#love this anne depiction so much

[annabolinas]

Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970)

edited by me; apologies for any remaining artifacts! I’ve tried to get rid of them all but it’s still somewhat visible in the first picture

First two pics are from episode 1 (”Catherine of Aragon”, written by Rosemary Anne Sisson); the rest are from episode 2 (”Anne Boleyn”, written by Nick Mccarty). Henry VIII was played by Keith Michell, Eustace Chapuys (in the second picture) by Edward Atienza, and Thomas Cranmer (in the last picture) by Bernard Hepton. 

[freddiekluger]

moment of silence for all the goth iwtv fans living their worst nightmare rn. they de-gothed the vampire rockstar and his band formerly known as satan's night out...................... </3

[nedlittle]

4&20 for the book asks

[through tears] haha that's the weed number

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

hmm. i didn't necessarily discover any authors whose entire oeuvre i felt the need to read immediately which is how i would define "author i love". i've been enjoying mimi matthews' belles of london series (the third book is the weakest least of all bc anne is a lesbian and the plot is ass. will read the fourth & final book before the year is out). i think darcy liao had a great debut with make room for love (BUTCH LOVE INTEREST. UNION ORGANIZATION SUBPLOT. RUN DON'T WALK). i need to hold a seance so i can make karleen winsor do the autism test after her research process for forever amber drove me to madness (complimentary). overall i discovered a lot of authors whose work i found very interesting and for whom i will be on the lookout for in the future

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

my most anticipated release was the ministry of time by kaliene bradley which i learned about like. a month before its release and was mildly wary of bc i've found that a lot of franklin expedition-adjacent fiction is Bad. and then it ended up being one of my fave books of the year!!!!!!! i rarely buy new releases bc in this economy a single hardcover costs anywhere from 35-40 canadian dollars (tmot was $34 before tax) and they are heavy but i have no regrets here :)

end of year book asks

[pynkhues]

I would LOVE to read your analysis of louis as byronic hero as apposed to his reading as gothic heroine. lots of the latter and zero of the former in the fandom.

Sure! Mmm, okay, so –

What are we talking about when we talk about Gothic Heroes?  

When we talk about gothic heroes, we’re really talking about three pretty different character archetypes. All three are vital to the genre, but some are more popular in certain subgenres i.e. your Prometheus Hero may be more common in gothic horror, whereas your Byronic Hero might be more likely to be found in gothic romance. That’s not to say they’re exclusive to those subgenres at all, and there is an argument that these archetypes themselves are gendered (in many ways, I think people confuse Anne being an author of the female gothic with Louis being a gothic heroine, but I’ll get into that later), but this is also not necessarily something that’s exclusive.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself, haha, so the three gothic hero archetypes are:

Milton’s Satan who is the classic gothic hero-villain. You can probably guess from the name, but he was originated in John Milton’s 1667 poem, Paradise Lost. He is God’s favourite angel, but God is forced to cast him out of heaven when he rebels against him. As an archetype, he’s a man pretty much defined by his pride, vanity and self-love, usually fucks his way through whatever book or poem he’s in, has a perverted, incestuous family, and a desire to corrupt other people. He’s also defined as being “too weak to choose what is moral and right, and instead chooses what is pleasurable only to him” and his greatest character flaw, in spite of all The Horrors, is that he’s usually easily misguided or led astray. (I would argue that Lestat fits into this archetype pretty neatly, but that’s a whole other post.)

Prometheus who was established as a gothic archetype by Mary Shelley with Frankenstein in 1818. Your Prometheus Hero is basically represented by the quest for knowledge and the overreach of that quest to bring on unintended consequences. He’s tied, of course, to the Prometheus of Greek myth, so you can get elements of that in this character design too in that he can be devious or a trickster, but the most important part of him is that he is split between his extreme intelligence and his sense of rebellion, and that his sense of rebellion and boundary pushing overtakes his intelligence and basically leads to All The Gothic Horrors.

And the Byronic Hero, who as the name implies, was both created by and inspired by the romantic poet, Lord Byron in his semi-autobiographical poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage which was published between 1812-1818. The archetype is kind of an idealized version of himself, and as historian and critic Lord Macaulay wrote, the character is “a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.” Adding to that, he’s often called ‘the gloomy egoist’ as a protagonist type, hates society, is often self-destructive and lives either exiled or in a self-exile, and is a stalwart of gothic literature, but especially gothic romance. Interestingly too, in his most iconic depictions he’s often a) darkly featured and/or not white (Heathcliff being the most obvious example of this given Emily Bronte clearly writes him as either Black or South Asian), and b) is often used to explore queer identity, with Byron himself having been bisexual.

