#long story short the boy is traumatized

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

Hiya, me again! I’m loving your deep dives into character and plot for BotW/TotK, so I was wondering if you might like to give me your take on something I’m ruminating on for a WIP. I’d totally welcome others pitching in too! The question is this: what do you think that an emotional “breaking point” would look like for Link during TotK? He canonically masks his emotions to an extent and seems to have a history of trauma responses that include shutting down and dissociating, but what happens when it all gets to be too much? When a friend who’s trying to be helpful or sympathetic unwittingly presses too hard into an emotional sore spot and Link - already barely holding it together with everything that’s going on - just snaps? With everything bottled up so tight, what happens if the bottle explodes at the worst possible time: while he’s in the presence of others? Does he lash out? Break down? Flee? Some combination of all those, or something else entirely? I have my ideas but I’d love to get more takes!

Oooooohhhhh hi hi hi

I LOVE character analysis study time to determine how they would behave in a fic. I think Totk Link definitely shows far more emotion than we the players get to see and I think the best part of the game in general to determine that is the chase in Hyrule Castle.

As we know, Link canonically does go mute when he’s feeling a lot of emotion. But, he shows more emotion than is let on. Buliara tells us that Link is legitimately frazzled, utterly focused on ‘Zelda’, and in a space where he may “miss a wrung” in his haste to get up to the observation deck. And as he chases Zelda down and gets to the Sanctum, his expressions change for “oh my god Zelda is right here, I can see her” to “something is off. This isn’t Zelda” as she speaks. I can’t explain it properly, but this is that final nail in the coffin that YES. Zelda is the light dragon. She is going to be forever.

That is absolutely DEVASTATING. Because we know at this point in the game, Link is AWARE that it’s not the real Zelda that’s been seen across Hyrule. But he’s still so desperate.

And after the battle with the sages coming to aid him, everyone else is speaking and Link is just kinda there until Riju addresses him. And she goes “you should come to Lookout Landing too, Link”

While from a gaming perspective, that’s the way the game points the players back to Lookout Landing and of course Link isn’t going there with everyone else, because once the cutscene ends, Link will be by himself for the player to control.

However, in this case, we could argue that this was incredibly emotionally taxing for Link and he is at a breaking point.

So I think for him, it’s a sign that he will go mute and in a sense ‘run away’. He will seek a place to be alone and not surrounded by others who expect things of him. His breakdown point is led with a trauma response of becoming selectively mute and then seeking a safe place to break down with no one around him.

It’s so unsettling because for most characters, you get that explosive reaction, the one that erupts all of their emotions to whoever pushed them a tad too far… but Link’s trauma and his own training as a soldier creates an even worse response.

He doesn’t lash out in front of people. He doesn’t even let them know what he is thinking.

For a Link who is now far more expressive than he was previously, to shut down again and be mute, completely dissociating around some of his closest companions… that’s a LOT. And it’s a lot different from a writing perspective, but I think an internal breakdown, completely oblivious to the people around him, and a steady blow up once everyone is gone or he fled the area to be alone could be very emotionally impactful!

[anundyingfidelity]

WHAT IF...? — Soldier Boy/Ben (1)

Summary: Ben, now as your husband, gives up Vought for good and retires along with you far away from the spotlight and the big cities once you're pregnant with your first child. He knows better than to make the same mistakes his father did.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader.

Word count: 800.

Warnings: some angst, hurt/comfort, pregnancy, AU where Soldier Boy was never with Crimson Countess, some OOC from Ben? idk he's soft in here.

Notes: this is an AU I had in mind, based on this one shot I did before, but now with Ben and the reader being the good parents Homelander always needed. Is not necessary to read that one but this takes place in 1984, before Soldier Boy goes to Nicaragua. I might update with short drabbles with random scenarios and domestic situations between them, but for now take this. Hope you like it!

GEN MASTERLIST! — DRABBLES MASTERLIST!

taglist is here!

PART 1

1984

“So, how is it now for America’s son to retire like this?” the journalist asked.

Ben gave him a charming smile, eyes bright like diamonds as the camera flashes took pictures everywhere at the press conference.

“Is what I always wanted,” he beamed.

The time for questions was over, but still you heard through the crowd all the inquiries and thirst for gossip from the journalists in the room. Soldier Boy stood up, posing for the last time with his green suit and shield hanging on his arm.

“Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Do you plan on having kids?”

“Will your kids be supes like you?”

“How many children you want, Soldier Boy?”

“How’d you meet her?”

“Soldier Boy, give us her name!”

You turned off the TV as the conference ended and took in sight of your surroundings. It was your home, finally. The place you’d share with your husband forever. And even though the conference was filmed a couple of weeks ago, Ben agreeing to retirement was still fresh in your mind. Ever since you talked about marriage and settling down a year ago, this was one of your conditions. Being a supe was dangerous, more so with Vought behind, and you wouldn’t expose your future legacy like that. You were lucky enough for Ben to understand that. He wouldn’t want to put the same faith he had with his father to his children.

In silence, you looked up for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. You checked the last room, which happened to be his dispatch; his personal space to show his achievements and his own story as America’s greatest hero. His back faced you, as he seemed to admire for the last time the suit hanging on the wall behind a glass that’d keep it as a trophy for a long time. Leaning against the doorframe, you wondered what was going in his head now that the announcement was public.

“I know you’re there,” he said, looking at you from the corner of his eye. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

You approached him, clinging into his strong arm and watching his handsome, stern face. “I’m so proud of you,” you mumbled softly. Ben turned his eyes to look at you, his face softened as he heard your words. “Thank you.”

His lips curved in a smile and he wrapped his arm on your waist, pulling you closer to his broad figure. “How’s the baby doing?”

“Considering I’m around five months now, I’d say he’s doing amazing,” your smile grew, feeling his warm hand on your baby bump.

“He?”

You shrugged. “You want a boy, right?”

“Yeah, but we haven’t checked that. We agreed to wait until birth…”

There was a hint of hope and confusion in his words.

“I haven’t done an ultrasound behind your back, if that’s concerning you,” you reassured him too quickly, putting yourself in front of him so he could look at you. Your hand rested on his cheek in a delicate manner. “I just have a hunch.”

Ben nodded, leaning into your touch. There was something he wanted to say out loud, to let you know, but he never had the courage to say it. The intrusive thoughts and the traumatic past he was carrying on his back used to torment him enough already. And you knew he was hiding something since you told him you were pregnant. You could see it in his eyes.

“What is it, Ben?”

He sighed at your question. He couldn’t lie to you, could he?

“I’m… scared,” he confessed. “I know I don’t want to be like my father. I don’t wanna disappoint our children.”

“You won’t, I promise. Please don’t torture yourself with things you are not, you’re not your father. And I know you’ll be a great dad,” you pulled him for a soft kiss, to which he responded, his hand cupping your cheek and then wandering to the nape of your neck. “They all will love you,” you whispered once the kiss was over.

Ben arched his brow in a playful manner. “They?”

“I’ll give you as many kids as I can, is that okay?”

He pulled you in for a hug, your head resting on his chest as he kissed your forehead lovingly. There was no other place he wanted to be but here, with you and the future baby growing up in your belly. Ben already pictured you together with a bunch of rugrats running all over the house, scolding them for being so reckless as they played silly games in a sunny afternoon by the pool. It was everything he yearned for. A normal life and becoming a loving father. His heart fluttered with joy, realizing this was the beginning of what he always really desired.

“It's perfect.”

>>> Next part here!!

Soldier Boy taglist:

@delaynew @k-slla @thesilmarillionblog @onlyangel-444 @mrsjenniferwinchester

@daisy-the-quake @jackles010378 @mostlymarvelgirl @deans-spinster-witch @drasticemotions

@stoneyggirl2 @sapnaploves @believeinthefireflies95

[iloveaustinelvisandmannymore]

Their everything.

Pairing: Hong woojin x reader x Kim gunwoo.

Summary: the past will always be part of your boyfriends, you knew that. But when an old friend returned you can't help but feel inferior.

Warnings: Past trauma, Arguments, Jealousy, Bromance, Polyamorous relationship, M/f/m, Smut, Threesome, Fingering, Oral ( Male), Creampies, Cum shot, Rough sex, Attempted non-con (not the boys), Augst?

In a way, you always believed that you, Gun-woo, and Woojin's relationship was too good to be true. How could the story of a girl living in a new country, starting a new beginning bumping into two handsome men, and spilling her coffee all over them, expecting to be yelled at instead they did the opposite. And as their eyes met yours, it was like everything in the world made sense. It sounded completely insane.

And you knew they truly loved you, the many nights of passion and sweet words made that clear. Yet the twinkles in Gunwoo's eyes and the big grin Woojin sported when he pulled Hyun Ju and Gunwoo into a hug as she showed up at your doorstep out of the blue, with tearful laughter and snuffling they invited her inside. Her hair was longer than it was in the pictures your boys had of her, reaching down her back and much more shinny, her skin flawlessly pale and her smile was heart-stopping. She was nothing short of gorgeous. She looked so perfect for them, why wouldn't she? They shared a history, a painful, gut-wrenching, and traumatic past, she understood the pain and horror while you couldn't even imagine what it felt like. They wouldn't have to deal with the disapproving stares and the brutal honesty of what people thought of their relationship or had to sometimes translate for her.

"Ah! Hyun Ju! This is our girlfriend!" Woojin grinned as he threw his arm over you and pulled you into his side, shaking you a bit. "Oh..when did you meet?" Hyun Ju asked, her almond eyes seemingly taking you in as she checked you from head to toe from across the couch you sat on between your boyfriends. "We met a year after dealing with Kim Myeong-gil," Gunwoo spoke up a soft smile on his plump lips as his fingers intertwined with yours. She only let out an acknowledgment hum before steering the conversation away from you.

