to be the big bad and the arc devoted to his villainy is relatively short, this could very well be used as a blueprint for a funny side story. Ariadne lamenting about Eros and Anteros would give Pit and Dark Pit valid reasons to be there.

This is not a joke, by the way. The part of Underworld which wasn't either Elysium or Tartarus was commonly referred as "the House of Hades" in ancient texts.

As for someone else who could also work quite well as the big bad, that would be Persephone. You all know the drill with her - Hades takes her, Demeter panics and goes to search her, she causes the Mediterranean summer on the meanwhile and does a thing which looks awful without context Demeter sets a baby on fire which is supposed to make him immortal if you’re wondering, everyone else decides that enough is enough because endless Mediterranean summer is a nightmare, they beg for Hades to give her back and he does that but not before the pomegranate trick. Demeter causes Mediterranean winter to come, the trouble is solved, we have a nice functional couple in our hands and they continue to appear together when Underworld is relevant to the plot - which surprisingly isn’t all that often as only Adonis, Heracles, Theseus who loses his arse and friend in the process, Orpheus who loses his wife and will to live in the process, Odysseys, Psyche and Aeneas managed to go to Underworld and back. That’s not really all that much all things considered.

And before anyone says anything about seasons here - Mediterranean climate is a thing and it’s best known for its hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. One of these is much more preferable for plant life and in this case, it’s not summer. The more you know.

While there’s not much material of her when compared some other people in this list, I’d say there’s enough to create a frame for a character. In both Theogony and Iliad Persephone is described as dreaded and in Odyssey Odysseus assumes Persephone is the one sending ghosts to torture him while he’s visiting the Underworld. Just like Hades she has her fair share of vague epithets like Despoina (mistress) and Kore (maiden), presumably for the same reason as to avoid getting her attention. And while the etymology behind her actual name is rather muddied, the popular theories are that it means something in the vain of to destroy, to bring/cause death and she who brings destruction. And people have the gall to say she isn’t scary!

With this info and Hades’ characterization from KI:U in mind, you could very easily create a powerful pure evil villain who’s not going to be happy to learn what happened to her husband. As for why I believe she would be pure evil instead of redeemable one like Dionysus, it’s simply so she and Hades would match on their villainy. Considering how the big thing about Hades and Persephone is that they genuinely love each other to the point of possessiveness Pirithous and Minthe learned it the hard way, it would be weird if they hadn’t rubbed on each other during the time they were together. There’s an amazing chance for drama here and it would be dumb to ignore it when it has been given to us on a golden platter. And besides, unholy matrimonies are quite fun in fiction. Villains too have something they love.

As for attempts of villainy that don’t revolve around her being antsy at Pit about Hades, we interestingly need to look at the list of those she granted favors rather than those that had to deal with her wrath - or just one of them in particular, Psyche. As I’ve already mentioned she was one of those mortals who managed to go to Underworld and back and to make things better, she went to Underworld specifically so she could speak to Persephone. Persephone greets her with a nice cushion to sit on and a banquet, which Psyche declines because it’s a trap this is practically just the pomegranate trick on a larger scale. She tells why she came into the Underworld in the first place and Persephone fulfills her request, which is to say that she gives Psyche boxed death.

Coming to Underworld to speak to Persephone in particular definitely gives Psyche an edge compared to others when it comes to exploring Persephone’s potential villainy. But just why is Psyche such a big deal when compared to someone else like Orpheus, Adonis or Aeneas? Well, Psyche just happens to be the girl who would become the goddess of soul, a job that isn’t currently filled by anyone in KI-universe which Hades has kindly illustrated to us in KI:U by eating and repurposing souls for his own purposes. She’s also Eros’ wife with the addition of being the mother of his daughter and as we all know at this point, Pit is mostly inspired by Eros. While Persephone just being angry about her husband’s treatment makes a perfectly fine motivation, why not use the chance when it has been represented to us on a golden platter? Because while KI has a large cast of characters, most them are quite divorced from one another when it comes to their mythological counterparts interacting with each other. This subverts it since Persephone actually gets to interact with someone important to the figure Pit’s inspired of, which is more than almost anyone else in this list can say. The opportunity is there and there’s an open position for a new god, so why not take it?

Also if Persephone is going to be in a future game, I say I’m going to be so disappointed if there's not at least one pun about her epithet Kore. Like imagine if she was introduced on a chapter called Lost Kore or something similar and then the characters would just continue on making bad puns, annoying her. Wouldn’t be too out of line when it comes to this series humor.

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I know what I’m going to say next is probably going to be controversial, but anyway - if Ares ever makes an appearance, I don’t think he would be a bad guy and this is mostly due to how Pit has been characterized. I know that may sound weird at first but trust me, I do actually have a point with this.

So let’s start with something that may seem completely unrelated at first, these being a history lesson and some talk about over-demonization. We honestly don’t know much about how some city states worshiped gods and what specific versions of the myths they had because some people just couldn’t be bothered to write things down. Besides it being extremely annoying for me, this is also probably where the misconception of all of ancient Greece being either like Athens or Sparta came from, which just is completely false. However what is correct is that city states didn’t really like one another all that much and often engaged on stupid wars with each other, only uniting when there was a much bigger threat looming on the horizon - and with war comes propaganda and when only some people write things down, we’re usually left with really one-sided information when it comes to both good and bad. For one example of this coming off as hilariously hypocritical to me is Athena being worshiped under the epithet Areia in Athens. Areia is very obviously derived from Ares and means warlike, but Athenians had their heads so far in their arses that they came up with a reasoning that this version of the epithet is actually derived from areô or areskô, meaning to propriate or atone for. It’s most likely just some crap Athenians came up with to excuse the worship of Athena Areia, which I just can’t help but find pathetically funny - you can only blame your own propaganda for this, guys.

Historically speaking Ares most likely originates from Thrace since besides his popularity in there Herodotus notes in Histories that only gods from Olympian Pantheon that Thracians worshiped were Ares, Artemis and Dionysus, a really odd trio if I have to say so myself, it’s also said to be his birthplace in the myths. His name can be found on Linear B scripts, a writing system that goes as far back as 1450 BCE and which disappeared during the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1100 BCE. This informs us that he was part of the Mycenaean Pantheon in some way, most likely even then as a war god - it also informs us that he predates gods such as Apollo, Hades and Aphrodite who just don’t exist in Mycenaean texts at least in any recognizable forms. As for Ares during the Archaic, Classical and Hellenic period, especially when it came to places that weren’t either Athens/Attica or Sparta, I had to mostly rely on travelers who wrote things they saw down because some people just didn’t bother to write their own stuff down. Pausanias’ Description of Greece was especially helpful with the research, but what must be remembered is that he lived during 2nd century CE and that he was an outsider to these cultural aspects so how old some of this stuff here is and what the exact context behind it was, I don’t know and neither do others at least currently, one sure can hope so we know more in the future. Then again past is another country so maybe I'm setting my hopes way too high. When given anything in Linear A, people channel their best "I never learned how to read!"-impression.

As for how Ares’ Roman counterpart Mars came to be, it’s mostly due to syncretization. He probably was originally an agricultural god who was later associated with warfare once the Roman Republic started expanding. It’s possible that he was syncretized with an Etruscan deity called Maris, who was usually portrayed as a young boy whose caregiver was Menrva, a goddess who was later identified with Athena and Minerva. While this isn’t an universally agreed take, it’s still pretty interesting in context of Kid Icarus even if it wasn’t intentional or in the case of the take, true. Once Romans started to interact with Greek settlers from Magna Graecia Mars was syncretized with Ares, giving us the Roman god that looks familiar to us. One notable thing to keep in mind is that most of those Greek settlers in Magna Graecia originated from Peloponnese and what I’ve managed to find, they held Ares on much more higher regard than those originating from Attica did.

Okay, now when that has been cleaned out of the way, let’s go to the slightly more interesting stuff which is cult titles and epithets. Just like any other god he has his fair share of both, some examples include Teichesipletes (stormer of cities/walls), Hippius (horseman, of the horses), Theritas (beastly/brutish), Enyalius (warlike), Obrimus (strong/mighty), Thurus (violent/furious), Chrysopelex (of the golden helm) and Chalcocorustes (armed with bronze). I’m using Latin spelling of these to make things easier for myself if you’re wondering. But there’s two titles I specifically want to talk about, both them originating from Arcadia around Tegea because apparently all the cool stuff happens in Arcadia.

Interestingly also in Tegea there was a temple of Athena under epithet Alea. Pausanias tells that her priest there was a boy who held the title until he reached puberty, meaning that her priest was a child. Now this has nothing to do with Ares, but it’s pretty interesting when thinking of Pit. It’s not exactly same for sure, but could this mean that he would leave Palutena if he ever grew up?

The first one is Gynaecothoenas, meaning “Feasted by women” - and no need to worry, it’s nowhere near as sexual as it sounds. The story goes that Tegeteans were at war with Sparta and what decided the victory was an ambush by Tegetean women. Because of this, they offered Ares a sacrifice and celebrated the victory alone. The king of the Spartans at the time was said to be Charilaus, meaning that this victory must have happened around early-to-mid 8th century BCE, making this rather old cult title by the time Pausanias was writing. If only the research for everything else here could’ve been as easy as this.

The other and much more interesting title was Aphneius, meaning “Abundant” and under this title he was worshiped as the giver of food or abundance. The story behind this title goes that Ares fell in love with Tegetean princess Aerope and they had a child together, but she died during childbirth. Ares, doing his damndest to keep his son alive, managed to find a way for the baby to still have milk. Once he grew up, his son Aeropus then managed to do the thing that’s near impossible for a demigod, which is to live a normal life as the lord of Tegea. Now this would make a great character backstory…

… What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, history lesson is over! Finally! Now into the fun stuff, which is Pit’s characterization. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that that Pit’s inspirations are Icarus, Perseus and Eros but when it comes to his characterization, Eros definitely takes the cake as the main inspiration. He is a fully realized character with multiple myths under his wing, unlike Icarus or Perseus.

Starting with Icarus, he isn’t even a character but a plot device. He’s a tool for Daedalus’ character development and that’s where his importance ends. He’s a miniscule part on a much larger narrative in which the most important part is the Minotaur, as it drives the plot for everything else in it. Icarus’ death serves to drive Daedalus’ character to the point which eventually leads into him killing Minos. He exists for a metaphor that pop-culture has blown out to be way more important than it originally was and that’s it.

As for Perseus… The guy is just really bland. While all the other heroes have their flaws like hubris and wrath, Perseus doesn’t really have any flaws. He doesn’t have that many achievements in either bravery or stupidity due to his method of dealing with things being the quickest way possible. This makes all of his battles extremely boring and because he’s one of the first demigod heroes in the mythological timeline, he doesn’t even get to interact with anyone who could be interesting. How many of you even know that he’s supposed be the founding hero of Mycenae? Not many, I’m sure about that. The most interesting thing about the guy his that he’s an ancestor to people such as Tyndareus, Alcheme, Heracles, Penelope and Telemachus but this doesn’t save him from being any less boring. He's that famous ancestor nobody gives a damn, so to speak. Pit certainly doesn’t get any part of his personality from a plot device or a blank of wood, only a literary reference and an antagonist.

Also can I quickly rant about the Angels in art vs. Angels in Bible meme because I hate it? For some reason most of times when people show art of these supposed angels, they aren’t even showing biblical angels but Erotes/Amores or Nike/Victoria instead. Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria are winged Greco-Roman gods, not biblical angels and using art of them proves absolutely nothing. Also you may have forgotten that there’s in fact hierarchy of angels and not all of them look identical. In Christian faith angelic hierarchy is composed of three orders, there being nine different kinds of angels - Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim/Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Seraphim and Cherubim do indeed look terrifying and so do Ophanim, but Thrones are just bizarre because apparently they’re elderly carrying God’s throne, whatever that means also I’ve seen people use Ophanim and Thrones interchangeably which just makes the whole deal even bigger of a mess. And then there’s Dominions, who’re just really pretty winged people, proving that the idea of all biblical angels looking terrifying is completely false. I couldn’t find what Virtues looked like, but if they’re anything like Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels they’re most likely pretty winged humanoids. So yeah, surprising amount of biblical angels are indeed just pretty winged humanoids and only the highest order of them is clearly inhuman - so if you ever wondered why so many angels in art actually featuring Biblical angels have them looking so humanlike, now you know! It's not the highest rank's job to interact with the human world. Though in modern language, the term angel is simply used as an umbrella term which refers into a winged humanoid being regardless of which religion they originated from - so by using this as a frame, it would indeed make Erotes/Amores and Nike/Victoria angels along with some other winged gods such as Eos and Iris. This would also make Iris’ twin sister Arke a fallen angel because as punishment for siding with the Titans during Titanomachy, she was casted into Tartarus and her wings were ripped off so she could never escape from there. And then much later her wings are given as a wedding gift to Achilles’ parents, my god! You could actually a craft a plot out of this, hmmm. When it comes Pit and Dark Pit, I do think they’re angels only on this broad, modern way definition due to them being mostly inspired by the Greco-Roman Erotes/Amores and it’s possible that they’re only referred as angels because not only is the term Erotes/Amores is strictly associated with Aphrodite and only Aphrodite, it's also much more specialized term than just "angel". There has also been cases in art featuring multiple Nikes, but Nike's special role as the goddess of victory still prevents its use as a broad term. So I believe that in the case of KI, angel is just an useful umbrella term and nothing more.

So Pit’s mostly an Eros-expy when it comes to his personality and attributes, so what makes him so special when compared to many other Eros-expies in media? It’s actually a surprisingly small thing, but boy does it make a difference - on a thematic sense, Pit’s a total daddy’s boy and in this case the dad would be Ares. Most of the Eros-expies you see in media are completely divorced from anything related to Ares despite the guy being Eros’ dad but not in Kid Icarus, where we have a very blatant Eros-expy whose connections to his main mythological inspiration come almost exclusively from Ares. Just why is Pit doing Nike’s job? Because Nike happens to be Ares’ daughter according to some sources, like in the Homeric hymn dedicated to him. Why’s he a soldier in an army? Because Ares was a soldier and in some parts of Greece he was seen as a model of a perfect one who’s resilient and has physical strength that isn’t matched by anyone else. Apparently in Sparta they even had a statue of shacked Ares, supposedly as an attempt to keep the martial spirit and victory in Sparta I don’t know about you but for me this sounds like a very bad move, as if they were asking for the god’s wrath. Then again Athenians did the same thing with wingless Nike, so I guess it was fine in some twisted way. Why does Dark Pit exist? Because would you know it, there’s myth in which Ares and Aphrodite spot lonely little Eros and decide to create Anteros to be his brother, their only differences being hair, wings and weapons of choice Anteros has longer hair, plumed butterfly wings, golden club and lead arrows when compared to Eros' golden bow + both golden and lead arrows. Why does Magnus possibly being based on Meleager matter? Because would you know it, the dude’s sometimes a son of Ares. Why did he spend three years trapped inside a ring? It could parallel the tale of Ares and the giants, in which he spent a lunar year trapped inside a jar. Why does a dog help him during that section? It could still very well be reference Ares and the giants as Hermes and Artemis came to save him and one of Artemis’ sacred animals is a dog and Hermes is the god guard dogs. Also one of Ares’ sacred animals is dog as well, meaning that it could reference this as well. Honestly if Pit ends up having a divine parent and it’s not Ares, I call bullcrap.

So now when that has been made clear, what can writers do with Ares? Well if you take the myth of Poseidon wanting to settle things on court and give it to Pit, you end up losing one of his three major myths in which he’s wrathful towards someone odd I know, you’d probably expect a god of war to be much more wrathful but no, he’s not. The two ones that are left don’t really give all that great material either because in the first one, the target is Adonis and whether it even was Ares’ wrath that killed him is left open - in some versions it’s Artemis who wants him dead because she’s angry at Aphrodite for causing the situation which lead to the death of her hunter Hippolytus, sometimes it’s Apollo who still hasn’t forgiven Aphrodite for blinding his son Erymanthus, occasionally it’s Persephone of all people because she’s angry at Adonis for wanting so spend time with Aphrodite and at times it’s just an accident this all makes me think it was an elaborate coup. There’s always a reason for a divine being to be angry at Aphrodite because she just can’t help but cause trouble whenever she can. When it comes to the second one, it’s honestly pretty odd because not only does Ares forgive the man who originally was the target of his wrath, it illustrates how good of a parent he is on Olympian standards not that it’s a high bar but anyway - even better than the lady whose favorite boytoy he is, and she’s well known for being an overprotective parent.

The myth starts with this lad called Cadmus, who founds the city of Thebes, becomes its king and then kills a dragon residing on a nearby spring. Ares is furious about this since the dragon was sacred to him and apparently it’s sometimes his son, don't know how that works and as punishment, Cadmus has to serve Ares for eight years he got it easy when compared to Adonis and Halirrhothius. Once that service is over, Cadmus marries one of the two daughters of Ares and Aphrodite, this being Harmonia, the goddess of harmony. However not everything is all sunshine and rainbows because Hephaestus is still salty about how his marriage with Aphrodite went south and once he hears about a wedding, he prepares two gifts for the bride - first one was a beautiful necklace that could keep its wearer eternally youthful and the other one was a luxurious robe. But there was a catch, since both of these objects were cursed to bring bad luck to those who owned them. The bad luck eventually took its take on Cadmus’ mental state and one day he remarked that if gods fancied those serpents so much, maybe his life would be so much better as one. Gods fulfill this wish, he’s turned into a serpent and once Harmonia notices what has happened, she wishes the same. At one point Dionysus comes to the city, trashes the place and then gives them a propechy of this happening. Either way, Ares comes down to get the unlucky couple and then scoots them to safety in paradise-like Elysium, where they get to reside from now on.

You may already be familiar with this myth to a certain degree because Pokemon B/W could technically count as an adaptation of it. N is of course the most obvious parallel due to him getting his second name from Harmonia and Ghetsis takes a role comparable to Hephaestus. It all becomes even funnier because Harmonia hits some characteristics associated with yin - she’s passive, feminine figure who represents harmony which can only exist due to lack of action, an idea. It gains even more hilarity points thanks to existence of Adrestia, Harmonia’s sister and the goddess of revolt - she’s pretty much yang to Harmonia’s yin and to make things even more hilarious, she was often portrayed as a beautiful winged maiden. Now who would expect the goddess of revolt to be a lovely winged lady and the goddess of harmony to be at least momentarily a serpent?

While this is indeed an interesting myth, I don’t think it would make all great material for future KI-game, at least on its current form. The cast of KI doesn’t really get to interact with humans on a personal level, which is something this myth largely relies on. Honestly, I think the best way it could be referenced in game would be just Pit going to Elysium and meeting Harmonia still trapped on a draconic form. Considering the way Hades had been characterized in KI:U, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had just kept trapped Harmonia as a pet lizard in his garden. Maybe say something on the vain of him eating the husband’s soul or using it for something else to explain why she’s there all by herself. And if you want to make fun of the fact that the fourth wall might as well not exist, throw Adrestia in Elysium as well as a dragon as a nod to Pokemon. “The Twin Dragonesses of Elysium” sounds like it would make a very cool boss fight.

So a wrath or blessing, Ares gives us not much to work with either of those at least when it comes to him actually doing stuff - but that doesn’t mean we’re left with nothing because there’s three myths that I’ve glossed over quickly that could give us something, one just for comedy and two others actual plot. As for the one that’s just for comedy, it’s the one in which Sisyphus captures Thanatos. Ares is actually the one to save Thanatos from the tough situation since after it has continued for a month, he bursts into Sisyphus’ house, frees Thanatos and drags Sisyphus’ spirit to the Underworld… Only for him to come up with a sad story, which leads into Persephone letting him go only for it to backfire. Ares then disappears from the story, but it ends up with Sisyphus doing P.E for eternity in Tartarus once he dies for real as you all already know. This is pretty funny if a bit morbid myth, so it could be really easy to use it as a comedy goldmine if Ares ever interacted with Thanatos. Maybe have Thanatos trying to act like they’re friends, only for Ares to become more and more frustrated the longer Thanatos continues. Maybe once he mentions some of his escapades involving Pit, Ares finally decides that enough is enough and shows to Thanatos that mortals don’t call him by the name Thurus for nothing.

To the myths you could get some serious plot out of, the first one is very predictably the one in which he earns the title Aphneius. It just has everything a great character backstory needs on its original form, meaning that it could easily be inserted on the game with minimal changes and it could still work fantastically. It has a romance between a god and a mortal which ends up on a tragedy during a moment that was supposed to be joyous not because of any divine whim or I guess it could’ve been Aphrodite being salty because she has a habit of releasing her wrath upon Ares’ loved ones or relatives, usually grandchildren such as Hippolytus, but I think it would’ve been written down had the story actually said it was Aphrodite behind Aerope’s death, but because of something beyond their control. And instead of taking his frustrations on the baby like so many fathers in these stories do, he instead does everything to keep him alive and so Aeropus grows up to be fine ruler, if an unremarkable demigod. A writer could easily use Aeropus as a base for an interesting heroic character… And I guess you can already see where this is going. I already said that Ares would make the most sense as Pit’s divine parent if he indeed has one, so this would make an excellent backstory if that was the case.

I could see the timeline going something like this if this was true - Ares meets KI-universe’s equivalent of Aerope, the two have an adorable romance and are expecting a kid but something goes horribly wrong and Aerope dies, instead of letting Aerope’s family to take care of the kid Ares takes the baby with him because who knows what they would do to a winged baby so many myths have families abandoning their kids for dumber reasons than this so why wouldn’t he take the kid with him + this dude had 3-6 winged kids, one all by himself, so he definitely is the one hogging all the wing genes instead of Aphrodite, he tries single parenting but it’s hard when certain goddess is constantly shooting stinkeyes and paralyzing glares at his direction and it leads into him asking help from Palutena because a winged kid wouldn’t look too out of place among her angel minions. Considering how Palutena and Poseidon were capable of having a conversation in KI:U without any horrible atrocities being committed, I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to imagine her relationship with Ares being along your typical sibling-relationship rather than what Atheanians wrote down Ares and Athena were actually worshiped together in the town of Olympia under titles Hippius and Hippias, fun fact. You could also see it as a favor inspired by how Menrva took care of Maris. Anyway, this deal goes swimmingly for a while until the events of a certain other myth take place, which makes Palutena the sole caregiver of Pit - some unspecified amount of time later que the events of the original Kid Icarus and onward.