Okay, but what about the Gothic Heroine?

Gothic heroines are less delineated and have had more of an evolution over time, which makes sense, given women have consistently been the main audience of gothic literature and have frequently been the most influential writers of the genre too. The gothic genre sort of ‘officially’ started with Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto and Isabella is largely regarded as the first gothic heroine and the foundation of the archetype, and the book opens even with one of the key defining traits – an innocent, chaste woman without the protection of a family being pursued and persecuted by a man on the rampage.

The gothic heroine was, for years, defined by her lack of agency. She was innocent, chaste, beautiful, curious, plagued by tragedy and often, ultimately, tragic. Isabella survives in The Castle of Otranto, but she’s one of the lucky ones – Cathy dies in Wuthering Heights, Sybil dies in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Justine and Elizabeth both die in Frankenstein, Mina survives in Dracula, but Lucy doesn’t. There’s an argument frequently posited that the gothic genre was, and is, about dead women and the men who mourn them, and Interview with the Vampire certainly lends itself to that pretty neatly.

Of course, the genre has evolved, and in particular by the late 1800s, there was a notable shift in how the Gothic Heroine was depicted. The house became a place of imprisonment where they were further constrained and disempowered, she was infantilized and pathologized and diagnosed as hysterical, and as Avril Horner puts it in her excellent paper, Women, Power and Conflict: the Gothic heroine and ‘Chocolate-box Gothic’, gothic literature of this era “explores “the constraints enforced [by] a patriarchal society that is becoming increasingly nervous about the demands of the ‘New Woman’.”

This was an era where marriage was increasingly understood in feminist circles to be a civil death where women were further subjugated and became the property of their husbands. This was explored through gothic literature as the domestic space evolved into a symbol of patriarchal control in the Female Gothic.

Female Gothic vs Male Gothic

Because here’s the thing – the female gothic and the male gothic are generally understood to be two different subgenres of gothic literature.

While there are plenty of arguments as to what this entails, the basics is that the male gothic is written by men, and usually features graphic horror, rape and the masculine domination of women and often utilises the invasion of women’s spaces as a symbol of further penetrating their bodies, while the female gothic is written by women, and usually features graphic terror, as opposed to horror, while delving more specifically into gender politics. More than that though, its heroines are usually victimized, virginial and powerless while being pursued by villainous men.

The Female Gothic as a genre is also specifically interested in the passage from girlhood to female maturity, and does view the house as a place of entrapment, but she is usually suddenly “threatened with imprisonment in a castle or a great house under the control of a powerful male figure who gave her no chance to escape.”

That’s not Louis’ arc, that’s Claudia’s arc twice over, first with the house at Rue Royale, then with the Paris Coven, and Lestat and Armand aren’t the only powerful male figures who imprison her.

Claudia as the Gothic Heroine

Claudia in many ways is the absolute embodiment of the classic gothic heroine. Even the moment of their meeting is a product of Louis’ Byronic heroism – his act of implacable revenge against the Alderman Fenwick which prompts the rioting that almost kills her. She’s a victim of Louis’ monstrousness before they’ve even met, and while he saves her, he arguably does something worse in trapping her in the house with both himself and Lestat, holding her in an ever-virginal, ever-chaste eternal girlhood, playing into Lestat’s Milton-Satan by enhancing the perversion of family and ultimately infantilizing her out of his own desire for familial closeness.

Claudia has no family protection before Louis and Lestat – a staple of the gothic heroine – she is completely dependent on them in her actual girlhood, and again in adulthood, never developing the strength to be able to turn a companion, to say nothing about the sly lines here and there that further diminish and pathologise her (Lestat calling her histrionic, Louis making her out to be a burden, etc.). This is all further compounded again with the Coven, and when the tragedy of her life ultimately leads to the tragedy of her death.  

Louis as the Byronic Hero

Not to start with a quote, but here’s one from The Literary Icon of the Byronic Hero and its Reincarnation in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights:

“Generally speaking, the Byronic hero exhibits several particular characteristics. He does not possess heroic virtues in the usual, traditional sense. He is a well-educated, intelligent and sophisticated young man, sometimes a nobleman by birth, who at the same time manifests signs of rebellion against all fundamental values and moral codes of the society. Despite his obvious charm and attractiveness, the Byronic hero often shows a great deal of disrespect for any figure of authority. He was considered "the supreme embodiment [...] standing not only against a dehumanized system of labor but also against traditionally repressive religious, social, and familial institutions" (Moglen, 1976: 28).