They weren't home. Again. Like most days they were barely home, only coming back to pass out for whatever their doing with her, and for others, they'd be called away. A sense of hopefulness took over you as you heard a knock at the door, smiling you stopped cutting up your strawberries and rushed out of the kitchen and to the door, your heart beating faster at the thought of seeing your boys. "my, princess, you look excited to see me." a smug smirk tugged at your best friend's lips as he welcomed himself in, your smile faded. "Oh..hey, Sang." you greeted, shutting the door behind him and walking back into the kitchen, sighing as he ate one of the sliced fruit. "Why the long face?" he asked, taking hold of your chin, his thumb rubbing under your bottom lip once you got closer. His hazel eyes bored into your orbs, and his soft dyed sliver hair lay parted on his forehead "Are you not happy to see me?" he pouted. "N-no it's not that..." you trailed off, looking away but Sang, his sudden touch felt different from the other times, it was too intimate, "I just..miss them.." you muttered. "Oh, princess. They don't deserve your love. you must be so lonely here." Sang cooed, his hand sneaking behind your neck, "Let me make it better." he whispered, using his hand around your neck and shoving you closer, mashing your lips together.

The boys walked into the apartment you shared as Woojin complained about the weight of the things they had to carry. "Wah, why did she have to make us carry such heavy things?" he whined, rolling his sore shoulder. Gunwoo chuckled at his friend's antics. However, their entry was abruptly interrupted by Woojin's outburst. He grabbed Sang's shoulder, pulled him back, and pushed him away from you. Overcome by rage, Woojin cursed at Sang, his words coming out too fast to understand, but it was clear that it was not good.

Just as Woojin was gonna throw a punch Gunwoo stopped and shook his head before looking at Sang, "Leave..before I hurt you myself." Gunwoo glared at the other man, despite his calm tone, and that made Sang gulp in fear before scurrying away, like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Tension-filled silence hung between the three of you before Woojin broke it. "So this is what you've been doing while we were gone?!" he yelled, stepping closer. "Having fun with that jerk?" He couldn't be serious. "Huh?! Answer me!" He screamed as he trapped you against the wall. While this happened, Gunwoo stood there, staring at you with an unreadable emotion. A rage you had never felt before welled up inside you as you pushed Woojin as hard as you could, moving him a few feet back.

"What about you, huh?!" you screamed right back as you glared at your boyfriends. "How about your fun with that runaway? You both seemed pretty eager to be at her beck and call!" Gunwoo opened his mouth to say something, but you spoke again before he could. "Ever thought how much I would miss you? No, you didn't." Wiping the tears that built up in your eyes as you stormed to your bedroom and slammed the door shut leaving the boys frozen in shock.

A soft knock came an hour later. "Nae sarang," Gunwoo softly spoke. "We're so sorry." He sighed and laid his forehead on the wooden door. "Jagiya, I'm so sorry. I never should've yelled at you. Forgive me," Woojin sorrowfully begged. You wanted to be mad at them, to still be so angry, but the truth is you missed them too much to care about your anger. With a sigh, you opened the door and once they saw you, Woojin pulled you in a kiss, the hand on your cheek traveled down to your hip and shoved you into his chest, the kiss quickly became heat. You whimpered as Woojin's lips were replaced by Gunwoo's, his soft pillowy lips were a contrast to Woojin's thinner but equally soft lips. his hot tongue demanded entry to your mouth, once granted, he swirled his tongue around yours.

Pulling back, Gunwoo helped Woojin in his mission to leave you bare of your clothes, their clothes following soon after. Your moans were muffed as your lips around Woojin's cock, his thick, long cock thrusted into your hot mouth as Gunwoo's dick pumped in and out of your tight cunt, your slick dripping down onto his balls ans onto the bed. You were a mess, saliva running down your chin as Woojin used your mouth as a fleshlight, his neatly trimmed pubes brushed against your nose as he pushed his cock down your throat "I'm gonna c-cum,Jagiya!" Your older boyfriend cried out, his hips sped up, and his dick throbbed against your tongue. Gunwoo's pace sped up to match with his best friends thrusts, pushing you to your own climax.

With a shout, Woojin pulled out and his hot cum shot after shot onto your face, and heaving chest.

Gunwoo's strong arms wrapped around your middle, his hips raised and without warning he slammed you down onto his cock. "Yes!" You moaned as your hips stuttered from your second orgasm all the while your younger boyfriend thrusted upwards into your wet heat below you "Cumming!" He groaned as he threw his head back, his milky, hot semen released to you.

"We love you," Woojin spoke up after a while as you all caught your breaths. "Never forget that." Gunwoo continued as he wiped some sweat from your brow. "I love y'all too." You smiled at them weakly.

@geonwooz

[dinarosie]

Unfair Comparisons (part 3)

Here are descriptions of two boys from HP books. It’s hard to believe, but Harry Potter fans claim that boy number one had a very tragic and difficult childhood, suffering abuse, violence, and neglect from his family. These hardships caused him to experience a tough and insecure adolescence, eventually leading him to join the Death Eaters under pressure. On the other hand, fans claim the boy number two is a racist and a professional killer, who in his youth tried to join the Death Eaters in order to freely torment Muggles with dark magic.

1- Regulus Black:

Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them. ‘They’re all about Voldemort,’ she said. ‘Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters ...“

He was younger than me, said Sirius, ‘and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded.’ ‘But he died,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah,’ said Sirius. ‘Stupid idiot … he joined the Death Eaters.“

2- Severus snape:

Suddenly Harry’s mind was teeming with memories that were not his — a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner. …

Two girls were swinging backward and forward, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt.

"Oh yes, they’re arguing", said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. "But it won’t be that long and I’ll be gone". "Doesn’t your dad like magic?" "He doesn’t like anything, much", said Snape. 

One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.

J.K. Rowling: Well, that is Snape's tragedy. Given his time over again he would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people (like Wormtail) he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive.

I love both Regulus and Severus, and I believe they were both brave boys who made mistakes and tried to make up for them by risking their lives. But there’s something in the fanbase that bothers me regarding these two characters. It’s that Snape’s story is erased from him and given to Regulus Black. I haven't found any evidence of Regulus being tortured or forced to join the Death Eaters, as described in the books. He willingly joined Voldemort because he was fan of voldemort. Moreover, according to Sirius, Regulus was well-liked within his family, and his parents not only didn’t mistreat him, but they actually loved him more than Sirius.

I’m tired of constantly seeing people say that Regulus was a saint while Snape was a sadistic murderer. I can’t believe people can read these lines from the books and still claim that Regulus was tortured with the Cruciatus Curse and abused by his family in childhood, which forced him to join the Death Eaters due to his traumatic upbringing. But Snape? Oh, apparently, he was born to be a racist, torturer, sadist, and murderer from day one.

Aren’t you tired of these ridiculous double standards? Aren’t you fed up with constantly insisting that fanfictions and TikTok videos are canon?

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Rabbi Herschel Schacter 

Rabbi Herschel Schacter was a young U.S. Army chaplain who helped traumatized Holocaust survivors rebuild their lives, and later became an influential leader in the Orthodox movement and a strong advocate for Soviet Jewry.

Herschel Schacter was born in Brooklyn in 1917, the son of immigrants from Poland and the youngest of ten siblings. His family was religious, and he was educated at the finest yeshivas before obtaining smicha (rabbinic ordination) in 1941. Rabbi Schacter served as a pulpit rabbi for a year before enlisting in the Army after Pearl Harbor. After attending Army Chaplain school at Harvard, he was sent to Europe with the VIII Corps and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

Rabbi Schacter was one of the liberators of the Buchenwald concentration camp. He stayed in Germany for two and a half months after the war, tending to the broken spirits of survivors, most of whom had lost their entire families. Many were the only survivor from their entire town; everyone they ever knew had been murdered. A famous photograph shows him leading Shavuot services at Buchenwald (above). This photo occupies an entire wall at Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.

What Rabbi Schacter saw at Buchenwald was hell on earth. The inmates who were still alive – barely -were emaciated, lying on filthy planks and covered in lice, hollow-eyed ghosts blinking in the sunlight and without the energy to even lift their heads. The stench of rotting flesh and feces was overwhelming. 

Rabbi Schacter noticed Yisrael Meir Lau, 7 years old, hiding behind a pile of corpses. Known as Lulek, the child had lost most of his family and had been on his own since age 5. Rabbi Schacter cared for the boy and helped him immigrate to Israel, where he would one day become Chief Rabbi.

Rabbi Schacter’s son Jacob, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and professor at Yeshiva University, wrote in a piece for Tablet Magazine, “My father spent the rest of his life describing what he saw in Buchenwald and what he did during his 10 weeks there. His work focused on a number of different areas: he tended to the psychological needs of survivors; he worked hard to reunite families; he founded a kibbutz outside Weimar for young survivors preparing to make aliyah [move to Israel]; and he organized a transport of children to Switzerland.”

Another story that illustrates Rabbi Schacter’s massive impact concerns Yoav Kimmelman, a 16 year old from a Hasidic home who lost every single member of his large extended family, around 60 people. The Holocaust destroyed Yoav’s faith and identity as a Jew. According to Rabbi Jacob Schacter, Yoav was “done with God, done with Jewish life, done with Jewish destiny, done with the Jewish people.” Rabbi Herschel Schacter reached out – literally – and singlehandedly brought Yoav back to Jewish life. It happened when Rabbi Schacter was taking 200 child survivors to Switzerland. He wanted young Yoav to go with him, but the boy had no interest in being around fellow Jews and he refused to go. Rabbi Schacter asked him to come to the train station to say goodbye and while there, the rabbi reached down and physically dragged Yoav onto the train. The teen was angry and sullen, but the rabbi convinced him to join a minyan and read Torah in the DP camp. Long story short, Yoav Kimmelman remained religious and at his death, he left 80 descendants, all of them Torah Jews. “That’s all because my father had the guts to pull him onto that train when it left the station,” said Rabbi Jacob Schacter.

Rabbi Herschel Schacter became a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in America, helping to rebuild from the ashes and grow the movement. He was elected president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations in 1968. Dr. Rafael Medoff, in his book “The Rabbi of Buchenwald,” wrote: “He was the first Orthodox rabbi to reach that level of leadership. Until then others saw Orthodox leaders as fit to be heads of Orthodox groups, but not larger ones. Rabbi Schacter broke that mold. He was sufficiently savvy and sophisticated to represent the entire [Jewish] community, not just the Orthodox minority.”

At the very beginning of the movement to free Soviet Jewry, in 1956, Rabbi Schacter was part of the first rabbinical delegation to visit the USSR since 1917. He then went to Hungary to help Jewish refugees flee during the Hungarian revolution. 

