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thepoodlepack · 4 years ago

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What's wrong with goldenpoodles? I'm genuinely curious because almost all of my dogs are mixed breeds and behave fine. So I'm curious if there's something else I'm missing

jeez this feels like bait but u kno what, you got me

alright, so it goes like this. the doodle really began with a guy in australia being like i need the temperament of a lab for a guide dog but these ppl are allergic to dogs, so i need a poodle bc they have hair, not fur. so he bred em together. years later he’s like damn that was a mistake.

now, why, exactly? alright so first of all he only needed that mix bc labs on average tend to adapt better to situations that are largely exclusive to service dog work than poodles do. i can go into what this means at a later date, but that’s basically how it is. but either way, people jumped on this creation and it kinda spiraled out of control. soon, poodles were being bred by everyone and every breed. suddenly, they were a marketing scam more then they were a dog breed.

oh theyre hypoallergenic! all of them, all the time cause zero allergies! look theyre so much better than poodles! theyre friendly and easy to train, not like poodles of course, just like labs! they’re better than labs bc none of them shed, ever! they’re super healthy bc breeding labs and poodles together wipes out all their health problems, of course!

lies, lies lies. the aussie guy, whose name i’m not going to look up bc i’m lazy but who you can find if you google creator of doodles, straight up says that even the first litter(s) of labradoodles he bred had puppies that the people he bred them for were allergic to. he very carefully tested the litter and the reaction the person had before placing a puppy that was not going to hurt them.

think of the punnet squares we all learned about in 5th grade science class. you draw the squares and one parent has two fur genes and the other parent has two hair genes and what do you get? well if you have four puppies, one might have hairhair and the next one might have hairfur and the next one might have furhair and the next one might have furfur. and so guess what? only hairhair pup is going to be the best choice for allergic people. additionally, you can see why the non-shedding thing can be bullshit, and that in particular is also a guessing game. you may be able to test allergy sufferers against the pups, but that does not necessarily mean they won’t shed. hairfur, for example, may be a good choice for some allergic people, but perhaps they’ve got just enough fur to shed anyway. also, lets look at salukis (and frankly, most long-haired sighthounds). salukis are still considered dogs with fur, not hair. they also still shed, even though it’s just a little. and yet they’re still considered good for allergy sufferers.

(ps poodles do actually shed. but they shed like humans shed. your hair comes out, doesn’t it? like, esp folks with long hair, aren’t people always complaining how you clog the shower drain? yeah, like that. ALSO obviously the situation is more complicated then super simple punnet squares and as an ex-groomer i have something to say about doodle coats but i’m going to save that for later, put a pin in it.)

oh and wait a hot minute there. i said best choice, didn’t i, not hypoallergenic. well, that’s because no dog is hypoallergenic. poodles, and a few other dog breeds, they have hair, like we do. but the thing is both humans and breeds with hair still produce the dander, though they’re different kinds. breeds with hair happen to produce the least amount possible that dogs can produce, which is why they’re a better choice for allergy sufferers, but that’s still not a guarantee. my roommate Dakota is allergic to dogs. if i don’t wash my dogs for an extended period of time (which has never happened, ever, in my life, idk what ur talking about), thus giving the chance for the dander my dogs still produce, he will have a very, very mild reaction when touching them. it can be countered by him washing his hands after touching them and also me just giving them a fucking bath, i need to stop forgetting, but still, there you go. ALSO people might not be allergic to dogs bc of their dander. they might be allergic to the saliva of dogs, which poodles or any other breed with hair still produces about the same as other dogs. so, yeah, not hypoallergenic, not at all.

the people who taut their hypoallergenic dogs for sale largely don’t do the testing required to check if they’re actually providing a dog to someone who won’t react to it. not acceptable at all.

so, labs are friendly and easy to train right? not at all like poodles, right? no. absolutely incorrect. some labs are friendly and easy to train. some labs, a lot of them when they’re puppies, are nightmare fuel. personally, i have a theory that everyone’s vision of labs in their heads are either a) service dogs or b) those old labs who are slightly pudgy (or morbidly obsess, which is a different topic) and who are graying in the face and just want to lounge around because they’re seniors now. alright, so here’s why thats bad. labs are a working breed. a retrieving breed. they’re supposed to be bulky and strong and driven. service dogs are highly trained, to a point that most pet dogs will never see, and if you see them with their actual disabled handler, they’ll probably be around 2.5 yrs of age and out of their most wild days. old labs are well. old. sleepy. maybe a bit achey. and well out of their most wild days. oh, and it’s the same type of thing with goldens by the way, the other most popular doodle type. poodles are also easy to train, especially if their parents have a decent temperament. they’re all about equal if you actually start training them when they’re puppies and just pay for some training classes, like everyone should. in the puppy classes i’m in right now, Euphoria is leaps and bounds ahead of doodles, goldens, and labs that are her age or older. I train her properly and she’s got amazing parents. that’s it, that’s the trick. not breed, not necessarily, and def not in this case.

I am once again going to say that labs and goldens are more often used as service dogs than poodles because of their adaptability, but it’s the ability to adapt to situations that most pet dogs will never have to worry about.

jeez this is a long post. i’ve still got more to cover too. alright, on to super healthy, or “hybrid vigor” as the nerds call it. uhh, it’s bullshit. thank u for ur time.

okay, but actually why on gods green earth would breeding two completely different breeds with little to no research make them super healthy? now i want to preface this with i’m (generally) pro-outcross projects. Euphoria’s dad is half mini poodle and half standard poodle, which isn’t technically an outcross bc all the variations are of the same breed, but if we’re going by genetic diversity alone minis and standards are different enough to actually be different breeds.

so, to be clear, outcrosses, given the proper thought and planning: good, results in healthier dogs (see: lua dals). randomly breeding two very different breeds together with no planning other than to sell the puppies to randos who won’t continue the outcross: bad. especially when you’re doing it to cash in and don’t health test at all, or don’t health test the major health problems with both breeds (if you’re doing an f2 breeding or anything like that). no the poodle’s health problems don’t get canceled out by the goldens or labs or whatever the other party’s health problems are, and vice versa. and yeah, i’ve looked at a lot of doodle breeder’s websites and yeah, most of them don’t health test at all, or at least don’t health test properly. do you know i own one doodle and currently live with another? yeah, i got them both from breeders and do you know how much health testing their parents got? if your answer is none, good job, you’ve been paying attention. in my defense, i was like 13, i didn’t know what i was doing.

alright, so those are the big points. this is kinda gonna be just... a mix of my other complaints. here we go, hope you’re ready for more. argument the first: i feel like it’s pretty disrespectful to reputable breeders. now, i actually have two reasons why that is. reason one: most reputable poodle breeders don’t want their breeding stock bred with other breeds, for various reasons. i’ve even met a few who used to be okay with it and then as the doodle scam got bigger and more out of control, they stopped being okay with it, even to the breeders who they had been fine with it in the past. that means a lot of doodle breeders out there have their breeding stock because they scammed poodle breeders into giving them pet quality, not breeding quality, dogs or because they’re getting their stock from non-reputable breeders. i also feel it’s disrespectful to breeders who are actually trying to create new breeds. quite frankly, a breed with the size, strength, and adaptability of a lab or golden that doesn’t shed and that has the train-ability of a poodle, lab, or golden sounds pretty interesting to me. did you know you can actually make that breed? and it wouldn’t be a cross with unpredictable... well, everything. it would actually be a true dog breed.

Look at Silken Windhounds and Biewer Terriers who began both development in the 1980s. Biewer Terriers were recognized by the AKC this year, and Silken Windhounds still haven’t been. And yeah, that’s the problem isn’t it? Making a real new breed takes a lot of time, planning, and care. People would rather just cash in. I think it’s sad and I think it’s disrespectful to the breeders who do work so hard to make actual new breeds.

and finally, unpin being an ex-groomer goddamnit. guess what? doodles are awful to groom! they’re terrible on the grooming tables because people want to have in both ways: they want a dog that doesnt shed at all and they want a dog who doesn’t need to be groomed. well guess what, that dog doesn’t exist and you can have it only one way. and also, bring back the goddamn punnet squares because a lot of doodles have awful coats. if you have hairfur and furhair over there, guess what, their coat fucking sucks bc it’s not meant to be like that. it wants to mat bc hair but also it wants the mats to slide out bc short-ish fur but its too thick for the mats to slide out bc thick hair. and yes its more complicated then this and that means its often more awful then this. its awful, it makes me want to cry. and maybe it’s slightly easier to get away with it with a shorthaired dog like a lab, or, you know what, even a golden, okay, even a slightly long haired dog like a golden but people are doodling akitas? border collies? bernese fucking mountain dogs? i am crying. i am crying right now as i type this.

lets do a sum up to this disaster of a post. look, i don’t go out there attacking or yelling at every doodle or every doodle owner i see, alright? or any of them really. i might engage in conversation to one that’s interested, but that’s it. i love my doodly Isis, okay? shes tiny and she’s adorable and I love her more than life and i will never, ever get another doodle. i don’t like the way they’ve gotten so prolific, i don’t like the reasons they’re now widespread, and i don’t like almost all of the people that create them, including the ones i’ve literally given my (parents) money to in the past. i wish they were better but i just cannot approve of them, especially not in the environment they exist in now. that said, i do support them in their original use case as assistance dogs, and i do not care about them if they’re shelter dogs.

#long post #anti doodle #text #my post #yes this took me like an hour #yes i do hate myself for it #Anonymous #oh anon im being grumpy mostly for comedy thats only funny to me #you're fine as long as you werent trying to bait me

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years ago

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masterpost • main masterlist • taglist & faq

previously on...

Chapter 1! Reader's job has no chill and Wanda means well (Tony does too), but, as we know, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Reader discovers the source of some peculiar things and can't help but be overcome with curiosity. F-bombs galore!

Fun fact: this story's main soundtrack is Claire de Lune, for some reason. Usually I can't stand classical music.

I didn't anticipate my first day at the bodega to be remarkful in any way but I was quickly proven wrong. My expectations were low: few customers, some of them flat-earthers of the garden variety, perhaps one or two of those 'witches' from social media blogging platforms and an overzealous Satanist or two, since I was pretty sure I saw an Ouija board and a silver pentagram hanging in Odette's office on the day of the interview.

Boy was I wrong.

We averaged a customer every fifteen minutes with each person requesting increasingly strange items: healing quartz and sage were on the closer end of normal; I felt like I had teleported to Hogwarts and was now attending Professor Snape's Advanced Potions class, having to race between the high shelves and memorize the exact location of each and every ingredient. In the end, I sacrificed a few dollars and bought one of the beautiful, leather-bound notebooks off Odette to write down the shelf and position number for the most commonly requested items and planned to begin memorizing them at home.

There's a little bit of Ravenclaw in all of us, I supposed. My curiosity only extended further: sometimes, a haggard looking person would come up and declare they had an appointment with Odette and was quickly whisked away by my boss to her office, coming out looking slightly less haggard in about half an hour or so.

I adapted to the routine fairly quickly, choosing to make my personal peace with the strange customers and Odette's mysterious meetings: after all, I got the job because I needed money - who was I to judge her for doing Tarot readings and spiritual séances for an extra dollar?

The bodega's atmosphere did grow on me rather quickly, as I had thought it would. It was warm and homely even on the rainiest afternoons, there was an unlimited supply of herbal tea, free of charge, and I grew to appreciate it just like I learned to find the positives in my job at the café. That remained a constant, mildly interesting affair too - my regulars, especially the superheroes, had started coming in during the morning hours and we were able to resume our chit-chats without a hitch.

Wanda still fished for my most recent, memorable reading and Dr. Banner left his incomprehensible scribbles on every napkin within an arm's reach for me to return to him on his next visit. The fully grown man with multiple PhDs didn't fail to blush like a schoolgirl every single time it happened, causing Mr. Stark to double on his own salacious jokes, should the engineer have had come with. They often came together, blabbering things I couldn't even fathom understanding even with the help of Google.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Wanda sounded surprisingly chipper for it was freaking seven in the morning.

I blanched, banging my arm against the display door painfully with a softly muttered, "Fuck!".

The witch frowned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I muttered, hoping my face wasn't portraying the mixture of confusion and fear that I felt. "Something weird happened at my other job yesterday, I'm still processing," I replied honestly, looking to the side.

In fairness, I didn't know what to think. The situation wasn't something that should have shocked me, with aliens and magic people an abundance in NYC, but seeing it with my own two eyes had been jarring.

A limping, paranoid young man had arrived for an appointment with Odette shortly before closing time; I had escorted him to her office without as much as a blink, only noticing he was dripping oddly colored blood when the door behind him had closed. I cleaned it up, dead set on confronting Odette about the obviously injured person - the blood, it was more of an attempt to clean it, since it merely stuck to the rag, refusing to wash off it with water or any of the organic cleaning solutions kept under the sink.

I had to leave the rag in a paper bag, acutely aware of the fact it could not have belonged to a normal person. My best guess was that a man was a mutant - NYC had plenty of them living behind a blue wall. Odette's office wasn't soundproof: I heard a pained yelp and then a vocalisation of relief as whatever was causing the man to bleed had been removed. In a few minutes while I was closing the cash register, he came out looking almost brand new - and as I paid him a more careful look, he was missing his scleras, leaving his eyes to look slightly terrifying.

And then he winked at me, a surprisingly human, boyish gesture - the smile that crawled up my face was purely automatic. I was sure it looked frozen. He disappeared without a word as Odette herself emerged from the backrooms, a tired sheen to her brow.

"Did you manage to clean up?" She asked, eyebrows raised at the lack of stains on the hardwood floors.

"It stuck to the rag," I replied, eyeing her warily. "The rag is in the unmarked bag next to the sink. I didn't know what else to do with it."

"Sometimes it does that," her sigh was very telling. This was to be expected to become a regular occurrence. She motioned for the notebook I got to keep track of everything in the store, rattling off a recipe for a cleaner and solvent combo, made purely from the items she had inside the store, giving me stern instructions to add the ingredients in the exact order I was told. I sighed but added the footnote. Odette was a far cry from the greasy git from Hogwarts so she deserved the benefit of the doubt at least.

I didn't dare to ask any more questions about the strange man; not that day, not after I had suprised Wanda with a quick recap of my story. It's not like I had anything against mutants - as long as they were peaceful and didn't harm humans with their abilities, I was content to co-habit, share my space and even be friends with them. A very nice old lady who came by three times a week had gills peeking out of the top of her turtleneck and she was just the most polite, sweetest thing.

Wanda's curiosity was understandable and not suspicious in any way: I was under the impression she was a mutant, too, along with her twin brother - so the feeling of dread that blossomed within me as soon as the two suited figures entered the small store I attributed to the larger size of the man and vulture eyes of the woman. They both appeared extremely out of place with their black two-pieces and badly hidden pistol holsters, topped off with badges I couldn't take a good look at without losing my customer service facade.