The Byronic hero is usually a social outcast, a wanderer, or is in exile of some kind, one imposed upon him by some external forces or self-imposed. He also shows an obvious tendency to be arrogant, cunning, cynical, and unrepentant for his faults. He often indulges himself in self destructive activities that bring him to the point of nihilism resulting in his rebellion against life itself. He is hypersensitive, melancholic, introspective, emotionally conflicted, but at the same time mysterious, charismatic, seductive and sexually attractive.”

Louis as he exists in the show to me is pretty much all of those things, and I think to argue that he’s a gothic heroine not only diminishes Claudia’s arc, but robs Louis of his agency within his own story. Louis chooses Lestat, over and over again, he’s not imprisoned by the monster in the domestic sphere, he is one of the monsters who’s controlling the household, including making decisions of when they bring a child into it and when Lestat gets to live in it – he wanted to be turned, he wanted to live with Lestat in Rue Royale, and while there are certainly arguments to be made about their power dynamic within the household in the NOLA era, importantly Louis actually gained social power through his marriage to Lestat, particularly through The Azaelia, he didn’t lose it in the way that’s vital to the story of the gothic heroine.

Daniel Hart even said it in a recent twitter thread about Long Face, but there is an element of Lestat and Louis’ relationship that is transactional, and to me, for that to exist, they both have to have a degree of control over their circumstances and choices in order to negotiate those transactions. Claudia is the one who can’t, she’s the one who’s treated effectively as property, and she’s the one who lacks control over her circumstances.

While you could perhaps argue the constraints of the apartment in Dubai lend more to the gothic heroine archetype, I’d argue it as furthering the Byronic trope again by being representative both of Louis’ self-destruction and self-imposed exile. As Jacob has said a few times, Louis does seem to have known to a degree that Armand was involved in Claudia’s death on some level, and it’s that guilt and misery that has him allowing Armand his degree of control. The fact that Louis was able to leave Armand as easily and as definitively as he was I think demonstrates that distinction too – after all, to compare that ending to Claudia’s multiple attempts to leave the confines of the patriarchal house, both in Rue Royale and Paris, which were punished at every turn – first by her rape, then by Lestat dragging her back off the train, and then by the Coven orchestrating her murder.

Louis gets to leave because Louis can leave, he has both the social and narrative power to, and the fact that he does is, to me, completely at odds with the gothic heroine. Louis can, and does advocate for himself, Louis is proud, moody, cynical. Defiance is a key part of his character, just as his exile from NOLA society due to his race, and his chosen rejection of vampire society in Paris, is. He’s intelligent and sophisticated, travels the world, and has misery in his heart, guilt that eats him up, and self-destructive tendencies. That’s a Byronic Hero, baby!  

[kybelles]

NOTES FROM PACAT’S LATEST M&G

(FEB 1, 2025, SYDNEY)

Akielos Research: She joked that her main historical research question was "what era had the hottest weather/clothes?" leading her to choose ancient Greece for Akielos. She discovered historians haven’t figured out if ancient Greeks wore underwear—deciding Damen must for practical reasons, like preventing chafing while riding.

Vere’s Setting: She was fascinated by late medieval France and chose "Laurent" for the name, so he had to be French. Akielos and Vere were inspired by various historical settings but don’t strictly adhere to realism. They are pastiches of many different places. She had to avoid certain anachronisms, like naval technology, to keep the world-building consistent.

Capri’s Origins & Writing Journey: She started writing Capri on LiveJournal without expecting it to be published, and wasn’t concerned with being politically correct or censoring herself. Having grown up with a violent childhood, fantasy offered her an escape. The final books are almost identical to what she posted online, except for a few name changes (e.g., Rabat became Vere, Margaret became Jokaste).

Writing for Comics & Paragons: She found writing a hero like Superman much harder than villains, as heroes require deep moral consistency—something harder for her because morality is complex and subjective. She believes paragons are essential in literature because they are aspirational figures who show us what good can look like, something missing in the current trend of grimdark and anti-heroes. Her favorite paragons are Wonder Woman followed by Superman.

Romance & Fantasy: As a kid, she resented love interests in stories because she just wanted to read about horses. Despite writing romantasy, she doesn’t read much of it because a lot feels derivative (like Twilight or ACOTAR). She’s critical of the genre’s lack of evolution beyond common tropes—essentially bodice-ripper romance, but with fantastical elements added, and wonders what will come next once readers have exhausted these clichés.