Rabbi Schacter served as a pulpit rabbi in the Bronx for more than 60 years and was known as a brilliant and inspiring orator, beloved by his congregation. He passed away in 2013 at age 95 and was survived by his beloved wife Pnina, two children, four grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Pnina Schacter died in 2018.

For healing the broken spirits of Holocaust survivors and helping them rebuild their lives, and for his devotion to the Jewish people and his decades of leadership, we honor Rabbi Herschel Schacter as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[deusvervewrites]

Ask Game:

Midoriya finds the butterfly Miraculous and uses it's power to help him in becoming a hero.

Garaki and Overhaul also find Miraculouses (Horse and Snake)and everyone's on a scavenger hunt to find the rest of the magic jewelry before the opposing side gets them all.

I had my own idea for an ML Crossover a while back, but it will unfortunately derail this suggestion. Sort of. It'll make sense in a moment.

So if Kwami are conceptual embodiment of abstract ideas, then it stands to reason that in the wake of the Dawn of Quirks, there must be a Kwami related to the sudden shift in the nature of humanity. A Kwami of Quirks if you will. It is this power that All For One used, not a Quirk of his own. Don't--don't ask how it was bound to a Miraculous, ML has way bigger plot holes I simply do not feel like figuring it out.

Hawkmoth debuted in Paris, made a few Akuma, and then vanished after like a week without a trace. This is because All For One is a megalomaniac and so he murdered Gabriel for the Miraculous. Problem solved, I guess?

He will not have time to relish his victory, because his son is very upset that his worthless deadbeat father hasn't been paying child support, leaving him and his mother rather poor. So he might've... broken in to steal some stuff to pawn? And, uh... turns out without the Miraculous that gave him his longevity Quirk, AFO just kinda... died. Midoriya would be traumatized but Alle popped out of the Miraculous and went "Hey kid wanna do magical Quirk experiments?" and Midoriya went "Oh boy would I?"

Fu tried to track the Miraculous to Japan, but, uh, he's not exactly a fighter, and long story short he... might have... lost a couple Miraculous. I'm sure nothing bad will happen there--Garaki? Overhaul? Hm.

Aoyama is McFucking Losing It

[yakitori-queen]

working boys spoilers ahead ⚠

Alright Hatchetfield enjoyers here we go again.

So i'm sure we can all agree Working Boys was very good. Among other things, it was very funny. AMONG OTHER THINGS.

I feel that, given we are the Implications fandom we are not talking nearly enough about The Implications. So I'm gonna go on a long ramble about Hidgens' character, and all the implications about him given what we saw in the new short.

Working Boys had all the workings of a good piece of Hatchetfield media. Good horror, good comedy. But also and what i want to focus on here - it's incredibly telling.

Henry Hidgens as a character has been recurring for a while. In every story where he appears as a major character (TGWDLM, The Hatchetfield Ape Man, and now Working Boys), there's a trend - he starts off as someone eccentric at best, and ends up going completely off the rails.

Until now, we were all left to speculate about what his deal was. Now however, if you consider what we know with Working Boys, the implications suddenly get a lot more tragic.

Throughout the short, Hidgens appears as overly-perfectionistic and endlessly unsatisfied to the point of being well, kind of an asshole. That whole bit does its job well of being great comedy, but i feel the need to point out how, after watching the end of the short (Hidgens' explanations of the original working boys' death and his subsequent breakdown), it's worth going back to that to observe it in a new light.

I'm sure we all sort of expected that his backstory would be something fucked up like that, but i feel it's important to look at the details. Let's analyze the way Hidgens acts about the death of the Working Boys.

Obviously it was something deeply traumatic. He recounts it gravely as "the worst day of my [his] life", for good reason. Then, it's also obvious that this entire Working Boys musical he created is a tribute to honor his dead friends (possibly lovers)'s memory - just before their ghosts appear to him, he laments about butchering their memory ("Oh boys, I'm so sorry.") It appears that the entire in-universe Working Boys musical is an elaborate coping mechanism Hidgens has created in order to handle the horrific deaths of his loved ones.

Knowing this, it suddenly makes a lot more sense why he seems so frustrated and never satisfied with how his vision for the musical is enacted so long as it doesnt adhere strictly to his original script. Working Girls was never going to work - it was doomed from the start, because Hidgens could never handle even the slightest change to his script, because it is of deep emotional importance to him as a work that directly relates to the most traumatic event of his life.

When the Working Boys' apparitions appear to him, he seems to just take it in stride, as though it's a completely normal thing. Notice that he also did this in TGWDLM. Then he completely snaps.

Working Boys as a short makes Hidgens' character incredibly more tragic once you realize that it makes it clear that most of Hidgens' sanity was lost in that incident when all of the Working Boys died. And ever since then, he's always one minor inconvenience away from a complete breakdown.

[thedarlingdearestdead]

Medic:

Summary: Reader is a Jedi medic in a clone wars battle. She loses a young patient and has a traumatic time. Anakin comforts her.

Warnings: None, violence, blood.

Word Count: 1,690

You weren't often deployed into battle, you had barely finished your training. But, you supposed, the Jedi were fairly short-staffed at the moment. 

You never wanted to be a soldier, had always struggled with wielding your saber, but your intuition with the force was undoubtable, so you had been taken in as a student, and studied to be a medic. What the masters saw in you was a meditative, quick learning mind. And it was true. So you were not suited to the war. 

Desperate times however, brought desperate measures. While the troops had gone on the offensive, you had been tasked with setting up the hospital area near the sheltered back of a cave. Not many of you healers were available for this particular conflict, it was a surprise attack by the Separatists, you had barely stopped for the past two days, planning and prepping in a state of emergency. Now that you were here, all you could do was wait for the bodies to come pouring in. Bloodied, burned, dismembered. It wasn’t that you were faint of heart, you knew what you were getting into when you took on this position under Master Che, but the extent of the fighting, the amount of death was overwhelming you. 

The anxiety of war was not one which you enjoyed. Especially not when he was out there fighting too. 

Anakin was unaware that you had been called up to this particular battle. So he fought and led the fray as he normally would. Cutting down all in his way with a fury and determination which made him indestructible. Or so he liked to think. That was how the two of you had met. A posting at the hospital wing on Coruscant had bought you into his path. He was practically a regular, always getting himself injured in the most ridiculous and reckless ways. Burns from playing with speeder mechanics, from an overenthusiastic lightsaber duel with students twice his age. Large cuts and scrapes from jumping off things, or climbing things, or through things. And each time he would come in with a smile, sit down and let you do what you needed to do. Make you laugh with his stories, entertaining you endlessly and distracting you from your real work. 

That was at the beginning, before things got serious with the war. 

When it broke out, when the attacks started, he came to you, broken, and not just physically. You patched him up and the two of you found solace in each other. One bright spark in an increasingly dark world. 

The sound of explosions and shouts reached you and you shook with anticipation, wiping your sweaty hands on your apron. Then the bodies started to roll in. 

It wasn't long before the tent was filled with the wounded and dying. The smell of blood and burning flesh filled your nostrils, making your stomach churn. But you didn't have time to be sick. You had to keep working. You took a deep breath and composed yourself. You had been trained for this, and you knew exactly what to do.

When you saw this patient, you sprung into action. It was a young Padawan, younger even than yourself, with deep burns all over his body. You could feel his pain through the Force, and it only intensified when he saw you approach him. You could sense his fear, his uncertainty, and his desperation for help. You knew exactly what to do. Or you thought you did. Using the Force to steady your hands and calm the Padawan's nerves, you worked with precision, cleaning up his wound so that you could get a good view, then get him stabilised. But then he started convulsing violently. It was all over, and you didn't even get a moment to dwell before you were pushed off of him by your Master, it was useless, the boy had died. You were sent off to help somebody else, so you filed it away for later. 

As the night wore on, the wounded continued to pour in, and you worked tirelessly to save as many lives as you could. Blood and sweat mingled on your forehead as you struggled to keep up with the constant flow of patients.

You were jolted out of your thoughts by the sound of someone calling your name. It was Anakin, his face twisted in pain. You rushed to his side, using the Force to assess his injuries. He had a deep cut across his abdomen, and it was bleeding profusely. 

You didn't hesitate, you got to work immediately. You used the Force to steady your hands and focused all your energy on healing him. You ripped open his robes without thought or shame, didn't even register a word he said. It was as if time slowed down as you worked, your mind and body working in perfect harmony as you stitched him up. Anakin's pain slowly began to subside, and he looked up at you gratefully. But you didn’t dare to look him in the eye. You couldn’t.

The fighting didn’t start to die down unto the dawn broke and it was forever before you were finished. Finally you were able to excuse yourself, you made your way into the bathroom, desperate for a moment alone, a moment to breathe. 

But the universe was not so kind. For the second time that day you heard a familiar voice calling your name. It was Anakin, battered and bruised but alive. He had clearly gone back out into the fight after you patched him up, but that was hours ago. Since then he had acquired an injury on his wrist, which someone else must have bandaged for him. Or perhaps he did it himself... It was roughly done with a part of his sleeve, that man...

He looked so concerned, so panicked by you as you turned around. With urgency he gripped at your arms, "Y/N, what happened to you? Who did this? I thought you would be staying in here, safe!"

"What?" You ask, tired and bewildered by his sudden energy. He was still looking at you in horror so you look down too. You understood his confusion then, you were covered in blood.

It wasn't even a splattering, it was like you had been dipped in it. 

You looked at your own hands, they were shaking and trembling. The sight of the blood, the smell of it, were overwhelming you. You felt like you were going to be sick. You had been so busy helping others that you had forgotten to take care of yourself. You had forgotten to eat or drink anything, forgotten to rest. You had been running on adrenaline for hours, and now it was catching up to you. You felt weak and dizzy, and you knew you needed to sit down before you collapsed.

"None of it's mine, I..." Anakin helped you through an alcove, to rocky outcrop for you to sit and knelt down in front of you, gripping your hands and squeezing, trying to keep you in this reality. He could see the exhaustion and trauma in your eyes. He wondered at whoever had cleared you for this mission. He had been battle-worn since he was a child but you... You weren't meant to this, he was supposed to protect you. 

He sat next to you, his arm around your shoulders, and held you close. You leaned into him, feeling safe and protected in his embrace. You closed your eyes and focused on your breathing, feeling the tension slowly leaving your body.

After a few minutes of him wiping your hair off your face and whispering things in your ear you were calmed, turning to kiss him of the cheek. 