I decided to play it dumb, self-conscious of the thudding of my heart in my ribcage. My body screamed 'danger' at me. "Hello, how can I help you?"

The woman cast an observant look over me, my plain clothes, lingering on my star-patterned scarf and matching hair band. "Are you the owner of this store?"

"No," I frowned, not liking where this was going. "Do you have an appointment with Odette?"

"We'd like to see her," the man pointedly moved his arm, exposing the gun and the badge.

I dropped the nice act, staring him down in earnest. I never liked self-righteous, pushy government officials; even less so, when they didn't follow protocol and started the conversation with demands instead of proper introductions. As I shot a quick text to Odette, noting that there were 'strange people in uniform' looking for her, my suspicions were only confirmed when the woman looked around the store with eyes that knew what they were looking for. Those two definitely weren't cops or even feds, they were straight up shady.

Odette all but flew to the bodega, the imposing, suffocating aura I'd seen only once on full display. It was hard to breathe standing so close to her; with muted satisfaction, I noticed both agents squirm, their fingers twitching, as they took in shuddering inhales through their, undoubtedly, lying mouths.

The whole spectacle was over quickly. I had managed to serve and quickly usher out Ike, one of the Satanists (yes, we did, in fact, have a few of those as regulars) with his paper bag full of powdered goat horn and a fresh cat skull under his armpit before the curtains parted and the two agents left without saying a word. I thought their eyes looked - wrong, like glass marbles, dull, lifeless and unseeing.

Odette dismissed my worries with a frivolously waved hand: "They won't be bothering us anytime soon," closing the door to her office - it reeked of strong incense and horseradish, for some reason. Like she'd been making some hell salad in front of the two nosy officials.

I took a deep breath in and then a deep breath out. The weirdness should've bothered me more, I knew, but I couldn't bring myself to decide whether I wanted to know what that interaction was actually about or live in blissful ignorance, where my boss might be some sort of a mutant or an actual witch that helps other mutants.

The longer I thought about it, the louder anti-mutant propaganda articles screamed at me: children being killed or abandoned because one day, they woke up and could fly or move things with their mind; every potential situation could end up like Carrie or Brightburn - two movies so blatantly obvious in their point to instill fear against children that could grow to work alongside Earth's Mightiest Defenders.

Needless to say, my conscious calmed down pretty quickly. I had felt the hairs on my nape stand up as soon as the agents entered the room and in my experience, a reaction like that was never good. I had been taught to trust my gut.

Odette had cancelled her visits for the day, holing up in her office as the whole store rapidly filled up with the stench of horseradish, old blood and sage. The occasional noise came from the office, interrupted by mumbling, and I was quickly told to just turn up the old, vintage radio if it bothered me.

I was too busy taking in the contents of her office - the table that previously stood in the far end of it, stood in the middle, folded out into the shape of a circle. Something was drawn on it, something the color of dried blood, and there were light candles, white and blue, littered on almost every possible surface. The air was clouded with incense smoke, so thick, it made my eyes water.

Odette's grin was sardonic as she met my eyes, wide and shocked, that had previously landed on what looked like a pot- or a cauldron, emanating the strongest bitter stench that wafted even through the lead curtain of incense. No wonder the whole store reeked.

Before she gently shut the door in my face, I caught the centerfold of the whole show - an extremely large, tattered, leatherbound tome with yellowed pages and a heavy metal padlock laying next to it. Overcome by stupor, I didn't manage to make out the intricate silver letters on its cover.

Needless to say, walking home that day was an adventure. In part, I was cautious that the agents would find me, follow me home, interrogate me - I've never been arrested even by usual cops and it was unlikely that shady government agencies were delicate in their approach. A larger part of my brain was wondering about the implications of what I had seen, I'd nearly chewed off my fingernails remembering the vacant, lost face expressions on the agents' faces.

As soon as I got home, I set to do some serious googling. And find information, I did. Plethora of minor details - candle colors, herbs used, deeply individual incantations and mythical deities that chose to work with a particular witch. It was nothing short of a whole science; I'd go as far as to say it was a complete lifestyle. The use of magick bled into every aspect of daily life, from sleep to food to communication with others.

Part of me felt incredulity at the implication of sacrificing so much to get results that might be the opposite of the ones desired. A larger, braver part of me - the very same that used to push me to explore abandoned buildings with my friends and drink booze given by a stranger - admired the work and the dedication my boss and her kind put into their work.

Having received my first paycheck and successfully having made it through rent day without having to make excuses, my conscious allowed me to treat myself to a few items - I decided to give into my curiosity and placed an order for a few books on modern witchcraft, happily waiting for the package to arrive next afternoon. I went to sleep with my head full and a new world at my feet to explore.

The books were late - or more like, never showed. The refund couldn't come soon enough. My curiosity began to reach unbearable levels the longer I worked the front desk at Odette's. These days I didn't need much assistance anymore, ready to help any new or returning customer with the help of my notebook. Time after time, I noticed a certain working order, a pattern to things if you may - and was able to recommend a few things here and there. In short, I stepped over my initial apprehension and dove into the world of natural remedies and energetic manipulation headfirst.

It made all the sense that Odette would start to take absence from the bodega as my training progressed. On the days she had fewer or no appointments, she would don her favourite scarf and trot out the front door, large purse in tow, to run errands or restock on the rare, pricy items that couldn't get delivered directly to the shop. I'd grown accustomed to locking up on my own; the spare key to the entrance door was my pride and joy, the dull silver a warm comfort hanging on a chain around my neck. Its antique design made a fairly pretty necklace.

The customer coming to pick up a special order hardly disrupted my time. I had Janis Joplin blaring from the old radio, my skirt swayed to the rhythm of the song together with me. The elevated mood while working in the shop was something I appreciated fully - with a kind smile, I departed for the backrooms to search for the package with the customer's name, not finding it anywhere near the proper place. A call later, I was opening Odette's office and extracting the paper-wrapped shoebox from the fridge, passing it into the customer's arms with utmost care: 'FRAGILE. KEEP REFRIGERATED AT ALL TIMES.' read on it in Odette's sharp cursive.

The bell above the door rang as the woman departed but I was already inching behind the curtain, overcome by sudden inquisitiveness.

The book. It stood right in the middle of Odette's desk, shut, but missing its padlock, beckoning with the thick gothic letters spelling out 'PRACTICAL ALCHEMY'. I noticed it as soon as I stepped into the office, confused and puzzled by my own unbearable desire to approach it immediately. I knew something was amiss, yet, my legs had a mind of their own and my hands firmly placed themselves upon the heavy cover of the book, seemingly without the input from my brain.

"What the hell..." I muttered to myself, finding the books contents to be - for the lack of a better word - peculiar. "Protect a babe born on all Hallows Eve..." I numbly mouthed the first words that my eyes registered. The pages made a soft noise as my shaking fingers turned them, one after the other. "Bestow healing upon a barren womb... Punish a thief..." There were - spells, and potions, and so many plants I've never even heard about before.

The pages turned and handwritings changed - at the start, words were written out precisely, the cursive neat and sharp, obviously written by an ink pen. Some things were scribbles, pencil or charcoal, so barely intelligible I had to guess about a third of the words written. Towards the end of the book pages made with a typewriter appeared - blocky letters and numbers, language modern, ash and cigarette smell coming from the paper.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The longer my hands touched the pages, the stronger the tingling sensation became - I failed to notice it at first, attributing it to the exhilaration of finding something so strange yet so precious, but as I was finishing a page that contained a fairly short spell for protection of a witches' home, the discomfort of my palms rose into a mild stinging pain.

"Fuck," I yelped, casting a look at my fingers. They were hot, angry, as if I had briefly touched boiling oil - and the skin on my fingertips began to blister, little white pustules forming where I had gingerly held the pages of the book in place. "What the fuck?" Was my reasonable question to nobody in particular.

The books contents were, no doubt, interesting but I was more concerned with the state of my hands - had I ignored the pain for five more minutes, I might have had to go to the hospital to treat what was beginning to look like a second-degree burn. I slammed it shut none-too-gently, placing it exactly as I found it and winced when barely a second of touching it brought on more excruciating pain.

The healing peppermint oil salve I knew people bought for mild burns only soothed the initial sting, so I had to suffer until I clocked out, stopping by a drugstore on my way home to purchase some much-needed burn cream. And while it didn't make it worse, I knew that my next day at work was going to be Hell.

Most thankful, however, I was to my voice-to-text option on my cell. Not only it allowed me to communicate with my friends without hurting my abused skin even more, but it also dutifully saved the short, simple spell that was supposed to protect my house. There was no harm in trying it, I supposed, after seeing what I didn't doubt was the book's own protection wreak havoc on my snoopy little hands.

The tag list is open until the story is finished.

@couldntbedamned @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @mostly-marvel-musings @persephonehemingway @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @bluecrazedandbeautiful @slothspaghettiwrites

#bun writes #practical alchemy #tony stark x reader x stephen strange #tony stark x reader #stephen strange x reader #stephen strange x y/n #tony stark x y/n #Stephen Strange x you #Tony Stark x you

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pargolettasworld · 3 years ago

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I finished Knightfall tonight, and it was . . . certainly a show that got canceled when it wasn’t expecting to. Some final thoughts:

1. Almost everyone involved in the show put more effort into the second season than the first season. The lighting designer seems to have been the odd person out. It’s a little hard to tell everything that happened in the second season, largely because you couldn’t see the second season. I believe humans ran around France, skulked in castles, and whacked each other with swords, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

2. Princess Isabella got switched out between the first and second seasons, and I’m not entirely sure why. It wasn’t just the actresses who got switched, either; Isabella seems like a completely different person. Season 2 Isabella is really where we see the She-Wolf of France come from; on the other hand, how much fun would it have been to see Season 1 Isabella become the She-Wolf of France?

3. On that note, Isabella’s campaign against her sister-in-law Margaret needed to be a full plotline of its own, rather than an on-again-off-again C plot. Isabella just goes all out to destroy Margaret, and it’s not at all clear why she’s expending this much effort until the penultimate episode . . . at which point, she gives the most weaksauce of reasons.

4. While it is true that there is one Good Guy Brain Cell and one Bad Guy Brain Cell to go around, it’s less and less clear who, if anyone, has possession of them at any given moment. Especially when it comes to the Bad Guy Brain Cell . . . did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?

5. I’m sure the sudden descent of the French royal family into Disney-Villain Madness was supposed to be more entertaining than it actually was. As it turned out, it kind of felt like about three episodes were missing that would have dealt with all the psychodrama that was going on there.

6. The show’s strongest feature continues to be its performances. Everyone is completely committed to whatever it is they’re doing, no matter how stupid it is. Special props to Tom Cullen as Landry (holding the show together), Mark Hamill (displaying his George Lucas Dialogue talent), and Julian Ovenden (being progressively more Done With King Phillip’s shit).

7. In the end, this show tried to be about three different genres and didn’t quite manage to succeed at any of them. But it tried, and . . . .respect. I also liked what the show did with Landry. He’s a Protagonist in a role where you kind of expect a Hero. He isn’t a Hero, by any stretch of the imagination. He’s a deeply flawed man, a warrior monk who’s very good at the warrior thing and awful at the monk thing. He’s clearly too smart for his job, but there just isn’t any other kind of job around that would fit him better; people like Landry are why militaries changed and adapted to accommodate and make use of really smart fighters, but the Templars aren’t that kind of force.

Landry isn’t at all a Good and Pure and Flawless Hero. He has Issues, and he deals with those Issues by acting out and rebelling against the rules of his life in ways that hurt both himself and the people around him. He digs himself deep into a hole in Season 1 and spends most of Season 2 trying to redeem himself -- and that’s not at all an easy journey for him. It’s really tempting to have the star of the show be a Hero, but I loved that Knightfall made Landry a simple Protagonist instead. If he’d been a Hero, he would have been insufferably boring; as a flawed, conflicted, very human Protagonist, he was interesting and compelling, and had an amazing character arc. Landry at the end of the show is absolutely not Landry at the beginning of the show. You can tell that he’s learned some hard and painful lessons, and you really want to see what he does with them and where he goes from here, having lost every single bit of structure he ever had. This is very good character writing. It’s just kind of a pity that the writers only gave this kind of care and attention to Landry instead of some of the other characters. (Jacques de Molay, King Philip, Princess Isabella, I’m looking at you here.)

8. Clearly, no one on the production staff expected either the Spanish Inquisition or the cancellation of the show. Otherwise, they might have, you know, actually written an ending to the final episode instead of cutting it off where they did. So close, but it didn’t stick the landing.

#television #knightfall #writing

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amarantine-amirite · 4 years ago

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It's Not Up To You

I never once had any peace or rest. There was a persistent threat that resources and places would vanish without a trace. Even though I never got my ass handed to me daily, I could never anticipate when I would be able to catch my breath.

I had to adapt. I had to be able to alter my expectations faster than the circumstances would change. It forced me to abandon having a set image of what I want in my mind. It took away my ability to visualize. I had to anticipate resources disappearing in the future, so I had a hard time with long-term planning.

Going into the week, I had it all figured out. I had found an iron-clad way for me to have my cake and eat it too. It may not have been ideal, but at least I still had the resources available.

My mother planned to drive me to my piano concert. Because she had a stressful day at work yesterday, she went to the bar. She neither came home nor returned any of my calls, so I assumed she was either crazy hungover or still passed out. I now had to hitch a ride with Jackie and her sister, Henrietta.

Henrietta drove like she had lead feet. “Uh, Ettie,” Jackie asked, “you just blew through a traffic light at”

“Don’t tell me how fast I’m going; I need to know where I am!” she snapped.

“Can we at least stop and get lunch?” I asked. I last ate at 7:00 AM. Bad things happen when I try to function on an empty stomach. My temper gets worse. My impulse control goes to Hell. I bounce off the walls.

“Hell, no!” Henrietta snarled, “If we stop to eat, we’ll get stuck in a traffic snarl!”

“OK, what’s your problem?” I whined. I had no idea why Henrietta got so upset.

Henrietta sighed angrily. “Do you wanna know why I’m so fucking pissed off?" she barked, "Those fuckers moved up my fucking interview by a fucking week. I was supposed to get married today! All that money I spent on the venue, the photographer, the catering; that’s money I’m never going to see again!”

I don’t know how Henrietta could say that without bursting into tears. “And what about Jasper? He’s going to think I broke off the wedding because I don’t have feelings for him anymore. I’m worried. He doesn’t handle rejection well. What if he tries to kill himself again?”

What happened next felt like being in the desert and coming upon an oasis, only to discover it’s a mirage. When we arrived at our destination, everything went up in smoke. Before we left, Henrietta told me that she would drop us off first, then head to the interview. She looked at us and said, “Nobody's leaving until I finish my interview. Understand?”

I nodded. Inside, I wanted to smack her. Hard.

Today has been nothing but hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. I fucking hate being jerked around like this. The constant stop-and-start made me feel like someone drained of my life force. I can’t deal with it anymore.