Queer Representation: She’s excited about the current "golden age" of queer publishing, noting how things have changed since her early career, when publishers wouldn't even depict the content of Capri on the cover. However, she’s frustrated that many queer stories still center on sex. She’d love to see stories where a queer character just exists (e.g., a queer detective), without their sexuality being the plot's main focus.

Capri's Writing Process: Capri was originally meant to be one book, but the characters’ deep hatred and evolving relationship required more time to develop into pure love without feeling forced. She intentionally crafted Laurent and Damen as opposites, with each possessing qualities the other lacked. This made them complementary and drew them together, reflecting the “opposites attract” dynamic, where their differences ultimately made them perfect soulmates for each other.

Romantasy vs. Fantasy: She defines romantasy as a subgenre where the romance is so central that the fantasy plot wouldn’t exist without it, whereas in traditional fantasy, the hero's journey can stand alone. Even though she writes romantasy, she doesn’t fully love the genre because it can lack depth beyond the romance.

Book Recommendations & Influences: She enjoys books like American Psycho (a critique of capitalism), The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, The Bell by Iris Murdoch, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and everything by Dorothy Dunnett.

[scoobydoodean]

the thing is i do think dean does misogynistic things i just think counting bitches isnt the way to accomplish analyzing his misogyny. like demon dean did a Bunch of misogyny and this is depicted as unusual for dean because it's primarily when he's a demon, and im not talking about using bitch hes fully calling a woman a slut and treating her like garbage. but the thing is i would actually like to hear similar instances of that coming from non-demon dean's mouth (and im sure they exist, 10x22 and 10x23 don't count to me because he was very obviously deep under the thrall of the mark of cain), but everyone is so focused on counting the number of "bad words" while not approaching any other character that way.

like sam viewing any character that sleeps with dean as a sloppy messy person is legitimately an instance of misogyny to me, even when he calls ruby a bitch im not taking it that seriously bc every character calls other characters the word "bitch" and personally that word doesn't bother me that much (maybe that means i've failed as a woman idk).

but i really struggle thinking of instances where dean is misogynistic to a woman like that, while in his right mind.

unrelated: this is why sam doesn't like castiel, bc he views him as sloppy and messy for wanting to fuck dean.

"does this mean he's being misogynistic to castiel" yes because that's funny to say.

lmaooo misogynistic to castiel CANCEL HIM!!!

This post may be of interest.

As for season 10 demon Dean/MoC Dean, it's actually really interesting when you look at everything holistically, because it isn't as simple as saying MoC/Demon Dean says/does some misogynistic things. He does do that undoubtably. Yet he's also very specifically angry at and violent toward men who mistreat women.

When Demon Dean sees a man (perhaps an ex boyfriend) mistreating Ann Marie (and we get the vibe that this man is stalking her) Demon Dean beats the fuck out of him. When Crowley asks Demon Dean to handle a contract for him, Demon Dean immediately clocks that the client (Lester) who wants his wife murdered cheated on his wife first and now wants her dead for cheating back. Demon Dean climbs into Lester's car and points this out to him. When Lester says "It's different when guys do it", Demon Dean rolls his eyes, scoffs, and then punches Lester in the face so hard it knocks out his tooth, then he murders him, breaking the contract he was supposed to fulfill. When a group of men try to traffic Claire, MoC Dean ends up blacking out and slaughtering all of them. When MoC Dean realizes in "Girls, Girls, Girls" that he's on a date with prostitute who wants payment for sex, though we know Dean isn't necessarily against sex work in general, he instantly clocks that Shaylene is not happy with the situation she's in, and his gentle tone when he says she doesn't look like she actually loves her job leads her to open up to him about being forced into sex work by demons. When MoC Dean finds a man who hurt Claire in 10.20, who then proceeds to call her a bitch in defense of his actions, MoC Dean slams his head into a table for insulting her. While MoC Dean's handling of the case of the dead girl 10.22 is clearly delivered through a misogynistic lens, just by looking at a photo, he clocks her father as having abused her and ends up blaming him for what happened to his daughter (and I'll come back to this in a moment).