"I'm sorry. I should be better at this by now."

He shook his head, unable to conjure the words. You take his silence for understanding and unconsciously start to play with his fingers, reminding yourself of his injury. Without a word you undo his make-shift bandage and sigh deeply at him.

"This needs stitches."

"I know, I was going to worry about it later."

You smile at him in a way which conveys your affection, your concern, your love, all at once. And he lets you stand.

You reach into the pocket of your apron, quite a feat with the dried blood, and mercifully your personal medi-kit was in a usable condition. 

The sight of his blood didn't phase you, this, at least, was familiar. Anakin watched you intently, his eyes soft and tender. 

"There was a Padawan earlier. Maybe you knew him? Young, dark hair…" You question him,

"I know. I saw him get caught up in a shell. And in the hospital. I can't remember his name. You saved so many lives today.” His hand comes to cup your cheek. 

You nod, still silent. 

He could feel the weight of your exhaustion and it made his heart ache. He leant forward, and with an unfamiliarly determined want he said; "If I could, I'd make sure nobody died. I would stop it if I had the power. I would stop everything." 

"Well you can't." 

"Why can't I?" 

"Don't be ridiculous, it doesn't help. No one can control that, no one can control death." Your own words were your solution and the weight of the boys death lifted slightly. 

Anakin paused his thoughts when he saw you relax. He knew that he would never be as strong and capable as you were, never so wise. He would always need you by his side to reign in the part of him that wanted those things. You, who had so much care for the world around you yet did not try to control it, so neither should he.

You finished wrapping his hand and held it up to your lips for a kiss. 

"Thank you," he whispered.

You smiled at him, feeling your heart swell with love and affection for him. You knew that you couldn't do this without him, that he was your rock in times of trouble. You felt grateful for his presence, for his love, for his strength. 

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #55 – The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

Introduction

The Spear Cuts Through Water was one of my favorite reads of last year, and I’ve been meaning to get around to Jimenez’ other work basically since I finished it. Months and months later, my TBR pile and the library’s hold queue cooperated and I finally got around to it. Of the two, you can definitely tell Birds is the debut novel, but despite the roughness I can’t help feeling like it's also the one I prefer. I do have complaints (of which, more below), and the story certainly has issues with structure and allocation of wordcount, but this really is the rare book where I feel no compunctions whatsoever giving five stars.

Knowing myself, this isn’t entirely unrelated to how fucking heartbreaking it is at points.

Synopsis

To brutally over-summarize, the book follows Nia, a starship captain hauling crops on a freight route from a ‘resource world’ to Pelican Station, one of the great centers of human civilization and Allied Space. Due to the peculiarities of faster than light travel, the round trip that is for her and her crew experienced as a span of months is for the people at both endpoints an absence of fifteen years – a convenient way for her to keep making the same mistakes as far as personal connections and relationships go. On the last loop of the route before her contract is completed, she finds herself taking care of a mute, deeply traumatized young boy discovered miraculously unharmed by the locals in what seemed like a fiery wreck. The boy – at first nonverbal, inexplicably a musical savant, deeply traumatized and mysterious in a hundred different ways – finds his way into her heart to the point that even after they return to Pelican and he’s been turned over to the security services, she can’t stop trying to find out what happened to him and making sure he’s alright.

It’s at this point that the two of them come to the attention of Fumiko Nakajima, the Millennium Woman – designer of the five great stations at the heart of Allied Space, and (thanks to the magic of cryo-sleep and FTL time differentials) one of the last survivors of long-dead Earth. She sees in the boy the possibility of something miraculous – truly instant interstellar travel – and so hires Nia and a few reliable agents to take him into Fringe Space, safely out of view of any of her ‘friends and colleagues’ who might take a similar interest in him. For fifteen years. The story then reveals itself to be one of, basically, child-rearing and coming of age – at least until the moment where the child’s miraculous abilities really do reveal themselves, and all at once things get much, much deadlier.

Structure

The book is – not quite incoherent (the thesis is very clear), but certainly unfocused. At first I thought that was rather the point – the first three chapters are each incredibly effective, melancholic short stories in their own rights'; each leapfrogging into the perspective of a character whose actions or legacy shaped the previous, but with dramatically different casts, setting and plots. These are almost certainly the most aesthetically successful and artistically disciplined sections of the book, and as I read them I assumed it would continue in the same vein for the entire book.

It does not – the book settles very firmly into being the story of Nia and the boy who is later named Ahro. The middle of the book is an almost light-hearted coming of age story, spread across the years Ahro spends growing up in the Galactic fringe with his ragtag accidental family. The final act then dramatically shifts tone again, becoming largely about recovering from betrayal and the destruction of your life, and of striving in defiance of all sense and reason to reconnect with someone you love.

There are, then, three very different vibes here, and I can’t say the shifts between them are handled with the most grace in the world. The book absolutely never stops experimenting with style either, shifting voice, perspective, level of detail, and even format (several chapters are relayed as diary entries) basically whenever the mood strikes it. It absolutely feels like an incredibly talented author showing off a bit beyond their limits – you can see the seams, the allocation of effort between the parts is...questionable, and there are a couple vital characters/subplots who just needed another chapter or two of focus – but it’s the sort of messiness that leaves me incredibly endeared.

Love, and its Discontents

Those first three chapters are essentially short stories connected by setting and a character or two – but most of all they’re connected by theme. Each is, one way or another, the story of the protagonist falling in love – the sort of love that defines a life, that cuts you to the core whenever you remember it – and then having that love fail, leaving the lover damaged or lessened in a way that never quite heals.

Things do not stay quite so melancholic, but for a story whose whole climax is centered around the quite literally metaphysical and reality-shaking power of pure love this book has a bracingly tragic sensibility of it. Love is hopelessly one-sided, or turns rancid with resentment for just long enough to make sure it can never be restored again. Romances end in betrayal and murder, bonds both sororial and paternal in half-thoughtless abandonment, soul-deep friendships in vicious arguments and a severing of ties. Love, the book says, is deeply contingent and often more transitory than it seems – and if it isn’t, that can do far more harm than good.

Nia as a protagonist has plenty of baggage about this. She’s introduced as a woman with deep abandonment issues – that is, she keeps abandoning people and then feeling bad about it (her ship is the Debby, after the kid sister who lived and died seeing her for a few days every fifteen years due to the time lag of interstellar shipping). She latches onto protecting and caring for Ahro almost more as an attempt at redemption for herself as anything about the boy himself, it’s only over time she really grows to love him as more than a talisman.

I can’t say it was particularly well-spent time, but the book does something I love at least the idea of. Nia’s crew is introduced in the second chapter with a fair amount of detail and personality, each of them having little idiosyncrasies and distinguishing habits and virtues; one is a best friend she found stranded on a wrecked hulk and nursed back to health. The whole dynamic is that of the grumbling and bickering but affectionate found family crew you’ve seen in a thousand other stories. So when she commits to spend up to fifteen years of her life taking care of Ahro on the galactic fringe in exchange for truly unbelievable amounts of money, she sits down with them, tells them the score, and asks them if they trust her enough to come with her.

And all but one of them say no, and never show up in the story again. Which is possibly the first time I have ever seen that kind of scene not end with re-commitment and affirmations of trust from at least most of the real characters that were asked.

This makes the whole found family situation with Nia, Ahro and (most of) the second crew that do spend years in the outskirts of ‘civilized’ space with them works for me far, far better than these things usually do. Because, unlike functionally every piece of fiction I can think of that’s ever been promoted as being about found families, this one really does sell it as something precious and exceptional, rare and worth fighting to preserve.

It also gets all but three of the people involved killed, of course, and of those three one’s permanently crippled and death would probably have been kinder for the second. The book’s really big on stretching ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ to the absolute breaking point – right up to someone choosing not to die despite an existence of nothing but torture and pain just for the infinitesimal bit of hope and connection of a loved one singing through the prison bars.

The Banality of Evil

The villain of the piece is, without question, the monolithic and monopolistic Umbai Corporation, something between a neocolonialist conglomerate and a sovereign, expansionist empire in the classic sense with a few affectations from its earthborn roots (the specifics of the politics of Allied Space are vague and in any case more impressionistic than anything like a detailed speculative political economy). Which is kind of fascinating, in that it is specifically the Corporation as a corporate body that is the villain – agency and responsibility are spread across whole bodies of Allied nobility and corporate Judiciary officials, armored Yellowjacket thugs and career-minded techs and surgeons. There’s no CEO or President, no Board of Directors who set the agenda and bear ultimate responsibility – there’s no face to it at all, really. I’m fairly sure no agent of the company ever even appears twice. Which is just interesting on its own terms, given Umbai as an entity defines both the setting and the plot to dramatic degrees.

The world of the Vanished Birds is a horrifying dystopia in a hundred different ways, but until the very end of the book this just isn’t really something any of the characters particularly care about. It’s in the incidental details and the little asides in the exposition – that there is a great apparatus of censorship on every Allied world dedicated to controlling and slowing the rate of linguistic drift to ease the flow of time-shifted commerce, that the culture and economy of Umbai ‘Resource Worlds’ are societies deliberately starved of information and culturally engineered to be easily managed and quiescent single-commodity resource exporters. Even in the distant past, Umbai and institutions like it used their control over the Ark Ships escaping earth to filter the species – denying berths to (among a great many other things) anyone of ‘problematic’ politics or who seemed likely to be an economic burden.

It’s a universe where this system seems to spread inevitably and irresistibly, everything valuable bought up and parceled out for the benefit of the system’s functionaries diligent enough to save for occasional vacations, and the nobles and officials in the vaunted heights of far-off stations and City-Planets (the allegorical applicability is left as an exercise for the reader, a bit of restraint I did appreciate).

It is, again, not a system that’s worth analyzing as a speculative political economy or technical exploration of neocolonialism either present or future – but it’s not trying to be, either. And it works very well at seeming like a real, functioning world that the characters are just trying to live in.

The Anthropocene

Going off where most of its wordcount is spent, I’m not sure you could really call Birds climate fiction. But if someone was making that argument, I’m not sure you have too much ground to stand on arguing you shouldn’t either.