Fanfic time over, now to the other myth which could explain Ares’ absence - it’s the one about him and the giants. Long story short, there’s these two giants called Ephialtes (derived from the word meaning nightmare) and Otus (either derived from the word meaning insatiate, doom or horned owl) who’re sons of Poseidon because of course they are, goddammit Poseidon and a mortal woman Iphimedeia, they’re also called by the name Aloadae. They were planning to storm into Olympus to kidnap some wives for themselves, Otus wanting Artemis and Ephialtes wanting Hera what great choices, you complete imbeciles, absolutely amazing. So one day Olympians are surprised to find these two giants piling up mountains on top one another and as expected, there’s a big fight between them because no one comes to the Olympian home turf without facing the consequences. Once the two giants finally leave, the Olympians notice that someone is missing, that being Ares. Ephialtes and Otus probably realized way too late that kidnapping the god of war wasn’t the brightest idea and because letting him go wasn’t an option, they locked him inside bronze jar of which he tried to break out without success. It took around a lunar year for the giants stepmother to rat this out to Hermes, who went to save Ares with Artemis. While she distracted the giants and made them throw their spears at each other, Hermes lockpicked Ares out of the jar and so the three returned to Olympus.

So how could this myth be used while crafting a plot for a future game? I’d say it depends on whether writers want to use Ares as a full-blown good guy from the start or as an antagonist at first - and while I do still believe that Ares wouldn’t be a bad guy on his own free will, who said he’s going to burst out of that jar with that free will still intact? It’s not like we haven’t seen brainwashed antagonists in the series before, Gaol was a one.

So if we have Ares as an antagonist who’s brainwashed and crazy, how could the possible plot be handled? I could see it starting with the two giants resurfacing for something trivial but because they’re being destructive, it catches the attention of Palutena who sends Pit down to deal with them. The giants are dealt with in 1-3 chapters and one way or another Pit finds a large jar and breaks it, releasing the crazed Ares. Neither side recognizes each other and there’s possibly a boss fight which ends with Ares leaving and him becoming a wandering antagonist who causes racket when someone angers him. He most likely isn’t connected to any other antagonist or the main villain, but I could see them trying to recruit him without any success. As for how he was brainwashed in the first place, it could be the Aloadae wanting to get some use out of their prisoner and they decided to make him into an indestructible living weapon either to themselves or someone else - maybe it even was commissioned by the big bad because who wouldn’t want an powerful living weapon who’s loyal to you and only you. Either way it proves fruitless as Pit frees Ares from the mind control and slowly but surely he starts to establish himself as a good guy and an ally to Pit and Palutena.

This would actually go pretty well along with a certain another thing about Ares, that being helmet and symbolism connected to it - you see, mythological Ares was often portrayed to have something I like to call Meta Knight-syndrome. He was said to be a beautiful man with a lovely face, apparently much more prettier than any other male Olympian which could possibly explain why he’s Aphrodite’s favorite boytoy and he wasn’t particularly proud of it - just what kind of self-respecting enemy would take you seriously if you have a face of an angel? But that didn’t stop people from drawing or sculpting him without a helmet, and the result were indeed pretty my goodness is Ludovisi Ares a one beautiful sculpture. Just considering how the art we see of Ares can be categorized into him either with or without a helmet, writers could easily craft a narrative out of this - while wearing a helmet he’s under mind control and once freed he fights helmetless, allowing player to see him as who he really is. Helmet obscuring the face equals bad guy and once it cracks, we can have a very confused ally who cries over the fact that his baby is a big boy now, cries some more because there’s two of them now, may or may not join us to missions if there’s a two-player mode for story or just help with training and also maybe cracks dad jokes few times because humor is a valid coping mechanism. This all kind of reminds me how one other popular trend relating to Ares in art was to have him disarmed with young Eros playing with his armor. Cute!

Somewhat relating to the idea of Ares starting as a brainwashed antagonist turned ally once the helmet is smashed, I could see him having two different themes which illustrate the different natures of him. First one should be something brooding and terrifying, maybe something similar to Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War which a really great piece of classical music that has inspired composers all around the world, even at Nintendo. If you haven’t heard it, you certainly have heard at least one song inspired by it metal genre can thank its existence on Mars, no kidding. As for the other theme, I think it should be a warm, calm and welcoming one with a hint of sadness, a complete opposite of the battle theme when it comes to the first expression. I’ve been recently listening a lot of TSFH and Hans Zimmer so if I had to say what kind of energy I’d want this possible theme to have, I’d probably say something between TSFH’s Friendship To Last from the demonstration album Nemesis, Final Days of Rome from album Unleashed and Now we are free from Gladiator. They all have this bittersweet yet beautiful feeling in them I love. Maybe there’s a shared leitmotif or something between the two themes connecting them into each other. Thurus and Aphneius were both titles for the same god after all, even if they were about wildly different aspects of him.

So just like with Apollo, I think there’s only one way to bring Ares into the franchise and in this case it would be making him Pit’s dad. It just makes way too much sense to me considering how Pit has been characterized that it would be odd if there wasn’t any connection between the two. And there’s even couple out-of-universe reasons why I don’t believe he would be the bad guy, the first and most notable being that the names Ares and Mars are already associated with morally righteous characters or at least characters we’re supposed to root for in Nintendo games. Sakurai certainly knows this, Marth has been in Super Smash Bros since Melee as a playable character and his name just blatantly is Mars in Japanese and his English name is just the Japanese way of saying Mars. You don’t bastardize the face of another franchise in your own one, especially if you’re both exclusives to the same company and the other franchise is much more bigger and important than yours is.

Since it would be hard to introduce Ares into the franchise, I would be completely fine with him not being featured in next game at all even though I would find it extremely disappointing. But if you’re not going to have him, at least have a reference to him in form of a weapon like Blade of Ares or Blade of Mars because would you know it, the legendary sword of Attila was also known as the sword of Mars. We’re probably never going to get actual swords in KI but blade has been used as a synonym for them, so there being a blade with said name could work just fine. That or finally add spear and shield combo into the game. But if you want to use the character who would work as the big bad the best into their fullest, maybe it would be a good idea to have Ares as well... All roads may lead to Rome, but not to the arms of Genetrix in this case.

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Call me crazy, but I think that Aphrodite would make the perfect big bad. Does she have that charisma and personality comparable to Hades? Yes she does, and unlike him she had all that in real life - one of her titles was Pandemos, quite literally meaning “of the people”. This made her extremely popular among people regardless who they were or where they lived, and how can you blame them since there’s not many people whom things such as beauty, love and sex don’t matter in some shape or form. Only Olympian who really matched her when it came to popularity was Zeus, but considering how he was the king of all gods it was to be expected that he’d outrank her on the popularity board. She was the most popular goddess in Greece by a longshot and that was also true for Venus in Rome, even if Mars took the place as the second most popular god after Jupiter. Due to her being the mother of Roman founding hero Aeneas, she was viewed as the mother of all Rome and it was used by people as a way to climb up the political ladder. The Julio-Claudian dynasty claimed to descend from her through Aeneas and it didn’t stop there - you can actually trace the ancestry of multiple mythological European figures all the way back to her! Some notable examples of this include Bladud/Blaiddyd, Leir of Britain, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia of Britain and supposedly even king Arthur himself last one is a bit iffy, but all the others are concrete, Aphrodite just flat out is their ancestor through Aeneas. She definitely has the charisma and presentation needed for a big bad because you simply couldn’t be able to pull of any of the previously mentioned things without them and if she could do it in real life, who says she couldn’t do it in a fictional world?

Pretty much only thing about Aphrodite that stays constant is her popularity because in the myths, her characterization is wildly inconsistent - I guess that something one should expect from a goddess who rules over matters such as beauty and love, two things one can never truly understand. However with that being said, there’s trends that stay with her regardless her ever-changing personality. She’s technically speaking an outsider to the Olympian family tree as her most popular and possibly the oldest one as well birth story has her as the motherless child of Ouranos, emerging fully formed from seafoam. Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus form the first generation of Olympians and Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes and Dionysus are principal members of the second generation. By adding Eileithyia, Persephone and Hebe into the mix you get the main Olympian family, making Aphrodite feel like even more of an outsider. She only starts to fit among the family when the third generation is added and speaking of said generation, part of it forms her attendants. The two most important ones are her sons Eros and Anteros, love and love requited, whom she let’s to do pretty much all they want as long as they stay loyal to her. However once that loyalty shifts, she can be quite cruel towards them which is illustrated in the myth of Eros and Psyche quite well - and I’m going to let Aphrodite herself to do all the talking, so here’s a quote from from Apuleius’ The Golden Ass:

‘This is a fine state of affairs, just what one would expect from a child of mine, from a decent man like you! First of all you trampled underfoot the instructions of your mother--or I should say your employer--and you refused to humble my personal enemy with a vile love-liaison; and then, mark you, a mere boy of tender years, you hugged her close in your wanton, stunted embraces! You wanted me to have to cope with my enemy as a daughter-in-law! You take too much for granted, you good-for-nothing, loathsome seducer! You think of yourself as my only noble heir, and you imagine that I'm now too old to bear another. Just realize that I'll get another son, one far better than you. In fact I'll rub your nose in it further. I'll adopt one of my young slaves, and make him a present of these wings and torches of yours, the bow and arrows, and all the rest of my paraphernalia which I did not entrust to you to be misused like this. None of the cost of kitting you out came from your father's estate.’

Let’s file that under yikes. She’s saying this to her injured child and it’s about a girl he loves more than anything but she can’t stand her. And it’s not like Aphrodite dislikes her for any valid reasons, it’s all because Psyche is pretty and Aphrodite took it as a personal attack. This temperament is a stable with her, be the fuss she causes either positive or negative. It goes well in the line of the idea that she was never a child and was born fully formed, as it’s pretty hard to learn those important childhood life lessons as an adult. And do you want to know the best part about this mess? After this massive rant she’s confronted by Hera and Demeter, two goddesses who in all intents and purposes should understand what she’s feeling right now and guess what they do? They call Aphrodite a hypocrite in her face because that’s exactly what she is. Why is she so angry at her child for growing up and experiencing romantic love for the first time when she spends most of her time either being in love or making others fall in love?

Let’s leave the sad lovers behind for a while and talk about Aphrodite in some other myths. There’s not many myths about her that don’t feature romance or sex in some form, but those few are usually about her competitive nature. There’s a myth about Hermes and Aphrodite participating on funeral games yes, this was a real tradition organized by Apollo and she won, her prize being a zither which she later gave to Paris. There’s also a myth about her and Athena having a weaving competition which ended on her losing miserably because as one might expect, challenging the goddess of weaving into a weaving competition couldn’t possibly end well. But since these kind of myths are about things out of her assignments, there isn’t many of them. Most of them are about her helping people with their relationship problems, some examples could be her giving Galatea life on Pygmalion’s wishes and gifting Hippomenes the three golden apples so he could win the race for Atalanta’s heart. But it’s also really easy to earn her anger, some notable immortals who were victims of her wrath are the titan goddess of dawn Eos (she didn’t want to share Ares so she cursed Eos to feel uncontrollable desire towards a new man every day), the titan god of sun Helios (he ratted out her relationship with Ares so she cursed him to forget everyone he ever loved romantically and then made him fall in love with princess Leucothoe - it ends badly and that’s how we got heliotropes), the muse Calliope (Aphrodite saw Zeus asking her help for covering the whole deal about who gets to keep Adonis as a personal attack and so she cursed her son Orpheus to have a horrible death in the hands of Dionysus’ worshipers - interestingly enough this has nothing to do with the fact that Calliope did also sleep with Ares or that she married Oeagrus who’s sometimes said to be Ares’ son, which would make Orpheus his grandson), a minor ocean deity Nerites (he refused to follow her into the land so she turned him into a shrimp) and Pan (Aphrodite and this handsome lad Acheilus had a beauty competition and Pan was the judge - he said Acheilus was prettier so Aphrodite turned the poor lad into into a hideous shark-creature and then cursed Pan to be hopelessly in love with the nymph Echo, the very same Echo who had her eyes on Narcissus). It could even be said that her blessings aren’t going to last for long and by using Hippomenes as an example once again, we learn that in one version of the story she turned him into a lion all because he didn’t pay his respects back to her soon enough. Guileful Aphrodite indeed.

Due to her temperament and general lack of caring about the consequences of her actions, Aphrodite has earned the ire of many gods - just look no further than Adonis, there’s four possible culprits who could’ve caused his death. Because of their contradictory natures, she’s often portrayed as not getting along with Hestia, Athena and Artemis and while there’s not much material for Hestia there’s multiple myths of Aphrodite causing unpleasant situations for Artemis and her hunters, Hippolytus being the shining example of this. The judgement of Paris establishes her relationship with Hera and Athena as a rocky one and the Trojan war has them full-on enemies on opposite sides, Athena even telling the Greek Diomedes during the war that he should avoid fighting literally any god with the exception of Aphrodite - it leads into him throwing a spear at Aphrodite, piercing her wrist and this leads into Aphrodite cursing Diomedes in return. Also in some records such as Cypria Helen’s mother is stated to be the goddess Nemesis, so add her into the list of gods Aphrodite has angered so it turns out the goddess who truly was Nemesis’ enemy was never the one from Blue Sea Star but rather the one who represented Morning Star, how ironic. Her relationship with the male Olympians are a bit better but not always, in fact she has no meaningful one with Apollo at all. Her marriage with Hephaestus was an unhappy one and only after they divorced were they both allowed to be happy, Hephaestus by marrying Aglaea and having a family with her and Aphrodite by continuing her many affairs without any worries. She did scorn Zeus when he tried to get it on with her, but otherwise there’s not much either good or bad blood between them. Besides Ares, Aphrodite did find both Poseidon and Dionysus handsome and had affairs with them, but it’s unclear if they resulted any children - Rhodos has Telchine Halia and Amphitrite as her other mother candidates, Peitho is almost always said to be a child of Tethys and Oceanus instead, the Charites were more often said to be children of Zeus and Oceanid Eurynome rather than Aphrodite’s and Priapus just has no parents set in stone because no telling was seemingly more popular than others. The birth myth of Hermaphroditus starts with Aphrodite telling Hermes to piss off because he doesn’t come even close to her standards, so he asks little help from Zeus to get what he wants and therefore I can’t imagine them having a positive relationship because of this. And after reading so many myths in which Aphrodite targets Ares’ grandkids for whatever reasons, I’m starting to think that he should start running away and quickly. Maybe she really did kill Aerope.

Now returning to the love story with a happy ending which has the most famous victim of Aphrodite’s wrath, Eros and Psyche. It begins in a town with no name given oh, so this isn’t completely baseless in KI where princess Psyche (meaning either soul or breath of life) is having trouble socializing - the people have declared that she’s as if not more beautiful than Aphrodite and they have started worshiping her, denying normal human interaction from her. This obviously pisses off Aphrodite because it has been established that she has the self-control skills comparable to a toddler and so she orders her son Eros to make Psyche to fall in love with something hideous. While he agrees to do the deed, once he sees the beautiful Psyche he can’t help but to fall in love with her and then he chooses to defy his mother, crafting a plan on what to do next. In the meanwhile the loneliness is making Psyche miserable and that doesn’t go unnoticed by her parents, so they go to visit the oracle of Apollo for help. Considering how Apollo is still very much salty at Eros for cursing him to have the worst love life imaginable, his words aren’t all that comforting (another quote from The Golden Ass):

‘Adorn this girl, O king, for wedlock dread, and set her on a lofty mountain-rock. Renounce all hope that one of mortal stock can be your son-in-law, for she shall wed a fierce, barbaric, snake-like monster. He, flitting on wings aloft, makes all things smart, plaguing each moving thing with torch and dart. Why, Jupiter himself must fearful be. The other gods for him their terror show, and rivers shudder, and the dark realms below.’

She and her parents are obviously horrified by this, but they do as they were told to and Psyche is left alone on a cliffside where the god of west wind Zephyrus picks her up. He brings her into a lovely meadow where she takes a refreshing nap and after she wakes up, she sees a beautiful palace and goes in. She’s charmed by the looks of the place and then a disembodied voice tells her that she will be provided by many invisible servants while living in there. Once night falls she’s nervous to meet her husband, but after the first meeting she starts looking forward on their nights together. This continues for quite some time, but in the meanwhile Psyche’s family is starting to get worried about her and she’s in return worrying about them. Eros promises that her sisters can come to visit, but also tells her that she shouldn’t listen them if they sound jealous. Psyche agrees and Eros gets Zephyrus to scoot the sisters down to visit, but as expected the sisters get jealous really quickly and start to make her worry if what the oracle told about her husband was indeed true - what finally broke the camels back was the sisters suggesting that he’s planning to kill her and their unborn child. So when the next night falls, she has prepared herself a lamp and dagger to see if her husband really is a monster - once she draws the lamp near and sees that he’s in fact Eros himself, she’s awestruck and accidentally stabs herself with one of his arrows, making her fall for him even harder. But while admiring him some oil spills from the lamp on Eros, causing him to wake up and leave. Earlier in the story Psyche had said that she’d much rather die than throw this marriage away and she’s willing to live by that statement, so she goes to search Eros and atonement - meanwhile Aphrodite is beating her son in the head by talking how horrible child he is for daring to fall in love and then she imprisons him Genetrix knows nothing in this case. Hera and Demeter call her a hypocrite, which doesn’t ease her anger in the slightest.

Psyche eventually finds her way into a temple of Aphrodite and she calls her two servants to beat the poor girl to make herself feel better. After having a good laugh over Psyche’s suffering, she gives her another beating herself and then dumbs different kinds of grains on the ground, saying that she should sort them by night if she ever wants to see Eros again. Sometimes prompted by him, ants nearby take pity on Psyche and help her - predictably Aphrodite isn’t all too happy about this and she comes up with a much more deadlier task. By morning she tells her that she should get some golden fleece from the sheep living on a grove across nearby river. This disheartens Psyche because she knows gathering the fleas directly is a suicide mission, but she’s consulted by local river deity who tells her how the sheep behave and that instead of approaching the sheep at all she should just collect fleas caught on foliage. She does as was told and Aphrodite becomes even more enraged, telling her to go gather water from river Styx. While she finds her way to Styx without much hassle, she’s overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation - luckily for her everyone has come to the conclusion that Aphrodite is being horrible and Zeus sends one of his eagles to help Psyche to get the water.

At this point Aphrodite’s patience is running thin and she gives Psyche a box, tells her to go into Underworld to get a part of Persephone’s beauty and come back with it because this whole deal of torturing her little daughter-in-law has been so hard for her and she needs to look good while going to the divine theatre. After being consulted by a tower on how to actually get into the Underworld without dying, she does as was told and and it doesn’t take long for her to be greeted by Persephone. After refusing to fall into an obvious trap, Psyche told her why she was visiting her and Persephone agreed to help her without hassle - but after returning into the mortal world, Psyche’s curiosity took the better of her and she wanted to see that beauty herself. Turns out it was Stygian sleep fancy words for boxed death and Psyche drops on the ground like a rock, but at this point Eros has escaped his imprisonment goes straight to her. He draws the sleep back into the box, gently pricks her with an arrow to wake her up, the two have a heartfelt reunion and Eros brings Psyche to Olympus, asking Zeus if the two can now get properly married. Everyone agrees, Zeus tells Aphrodite to stfu and they give Psyche ambrosia, making her the goddess of soul. The two have a glorious wedding and some time after it Psyche gives birth to their daughter, either named Hedone or Volupta(s) depends if it’s a Greek or Roman telling the story, the personification of pleasure, joy and delight. I personally prefer the name Volupta, it rhymes much more nicer with rest of the family.

And since we’re at here, that gorgeous painting by John William Waterhouse that everyone thinks has Pandora wearing a pink dress? It’s actually Psyche opening the deathly beauty box. Don’t believe me? Just check Psyche opening the golden box and you see who’s right. He however did create an equally pretty painting about Pandora though.

So now when the story time finally over, what can we do with all of this info? Well, it does tell how perfect of an antagonist Aphrodite makes for an Eros-expy. She has power over him and isn’t afraid of abusing it when she feels betrayed. Compare this to the tales of Icarus and Perseus which really don’t have a main antagonists - Icarus has no personal stakes in the story because he’s a plot device rather than a character and from Daedalus’ point of view, the main antagonist is Minos but mythology doesn’t really treat him as all that horrible person. After he died he became one of the judges of the Underworld and probably sent Daedalus to Tartarus once he died, which illustrates a one seriously big missed opportunity which should’ve been used if Icarus truly was that important inspiration for Pit. Instead it just makes it even more clear how irrelevant Icarus and the narrative about the Minotaur are to KI. As for Perseus, I already talked about how Medusa is a mcguffin while alive and the other ones aren’t much better. Polydectes, Phineus and Acrisius are all dealt with so quickly that they don’t really matter - his only fight that isn’t solved by a handwave is against Cetus and it’s just a sea monster sent to kill Andromeda by Poseidon. Poseidon’s antagonistic potential is a topic I’ve already discussed and the already mentioned possible fusion of the myths of Poseidon sending a sea monster to harass Troy and Ares’ trial covers the idea of Pit saving a girl from a sea monster which is bit funny because in the former one, oracle tells that king Laomedon should let it eat his daughter Hesione to get rid of the monster, so that doesn’t really add anything new here. But with Aphrodite as the big bad it could be rather easy to craft two different but overlapping plotlines, one with a main goal and the other with a personal one. Aphrodite always was Eros’ biggest personal antagonist who treated him as a trophy child and didn’t take it well when he stepped out of the line - how dare her little doll grow up, behave like a man and then decide that he wants to move on to build a family of his own, which now takes the priority over her? Him choosing Psyche over his mother is his defining myth, with the addition of it being the myth in which he finally gains the respect of the other gods. Besides having its message about heart and soul being capable feeling and creating joy while together, it also functions as a coming of age story for its main couple - and when those stories have an antagonist, things tend get really personal.

So going back to those possible two plotlines and goals, what could they possibly be about? I’d say that the main plot line shouldn’t really be based on any myth but instead it should take advantage of her popularity among ancient people, more so when it comes to Venus and Rome. Even as a city, Rome was massive - by the time of 1st century CE it had reached the population of million people, being the first city in history to do that. And this was only the capital of the empire! Rome wasn’t build in a day indeed. Venus wasn’t worshiped by the thousands, her popularity was in the millions during this time period. That’s a lot of power for one goddess and as we all know, too much power can easily hit one in the head - especially when remembering that we’re dealing with a Pantheon composed entirely of manchildren. Give Aphrodite an empire that looks up to her, doesn’t do anything without a last world from her and you’re set with a supervillain who has it all from power to personality. In this case, the reason why Aphrodite should be stopped is that she’s a conqueror who rules by fear, saying that if she was ever abandoned she would curse them and take away all the blessings she has ever granted, leading her empire to ruin. If you want to make her feel even more villainous, don’t even give her an army of her own like Hades and Viridi had but make her use the people of the empire she rules over. There’s nothing more evil than using people who look up to you for protection for your own selfish goals. What those selfish goals may be, writers can be creative with them - maybe she wants to be viewed as the supreme goddess above everyone else, maybe she wants everyone to worship her and isn’t afraid to use extreme measures to get what she wants, maybe she wants to wipe out everyone who could be a threat to her, everything goes. Considering her role on the judgement of Paris, her causing a war or chaos for selfish reasons isn’t out of character. But whatever her reasons may be, there’s going to sparks in the air and fights of massive proportions. Ares may be Pit’s father but Aphrodite definitely isn’t his mother, so she’s not going to show him any sympathy or kindness if he gets in the way of her plans.