So we have demon dean telling the woman he's sleeping with that he sleeps with every skank in every small town dive he passes through (which btw—is not even remotely true of regular Dean), and Demon Dean getting grabby with a stripper, and MoC Dean in 10.23 at first victim blaming a murder victim because of the clothes she was wearing, but then we also have... all of the rest of this. And if we look at all of it together, there's much deeper and more interesting questions here than "Is Demon Dean/MoC Dean a misogynist or not and what does that say about regular Dean if anything".

I think we're actually getting insights into 1) Amara's rage at Chuck working through Dean's hands, causing him to react violently to men who imprison/cage the women in their lives physically or psychologically. 2) Amara's rage exacerbating Dean's feeling about his own history with sexual abuse and his problems with John. In 10.09, the same episode where Dean kills the traffickers who targeted Claire, he tells Cas a story (at Sam's behest) about a time he was drugged in a club by adults as a teenager. He snuck out looking for a good time, and he probably figured sex wasn't off the table when a group of women invited him to join their table, and he joined them enthusiastically. He was not cognizant of the fact that a group of adults showing interest in someone who was "way underage" was a blinking neon sign screaming "run". He was plied with alcohol and drugged, and it's made pretty transparent that he would have been raped (and maybe killed or trafficked too) if John had not followed him. Cas concludes that John "saved" Dean, and Dean agrees with that framing at the time, and admonishes his younger self for yelling at his father for "embarrassing" him when he put himself in a foolish situation. In 10.23, MoC Dean encounters the case of a girl who snuck out to meet someone for sex and was kidnapped by a monster. When he first sees her corpse, he says she shouldn't have worn the outfit she had on (and we already know this is completely ooc for regular Dean). But as MoC Dean learns more about the case and when he meets her father, his view of the situation shifts. I created a gifset comparing this scene with the one from 10.09 because I think there's a really interesting connection here. The girl's father suggests that his daughter going out looking for sex would make her a slut. MoC Dean responds, "I'll admit that thought crossed my mind. Then I came here, and I smelled the deceit and the beatings and the shame that pervade this home. And you know what? I don't blame Rose anymore. No wonder she put on that skank outfit and went out there looking for validation, right into the arms of the monster that killed her." His word choices are colorful and carry negative connotations, but he's actually defending her decisions, and at the same time, I think he's reflecting on his own decision as a kid to go out in search of validation to a club where he was nearly raped. It isn't her fault and it wasn't his fault. Their fathers mistreated them and blamed them and failed them, and they went out looking for someone—anyone—to show them care they were starved for.

In the same way, when Demon Dean has this exchange with Ann Marie in 10.01:

ANNEMARIE: I wait tables at a roadhouse. I meet the bad guys. I meet the good guys. And maybe for a second there, I thought you were a good guy playing bad. I don't know. It doesn't matter. Maybe you're just -- DEAN: The kind of guy who sleeps with every skank in every small-town dive that he passes through? Well, you really do know how to read people, 'cause that sure as hell sounds like me.

His language doesn't just suggest she's a skank—it suggests he's a skank. He engages in casual hook ups, and therefore he is a bad person, and she shouldn't look for any sort of redeemable qualities in him. These things obviously aren't true—neither Dean nor Anne Marie are "sullied" by their sexual histories, and their interest in casual sex doesn't make them bad people, but that's one of the narratives of the world Demon Dean accepts at the beginning of the season. By the end of the season, MoC Dean rejects this narrative about him and people like him. The desire for connection through sex doesn't make someone bad or deserving of harm.

[agoodflyting]

A lot of Thoughts about Enver Gortash and the text of Richard III

Ok so William Shakespeare's character of Richard of Gloucester is very much the archetype for the Tyrant in western literature and I just have SO MANY THOUGHTS about the way Enver Gortash wears that particular crown... (Not to mention how the fangirl in me just loves some of Richard's dialogue and could easily see it coming out of Gortash's mouth, and I'm trying so hard NOT to write a whole ass fic just so I can get Gortash to say, "I am not made of stone.")

WHO IS RICHARD III?

In real life, he was the last Plantagenet king of England, and a controversial figure, but I'm just talking about how he's depicted as a character in William Shakespeare's play Richard III (and to a lesser degree in Henry VI) . In Shakespeare's plays he is written as the quintessential scheming, backstabbing, duplicitous tyrant who will stop at nothing to gain and keep power. He concocts a massive plan in which he will manipulate the whole of the English aristocracy into crowning him king, by creating a situation in which they will be so desperate and angry at an imagined enemy that they will beg him to assume power over them. Sound familiar?