Fumiko’s first chapter, read as a stand-alone short story, absolutely is – the story of a love affair between genius savant designing the great orbital habitats which will sustain a lucky slice of humanity in the stars, and a talented but less world-shaping scientist doing what she can to lighten the burden of the remaining four fifths of the species being left behind upon the increasingly uninhabitable earth. This is where the book’s title comes from – the gradual disappearance of the birds Fumiko loved as a child, even from the sanctuary trying so ferociously to preserve them.

The world presented in that chapter feels just barely familiar enough to be unsettling, a scarred and fortified world that’s still on a clear and irreversible decline – which might be either chicken or egg to the fact that the commanding heights of government and industry have given up trying to save it entirely to focus on an escape to the stars.

For the rest of the book, environmental collapse isn’t really a topic that much comes up – though the human shaping of and impact on the environment certainly does. It’s just largely a matter of deliberate engineering.

There is, however, a very easy allegorical reading of the fact that on discovery of a way to travel instantaneously between stars, Umbai ruthlessly exploits and monopolizes it to attain unprecedented degrees of power and wealth as they reshape the entire galactic economy – all of galactic civilization, really – around the new technology. All without the slightest thought or care that this new technology is based on harvesting a specific and finite resource and their brave new world will collapse entirely without it. Omelas-child instead of oil but still – not exactly subtle, but I do appreciate the book restraining itself from directly and explicitly pointing it out.

Fumiko

The ‘millennium woman’ is probably the most interesting single character in the book, and also almost certainly the biggest structural weakness in the whole thing. Which is annoying to me, personally. She simultaneously has some of the best chapters of the book and also ends up feeling like a ball being tossed around as the plot requires.

Her Methuselah existence is only vaguely justified and explained, and it’s entirely unclear just how exceptional she is (beyond the fact she isn’t unique, anyway) – the story never even gestures to the existence of any of her peers beyond vague mentions of the Umbai executive class or Allied nobility. She’s an oligarch-savant with nigh-infinite resources and cadres of loyalists installed in every institution worth owning – until a single mistake is made and the powers that be unite in a perfectly coordinated strike to kill them all and leave her stranded in the torn up ruins of her private research colonies among the corpses of two thousand executed minions.

A character being ruthlessly crushed without warning or chance of contesting it by the powers that be rings more true when the character isn’t one of them, I suppose? As it was, it felt like being dropped into the climax of a story without any of the rising action.

The effect is, I think, at least mostly intentional. The entire chapter is about Fumiko being so distracted with the failures of her memory and a complete preoccupation with her latest project (Ahro) that she cannot even pretend to remember or care about this whole vast infrastructure she has built up for her own advancement and curiosity, or the hundreds of followers who treat her as a living saint (to the point of not even remembering her friend, confidant and second in command until the moment before he’s executed for, in essence, her failing to consider the consequences of breaking a minion’s heart). The fact that there’s a battlecruiser en route to bury everything she’s built in napalm and she just forgot to do anything to prepare is actually very plausible. In which case, I just wish it had been ore dwelt upon and made a point of. Or just – it felt like she really needed another chapter or two from her POV before things go horribly wrong, I suppose?

Her chapters are very well-done and affecting, to be clear. And her mirrored character arc with Nia – both women who get a certain pleasure out of other people caring about and being more invested in them than they are in return, both dealing cosmically poorly with rejection, both forever decorating their life in half-conscious memory of someone they left behind – is both well done and compelling (Nia gets better, Fumiko’s story in an elaborate murder-suicide/terrorist attack).

Too Long; Didn’t Read

Beautiful, emotionally affecting book. Very much a debut work from a talented author – experimenting and showing off a bit more than be supported, some fundamental structural weaknesses – but nothing I found detracted from the experience. Actually one of the quite rare books where sitting down and writing out a review has made me like it more rather than less.

[leuke-rants]

Despite creating this account to complain about TROTSH, I want to talk about other pieces of media that I have an issue with.

Case and point, Assassination Classroom:

I absolutely hate the fanon Asanos !!!

TW: MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE/ SUICIDE/ SUICIDAL THOUGHTS/ SELF HARM

They way the fandom sees and portrays Gakushuu and Gakuho is not only completely wrong but also pretty disgusting and disturbing.

Gakushuu suffers from what I call "The Draco Malfoy Effect", basically a character who isn't exactly the nicest, this character may have done some pretty bad things and most of the time they are villians/antagonists.

Gakushuu along with his father act as antagonists within the story and will do anything to achieve their goals. Both want to keep class E at the bottom of the school hierarchy and are obsessed with winning and maintaining the status quo.

Despite this Gakushuu has shown to be different from his father. Unlike Gakuho who will go to the extremes in order to achieve victory Gakushuu has lines he won't cross.

He refuses to poison the food class E has prepared and even calls the principal out on it, despite losing at the sports tournament he recognises that he and the others tried their best and doesn't let that one failure get to him and most importantly: he comes to the realisation that his father is bat-shit crazy and makes it his mission to destroy his philosophy.

In the end he swallows his pride and asks class E to "assassinate" his father's philosophy and is pleased to see that they succeeded. He stands up to Gakuho in frond of the whole class and isn't too bothered when he gets hit because this shows that his father's hold on the school is starting to crumble.

All of his personality gets stripped away from him the moment the fandom gets involved. People boil down Gakushuu's character to an uwu, sad and depressed boy who wants to kill himself because daddy is mean to him. They portray him as this omega male who needs his alpha bad boy boyfriend to save him because he is incapable of doing it himself.

Seriously, go to AO3 and search on the Gakushuu Asano tag and you"ll see what I am talking about. 90% of his fanfics are about Gakushuu being suicidal, harming himself, attempting suicide, committing suicide and just being sad.

What disgusts me the most is the way the authors handle such sensitive topics. They make Gakushuu go through all this pain just so that Karma can comfort and sweep him off his feet . In other words, they use suicide and self harm to push a ship wich is very gross. They also write Gakushuu committing suicide as a way for him to get back at his father, as if people in real life kill themselves because they want to piss off or traumatize people. Absolutely disgusting!

Gakuho's portrayal isn't any better.

At best he is seen as a neglectful father who doesn't care about his son and at worst people portray him as this evil man who hates his own child and beats him on the daily and only cares about himself.

I seriously don't understand why people think Gakuho hates his son because this isn't true.

The reason why Gakuho is so strict with his students and especially with Gakushuu is because he doesn't want any of them to end up dead like Ikeda.

The whole reason he built the school and created such an antagonistic and hostile environment is that so his students and son will grow strong at a young age and won't have to suffer like Ikeda did.

Does this excuse his actions? Absolutely not!! Despite being traumatised by his students death, Gakuho has taken things too far and has created a system that expects nothing but perfection and the students in that system are pitted against eachother for the top.

Long story short, Gakuho is not a good person and has done some horrible things, but he isn't pure evil. He doesn't beat up his son and doesn't hate him, if anything he loves Gakushuu too much (it is canon that once you make him talk about his son he won't shut up about how great his boy is) and wants to make sure he doesn't repeat the same mistakes he made with Ikeda.

In conclusion,both Gakushuu and Gakuho are complicated characters with complicated emotions who the fandom boils down to a stereotype because they lack media literacy and it pisses me off!

[miraclesabound]

Spoiler-Heavy Review/Thoughts on "The Last Voyage of the Demeter"

The crowd at the theater grew to about 15, so still pretty quiet.

Short version is that I enjoyed this movie thoroughly, but it is truly gruesome. The entry will start below the cut with spoilery warnings, because even having read the book, there were some things that caught me off guard.

Warnings for this film include:

trafficking of a young woman as a blood bag/bride for Dracula

Use of racial slurs against both a Black and a Romani character

deaths of all animals on board, including livestock and a young boy's beloved dog - shown with full gore

death of three crew members by burning in the sun after vampiric possession, including the young boy (the captain's grandson)

One of those three choosing sunlight as their method of suicide rather than allowing themselves to fully turn into a beat.

In fact, no one dies peacefully - this version of Dracula is emphasized as truly beastly, relishing the fear of his victims.

I know we've all been rooting for the Captain (named Captain Elliot in this version), but the true protagonist is Mr. Clemens, played by Corey Hawkins. We never get his first name, but we learn that he's a Black English doctor making his way home from Bulgaria/Romania, and he offers his services to Captain Elliot when a previously hired hand refuses to touch anything marked with Dracula's symbol - the stamp of a black dragon.

Other characters include: Captain Elliot and his young grandson Toby, Anna, the young woman given to Dracula as a captive by her village, and the men of the crew, all of whom have sailed with Captain Elliot before.

Then of course, there's Dracula himself. I saw some reviews saying he's shown far too early in the movie - but it worked for me. We find out that Anna was locked in his coffin with him and was meant to sustain him for the whole voyage - so when we see Dracula, he's weak and wracked with hunger for losing his food supply when Clemens finds Anna and starts treating her. Since we see him like that early, there's room for him to grow to almost full power as he burns through the animals and then the crew.

I enjoyed just about every performance in the film, but Corey Hawkins (Clemens), Javier Botet (Dracula), and Woody Norman (Toby) were particular highlights. Clemens is your classic cynical scientist with a heart of gold, Dracula speaks less than you would expect but still has that taunting air, and Toby doesn't read as older than he's supposed to be.

As story beats go, I think I appreciated Anna's the most. I've said in my reread of Dracula that I wish modern adaptations did more with the people of Transylvania hating Dracula, and this version presented that in Anna's character. She's lived under Dracula's shadow as long as she can remember, even before her village elders handed her over, and once she's freed and recovered some of her strength, she's finally able to fight back. I'm a sucker for a character who knows they're doomed but still tries to do the right thing, and Anna is that in spades.

THE LIGHTING IN THIS MOVIE WAS ACTUALLY EFFECTIVE!!!! The daytime scenes were vibrant, and all the nights scenes are lit by an enormous full moon and several stars. It makes the shadow work less muddied than you might see in a more modern-style horror movie.

The movie ends with Clemens technically surviving, but still deeply traumatized and literally scarred - he and Anna scuttle the ship and jump overboard, but not until after Dracula has drunk enough from Anna to curse her and he's badly hurt Clemens' neck. Anna gives herself over to the sun so that Clemens can get to shore, and the closing scene is clearly a sequel hook as he hunts for Dracula in London - or perhaps the Count has already realized that Clemens is on his tail. This worked for me because the film stuck with Clemens. I kept expecting him to run into one of the core Dracula characters, and I'm not sure I would have liked that.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying that this was a film I truly enjoyed, and it is a LOVE LETTER to the book's thesis - the supernatural may have come out of hiding, but if we band together, evil may be halted - even for a little while.