This would be the plotline that’s more on the background and focused on Aphrodite’s relationships with Palutena, possibly Ares and the other gods, the main goal is their goal. It’s why they want her defeated. If Palutena is anything like Athena, she can’t get along with her and she understands that allowing Aphrodite to do whatever she wants will have catastrophic consequences even if she herself couldn’t care less about those. If Ares was featured on a future game along with Aphrodite, their relationship would probably be focused on how they feel betrayed by each other. The myth of her cursing Eos illustrates how she sees their relationship open only from her end so she’s very likely still angry at him for leaving her, be it for Aerope or something else entirely. If you want to go with the depressing idea of her being the one who ordered Aloadae to kidnap him, she probably feels even more betrayed because even under mind control he didn’t come back to her like she had anticipated. And if it’s indeed her favorite ex-boytoy’s son with some other lady who has been foiling her plans, her blood quite possibly starts to boil. Ares’ feelings of betrayal would likely stem from Aphrodite trying to kill his child for no other reason than sheer pettiness, along with orchestrating his kidnapping and torture just so she could get her boytoy back. Other gods probably want her stopped for similar reasons as Palutena, maybe with some selfishness rippled in - the consequences of her actions are hurting them and because she doesn’t care, something must be done to stop her. For example, Viridi could possibly oppose Aphrodite because she doesn’t care about how she’s hurting nature on her attempts to viewed as the supreme goddess. Not to say that Pit doesn’t also care about this goal since he’s an empathetic youngster, but I think that the more personal plotline should be his and it’s goal his main motivator during the story.

As for the plotline with the more personal goal, the myth of Eros and Psyche makes the perfect outline for it. Aphrodite is already the main antagonist of the tale, so there’s no need for any massive changes when it comes to her jealousy and want to dispose Psyche. The tasks she gives to her could also be mostly unchanged, if adjusted with something that makes gameplay more immersive assuming we would get to play as her like we got to play as Dark Pit in chapter 22 in KI:U. However what needs to changed is Aphrodite’s relationship with Pit, how he and Psyche first meet and how their relationship is evolves from that point onward since following the myth to a T isn’t an option in this case. I could see Pit and Psyche’s first meeting being a result of Aphrodite’s wrath manifesting on a relatively harmless way, meaning that she already knows about this new, pretty princess that challenges her status as the supreme goddess and she’s not having any of it. As for how her wrath could manifest, it could be a your garden-variety monster attack in the first chapter disguised as someone else’s troops so no one would suspect it was her behind it. The sheer weirdness of it could catch Palutena’s attention so she sends Pit down to investigate it and to get rid of the monsters. While getting rid of them, he meets Psyche in one way or another - maybe she’s trying to escape from them or she’s trying to fight against them, either way Pit comes to her aid and they befriend each other. Maybe she’s featured on a few following chapters as minor character doing something on the background, giving them more possibilities to interact and become better friends - in these chapters Apollo could possibly be introduced along with reintroducing Poseidon, to foreshadow the roles they would play later on. What side plots would these chapters have, it could anything - maybe Pit meets Ares for the first time at this point of the story, but he’s not freed from mind control just yet.

At this point Aphrodite could be getting more angrier but she doesn’t want to out herself as the main villain yet, so she crafts a plan that would eventually lead into Poseidon hating Pit into the point of him wanting to take things into the court. Maybe she tricks Poseidon and Apollo into becoming mad at Psyche’s home city for whatever reason, like how they got angry at Troy in mythology proper. If this was the case, I think that she would keep Poseidon in the dark while letting Apollo fully know what’s going on - if Poseidon doesn’t know the true reason why Aphrodite wanted his sea monster to terrorize the city and why it was killed, he would be much more enraged when it happens. I’ve already established reasons as for why Apollo would dislike Pit, so he probably wouldn’t really need any prompting to cause Pit suffering since he’d still want some payback from that embarrassing noodle incident. So Poseidon sends his sea monster to terrorize the coastline and once citizens start asking help from the gods, Apollo lets the hate flow through him and offers nothing useful - instead he tells them to take the Hesione/Andromeda-approach and let it eat someone to calm it down oh look, it’s a reference to Perseus that’s not about Medusa for once, nice. In this case, it would be Psyche and Pit’s of course not going to let his friend die so he goes to save her, be it with or without Palutena’s approval. In my head I did imagine this as a chapter that would work amazingly with multiplayer, starting with Pit and Dark Pit distracting the monster, then Pit freeing Psyche and them setting out to kill the monster before it causes more harm. Player 2 would have to deal with changing characters on the fly but if Pittoo and Psyche had similar weapons, I don’t think it would be too distracting since they’d be playable on different parts of the chapter. But once the monster has finally been defeated, the joy is cut short by Poseidon interrupting and wanting vengeance for what happened to his monster, ending the chapter. The plot would immediately catch on the next one and what I could see happening on this chapter is that Pit’s taken into the court by Poseidon and he’s not allowed to have anyone defending him, but Dark Pit and Psyche go into his defense anyway Pittoo being the playable character. After a long and treacherous journey they find they way to the divine courthouse and tell their point of view on the events, which gives Pit the sympathy of the court and he gets away scot-free. Poseidon and Apollo may face on consequences at this point and they may even rat Aphrodite out on a subtle way, but the main group doesn’t catch it.

The following few chapters would be breathers before the plot kicks in again, Aphrodite ousting herself as the big bad in one way or another. Maybe she has sent her troops to attack some place, possibly in search for Ares since he would make a great ally on this brainwashed state. Much to her dismay he declines her offers, he and Pit fight and the helmet is smashed, but Palutena recalls Pit before anything can come out of it. The fight continues for couple following chapters, Palutena and Aphrodite are gradually getting more and more mad at each other and maybe she comes down to face Pit herself because the little brat getting on her way is starting to be really annoying now this would make a pretty cool unwinnable boss fight, but Ares comes just in time save him - que silent, cold anger between them, confusion from Pit and Palutena’s end with some extremely awkward reunions and explanations.

What could follow from here is another set more lighter chapters focused less on Aphrodite’s plans to become the supreme goddess and more of the cast getting to know each other better - Palutena and Ares reconnecting, Ares trying to form a meaningful relationship with Pit and Dark Pit, Pit and Psyche becoming better friends, etc etc. Not to say Aphrodite has given up on her plans - she’s still doing things on the background, but it’s implied that what little chaos she currently causes is serving as distraction to hide her bigger plans. Persephone could possibly be introduced at this point of the story, making it clear that she knows about the events of KI:U and that she’s going to get her payback on what happened to Hades in one way or another, possibly drop an implication that she’s working together with Aphrodite. But since everything good comes to an end and so do the breather episodes, plot would go on with Aphrodite kidnapping Pit and getting Persephone to throw him into some dark part of the Underworld, maybe even to Tartarus. And now we get into the fun part of the myth, Psyche’s four tasks!

I could see the plot separating into two directions from here on, first one being Pit’s great prison escape from wherever Persephone threw him into and the second one being the titular four tasks. The prison escape is more focused on traversing the Underworld and Pit trying get out of there while Persephone throws all kinds of obstacles at him - maybe it ends with a ghost gauntlet, since Odyssey illustrated that she can summon ghosts. Arke would make a pretty great boss fight here as well, since she could be classified as a fallen angel. Maybe her motive for going after Pit is to get his wings for herself as a mean to escape, since her own ones were ripped off as punishment for siding with the Titans. But since Pit’s a brave boy, this isn’t enough to stop him and he eventually finds his way out so there could be reunion and a final battle against Persephone.

While Pit’s great prison break is going on, Aphrodite makes an empty promise to rest of the cast that she can give Pit back, with some conditions - but just like in the myth, all she actually wants is Psyche’s death so the danger factor is amped up to eleven. I honestly don’t know how the one about sorting grains could be handled I guess it could work as a puzzle chapter, but the rest work rather well without massive changes. The one about gathering te golden fleas could now take a more direct approach, the one about getting Styx’s water is now missing the helpful eagle and the Underworld trip is largely same with the exception of Persephone not being cooperative. This would be the point where the two plotlines merge together and they take Persephone down together before leaving from the Underworld. Psyche falling for Stygian sleep in this version is up to debate, I say it could work either way. It mostly depends on when she’s going to wake up - if it’s too early it might as well not matter, if it’s after the final battle I’d say that’s too late.

As one might expect Pit’s escape makes Aphrodite furious and she challenges him into a one final battle - that brat has stolen her favorite boytoy from her, satisfaction of getting rid of the annoying princess and also her chances to become the supreme goddess way too many times, she has reached her third-act breakdown and at this point she has nothing left to lose anymore. Ares isn’t going to come back to her, Psyche is not going to die and the people under her empire have started to become less dependent of her, the last thing she can do is get rid the troublesome kid that brought her into this situation. Of course Pit ends up winning, sending the goddess to Aether to hang with Hades where they can now together sulk over the fact that they got defeated by an angel. Pit triumphantly returns to Skyworld where Palutena and others have been waiting, there’s a joyful reunion between all of them and if one wants to follow the original myth at this point, Psyche could gain divinity or immortality for her bravery for standing against Aphrodite as a mere mortal. People have become immortals for dumber reasons in Greco-Roman mythology, so at least Psyche doesn’t become immortal merely because one god thought she was pretty. Have some little banter at the end between the cast and then credits can finally roll in.

When thinking of some nice bonus content, maybe there could be a secret ending player can unlock after beating all the chapters on a certain difficulty, which confirms that everyone is doing well. If we have to deal with another long hiatus that could last for decade or two or eternity, best the game can offer is closure. Pit doesn’t have to a married man with a daughter, but at least show that he’s doing well and ready for a new adventure or that he has had many of those under his belt at this point. All one can do is hope at this point that there will be a new adventure or a happy ending that ties all the loose ends together. Praise Volupta, maybe one day dreams can come true.

______

Welp, this turned out to be much more longer and heavier than I originally expected! If nothing else, that would make an interesting fanfic. Anyway, I think I made my point clear - Aphrodite has everything a big bad needs from power to personality and motives to harass the already existing KI-cast. Even if you don’t want to go with the ideas I came up with, there’s so many myths to use and modify in which she could fill the role of the main villain. And just because there’s heavy themes it doesn’t mean it has to be without humor - I mean, there’s a lot of heavy implications in KI:U yet the game still manages to be a comedy gold mine despite those heavy implications. Writers just need to know when to be serious and when levity is needed, good pacing is something that every great story needs. For some reason I could definitely see there being a gag in which Pandora has regained her true form, only for Aphrodite to snatch it away because Pandora was living on borrowed beauty anyway and she’d like to have it back.

Though I must say that I’m proud of all of these plot bunnies I came up with. It was a fun journey to me to research, overthink, adapt and mix myths while trying to imagine who could be the next possible big bad and what the plotline relating to their villainy could be. And I came out wiser from it, so I really can’t be angry over it even if it took so me so much longer than I originally planned. I never thought that me wanting to write about a Nintendo game would make me read this much about history and philosophy yet here I am. Also now when I’m thinking of it, that last one would tie a lot of threads nicely together if they had a plotline like it on a future game - Poseidon gets to be an antagonist, Apollo gets to be an antagonist, Persephone gets to be an antagonist and Aphrodite gets to be the villain. It’s so nice when things work out this well together! Dionysus is left out though, but I guess it’s not all that bad because having too many antagonists would make the plot feel overly complicated.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my thoughts of who could replace Hades as the big bad. You can’t change my mind on Aphrodite being the best possible candidate but if you disagree with me, who do you think it could be? I’m always open for discussion so feel free to talk with me. Now there’s only one question remaining on my head - if a future Kid Icarus game had Arachne, would she be a jorōgumo?

[butsomeofusarelookingatthestars]

Forgotten: Part 1

During one of the BAU’s most difficult cases, Luke meets a dedicated journalist who is committed to fighting for the underdog. Reluctant to trust the authorities at first, she finds a friend in the compassionate FBI agent. But as they draw closer, the challenges only grow with fear, hostility and a relentless unsub whose attention turns to her…

AN/ I actually did it! Here’s Part 1 which hopefully sets the scene. I’m hoping to update this fortnightly on a Sunday evening. Big plans ahead! I hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think x

A heavy sigh escaped your lips, your back aching as you leant back in your chair to survey the empty room. The warm glow of your desk lamp was oddly comforting in the dimly lit office. Darkness pressed up against the windows and you could hear the bustling street outside, cars beeping and late-night revellers bristling with delight as they poured into the local bars. 

A part of you wished you were alongside them. 

Ping!

You glanced at your computer screen, your lips curving into a small smile as you scanned the email that had just come through. Another piece of the puzzle. 

Questioning and investigating had always been interests of yours. Even when you were young, your childhood games had consisted of mystery solving. Every school report had highlighted your natural curiosity and ability to challenge authority...or ‘backtalk’ as the teachers had put it. But journalism hadn’t even crossed your mind until your English teacher had encouraged you to take a work experience placement at a local paper.

You hadn’t looked back since. 

The long hours at university, the endless reports and tiresome essays had all been worth it to achieve your goal of becoming a fully fledged journalist at an independent news association. It wasn’t as glamorous as the movies made out. Most days were spent crammed into tiny offices with colleagues, chasing dead-end leads or struggling to piece together articles in time to make deadlines.

Pressure came with the job, but you had increasingly found yourself addicted to the thrill of uncovering secrets, holding the powerful to account and sharing truth with others. If you could make a difference in your own little corner of the world, you had to do it. 

It gave you a purpose.

“Shouldn’t you be out with your friends?” 

You almost jumped in surprise, too caught up in your emails to notice your boss staring at you in amusement from across the office. He gave you a knowing grin. 

“Another late night Y/N? I admire your determination, but you have to take a time out sometimes.” 

“I’m just finishing up a lead.” You explained, gesturing at your computer. “I’ll be done soon.” 

He flashed you a disbelieving look. He really did know you too well. 

“I promise.” You told him, smiling softly as he nodded in agreement. 

RING

You glanced down at your phone, your heart sinking as you recognised the Caller ID. Apparently your boss sensed your change of mood straight away. 

“I bet I know who that will be.” He said, gazing at you sympathetically. “Make sure you call it a night afterwards. You need some time to yourself sometimes Y/N.”

You nodded in agreement, your fingers already itching to take the call. “Will do.” You gave your boss a small smile as he waved goodbye, flashing once last concerned glance behind his shoulder as he disappeared into the elevator.

You took a deep breath before accepting the call. “Hi Anne, how are you doing?”

The familiar guilt began to build up as you heard her strained voice. It never got easier talking to victim’s families. In fact, with each one it got harder to accept that yet another family was experiencing unimaginable pain. 

“I know. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you.” You spoke softly, pausing for a moment as you heard her begin to cry. “Have you spoken to the support worker I put you in touch with?” 

Luke stifled a yawn, rubbing his eyes furiously in an effort to stay alert. It was late even by his standards, but he desperately wanted to finish writing up his reports for the day. For some reason, despite being a member of the BAU for the past year he still felt the need to impress. 

To go above and beyond had always been part of his job. Besides it was nothing compared to the 75th Ranger Regiment. At least this job didn’t involve warzones. Sometimes he felt himself missing the action of the military, but soon after joining the BAU he had realised how rewarding it was to work closely with his colleagues. 

Hunting down criminals was something that came naturally to him. Protecting others was something he felt like he had to do. 

He let out a sigh as his gaze fell upon his file. The victims’ names appearing to loom out at him. The downside to the job? At times, it did also mean getting too close for comfort with unsubs. Getting inside their heads became increasingly uncomfortable the more he got to know victims and their families.

“I know why I’m here...why are you?”

He jumped at the sound of Emily’s voice, flashing her an amused grin. Trust his Unit Chief to be the only FBI superior complaining about their team working late. 

“I just wanted to finish up before heading home.” He told her, chuckling as she shot him a disbelieving look.

“Well, consider it an order from me to go. Linda Barnes can’t force us all to stay chained to our desks.” She joked, rolling her eyes sarcastically at the mere mention of their troublesome superior. “Besides I’m sure Roxy will be happy to see you!”

Luke let out a bark of laughter. The sound of his mum complaining about him settling down popped into his head. When will you have someone other than Roxy to return home to mi hijo? 

He nodded in agreement. “I’m sure she will.” He replied, holding his hands up in defeat. “Just let me finish this update for one of the families first.” 

Emily’s eyes softened at his words. She gave him an understanding nod. She knew how much it meant. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” 

Luke gave her a small smile of appreciation before he turned his attention back to his work. It was important to him to communicate with families - whether it was an update about court proceedings against unsubs, appeals information or just to check in with them at difficult times. 

It wasn't as if he were addicted to his job. But it could at times be all consuming. After all, it was difficult not to think about the dark nature of the BAU and the suffering of victims. 

Perhaps it had been what had happened to Phil that fuelled his pursuit? He knew what the pain of losing a love one felt like. So, he wanted to do everything in his power to ease the suffering for others.

He understood. It would never be enough.

“I bring spoils of victory!” You sang happily as you entered the newsroom, a box of delicious smelling doughnuts in hand. “I got the best of Maxine’s freshly baked goods.”

Cheers rung out and you laughed softly at the sheer delight on your colleagues faces. It was always appreciated to have a special pick-me-up in the office. The job could feel overwhelming at times and, despite the pressure, you all pulled together and worked closely to help one another.

Showing your affection with sugary goods was always well received. 

“You’re the best Y/N!” Your friend Jennifer exclaimed, grinning widely as she eagerly picked up a doughnut from the box you offered her. “Anything you need help with this week, just give me a shout.”

“Careful, I may take you up on that.” You replied, flashing her a teasing smile. The two of you had always been close friends and, as colleagues, you worked together well. You were there when she needed a push and she was there when things got tough you...which seemed to be happening more recently.  

“Please never move jobs Y/N.” Archie, a fellow journalist who covered local politics, joked as he enthusiastically tucked into his selection. “This office wouldn’t last a minute without you...or the doughnuts.” 

You rolled your eyes playfully before taking a seat at your desk. A contented smile crossed your face as you took in the jubilant atmosphere. It was nice to have days like this.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. 

Your phone rung out loudly prompting Archie and Jen to flash you nervous glances. But you ignored them, taking a deep breath before answering the call. 

"Y/N Y/L/N speaking...”

“There’s a breaking story.”

It was another early start for the BAU team as they sat around the bullpen. They had all gotten the dreaded message from Emily earlier that they’d received a new case. However, she seemed to have been trapped in meetings with the FBI higher-ups for the past thirty minutes...which meant there was something much bigger at play than a regular case. 

“I’m just saying newbie, if you insist on wearing shirts like that? Expect it to be noted.” 

Luke rolled his eyes holding up his hands in playful surrender. “Ouch! I didn’t realise my fashion taste would be such an offensive to you Garcia.” 

The trendy blonde surveyed him with curiosity, flicking her fluffy pen at his chest teasingly. “You call a grey plaid shirt fashion taste newbie?” 

JJ flashed Luke a sympathetic glance, but still joined in with the rest of the team’s laughter as Luke merely shrugged his shoulders in defeat and chuckled warmly. Even when he was being teased for his lack of interest in clothes, it felt nice to be part of the team. 

Sadly their good news didn’t last as Emily approached them, glancing in concern as her FBI superiors filed out of her office. Linda Barnes flashed them an icy glare before moving towards the exit.

“We have a case. It’s a bad one.”

AN/ There you have it! Spoiler: their paths will cross haha! Sorry for the delay. This was meant to be up on Sunday, but I’m still working full-time so by the time I get to the weekend I’m usually too exhausted to write. Thanks for sticking with me. I know there’s not much going on, but please let me know what you guys think - storyline, characters, length of chapter (I’m agonising over this haha!), whatever you want to share. x

Taglist:

@aimzonicles97​, @reidsstudies​, @exceptionallytiredzombie​, @illegalcerebral, @captaintightpants58​, @abitofeverythinggg​

[totally-incorrect-theatre-quotes]

You Need the Dark to See the Stars (fanfic)

I told you guys I would write a fanfic soon haha. 

This is a fanfic about Lydia having grown up in New York City and not being used to clearly seeing the stars at night. 

______________________________________________________________

Having grown up in New York City Lydia was constantly surrounded with the fast-paced life of living in the city. She was used to the chaos that startled tourists, she was one of those people that couldn’t fall asleep if there wasn’t noise coming from somewhere. She had her reservations when her father announced they would be going to Connecticut for a little bit, it was six months after her mother had died and though it probably sounded insane, being at home even though she wasn’t there anymore was a comfort. The walls and floors still had her mother’s imprint. An entire childhood filled with memories held in the creak boards on their front porch.

It was only going to be for a little bit though, she assumed, maybe getting out of the house would do her some good. Her mom always joked about how city people need to go to the countryside to get some fresh air every now and again, maybe this is just what Lydia needed. It quickly turned out to not be the case, just driving through the endless and monotonous country highways had Lydia itching for ...something to happen. It was too quiet, she thought she was dreaming when she saw a cow on the side of the road at one point. Besides New York the only place she had really been was New Jersey to see her grandparents and once she went to Philadelphia for some kind of class field trip in the second grade. She’d been to upstate New York too but nothing beat pulling up in the rock driveway of the house they’d be staying in. She didn’t understand why her dad had packed so much for this trip, sure it was the end of the school year but he would have told her if they were staying there the whole summer. Regardless she was told to pack almost everything she had and brought it with her on the trip, what was even more confusing was why Delia was tagging along. No matter how long they were staying it was kind of laughable that her dad thought Lydia even needed Delia.

Everything quickly hit the fan when she learned that they were never going back to New York, that they were all going to live here now. It was rubbing salt in the wound when he proposed to Delia, she hadn’t even known they were dating. She felt like her entire life was being replaced. New home, a new state, and now her dad was getting a new wife. Her mother hadn’t even been dead six months by that point. So much happened those early days of her living in the house, such a wide range of emotions that she didn’t take much notice of anything. It was just survival at that point.

After a chaotic week that encompassed kicking her father out, terrorizing the neighbors, an exorcism, a green-card marriage, and literally going to hell and back to say that Lydia was exhausted was an understatement. When things slowed down and she wasn’t dealing with exorcisms and possessions every five seconds she started to miss some of the craziness. It was too quiet in the house with all the adults, and ever since Beetlejuice had gone to the Netherworld to go on some vision quest Lydia had been feeling lonely.