Jackie and I came up with a plan. The plan was simple, like Henrietta’s would-be husband, Jasper. Unlike Jasper, the plan stood a chance of working. When they let her in to do the interview, Jackie and I would duck out and go to my piano concert. We’d come back when I finished my set, and that’d be that.

Problem. We made a huge tactical error.

It’s a long story. At the beginning of the school year, the cheerleaders thought it would be funny to nominate Anna Rose, the head of the chess club, for prom queen as a joke. Anna didn’t know about this, but the principal did. On Halloween night, we got something really scary in our inboxes: an official email with the school's letterhead saying that due to “bullying", prom would be permanently cancelled until measurable snowfall in July. A lot of the anxieties that kids channel into what they’re going to do at their prom got redirected elsewhere.

The kids at school got offended. By everything. Like, a lot.

Remember how I said that school has been so hard for me because I have no idea what to expect? Well, this piano concert thing was a perfect example. I had to make a list of not just one song, but for possible songs that I could play at this concert. I need to be ready to switch out songs in case the band teacher changed his mind. He always did stuff like that. One day, you could pick whatever song you wanted for school concerts, and the next, they would say that it had to come from a pre-approved list. So that meant I had no idea what song I was going to play. When people asked me, the best I could say was, "I’ve got a lineup." Lineup was not a good choice of words; a better choice of words would have been revolving door .

This brings us to our mistake: the same reason that I had to keep a revolving door of songs in my mind for the concert was also the same reason why we should have called the hotel where the concert was to be held ahead of time to double-check to see if the school had not cancelled it. We did not do that.

That brings us to right now. We are smack dab in the middle of what appears to be a campus recruitment event. Everyone in the room except for us is wearing cheap suits that fit somebody else, nobody looks familiar, and the atmosphere consists of a general air of anxiety and lack of preparedness.

Five minutes after we arrived, a woman wearing a pantsuit that made her look like a pool table, pineapple earrings, and a name tag that read “Megan Mulroney“ approached us. “Excuse me, ladies," she said, “are you students at The Fletcher School?”

“No, we go to Arthur Vandelay high school," Jackie said, “I’m here with Margaret because she’s got a piano concert to go to.”

I stood up and looked at Megan. “So is that in the Gold room, because I got a copy of the flyer here and it says Hall B, and I don’t know where that is, and…”

Megan cut us off. “I don't know what you’re talking about,” she said.

I handed Megan the flyer. “I’m talking about this.”

She didn’t look at the flyer. She gave it right back to me. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, but that’s a piece of blank paper."

“It’s not blank!” I chirped.

“Yes, it is; and I don’t appreciate you wasting my time like this.“

“We’re not wasting your time.”

“Well then, why am I dealing with two overdressed high school idiots when I have new grads to check in for a networking event?” she said, doing her best impression of a bratty 12-year-old.

“Why are you so stubborn?”

Megan shrugged at us and rolled her eyes in a cocky fashion. “I'm not stubborn all the time. I'm only stubborn when I’m right.”

Big red flag. If someone says I'm only stubborn when I'm right , it means they're putting up a front, either because they don't want to but they're wrong or they're trying to bullshit you.

She continued to puff herself out. “Listen, you’re not special. What happens to you happens to other people, too.”

“Not helpful,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Well, sorry you feel that way.”

“What does that even mean?” I blurted.

She ignored us. Rather than explain what was going on, she instead attempted to have phone sex with Idris Elba and got the wrong number.

It didn’t stop there. One look out the window told me we’d have to get someone else to pick us up, as Henrietta got arrested. I’m guessing she found out that the job she applied for was posted as an April Fool’s Day joke and she either trashed the office or beat the crap out of the hiring manager. Based on the black eye, I think it was the second thing.

Terrific. Now we have no plan, no ride home, and no idea what the fuck is supposed to happen next.

I’m devastated. I feel gutted. But beyond that, I'm spooked.

This isn't something you'd consider typically scary. It felt like that last photo taken before a disaster. This looming sense that something catastrophic is coming down the pike continues to hang over me.

@writers-are-writers

#writing #writers on tumblr #writers #short fiction #short story #bjork #creative writing