Rating: 8.5/10

[14buddy22]

I'll Spend the Rest of My Life Making It Up To You Series

A/N: Part 9! Well - it's over, I hope you like the ending :)

Warnings: Have been the same throughout the story :)

Prev Part // Series Masterlist // Masterlist

After a long talk with Aaron when you got home from your in-laws house, you felt better. He kept telling you it wasn’t your fault and as long as you were okay with it, they could work something out where Bob and Carol would still be allowed to see Mason, just as long as Jake wasn’t around.

You didn’t realize how fast your court date would come. A lot of prep, a lot of crying, a lot of hugs from Aaron. A lot of comfort from Mason and Jack. 

Sleepless nights. Lots of them. 

You were up at 2am, sitting on the couch, watching a movie, not able to sleep. Court was the next morning at 9am. Luckily not a 7 or 8am start, so you could have time to be with the boys before you had to go relieve the traumatic events of your life. 

While sitting on the couch, you didn’t expect Aaron to come out of his room, wide awake. 

“Did I wake you up?”

“No. God, no. I just couldn’t sleep.”

You looked at him and chuckled. You moved the blanket off of you and said, “I couldn’t sleep either. Come sit, we can watch a movie together.”

You were falling in love with Aaron. You never really fell out of love with him to begin with. You had to on the outside, but deep within, you knew your heart always belonged with Aaron. Maybe he felt the same, maybe he didn’t. If he hadn’t left you, there wouldn’t be Haley, and there certainly wouldn’t be Jack. He loves him with everything he has. 

You were taken out of your thoughts as his body slid right next to yours, the blanket finding it’s way over both of you. He was your comfort person. You think he always was. Aaron and of course, Mason. They were your comfort people. And now, you’d be adding Jack into that mix of comfort people. 

At one point in your life, you did find comfort in Jake. But that was only a short amount of time 10 years ago. You found comfort in Jake when you were upset about your broken engagement with Aaron. Jake should have just been a rebound, a hookup at most, how’d you let it get this bad?

“Y/n, you know none of this is your fault. Right? Whatever happens in court, they’re gonna blame you, they’re gonna make you seem like you could’ve gotten out.”

“Could’ve gotten out? Jesus Christ, Aaron! He would have killed me! I think he still would if we weren’t gonna be in court surrounded by cops and the FBI. He almost beat me to death with my son in the house.”

You started crying. You were furious, upset. As you went to pull away from Aaron, he pulled you closer next to him, giving you a tight squeeze. 

“Hey, shh, shh. It’s okay. I’m not saying you could’ve left because I know what he did to you. I read the letters, y/n, trust me. I know. I believe you, hell, I saw what he did to you. I’m just telling you, I worked in court, I handled cases like this, I’ve been in the FBI for too long to know that victims of domestic abuse sometimes don’t always win in court and they end up dying 2 weeks later because their abuser kills them. I’m sure as hell not letting that happen. Whatever happens, we will adjust. If he gets off free, then we’ll play it by year.” 

“Try and get some sleep. Mason will be up in a bit for a bottle, you’ll need to get some sleep for court. Come on. Just close your eyes.”

You didn’t realize that sleeping with Aaron, even on his couch, would be a comfy place for you, some where you’d get your best sleep since the last time you slept with him. 

You awoke the next morning to the smell of breakfast and kids laughing. When you walked into the kitchen, you saw Aaron sitting with the kids at the table, he was feeding Mason and Jack was eating breakfast. 

“Good morning!”

Jack got up from his spot to hug you and you smiled at Aaron. 

“Eat, then get dressed. Jessica’s coming to pick up Jack in 15 minutes. I already showered this morning when I got up with Mason.”

“Did you take the baby monitor from me last night?”

“I did. I wanted you to sleep. Mason got up at 7, I was already up by then.”

Mason wasn’t his son and Aaron was being an amazing father to Mason than Jake ever was. You were lucky you met Aaron all those years ago. You didn’t think you’d be in this situation, you were sure you were going to marry Aaron, but life works in mysterious ways. 

After a morning with the boys, saying goodbye to Jack, getting Mason ready then getting yourself dressed, then making sure Aaron had some time to get dressed as well. It was weird to see him dressed for court, especially when it was your case that he was going to court for. 

He grabbed the diaper bag and he said, “Let’s go.” As you all got in Aaron’s car, you couldn’t help but have a silent car ride there. Just the sound of Mason’s soft snores, Aaron’s hand finding yours in your lap. 

Everything went by in slow motion. Walking into the court house, meeting with your attorney, seeing Aaron’s team there. Some of them going to testify. Walking into the courtroom, seeing Jake.

It felt good knowing today was the day you were going to be getting out of this relationship for good. At least you were hoping you would. You saw Jake sitting with his lawyer. He saw you walke in with Mason and Aaron and your lawyer. Part of you felt bad that Jake couldn’t hold his son, but he had a chance to turn his life around with you. He could have gotten better, you think part of him could. Wait, what were you thinking?. You keep going back to him, you shouldn’t. He hurt you. 

Aaron took Mason out of the carrier and you said, “He’s got extra diapers in there, he really likes his strawberry and banana puffs.”

“Y/n/n, I know. You’ve been living with me for a month. I got this. Just worry about the trial. We’re right behind you.” 

You gave him a soft smile and whispered a thank you. You kissed Mason and then you took a seat at the table. 

Court doesn’t appear like it does in TV shows or movies. There are much more boring moments, you see everything. The judge introducing himself, him talking to the members of the jury about what their roles are, the attorneys introducing themselves, who they are defending, the whole nine yards. 

You watched people go up one by one testifying for you. Then you went up to the stand, and that’s where the madness begins. Putting the victim on the stand, no, not victim, survivor. 

Brian said, “On the stand is Ms. Y/n Y/l/n,”

“Please. Call me Y/n.”

“Y/n, is it true you wrote a series of letters to your past lover, Aaron Hotchner, when you were engaged and married to Jake?”

“Yes, but those were letters I never sent. It was my escape from reality.”

“I’d like to take look at this letter.”

They started reading the letters from when you first met Jake, to when you got engaged to your wedding night. You watched how the jury was reacting. There was one woman who was silently crying. You saw her wipe her cheek. She wasn’t crying enough for everyone to notice, but it was enough to know that what you went through did hurt outsiders looking in. 

Brian handed you a letter and said, “Y/n, why don’t you read this one.”

You held the letter and began reading, 

“Aaron, Well, I don’t know how to say it so I’m just going to say it. I’m pregnant. Yep. I just found out while in my bathroom. I hadn’t felt good these past couple of days, so I decided to take a pregnancy test. You know I’ve always wanted children, but I never wanted children with Jake. I wanted to have children with you. I don’t even know if Jake wants children. Abortion is an option, but I don’t want to get one. I’ve always wanted children and to be a mom and this might be my only chance. The thing is, when this baby was conceived, it wasn’t even conceived out of love. Jake was mad at me. He basically fucked his fustrations out on me. I just have to lay there like I’m some type of sex doll, and I hate it. If I were to tell him no, he’d hit me. So I have to live with this. I’m sorry I hadn’t seen you in a while, it was for the best. Well, for you. Maybe not for me. I’m hoping that when I tell Jake, he’ll be so happy. Maybe he’ll turn around, no longer hit me or abuse me. I hope you and Jack are doing well.”

Aaron was sat with Mason on the benches behind the table where you were supposed to be seated. Derek and Dave both on his sides. His friend had stood up while you were on the stand and said, “Your honor, right now, we’d like to show the court and members of the jury direct evidence of the final piece of physical abuse that Ms. Y/L/N sustained from Jake.”

You looked at Aaron, eyes looking back at yours. He didn’t know what was going on. He thought you gave him every piece of evidence you had against Jake. He looked at you, what hurt you the most was that you never showed this to Aaron. You weren’t about to cry because of the trauma you endured with Jake, but you were getting ready to cry because you saw that Aaron’s heart was gonna break.

Your attorney said, “People of the court, members of the court, people of the jury, I do want to give you a warning that what you see in this video is a heinous act. There will be blood, yelling, etc.”

Dave whispered to Aaron, “Why don’t you go outside and take Mason for a walk.”

“No. No. I’m not leaving her alone. It’s fine. I can control myself. I’m a profiler, Dave. I’m a Unit Chief. I can control my emotions.”

Aaron was cut off by the sound of your voice coming from the video. 

The video had shown you downstairs coming to greet Jake. You had secretly propped your phone up on the counter, hoping to catch him in the act of one of the most disgusting things a man could do to a woman. You wanted to catch him, that way it wouldn’t be hear-say. You know since you’ve seen shows about it, but you also know because your father-in-law was a successful attorney. 

Watching the video up at the stand, you couldn’t help but flinch when the first hit happened. It all comes flooding back to you at once. You had gone to see Aaron. Came back home and Jake flipped. 

When you looked over at Aaron, you saw the tears rolling down his face. How he held Mason tighter, shielding Mason into his chest so Mason couldn’t see. You’ve never seen Aaron this heartbroken before. You hated that you couldn’t hold him in your arms and tell him you’re okay. 

You’d lie to Aaron and tell him that it didn’t hurt, even when it was one of the most painful things you went through. This was one video of abuse, but you had been abused for 10 years prior to this one video clip.

Aaron whispered to Dave, “I could kill him right now. Dave, this is the night I picked her up. She called me after this. Had I known he would’ve done this.”

“Relax, Aaron. Relax.”

Dave put his hand on Aaron’s back, telling him to calm down, don’t make a scene with a baby in his hands.

Looking at Aaron’s face, you saw the anger, the hurt, the guilt, sadness. You saw every emotion he was going through. You didn’t miss the way he wiped his tears away and you certainly didn’t miss the way that your son had saw him upset and leaned into him, and patted his stomach. 

Mason was amazing, he always knew how to calm people down, even if he was just a baby. He was a great profiler, maybe deep down, the universe needed Mason to be like Aaron and you. Maybe Mason was the the baby you and Aaron were meant to have all those years ago. 

You decided to shake the thought. You couldn’t think about them right now. You had a case to win. You wanted justice to be served. You wanted to show everyone who is in an abusive relationship that it’s okay to get out. 