Which she didn’t understand why she had so many people in the house that loved her and things were different now. They listened to her and she was allowed to talk about what she wanted, but being able to hear the wind and the rustling of trees from her bedroom window, it was unnerving. The quiet was dangerous because she was just alone with her thoughts, and she knew that wasn’t always the best place to be. She hardly slept and when she did it was nightmares of what happened, she’d wake up in a panic unable to calm down until she realized it was just a dream.

A week had passed since Beetlejuice had left, she tossed around the idea of summoning him but she felt selfish for even thinking about it after all she did to him. Instead, she found herself drawn to the roof again...not for the reasons before. She just felt it was where she needed to be. After being careful to not alert any of the adults as to what she was up to she pulled the window shut and stepped onto the flat part of the roof.

She walked over to the edge, careful to hold onto the railing, and just breathed. The chill June air filling her nose and she peered out to the scenery around her. She hadn’t taken notice of it when she was up here the first time, she was so focused on going through with her plan and then Beetlejuice that she hadn’t even realized how beautiful it all was. Trees for miles and miles, street lamps illuminating the main road, neighbors with houses decorated with little quirky nicknacks like flamingos and lawn gnomes. Looking down towards her own backyard and she could see the garden Adam and Barbara must have started before they died, it was illuminated with tiny glowing bugs that she had never seen in person before but knew they were called fireflies. The peaceful coos of nighttime birds, the rushing water from a creek she didn’t even know they had, the slow hum of cars driving past not consistently but enough. She didn’t ever realize how noisy the quiet was, all that was going on.

She laid down on the roof, with her hands behind her head, and looked up at the night sky. It was a perfect night, not a single cloud in her way. She was amazed by just how clear it all looked. Her mom always talked about how she wanted to take Lydia and her dad on a road trip to get away from the city for a while and just stare up at the sky, she promised Lydia when she was little that they would count all of the stars by the time they were through. Of course, six-year-old Lydia didn’t understand just how many stars there were in the sky, but her mother had been talking about this trip for years. It eventually became a running joke in the family that they would never end up going, but when Emily got sick the joke stopped being funny. The summer before she died they were supposed to go, not a whole road trip but Lydia had planned it all out, saved her money for almost a whole year just to surprise them with a camping trip upstate. They never got to go, she doesn’t even remember the reason why. She had to settle for trying to see the stars from her front porch, with all the tall buildings and light pollution blocking her view.

Now here she was, not exactly the trip they had planned but she was stargazing. Almost without meaning too, she started counting them, losing track and starting over. She started to doze off when she heard the window creak open. She didn’t react, just went back to mumbling the numbers and drawing pictures by connecting all the white dots.

“Lydia?” her dad asked, “What are you doing up here? I walked past your room and the door was open and you weren't in your bed.”

“Just wanted some fresh air. It’s so stuffy in my room.”

“You do know you have a window you can open, you don’t have to come on the..incredibly high roof.”

She glanced up and he was standing right above her head. She smiled at him, “Do you want to join me?”

“Join you?”

Lydia schooced over and patted next to her. He looked hesitant at first but he bent down, and with a typical dad groan he laid on his back and looked up at the sky. He put his hands on his stomach, “What are we looking at?”

“The stars.” Lydia told him, “They’re so clear tonight. When you were a kid did you get to see them a lot? I know you moved to the city for mom, was it hard having that shift in...everything?”

“It was hard, there was a lot to get used to but there was so much new stuff, and of course there was Emily and eventually you. I missed my hometown, but I loved what I had. Do you miss the city?”

Lydia shrugged, “Yeah, I wish you had told me we were moving. I could have maybe prepared myself a little better to have to change everything from a city slicker to a country girl.”

“Change everything?” he laughed

“Everything, dad you brought me to the middle of nowhere in Connecticut and I have no flannel, not camo, and most importantly I don’t even know how to play baseball so now I can’t have my underdog story where I join an all-boys team and wow the crowd because...girls can play baseball.”

“You have never been interested in sports in our life.”

“The point is that I could have been, and now I will never have the cinderella sports story. They could have made a movie about it.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhh, and they’d get Brad Pitt to play you, my dad who cheered me on at every game.”

“I am so sorry I robbed you and the world of this. If it is any consolation, my life is the opposite of a Hallmark movie. Instead of Emily coming with me to the countryside, or you know just the suburbs, we moved to the big city.”

“Wow, our family missed out on so many movie opportunities. Tragic really.”

For a while they just laid up there, saying nothing. Lydia put her hand down in between them and he held it, just like he did when she was little and came into her parents’ room after having a nightmare.

“I wish mom got to see this,” she whispered, “that trip we had always planned. We never got to do this with her, she never got to see them.”

“I wish she could see this too.”

“I miss her.”

“I do too.”

Lydia shifted and looked over at her dad, she could see a faint tear streak going down his face. She didn’t mention it, she just laid back down and moved closer to him. They left space though, almost as if there was a third person between them. Someone else who should have been there looking up at the night sky with their family.

[rosedavid]

hey!! if you're still taking requests, cyrus and tj see eachother after a few months of their break up and old feelings resurface and they end up being all cute and in love again bc they're tj and cyrus lmao idk, i love your writing 🥺🤧

me going overboard on prompts?? just as likely as you think!!

thank you for the request :) enjoy!

also slight tw for swearing and panic attacks

Broken Promises

Cyrus expected college to be difficult. He was prepared for the endless late nights full of stressful studying, the constant tests, and the lack of free time. Going to an ivy league school makes things even more high stakes. It feels like every move he makes gets scrutinized by the professors and students alike. Cyrus planned to attend an ivy league school on the east coast since middle school. It was his goal, his dream one could even say. There’s just one factor that Cyrus didn’t prepare for, one that ended up changing his entire first year college experience. TJ Kippen. 

There’s no doubt that Cyrus and TJ were deeply in love. They started dating near the beginning of their first year of high school and continued strong for all four years. Soon, having TJ constantly by his side, hanging out at his house, or taking him on dates became the norm for him. Between the worries of school and standardized testing, he was the steady, comforting constant in Cyrus’s life. As such, he never even thought about leaving him when it came time for college.

It all started in the middle of senior year. Everyone has finished applying for colleges, waiting with bated breath to see if they got in. Cyrus, being the overzealous student he is, applied to at least eight different schools just in case. He had to write so many entry essays that his hand nearly fell off from cramping. All of them were extremely busy with everything happening all at once, such as jobs, final grades, and the approaching graduation.

It isn’t until one fateful day in the spring that TJ and Cyrus realize that everything is about to change.

Cyrus arrives home from school like any other day. He’s starting to get nervous about his college applications, as two places have rejected him so far, and the other three schools he got into are in his bottom choices. As he walks into the kitchen to grab a snack, he spots his stepdad sitting at the table casually sipping coffee and holding out a letter.

“Is that…?” Cyrus trails off with a gasp.

His stepdad smirks in response, wiggling the letter until Cyrus snatches it out of his hand. He reads the correspondent information on the front, eyes widening. It’s his top school choice! This is it. This is everything he’s been waiting for.

Not wanting his stepdad to see him if he’s rejected, Cyrus heads upstairs to his room and closes the door behind him. He gingerly takes a seat on his bed, ripping the top of the envelope all the way across. He pauses briefly to take a deep breath and compose himself before unfolding the small slip of paper. He ignores most of the formalities, scanning through until near the end looking for the indicating words to tell him whether he got in.

Accepted.

Cyrus reads over it again and again until he gets the message to fully sink in. He can’t stop grinning, clutching the letter to his chest as if it would flutter away. He can’t wait to tell everyone the good news at school tomorrow!

Suddenly, it dawns on him. He’s going to school at an ivy league college on the east coast, far away from Shadyside. Andi is going to a fancy west coast art college. Buffy is also going to a west coast college on a basketball scholarship. As of right now, Jonah doesn’t know what he wants to do, so he’s going to stick around Shadyside. And TJ…TJ is going to a college in Salt Lake City, Utah, only a few hours from Shadyside.

For the first time in four years, they would be thousands of miles apart. How would they even see each other? What if their breaks didn’t line up? Could either of them even afford a plane ticket to fly out and visit?

Cyrus decides maybe it’s best if, for a while, he keeps the news to himself.

…

It’s only a few weeks before graduation. All of the seniors are getting even more antsy than usual, holding their breaths for the day when they’re finally done with high school forever. Cyrus is also one of these people, but he’s antsy for an entirely different reason. He has yet to tell anyone where he’s going to school. He’s put it off for such a long time, always saying that not all his schools have responded back to him. But he knows his friends, and he knows they’re getting suspicious. He needs to tell all of them, including TJ.

So, at lunch that day, he decides to rip off the band-aid. Everyone now sits together at one large table, so it’s the ideal time to make his announcement. And, as it so happens, his friends give him the perfect segway to make his announcement (unfortunately).

“Guess what?” Amber squeals, not waiting for anyone to guess. “I got into that fashion school in California!”

Andi beams, reaching forward to hug her and kiss her cheek. “I’m so proud of you! And now we’ll be so much closer!”

As everyone says their congratulations, they notice that Cyrus is abnormally quiet. Andi frowns from her spot beside him and reaches out to tap his shoulder.

“You good, Cyrus?” She wonders. “Is it something about colleges? I know how long you’ve been waiting to hear back.”

Cyrus swallows. “I…yeah. I guess it is. I got a letter from my top choice in the mail, actually…”

“What did it say?!” Buffy asks in excitement.

On his other side, TJ nods in agreement. Cyrus can’t stand to look at TJ when he makes the announcement, so he makes sure to angle himself away.

“Um, well, I got in!” Cyrus smiles.

Everyone cheers. TJ pats his back before putting an arm around his shoulder. Cyrus leans into the touch, wondering how much longer he’ll be able to feel it. And yes, Cyrus is super happy that he got into the school of his dreams, but at the same time things are a lot different now than he expected. In other words, it will be a strange transition.

“So where are you going?” Jonah asks, of course.

“Columbia,” Cyrus murmurs.

He feels the arm wrapped around him tense up. The mood of the table becomes slightly less cheery and more morose. Thankfully, Buffy is there to alleviate some of the sadness.

“That’s amazing, Cyrus,” She says. “An Ivy League! You’re going to do so great!”

TJ speaks up, “Yeah, you’ll do amazing, Cy. You always do.”

Maybe it’s just Cyrus reading too deep into things, but something in TJ’s tone sounds off. Of course, he sounds sad about Cyrus leaving, Cyrus expected that. He also sounds proud. But there’s another tone to his voice that Cyrus can’t quite decipher.

Although he ends up forgetting about it after a few days, it certainly ended up being something. A beginning to an end.

…

The day before graduation. School just got out the day before, and the seniors are all buzzing waiting to be officially graduated. Cyrus personally can’t wait to wear his cap and gown and move his tassel. Even though it’s more of a symbolic idea than anything, Cyrus still loves the idea of it all. In other words, nothing can ruin his good mood. Or so he thought.

That morning, he gets a text from his boyfriend. It’s odd because normally TJ loves sleeping in late, so seeing a message from him at such an early time is peculiar. Cyrus doesn’t think much of it, though, and simply checks to see what he sent.

TJ: meet me at the swings in twenty?

Cyrus: see you there x

The swings. They’ve been through a lot of good times and bad there. Cyrus hates to think that this summer will be one of the last times they’ll probably swing on them together. He smiles, thinking that TJ invited him there for a celebratory swing, maybe a few underdogs.

When he arrives, though, and sees TJ swinging slowly with a drooped head, he realizes that’s not the case.

“TJ?” Cyrus asks tentatively. “Are you ok?”

He goes to sit on the swing beside TJ, but TJ puts up a hand to stop him.

“Don’t,” He whispers. “This won’t take long.”

“What’s going on?”

TJ sighs, standing up himself. “We need to break up.”

Cyrus’s heart stops in his chest. He blinks, trying to process the words he never thought he’d hear come out of TJ’s mouth.

“What?”

“We need to break up,” TJ repeats insistently.

Cyrus shakes his head. “Why?”

“You’re going to college across the country. Did you really expect this to last?”

Tears begin to sting his eyes. Although the tone of his voice doesn’t sound hurtful, the words cut painfully deep. Did you really expect this to last? Did TJ not expect it to?

“Yes,” Cyrus answers honestly. “I did. I know it will be hard, but we can do long distance—”

TJ interrupts him. “No, Cyrus, I can’t. We can’t. I’m sorry.”

At this point, tears flow freely down Cyrus’s face. TJ appears impassive, which just hurts Cyrus even more.

“Wow, great to know that you didn’t expect this to last,” Cyrus scoffs, anger getting the better of him. “I’m so happy to know that you thought this was just a casually, high school fling that wouldn’t amount to anything. Do I really mean that little to you?”

TJ’s face morphs, “Underdog—”

“No! You don’t get to call me that. I guess it’s for the better that we’re breaking up. Goodbye, TJ.”

He doesn’t look back.

…

At graduation the next day, TJ isn’t there. Andi and Buffy ask him what happened, but Cyrus can’t find it in his heart to go through all the details of the situation, about how badly TJ hurt him. So, he just tells them the gist of it.

“TJ and I broke up.”

And that’s it. Buffy and Andi try to prod more information out of him at first, but after realizing how upset Cyrus is, they leave it be. Instead, they pull him into a big group hug which makes Cyrus feel at a little bit happier for the time being.

That summer goes by fast. Cyrus doesn’t see TJ once, but he does see TJ’s mother in town. She asks him how he’s doing and what his plans for college are. He answers them happily, as TJ’s mother has always been caring and sweet toward him. He has a feeling she doesn’t know they broke up.

“How are you?” He asks politely.

“Oh you know, it’s odd not having TJ around all the time,” She replies. “I’m happy he got such a good opportunity to start college early, but at the same time I’m sad he wasn’t around for the summer. I’m sure you understand exactly how I feel.”

“Uh, yeah, completely.”

Early college. He hasn’t seen TJ around Shadyside because he’s already gone. TJ didn’t even tell anyone he left. Suddenly, Cyrus feels more insignificant and used than ever before.

Moving in is a great distraction to the anger and sadness that TJ has caused him. His parents fly out with him to help him buy some things and move into his dorm. His roommate seems nice, and Cyrus can even see them becoming friends if Cyrus wasn’t so down in the dumps recently about everything. Despite his bitterness toward TJ, Cyrus also feels excited and happy. He’s going to the school of his dreams. He’s going to study his favorite subjects. It’s all going to be okay.

He talks to Buffy, Andi, and Jonah nearly every week during school. Even Amber calls up every once in a while to chat. He makes a few new friends at his college, but none nearly as close as any of his old ones. Early in the first semester, his classes are going really well. He’s acing lots of the assignments and tests, and overall, he’s happy to be exploring a new city.

Then, he returns for fall break.

Being back to Shadyside for the first time in nearly three months is like a punch to the face. Driving by all of his old spots filled with memories aches more than he thought it would. When he’s home, he hugs all his parents extra tight. When Andi, Amber, and Buffy come up around the same time to visit for their own breaks, his heart aches even more.

Hugging them all is like a breath of fresh air. He never realized how deeply he missed them. They only get a few days together, a few days to catch up on the last three months of their lives. Buffy, Andi, and Amber are at least close enough to each other to visit every so often. Meanwhile, Cyrus is living a completely separate life. He feels so disconnected from his old friends, family, and home. He wonders if it will always be like this. How much worse will it get?

When Cyrus gets back from fall break to finish up the second half of his semester, things go downhill drastically. He finds himself unable to focus on classes like he’s supposed to. He and his friends at Columbia drift apart with the constant studying. Cyrus constantly thinks about his friends and family. He talks to them on the phone less and less, too, which doesn’t help. Soon, everyday that Cyrus spends at the college feels like torture. His mood continues to drop along with his grades.

Along with all of this happening, Cyrus keeps thinking of TJ. How could he not think of the boy who was a huge part of his life for about five years? At night sometimes, when he’s lonely and wide awake in his uncomfortable dorm bed, he wishes that TJ were beside him, arm draped around his stomach and legs twisted together. Cyrus doesn’t understand. He should hate TJ after what he did to him. He should resent him. But by now, all of those feelings have faded into sadness and longing.

By the time finals come around, he’s a wreck. He can barely even muster up the energy to do his assignments much less study for finals. He wakes up from nightmares all the time, or just can’t sleep at all. He even starts having panic attacks on the worst days.

When he returns for winter break, the first thing he does when he sees his parents is collapse and cry into their arms.

…

It’s a cold, snowy day. Cyrus swings back and forth on the familiar swing set that he’s come to loathe. He’s come out here to cool off, literally and figuratively. Although he adores his parents, the constant questioning about his mental state soon became too much to handle after a few days. So, this morning, Cyrus snuck out. For some reason, he automatically heads to the swings. When he first comes upon the swings, he nearly turns around, but something compels him to sit down on a hard, plastic seat.

“Come here often?”

Cyrus’s breath catches in his throat because no, it can’t be him. This isn’t real, it must be another one of his convoluted nightmares. But the icy snow on his face feels real, as well as the chill of the wind and the brightness of the sky. He turns his head.

“TJ?” he whispers, breath fogging up the air around him.

Sure enough, there he is. For the most part, he looks the same; tall, sharp jawline, ruffled hair, colorful green eyes. But there’s an aura around him that feels different, that radiates maturity and confidence that Cyrus has yet to achieve.

“Hey, underdog,” he whispers back.

Underdog. Cyrus never thought he’d hear that nickname again, especially not coming from TJ’s mouth.

“What are you doing here?” Cyrus asks, almost in a harsh tone. After all, he can’t just forget what TJ did to him, how he made him feel.

“Can I sit?”

Cyrus sighs, nodding. They swing in silence, snow fluttering around them in intricate swirls. Never would Cyrus have thought things would be so awkward between them.

“I heard about what happened with school,” TJ admits.

Cyrus flips his head toward him and hisses out, “What are you talking about?!”

“Buffy’s sort of been sending me a bunch of angry text messages constantly, and in one of them she kinda admitted you were struggling being away from home.”

“She had no right to tell you that!”

“I don’t think she meant to,” TJ promises. “It was just a hint, anyway. But along with that and my parents asking about you all the time…I put it together.”

Cyrus scrapes his feet along the ice harshly. TJ flinches at the noise.

“Why do you care, anyway?”

TJ frowns, “What do you mean?”

The emotions that Cyrus has been holding in for so long suddenly burst out of him like an ocean wave crashing to the shoreline. “You left me after four years! Four years, TJ! And your explanation about college? Bullshit. You didn’t even talk to me about it first! We could have figured something out, but obviously you didn’t care then, so you can’t care now.”

TJ appears stunned at Cyrus’s outburst. Cyrus doesn’t think TJ’s ever seen him that angry before. In fact, Cyrus hasn’t felt so angry before.

“I’ve always cared,” TJ murmurs.

Cyrus scoffs. “Whatever. This is stupid. I’m leaving.”

He goes to get off his swing, but TJ’s gloved hand wraps around his own, causing him to halt his movements.

“Please,” TJ begs, “It’s true. I think about you literally all the time, Cy. I miss you more than anything.”

“Then why did you hurt me so much?” Cyrus cries out, tears dripping down his face.

It feels like a twisted repeat of the end of their senior year. The sense of Deja vu tingles from his head to toes. As they stand in the snow, their hands remain clasped together.

“I didn’t mean to, I promise!” TJ chokes out. “That was one of the worse days of my life. But I knew that if I told you how I really felt about you going to your dream college…you’d hate me forever.”

At this point, tears run down both of their faces.

“I don’t understand.”

TJ steps closer. “I didn’t want you to go, Cyrus! I wanted more than anything to tell you to stay here. But I felt so unbelieve ably guilty for feeling so selfish. This was your dream school, and I couldn’t let my selfishness take that away from you. So I thought the only way I’d be able to handle it would be breaking it off, but now I realize how incredibly stupid that was. No matter what, I can’t stop thinking about you, Cy. No matter how hard I tried, you were always there.”

“Teej,” Cyrus whispers with a sniffle. “Oh my god, TJ…”

“I’m so sorry I hurt you,” TJ sobs. “I hate myself everyday for that. I’m so sorry.”

They collapse into each other’s arms. TJ sobs into Cyrus’s shoulder, while Cyrus strokes his wet hair and cries silently. Being back in TJ’s embrace feels just like he remembers it; a warmth in the cold of the winter, a promise of comfort and security.

“It’s true,” Cyrus says softly into TJ’s ear. “I hate it at my school. I’m so anxious all the time. I’m failing almost all my classes. I’m a complete wreck. I feel like a huge baby. People do this all the time, move far away from home for college, but I couldn’t.”

“You’re not a coward, Cyrus. You were being brave trying something new.”

“But I couldn’t handle it! I feel like I failed,” Cyrus admits, pulling away.

TJ looks him in the eyes. “You didn’t fail. You just found out what doesn’t work for you. You’ll find your way again, I’m sure of it.”

Then, with the gentlest of touches, TJ reaches up to wipe a stray tear from Cyrus’s cold, rosy cheeks.

“I missed you,” Cyrus says again. “I missed you, I missed you, I missed you!”

They meet in a passionate kiss, pouring all their love and affection into it. Kissing TJ again feels like a reignited fire, a joyous song playing on repeat, fireworks exploding across the sky. In that moment, Cyrus knows that he’ll never love anyone like he loves TJ, and he needs TJ to know that.

So, when they pull apart panting for air, Cyrus’s hands cupping TJ’s cheeks, Cyrus hums out, “I love you Thelonious Jagger.”

TJ laughs before leaning in and kissing him again briefly but assertively.

“I love you endlessly, Cyrus Goodman.”

[stonerbughead]

maria watches friday night lights (#4)

season 2, pt 2!! (2x08-2x15)

ugh Matt is really having his Being A Stupid Teenage Boy season huh?

-lol love a good naked dude being chased scene — in this case, Smash on his recruiting trip being chased around by a potential future teammate. Classic.

(it’s kinda cute that Matt came to pick him up tho)

- the latest in season 2 being off the fucking rails: really? Riggins’ new digs include a meth lab on wheels??

-Landry confessing to murdering someone and then having his sheriff dad drag him out of the station to go home is the whitest shit EVER. Like, Landry is literally *trying* to be punished and they just won’t punish his white, cop-kid ass. ‘Murica. (I mean don’t get me wrong: it WAS self defense against someone literally stalking and trying to rape Tyra, but the point still stands that if Landry was a black kid he’d have been tried as an adult and convicted no doubt)

-YESSSSS a MySpace shoutout! we love to see it

“I hate you” - Santiago (and also me) @ Buddy Garrity

-omg Coach Taylor noticing that things aren’t good at home for Riggins and taking him in, my heart!