"Since I cannot prove a lover (...) I am determined to prove a villain." They have different backgrounds, but with both Richard of Gloucester and Enver Gortash there's a driving current of otherness compared to the ranks of the nobility that they're manipulating. Gortash is from a working class family but clawed his way up to join the ranks of the well-bred elite through cunning and ingenuity (and lots of crime). Richard was born into a noble family, but is physically disabled and is often mocked or insulted for it. In context, Richard uses the phrase 'since I cannot prove a lover' less as a complaint about his love life and more as a general example of how he has doesn't fit in with his peers. Basically, "You don't accept me? I'll make that everyone's problem."

"How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown..." Both of them survived trauma and violence, which was directed at them by people against whom they were powerless at the time. Gortash was sold to Raphael as a child and spent years as a target of every kind of abuse his master deigned to throw at him. Richard saw his father and brother brutally tortured, then murdered by the queen of their country, while he could do nothing to stop it. In both cases they internalized at a young age that violence = power = safety.

"Was ever woman in this humour won? (...) I, that kill'd her husband and his father, to take her in her heart's extremest hate (...) and yet to win her, all the world to nothing!" Both Richard and Gortash are platinum-tier smooth-talkers, who are skilled at getting other people to act the way they want through use of charming words. Richard shoots his shot with Anne despite the fact that she knows full well he murdered her last husband and she literally spent the first half of the scene wishing death on him. But by the end of the scene he's convinced her to marry him. Gortash, similarly, can talk the player character around to siding with him against the Elder Brain in spite of having just spent the first 2 act of the games trying to unravel his evil plots. Why? Because they're both just. that. smooth. They both have a way of manipulating others with a smile and good cheer - they sound so reasonable, even when you KNOW you shouldn't listen to them.

"Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself." Both of them have are underestimated partly because of their ability to be charming, and partly because of their status as outsiders. Gortash because of his working class background, and Richard because of his disabilities. In both cases, there are people who find them repulsive but generally toothless (Queen Elizabeth and Ulder Ravengard respectively) who live to regret it. In both cases there are also people who ring the alarm bell that this creep is up to no good, but who aren't heeded soon enough.

"And thou unfit for any place but hell." "Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it." "Some dungeon." "Your bed-chamber." They both have a little bit of that freak in them and seem to get off on trying to fuck people who want them dead. See: Richard with Anne. Durgetash in general.

"I'll be at charges for a looking-glass, and entertain some score or two of tailors." Gortash and Richard are both exceptionally well-dressed, to the point of vanity. Gortash is described as handsome in the game, but even fans who dig him can admit that he has a very unconventional style of attractiveness. His teeth are discolored, his skin is blotchy, he's pushing late middle age, and he's got the sort of flat features that other fans have pointed out are typical of boxers and other people who've gotten punched in the face a lot. Similarly, Richard is described as hunchbacked and with features so deformed that 'dogs bark at (him) as (he) passes by'. Yet, despite not being conventionally pretty, both of them seem to spend a lot of money on their clothes. ... this is getting long, so I'm going to end this here. Might do a part 2 later if the brainrot is still upon me.

[mothmanssweetsucculentass]

Lmao what’s this? I’m back with more Creepypasta headcanons, this time for Eyeless Jack.

TW for the following: graphic descriptions of cannibalism/murder/gore, depictions of drug abuse, lacing food with sharp objects, body horror, and generally anything you’d expect from horror.

THERE ARE NO CENSORS BEYOND THIS POINT, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DISTRESS CAUSED BY MY WRITING.

Eyeless Jack Headcanons

He/they

Obviously no longer human

Still has a humanoid-ish body

“Died” around 2011, physically 22

Dark gray skin with a faint blue-ish tint

His blood is black. Like it’s basically oil or tar now. Moves much slower and is thicker than normal blood. He hasn’t checked but he’s pretty sure all his organs share the same color and viscosity now. Like that one breed of chicken with black organs y’know?

Long ears

Lots of sharp teeth. Practically a shark mouth

Y’know what, I like you. Gives your EJ a jaw that unhinges, a mouth that rips open, and a second jaw further back in his mouth (eel jaw EJ supremacy)

3+ long black tongues depending on his mood and how well fed they are

Because of the multiple mouth appendages he has a soft lisp and often accidentally bites his tongues since they move involuntarily

Eyes are constantly leaking the black sludge. Clothing/face/belongings are always sticky

Constantly salivating the same substance, just thinner/more liquidy

Wears a surgical mask under his regular mask to combat it

Very good sense of smell

Seriously he could smell a specific blood type in the middle of a massacre of a shit ton of bodies