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kaweeella · 4 years ago

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Time Travel Sucks

Chapter 2- How Could Someone Be So Bad At Something

Warnings for blood.

~~~

You decide to message Barbatos, figuring that if anyone would know about time bullshit it’d be him.

“Barbatos, can you meet me in front of RAD?”

“Of course.”

You hurry off to RAD, ignoring the brothers' questions behind you.

“Barbatos!”

“So what did you wish to talk to me about?”

“You know about time and time travel, right?”

“I should hope so.” He laughs.

“Great.” You pull out the watch. “Do you know about this?”

He hums as he looks it over. “It has a powerful enchantment on it. How did you get this?”

“Mammon gave it to me. The morning he did the chandelier over there fell on him, and I pushed the button and it was this morning again. I clicked the button earlier but nothing happened.”

“So was it just that one loop?”

“No, there was one between now and the first one where Mammon didn’t get crushed but something happened to Levi and the watch started glowing and then it was this morning again.”

He nods. “It seems there’s something stopping it from being used whenever, just under specific situations.”

“Yo! Human!” Mammon runs up to you. “Why’d you leave like that?”

“I needed to talk to-” Groan, crash. The chandelier falls. “Barbatos.”

“Mammon I must ask, where’d you find this watch?”

“From a street vendor, why do you wanna know?”

“Well, I’ll look into the enchantment after cleaning up the chandelier.”

You turn around to see Levi muttering angrily.

“Hey!” You call. “What are you planning on doing at lunch?”

“Uh… eating?”

“Do you wanna eat together?”

He perks up. “Are you sure you want to eat with me?”

“Of course!”

“Oh no! No no no!” Mammon says. “You can’t do that.”

“Why not?” You look Mammon dead in the eyes.

“I- y- w- h-” He stammers. “You can’t!”

“Yeah, let’s meet outside the cafeteria!”

“Great!”

You all go to your respective classes, you think about what could’ve taken down Levi. Did they cancel his favorite anime or something?

It isn’t until you see him and Solomon outside the cafeteria do you start to understand.

“Hey Levi, I made something for you.” He holds up a container of cookies. They look just like the ones from an anime you and Levi watched.

“Oh…” He looks at the tupperware in his hands. No one can bring themselves to tell Solomon how much his cooking sucks, and you don’t suppose that Levi would be the one to work up the nerve. “Thanks.”

“Why don’t you try one?” He starts to open it when you decide it’s time to intervene.

“Hey Levi, ready to go?”

“Are you two planning on going somewhere?”

“Yeah, we were planning on going to the library and studying some.”

“Alright, would you like a cookie?”

“Oh I’d love one but we really should get going. We’ll take them with us and eat them while we study.” You give him the best phony smile you can muster, hoping he won’t suspect anything.

“Alright, have a good time.” He hands you the container and walks away. You can’t help but notice him winking at you. He’s spending too much time with Asmo.

“Are you really planning on eating that?” Levi asks as you walk down the hall.

“Hell no.” You dump it into the first trash can you guys go past. Whatever is in there that can take down a demon, you reason with yourself, it would definitely kill you.

“So why did you want to have lunch with me?”

You wonder how to go about this. “Well, there’s this new anime coming out today, right?”

“Oh, are you talking about My Friend Got Me A Gift And Now I Have To Save Everyone?”

“Right.”

“Oh I love that one. I read the manga and it was amazing. I’m not going to spoil anything but it’s really good. You should read it. Reading the manga always feels different then watching the adaptation. I-”

“Levi,” You feel bad for interrupting him but if you didn’t do anything then you’d get nowhere fast. “I’m living out the plot of an anime.” Or maybe manga would be more appropriate?

“What? What do you mean?”

You think about how to phrase it, watching some demons throwing around frisbees. The Devildom have some big differences to human world frisbees which are that they have spikes around the circumference and are made out of some sort of stone, which is one of the reasons why you don’t play frisbee with Cerberus.

You’re about to say something as one of the demons throws a frisbee. You watch it fly and it’s headed towards…

You spot Luke standing by the corner, back turned to the disc. It spins as it heads towards his head. You barely think for a moment before you take off running, racing against the frisbee. You do enjoy your time here, but if they were like human world frisbees then you wouldn’t have to worry. It’d feel like a small smack at worst. But no, because nothing is fun unless someone might die.

You grab him just in time as the disc flies past you two, covering his head to prevent damage. Your hands skid across the concrete, tearing up some skin. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that he’s safe.

“Are you alright, Luke?” You ask as you two get up.

“Yeah, thank you I…” He trails off as his eyes land on something behind you. He lets out a horrified scream and runs past you.

Looking back, you see what it was. And it was…

Simeon stands there, the disc lodged in his chest. He stares wide-eyed at it. Blood stains his pitch white clothes and drips onto the sidewalk below.

“Simeon!” Luke wails.

“D… don’t worry ab… about me, Luke.” He stumbles, his legs beginning to give out beneath his weight.

Levi joins you two in staring at Simeon as he lay there, though he quickly snaps out of his shock and rushes to his side.

You don’t wait to see what happens, grabbing the warm glowing watch and clicking it open.

You stumble and fall out of your bed. It takes you a second to readjust, but when you do you set off.

“Alright, first the chandelier, then Solomon’s cookies, then the frisbee.” You run over the events to yourself. “Alright, one more try.”

You run out of your room and past Mammon.

“Oi! Human!”

You slow down and look at him.

“What’s got you in such a hurry?”

You wonder if you should tell him. Would he even believe you if you did?

“Well, whatever. I have something for you.”

“Is it this?” You hold up the watch.

“Yeah, how’d you get that?”

You start to say something when you’re interrupted by Lucifer, telling you you’ll be late.

Mammon walks next to you, and Levi joins you two.

“Hey Levi.” You greet him.

“Hey.” He says. “Oh! There’s this new anime coming out today, do you want to watch it with me when we get back?”

“I’d love to.” You say smiling.

“Great!”

When you get to the entrance, you stop walking. The other two quickly notice and stop with you.

“What are ya’ doin’?” Mammon asks.

“Just waiting.”

“For what?” Levi asks this time.

After a moment, the chandelier drops. With a satisfied nod you start walking again.

“What the-?!” Mammon says.

“Did you know that was going to happen? How?!”

You hum, thinking about how to phrase it.

“Let’s talk about it at lunch.” With that cryptic note you walk to class.

You’re anxious all of class, worried about how you’re going to go about this. When the lunch bell rings you let out a sigh of relief and head to the cafeteria. When you get there you see both Levi and Mammon. There’s also Solomon, harassing them with his cookies.

“Hey guys!”

“Oh hello, I was just offering Levi some cookies. They’re from an anime he likes.”

“Well, actually we’re busy right now. We have to go, but we’ll take them and eat them there.” He hands you the cookies and you flash your most convincing smile. “See you later!” The three of you turn and run down to where you saw Luke and Simeon.

“So what’s happenin’?” Mammon asks.

“Give me a second.” You drop the cookies in a nearby trash can, seeing the angel. You see the demon throwing the frisbee and you pick up the pace. As you grab Luke you reach out your arm and grab Simeon as well. The frisbee flies past all of you, just grazing your back. You try your best to keep them from hitting their heads, tearing up your skin again.

“Sorry!” The demon who threw it yells.

“Are you guys alright?”

“I think we should be asking you that.” Simeon says as he sits up.

“Yeah. And, thank you!” Luke smiles.

“Hey!” Mammon and Levi run up behind you. “What just happened?”

“Your hands!” As the adrenaline wears down they begin to sting.

You decide to explain what happened while they work on bandaging your hands.

“So that street vendor was right! You should be thankin’ me, human!”

“Shouldn’t you be the one thanking them? They did save your life.” Levi says.

“Yeah, in fact you were the first to die.” Luke says.

“Whatever!”

“It doesn’t matter right now. I just hope that’s the end of this.” You sigh, flexing your hands.

“There’s nothing we can do but hope.” Simeon says.

#obey me #obey me fanfic

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remnantsrp · 4 years ago

Photo

Name: Fletcher Bennett Age: 27 years old Pronouns: He/Him Hometown: Henderson, Nevada Occupation before the Infection: Bartender/Ex-Paramedic Role within the Caravan: Medical Team FC: Logan Lerman

Biography:

tw. mentions of alcoholism, teen pregnancy, mentions of suicide

Before the Infection.

Fletcher started life in a struggle - with his umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his neck and no heartbeat detected. With precision and haste, the medical staff were able to resuscitate and save the couple’s fourth born son before it was too late. Of course, Fletch has no recollection of nearly dying the day he was born. His earliest memories include sprawling fields, rolling around in the grass, playing tag with his older brothers and sister, their border collie Charlie barking as he chased his little human through the fields of green. One of his saddest memories was burying Charlie under the shade of the weeping willow in the backyard.

Fletcher grew up in Silverthorne, Colorado, but only because he didn’t have a choice in the matter. His father was a cattle and free-range chicken farmer. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it paid the bills. Of course, he wanted his sons to follow his footsteps, and that is the only reason Fletcher has any sort of idea how to ride a horse (somewhat), handle cattle (poorly), and shoot a gun (he only managed to handle a handful of coyotes this way, the rest he missed). It was about at twelve years old, Fletcher learned something about himself.

He didn’t really belong anywhere.

Not that Fletcher is property, and he was never treated as such. But he had no idea what he was doing, or if there was potential beyond the field of his parents’ farm in Silverthorne. He knew he didn’t belong there. At the best he’s just an extra hand to help on the farmland. It’s all he’s ever known.

At fourteen, Fletcher walks off the farm. Partially because as he’d know his entire life, his dad became more of a drunk who got nasty, and Fletcher really doesn’t have the patience for animal agriculture anymore. So, in an almost childish fit that he packs his duffel bag and just begins to walk off without looking back. Once he reached the bus station, Fletch’ hopped on a bus to head about 70 miles East to Denver. This just about destroyed his relationship with his father, who angrily told him that their house didn’t have a revolving door.

Jumping ship to head to the city life wasn’t a poorly planned escape. Fletcher did have a cousin six years older than him looking for a roommate to cover the rent in their apartment. It was the opportune moment for him to get out of the rural life and immerse himself in a busier, more exciting routine. Denver wasn’t New York City, but going from a town with a population of barely 4,500 to a city with 716,000 citizens was quite the difference. The change brought with it a feeling of refreshing hope. Just, at fourteen, Fletcher didn’t have any idea of what type of life he wanted to pursue. All he knew was home school Monday through Friday, feeding chickens and collecting eggs, bringing the cattle before sunset, and sitting on the porch and sharing a pint of whiskey with his brothers at the end of a long day.

Enrolling in public school was quite the experience, but Fletcher’s submissive behavior made it easy for him to just hide in the background to get through most days. While isolation isn’t great for anyone’s social life, it was decided that it was the best route while adapting to a faster-paced life – which he did diligently. He struggled with Cs, the occasional D, and even fewer B grades on his report card. He only ever received an A in gym class, but that never truly counted. He didn’t join after school activities and spent most of his time just reading comic books on the ground of the local bookstore.

At sixteen, Fletch’ made his first friend. The circle grew with three more people over the course of the following few months, and the summer before his junior year was less lonely than the one previously. It was then that Fletcher felt like he was fitting in. They weren’t his siblings, but somehow, he found he liked them more. They brought to him stories from around the country, for the girl who wasn’t in Denver her entire life and the boy who traveled to the Caribbean with his parents on holiday. They also brought excitement in late night adventures that involved getting drunk on the hiking trails on the city outskirts or filling up on fast food from the drive thru. Just before he turned seventeen in March of 2010, he experienced his first high school romance. It was fun and breath taking and about when Fletcher realized he’d never been happier that he walked off his parents’ farm just two years ago.

As Fletcher neared graduation, there was promise of all things good. He felt invincible, almost, until his partner presented to him a positive pregnancy test. It was a curve ball he wasn’t prepared for, and suddenly all those college applications meant nothing to him. After the initial shock, Fletcher was actually… excited. Just barely eighteen, and he was already going to start a family. It worked for his parents who had their first child around the same age, so why wouldn’t it be good news for him?

Graduation came and went, and Fletcher applied to pursue an associate degree at the community college of Denver. With mediocre grades and no attempt to apply for scholarships, it was his best bet. Things felt to be on track until he and his partner had a falling out. The reason being they admitted they weren’t ready to be a parent and admitted they scheduled for an abortion. He felt heartbroken, angry almost, and they fought due to his selfish need to tell them to cancel it. But in the end, Fletch’ knew it wasn’t his choice. The fight had lasting damage on their relationship and his high school sweetheart slipped through his fingers.

Newly single life was tough to adapt to, but it did come easy once the sting of rejection wore off. He didn’t become a playboy, per se, but he did enjoy the occasional hook-up and indulged in partying. After one year in community college, he dropped out and found himself lost on where he wanted to go with his life. With the settling thought of entering law enforcement, Fletcher began researching more in the emergency response field. Soon the idea of becoming a police officer turned into a firefighter, and then eventually he found he might be interested in becoming a paramedic. He tested this out by volunteering on the Denver Emergency Squad at nineteen while earning money as a dish washer at bar. By the following year he found inspiration to pursue becoming a paramedic. That plan was dashed when the weekend social outings became too much, and Fletcher was reported for showing up continuously to volunteer hung over and, as the document stated, ‘smelling of hard liquor’.

He didn’t have a problem with addiction, just an issue of being a little hedonistic and irresponsible. That was what he’d insist, anyway. With all the knowledge he had from his experience on the squad and the half-completed paramedic course, Fletcher moved on to use that knowledge to become…

A bartender.

It wasn’t the self-fulfilling route that would give him a purpose, but it did give him enough money to move out of his cousin’s apartment and get his own little studio. He was back at square one. Fletcher was useful, he told himself. The problem was he was only useful until someone else decided that he wasn’t and then he had to go. It annoyed him beyond limits. So, Fletcher kept searching. There was a restlessness over him, along with perhaps expectations that were too large. He couldn’t help himself with that, however.

So, he would wander, figuratively, until Fletcher could find what he was looking for. Sooner or later something had to feel right. Something had to eventually give him a purpose.

The Outbreak.

Except half a decade later, he realized he would never discover his life’s ‘meaning’. To be fair, he never was on track, but the outbreak definitely made it impossible.

Fletcher was in Las Vegas during the outbreak. He was there celebrating a bachelor party as one of the groomsmen of his best friend. What was supposed to be celebratory quickly turned into a nightmare as infection ran rampant across the nation. New stations broadcasted mind-blowing infection rates, and they only managed to make it to a motel outside of Vegas. Four out of five of them made it to bunker down there, but days became weeks. They ate through the vending machine supply of chips, and the nearby gas station’s shelves were cleared by them and other passerby alike just trying to find a bite to eat.

As their food source grew scarce, the four of them knew they needed to travel further to find supplies. The water was running, for now, but eventually they needed to eat more than energy bars. The nearest grocery store was a twenty-minute drive out. Fletcher stayed back to keep guard over their space as the other three headed out. He never expected that they’d return in a panic after they encountered the undead and one of them was bitten. As the fever overtook the one, the other two friends figured that with Fletcher’s experience as an EMT and knowledge from partially completing paramedic school gave him enough knowledge about what to do. Which… Fletcher did try. He bandaged the bite, tried his best to help, until he inevitably passed.

Panic took over that motel room as three of them began arguing. Over what, Fletcher doesn’t remember. It was during the yelling and panic that the dead friend rose, hungry and determined to feed. It, whatever it was, caught them off guard and managed to bite Fletcher’s best friend. They scrambled out of the room and locked the door behind them. When his best friend started to develop a fever, Fletcher and the last guy out of the group fled, leaving him behind to pass alone against the door of their motel room. Within a month it was down to just the two of them, and Fletcher already felt like soon it would be one.

Finding the Caravan.

Sometime in September what Fletcher feared happened. Only, he was the one alone. What was horrible about the incident was that it wasn’t even the undead that got ahold of his buddy. It was stress, exhaustion and fear that ate them alive, and it was after scouting the woods that Fletcher found the body with a splatter of coagulating blood against the wall. He would have thrown up, or at least dry-heaved considering his stomach was nearly empty, if not for the fact he’d seen a similar scene when on call many years before. Despite that, the chill and fear of loneliness set in instantly, sending a shiver up his spine. His fingers trembled while he collected the gun from their hand, and then collected their bags to leave. The gunshot would attract any zombies that could hear it, and he guessed he didn’t have much time to hang around.

The car died a couple hours on the road with the gas tank begging to be filled. Unfortunately, Fletcher didn’t have any fuel on hand, so he set out on foot. For several days, he walked at sunrise, stopped at sunset and set up camp if he didn’t find structured shelter. He lost count of the days he’d been alone before he stumbled upon the group of survivors. It was scary knowing many were ready to kill for supplies, but with barely anything on him Fletcher approached, hands up to show he was unarmed and desperation in his eyes. He needed a stroke of luck after all that happened, and as all began to feel hopeless, he was handed this chance.

Fletcher was able to offer his limited medical expertise as compensation, as well as an able body to do any physical work. Despite not being proficient in all forms of medical aid it was better than nothing. Since joining, he had kept to himself, conversing as needed and just watching. Sometimes, his mind would go back to Colorado and his parents farm when he wished for more adventure and excitement. Then sometimes, he’d find himself cynically thinking about how whatever higher being had a cruel sense of humor to have given him just that.

positive personality traits: protective, good natured, intuitive, observant