-Wow in just one scene Riggins charmed baby Grace, warned Tami’s sister not to shame women for eating a lot (“it can lead to anorexia, especially in girls”) and then offered to go out to the store to get baby formula in the pouring rain. What a man.

-and yes, Shelly, you fully grown woman, it IS a bad idea to lust after a TEENAGE BOY

-wow Riggins protecting Julie from the SUPER DRAMATIC TORNADO that made me laugh. Do we get to have a Riggins-Julie friendship??? bc I’d be down. We need more friendships.

-Thank you, Tami, saying “EW” to her sister watching Riggins work out! Someone has sense to know a fully grown woman shouldn’t be lusting after a teenager! Julie can lust if she wants tho, that’s age appropriate.

-DYING at Landry being aghast that Tyra’s never heard of West Side Story.

-oh god, Lyla — it is totally fair to assume your mom would tell your dad she’s getting remarried, especially if she knew you’d be seeing him — so I’m sorry you’re the one who accidentally set off whatever nonsense Buddy is gonna pull now that he knows his ex wife is “marrying that treehugger.”

“Who’s that?” “Some douchebag named Chip. who names their kid Chip anyway?” Same, Tyra, same.

-Landry, one of my biggest pet peeves is asking someone out while they’re on the clock. Like, come on! let Tyra work, boy.

-Jesus Christ it’s like everywhere Julie looks, she has to see Matt making out with someone. That’s rough.

-and oop Matt you busted bc Julie actually knows who Carlotta is!

-once a cheater, always a cheater, Buddy. And yes to Pam for being like “nah bye I’m happy now, it is over.” You treated her like garbage so here we are, sir!

-hilarious that Landry is the one who ends up throwing the first punch that gets the post-tornado, school-crossover tensions to finally boil over

-I like that they show both the fall formal and the party where everyone who didn’t go to the formal is. Nice.

-Aw poor Julie got drunk af to deal with all her feelings. This really is the season where they have Julie and Matt being sixteen year olds in the most painful ways. So maybe it’s good they’re not together during this tho I’m still looking forward to when the tide turns their way again.

-anyway, Tim is a good friend for getting the creep who thought he was “one beer away from getting laid” off of Julie.

-And....in true Texas dad fashion, Eric Taylor misinterprets everything! Noooo. We can’t have nice things.

-This Noelle-Smash partnership is definitely an interesting pairing. Two very ambitious football people courting all these recruiters while Smash’s mom side eyes them in the corner? Hilarious.

-omg not this Oklahoma tech recruiter harassing smash’s mom in the grocery store! GTFO here! Give her some fucking personal space. They really do such a good job of showing as much of the toxic shit about football culture as the inspiring, big moments.

-Aw and I love that Tami tried to help Mama Smash get the guy to go away. It’s such a familiar scene, women helping each other get a dude harassing them away. And then they have a heart to heart in the parking lot? Love that.

-omg what a throwback that Shelly TAPED OVER Eric’s football game to tape a NEW EPISODE of The Office! Love it. “Y’all should get a TiVo.”

-omg watching Tami and Eric work out arguments is so beautiful, they communicate very well! We stan a good marriage.

-wow seeing the other coach from tornado school lose his shit publicly after he knocked down Riggins was uh....wild???? This is the second time he put his hands on Riggins!

-awww Eric actually coming to apologize to riggins for overreacting about Julie when he hears the real story??? Love it.

-Weevil from Veronica Mars shows up as a friend of Santiago’s? Of course.

-WOW and Logan from Gilmore girls as a Christian radio host...tracks.

“Is that your way of telling her you like her?” Jason making a surprisingly astute observation about Tim. (And Lyla.)

-yo why would you invite your daughter’s boyfriend’s family over for dinner just to say they shouldn’t date? (And bc it’s an interracial relationship.) Southern culture is wild to me lol

-wow the racist coach from last season is now off spouting his mouth about how “no wife of mine would be working with a kid at home.” I love that Eric calls him out as sounding stupid and ignorant — you better!

-hearing that Lyla burned her cheerleading uniform is one of the most badass things she’s done so far tbh along with that dealership destruction

-off the rails update: 2x12 was toooo much!! Like, Jesus between Smash’s sister getting harassed at the movie theater by the racists who hate on smash and Noelle...and this plotline with Santiago and his old friends trashing Buddy’s place...it’s like, can we breathe.

-I could not be more excited for Carlotta to leave and another teenage boy with adult woman relationship to end.

-wow can’t believe the plotline where Riggins stole $3000 from a drug dealer isn’t ending well for him. And now Smash is getting arrested bc of those racist guys from the movie theater episode? One recap I read said that too many of this season’s plots feel contrived and I think that sums it up.

-is there any character who HASN’T worked at Buddy Garrity’s dealership at this point?!

-and yikes at all the other salespeople being mad that a salesperson in a wheelchair was hired...y’all mad ugly and ableist for that

-Tyra and Landry are....confusing

-Wait Logan from GG is an actual preacher and not just a Christian radio host? CREEPY. And he kissed Lyla? A lot to unpack there.

-lol Tim trying to woo Lyla is kinda funny to watch simply bc Tim is clearly so confounded by rejection

-I love how much space they give for Smash’s sister’s pain in the Noelle-Smash theater incident. A lesser show wouldn’t have centered her as much.

-is it mean of me to say Jason is boring AF most of the time

-yeah this dreads girl is seemingly way more compatible with Landry than Tyra yikes! Like she made him a power metal mix cd???

-wow this Smash storyline where mouthing off to the press is what gets him suspended....really checks out bc teenage boys are dumb

-I love Tami as a volleyball coach and getting to see another sport! Also as someone who’s been on a losing team I know that feeling of finally winning a game!!! Go Dillon volleyball!!! (Am I maybe currently writing a Bughead fic based on my underdog field hockey experiences? ;) yes yes I am)

-Oh shit now Saracen’s at the nihilistic Nothing Matters phase of teenage angst. Right on schedule!

-lol these two short haired blondes (white dreads Jean and Tyra) being in a love triangle with Landry is wild

-Omg jean just said, “are you a friend or are you competition?” She is not playing!

-I love Riggins dragging Saracen to practice

“I don’t want you to become at an at-risk youth” -Landry teasing Saracen while also sincerely caring about him is some of the best friendship banter on this show. The accuracy 😂

-It seems like Julie gets a lot of hate? But I think I have such a soft spot for Julie bc I was a bitchy teenager with undiagnosed mental health disorders and I just wish so much #growth for her! Also I really do miss her and Saracen’s relationship, I’m so excited I’m almost at S3 where it seems like it’s happening again?

-LOL this guy at the dmv is the first person in Dillon to be like, “no I hate football.” That tracks.

-wow Saracen is getting driven to the hospital to make sure his grandma is okay by the sex worker who was just giving him a lap dance. Amazing.

-also I hope grandma is okay!

-okay Tyra throwing her hat in the ring for Landry at the last minute? Idk I think Jean deserves the win but there’s no way it’ll happen bc she’s a guest actor?!

-awww Saracen’s abandonment issues coming out whiles he in the tub after being sobered up by Eric Taylor. “There’s nothing wrong with you.” 😭 and “your daughter left me for a better guy” - will take that crumb — first mention of Julie out of Saracen’s mouth in a minute

-hey, Landry, my friend: flirting with a girl (Jean) to get her outside then dumping her immediately is kind of a wild bait and switch. But I get it, he’s been in love with Tyra for a long time and Tyra IS right — they had a very fucked up start to their relationship so it makes sense she needed a minute to process her ~feelings~. however I definitely identified closer to a jean in my high school experience L O L (minus the unacceptable white dreads)

-these Julie and Tami driving scenes are painfully accurate, btw. Love them.

-wow the scene of Smash hyping everyone up, the adrenaline/energy of the team cheering with helmets and a classic “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” - then the whole team running out onto the field and leaving an empty locker room with just Smash breaking down into tears....#art

-alright y’all I’m gearing up for the last episode of S2! Thanks to @lockitin for reminding me this is the writers’ strike season — I was in eighth grade then and remember being pissedddd about the shortened fourth season of “the office” — so I’m fully prepared for the abruptness to come.

-I love when they parallel showing the white church and the black church

-and Tim going to church just to see Lyla makes me laugh

-ooooof Jason you cannot put on this waitress you had a one night stand with the fact that this could be your only chance to have a baby!!! Omg this poor woman who just pointed out she, too, is NINETEEN.

-wait so is Riggins doing a sports show on a Christian radio station? What?

“I think you’re really hot. Your long hair reminds me of Jesus” -Christian girls being horny for Riggins LOL

-awww Saracen being like “okay Landry you’re gonna impress Tyra right now” before that football play was a cute friendship moment for those two

-aww I love how this Smash storyline is turning out with Coach Deeks whose had his eye on him for six years my heart 😭

-also unclear to me whether Logan Huntzberger the Preacher is a fully grown adult dating a high school senior?? Biggest teen drama pet peeve once again! Stop this!

-Tami is my heroine for just leaving Eric at the restaurant fighting with her ex. “see you at home, honey!”

-I’m sorry, is Jason gonna like actually convince this girl to have a baby with her one night stand at 19??? Oh lol wait THAT ended up being the cliffhanger of the whole season? Fucking hilarious.

well I made it through season 2!!! Super psyched for Season 3, Jay has been hyping me up for it. See y’all next time! (I’ll try to post more for season 3 bc this accidentally got long af.)

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

1) I got lost in your soa meta tag... My opinions on the characters change with each rewatch, except Tara. She’s my fave... and I’ll never understand the hate she got, especially from women. The same women who loved and rooted for Gemma, and defended all her actions but hated Tara. I remember when the spoilers came out that Gemma murdered Tara- women on fb and ig were cheering about it. I was horrified.

cont. I loved Gemma in the first 3 seasons, her relationship with Tara in s2/3 was my favorite. After that I hated her. I’ll never understand what Nero saw in her. She was a complete train wreck. Jax is horrible, but I can’t help but love him. I think because I don’t rewatch the last few seasons as much as I do the others, so I try to block out all the really bad stuff. I hated all the bloodshed and how horrible the characters got- the last season makes me nauseous. But SOA is still one of my favorite shows of all time. Jax finding Tara’s dead body is still the saddest scene in television history for me. I sob every single time I watch it. The first time I watched SOA I hated Wendy. Then other rewatches became a like/hate with her. One minute I hated her the next I could sympathize with her. Back and forth. I’ve rewatched it so many times (mainly the first 4) some times I would try to work out timelines and that would be reason enough to hate Wendy. There was a point I even shipped her with Jax, and was glad they worked it out in the end. But then I would read someone’s meta about her, and I’d be like wtf she’s not good enough for Jax or the boys. Smh. Now the only thing that irritates me about Wendy is the s6 crap. and this is probably a very unpopular opinion... but I cannot stand Opie and never got why fans liked him so much. If I made a list of fav soa characters he wouldn’t even make the top 10. I thought he was boring in s1, dumb in s2, I only remember him killing Stahl in s3, and I hated him in s4 for cheating on Lyla. Like, I’m not completely heartless when it comes to him tho, mainly due to Ryan Hurst’s acting, the emotional scenes really got me; seeing Donna dead, beating up Tig, finding Piney dead, killing Stahl, the whole scene leading up to him shooting Clay, all great scenes that made me cry. But Opie is still just “blah” to me. Ps.. sorry for all the messages 👀 

Hey there! Please, never apologise for sending asks. I love interacting with people and discussing fandom things. I hope you enjoyed reading through my rather extensive SOA meta tag. Since you’ve read some of my posts, I assume you probably already know my stance on the characters and a lot of the things that you’ve spoken about. 

My opinions also change with every re-watch I do. That’s the case for any show I re-watch, not just SOA. That’s why I love re-watches so much; they allow us to get to know the universe and characters even better, to notice details we may have missed previously and develop new perceptions on things. With every re-watch I do, I purposefully try to watch it with fresh eyes and to cast previous opinions aside and look beyond what I’ve previously seen/thought about the show. 

The hate that Tara gets is unfair and undeserved. I wasn’t in the SOA fandom when the show was airing, but it’s horrifying to know that fans were cheering about her death. I know she’s only a fictional character, but it’s very sad that people would react that way. Regardless of personal feeling, Tara did not deserve what happened to her. No one deserves to be so brutally and viciously murdered in that way, it’s by far the most gruesome and painful death on the show. I still find that scene (and the one that follows with Jax finding her body) difficult to watch. Tara is definitley not my favourite character, but she’s by far the most relatable character and she’s fantastically well written. I think that perhaps the hate she has got in the past (I don’t really see it now) stems from that fact that she’s not really that likeable. That may just be my personal opinion, but despite the fact that she always tries to do the right thing and was one of the most morally “good” characters on the show, she always came across a little hypocritcal and snobby to me. But I completely understand why she’d be your favourite character and why so many fans love her.

When it comes to discussing my like and dislike for characters on SOA, it’s a very complex thing. I detest practically every single character on the show, because they’re all awful people that do terrible things. However, there are certain characters who I’m able to love despite that because of the way in which they’re written and how complex they are. Jax is one of those characters and so is Clay. I hate Gemma with a passion, but again, I can appreciate how complex she is and as far as villains go, she’s one of the best in my opinion. I love Wendy to pieces, but you’ll already know that from reading my tag. I think she’s very misunderstood and underrated. I really saw Wendy as being an underdog, and that’s probably why I love her so much. I completely agree about Opie! He is by far the most overrated character. I don’t understand why fans love him so much. I think that maybe it stems from his death and that because it was so emotional and impactful, fans have memorialised him and placed him on a pedastal. But in reality, he was a stagnant character with nothing to offer. I feel that way about a lot of the other minor characters too like Tig, Chibs, Bobby, Juice, Happy etc. 

Thanks for sending these asks, my lovely, it was a pleasure to discuss SOA with you :)

[thinkingaboutyoungroyals]

Who Waits For Love (Chapter 7)

Summary: T.J. Kippen lost his chance to tell Cyrus Goodman how he felt when they were in the 8th grade. Now, they are in their junior year of high school and Cyrus is on his 3rd relationship. Is it time to give up… or continue to wait for love?

A/N: First, I’m so sorry because of how horribly delayed this chapter was, due to the unexpected occurrence of me getting sick! I’m still a little sick but I’m getting better! Thank you to everyone who sent their concerns my way! And, second, this chapter feels rushed cause a lot of things are happening at once, but trust me, I’ve had this setup planned from the beginning because I didn’t want to drag the story on and on, especially with all the upcoming angst.

And with that final note...Enjoy!

It had been days since T.J. and Cyrus last hung out. Sure, he would pick him up for school in the morning and drive him home after and they would have lunch together with their friends. But other than those, they haven’t spent much time together…alone.

Aidan had been hanging around him a lot more ever since their date. The brunette would wait for him in the mornings with some kind of treat, and sometimes, T.J. would drive him home, too. During these times, Cyrus would disappear.

He wondered if his friend had an issue with Aidan but Cyrus had always given people chances and get to know them (like what he did with T.J.), so this behavior was a little off-putting and strange.

And, furthermore, T.J. just missed him. So, he was thrilled when Cyrus agreed to come over his house after school to help him study for his upcoming Trigonometry test.

Cyrus was a good teacher. He was patient and had no problem repeating things until T.J. understood. If he was certified in specialized tutoring for dyscalculia, T.J. would have insisted that he be his tutor instead of the one provided by the school. (She was nice and all but he wasn’t her only student. There were 3 others in the whole of Grant who also had dyscalculia so she had to divide her time between them. She couldn’t always give T.J. her full attention.)

It had been two hours since they started studying. Sitting with his legs underneath him at his desk, T.J.’s head was filled with nothing else but sine, cosine, and tangent functions. He was starting to doze off. Cyrus’ voice started to sound like a soothing buzz in his ears. He wanted to just lie his head down and nap.

“T.J., what’s the answer?”

He blinked and looked down at the equation he had been trying to solve. He was pretty sure he messed up somewhere.

“Um… 42?”

From his spot on top of T.J.’s bed, Cyrus sighed and put the textbook down. “Let’s take a break.”

“Thank you!”

Relived that he could rest his exhausted brain, T.J. plopped his head on top of his arms on the desk and closed his eyes.

He wanted to drift off but knew that he shouldn’t. He still had a lot of ground to cover. So, he would just rest.

“So… how are things between you and Aidan?”

T.J. opened his eyes and peeked at Cyrus, still sitting on his bed, watching him.

“Um… fine, I guess.”

Cyrus cutely pursed his lips. “Have you gone out on your second date?” he continued to ask.

“No. He’s asked me a couple of times. But, I’ve been too busy.”

Plus, he figured it was best not to get Aidan’s hopes up. But, he had to admit, the guy was determined. Not to brag or anything, but it wasn’t the first time T.J. had been pursued. However, most gave up fairly soon. Aidan, so far, just kept asking, never deterred by T.J.’s polite refusals.

It was cute and yeah, it felt good. But, he knew that he had to be firm with him one of these days and reject him properly. He wouldn’t feel so bad about it if Aidan wasn’t so nice.

T.J. flashed Cyrus a smirk. “Why? Are you jealous?” he teased.

To his surprise, the brunette just coughed and abruptly changed the subject. “So, did you see the posters for the Spring Formal? Andi made them.”

Chuckling to himself, T.J. raised his head and nodded. “Yeah. She’s in the committee, right?”

“Yeah, she figured since Amber’s not around, she might as well do something productive for the Dance. She’s handling PR and some of the décor.” Cyrus pursed his lips. “Are you…thinking about asking Aidan?”

T.J. didn’t even think about that so he just shrugged. “What about you?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Are you asking anyone?”

His heart thundered against his chest as he waited for Cyrus’ answer.

The brunette also shrugged. “Still thinking about it.”

T.J. tried to ignore the way his heart fell. “Oh.”

Whoever that guy was, he was a lucky bastard.

He forced a grin. “In that case, try not to step on his feet when you’re dancing.”

Cyrus’ mouth fell open in offense at the jibe. “Excuse me?! I’ll have you know, I’m an excellent dancer! I took dance lessons!”

T.J. snorted. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really!” Looking determined, Cyrus jumped off the bed and flashed T.J. a challenging look. “I’ll show you who can dance!”

Then, to the blonde’s amusement, he began to dance. And he was using the term quite loosely. It involved a lot of jazz hands, shaking his hips, flailing his arms, and spinning.

“You can’t do better than me!” he gleefully cheered.

That sounded like a challenge and everyone knew that T.J. could never resist a challenge.

Getting to his feet, T.J. also began to move his body. A few body rolls here. Waving his arms there. Spinning. He wasn’t entirely sure if his made up routine was any better than Cyrus’ but the boy was laughing and amping up his own moves so it must be pretty good.

There was no music but by some miracle, they were still moving to some kind of beat.

Playfully, T.J. reached out and grabbed Cyrus’ hand and twirled him under his arm. The brunette let out a delighted squeal, spinning himself back into T.J.’s arms.

T.J. spun him again and brought him close, his hands instinctively meeting the smaller boy’s waist. Cyrus giggled, his own hands moving up to wrap around T.J.’s neck, his cold fingers meeting the little hairs there. It made the blonde shiver but he didn’t let go.

They were suddenly swaying to the unheard music.  

“What are we doing?” Cyrus asked, still giggling.

“Slow dancing? It’s a must for every Dance, Underdog! You’ve slow-danced before, right?”

Cyrus shrugged. “I danced with Freddie at the Winter Formal last year… but, he stepped on my foot so we stopped.”

T.J. laughed, remembering.

He had been standing on the side of the school gym, a cup of punch in his hands, silently jealous as he watched Cyrus dance with his then-boyfriend…until the foot-stepping incident, anyway.

“Oh, yeah,” he teased, grinning. “He ruined your shoes.”

“They were pure, 100 percent Italian leather!”

“Well, then, hopefully, whoever you slow-dance with this time won’t step on your foot and ruin any expensive leather.”

“Or I can just dance with you.”

He was sure it didn’t mean anything, but T.J. still felt his cheeks turn red. 

“Yeah,” he managed with a soft smile. “You can do that. I’ll dance with you all night, if you want me to.”

Their swaying had slowed and the distance between them had somehow become non-existent. He wasn’t sure if he had pulled him closer or if Cyrus, himself, stepped closer. But, they were now practically chest-to-chest.

The brunette raised his chin and met his eyes, peering at him from under long lashes as he bit his bottom lip. T.J.’s gaze flicked over to them, biting his own lip and swallowing the lump in his throat.

“T.J.?” came the soft call, making him look up again to see Cyrus watching him.

“Cyrus,” he breathed, feeling himself lean in as his resolve weakened.

He loved him so much and wanted to be with him, so badly. He held off on his feelings for so long, putting Cyrus’ own happiness before his. But, it didn’t change the fact that he wanted to hold him in his arms like this…to kiss him…

It felt like time was slowing down. Cyrus’ eyes were fluttering, almost as if he wanted to shut them but didn’t want to miss what T.J. was doing. Meanwhile, T.J.’s heart was speeding up and wondered if it was loud enough for Cyrus to hear.

Their lips were only mere millimeters away from each other. It was so easy for T.J. to just take the plunge and go for it. Just plant a kiss right there on those pretty pink lips...

“Boys! Take a break! I made cookies!”

Just like that, T.J. felt himself jump away from Cyrus, his hands leaving the latter’s waist. His heart still wasn’t calming down and he could feel his face practically burning. Nonetheless, he was a half-disappointed and half-relieved at the interruption.

Disappointed because he didn’t get to kiss Cyrus like he wanted. Relieved because he didn’t want it to happen like this. He didn’t want to force a kiss on him.  

“U-Um… we should go,” was all he could say.

In front of him, Cyrus had his gaze trained on the floor. “Y-Yeah… Um… Can you give me a minute? I just… uh… I need to check on something… on my phone.”

“Yeah… yeah…”

With a nod, T.J. quickly left, leaving Cyrus still standing there in the middle of his bedroom.

In the hallway, he leaned against the wall and sighed. Whether it was from relief or frustration, he wasn’t really sure, anymore.

And his heart still refused to calm down.

They didn’t talk about it when they were eating his mom’s cookies and drinking juice. They didn’t talk about it when they went back to studying. And not a word was mentioned when Cyrus said goodbye and T.J. watched him walking to his dad’s car from the porch.

As the taillights disappeared, the longing in T.J. only grew.

……........

“Wow, Andi really outdid herself,” Cyrus said, sounding impressed.

T.J. had to agree as they both stared at the giant pink banner hanging from the banister, with the words “Spring Formal This Friday At 7pm!” emblazoned in glittery blue letters and surrounded by paintings of flowers, birds, and hearts. Around them, posters announcing the Dance were tacked onto every bulletin board and taped to every wall.