Aaron watched as the video ended, you quickly grabbing the phone, catching a glimpse of your face and the blood running down. He made eye contact with you, whispering an “I’m sorry.”

Brian said, “That’s all, your honor.”

Jake’s lawyer stood up and said, “We have no questions, your honor.”

The judge told you that you could step down and you walked back to sit down at your seat. The judge dismissed the jury and you walked over to hug Aaron. 

Rossi said, “We got sandwiches in a break room. Come on, let’s go have lunch.”

“I’m going to go change Mason and freshen up in the bathroom, okay?”

You took Mason from Aaron and walked into the bathroom, you changed his diaper and fixed your make up. Walking out, you saw Jake. 

“Y/n, please. Let them drop the charges. I’m gonna change. I’ve started going to therapy. I want to raise our son. Look how big he’s gotten.”

“No Jake, you had 10 years to change, and you didn’t. It only got worse.”

Aaron said, “Rossi, the last time he hit her.”

“Um. Aaron, I think we got bigger problems right now.”

Rossi nodded his head towards where you were and Aaron started walking towards you, Jake, and Mason. Rossi following right behind him. 

“You’re not supposed to talk to her.”

“Aaron Hotchner. What a man. This is the guy who left you?”

“Jake, just drop it. Go with your lawyer, I’m going with mine.”

Jake stepped closer and said, “Is she as good in bed as when you first had her? I worked her open for you, turned her into a whore.”

“Don’t speak about her like that.”

“You know, you won. You got her back, you get my son, you won.”

“Good, because you never deserved her. You never deserved her love, affection, for her to be the mother of your child. You never deserved for her to even look at you. She trusted you and you hurt her. You’re a monster and I’m glad your son isn’t going to be around you.”

Jake took a step back and you walked over to Aaron. You started to pull Aaron towards Rossi and Aaron stopped. 

“You know, I didn’t deserve to win either, I broke her heart and me breaking her heart led her to you. And you put her through so much hell, Jake. But this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me. But I’m damn sure gonna spend the rest of my life making it up to her and fixing what you broke. So you know what, I’m glad I won. I’m gonna protect her and Mason from monsters like you.”

Aaron put his hand on your back and you guys walked into the break room. Aaron’s team was playing with Mason and you just sat with him on the couch. Taking everything in. How did Aaron say he didn’t deserve you? Why the hell would Jake even approach Aaron. 

There was a knock on the door, Brian came in and said, “The jury has made a decision.”

“That’s good, right Aar?”

“That’s quick for a jury. Hopefully it is good.”

As everyone got seated back in the courthouse, they went through the usual spiel that you watch on TV shows. The first juror stands and responds back to the judge. Here it is, the verdict. 

“We find the defendant, guilty, on all counts your honor.”

You began to cry. You had won. This battle was over. You’ve won custody of Mason, Jake was going to jail, he would never touch another girl like what he put you through again.

You hugged Brian and then hugged Aaron and Mason. Aaron kissed your cheek and you took Mason. You told Brian you wanted to see Jake before they took him away. 

You walked over to Jake’s table with Mason and Jake said, “I’m sorry for what I did to you Y/n, you didn’t deserve any of it. I know you’re going to be a great mom to Mason. You already are. And Aaron, I can see why you were still in love with him when we first met in that bar 11 years ago. He loves you, don’t let him go. You deserve him after what I did to you. I’m sorry. Can I-can I kiss my son goodbye?”

You looked over at Aaron and he was watching you. You told Jake to sit down and you walked next to him and placed Mason in his arms. Aaron got closer to where you were standing and Rossi pulled him back. Rossi said, “She’s got this Aaron. Let her do this. Let her get some closure.”

“Goodbye Mason, Be good. You’re very lucky to have an amazing mom. Very lucky to have a good dad from here on out.”

Jake kissed Mason on his head and you took Mason back. “Goodbye Jake.”

You walked away. Closing that chapter of your life, opening the next with Aaron. As you went home that evening, Aaron inviting the team over for dinner, letting the kids all hang out, you were cuddled into Aaron. 

Penelope said, “So, now that this is all over, does this mean you two are getting back together again?”

Aaron said, “We’re not in a rush, whatever happens, happens.”

After everyone had gone home, Jack gone to sleepover with Henry at JJ’s house, Mason put to bed, you sat in front of Aaron’s fire place with him. The soft glow of the fire going with the lights you had hung up.

“I’m proud of you, for ending the cycle of abuse. I’m sorry I broke your heart all those years ago, I was scared. I was scared of marrying my best friend, having children with her, and growing old with her. I knew all your deepest darkest secrets. I knew your biggest insecurities and I treated you like shit. You didn’t deserve that, y/n. I am so, so sorry.”

“Did you really mean what you said to Jake? That you didn’t deserve to win?”

“Yeah, because I didn’t. Jake nor I didn’t deserve you.”

“No, you deserve me because I deserve you. I don’t know any other man in this world that would drop everything he had going on in his life to help an ex-fiance. You let me move into an apartment with my 6 month old son at the time.”

“I told you I was going to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I meant it.”

You leaned into Aaron for a kiss. His hand cupping your face. It was a soft, beautiful kiss. It wasn’t long before you and him found yourself stripping your clothes and mkaing love right in front of the fire place. The last time you had made love instead of had sex had been two weeks before your engagement had ended. It was your anniversary with Aaron. There was something meaningful with Aaron, and you had it even after all these years. 

*3 months later*

Things were great. You had a successful teaching job, Mason was thriving, Jack was a great son, and Aaron was amazing. Your little family was great. Aaron wasn’t officially your husband but you were all living together. You and Aaron bought a beautiful house, Derek helped renovate it to make it your dream home. 

You were celebrating Mason’s birthday. He was a year old. It was scary to think that just a year ago, you were in an abusive relationship, giving birth to a baby, alone. Now, you were surrounded by Aaron and Jack and amazing friends and family. What you never thought about was how Mason’s birthday was the day that you wanted to marry Aaron all those years ago. 

You never thought about it until Aaron brought it up to you last month. Mason took very well to Aaron, started calling him dada. It brought tears to Aaron’s eyes, he never knew that Mason and you could fill the void in his heart when Haley passed and when he left you. Jack was amazing and he loved Jack so much, but there was something about adding another child, one that wasn’t biologically his, into the mix. 

Aaron said, “If you’ll clean up, I’ll go get him cleaned up and into his PJs?”

“Sounds good, Aar.”

You watched him walk away and upstairs with Mason. Jack helped you clean up. He was such a great helper with Mason. He was an amazing big brother. You were hoping you could make him a big brother to more siblings, but that would come later down the road, only if Aaron wanted more.

Rossi said, “There’s my baby boy! Look how cute he looks.”

Rossi read his shirt and Mason said, “Mama!”

You turned around and Aaron was walking behind Mason. You knelt to the floor to hug Mason and Mason pointed to his shirt. 

“Will you marry, Daddy?”

You looked up at Aaron and watched as he knelt down to the ground. You held Mason by you and then Jack came to yourside. You were with Aaron and he held out an engagement ring. 

“We’ve been through a lot Y/n, in 20 years, more than anyone else has been through. I’m asking you to marry me, but I’m in no rush to have the big white wedding. I want you to be Mrs. Hotchner. I wanted you to be that 20 years ago, but I was a coward because you were a powerful woman, knowing what you want. I should have stuck with you. You went through hell and back and hell and back just to get where we are today. Let me make it up to you for the rest of my life. I love you, Jack loves you, so, will you marry me?”

“Absolutely I will.”

Aaron slipped the ring on your finger and you put your hands on his face. Pulling him into a kiss. Jack hugged you and Mason hugged him. Your little family was complete. You were so proud of getting out of your relationship with Jake. You and Mason deserved a happy life with Jack and Aaron. You were so proud that this was the outcome you had. 

If there’s ever a doubt in your mind that you deserve better, you do, and you go find it. 

“When it comes to abuse, you believe there’s no way out. There is always help. There is always a way out.” – Donna Mulvey

Tags: @8crazy-freak8 @angelmather1 @rousethemouse @lex13cm @mrs-ssa-hotch @comfortzonequeen

[ladykailitha]

As per usual, super shitty day = unlocking traumatic memory I repressed

So of course, I am projecting that onto comfort characters

Long story short I unlocked maladaptive daydreaming very early in childhood and from the very beginning of primary school I would daydream of my favorite staff figuring out shit wasn't right at home and adopting me. (Obviously would not have been what happened but that's irrelevant)

So now I'm thinking abt little Eddie thinking up grand old stories where his favorite teacher takes him in or like the music teacher helps him out. Bonus points for omegaverse, poor little Eddie out there just trying to find someone who would actually treat him with kindness pups need and deserve.

Also

Reverse! Reverse! (Everybody clap your hands!)

Little Steve accidentally calling one of his nannies mom (extra points if it's in front of his actual parents) and she gets fired bc of that so he locks down those emotions HARD. Skip forward to Claudia Henderson and he is STRUGGLING. He wants her (needs her) to be that parental figure in his life but he CANNOT allow that bc he hurts people and if he thinks of her as his mom then she'll leave him! So he sticks religiously to the social script of polite young man interacting with middle aged woman. He is screaming crying throwing up on the inside bc he just wants to hug her and be hugged but he could never cross that line

Awww... I'm sorry you had a rough day. That sucks. Childhood trauma is the worst!

I think in either situation, Eddie still comes out better than Steve, because he gets love sooner. Eddie doesn't know his unconditional love is coming around that corner. But hooboy, is Wayne waiting with open arms. Scoops him and holds him tight. Doesn't care that he's probably closer to a teenage and an adult this point. Eddie is his now and Al can't have him back. No takesbackies. And when Eddie presents alpha or omega (probably alpha), Wayne gently walks him through it all to be the best he could possibly be.

It will take longer for Steve, but he'll get his unconditional love, too. Because if there is anything Dustin gets from his mom, it's her stubbornness. Pure bullheaded tenaciousness. So once Dustin starts bringing around that Harrington boy, she knows, that's her boy now. Maureen Harrington can go suck a lemon. A whole orchard for all she cares. Steve's her boy now. Maybe not in name and definitely not in blood. But that's her boy and she's going to wrap him up in a blanket, feed him her best chicken noodle soup, and never let him go back to that cold castle ever again. With Steve he'll have already presented by the time he falls in with the Hendersons, but that doesn't stop her any. She'll teach him how to build nests, how to properly scent, how to use scent blockers and which pills to take. She watch over his heats.