negative personality traits: skittish, compulsive, indulgent, melancholic

played by Xan, Them/Them

#logan lerman #rp #rpg #roleplay #new rp #remnantsmed

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brunhiddensmusings · 5 years ago

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What about Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? I love that movie because it's such a wild ride (Satanists! Secret brothers! Secret mothers! And cancel Christmas!) but I distinctly remember a LOT of sutff that could probably make a historian scream. Also, how about The Eagle and/or The Last Legion, if you watched either of them?

engaging requested historical movie based rant in 3,2,1 okay, that movie is a beautiful MESS and its hard to pick somewhere to start partially as i cant decide to criticize it against the history of the period its supposed to be or as an adaptation of the legend, both of which it varries wildly as i could talk about how inconsistent it was about who robin hood was or what the merry men were about, chiefly that the concept that robin hood gave what he stole to the poor didnt arise untill about the late 1600s when people dressing up as robin hood and crew to recreate his stories became essentially the precursor to the renesance faire where such events would draw wealthy spectators who would then ‘pay tribute’ to robin hood who would then use that money to buy drinks for all the players eg ‘the poor’ as a compensation for the performance but no, i cant reasonably get too mad at that because its not widely enough known to actually expect people who make movies to know, id be more mad about how they insisted on making robin meet all his merry men as the movie goes on meaning none of them have more then a few days of backstory, and even more mad they insist on making all the non-named merry men illiterate morons, and more mad that they decided to amazingly actually include will scarlet but not have him do anything of note other then the drama about being a brother, and beyond that the part that actually gets me mad is you included will scarlet but not alan adale? thats a baffling missed opportunity considering you put the effort into making it an actual crew and not five guys in the woods, why the fuck not have a minstrel prancing around? the freaking disney furry one got that part better then you did and he didnt even interact with the main cast! i will give a few honorable praises to this movie though as friar tuck is possibly the most accurate friar tuck in any movie ive seen so far considering in the legends the first thing he does when he meets robin is put on a helmet and scream ‘have at ye’ while charging with his sword cause the friar is down to brawl with anyone at anytime. also his first appearance in the movie hes singing a rendition of bacce benne, the oldest known drinking song we know both the lyrics and tune of, which at the time would have been how tavernkeepers knew you were still sober enough to give another round to the irony of that statement being robin hood was largely circulated as drinking songs in taverns, and a medieval man replied to an accusation of him being stupid by saying ‘nah mate, i know all 70+ verses of the song of robin hood’ much like someone today would say ‘nah mate ive seen every episode of the simpsons up till season 12′ to prove he was up to current events i could get mad that everyone and everything is brown brown BROWN, nothing but rags for clothing half the time and the houses look like they congealed out of mud thats afraid of windows, but ive grown to accept that kind of garbage aesthetic choices that are somehow inferior to monty python and the holy grail depicting how people dressed. i also cant be mad about how they portrayed the sherrif, despite at the time a sherrif would have been a shire reeve or sherriv which the whole point of him being in the story is that hes more or less a corrupt union rep who is technically supposed to be the one the villagers rely on to relay their complaints and demands to the local lord but is instead a crony of the nobility appointed to a position that hes supposed to be elected to by his peers.... but to be fair it would make the story hard to process in a movie if sherrif wasnt sherrif. no, what im going to get the most mad about is their batshit crazy satanist witch i know witches (two kinds), i know satanists (two kinds), i know medieval society, and none of the above would for a minute agree with any of how the freaky ass nutbag making eyeball soup worked in t his movie. holy shit, you just threw whatever you wanted at a wall to see what stuck didnt you, the upside down cross is a common image in actual catholocism its literally everywhere at the vatacin and would have been as offensive to a medieval person as a beetroot, the medieval peasantry wouldnt even have been very putoff by witches as for the most part a witch was either your aunt or your chief source of medical coverage or both so you usually gave a ‘witch’ respect and bought your beer from her at reasonable rates. literally the only thing of the witch scene that is at all related to anything sane is the blood runes, which also make no sense as the runestones involved are norse but the practice of blood shouldnt be even known about by a witch in Essex, if you had wanted to imply how evil the badguys were in the movie theres better ways to do it in fact you already did that without agnes nutters more insane cousin arranging sticks in blair witch, if you wanted to imply fortune telling or magic was at their disposal theres about a dozen better ways to have done that too

yall just raided Elviras prop department when she wasnt looking didnt ya

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sepiadice · 5 years ago

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DiceJar 0 END: what could have been...

Being completed ghosted for a scheduled session once again, I suppose I should finally face the facts and call the campaign. Which is, of course, very disappointing.

Let’s review the experiments I attempted in this campaign.

Experiment 1: Using a published module/adventure.[1]

I thought I might gain some valuable insight by analyzing a ‘professional’ product. By using an adventure I’d previously played myself, I’d hoped my experiences would smooth out my figuring out how to run it. Eventually, I learned the value of bullet pointed action plans, because the formatting of Crypt of the Everflame was not good for skimming, as vital information was hidden in the middle of information texts so I’d miss it during the game if I didn’t make sure to call, say, dice roll mechanics for going down a slippery hillside. It also meant I could look ahead and edit out rooms and mechanics that didn’t move the story of dungeon.

So, this experiment was technically a success, even if the lesson I took away was ‘modules don’t work well with my improv style, but provides inspiration sometimes.’ More on that later.

Experiment 2: Get a group to meet regularly.

So I’ve been wanting to do an actual play show since… well, before Critical Role and The Adventure Zone made it cool. For that, I need players willing to collaborate and also respect call time. As you can easily conclude from the time stamps, I couldn’t manage that, even when a freaking pandemic swept in and made being home for online sessions theoretically easier![2] Admittedly, my work schedule is not exactly ideal, as my Saturdays are permanently called for, and my Sundays are a wild ride of inconsistency, while my peers are moving to more conventional work life.

So, the experiment failed, and to a degree that I doubt a career or just schedule change would help. I did learn that a biweekly schedule works well for me, since I can spend the off week on planning, and still have time for my pre- and post-performance need to separate thoroughly and enter a neutral state.[3]

Experiment 3: Finish a dang narrative arc.

Ha ha. This also failed! Couldn’t get to the end of the dungeon. Welp.

Other lessons learned

I don’t online play well! Just get distracted by other internet tabs. It’s not as bad when I GM, since the stress of running the game keeps me more focused, but both the Curse of Strahd campaign I quietly quit[4] and IndigoDie’s Troika session[5] showed that I’m a garbage player online. Possibly an adoption of webcams and faces would assist, but I can’t ask for that.

People still hard! Still haven’t figured out how to get anyone invested. Can’t really be upset at the silent cancellations because I’m technically doing that with Curse of Strahd, and thus would be a hypocrite.

What was planned!

It’s only fair I give some amount of closure.

Session three ended with Bean dying, and there wasn’t a narratively consistent way to introduce a new party member…

Well, I guess if NavyDie consented to playing a bandit, or rewriting the scared dungeon prepper the party skipped…

What I decided was thus:

Bean's eyes open. The sharp pain of the punctures and tears, and the slow ache of liquid passing through those openings are gone, as is much of the world's color. The torches and other sources of light shine blue.

His companions are gathered around him, their mouths moving as if speaking, but Bean hears nothing.

For some reason, Bean feels at peace with this. This is correct.

Footsteps echo from the stairs, growing louder. A figure emerges from the floor below. When it enters the light, at first it is blurry, like many images projected upon the same space. Within the time that Bean's now still heart would have beat, the many silhouettes fade, leaving one form: Bean's father, though not the frail man Bean saw before he left Kassen, nor how bean's father looked before he was ravaged by illness, but the impossibly tall, strong, noble figure that Bean remembers his father being.

Though this man's smile has none of the warmth, and his eyes glow with an eldritch light.

"Seems you've come to some misfortune, Bernard Dipp," says this Mr. Dipp-who-is-not-Bean's-father. "Would you like some help with that?"

This mysterious fiend would become Bean’s patron for a level of Warlock, and ride around his head for the foreseeable future, threatening death if Bean didn’t do as ordered. You know, an excuse for Bean to continue adventuring instead of taking over the family farm.

As for where this fiend came from… well, I easily adapted that into the dungeon’s lore.

Kassen, whose visage is all over the crypt, is not the only one entombed within. There are also those who perished alongside him during his final battle, as well as those who perished facing him in the final battle. This includes Asar, who once adventured with Kassen until the two became bitter enemies or whatever, ending when Asar lead the charge against Kassen.

Anyways, an amount of time ago, bandits stumbled upon Kassen’s Crypt and started looting, and disturbed the coffins, looting a pair of medallions.

Here’s my adjustment: the medallions are now artifacts sealing away a fiend, and reuniting them freed him, whose presence radiated enough necromantic energies and roused Asar, who was deeply offended to be interred in a shrine to his enemy. Stupid, egotistical Kassen. Let’s channel this necromantic magic laying away and get some skeletal minions and kill those who bother me.

Which wasn’t great for the bandits, then later the advance party from Kassen, sent to make the trial safe for the youths. Blood was spilled. It wasn’t great.

Then our heroes arrived, and (hypothetically) resolved matters. Kassen’s ghost would then appear, thank the party, probably convey embarrassment at how the place is decorated, and grant boons to the party[6] before sending them on their way with a lit lantern.

Back in town, a grand celebration would turn somber as word of what happened in the tomb occurred, by it would be mixed and a feast would still be held.

The module ends with someone inviting the party to join the Pathfinder Society, but I’d cut that.

As for the fiend? Well, he’s transferred his tether from the amulets to Bean, so now he can ride the boy to wherever.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything particularly exciting planned for the others, as Bean was the only one who I got the opportunity to saddle with a commitment.

IndigoDie quit anyways.

Delilah I could motivate with eagerness to be free of her parents.

Yot… is a mercenary, so maybe Delilah could’ve paid him.

I could’ve figured something out if the players insisted on continuing with their characters. That would’ve been a discussion for after the module was completed.[7]

Moving forward!

So DiceJar waits evermore. I don’t want to admit that it’s an implausible goal, but I’m not in a great headspace about it. I still crave role-playing, but I think I’ll wait for someone to start their own campaign, or I guess see if I get a turn-over of my friend group.

NavyDie mentioned wanting to try a Powered by the Apocalypse system, and it’s only fair I actually try the mechanics before completely writing the rule set off.[8]

The next experiments I want to run when I return to behind the GM screen relates to system: Savage Worlds (once the most recent edition is back in print) as I search for a generic system that fits my needs, and Ryuutama, because Ryuutama just looks fun.

But… I don’t know what to do from here.

Until next time, may your dice (and whatever dice governs me) make things interesting.

[1] The correct terminology isa matter of pointless debate. [2] Charisma and Constitution are obviously my dumb stats. [3] Not sure my meaning is conveyed correctly. I’ll probably nail it down in a future write-up. [4] The group was too large, and after IndigoDie quit there were insufficient participants I knew and was comfortable performing with. [5] Which didn’t get a write-up because I didn’t have anything of substance to say. [6] Which, in the original Pathfinder, was something the each player can evoke for a temporary stat bonus, but in 5e I was going to change to a free Inspiration recharge. [7] Though I would not send them to Last Wall. It would’ve been time for me to spin off to my own stuff, and Last Wall… is not something that needs to be repeated. [8] I’ve never heard an Actual Play where Powered by the Apocalypse wasn’t either a hindrance or irrelevant.

#SepiaDieGMs #crypt of the everflame #Dungeons and Dragons #Fifth Edition #NavyDice #IndigoDice #limedice #VermillionDice

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geekygoddesss · 6 years ago

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Broken Codes (Part 2)

Summary: (Y/n) had a crush on Michael, but for her luck, her best friend did too.

Pairing: Ashton Irwin/Reader/Michael Clifford

Words: 7k

Sometimes I feel like there could be a small possibility I might be actually insane.

You could either be with me on this thought or against me, but in my own honest opinion, I think it would be way too easy for me right now to actually go insane pretty soon and, sew me, I don’t think it would be totally impossible for me to finish the week with a fried brain and possible psychosis. It would make total sense, more than anyone would imagine.

I have a lot of time to think about it on the way to the hotel, I think I have some solid conclusions from this single theory and after about an hour and a half of riding alone in a van full of strangers and only one friend, I had a lot of time to reflect on this and basing myself on pure facts and I can conclude that this might be the most chaotic weeks of my life.

There is just a bunch of facts for me to be aware of and that would easily help me on messing with my head while I was dealing with this kind of situation and just to name a few, I could conclude that:

I obsess

I am a perfectionist

I often imagine all of the possibilities that could happen from a small outcome.

I make movies in head

and the worst thing of it all, I get jealous and I envy people, which now came to be my best friend and it was wrong to envy or get jealous of someone like her, but here I was and I couldn’t seem to get a hold of myself.

If I didn’t have all the cards to be a psychopath I didn’t know what I had, and now I knew, this could easily play me in the course of the week, because just the tiniest slip could cost me a lot more than just a misunderstanding.

In the whole way to that hotel, I couldn’t help but ask myself a bunch of questions.

What am I going to do when I actually have to face him?

How am I going to act?

What am I going to say?

Am I going to lie to Crystal?

Should I be completely honest with her?

Does Crystal even like him at all?

Should I tell her how I feel?

Should I tell him how I feel?

There are a million questions I wish I could have answered, but before I could even think of a good (and realistic) solution to any of my problems or at least just a patch up so I would not fuck up badly in my “perfect” vacation, we were already pulling over at the front of our hotel and everyone around me starts moving eagerly to get out of the car, I was shaken out of my little trance and basically dragged out of the car, because here is where my vacation really begins.

Correction, here is where my possible chaos begins.

Out of everything that was happening and all of the pressure I was feeling right now, I had to admit, this place was not bad at all, In fact, Crystal was right, I would love it because so far I have just seen the lobby and I am already in love, this looks like an entrance to heaven and I was eager to finally get to see what was inside, but I guess good things took it’s time because even when I would have loved to take a quick walk around the hotel right after I walked in, I still had to wait for our rooms to be set up so I had no other option than to suit myself and sit down somewhere because seeing how much people was with us, this was going to take a while.

Everyone here seems to know what to do the moment we get to reception, except for me because I am instantly pulled back from the line in front of the counter by the same person who brought me here and technically forced to sit down along in the set of furniture right behind us, like a child, she had some kind of set up for me already planned and I don’t know why and whatever it was, apparently she didn’t want me to spy on it, even when this concerned me a lot.

But I don’t fight with her, because I know how this goes, fighting or arguing with Crystal was always a lost cause, if you wanted to win or went against her because she would always find a way to be right. It was not that much of a big deal anyways, so I just limit myself to sit back and wait, whatever she had in mind was already planned and I guess I was supposed to not put my nose in any of those deals.

I make myself comfortable on the soft sofa, it was like my body was quickly adapting to it and while the minutes passed, I could have sworn my eyelids would be heavier by the second, because the place I was sitting in was soft and warm and I was really tired, I would not have minded taking a nap in there but I had to stay awake, just in case something went wrong, you never know.

I try to do my best to distract myself with everything going around me in order to not fall asleep. I try everything. I look at the fish tank in front of me and try to admire those exotic animals I have never seen before, I look around me and all of the decorations and nature going about the place, I look at the people with us and try my best to remember where and when I have seen them in the past and if I ever talked to them for one reason or another but most of them were new to me and it was impossible to remember something. But even when there was so much going around me and a lot to think about, I could stop laying my eyes in what I least wanted to see, them.

They were hugging while waiting for their turn, kissing, whispering in each other's ear, laughing, touching, being disgustingly romantic. I hate it.

and I hate myself for being such a snoop, but it’s like my eyes are glued to them, but more specifically, him, I just can’t take my eyes off him. I can’t ever just stop thinking about him, he is just so perfect and I am just so lame.

I am lame for not stepping up about my feelings when I could, I am lame for not introducing myself to him first and I am letting for letting this happen. That should be me right there not her.

I wish she knew why I felt this way, I wish she knew I feel like this.

Maybe for some people, it would seem stupid but I think in my head it made a lot of sense. In one way I feel like he’s been custom made for me and he is now being placed in my way for a reason, but I see that reason has been taking away because my best friend has now her hands all over him.

I never got a real chance to prove myself and now I won’t ever have it. It is not fair.

I just can’t stop staring at them and I can’t help myself to not get jealous, because I really am. My blood boils when I see her lean on him as they wait and I almost want to scream when I see her lay her hand casually on his back pocket, because that is something I just wished I could do in her place, such an intimate and innocent thing to do and she stole it from me. That should be me.