It was like they were trying to nudge T.J. into asking Cyrus since the brunette didn’t say anything about having a date, yet.

“Have you asked the guy you wanted to ask?” he casually brought up as Cyrus walked him to his locker. 

The other boy shook his head. “Not yet. I was thinking about how I’m gonna ask. Like, should I do a promposal, like what everyone else is doing? Or should I just go for it and ask? What do you think?

T.J.’s chest ached as he replied, “I say go for it.”

They finally reached his locker.

Cyrus flashed him a smile. “You think so? I’m kind of scared he’d say ‘no’.”

“Who would say ‘no’ to you, Underdog? I wouldn’t.”

Cyrus’ face flushed. “R-Really?”

T.J. returned the smile as he opened his locker. “Yeah. Why? Are you asking me?” he couldn’t help but tease.

Cyrus visibly swallowed. He looked a little nervous all of a sudden.

“Well… actually, there is something I wanted to ask…”

A seed of hope blossomed inside T.J.’s chest. Was Cyrus really going to ask him?

“Hey, guys.”

Trying not to be so obvious with his irritation at the interruption, T.J. flashed the newcomer a friendly smile.

“Hey, Aidan,” he greeted.

The other brunette boy stopped in front of them.

“Got you an apple fritter,” he said, holding out a paper bag for T.J. to take.

He didn’t want to accept but he also didn’t want to be rude so he took it.

“Well, I’m gonna head to my locker,” Cyrus announced.

“Wait, weren’t you going to ask me something?” T.J. blurted out in a panic, not wanting him to leave yet.

Cyrus flashed him a strained smile. “It’s not a huge deal. I’ll see you, guys, later.”

And with that, he walked away.

Disappointed, T.J. continued to watch him from afar until he disappeared in the crowd. He was so caught up in his own inner turmoil that he almost didn’t hear Aidan’s question.

“Do you have a date for the Spring Formal, yet?”

He turned to him. “No, not yet,” he replied, honestly.

Aidan brightened up and it made the dread pool in T.J.’s stomach. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“So… would you like to go with me?”

T.J. swallowed. It was time. He couldn’t put it off any longer.

“Aidan…”

He locked eyes with the brunette. The other boy looked anxious with the way his hands tightened around the straps of his backpack. Yet, hopeful at the same time because he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation, beaming that bright smile.

T.J. felt awful. “I’m flattered, I really am. But… I can’t go to the Formal with you. I… don’t feel the same way.”

Slowly but surely, the sparkle in Aidan’s eyes dimmed as his smile disappeared. “Oh…”

“It’s not you!” T.J. added, quickly. “Honestly, you’re a really great guy. You’re sweet and nice and funny and…I bet you any other guy or girl would have no issue going out with you. But, I…”

He trailed off, unsure about going further.

But, Aidan appeared to understand. “You like someone else, already, right?”

T.J. swallowed again and nodded.

“It’s Cyrus… right?”

T.J.’s eyes widened. “How did you…?”

Chuckling, Aidan shrugged. “I wasn’t sure, at first. But, the more I got to know you and your friends, the more it became obvious. I should have backed off when I realized but I just really liked you, T.J.” He sighed. “I’m sorry if I made things awkward for you both. I think I’ve been upsetting him by hanging around you too much.” He smiled in a friendly way. “You should ask him.”

T.J. hung his head. “I don’t know. I want to. God, I really want to. But, I don’t know how he’ll react.”

Aidan reached out and patted his arm. “Well, you won’t know unless you ask.”

For someone who just got rejected, he seemed to take it well. And he was fine with giving T.J. dating advice? Aidan really was a great guy. And he had to admire his guts, too. He liked T.J. and he went for it.

Maybe he should take a page from his book.

By the time they bid each other goodbye (Aidan had now fully accepted defeat and told him he was backing off), T.J. was determined.

With his head raised high and his steps sure and confident, he made his way to Cyrus’ locker. From a distance, he could see him there, talking seriously with Jonah.

Gathering every bit of his nerve and summoning all of his so-called boundless confidence, he walked closer.

“… and I’m wondering if you’d like to go to my Spring Formal with me?”

T.J. froze in his tracks, his body going cold at the words that just left Jonah’s mouth.

Surely, Cyrus wouldn’t say ‘yes’? Surely, Jonah wasn’t the one he was going to ask. He was over his crush on Jonah. He told T.J. that many times.

He watched as Cyrus smiled and said, “Sure, Jonah. I’d love to go to your Spring Formal.”

He could practically hear the ensuing crack and crash of his heart, like a vase that someone accidentally knocked over.

He was too late again.

Turning on his heels, T.J. ran off.

……........

The ride home was filled with nothing but Cyrus’ chatter about his day. T.J. hummed in acknowledgment so his friend knew he was listening, but otherwise, he allowed Cyrus to talk. He knew that he was just waiting for the boy to bring up the Formal and Jonah.

And it made him tense. His hold on the steering wheel was tight but he was surprisingly calm. When it came to being heartbroken, he had gotten very good at hiding his true feelings.

“You okay? You’ve been quiet all day,” Cyrus asked, sounding worried.

T.J. flashed him a smile. “Yeah. Just a long day. My Trig test was pretty hard, but I think I did okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Cyrus was silent for a few beats before saying, “Alright."

He didn’t say anything for a while, the only sound was the radio playing.

“So…did Aidan ask you to the Formal?” was suddenly asked.

T.J. swallowed, not taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“Wild guess. He looked serious this morning.”

“Yeah.”

Another beat of silence.

“So… are you going with him?”

“Uh… I haven’t decided. Maybe.”

“Oh…”

No word was said for the rest of the drive.

……........

Suffice to say, things between him and Cyrus in the next few days were…awkward.

T.J. didn’t mean to make it awkward. It was just, every time he looked at Cyrus, he would remember the way he said “yes” to Jonah’s invitation with no hesitation. And, furthermore, neither of them said a word about being each other’s dates. It was like they didn’t want anyone else to know.

Meanwhile, the rest of their friends were looking forward to the Formal. Marty and Buffy were going together, of course. And Andi was going stag but she proudly boasted about how hard she worked on her decorations.

When T.J. casually mentioned that maybe he was going to skip out on it, he had gotten a gasp of horror from her and was then made to feel guilty because he wouldn’t see her beautiful decorations. So, obviously, he now felt obligated to go.

“Hey, are we okay?” Cyrus asked him that Friday, at T.J.’s locker, hours before the Formal.

“Yeah, why?”

“It just… feels like you’re avoiding me? Or you don’t want to talk to me? Did I do something?”

T.J.’s eyes widened. “What? No! You didn’t do anything! I just…” He sighed, feeling exhaustion seep into his bones and guilt for worrying his friend. “It’s just been a long couple of days. But, things are fine, really.”

Cyrus frowned. “Are you sure?”

T.J. stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. “Yes. Things are fine.” He wanted to keep holding him but eventually, he forced himself to break away and step back. “A little fun tonight will probably do me some good. I’ll see you later?”

Cyrus, along with Buffy, was going to Andi’s to get ready and they were sleeping over, too.

The brunette still looked unsure but nodded. “I’ll see you.”

T.J. drove home alone. His mother was working until 8 that night so he got ready alone. He figured it was better, so she wouldn’t fuss over him and his hair and he could contemplate in peace.

It was the same old routine. He was always like this whenever Cyrus went on a date or got a new boyfriend. 

T.J. would wallow in self-pity for a couple of days then pretend everything was okay until he got used to the fact that Cyrus was with some other guy and not him.

So far, it worked well for him...sort of.

After styling his hair and sliding on the black suit jacket over his green button down (Cyrus often said he looked great in green because it brought out his eyes), he took a quick mirror photo and sent it to his mom.

Then, he grabbed his keys and was out the door.

He drove back to school, where the Spring Formal was to be held at the gym. He parked, sent his mom a quick text saying that he had arrived, then made his way into the building. Surrounding him were other students, all dressed to the nines in formal cocktail dresses and fancy suits.

In the hallway leading to the gym, he finally spotted a familiar face.

“Jonah!”

The brunette waved at him, his smile and dimples in full force. Damn, he looked really happy. Who wouldn't be if Cyrus was their date?

T.J.’s chest ached.

“Hey, T.J.!”

They slapped hands and fist-bumped in greeting.

“You look great,” the brunette complimented.

“Thanks. You too.”

Jonah was similarly dressed in a black suit, his formal shirt a deep red, and his hair nicely brushed. He really was a handsome guy, T.J. couldn’t deny that.

“Where are the others?”

Jonah pointed behind him. “The girls and Marty are already inside. Cyrus, too.”

T.J. furrowed his brows. “Why aren’t you in there with them?”

“Oh!” Jonah blushed, sheepishly. “My date’s in the bathroom. He’ll probably be out soon.”

Now, T.J. was definitely confused. “Your… date? But isn’t-.”

“Hey, guys.”

Jonah’s face immediately lit up. “Hey.”

A familiar bright-eyed boy walked up to them, dressed in a maroon suit with a white undershirt and a black bow tie.

“Walker?” T.J. blurted out, eyes wide. “You’re Jonah’s date?”

Jonah suddenly looked shy but Walker was beaming, his hand reaching out to link with the boy next to him.

“Yeah,” the artist replied, excitedly. “I didn’t think he would ask me but…. He really surprised me.”

Jonah grinned. “I have Cyrus to thank for that.”

T.J.’s stomach flipped. “Cyrus?”

“Yeah, he let me rehearse on him. And a good thing, too! I could barely get the words out when I asked Walker.”

“It was cute,” Walker said in a teasing tone, turning to Jonah and bumping their shoulders together. “And really sweet.”

Watching them practically flirt and send heart eyes at each other, T.J. felt stupid.

He had jumped to conclusions.

Cyrus never mentioned going to the Formal with Jonah because he never was.

“So… Cyrus doesn’t have a date?” he ended up asking.

Turning his attention back to him, Jonah furrowed his brows. “Aren’t you guys here together?”

T.J.’s throat felt dry. “Why would you think that?”

“He told me he was gonna ask you…he didn’t?” Jonah’s eyes widened in shock and panic. “Shit…sorry….I… I wasn’t supposed to tell you…I just thought…Please don’t tell Cyrus! He trusted me!”

Cyrus was going to ask him? Was T.J. dreaming? Or maybe Jonah was joking?

No, Jonah would never joke about this. He was funny and oblivious, but he would never joke about this.

So… if Cyrus wanted to go to the Formal with him, why didn’t he ask him? He had all week to ask. But, why didn’t he?

Meanwhile, Walker was rubbing a hand over Jonah’s back, calming him down. The brunette flashed him a grateful smile before turning to T.J.

“I think you should go talk to Cyrus,” he said. “It’s not too late.”

Yes, it wasn’t too late. The Dance only just started. There was still time.

T.J. had a chance. He couldn’t let it slip by.

“I gotta go! Thanks, Jonah!”

With determined steps, T.J. ran down the hall and through the gym doors.

Tag list

@androgynouspoetrycollector

@tyrusmuff1n

@thedampjofangirl

@tjsmuffin

@alyssailovespuppies

@buffy-driscool

@r4anly

@delicatesleeper

@amazingpartytattoos

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@tjshoodie

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@completelysterling @theobligatedklutz

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@turtle0verl0rd

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@tjlikedhimfirst

@tyrus-endgayme-confirmed 

@breadisticks

[thirteen-beaxhes]

A Week (A Tyrus One-Shot)