Can’t swim

Reddish-brown wavy hair, forgets to cut it sometimes so he sometimes has a fluffy mullet

Claws that can’t retract

Wears a black trench coat and dark gray turtleneck when actually going out and doing shit, the black hoodie is lounge clothes

Has a tail!!!! Closest resemblance to a lion tail, but larger

Lots of catlike/animal like behaviors unconsciously. Will sit on any elevated surface

Purrs like holy fuck the first time someone hears him do it they freak out

Can also growl and hiss

Despite the animalistic behaviors and feral demeanor he isn’t above being civilized

Mostly calm. Gets the zoomies after eating tho

And by zoomies I mean he’s more excitable and extroverted for a little while

Has probably ran around the woods like a maniac at least once tho

Besides Nurse Ann, he’s the most medically competent of the pastas. People usually go to him for more major injuries or sicknesses

Despite his constant orifice leakage he tries to be as clean as possible

His lab is SPOTLESS

somehow figured out a way to dilute his face goop to clean it better. No one knows how he does it tho

Is still very much a nerd. Loves reading any kind of book he can get his hands on

Starts going blind if he doesn’t satiate his hunger for flesh and organs

If he goes blind before getting food, he’s able to use echolocation pretty damn well

Can also see thermal outlines of stuff if his vision starts going

Eyes aren’t reflective so it’s pretty funny when he’s gargoyling somewhere in the manor in pitch black and someone walks in and gets startled by him sitting there staring into the void

HOW are his footsteps so silent

Dude you’re 5”8 and have a stockier build how do you not make floorboards creek

Can eat normal food, but poses no nutritional value to him

Can halfway survive off raw animal meat in emergencies, but doesn’t give him enough energy for long

Only fully kills someone about once a month, the rest of the time he’s able to meticulously and stealthily steal a kidney from unsuspecting victims without incident

Not that he hates killing or anything like that, he’s just as violent as the rest of the freaks

But he HATES the feeling of losing control he often gets when he indulges the violent urges. So he holds himself back most of the time

Besides murder and organ harvesting he often goes out to steal medical supplies from houses and smaller town clinics

Remember him being a nerd? Likes to impress people with gross biology trivia. Most are about the human body but he knows a ton of animal facts too

“Did you know flies and roaches can still live without their heads” type shit

Can’t cook for shit. He’s not allowed in the kitchen period after one of his organ jars exploded in the fridge due to air pressure bs. Ruined all the food in there

Stores his organs in four different mini fridges in his room and lab

Kidneys give him the most energy but he enjoys flesh more than organs when it comes to taste

His favorite is cheek meat and anything involving the neck

Loves to burst the carotid artery and mess around with the blood like a sprinkler toy

Gives the bones of any corpse he fully consumes to Slender. Has no idea what he needs the bones for but never cares to ask

Friends/close with Ben, Helen, Liu, Ann, Masky, and Hoody

Has a tolerable relationship with Jeff, Kagekao, Slenderman, the Puppeteer, Jane, and Clockwork

Doesn’t get along with/hates LJ and Nina

Sally is TERRIFIED of him. Y’know cause little kids are scared of the doctor and whatnot. He tries his best to be as unintimidating as possible when around her but she still prefers Ann over him

HATES being called EJ. It’s a horrible nickname. What if he walked up to you and called you legless Larry after cutting off your legs?

Abrosexual

Loves loves loves LOVES doing dissections/vivisections. Has somehow been able to convince or bribe the other undead and non human mansion inhabitants to let him do a vivisection on them at least once.

Ben enjoyed it the most because he’s a freak like that

“And this is your heart” “gross……. can I poke it” “yeah ok”

Is unfortunately able to understand the corrupt scripts of [REDACTED] thanks to the ritual that took his eyes and life. Tries his best to ignore it.

Nightmare haver! Is too stubborn to go to someone like Ben or Slender to get them less frequently even though both could easily help him

Kind of an insomniac anyways but since his face is almost always covered no one notices the eye bags

Usually takes the top layer mask off around his friends, or if the other masked pastas take theirs off around them as a sign of mutual trust

Surgical mask on their face stays on constantly unless eating or doing anything privately

Has to keep the meds locked up because Ben, Masky, and Jeff have drug problems

“STOP trying to get high off Benadryl it’s not even allergy season anymore you don’t need it”

Not a “dad” character he just doesn’t like wasting resources like that

Doesn’t care about the actual habits JUST STOP STEALING HIS MEDS

LJ for some reason keeps stealing any of his used needles and scalpels. Jack’s best bet is he puts the sharp objects in candy. Gross.