Time flies, I think, because I can see the light changing around me and somehow I feel like it’s just been a couple seconds, everything is happening too fast. I am too immersed in my own head.

“Miss (Y/n)” I hear a voice calling my name in a dreamy tone, cutting me out of my trance “Lady” She sings again, walking out of the line and looking over all the place to find my face, the instant we make eye contact she is already waving at me “There you are! Come, come”

Of course, I have to mentally slap myself to just wake up from whatever that was and go up to her, my energies were really low and were starting to wear me down to the point my head was starting to create crazy weird thoughts that seemed so unlike me. I couldn’t wait to sleep for a little bit.

I stand on my feet and walk on her direction, trying my very best to make my eyes open enough to seem awake and take away all the negative thoughts from my mind, right now every opinion or possible comment about her and her romantic life had to be canceled and not coming out of my mouth under any circumstances. I was a goddamn grave right now. “Yes” I say, giving her a small smile as I stand right at her front and try my best to act natural. “We’re checked in” she announces, making a little weird dance with her shoulders, almost acting like if it was some kind of celebration dance for finally taking one more step into vacation land.

Oh my Crystal, always so positive and happy. Why can’t I be that? “Nice!” I try to celebrate too but accidentally letting out exaggerated tone out of my mouth. She nods, looking at me a little weird at the sudden change in m voice. She does not make any kind of comment though, she knows what’s going on, I am way too tired, so without any further or do, she shows me the key cards resting in her hands like a deck of cards and pulling one from the bunch she announces. “You’re in 331, I am in 339”

I am in what and she is in what?

I was definitely not expecting this and it felt completely wrong, I was not liking this so much.

“Oh” I say a little awkwardly, taking the card from her but not being too sure of it “We’re not sharing rooms?” I ask awkwardly, a frown showing on my forehead “Who am I sharing rooms with?” I say looking up at her instantly.

I can now confirm I do not like this at all, because she is now smiling at me and shrugging like if she really had no idea who I am sharing rooms with and here is why, because I am not sharing rooms with anyone, she broke one of the deals we had when I agreed on coming on this trip and now I am embarrassed. I was supposed to pay for something and now I am not, this is embarrassing.

“Crys!” I exclaim, my foot stamping on the floor in annoyance. “What?!” she asked in the same tone, except for the slight difference that she is laughing “I’m staying with Michael, you know that” she argues. “Yeah but this feels wrong, you’re paying me a room? That’s a lot” I say, pure stress was starting to show on my face and my cheeks going pink as I spoke.

I love her so much but I don't (and will never) like her spending this much money on me like this, it was generous of her but it felt wrong, I could perfectly pay for myself and she isn’t letting me. I felt like a load on her back. “I’ve told you this before and I tell you this now. Relax” She said, laying both hands on my shoulders and squeezing them a little.

“I can’t” I argue, shaking my head as I looked down at the card in my hands. I felt bad.

“Don’t worry about it” she assures me, showing me one big and true smile. “Let me pay you back” I insist, now whispering before someone decided to eavesdrop on how my friend was not letting me pay for my own deals. She is immediately shaking her head “Not happening” “At least half of it” I groan. “I’ve got it covered!” she exclaims waving it all off and being done with this argument instantly “It’s done, just, go in there and change, we’re going out” she says as an order, taking a step back and giving me a choice, stay on a pointless argument or follow her order. “Crystal” I whine, pressing my fingers against my forehead. I felt like I could possibly have a headache. “(Y/n)” she whines too, taking a step towards me and putting both hands back on my shoulder “you deserve it” she says in a soft voice “you work so much, you make a real effort to make everyone happy, you have done so much for me and you never get a break, this is my way to pay you back, relax about it” she assures me, leaning in to kiss on my temple.

I wish I could argue with that and I did not want to be arrogant about it but there was some truth on her words, I force myself too much, I try to do as much as I can for the people who are currently in my life and I never really get real time to enjoy myself, this was her way to tell me I had a real chance to give my mind a break after what felt like forever, and even when I didn’t entirely like the fact she was covering up all of my vacations, I was grateful for her and I would make sure to pay her back eventually in any way I could.

I just try to give her a smile even when my face showed pure discomfort and went in to give her a big hug as my way to say thank you, because just words weren’t enough, especially when my feelings about her were so mixed right now, I want to make sure that the moment I say it out loud I meant it with my heart. She deserves nothing else.

She takes in my hug and the moment we break it. She goes on to show me another card, the one with a big 331 on it that meant she had my copy.

“I’ll take this with me” she announced, saving it on her back pocket.

Now she manages to get a laugh out of me, I raise an eyebrow “I’m not a kid, you know?” I say rolling my eyes “You don’t need to go and check on me, I’ll be fine” I assure her. “Oh well, someone needs to make sure you’re not doing what I told you not to do, so yes I need this key” she said with a proud voice “to be fair, here’s my copy, but you know just...” she tries to explain, giving me a bit of a silence before saying “be careful”

Believe me, I got the message loud and clear. There is nothing I would rather see less than that in life and I would make sure to never step into that scene.

“Got that” I nod, taking her key and stacking it in with mine.

There’s a little cheer yell coming from inside of her the instant I take her key in my hands, I wish I knew where that is coming from because right after that she is throwing herself at me and pressing me in a breathtaking hug for the fifth time today.

“It’s going to be so fun” she cheers, jumping in excitement as she took a step back.

I was not going to lie, seeing all of the things they had laid off in the table to start of this vacation, I had to say this was all looking really promising and I really wanted to see what they had in mind.

So we were going out on our first night in Bali and I won’t take out the possibility on this being a night to remember (or maybe one I’d want to forget if I took the wrong steps).

“Do I have some time to sleep or are you going to...?” Go now. I motion with my hands, trying my best to not cut down on her excitement but I was feeling so tired, I could pass out at any second.

“Oh yeah, go rest” she says, not even thinking it through twice, the second she gives me the green light I am already walking back to grab my stuff, but she stops me, grabs my wrist before I could take one more step and asks “you have a dress right?” She says in a suspicious tone, I shake my head no “Something cute at least?” I shake my head again.

I packed for vacation, not for a wedding or whatever, I don’t do dresses for parties and all that.

She nods in understanding and stops a second to think about, to what I guess she lands on a quick solution, because right after that she is pointing at me and saying “I’ll be in your room in two and you better be awake” she says almost in a warning and walking backward on the opposite direction.

“Rude” I chuckle, rolling my eyes at ever answer.

She gasps in fake office “Not rude” she says, still walking back. She raises both arms in the Sri dramatically and exclaims “Fun!” She says, turning her back on me before announcing “I’ll text you”

I nodded “Fine” I said, loud enough for her to hear me “See you around, I guess” I mumbled watching her walk away and back to her perfect little boyfriend.

Well… I guess this is it. Perfect vacation with my best friend and her new boyfriend, my crush. It officially begins now and I hate to admit I am not ready, I am going to spend the next two weeks of my life watching the guy I like the most loving on my best friend and I could do nothing about it, all I could do is suit myself and watch, It did not matter how much I tried to get myself mentally prepared for this back at home, the real deal was here now and I am not anywhere close to ready, I still feel just as bad about it as before.

Now I have a full room for myself and two hours to get myself ready, because tonight, I am meaning to get as drunk as never before.

_____________

This party is a total joke. At least for me it is, because it has been already three hours and all I have done is switch between dancing alone and sit by myself at our table, waiting for someone to talk to me or invite me into a group, but ever since I walked in here, I was nothing for an outcast, waiting to be noticed, a total fucking joke.

I tried, I tried way to hard to integrate myself in this group of strangers and loosen up, have fun, make friends, start this vacation with the right foot, but even when I put a real effort on becoming one more person in their group, It did not seem to matter one bit, because I was being ignored by everyone, including my best friend. This is the worst party I have ever been in. Period.

This looked like if my biggest struggle in life have finally materialized into one big party and was being mashed together along with the fact that the boy I loved was dancing with someone else, touching her, Kissing her... all of the things I wished for the most, while at the same time, I was being ignored by everyone and being left alone when I was supposed to be having fun and making friends, I can’t even make friends at all, I am an introverted outcast.

This sucks.

The whole night goes on the same way, I take a shot, go dancing, take another shot, sit down hoping for someone to talk to me, order a drink, and this goes on for a couple more times, but even alcohol seemed to be failing me tonight, because out of the three drinks I have had so far, I feel almost as sober as I was when I came in here and that was just defeating my first real purpose of the night, getting so drunk I could wipe out this night out of my mind and I was failing completely. What is happening to me?.

By the time I order my fourth drink I decide I’ve had enough for tonight and it would be better not only to me but for everyone If I just go away, so that’s what I do. Right when the clock hits 2 in the morning, I slide a liquor bottle under my arm (the first one I find in front of me), make sure Crystal is not anywhere near me and go out through the backdoor, making myself invisible and disappearing from their party. I would make sure to have fun on my own if I could not have fun at a normal party.

Hopefully, my night would turn out a lot better than it was now.

At first, I just have no idea where to go, this place is really big and finding the right path to go seemed a little difficult, but I just follow my instinct and go through what seemed right to me.

Right now in my current state of mind, it almost seemed like deciding where to get drunk for the night was the most crucial decision of my life and at the moment, I prioritize what seemed to matter the most in my life, getting drunk was the first thing on that list.

I think of every place possible where It would be allowed for me to get drunk by myself with no one noticing me or judging me from afar, but only a few made the list and most of them didn’t make the cut as I thought about it. At the beach, it would make a great plan but it would probably be too dangerous, seeing that I was alone and I didn’t know who wandered around this place so late at night. If I went to my room, I was risking the fact that Crystal stepped in and caught me totally drunk and saying stupid things that could risk this trip.

So while I thought of new places to achieve my ultimate goal and quickly took them out of my list of options, I found myself in the very entrance of the hotel, alone and lost, not knowing where to go and disappointed, even at such an easy thing like getting drunk, I was failing.

I take the elevator. Think about some other option I had, but go blank as soon as the door closes, so I just press the number 3 and forget about whatever plan I had. I failed.

Good thing that this was apparently the fastest elevator ever because it just takes a couple of seconds before the doors are opening in the third floor and I step out of the elevator, committed to get to my room and have a good sleep.

I take my time, take every step and look at every detail in the room as I walk up to my door, because even the hallways of this place were a work of art and I couldn’t just walk past them without taking a good look, everything was so beautifully decorated, it was worth taking a look at.

I look at every painting, ornament, picture on the wall and detailed that it’s placed on this place, and for one reason or another, it’s at this point in the night where I realize I am not completely sober at all and I have just walked my way through the whole hallway without realizing it at all.

I find myself stepping in front of an enormous door, it is giant and oddly enough, I recognize it, because it is not strange to me at all, I have been here before, just a couple of hours ago and I know what is inside, I know I can get in because this is supposed to be a launch reserved for our whole group to hang out whenever we wanted, it was the perfect place, everyone else was on that party, I was the only one out, this is the perfect place to get drunk.

So I get in, as easy as that. Nothing could stop me now, I am going to get drunk out of my mind.

My first thought when stepping in is that I guess everyone else has already been here because I can spot a couple liquor bottles and used glasses around the place, so I was not the only one stepping in this room for the first time. It was obvious though, I don’t know why that catches my attention so much.

It’s a beautiful place though, the whole room is full of decorations themed with tropical ornaments and sea-related things everywhere. The room is just gigantic, with every step I take I feel smaller, every time I look somewhere I spot a new decoration and a new space in the room and I love it more and more every time, this looked just like the kind of place I’d love to get drunk in and I will, because if a party does not work for me, maybe the little mermaid themed room will.

I sit on the giant sofa in the middle of the room, open my bottle and take a drink directly from it not caring at all about how unhygienic it might be, I just wanted one thing I would get to it one way or another. I don’t know exactly what it is, the moment it goes down my throat I can feel it burning and causing some kind of effect on me, it might be vodka or maybe white rum, I can’t tell at all, the label is on another language and I have no idea what I am putting in my body, but I don’t care as long as it does its job I am fine.

I turn around, noticing a sudden cold brisk hitting my body, strangely unexpected and not usual at all. To my surprise, there is a balcony right behind me, it was far behind and I had absolutely no idea it was there, the door was open and through the glass I could catch a glimpse of a beautiful looking beach right there, and to that I just think, this is such a good place for me to get drunk, I could not ask for more right now.

I get up from my place and carrying with me the bottle I brought here, I go outside suddenly wishing to enjoy the view as I let myself sink in all of my crazy thoughts, hopefully, drown in all of them, until I had enough and forget something, maybe enough for me to act like a normal being for the rest of the trip.

With every step I take I confirm that this might be one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen and as I get closer to the window, I could see everything, the ocean, the beach, the nature of Island at its fullest, it was just a work of art and I seemed to be more and more attracted to it as I keep looking, until I am right in front of that door and totally hypnotized by this view.

Beautiful, Beautiful Bali.

I almost drop the bottle the second I see a shadow right next to me and it takes me one solid second and a bit of a heart attack to know that (sadly) I am not alone, there is someone else here and apparently had the same plan as me, first. This is awkward.

I look at the other person here in the balcony, it’s a face I don’t recognize at all but I know it's part of the group that came with us, looks like someone who would relate to that group. It’s a guy, an older guy, older than me and possibly older than some of the other guys that were with us; his hair is short and light brown, his skin white, his expression serious and his clothing a little more formal than to be just casual, he must have been in the party with us a while back, but he isn’t anymore, he is just here sitting all alone in the cold of the night. Exactly my plan.

“Hi” I say when I catch a glimpse of his face, making myself noticeable and stepping in the balcony completely. The cold brisk instantly hits on my body, making me shake slightly.

He turns to me, his expression just as serious as it was before and not looking surprised or having a reaction at all, he does not even say hi, it was like he was just blank, he didn’t care about who was in or out, he looked like he just wanted some time alone to think.

Well maybe we could be alone together if that was the case, I needed some time to think to and this looked like a good place.

“and I thought I was the only one who doesn’t feel like partying” I try to say, now standing up straight and doing my best to cover myself from the air hitting my arms “It’s chilly, isn’t it?” I said, walking forward and taking a good look at the ocean in front of me.

It was like I could see the whole beach in front of me, it was beautiful.

“Feels Fine for me” he shrugged in a monotone voice, drinking from the bottle on his hand, I didn’t notice that was there.

I nod, trying my best to catch some warmth from my one body heat and I took a good second to stare at the ocean, it was truly breathtaking, I can see why Crystal likes this place so much.

I lean in the edge of that balcony, once again getting totally hypnotized by the motion of the option and pacific sounds from around, this was truly one of the most beautiful views ever.

“Do I know you?” He asked talking directly to me and completely cutting mine out of my small trance.

I shake my head “I don’t think so” I say, turning to him and giving him a small smile at his lack of emotion, maybe if he couldn’t show up some kind of sympathy, I could do it for him, it might encourage him to do the same. “seems like we had the same idea, though” I say, raising the bottle in my hand and walking up to him, he is looking up at me but not saying a thing, I take a step closer and point to the empty chair by his side “Is this taken?” He looks unsure to what he should say for a small second, looks down at the empty spot beside him and then back at me, his neutral face not leaving his face at any time.

He shrugs, makes a sign for me to suit myself and says “All yours” I smile to him, pulling the chair a little closer to me and mumbling a small “Thanks” as I sat down.

There is a deep silence falling in between us, one that seems natural but also kind of tense, I just hope I was not interrupting anything because, by the look of his face, he seemed to be a little stressed and not wishing for any kind of company. I understand, in a way.

I try my hardest to just pretend that I am alone, but something inside of me is tickling and I feel the need to say something, I haven't talked to a single person tonight and now that someone is here with me, I feel like this is my chance to step up and make at least one friend. He looked like he was completely serious and almost mad, but I think, maybe it’s just his face, It would not be too bad to just start a conversation.

I take a drink, woman up and do it. “People would think because it’s Bali it’d be all hot and stuff” I say awkwardly, looking at him with a small smile and leaning back in my sit “What brings you here? You’re all alone”

He nods, not really answering me at first and letting a big sigh off his lips “Yeah Uh” he hawks, turning to me to face me directly for the first time “I don’t mind you sitting there, but we don’t need to establish a conversation” he explains, that monotone voice now becoming permanent on him.