Summary: last week was rough, but without you it will be rougher

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Words: 1547

~~~~

It had been a week since he last saw TJ.

The music of the ball pounded from the school, but Cyrus was walking away from it. It was too loud, and he just needed to be alone. Especially at that time.

He went across the park, pausing for a minute at the swings, a stab of pain in his chest. That had become his and TJ’s place. Their first real conversation, where they made up after the gun incident, where they went if they just wanted to hang out together without the others. It was too painful to sit there now, even with how bad he was feeling. Cyrus took a turn and sat on the bench behind the swing set.

The lights around had been turned on, illuminating the area in a soft orange glow. Some students were leaving the ball, laughing and still singing. Their happiness just made him even sadder, thinking about everything that happened a week ago.

He and TJ were supposed to hang out at the Spoon for a while before they went to the cinema. Cyrus was nervously adjusting the collar of his shirt and fidgeting with his watch. He had made up his mind. He was going to tell TJ. Not just that he was gay, that would be the easy part.

Cyrus was going to tell him that he liked TJ.

It had taken him being psyched up by both Buffy and Andi for a solid 2 hours over the phone to be prepared for this. He just didn’t think about the worst case scenario. At all. Under no circumstances.

TJ was late by 20 minutes. They weren’t going to make it to the movie if he was later than that. Just as Cyrus was about to call him, he got a text from TJ.

Meet me at the swings please. It’s really important.

Confusion ran through Cyrus’ brain, but he grabbed his coat and ran to the swings. Panting, he saw TJ swinging there. He looked lonely and sad, but still, he managed to take Cyrus’ breath away more than the running had.

“Hey TJ, what happened?” Cyrus asked, walking up to him, causing TJ to stop swinging. He glanced up at Cyrus but immediately dropped his eyes to his feet. That was unusual. He seemed nervous and upset about something.

“Is everything okay?” Cyrus asked, worry evident in his voice as he sat down on the neighbouring swing.

“No,” TJ answered, his voice sounding raw as if he had been crying for a long time. He looked tired, and when he finally looked up at Cyrus, his eyes were full of despair.

“What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Cyrus.”

Those words sent Cyrus’ brain in a whirl, concern thrilling through his mind. Why was TJ sorry?

“For what?”

“I’m moving away.”

Those words hung in the silence that followed. Cyrus was sure people could hear his heart shatter from all the way across town. His eyes were watering, tears threatening to spill.

“W-What? When?”

“I leave the day after tomorrow,” TJ said, his voice shaking, as if he were trying desperately to maintain his composure.

“When did you find out?”

“3 days ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I didn’t know how Cyrus! I have wanted to tell you all these days, but I didn’t how to say it!” TJ replied, each word increasing in volume like a crescendo, but his last word breaking.

They sat in silence, still in shock, their swings swaying lightly.

“That’s not all Cyrus.”

Cyrus looked up, his cheeks wet, tears streaming silently.

“This is the last time I can see you.”

Even TJ began to cry silently, tears falling from his eyes as he looked up at Cyrus.

“I have to help my mom pack all day, and we leave early the next morning. So, I won’t be able to meet you after now.”

As if Cyrus needed salt rubbed in the wound. What was he going to do now? TJ was one of his closest friends, and not to mention the tiny, absolutely massive amount he liked TJ. It was now or never when it came to telling him.

Cyrus chose never.

“Then let’s just spend the time we have like how we normally would. Just talking,” he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, swinging higher than he ever had, trying to make TJ cheer up. That’s how they spent the next 2 hours, just them on the swings, talking, while Cyrus squashed his feelings deep down.

When it was time for them to part, TJ turned and hugged Cyrus, squeezing him tight. Cyrus felt his heart go wild, ba-boom ba-boom ba-boom ba-boom, but he held on tight, knowing it would be the last time.

“Goodbye, not-so-scary basketball guys.”

“Goodbye, Underdog.”

*

Sitting on the bench alone, the memories stung. Cyrus now regretted not telling TJ the truth. They had already begun to lose touch, TJ having not responded to his texts for 3 days.

He had to try and let him go and move on. It was an obvious decision, but easier said than done. He had gone home that day after seeing TJ and just cried into his pillow, for everything that could have been. And here he was a week later, tears still finding their way out.

He should just go home and start the healing process. Cyrus was just about to get up and go home, when a voice from behind went, “Is that spot taken?”

No. No way.

Cyrus turned around and saw none other than TJ Kippen, smiling at him with his charming and perfect smile.

“TJ? You’re back?” Cyrus asked, shocked into immobility.

“Yes, I’m back Underdog.”

They both smiled smiles brighter than the lights around, but Cyrus had so many questions.

“Wait, how are you back?”

“My mom tried the job but decided to come back to her old one here. It was better for her, plus her two kids were miserable the one week we were there,” TJ replied, sitting down beside Cyrus on the bench, shuffling close to him. TJ’s proximity was sending Cyrus’ heart into a frenzy, but he tried to control it for his own sake.

“Besides, I regretted not doing something before leaving. So now that I’m back, I’m going to do it immediately.”

“What is it you wanted to do?” Cyrus asked, keenly aware of how close TJ was getting. Their legs were practically glued together. It wasn’t even cold, so that couldn’t be his excuse?

“I wanted to tell this person that I really like them,” TJ said, his voice going quiet, as he looked at Cyrus in the eyes. Could it be... No, it was going to be someone else of course.

“This person is really important to me. They were the only one who believed I could do and be better and helped me grow. They have always stuck by me, but haven’t hesitated to tell me I’m wrong. I don’t want to think what my life would be like without them.”

“Who is it?” Cyrus asked, dumbfounded, unable to even consider the wild possibility that-

TJ looked at him with endearing disbelief. “It’s you, Cyrus. It’s always been you.”

Whoa.

Cyrus’ brain was both whirring at a million miles per hour and was also blank as a slate. He just stared at TJ for what seemed like forever without a word.

TJ suddenly looked worried, trying to backtrack. “I know you probably don’t even like boys, and I understand if you don’t really want to be friends anymore, and-”

“TJ,” Cyrus said, grabbing TJ’s wrists, stopping TJ from talking. “I like you too.”

He looked surprised. “You, you do?”

Cyrus gave a small chuckle. “Of course I do! You’ve always helped me try to go out of my comfort zone, you listen to me even when I say the most mundane things, and you make me feel safe when I’m with you.”

TJ’s face lit up in a smile, and he grabbed Cyrus’ hand, linking their pinkies as Cyrus lay his head on TJ’s shoulder.

“So, now what?” TJ asked, turning a bit to look down at Cyrus.

“I don’t know, honestly. I mean, if I asked you to be my boyfriend, what would you say?” Cyrus asked, holding his breath for the answer.

“Wait, you’re seriously asking?” TJ asked, moving away a bit to properly look at him.

“Well, yeah.”

“The answer is obviously yes, Cyrus. I would love to be your boyfriend.”

Cyrus gave TJ the biggest smile, as he lay his head back on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I missed the ball. And the last whole week.”

“No, don’t apologise. You’re here now, that’s all that matters,” Cyrus whispered, holding onto him tighter.

They sat like that for what seemed like both seconds and years, when they heard a slow dance song play from the school.

TJ smiled and stood up, holding his hand out to Cyrus. “May I have this dance, Cyrus Goodman?”

Cyrus smiled back saying, “You absolutely may, TJ Kippen.”

As the ball progressed in the school, TJ and Cyrus danced in the soft glow of the street lights in the park, beside the swings and the bench.

And everything was perfect.

[turtle0verl0rd]

The Paint On Our Skin

Soulmate AU where whatever your soulmate writes on their skin appears on your skin. This applies to makeup, marker, paint, nail polish and I’m also throwing dye into the mix

In this fanfic I follow the headcanon that both Walker and Andi are pansexual, Amber is lesbian, Buffy and Marty are asexual, Jonah is bisexual, and Tyrus is canon king, and bexie ofc. Ambi crush. Gonah and Jandi if you squint hard.

@wandiarts I hope you like it! Happy belated birthday!

Andi had always adored her soulmate, although she didn't truly know them. Ever since a very young age, her soulmate doodled the most fascinating little drawings all up her arm, which made Andi return the favor happily; although Andi always was more of a craft kind of girl. Some doodles faded while others stayed forever, which Andi comprehended her soulmate must have gotten some of them turned into more permanent tattoos, to the utter horror of her grandmother. 

Andi didn't bother with the gender of her soulmate. Everything her soulmate did would give off an aura of intriguing, yet inexplicit, mystery. Her soulmate's doodles were never really gender-specific in any way, however, the presence of makeup across her face and the day her bangs were bleached expressed definite feminity. It made sense to them since Andi always admired their friend Amber in the way that surpassed the lines of platonic feelings, which lasted all the way up until Amber had left for college, where she then found her own soulmate. But if they turned out to be a boy, Andi wouldn't mind either, as she had a fair share of boys she liked too. Boy, girl, something out of the binary, none of it mattered to her. She didn't care who's arms she drew security in, as long as her heart found contentment in them.

"Thinking of your soulmate again Andiman?" Speaking of boys, there was her friend Jonah who smiled at her before sitting down with the company of their other friends: Gus, Cyrus, TJ, Buffy, and Marty. 

"Maybe a little," Andi said sheepishly. "I mean, you all found yours already, why can't I too?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find them soon." Cyrus beamed, holding her hand across the table comfortingly with his free hand, the other locked with TJ's. Cyrus had discovered his soulmate back in middle school when he wrote a reminder on his hand to pick up his order from the bakery and his soulmate met him there. Everybody was ecstatic for the two of them, although Buffy was hesitant at first regarding her teammate and her best friend being soulmates considering she and TJ had such a colorful history. But that was the past and they had since then mended their conflicts; with help of Cyrus' not-so-subtle meddling of course. 

"I mean at least you have a significant other." Buffy quirked an eyebrow with a laugh.

"Hey. You love me and you know it, 11.5." Marty cheered as he nudged Buffy's side.

Now Buffy was a rare case. She did indeed have a soulmate, but not in the typical sense. The doodles on her arm all showed up in gold, which she quickly decided was strange and after doing research discovered she was wound in a situation where her soulmate was drawn to her in a purely platonic sense. At first, she was distraught she would never experience love as Cyrus and Andi would, but she couldn't be any happier with Marty. So what if it wasn't romantic attraction, they loved each other just as strong.

"What got you thinking about your soulmate?" TJ questioned with a furrowing of his eyebrows.

"Well, I mean you guys aren't entirely helping the cause," Andi scoffed playfully with a head tilt to how TJ and Cyrus were cuddled up to each other closely. "They made more drawings today. Usually, that makes me happy but today it just made me miss them in some weird sense." Andi felt a pang in her chest. "Guys, am I going to be okay?" She said in a small voice of worry.

The group wore sympathetic smiles as they nodded, Jonah pulling her into a small side hug beside her. Her almond eyes watery as she wore a sad smile in response.

"You may be weird, but you're no different from any other teen our age, Andi." Buffy smiled at her.

"There's nothing wrong with you, absolutely nothing." Cyrus encouraged, squeezing her hand in assurance.

"Can I see it?" Gus shyly asked with care.

Andi wordlessly pulled up her sleeve to reveal a multitude of swirling colors up her arm. The tips of the swirls resembled miniature hearts. The group exhaled in awe as they gently traced the design with their fingertips.

"Okay, that's really nice." Marty chuckled.

"It's beautiful." Buffy breathed.

"They really are an artist," Jonah affirmed.

"Are you going to draw something back again?" Cyrus asked, not taking his eyes from the painted design.

"I want to, but I'm not sure what. I want it to be special this time." Andi admitted.

Cyrus squealed immediately in response. "Do I sense romance in the air?"

"This isn't a Hallmark movie, Underdog." TJ teased fondly. "But that does kinda give me an idea."

"Oh, that's dangerous," Buffy smirked.

"I'm serious, Driscoll." TJ rolled his eyes. "What if we used the art to communicate?"

Andi beamed at the idea, but then immediately inflated. "How did I not think of that? That's really good, TJ."

TJ smirked cockily. "Well, I mean- look at me."

"I don't get it." Jonah cocked his head in question, which made everyone burst into laughter.

"Good one man." Marty gave Jonah a thumbs up, making Jonah scratch his head.

Later that evening, the trio Cyrus had dubbed the 'Good Hair Crew' laid head to head illuminated by the fairy lights string above them. They were still attempting to brainstorm art ideas which would allow Andi to better know her soulmate. It wasn't the scarcity of ideas that delayed the ordeal, but instead Andi's ability to shoot them down.

"What if you drew two swans in the shape of a heart?" Cyrus proposed.

"Too cheesy." Andi scrunched up her nose.

"How about a Cherry Blossom Tree?" Buffy recommended.

"Too basic." Andi shook her head.

"Is your name with a hearted 'i' out of the question?" Cyrus considered.

Andi hummed. "Too simple."

"Okay, what about you as a cartoon, maybe holding a heart?" Buffy suggested.

"Too hard." Andi sighed.

"Are you sure it has to involve a heart?" Cyrus verified.

Andi groaned as she sat up. "I already told you, it's an unspoken rule the last doodle has to resemble the next."

"Sorry." Cyrus shrunk back into himself as he sat up, the curly hair girl beside him following suit. "We might have to reschedule this affair, if I don't get back soon, Sharon might think I was kidnapped and sent off to China."

"Sayonara, Cyrus," Buffy smirked as she made way for him to pass through the small shack. Although Andi quickly took into account Cyrus' clumsiness and the number of paintbrushes on the floor.

"Wait, Cy-"

It was too late. Cyrus had already stepped directly onto a paintbrush and slipped right into a desk of open paint, splattering paint directly onto the three of them. In most situations, Andi would be upset, but one glance at her friends and they were all bursting into infectious laughter, which somehow evolved into a breakout of a huge paint fight.

By the end of it, the trio was sprawled out, covered head-to-toe in tides of paint and laughing breathlessly in between worn out pants for air.

"We look like walking abstract art." Buffy pointed out in laughter.

"I kinda like it. You know what? I'm not washing it off just yet. TJ's gonna hate me." Cyrus giggled, knowing full well he could pour soup into the boy's lap and he would probably apologize to Cyrus.

"Me neither, Marty can deal with being bootleg C-3PO for awhile."

"Then it's settled." Andi grinned.

Andi had lain on her back, forming constellations in the popcorn on her bedroom ceiling in the dark as she tried to drift off to sleep. It hadn't been too late, but waiting for the paint to dry sure did kill some precious sleeping time. It was at this time Andi noticed cursive on her stomach in a pleasant yellow sharpie, the only place desirable place not covered in paint:

Next time you start a paint war, invite me :) -W

Andi audibly gasped as she reached for the nearest sharpie, a nice shade of Persian blue. Andi giggled as she wrote back on her stomach.

Shadyside Park. Tomorrow at high noon. Be there. -A

She went to cap the marker when a reply from her soulmate came moderately quickly.

I hope you're not kidding because I'm not when I say I will be there -W

Andi squealed as she traced the sentence over and over again. Overwhelmed with glee, she ran to her parents' room.

"MOM! DAD! LOOK!" Andi cheered, lifting her pajama shirt slightly with a radiant smile.

"Oh, Andi! This is amazing!" Her mother, Bex, praised as she read the inscriptions. "I'm so happy for you."

Bowie scratched his head as he asked the question they were all wondering themselves. "’W?’ What could that mean?"

"Bowie, It's probably the kid's name," Bex smirked fondly.

"Or maybe... it means something else."

"I doubt that." 

"If it helps any, I don't think I ever would have written them if Cyrus didn't spill my paints everywhere." Andi wondered aloud. Everyone glanced at each other with a glimmer in their eyes.

"The universe!" They all cheered in unison, pulled each other into a laughter-filled hug.

Andi stood in the park that following afternoon. She was starting to wonder if coming to the park in the middle of a school day was the best idea, but nonetheless there she stood, drumming her nervous nails against her side. Her soulmate had the same thought of painting their nails the color of Andi's sharpie color, so her right hand was mustard yellow while her left was the Persian blue she drew in.

Cyrus and Buffy were through the roof when Andi told them about how she and her soulmate were going to have their First Moment together, and as much as they were disappointed they couldn't be there for it, they understood how momentous this was. A First Moment was special. A First Moment was something you told your children. A First Moment was a memory you treasured in your heart up until the day you died. Andi heard her parent's own First Moment so many times she could probably relay the story in her sleep.

Andi looked up from her nails to lock eyes with a young boy standing a bit of distance away. She gasped as she noticed his bleached hair, just like hers, and the flood of painted color all across his skin. It was him, it was her soulmate.

Andi's eyes furiously searched to memorize every last stroke of color in the boy's eyes, brown suddenly never being the same, every shade suddenly bringing her a raw sense of belonging, like a home she felt she always knew.

"Hi." She breathed, her lungs feeling as if they were falling from her body.

"Hey." The boy responded, drawing closer to her. "I'm Walker."

"Andi." She blinked, delicately shaking his hand in greeting as electricity sounded through her fingertips, needing to be closer to him. 

He stepped closer to her and her eyes fluttered as she felt his warm, tingling breathes, although it could have easily been the growing blush upon her cheeks. And then, she felt a streak of wet and cold on her cheek. 

She gaped as she saw Walker's amused smile before her, paintbrush in hand and a dash of lime green on his cheek, right where she felt the sensation. She quickly grabbed her own brush with a giggle. "I thought we were having a moment there!"

"Who said we weren't?" Walker countered as he leaned back to try and dodge Andi's attack of color.

"You're not wrong." Andi nodded as they continued to dance around each other and laugh as they spread color onto each other. 

At one point as Andi tried to run away from Walker after an especially devastating streak of violet down his nose, her foot hooked around Walker's causing her to lose her footing and sink towards the grass. Instinctively, Walker reached out to scoop an arm around the valley of her back and pull her closer to him. "I got you, you're safe."

"I know." Andi melted, feeling like the entire world faded away as she looked up at Walker's face framed by the low sunlight. Every minuscule freckle and scar like the starry night sky and a halo of light around Walker's long eyelashes. 

Andi pushed herself closer to Walker, rubbing her nose against his and wrapping her arms around his sturdy neck as she pressed her lips to his. 

Walker reached out with his other hand to cup the side of her jaw as he kissed her back with tenderness, yet security. Andi wanted to describe the feeling but the only words she could draw was finally.

Andi smiled against Walkers lips as she felt her heart soar within it's home in her chest, for it knew the joyous news that her soul had found the one she loves, and will forever continue to love. By every new breath in her lungs, she fully understood this would be the love that lasted a lifetime. By just the feeling of Walker's hair within her fingertips, she securely knew her love for him would extend even after the day the sun died out and it would illuminate the heavens across all of space; just like a star after years of its perishing. The feeling of the paint on their skin stood as a constant reminder of that day and the long-awaited eternity she could have only seen before in her wildest of dreams. 

[hh-rose]

12 Days of Tyrus Day 2

Christmas

TJ always loved Christmas. His parents were always working or out of town or just not in the mood to celebrate Christmas. This would make most kids hate Christmas, but that was not the case for TJ.

TJ spent every Christmas with his grandfather and Amber. TJ loved every second of it. He loved hanging out with grandfather. He was this cute little old man who sang songs and made delicious food. He cared for Amber and TJ more than anyone else ever had.

A few days before Christmas, TJ’s grandfather called him. It wasn’t that he was surprised when he got the call. It was just that normally, TJ’s grandfather was really busy before Christmas.

“Pop, what’s up?” TJ asked slightly worried. His grandfather chuckled.

“Calm down, son. Nothing’s wrong here,” Pop reassured him. TJ let out a breath of relief. “Your sister told me about this friend of yours. Uh, Cyrus. Yes, Cyrus, that’s what she said. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to invite him over for Christmas.”

“Are you serious, Pop?” TJ asked excitedly. “I would love to invite him. Thank you.”

“No problem, buddy,” Pop said. “I want to meet this boy. If he’s special in your life, then he’s special in mine.”

“Pop, it’s not like that,” TJ started, but Pop wouldn’t have it.

“Mmm, mmm. I don’t care. I want to meet him,” Pop insisted. TJ was blushing.

“Alright, see you in a few days,” TJ said. Pop hurried a goodbye as he still had many things to do before the holiday. TJ had some matters of his own to attend to.

“Amber!” TJ yelled running down the stairs looking for his sister. She was sitting with her feet propped up on the couch. There was a smug smile on her face.

“You talk to Pop?” Amber asked. TJ picked up a pillow and threw it at her. “Hey, I don’t why you’re mad at me. This is great for you.”

“Yeah, it’s perfect, Amber,” TJ said sarcastically. “My best friend whom I like, who doesn’t know that I like him, will be going to Pop’s house for Christmas. Pop, a man who is not subtle and who most likely knows that I’m gay, is going to meet said best friend whom I like. That sounds wonderful.”                

“TJ, shut up with this whole ‘Cyrus won’t like me and Pop will hate me’ attitude,” Amber said harshly. TJ looked at her taken aback. “Don’t look at me like that. We both know we only have a few more Christmases left with Pop. Don’t you want him to meet Cyrus? Don’t you want him to know the real you?”

“Amber,” TJ breathed. He walked forward and hugged her. “Thank you. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“It’s fine, idiot,” she said into his shoulder. Then, she pushed him away. “Go talk to Cyrus, genius.”

“Yeah, yeah,” TJ said walking towards the door. “I’ll be back soon. Just going to meet Cyrus at The Spoon.”

“Don’t hurry up,” Amber yelled from the couch. TJ shook his head and headed out.

…

“Hey, Teej,” TJ heard someone say as soon as he walked into The Spoon. He looked down at the booth next to him and saw Cyrus smiling up at him. TJ sat down and popped a baby tater in his mouth.

“So, I have a question,” TJ said after swallowing. Cyrus looked at him expectantly. “Do you want to come to my grandfather’s house for Christmas?”

“I’d love to!” Cyrus answered excitedly. TJ bit his lip.

“We’re not really overly Christian or anything. It’s not that kind of Christmas. We just eat and watch Christmas movies and stuff. You don’t have to come if you aren’t comfortable, though,” TJ explained nervously. Cyrus knocked their knees together under the table.

“TJ, I want to come. I want to spend Christmas with your family,” Cyrus said. He looked into TJ’s eyes. “I want to spend Christmas with you.”

“I want to spend Christmas with you, too,” TJ replied grinning at Cyrus. He picked up a baby tater and threw it at Cyrus. Cyrus smiled at him and shook his head.

…

On Christmas Eve, TJ and Amber strode up to Cyrus’s house. They were going to pick him up there, and they were all going walk to Pop’s house together. Amber pushed TJ forward. He looked at back at her and glared before knocking on the door.

“Hey, TJ,” Cyrus greeted with a smile. Cyrus turned around and yelled into the house.  “I’ll be back tomorrow, Mom!”

“Alright, let’s do this!” TJ said jumping off Cyrus’s front step. Cyrus laughed and shook his head. Amber rolled her eyes at the two oblivious idiots she had to spend Christmas with.

…

“Pop, we’re here!” Amber announced excitedly when they arrived. She didn’t even take her jacket off. She just ran into the kitchen. TJ laughed at his sister. He looked over at Cyrus who looked nervous. He walked over to him and started to help him take off his jacket.

“Relax, Underdog,” TJ said into Cyrus’s ear. He swore he saw Cyrus shiver, but he was probably just imagining things. “He’s going to love you.”

“How do you know that?” Cyrus asked nervously. Because I love you, you idiot! TJ pulled Cyrus’s jacket off the rest of the way. He put it on the coat rack along with his own.

“Do you trust me?” TJ asked. Cyrus nodded. TJ smiled at him. “You gotta believe me on this one, Cy.”

“Boys, come on! I want to eat!” Amber yelled from the kitchen. TJ rolled his eyes and slightly pulled Cyrus into the kitchen. There stood Pop, TJ’s best friend. That was, besides Cyrus.

“Hi, Pop,” TJ said. Pop scoffed at him.

“Be quiet, TJ,” Pop said abruptly. Amber snorted, and TJ looked at him confused. Pop looked over at Cyrus. “Clearly, I am more invested in meeting this friend of yours. Cyrus, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“You, too, sir. Thank you for having me,” Cyrus said politely. Pop smiled at him and clapped.

“Alright, time to eat,” Pop said causing Amber to cheer. Cyrus was grinning from ear to ear. TJ was sure it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

…

After an incredibly good dinner, TJ, Amber, and Cyrus were sitting on the couch waiting for Pop to come back so they could watch their movies. TJ and Cyrus were sitting on one side of the couch sharing a blanket, and Amber was sitting on the other side with a million pillows around her.

“Alright, kids. What are we watching first?” Pop asked when he got in the room. Amber, of course, had a whole schedule planned out.  

 “First, we will watch the opener of all openers, Elf. Then, we will watch the classic Christmas Vacation followed by the Phineas and Ferb Christmas episode. There’s some Hanukkah in there, Cy. You’re welcome. Finally, we will begin the Christmas Story marathon which will last all of Christmas,” Amber explained. Pop laughed at her and turned on Elf.

Cyrus moved closer to TJ sometime during Elf. He had his head practically on TJ’s shoulder. TJ did not mind at all. During Christmas Vacation, Cyrus completely passed out on TJ’s shoulder. TJ soon followed suit.

Pop, who was sitting next to Amber, looked over at the boys. He looked back over at Amber who was sound asleep.  He smiled and kissed her on the head. He stood up and put another blanket on the boys. He looked over at the three of them one last time and headed off to bed.

…

Amber woke everyone up for presents early the next morning. Cyrus groggily sat up and made himself look slightly presentable. TJ made no such effort. He jumped off the couch and ran over to the tree.

Pop was making breakfast, but he looked over at the kids and smiled to himself. TJ was watching Cyrus as he opened his gifts with a look of such amazement. Pop recognized that look. He was waiting TJ’s whole life for that look to come out.

“TJ, can you come with me to my room? I have something to show you,” Pop said already walking to his room. TJ shrugged and followed him. “Sit down.”

“What do you have to show me?” TJ asked sitting down on the bed. Pop went over to his dresser and opened his top drawer.

“You always were impatient,” he said under his breath. He found what he was looking for and sat down on the bed next to TJ. “I’ve watched you grow up into this amazing man. You have no idea how much that means to me. You are such an important part of my life, kiddo.

“I’ve lived a long life, and my time is coming, sooner rather than later,” Pop said sadly. TJ tried to talk, but Pop kept going. “No, I’ve had a good run. I’m happy, but I would be a lot happier if I knew that you were happy.

“I have never seen you this happy. I know it’s because of Cyrus. You don’t have to say anything. I’ve known forever, and, of course, I would never stop loving you. Now, I have something I want you to give to Cyrus. I gave it to your grandmother when I was fighting in the war,” Pop said handing TJ a box.

TJ opened it to find a ring that said, “I love you to the moon and back- Your Kippen.” TJ’s eyes filled with tears. He was going to thank Pop for it, but when he looked up, Pop was gone. TJ walked out of the bedroom and walked back over to the tree. He leaned against the wall, so he could see Cyrus and his big goofy grin. It was time.

“Underdog, come here,” TJ said walking over to the couch. Cyrus followed him. Amber squealed and watched them. Pop picked up a wadded-up ball of wrapping paper, threw it at her, and shook his head.

“Pop gave this to me to give to you. I guess the old guy could tell that there was something I needed to tell you,” TJ said playing with the box. “Cyrus, you are the most important person in my life. Not because you’re my best friend, but because I’m in love with you.”  

“I’m in love with you, too,” Cyrus said. TJ looked at him with wide eyes. Cyrus smiled.

“So, I take it you want this?” TJ asked holding up the ring. Cyrus grabbed it and read it. He slipped it onto the ring finger of his right hand.

“I’ll never take it off,” Cyrus said leaning forward and placing his hand behind TJ’s neck.

“Kiss me, please,” TJ whispered. Cyrus laughed before leaning in.

“Who wants Christmas pancakes?” Pop yelled from the kitchen. TJ pulled away and smiled.

“Me!” he yelled running to the kitchen. Cyrus followed him.

“I would love some, Pop,” Cyrus said with a smile. Pop stopped for a second. He looked at Cyrus with an expression of pure elation.

“Of course, kiddo,” Pop said handing him a plate.

TJ always loved Christmas. It was a time when he was his happiest surrounded by the people who he loved the most. He had always loved it, but, he had to admit, this Christmas was his favorite. He owed it all to his meddling sister, loving grandfather, and perfect love of his life. Yeah, TJ loved Christmas.

[icharchivist]

Okay I understand what you said about death note, but don't you think you're going a bit overboard with the roasting? It's bad for people who know the original masterpiece, yeah, but it does stand alone as a movie. If I watched it with my non-anime-watcher brother, he might go, "Oh, that was interesting." And maybe finally give the original a shot. It did its job getting people familiar and interested in dn, but of course it couldn't be as good, its an entire sieris shortened to one movie

Well I did say when I started it that I wouldn’t have much pity toward the movie either. 

And I’m sorry, but we’re talking about a story that was extremely Japanese, and which not only was stripped of its Japanese intend, but also showed off Asians being killed by Light, and especially a bullshit explaination on them picking the name Kira because “in Japanese it means Killer so they’ll think we’re japanese” and them letting messages in Japanese on the crimescenes to pretend Kira is Japanese.

This is not the kind of things to overlook. Whitewashing isn’t something to overlook, and the movie dealt with it in such a poor way, in an actual offensive way, when you adapt something, you at least try to respect it.

And it’s not an entiere series shortened into one movie. They planned sequels. The movie ends on a stupid cliffhanger. And it follows absolutly no plot from the original. Why do you try to use the L. and Kira’s showdown, and clearly call your characters those ways, while you don’t respect the story at all?