[leafith]

🌌IᑎTᖇOᗪᑌᑕTIOᑎ ᑭOᔕT🫀

Hello! This is the main blog of Leaf and Judith, two random creatures from an unknown world. They are just sharing their content there, to make someone smile and to find other weirdos like them.

Do they have a physical look? Yeah, they just don't share it. Why? Because they want curiosity and dramatic mystery, lol.

But you can have their info right here:

Leaf:

Enjoys writing, dancing, reading books, dreamy/mysterious/magic music (examples: ᗩᑌᖇOᖇᗩ, Melanie Martinez, MARINA, Yaelokre);

Has deer horns and ears, she's a quite mysterious figure;

She doesn't like much social media, so she'll be barely seen or heard;

The symbols she uses when she writes are 🌿📜🫀 ;

She can be found on these sites: Quotev (https://www.quotev.com/Leaf17467), Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/TheLeafFromQuotev?utm_source=web&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share_profile).

Judith:

Enjoys drawing, reading random fanfictions and book, rock/grunge (examples: Chris Cornell, Pink Floyd and Cranberries);

Elf. She considers Leaf as her sister, but it's unknown if Leaf reciprocates;

She loves social media and mostly takes care of the blog;

The symbols she uses when she writes are 🍄‍🟫🔷🪻;

She can be found here, and here only!

Other Socials:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/3147gcypd7ko3t6trhaem77ybpfu?si=sX494ECKTJq93qPs9F-BGA

Quotev: https://www.quotev.com/Leaf17467

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/TheLeafFromQuotev?utm_source=web&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share_profile

Other blogs:

@the-leafith-duo-reblogs (reblogging stuff)

@leaf-is-singing-covers (leaf sings covers of songs)

Leaf is a writer of original stories and fanfictions. You can find her works on Quotev and Wattpad!! For now, she has written a Sky: CotL Fanfiction called Fly Until You See The Light, or just FUYSTL or Phewstel, and an original story called Remyandre's Keepers. She plans to make sequels of these stories!

Plots of the stories:

🕯️🪽🪶Fly Until You See The Light (FUYSTL/Phewstel):

Sentinekka, on her thirteenth birthday, the date known for the start of the typical journey in the seven realms, decides to bring her best friend, a fifteen year old who was never allowed to start her journey, through the exploration of the Isle of Dawn onwards...

But different and unexpected, positive and negative, heartbreaking and hilarious things can happen during every journey... What could our girl possibly encounter?

Well, why not find out?

☄️🏔️❄️Remyandre's Keepers (Remyandre/RISK):

Remyandre is a really weird place in a too much normal world, a place where nothing good is seen as a negative trait and where you can finally see yourself as the miracle you are. Or, at least, that's what everyone feels about Remyandre. Only one boy, so different and unsettling, feels scared and confused about himself even in the most welcoming place. And that's what makes him leave. In the meanwhile, his friends and the other Keepers of Remyandre, the creatures who own powers, must find him and complete more missions during a long journey that will change their lives.

Tags:

skytober/skytober2024/skytober 2024 = the word speaks for itself

fly until you see the light/fuystl/phewstel = my sky: cotl fanfiction, Fly Until You See The Light

remyandre's keepers/risk = my original story, Remyandre's Keepers

phewstel in-short = my sky: cotl fanfiction explained in text posts

risk in-short = same thing for Phewstel, but with Remyandre's Keepers

answered= answered ask

original character: *name*

Friends List:

@lunaglitchercc @flamy-t @weirdboi @jassygay @wowiexist0 @askthealphabet @the-doodle-bugs @sophia-does-skits @rosegacha11 @screwzara @crowcussion @moonzie-does-tag-games @sophie-avocado-girl @tsutsuji-picrew @alexandra537264 @hearthstonealderman16pollsblog @2laffy2 @ambertheartist @fretriftle @archerofunspeakablelove @revived-a-skykid @eminsunnytoons123 @heavily-traumatized-kyle @anomaliesincats @alaskathestereodemoness @sailorygnim

To be added you just need to become our friend! :)

Fandoms:

Sky: Children of the Light (obsessed!!);

Hazbin Hotel (they like it!);

Leaf is a Warrior & Weirdo (AURORA fan)!

Judith is an Earthling (Melanie Martinez fan)!

The Amazing Digital Circus (they find it interesting);

Gacha (Judith was a Gacha User once);

Five Nights at Freddy's (they love it!);

Many other fandoms... Too lazy to add more, honestly.

Userboxes:

(credits to user boxes creators!!)

Dividers graphics: @saradika-graphics

[ceasarslegion]

You know what, yeah. Inflict her on the masses. I'm not naming her for obvious reasons but you and I both know she deserves it.

This actually isn't the same person you're thinking of

Years ago, I made a Bill and Ted server. Things were chill, except that there were a few people who were. Very weird about jokes in the main server. I'm of the opinion that teenagers can handle a few sex jokes, considering it's not porn and they tend to know what genitals are and the basic concepts of various sexual acts. I very much remember what it was like to be a teenager in that regard, I dont close my eyes to it or pretend that I was an innocent baby until the stroke of midnight on my 18th birthday.

As such, I tend to define 18+ channels in the servers i make as "where you post your porn and how you like to be porked" and things like sex jokes and funny stories of a non-pornographic nature are fine in the main server. And furthermore, I define "pornographic" as "for the purposes of getting off," not "something where sex or nudity exists within."

I have a funny story about a hook up gone wrong where long story short, the girl i was hooking up with accidentally shot directly into my open eyeball. This obviously and immediately killed the mood as I shrieked in pain and we both ran to the washroom to try to flush the baby making juice out of my eye. I was okay, she kept apologizing profusely, it was fine. It became a funny story later.

There was someone in the BnT server who i had told this story to in the past over DMs, and i forgot what I had said prior to this, but it led them to pointing and laughing and saying "SO NOW CUM EYE WANTS TO PREACH TO US" and I yes, anded it by going "SHUT UPPPP IM NOT A LITTLE CUM EYE BOY!! IM NOT!!!"

Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say

Because I immediately got a bunch of messages and pings from this other person shouting about how i was being gross and overly sexual "around minors" and then kept pinging me demanding I delete the entire interaction lest I like, corrupt all these completely innocent 16 year olds (of which there were i think 2) who would just be SCANDALIZED and TRAUMATIZED if they found out that these grown adults had engaged in sexual activities in the past! Honestly how dare I, I basically posted CSAM

[hooked-on-elvis]

"My Boy" (1973-1974)

Recorded on December 13, 1973 at Stax Studios, Memphis · Released on March 20, 1974 · Album: Good Times

MUSICIANS Guitar: James Burton, Johnny Christopher, Charlie Hodge. Bass: Norbert Putnam. Drums: Ronnie Tutt. Piano & Organ: David Briggs, Per-Erik Hallin. Vocals: Kathy Westmoreland, Mary (Jeannie) Greene, Mary Holladay, Susan Pilkington, Voice, J.D. Sumner & The Stamps. OVERDUBS Guitar: Dennis Linde, Alan Rush. Percussion: Rob Galbraith. Piano: Bobby Ogdin. Organ: Randy Cullers. Vocals: Ginger Holladay, Mary Holladay, Mary Cain.

RELEASES In March 1974 "My Boy" was first released on the album "Good Times", and in January 1975 the song came out as Side-A single (backed with "Thinking About You".

The master of “My Boy” was lengthened by splicing on a repeat of the last section.

"MY BOY" — LYRICS Songwriters: Bill Martin/Phil Coulter/Claude Francois/Jean-Pierre Bourtayre You're sleeping son, I know But really, this can't wait I wanted to explain Before it gets too late For your mother and me Love has finally died This is no happy home But God knows how I've tried Because you're all I have, my boy You are my life, my pride, my joy And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy I know it's hard to understand Why did we ever start? We're more like strangers now Each acting out a part I have laughed, I have cried I've lost every game Taken all I can take But I'll stay here just the same Because you're all I have, my boy You are my life, my pride, my joy And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy Sleep on, you haven't heard a word Perhaps it's just as well Why spoil your little dreams Why put you through the hell Life is no fairy tale As one day you will know But now you're just a child I'll stay here and watch you grow Because you're all I have, my boy You are my life, my pride, my joy And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy Because you're all I have, my boy You are my life, my pride, my joy And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy Yeah, because you're all I have, my boy You are my life, my pride, my joy And if I stay, I stay because of you, my boy Oh, because you're all I have

--

TAKES · FROM FIRST TO MASTER

THE TAKE 2 Studio Sessions for RCA · December 13, 1973: Stax Studios, Memphis Please, read what Ernst Jorgensen says about the moment "My Boy" was being recorded, and listen to the take. -- The next night Elvis began with a song from his live repertoire, “My Boy,” which had been included in the August Las Vegas show. The song told the traumatic tale of losing a child through divorce, but Elvis wanted to be done with it fast. When Felton pushed for a third take, he exploded: “I told you to get this goddamn thing in two takes. I can’t sing it no more.” Take three was actually better; it lacked the long fade out Felton wanted, but he knew better than to ask for another, confident that he could loop it in mixing to get the effect he wanted. Excerpt: "Elvis Presley, A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions" by Ernst Jorgensen. Foreword by Peter Guralnick (1998) -- So, when I first read this part of Jorgensen's book I hadn't listen to that take yet, but now that I did I don't take Elvis' comment as "he exploded", do you? If that was Elvis exploding, I have to reconsider a lot of the stories about his supposed short-tempered moments. Just saying. He sounded pretty like just casually commenting rather than snapping at Felton like the description of the moment made it look like. Still, I personally think that comment came for a reason, maybe EP was too polite - or too embarrassed - to show how affected by the lyrics of that song he was. Below is the take two alone, if you prefer to go straight to the point go to min. 3:50.

Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN, on February, 1968. ♥

I must have been the only person in the fandom who hadn't seen this picture before. So cute! I'm meltinnnggg! Is it real? Looks edited, IDK. Anyway, what are your thoughts about Elvis' recording of My Boy? Do you think it had a meaning to him?