I blink “Excuse me?” “Talking” he simply says, making a motion with his hands, like he was explaining himself to a little kind “not my thing”

I frown. Now I see why he was totally alone and I think just by instinct and connecting a few dots I can easily figure who he is and why he is here.

I mean, he seems to me the grumpy and moody guy in the group. Just the description I got from the guy who didn’t have enough patience to wait one more hour in an airport.

“Okay” I nod, giving him some space “Fine” I mumble to myself.

I guess I’ll have to pretend to be alone until one of us decided to leave.

I don’t care though because I seemed easily trapped in the beauty that goes around me, I can't help to be immersed in all these and with that, I slowly go back in my own sea of thoughts, remembering moments, thinking about the future, what this whole experience would look like for me, making you crazy theories. Just the kind of things I was hoping to go in as I slowly drank from my poison, this was fun.

I keep myself around those crazy thoughts as I look at my surroundings and let my body relax, but like everything I do in life, I seemed to be interrupted, because just when I reach my maximum point of relaxation, I heard something familiar to my ears that brings me back to reality.

A laugh. I know that laugh, it is right in front of me.

“Oh no” I course under my breath, getting up from my sit and stepping more into the edge of that balcony. My theory is confirmed just after taking a simply look. “Fuck me”

Right there before my eyes, I was witnessing the most romantic and Gross scene I could picture in my mind, because there was Crystal and his new boyfriend, running out the beach and chasing each other, trying to get a hold of one another to then kiss. Just so beautiful and romantic, lucky bastards.

“What?” I heard that guy asking from behind me, totally seeing weirded out by my sudden behaviour.

He could back off, this is none of his damn business.

I wish I could just keep this as a pure mister and let him think I am just this awkward, but you don’t need to be a mind reader to know why I am acting this way, because the moment he looks the same way I am looking, he knows what caught my sight, he only needs to connect a few dots.

“Crystal And Michael?” He asks, looking up at me.

“Hmm” I mumble, wanting to keep it quiet but knowing that he will probably wonder why I am acting this way.

“Okay...” He says awkwardly, getting up from his place to take a good look at what was in front of me.

I just hoped this was not giving me as much of a bad image as I was expecting. “They look happy” I mumble, leaning over the edge of that balcony and resting my chin on top of my hand.

I watch Michael as he chases Crystal and catches her in his arms, lifts her off her feet and throws her body over his shoulder as she yells. Adorable. I can’t help but groan at their cuteness.

I am too drunk to pretend to be okay with it anyway.

“I’m sensing you have a problem with that” He says, taking a big drink of his bottle “You are Crystal’s friend, right?” he asks me, in a poor attention to catch my attention, but I just nod in answer “And you like Michael?” he asks, but it is more like a statement, my head directly snaps at his direction when he says those words and totally betray myself. He gives me a dry laugh at my foolishness “Wow” he says, shaking his head at his new discovery.

I want to wipe this out, this is supposed to be a secret, so the moment he starts making assumptions for himself, I am instantly shaking my head and saying. “No I don’t” as I look away from the scene, this has been enough to look at for the night.

“Yeah, uh huh, Miss obvious” he says, a cocky tone in his voice “Okay, then if you don’t like it, then I am just going to assume you look at every couple like that”

I gasp, wanting to fight him, but I can’t find anything good enough to say, so I just give up and let my face naturally scrunch up with annoyance.

He has a smile on his face that makes me want to punch him.

“Don’t look at me like that” I groan, moving to take my previous sit “It’s not something I’m proud of” I admit, looking down at the bottle in my hands “You’re Michael’s friend?” I ask, just as a basic question to know who I am opening up to.

“Yeah” he nods, moving on his feet to get just a little closer to me “known him for a while” I look at him shortly, my face heating up in the process as I look down again and mumble a soft “Nice” even though I don’t mean it.

He moves up to the seat beside me.

“Since when do you like Michael?” He asks me, making himself comfortable.

Wow, if he was not a snoop I don’t know what that was.

“That’s a weird question and it’s making me uncomfortable” I said, glaring at him as I spoke “I thought you weren’t the kind who talks to people” he shrugs, looking completely careless about what he said just a couple minutes ago “Is it weird that I kind of just changed my mind?” He asked, almost like if he was teasing me.

I doubt if I should answer or not. He is Michael’s friend, he could either tell him or go away with valuable information he could use against me at any moment, even when we did not know each other at all, this is kind of personal, I should be aware who I am letting out this information to.

But here’s a fact, I’m kind of too drunk to care. So before I say anything, I just look up at him and ask “Should I trust you?” he shrugs “Maybe”

I stay silent, keep up my best eye contact with him and try to figure if telling him was the right thing to do or not. Maybe I just needed to tell someone about it in order to forget.

He drinks, I drink. A silent path, but I take it, what’s the worst I could happen anyways? “I saw him first” I confess, my cheeks heating up as I let the words out “A summer ago, in LA, I went there for two weeks and I saw him at this pool party thing” I tell the story just like I remember “I thought he was really funny and oddly enough, Something kind of sparked inside of me the first time I saw him” I chuckle “call me weird but it meant something for me”

I feel his attention completely on me as I tell the story and it is almost as he is waiting for me to go on but in reality, there is nothing I can really say more than that because after I meet him nothing really happened, I never did anything, that’s just why I was standing in this crappy position. I just fell in love with the wrong person and now I am paying the consequences

“So you mean, you saw him first and she...” he says, trying to guess something. “I told her I liked him, yes” I Confess, not being sure if I should even be doing this, I do it anyways “but apparently she never thought I was being serious” I say, laughing in disbelief “I guess she liked him too” I end, sighing at the sad story of my life.

He does not say anything at first and I just hope he does not think I am being ridiculous with all of this because this is something that really mattered to me even when I could do nothing about it now.

“Wow” he says, blinking at my vision of my friend’s new romance “That’s low” he concludes. I nod, he is kind of right.

“I know” I said, now shrugging “Whatever” no, it was not a Whatever. I get up from my sit, take the biggest drink from my bottle and turn to him, I was done talking about this. “Where’s your girl, anyway? Shouldn’t you be looking over her or something?” I said in pure annoyance, I didn’t feel like having an audience looking me drown on my misery. he shrugs “I’m alone” he confesses, drinking from his bottle too “What made you think I had one?” I shrugged “Well I mean, everyone here seems to have a partner, it’s kind of hard to believe that you don’t”

I was not lying on this, he really looked like the kind of guy that always had to have a girlfriend with him, he was fairly attractive and very social looking, if that was even a thing at all. he laughs “I know that” he says nodding “Well, since about two weeks ago, I’m alone” Oh man, I guess that is why he is so grumpy.

I smile a little “That makes us too then” I say with a chuckle “cheers to that” “Cheers” he says right before me and we clinked to top of our bottles “I am Ashton, by the way“ he introduces himself.

“I’m (Y/n)” I say, trying to give him a true smile but I can help but let out a forced one.

He drinks, I drink. Again, a silent pact, except that this time, it was more like an introduction.

I frown at the harsh taste of the liquor in my throat, I think I drank to much this time, but I don’t care, that could only mean I would get drunk faster.

“Why did you come up here?” I ask, trying to be a little bolder and talk about something else. He shrugs, looks down and shakes his head “The party was over for me a while ago” he says “however, I need some liquor in my system” he gets up, walks up to stand by my side and asks “and you?” I press my lips together, find it a little hard to say it, but I do, almost like a confession.

“I was alone” I admit, looking down “there was not much place for me there, it’s fine, I guess” I shrug, shaking my head as if it didn’t matter.

To me it did.

Lucky for me, he did not ask any further questions, he just nods at my answer in understanding. “Alright” he mumbles, looking away from me for a second “So I guess that makes us two loners in this trip” A drunk chuckle comes out of my lips as I said “Correcto”

I decide to just give up and stay where I am, I was kind of planning to walk away and find some other place where I could be alone, but I already confessed part of my feeling to a stranger, I think I have the right to stay in here a little longer, so I sit down on the sit I was in a while ago and suit myself. I just wanted a moment to reflect on all of my crap. “You know what I say?” he said, imitating my actions and sitting right beside me. “Huh?” I ask, wondering what could he possibly be suggesting right now. “Let’s celebrate that” he said in a steady tone, I don’t need a celebration right now “who needs a partner?” he asks in total sarcasm.

Oddly enough, I agree. “Yeah, who wants that?” I say in total agreement “Love sucks” I say “Exactly” he says, almost too happy when I make my statement “So I say...” he starts, thinks about it and raises his bottle in the air “to freedom” I smile, chuckle a little at his action and nod “To freedom” I repeat, lift my bottle in the air and clinked them together.

Because if life was deciding to turn it’s back on us, we would not care, we would make out best to find a way, maybe we were the only ones alone in this trip, but that was fine, at least we would be the only ones making the most out of our freedom and attempt to live our lives at its fullest.

Fuck love, we don’t need it, it’s better to be alone anyways.

But is it though?

We drink a long shot out of both of our bottle and I almost felt like throwing up one I took the tip of it out of my lips, it burned but felt so good, it felt like a start to something new.

I look at him, he smiles, there’s a winning look on his face like he felt invincible tonight, and just as he finishes up drinking from his own shot, he breathes out, hisses a little at the feeling of the alcohol in his system and looks at me.

“Freedom tastes great” he says, grabbing the bottle and drinking one more time.

And just like this is how it all turns out different. Who would have thought my night would turn out so differently just like so?.

#ashton irwin imagines #michael clifford imagines #5sos preferences #5sos imagines #5sos smut #5 seconds of summer imagines #5 seconds of summer preferences #5 second of summer imagines #5 second of summer smut #5sos fanfiction #5sos fanfic #luke hemmings imagine #luke hemmings imagines #5sos blurbs #5sos blurb

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arcanelucario · 5 years ago

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I’ve said it before (not on here, mind you) and I’ll say it again, Into The Spider-Verse is not the best Spider-Man film.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it and think it deserves a lot of praise, but at the same time it is massively over-hyped/rated. And the same goes for the Raimi trilogy, especially Spider-Man 2.

Into The Spider-Verse is probably ranked 3rd or 4th in my listing of the Spider-Man films, and that’s where it belongs. For me, the best Spider-Man films are Homecoming and Far From Home, though I’m undecided on which gets the top spot. Homecoming is a funner movie, but I think Far From Home might be a better Spider-Man movie, though only by a bit. Then again I’ve only seen Far From Home once so maybe I need to see it again.

I’ve seen so many people riding the metaphorical dicks of Spider-Man 2 and Into The Spider-Verse when they shouldn’t be. And I’ve seen so many people say that with the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that it’s good Disney/Marvel no longer have Spider-Man and that Sony own the sole rights. Hell, just a few minutes before writing this post I saw someone talking about seeing a Spider-Man movie not connected to the MCU that has no connection to Tony Stark or the Avengers or Happy or anything else from the MCU. Those movies already exist, they’re the Raimi films, the Amazing Spider-Man films and Into The Spider-Verse, and they’re nothing compared to Spider-Man’s involvement in the MCU.

The MCU Spider-Man films are nothing like those other sets of films, and that’s a good thing. They’re telling a new story, a whole new world and reason for Spider-Man being a thing. There’s new villains, new takes on characters, new places to go, but for some reason you people don’t want this. The previous films never told us anything about Spidey joining the Avengers or meeting Tony Stark despite those being things from the comics, but now we get to see these things be adapted, these new an unique stories come to life. But no, you people don’t want that, you don’t want Spider-Man to be part of a bigger and shared universe. You want Spider-Man to be it’s own thing and probably want a rehash of Spider-Man 3. Well guess what? It’s not happening. The Venom symbiote already bonded with Eddie Brock in a mediocre film that could have been much better that you for some reason want to share a universe with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man even though that would be laughably bad.

Looking back at all the Spider-Man films, they all are great, but they just aren’t the MCU ones. The Raimi films (in my opinion the worst of the bunch) were the first time we saw a proper live action adaptation of Spider-Man, making them extremely memorable and that’s probably the main reason why they’re loved so much. We got to experience everyone’s favourite web slinger, we saw memorable and well done villains (Green Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Doc Oc), we saw Uncle Ben’s death and we got a pretty good Spider-Man. But we also saw actors way too old looking for their characters, a Spider-Man with natural webs, awkward and sappy acting, a terrible love triangle, weird dancing on the street and in a club, weird facial expressions and whatever the fuck that 2nd Green Goblin was, among other things.

Then there’s the Amazing Spider-Man films (the second worst of the bunch), which I preferred to the Raimi films. We got a more believable Peter Parker, we got a Spider-Man with webs he built himself, we got a believable and cute relationship, we got some good villains (Lizard and Electro), we got a side plot involving Peters parents (which I honestly loved) and we got heart in the films. But sure, there’s also the Green Goblin (this version was kinda bad), sometimes it gets a bit sappy, the ending of 2 was kinda weird, the series was cancelled before we could see a third film, we got another Uncle Ben death and there’s probably more things I’m forgetting. Nonetheless, these films were still better than the Raimi ones.

Then there’s Into The Spider-Verse, a film which you people seem to have decided is definitively the best Spider-Man film. Sure, opinions are opinions, they’re subjective and different people have different tastes, but I keep on seeing people talk about it like as if Spider-Verse being the best film is a concrete fact, even though it’s not. Sure it had a lot of good. We finally got to see all these different versions of Spider-Man, we had an alright plot, we got things that would be much harder/impossible to see in live action and we just had a fun film. But we also had a absolute unit of a Kingpin which was fucking weird, a genderbent and weird af Doc Oc, a plot that despite me saying was alright still came out of nowhere (and yet you all act like it was perfectly normal and natural) and stuff that went on for too long. This films definitely does deserve praise, especially for the hard work the animators had to put in, but just because it had this hard work doesn’t mean it’s the best.

And finally, there’s the best of the bunch, the MCU films. We finally got an accurately aged Spider-Man. We got a realistic Spider-Man. We got the most accurate representation of Spider-Man out of any of the movies. We got natural romance, we got Peter actually having friends, we got new villains, we got Spidey, a Marvel character, interacting with Iron Man and Captain America (among others), also Marvel characters. And we didn’t even have to sit through another crummy Uncle Ben death or scene of Spidey gaining his powers. After all these years, all these attempts, we finally got a top notch Spider-Man, one we are extremely lucky to have. Sure, I have seen complaints about these films, such as a new version of Flash (though actually I fucking love this version), or so far Peter relying a lot on Tony Stark. But guess what? Peter is god damn teenager. He’s still coming into his own, he needs to have people to rely on. The other live action Spidey’s have been independent, so now it’s time we see him actually learn, and actually be the kid he is, be the Spider-Man he’s always meant to be.

If Sony and Disney don’t come to some sort of an agreement, then everything this Spider-Man is will be ruined. All that character development, all those relationships. Gone, reduced to ashes. He won’t be the Spider-Man we’ve known since Civil War, he’ll be someone completely different, to the point that you might as well recast him. This won’t be Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, this won’t be Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, this won’t be animated Spider-Man and this won’t be Tom Holland’s. It’ll be someone completely different, in a universe where sure, new stories can be told, but they won’t be as good. Currently Spider-Man is already an established part of the MCU, and he was supposed to be very important going forward, but you people want it gone. You want a whole series of 23 films to be ruined so you can fantasize about Spidey getting pegged by Venom because you don’t like seeing something new that makes sense.

So sure, go ahead and jerk off to your shitty opinion that Into The Spider-Verse is the best Spidey film, but keep in mind that you’re wrong. Keep in mind that you’ll never see something as great as the MCU and their Spider-Man.

And yes I know that in terms of the whole Sony/Disney fiasco that Disney are the ones mostly in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean that Sony makes good Spider-Man films and can make a good one going forward. That’s what Marvel Studios does, that’s what Kevin Feige does.

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nadziejastar · 5 years ago

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“What are your theories on Demyx bring the Master of Masters?”

I definitely agree that the Master of Masters isn’t human. I don’t think he’s a good guy, though. But he is some type of higher being, for sure. He said his eye is the Gazing Eye. He wears the black cloak and so do some of the Nightmares. So, Xehanort probably learned of the cloak through them somehow. Personally, I think this was going to be explored more in-depth, but it probably won’t be anymore. I think whatever Nomura had planned with the Realm of Sleep and Xehanort’s past (like the Recusant’s Sigil) has been retconned and won’t return as it was originally envisioned. Most of it will be left on the cutting room floor, sadly. The power of waking itself got changed into a time travel gimmick, even though its main purpose was to awaken a sleeping heart; not bring people back from the dead. So I don’t have much faith that the concept of the Nightmares will be done justice. Riku and Terra’s Keyblades had the Gazing Eye. Riku got a new Keyblade in KH3. But none of that was ever explained, unfortunately. Riku’s Keyblade just randomly broke for no apparent reason. And we never did learn the origin of Terra’s Mark or the Nobody symbol either, which we were supposed to.