Oh and fyi, for as...... much as they are (i’m not found of them), there are Japanese movies adapted from Death Note. The First movie is all about the mindgames between Light and L, and it ends on L. meeting Light. They changed a lot of things, but they kept the focus where it should be: on L and Light’s mindgames and manipulations. It teased for a sequel while actually leaving you with quite a story that was closer to the original. Of course you can’t adapt 12 volumes into one movie. But, especially when you expect sequels, you can try to cut the story correctly.

Listen, when you adapt something, you’re supposed to at least have read the thing. As bad as the Last Airbender Movie was, at least it did show you a Kid who ran away from his duty because he was scared of wars, two others kids finding him and trying to help him learn the elements, and Zuko the antagonist is still someone extremely wounded in hs honor after his father’s abuse.

And let’s be real, The Last Airbender is one of the worst adaptation of all time, it’s boring, and it’s whitewashing, but at least it kept the characters basic traits and journey. Why would you adapt something and keep the name if you’re not going to at least follow the story?

Like i repeated, it wouldn’t have been as bad if say, they did a whole new story where Ryuk just happens to drop the Death Note in America with enteirely new characters. No L. No Kira, an actualy story. Like the Chapter 0 of Death Note, or why not even explore the BB Murder Case since it’s a novel happening in America?

You can take the idea of the Death Note, but not if you take the characters name and the basics of their showdwn while absolutly nothing about it will be respected.(especially since the movie totally overlooked the mindgames between L and Light because Light did a really obvious mistake.)

And how the fuck does it stands alone when it removed the lore? No really?? 

Okay so, where the hell Ryuk’s come from? Why did the notebook say “Do not trust Ryuk”? What did Ryuk do in the movie that wasn’t trust worthy aside from not letting Light know Mia was doing bullshit? What was the point about this plotline?What was Mia’s deal? We just had to accept that a cheerleader would get into murders right away?Besides have you seen how those two bounded without even blinking at the idea of murders? Especially since Light is supposedly a victim we’re supposed to feel bad for in the movie?

Why do we have to accept that? Why do we have to accept the lowest of effort, of writting a basic Teenage Horror Screenplay, while the actual story was supposed to be One of The Kind? 

Seriously though, Awkward Teen with a Crush on Cheerleader Who Gets The Girl After Getting Mysterious Powers is a cliché. Turning Ryuk, a sympathetic figure in the manga, a passive observator, into a sort of creature always pushing you to do bad is cliché. Hell, they removed entierely the relationship between Light and Ryuk while it was the focus of the original.

Not to mention it was a story about a greater scale. The original manga was a commentary on how Law Enforcement works in Japan, and how a priviliged, popular, “will go far” kid like Light, who had access to the information, would believe he would have some reasons to clean it up.But instead, it became a teenage drama. Light was always pushed by other people in the movie to make murders, and he often want to get out of it. Even the God persona is something coming out of their ego, while in the manga it’s something that just happens. Here, it’s kids who want the attention, and get backlash for doing so. An underdog, who just want to keep his life going in school, who plays God just because he was pushed by his girlfriend and because he is a poor kid who’s traumatized.

We went also from a story which was a commentary on Japanese Law Efforcement, to a story who was so oblivious to the Law Efforcement Commentary, that they showed a white cop choke the black lead before letting him go, and you’re supposed to cheer for the cop. 

Is it worth showing someone who don’t want to watch anime for them to get interested?? No. 

It’s a watered down stupid teen flick which plays on Edgy Fuel. It’s a project that was born and kept going with racist intends. It’s a story you may watch, think “bleh” and leave. Not get interested in more. And if you do, jfc. I’m sorry but I hate the idea some people might come into the manga expecting say, Ryuk to be like this movie bullshit, or Light, or L, or anyone. 

And okay, as a standalone movie?

The movie is poorly paced. The exposition scenes are hilariously bad. The characters motivation are inexistant, explained by a sexy montage of them having sex while killing people (of color), showing how immature the whole subject was treated. The montage itself was incredibily bad, the whole idea of seeing the ascension of Light’s godlike persona was totally overlooked for his stupid romance. It gives tragic backstories to the two main leads to explain somehow why they’re like that.

 The whole fun of this story, which was to see how L and Light was trapping each other, was ruined by the fact the plot runs on stupid and Light doesn’t make any decision. It’s Mia doing them. L. discover Light is Kira halfway throught he movie because Light fucked up. The manipulations of say, getting rid of the FIB agent, was completely overlooked in a cheap twist. Because that wasn’t important. 

The whole plot requires you to just accept they are whatever genuis and overlook the batlant mistakes they make to make the plot running. And, because it didn’t make it through, spelling out the message of “chosing the lesser of two evils”, removing the reader’s freewill to chose who to side with. 

It was not fun. It was not exciting. It was seeing Edgy to be Edgy.

And I’m sorry this is insulting? Death Note was a serie that run for 3 years. For 3 years, the authors went out of their way to make an unique story, with unique characters, with a complex view on mankind. They put 3 years to elaborate the themes, to develop the characters, to tie up the looses ends. And Hollywood saw from it just an opportunity of a quick cash, to be Edgy by taking the name and concept, and make the usual soup they do with teenage horror movies. 

Death Note wasn’t the franchise to do it. We can’t blindly accept adaptation because “it stands as a stand alone movie”. It’s completely disregarding the fact it was someone else’s work that you decided to strip from everything that made it so unique to start with. 

Even more when it’s America disregarding a culture and somehow managing to be offensive toward it, making them the victims of a story they were the main characters of to start with.

So I completely disagree with your point of view on it. I’m sorry if i’m harsh, it’s not against you nonny, much more against the movie.

If an adaptation isn’t capable of getting the basic understanding of the story right, they have no right to claim themselves as such. I’m not asking an adaptation to the comma, i’m asking to an adaptation which would respect its root.

Which isnt what this movie gave. 

[vince-thrilligan]

TROUBLE HAS FOUND US: The National Learn to Cope with the Trump Era

[These are their coping poses?] - - - Photo courtesy of Graham MacIndoe; ...shitty resolution courtesy of Daily Beast

The Election

The members of the National all originally hail from Cincinnati, Ohio, and have always carried themselves as Midwestern underdogs, relative to their buzzier peers. As such, one might wonder if they would have had a sense that discontent was brewing in the Rust Belt last year, and that perhaps they wouldn’t be shocked when their home state would prove to be one of the key land grabs that Donald Trump would flip to achieve Electoral College victory.

But for guitarist and songwriter Bryce Dessner, that did not turn out to be the case. A few days before the election, his band played a get-out-the vote election rally in their hometown. “I remember the director for Ohio was there. They didn’t seem worried, and neither did we,” he says while calling from France during a break from work.

On election day, he voted early and then drove to his home studio in Woodstock for a session with his friend, the songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Such was his confidence that all was well that “I didn’t even check my e-mail or check returns until 10:30 at night. I remember just saying, ‘What?’ I was so sure. We were really, really blown away. I mean, just completely devastated.”

Frontman Matt Berninger would spend the next few months using Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell and copious cannabis-based self-medication to avoid “staring at the ceiling with tears in my eyes” every night, he says.

There were other coping mechanisms as well, which brings us to “Turtleneck,” one of the highlights of their upcoming album Sleep Well Beast and perhaps the closest this inherently ornate band has ever come to hardcore punk, or as Bryce says “an angry, raw song that just felt good to play after the election.” The music for the song had been around for a bit, but wasn’t under serious consideration for the album until Berninger finished the lyrics (which excoriate “another man in shitty suits that everybody’s cheering for”) right after the election. It marked a turning point during the making of Beast, and one that reaffirmed what Bryce calls their new guiding ethos. “Let’s make the record what it wants to be, and not worry so much.”

[See full article for the usu band history/Brooklyn/Strokes-envy/Long Pond/etc.]

Sound & Space

“I hear the progression in all those records, but I do feel that once we made Trouble Will Find Me, we all kind of felt like we have to shake it up somehow and maybe throw out the playbook,” says guitarist-songwriter Aaron Dessner.

After making chunks of the previous National albums in his tiny garage studio where the band “couldn’t really play together,” he wanted a place where they could work without worrying about deadlines or the price of studio time, and could follow their whims down the rabbit hole. “There was definitely talk of how we wanted it to be more fun to make,” says Aaron.

Even in the halcyon days when the band members all lived on the same street, they tended to email each other demos back and forth rather than get together in a room to hash out ideas, but “we actually spend more time together now working then we did before, ironically,” says Bryce. Beast has plenty of moments where the members (which include another pair of brothers, drummer Bryan Devendorf and bassist Scott Devendorf) all recorded together live in the studio, as opposed to their previous approach of individually adding layers and endlessly tweaking arrangements. The results are immediately grabbing missives ”Walk It Back” and ”Day I Die,” which are striking coming from an act whose dense albums are often referred to as ”growers.”

Though Aaron is quick to point out that there are many moments on Beast “which are composed or labored over,” it took a while for his band to get comfortable with ”spontaneous and random accidents. I think over the years we’ve maybe realized that it’s better to leave a lot of things in rather than clean them up.” The meticulous Dessner brothers learned to ease up and embrace things like unruly guitar solos (before they favored elegant, inter-connected swells) after organizing and producing last year’s Grateful Dead tribute album Day of the Dead and backing up the Dead’s Bob Weir on tour. “We just realized that it’s a breath of fresh air to allow there to be space in our music for things to happen,” Aaron says. “I was drinking some beer and decided to rip a guitar solo, and everyone was kind of like, ‘That’s kind of good. Let’s keep it.’” In addition to the more straightforward moments, Beast also finds the group embracing seething keyboards, skronky noise and dynamic electronic programming on “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” and “Guilty Party,” and even ballads such as “Dark Side of the Gym” sway with an ease that feels hard won and refreshing. So even they were surprised when Beast’s lead single’s “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” recently reached the No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs. That’s nice and all, but not why they decided to change things up. “The reason we’re all making these songs together is that we’re all chasing these weird sensations. We’re not chasing chart positions,” Berninger says, before adding, “I’m not pretending that we don’t pay attention and care about that stuff. Well, care and pursue are two different terms. We pursue that stuff, but we don’t honestly care.”

Lyrics

For previous albums, Berninger would write lyrics and melodies to ideas presented by one of the Dessners, keeping multiple notebooks of lyrics with a colored Post-It note system indicating which iteration of a song he’s working on. Around the time of Trouble, though, he scrapped that approach in favor of keeping a rapidly updating Word document of ideas and jumping back and forth between multiple GarageBand files. “The process is: don’t edit yourself for a year or two, and throw ideas at lots of stuff, and then go back and start digging in and crafting. I’ve been following the organic way my brain wants to do stuff; just a laptop and fluidity,” he says. “When it’s scribbled in a notebook somewhere, and you have to put in a yellow Post-It note and not a Blue Post-It note because you need to remember it’s this song and not this song, you start to get pissed off at the ideas.” Since they met, around the time of Alligator, Berninger has been collaborating with his wife Carin Besser, a poet and a former editor for The New Yorker. He jokingly says the band calls her “Yoko Ono,” but he compared her to Tom Waits’ wife and editor Kathleen Brennan. ”One day we might go through and figure out which lines are hers and which lines are mine. 90% are mine, but she’s got 50% of the best ones,” he says. “The record is about my marriage, and there are break-up songs, but I’ve written so many songs that don’t align perfectly with reality. She doesn’t let me get away with writing about anything that’s not about anything. As long as I write about it well, I can write anything I want to.”

Politics & Unreleased tracks

Though he felt “struck by lightning” about the election results, Berninger says in retrospect it seems obvious. In 1991 when he was attending Miami University, he attended a rally protesting a “free speech” walk by the Klu Klux Klan in Oxford, Ohio. “The Republican party has been inviting white supremacy out of the shadows for a long time, because they need the votes,” he says. “It’s crazy how the only people who haven’t left Trump are the evangelicals and the fucking Nazis. Because, I’m sorry, the Republican party has been whistling to them for 40 years. Donald Trump is what they’ve made.” Boxer was one of the defining portraits of Bush-era malaise and free-floating terror. And although Beast has “Turtleneck” and a handful of other moments of political commentary, it’s not the response to Trump’s America that some fans might be expecting. The National recorded approximately 15 other song sketches for Beast, many of which feature the band playing together in punk-inspired fashion as a visceral reaction to the, er, national mood leading up to election. “The funny thing is, when Trump won everything changed: the awareness of who we are as a nation, I think, suddenly shifted. A light went on for a lot of people. ‘Oh, we are in bad shape. The soul of our country is very ill,’” Berninger says. “We had no idea how ill we are. In a lot of ways, I felt the record needed to get more sensitive.” Those outraged songs were put aside as the band gravitated towards more meditative ones. “We had to turn the dial in a different direction,” Berninger says. “I felt there was a need to go inward and go into more of a dreamlike state, and process it from a weird, emotionally internal place first, before I can package an idea of what the fuck is happening. I can’t do that yet.” Maybe next time. Aaron Dessner says the band is interested in possibly finishing and releasing those songs when Berninger is ready. “So maybe next time we’ll have some answers,” he says with a weary laugh. “Probably not. Jesus, I don’t know.” [X]

[marleyrxid-blog]

never again in the spotlight +

Marley was far from the press’ number one fan, but she knew how to smile and be polite when talking to them. Usually, someone was at her side and that gave a bit of a comforting blanket to not worry as much. This time? Entire alone. But if there was one thing she had learned during her time as a Fox it was that she’d have to stand on her own two feet eventually and be brave. Besides, if things turned sour she could leave and tell Wymack and it would be the end of the story. 

There wasn’t much the press could bring up to target Marley anyone other than her father and ex-husband. So long as they were kept out of it, Marley would charm them and be rid of them within minutes. But she also knew that they could bring up issues with other Foxes and Marley wasn’t going to allow that either. She’d defend the foxes down to her last dying breath. She wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her family—no matter how dysfunctional. 

It was after practice, after she had showered and dressed back into her day clothes, that she found herself moving toward her own little station, where her interviewer had set up two chairs and tried to make everything as comfortable as possible. At least the woman looked nice enough, but Marley still had her doubts. “Sorry to keep you waiting, I hope you guys are having a good day,” Marley greeted the interviewer and camera person. 

“Marley Reid, Exy Sweetheart as always. It’s great to get the chance to speak with you one-on-one today. You’re not often in the spotlight.” 

With a casual shrug, Marley sat down and her sweet smile never left her lips. “I’m not much of a spotlight person.”

Amanda, as Marley learned, cleared her throat and looked down at the little pad of paper she had on her lap. “Well, let’s get started then. First off, the season for the Foxes has been rocky thus far. You’ve made it to the death-matches but it’s reasonable to say there have been a few bumps in the road, would you agree?”

“No more than any other team,” Marley said decisively. “Every team has their losses, every team has players that get red cards. I don’t think the Foxes are any different than any other team.” 

“But they are viewed differently. The Foxes are constantly seen as the underdogs, the ones not good enough—“ 

“Which is wrong,” Marley interrupts. “It’s the background of the Foxes that is different, but as a team playing the sport of Exy, we’re not any different. And besides, the background of someone shouldn’t speak for their present or future if they’re trying to change, be better, or live a better life.” 

Amanda smiled at Marley, but there was a bit of tension. That wasn’t what the interviewer had been hoping for from Marley. “Ever the optimistic, Miss Reid. So you believe the Foxes have what it takes to win?”

“With every fiber of my being. We have amazing players, players who are going to go far. Together, we’ll win and hopefully, people will begin to realize that we’re not the underdogs.”

“How about your own performance then?” Amanda asked as she flipped to a page with information written on it. “Based on statistics alone, you’re teammates seem to fair much better than yourself.”

Marley smile faltered for a second, hands sliding under her legs to keep them out of sight. “Last year was not my best year, but I’m progressed much more since then. I’m still honing my skills and putting in as much practice as I can every day. That’s what every Exy player must do to keep up in this game. But I wouldn’t be playing period if I wasn’t good enough.”

“But you do admit that you have faults to your game that may hinder the chances of the Foxes, yes? You’re hardly an aggressive player. We’ve seen that side of you come out a few times, but it’s left everyone wanting more.”

Marley, in an attempt to keep her cool, simply let out a soft laugh. “Always keep people on their toes, right? If being more aggressive is what it takes to help the Foxes win at the end of the season, I can assure you that’s what will happen. But I don’t believe my faults in Exy have hindered the Foxes. That’s all I’ll say on that.”

“So then we can expect this next game to be one of your best hopefully. Is there anyone you hope to see in the stands cheering you on to victory?”

Marley narrowed her eyes, shaking her head. “Everyone I want cheering me on to victory will be on the court or on the bench.”

Amanda feigned a sad look. “No family? I’m sure any Exy player so close to winning a championship would love to see a parent in the stands or even someone else they were or are still close with.”

Her nerves were beginning to eat at her, hands no longer under her thighs but now clenched in her lap. The last thing she wanted to talk about was either of her parents or the other person Amanda seemed to be hinting at. Hiding the divorce case and things with Samuel was out of the realm of possibility. Even if the press didn’t have all the details, they likely had enough. “I’m sure there are Exy players who would love that.”

“But you’d rather not? And I’m sure your ex-husband would--”

“Did you have any other questions or did you want to keep bringing up topics that toe a line where one was clearly drawn? Oh, I’m sure Wymack would love to join our conversation if that’s the case. I can do get him if you’d like?” Marley said sweetly, pointing over her shoulder.

With pursed lips, Amanda seemed displeased once again but continued on to her next question. “Not necessary. So each of Fox has their own story of how they’ve ended up here,” the woman started, Marley tensing. “but we’ll clearly avoid that and save that for another time. Instead, I’m curious about the aftermath. How has being a Fox helped you? How has the teamed gotten you to the point you’re at now.”

Letting out a breath of relief for that nightmare to be over, Marley leaned back in her chair. “It’s managed to make me stronger, that’s for sure. The Foxes were there for me during a tough time in my life. I don’t think I would have managed it without them. Even in the little things, they’ve shown me what it means to enjoy life every second.” There was still nerves in her body and tension that she didn’t like. Marley had to force herself to be patient and clear her mind.

“What little things exactly?”

Marley tilted her head left to right, a fond smile appearing. “Just little things they do. Cameron’s smile always makes me smile, I want nothing but the best for her because she deserves that and more. Grant’s attitude, especially toward Exy. He’s a brilliant captain but even if I’ve never asked him, I’m pretty sure he wants nothing but the best for everyone on the team outside of Exy too. Casey’s personality in general, he’s a laugh and great to be around. He once drew me this cute little picture, it was the best thing ever. Colin is beyond amazing in just being there and understanding and I look up to him far more than he probably knows. And the rest of them, I could go on for hours about each of them and how they’ve managed to make my life a bit brighter. The Foxes mean more to me than anything else, I wouldn’t be here today without them and that’s why I want to help win the Championship. For them. They deserve it. They deserve to be on top and to be happy.”

“Strong sentiments there, you clearly care about all your teammates. People say the Foxes are dysfunctional but you seem to hint at something else.”

“If you’re not a Fox, you don’t know us. I don’t think anyone will truly understand how we work until you’re in our shoes. People prefer to focus on the bad things too rather than the good things. But bad things make good press, right?” Marley added the bit at the end purposely, though there was hardly any malice to her words. 

Amanda’s smile did falter; however, but regained her focus. “Speaking of good press, you’ve been all over social media since the last game and I noticed in your little speech that a certain someone was missing.”

“Eliana,” Marley instantly said.

“While there may have been some speculation about the two of you, it appears that blazon kiss certainly concluded that the rumors were true.”

“As to Eliana and I being together? Yes. But that’s hardly news.”

“Two female Exy players in a relationship is hardly news? I think the sports industry and fans would disagree.” 

“Nope,” Marley said firmly. “We’ve been best friends since I came to Palmetto, Eliana’s been by my side since day one and now we’re together. Simple as that. If that upsets the sports industry then I think there needs to be a reevaluation of priorities.” 

“Certainly outspoken today, the sweetheart of Exy with something to say.”

Marley shrugged casually. “I’m a sweetheart with a bite sometimes.”

Amanda laughed, although Marley was willing to bet it was a fake laugh. “I have a few more questions then. Where do you see yourself going after Palmetto?”

“Hopefully still playing Exy but professionally. If not, teaching kids and helping them.”

“And if neither works out?”

“One of them will,” Marley said.

“With the championships in full gear, how do you manage everything? You’ve got practices, school, homework, friends… it has to get overwhelming at some points.”

“Sometimes,” Marley started. “But it’s easy to get in a groove. I practice with the team, do my own practices, do homework, go to classes, and sleep when I can. My friends are my teammates so I see them all the time and never have to worry about that. Thankfully we all understand how hectic our lives can get.”

“Your friends consist of your teammates only? Is that how it is for all the Foxes? Is that hard?”

“I mean, the Foxes and the Vixens, but I wouldn’t say it’s like that for all the Foxes and it isn’t hard. I can only speak for myself but there isn’t much time for making other friends. Plus, it never goes well when you have to cancel on people all the time cause Exy comes first.” 

“So it’s safe to say Exy is your top priority.”

Marley laughed and nodded, “I’d say yes. When I was younger, Exy was the one thing that I held onto to get me a good future. I had to let that go at one point and I regretted it. Now that I’ve got it in my life again, I’m not willing to let it go. Exy’s always going to be my top priority. Well…second priority?” 

“The first being…?” Amanda attempted to dig out from Marley.

“My happiness. Simple as that. I’ve spent too much time being unhappy.”

“And so you’re happy now? Is that because of the Foxes?”

“I think it’s safe to say so. Like I said before, the Foxes changed my life for the better whether they know it or not.”

Amanda smiled again, but this time it seemed like a genuine smile. “Well, I think fans will develop a new appreciation for the Foxes and understand them a bit more. And understand you a bit more. I can tell you I’m looking forward to seeing you back out on court and playing hard. Any last words?”

“Just to expect the Foxes to win the Championships. We’ve got something to prove and if there’s one thing Foxes like to do, it’s to prove people wrong.”

When Marley left, she had stood up with a smile and shaken hands with the interview before turning to leave. She left barely any time at all to stick around, grabbing her bag and getting outside and away from everything as fast as she could. While it hadn’t gone as horribly as she thought it would (the press tended to eat Foxes alive), Marley still felt sick to her stomach and wanting nothing more than to get as far away as she could. She hated the press. Always would.

[itwilltoteshappen]

Louis seems to be working on new solo music and while it makes me so happy for him--he deserves all the success in the world--I'm also saddened by the double standards on my dash. Just recently, people were all "harries are at it again" "stop overhyping Harry" and now the same people who were rolling their eyes at people excited for Harry's solo music are going nuts at the prospect of Louis's. Don't people notice the hypocrisy? At this point I'm AFRAID of being too excited (1)

for Harry's solo music, but being excited about Louis' is fine? The double standards toward Harry's solo work is just hard to stomach for someone who actually cares about Harry as a person and not just the other part of a ship. I hate how louies are "the popular kids" in the Larry fandom and it's not cool to be as excited about Harry's solo music without being labeled a "solo harrie." No, I'm not a solo harrie. I love 1D, I love H singing with the boys, I love their chemistry, (2)

I believe in Harry and Lou's love, but that kind of attitude toward Harry's solo projects in this corner of the fandom just makes me want to delete and become a "solo harrie." It's so incredibly unfair and depressing, you know? I hoped so much that after Louis released his single, people will stop treating Harry's solo projects with so much dismissiveness and bitterness, but nothing is changing. It's funny, you know. I fell into this fandom after reading a Larry fic in early 2014. (3)

I always liked Louis more in fics and considered myself a Louie, because Louis is always described as an underappreciated underdog and I tend to cheer for the underdog. But when I discovered the Tumblr part of the fandom, I was so surprised, because it was the opposite: Lou is the golden child everyone wishes success no matter what he does while everything good that happens to Harry at best gets dismissed as a rumor and nothing to get prematurely excited about (and resented at worst). (4)

And well, I did end up cheering for the underdog. It just wasn't Louis.I hope you post this ask. Maybe then people will realize that such double standards are very disheartening and finally stop judging harries every time we get excited about Harry. It's no coincidence that a lot of good harrie larries left the fandom. I don't want to leave. I try to ignore the hypocrisy, but the double standards are getting unbearable. How do you do it, B? (5)

awww babe!  I’m so sorry you’re having a hard time.  First of all, come sit by me.  We can be totally hype about Harry’s solo projects together.  

When people talk about the Harries in that context, they’re talking about the nastier solo harries that want Harry to be this dude that thinks he’s better than the rest of the band.  The guy that wants nothing to do with One Direction.  The guy who’s going to leave everyone in the dust.  The guy who just wants to play with his rich af friends on a yacht and not pay any attention to where he came from.  I’ve talked many times about how that image makes me really uncomfortable and that’s not the Harry I see nor is it the Harry I fell in love with.  

I’m not going to lie and say when Harry has a single out people are going to rally around him like they did for JHO.  That’s just not the case for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the circumstances surrounded JHO.  And secondly because as was discussed with some anons yesterday, at this stage in the game, Louis’ biggest audience is his fans.  JHO is only now being promoted.  It wasn’t when it first came out.  That was all up to fans.  Yes, there was a reason for that i’m sure (I don’t think it was supposed to come out when it did), but even if it wasn’t, Louis doesn’t have the same name recognition Harry does.  We can go on and on about whys of that, but he just doesn’t.  Harry HAS fans outside of the fandom that will help carry him.  He has people in the media pulling for him that will scream about his new single.  He’s not going to need a fan project to boost him in the charts.  Outside of this corner of fandom, he’s NOT the underdog.  

I think the other reason people are dismissive of Solo Harry stuff is because we haven’t actually seen anything realistic coming from him.  Like the Columbia deal I still side eye.  the money aspect at least. Granted, none of us had any clue Louis was working on solo material until JHO dropped and it’s quite possible Harry could do so at any second, but i’m not going to believe a low level tab like Hollywood Life. 

I’m so beyond psyched for Solo Harry.  I can’t wait to see the things he’s going to do, the stories he’s going to tell.  You ask how I do it?  Well, first of all, I’m really good at not taking things personally.  I know that’s a bit of a cop out and not for everyone and it’s definitely something i’ve had to work on for a long time, but it’s a big one for me.  Another thing that helps is that I do it by focusing on the things that I love rather than the things I hate.  I have an entire tag called “MORE DIMPLES 2K17!!!” devoted to how I want Harry to smile more this year.  I get super psyched every time I think that we get to see him on the big screen in 6 months!! and we’ll get promo for that before!!  Imagine- ACTUALLY HEARING HARRY’S SPEAKING VOICE AGAIN NOT IN A FAN VIDEO.  do you realize how long it’s been since that’s happened???

I’m also ok with people being hyped for solo louis because he deserves it, particularly with the year he’s been through.  I”m gonna celebrate that right now.  And when it’s Harry’s turn to shine?  Again, I say, come sit by me and we’ll celebrate together!