Literally, the word demiurge means “public worker” or “public craftsman.” The Greek word from which it comes was originally used to denote a person such as an artisan who had a special skill and fulfilled a special function in society. Over time the term came to refer to a deity of sorts; in some philosophies and religions, the Demiurge is a subordinate god who was involved in the creation of the universe. The Demiurge is seen as the Great Artificer or the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Plato was one of the first to discuss the Demiurge as the being responsible for the production of the universe. According to Plato, the Demiurge fashioned and shaped the material universe. This being was good, but the world is flawed because the Demiurge did not have much to work with—despite the Demiurge’s best intentions, the world is imperfect.

In Gnosticism, the Demiurge is not good at all. Rather, the Gnostic Demiurge is a proud, bungling fool who created the material world against the wishes of the Supreme God. In this way the Gnostics consider all material things evil—the physical world is the product of a hostile Demiurge—and all spiritual, incorporeal things good.

If I had to take my best guess, I would say that the Master of Masters was based on the concept of the Gnostic Demiurge. And since a lot of things associated with Xehanort derive from Freemasonry, it fits pretty well. The Demiurge is called the Grand Architect of the Universe. Gnostics believed that the material world is created by an emanation or 'works' of a lower god (Demiurge), trapping the divine spark within the human body. This divine spark could be liberated by “gnosis”, spiritual knowledge acquired through direct experience.

What about Xemnas and Ansem, essentially they weren’t inside anyone, was it due to circumstances of the Sleeping Worlds? First off, when Young Xehanort made contact with the Robed Figure–that is to say, the Xehanort who called himself Ansem–his abilities were transferred to him. As a result of Master Xehanort tossing his physical body away, he was able to transcend time, and this power was carried into the Robed Figure. Thus when Young Xehanort made contact with him, he gained this power. Possessing this power, Young Xehanort functioned as a “Portal” which summoned Xemnas and Ansem each time they appeared. That’s why Young Xehanort was there whenever they were. Additionally, when Sora and Riku dropped into the Sleeping Worlds, simultaneously Young Xehanort himself goes into the worlds of sleep.

And the whole idea was that Xehanort had to cast away his body in order to time travel and gain whatever power he used. The Demiurge is said to be the ruler of the Archons.

Archons (from Greek arkhōn ‘ruler’) are inorganic interdimensional entities that are the hidden negative controllers of humankind. Although these parasites are not human, they feed off the negative energy/emotions of humans. The archons are intrapsychic mind-parasites who access human consciousness through telepathy and simulation. Archons can be likened to a computer virus, which is able to infect organic life forms. Their function is to destroy all organic life, which includes all emotions and purity of organic life forms. All inorganics like archons are functioning according to their artificial universal laws, which they cannot change nor adapt to new situations, which makes them inferior and easy to remove/defeat by being conscious about their presence.

I think this sounds a lot like the Nightmares/Heartless, too. And the Lich no doubt factors into all of this as well. In Gnostic psychology, Archons are an alien force that intrudes subliminally upon the human mind and deviates our intelligence away from its proper and sane applications. They cannot make us act inhumanely, but they can influence us play out inhumane behavior to weird and violent extremes. Archons lack intentionality (self-directive capacity), and they have a nasty tendency to stray from their boundaries and intrude on the human realm. Archons are said to feel intense envy toward humanity because we possess the intentionality they lack.

Secret Report 11: Observations, Excerpt 1

I have seen it through; the Keyblade War exactly as written on the Lost Page. Now, the Keyblade the Master entrusted to me must be bequeathed to another. Five Union leaders have been chosen from the surviving Dandelions. I will pass the Keyblade to one of them, and then continue watching the future unfold. Yet, it seems someone has pulled the old switcheroo. One of the Five is an imposter, someone the Master did not choose. They represent a virus in the program he so carefully wrote. The virus has begun a strange undertaking: a reckless plot to allow the Five to escape into another worldline. Surely such a thing can't be possible? We're talking about the same trick that allowed the Dandelions to transfer to other worldlines after the Keyblade War. But these children are no Masters. They haven't the means...unless, of course, a certain lady of magic summoned here from the future knows more than I do. The whole Union leader thing was supposed to be by the books. Are these new events just another phase in the Master's grand plan?—Unknown

The Union leaders are named after the 7 Deadly sins. And I couldn’t help but notice the use of the word “virus” in this report. Archons are frequently referred to as computer viruses, but for human consciousness. They are agents of error rather than evil - but human error, when it goes uncorrected and runs beyond the scale of correction, turns into evil. Gnostics taught that the Archons exploit our tendency to let our mistakes go uncorrected.

Regarding Demyx, I certainly don’t put it past Nomura to make him the Master of Masters. I can’t say I’m really fond of the idea, though. I feel similarly to how Xigbar was made into Luxu. Demyx had his own identity, modest as it was. He was a goofball who wasn’t very smart. But he had a strong enough heart that he created a special Nobody and was forcibly recruited into the Organization. He was lazy and simply did the bare minimum to not get turned into a Dusk. If he was planned to have some sort of special secret identity, it would have been alluded to in some way. His Mystery Gear is called “After School” and is shaped like...a broom. It sounds like he served detention a lot or something. Maybe he was just some poor guy who got turned into a Heartless while serving detention one day. I think that’s fine. Not every member has to have some kind of amazing secret past. Being an ordinary guy made him unique. I would have preferred to see him recompleted and living a normal life as a citizen, instead of joining the New Organization for NO reason and simply serving as the Replica delivery boy.

I’ve never had a big issue with retconning in this series until now. And that’s because most of the time, I felt it served the story well. For instance, Nobodies having hearts and the idea that Xemnas wanted to complete Kingdom Hearts to turn the members into vessels, and NOT because he was really trying to regain their hearts. I am fine with that because it made the story more complex and interesting. And it all tied into the main arc of the Dark Seeker Saga. But KH3′s retcons seem to have made been simply as a compromise to allow Union X characters and story elements to be carried on in the future games. Like Lea and Isa being made into apprentices. I HIGHLY doubt that was done because Nomura thought it made a better story. It was only done to allow Skuld to fit into the current timeline in SOME way and to forcibly connect her to established characters. It didn’t serve Lea and Isa as characters in any way. And it only happened this way because BBSV2 got cancelled and the original vision for the story was not able to be realized. Nomura was unhappy about this and talked about how badly he wanted that story to be told, even after it was cancelled.

#kh demyx #kh master of masters

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makeste · 6 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 027: The Ol’ Run and Float

Previously on BnHA: Deku won the obstacle course and made All Might proud while pissing everyone else off. Midnight announced that the second event would be a cavalry battle. The kids were told to team up in groups of 2 to 4, and that each team’s captain would wear a headband with a point value based on how that team’s members placed in the obstacle course. Deku found out he was worth ten million fucking points.

Today on BnHA: Midnight explains the rules of the cavalry battle. U.A.’s first years set out to assemble their teams. Bakugou doesn’t fucking know who any of these people are. Iida wants in on this rivalry thing too. Deku gets off to a shaky start, but actually manages to assemble probably the best team out here, thanks in large part to its abundance of girl power, but also because my bird bro Tokoyami decides to get in on this as well.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 51 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

new volume cover!! lots of kids this time! twelve of ‘em!

we’ve even got that steampunk girl. SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE

this is the calmest that Bakugou’s face has been on a cover yet, I think. he’s even letting Kaminari lean all over him. he still doesn’t know how to smile, but at least he’s looking at the camera, unlike Todoroki up there in the corner

and we’ve got Ochako up there in the top left! KICK SOME ASS OCHAKO

Deku looks pretty happy and doesn’t appear to be fearing for his life, so we can confidently assume that this picture wasn’t taken during the sports fest! ahahaha

“the boy born with everything” hmm that sounds like Todoroki to me. could be Bakugou too I suppose, but right now I’m leaning more toward the kid who hasn’t had much development yet and whose mystery dad seems like he might be introduced shortly

I freaking love that... [checks the handy dandy character guide] Hagakure is on the inner cover cheerleading with these two

(ETA: I can’t believe such a cute fucking page was so ruined for me with context.)

okay I skipped past the characters cuz I already know who they are, and definitely skipped past that chapter index. here we go

seems pretty fucked up to me. do they have twists like this every year? if yes, then why do the kids who’ve watched it religiously since childhood (i.e. Deku) not anticipate that and maybe just shoot for top 5 rather than #1?

well Deku, you’re just going to have to continue to be just that damn good, I guess. you’re screwed otherwise

even Ochako omg

he’s still thinking to himself that it was just dumb luck that he came in first. by my reckoning it was actually ridiculously quick and adaptive thinking, more than a little cleverness, no small amount of physical strength and endurance, and a reckless disregard for his own safety bordering on the insane! but sure, call it luck

wonder where all of that GARRRRR energy has gone now. it’s like he was running at 300% for that entire event, and now all of a sudden he’s run out of batteries

okay here we go, some detailed rules

that’s going to be a lot of zeroes for Deku’s team

glad they designed the headbands to fasten with velcro so that these kids don’t go snapping each other’s necks

and apparently once someone grabs your headband, they’ve got to put it on and wear it themselves, so as long as time’s not up, you still have a chance to get it back

so then Deku won’t necessarily be the main target the entire time. ooh, this changes things. I like this game now

that little shithead Mineta might be a problem if his team utilizes his stupid grapes

and Tsuyu could potentially just use her tongue and be snatching up headbands left and right

apparently they’re allowed to use quirks, but not allowed to maliciously attack teams “with the intent of making them fall.” well what are the rules then. is that basically just a “don’t kill each other” rule and aside from that everything still goes? this opens the gates for some inconsistent refereeing. but I suppose these games are just an exhibition match to show off anyway, so as long as everyone gets to do that, it doesn’t matter as much who actually wins or loses

unless your name is Bakugou Katsuki and you went up on stage in front of a hundred thousand people and were all “it’s me I’m the winner”

or if you’re Todoroki “dad is watching and I just made Deku my rival fifteen minutes ago, so I don’t want to lose to him” Shouto

or Midoriya “dad is watching and I promised him I’d tell the world I AM HERE” Izuku

then you’re probably more invested in winning

so should be interesting

(ETA: actually, getting into the round of 16 really did make a difference in terms of who got drafted afterwards.)

time to start forming teams!

Deku already seems to know who he wants!

Tsuyu or Ochako, Deku. either is good. both are even better

Iida’s also fast! and loyal! (ETA: HAHAHAHA) but the second that fucker gets distracted, his weird hand gestures will get you dropped on the floor right quick

Bakugou and Todoroki would NEVER!! so let’s not even bother with that

Sero is another one like Tsuyu that would probably be really good at snatching bands

anyways, enough with the hypotheticals, let’s scroll down and see who this thoughtful young man actually decides on

heyyy. booooooo we’re cutting to the security staff

they don’t seem to be doing a very good job

wow. these guys are kind of the worst

“drag others down.” what a cynical fucking take

now they’re talking about how the cavalry battle teaches cooperation. well no shit, just like literally any team exercise ever

these are the most demotivational superheroes I’ve ever seen. the complete fucking opposite of All Might. no wonder he was so desperate to find someone with the right attitude to be his successor

WOW CHECK OUT MISTER POPULAR OVER HERE

OH NOW Y’ALL LIKE HIM, HUH. I WAS HERE FIRST

he seems to have someone else in mind maybe?

wow

“WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE”

wow Bakugou. wow. I may not know all of their names yet, but at least I know... two of their quirks

-- and actually I do know their names! Sato, Hagakure, and Mina! wow! guys! I did it!!!

meanwhile All Might’s up in the stands with his own hot fresh takes on Bakugou, which mainly consist of “he may be a jerk but he sure is talented and that sure does make him popular.” yep. are you proud. he’s still our son, All Might

Todoroki already picked a team while Bakugou was standing there trying to figure out what everyone else’s quirks even are and what exactly is this mysterious “teamwork” thing anyway

luckily he has a good friend who mysteriously loves him for some reason!

even though Bakugou doesn’t even remember his name sobbbbb

to be fair, I sure took a long hecking time remembering it myself

Kirishima is pointing out that he’s the best fit since his quirk allows him to take whatever explosions Bakugou dishes out

wow they really are compatible. this seriously could take over as my main ship, were it not for the fact that Deku has so plainly been in love with Katsuki since he was three years old

but even so! like, I’ll just nab this little KiriBaku tugboat, maybe, and let it puff along next to my main ride

incidentally, Bakugou doesn’t even know what Kiri’s quirk is

and Kiri DOESN’T EVEN SEEM TO MIND ANY OF IT

“Bakugou who should you ride?” “idk someone with a death wish cuz I sure fucking will blow them up you can be sure of that” “no!! me!!!”

that’s the pure kind of unconditional Yamamoto-esque love that can withstand whatever pain and hardship life decides to dole out. good shit

so who’s he gonna pick as his final teammate then

guess who doesn’t care who Mineta picks. me

Shouji if you agree to team up with Mineta you will be cancelled by association until the end of this challenge. it’s not your fault, it’s just the way things are

DEKU WHY ARE YOU STILL STANDING THERE. YOU SEEMED LIKE YOU HAD A PLAN. THAT’LL FUCKING SHOW ME TO ASSUME YOU WOULD EVER TAKE THE INITIATIVE IN LITERALLY ANY KIND OF SOCIAL SITUATION

so then. you’re either stuck with the most desperate peeps, or your loyalest most dedicated besties

eh, I fail to see how punching something really hard one time and then having your body fall apart would inspire faith, though. please note that your fellow classmates, who have seen your quirk, are still avoiding you

oh! I see a “Deku” speech bubble though! only one non-Kacchan person here who calls him that! :D

LOOK AT YOU LUCKING OUT OVER HERE DEKU

this was seriously one of his best prospects to begin with. her quirk would help a lot when it comes to avoiding people, and with him having the highest point value to start with, they don’t really need to go after other people’s points

so if he’s teaming up with her, then Iida is definitely the best choice for a third teammate. they work well together, and I guarantee no one else has offered to team up with him yet lol. just gotta watch out for those hand gestures like I said

but before we get to that let’s just appreciate Deku’s meme face

is this face a meme. if not, my question is how could it not be

yesss. it’s all coming together now. THE OL’ RUN AND FLOAT

now they’re in the huddle and Deku’s explaining the ol’ run and float plan

but interestingly, he doesn’t intend to be the rider? he wants someone physically strong? well there are a few options then, but honestly there isn’t anyone else here who’s actually stronger than you bud

WOW now Iida’s suddenly deciding to be a spoilsport?!

YOU CAN REFUSE MY FOOT IN YOUR ASS YOU TREASONOUS CAD. A POX ON YOU IIDA!!!

apparently he’s decided to make Deku his rival too. EVERYONE, RIVALS. HE HAS ENOUGH RIVALS!!!

“ever since the entrance exam... I’ve been losing to you” well then sure as hell don’t expect it to stop now

he’s teaming up with Todoroki. wow. wow, Iida. you wanna be cancelled too because this is how you get cancelled

I’m not actually mad in all seriousness though, I just gotta protect my sweet Green Tsuna here who apparently has no Gokuderas to fall back on except for Ochako, that beautiful, rule-breaking moth

does the math actually work out so that there’s gotta be at least one person left for him to team up with?

dammit who’s it gonna be

OOOOHH

IT’S THE SMART STEAMPUNK GIRL FROM THE SUPPORT COURSE. I LIKE THIS! SHE’S A WILD CARD. GET IN HERE SUPPORT COURSE GIRL

HATSUME MEI YOU BEAUTIFUL TALENTED BRILLIANT POWERFUL MUSK OX

she says she wants to team up with him so she can be in the spotlight. see, this is what all these kids are forgetting. it’s not really about the points, it’s how well you show off what you’ve got

and she apparently wants to show off “her babies.” her inventions, I’m guessing

PLEASE JOIN US AND BE OUR WINRY ROCKBELL. BE OUR USOPP, MEI

SHE HAS JETPACKS. DEKU!!! DO IT

aww. Ochako don’t be jealous. he needs you, you’re the MVP even if no one else here knows it yet

okay so they’ve got three again. but Deku still seems to think they need one more person

“our formation’s just lacking some power...”

off he goes

who else are you gonna sweet talk into this group Deku

I should probably make a guess so that I can either brag afterwards, or laugh about how wrong I was

he keeps saying power. but most of the obvious 1-A powerhouses are already taken. Sato seems pretty tough, though, and there’s also that rock guy who is like the only guy left in the class who hasn’t done shit. and I think Tsuyu might still be available and she’s a dark horse IMO. my money’s either on her or Rocky Road

okay, this Viktor-looking guy has been making faces and mugging the camera this entire time, and now it looks like he’s actually gonna get a bit of focus here

and he’s acting like class B hung back on purpose. sure, okay. do your thing then; just don’t expect me to learn twenty more names when I only just got done with this first group after 27 fucking chapters

we’d better see who Deku picked before this ends or it’s a waste of a cliffhanger

oh good there’s one last two-page spread

Deku ended up as the rider after all huh

I FORGOT ALL ABOUT HIM! NOW I FEEL DUMB. HE’S FUCKING PERFECT, AND HE ACTUALLY AGREED TO JOIN THEM! TOKOYAMI, FROM THIS POINT ON YOU SHALL BE KNOWN AS “NEW IIDA”

THE SHADOW THING IS GONNA BE SO OP OMG. LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO

BONUS:

“steampunk-related things” they didn’t even pretend

I’m glad Horikoshi made so many interesting female characters and went against his initial instinct to make several of them guys. class A only has six girls out of 20 people total, so it’s not quite balanced, but it’s better than there being like. four girls. and they’ve all got heaps of skill and talent, and varied and interesting personalities

so the support course peeps are basically the Tony Starks of BnHA

I am so down with this. go on and befriend Deku and make him all sorts of cool shit later on and further enrich the series with your general presence, Mei

#bnha #boku no hero academia #makeste reads bnha #lots of people in this one #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #kirishima eijirou #uraraka ochako #iida tenya #hatsume mei #tokoyami fumikage #I already forgot that class B kid's name again #I remember his copycat quirk but no idea what he's called #and tbh I can't be bothered to look it up again lol

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