He’s befriended Seedeater the same way a zookeeper befriends a large dangerous animal

Both have a mutual understanding Seed is NOT a pet

It hasn’t even let them pet or touch it

Does follow him closely like a dog whenever he walks through the forest for any reason

Jack has witnessed it take down and decapitate a bear with a single bite before

If he ever has leftovers or parts of corpses about to go bad that they can’t eat himself, they feed it to Seed

Has a small collection of the black fur and feathers that naturally shed from Seed’s body

Also collects other odd things like animal bones or human teeth

His favorite weird thing they’ve collected is a taxidermied axolotl stolen from a victim’s home

Is also super blunt

Not out of malice, he just has a very technical straightforward way of thinking

Always asks anyone for consent when doing anything physical like medical procedures or even just nudging someone out of the way if he’s trying to get somewhere

HATES being touched without their permission or knowledge

Will bite if provoked. Will bite as a warning too

[i-stand-unshaken]

Pepper Ann appreciation post

So my bestie recently introduced me to the classic Disney cartoon Pepper Ann that aired from 1997 to 2000.

I'd seen it some as a kid, but for whatever reason I slept on it at the time and in the ensuing decades. Having finally watched the whole thing, and seeing how slept on this show is online? I wanted to make a post telling you why it's well worth checking out.

It's hilarious... much more hilarious than you may think at first glance. It seems like a fairly lowkey little slice of life show (and in several ways is), but the protagonist is such a girlfailure that her exploits always go to some hysterical places. And beyond that, the show gets downright batshit insane. Here's a sampler: Mark Hamill becomes President of the United States. And I'm not talking about a character voiced by Mark Hamill, oh no. It's literally Mark Hamill as voiced by Mark Hamill.

Despite this, the show has so much heart and can be genuinely emotional. It's also not afraid to tackle some mature subjects, like death, cultural appropriation, feminism, and even puberty.

The main characters - Pepper Ann Pearson herself, her best friends Nicky Little and Milo Kamalani, and her mother Lydia and sister Moose - are all very lovable with well-defined personalities who play off each other really well. And it is so refreshing that we have a dude who hangs out with two girls, and there's nothing romantic going on whatsoever. They're just really close platonic friends. (that said I have become shameless Pepper Ann x Nicky trash and this ship has taken over my mind please send help)

On that note, there are practically no unlikable characters. Even the more antagonistic characters are amusing and charming in their own ways.

To elaborate on Pepper Ann herself, she's such a fantastic, unique protagonist. It seems like a shows aimed at girls, especially around the time this one aired, were afraid of depicting their protagonists as anything less than basically perfect. Pepper Ann? Uh-uh. No. She's a total girlfailure who is somehow both REALLY smart and REALLY dumb at the same time (we're talking some WataMote tier cringe comedy at times) and can be a selfish jerk but also has a huge heart. She's just so fun and has an A+ character design and amazing voicework from Kathleen Wilhoite.

There are like zero bad episodes. And it got a proper finale that's a very satisfying and emotional ending.

So yeah, this is just a show that deserves way more love and attention. At least it's on Disney+, but can we get a Complete Series DVD release too?

[mynqzo]

Hey heard you like vampires what are your thoughts on Twilight

it gets an unprecedented amount of hate mostly for being a show with an audience of young women and girls (so therefore people think oh girls like this so ew). its also undeniable that twilight very much shows the progression of how vampires are depicted in media and is an important facet in the history of vampire mythology especially in books/movies. it being a romance movie with cliche and maybe cringe scenes doesn't take away people's right to enjoy it and by extent its version of vampires (id argue that twilight vampires are just a spiritual successor to vampires like lestate or 'romantic vamps' in general)

with that being said, it is the straightest and most mormon vampire depiction which therefore makes it less enjoyable for me! vampires, historically, existed to represent minorities and people who were considered outcasts to 'normal' society and were first and foremost used as caricatures for racist, lgbtq-phobic and sexist stereotypes, so i feel like their reclamation by queers, poc and minorities in general is the only good way to depict them. bram stoker's dracula represented the english man's fear of jewish immigrants (and immigrants in general, the visual description of dracula in that book plays into popular caricatures of jews during those times), eastern europeans, and queer people (dracula and jonathan yada yada as well as the wives of dracula initiating a saucy moment with jonathan which was a man' job because the man was the pursuer and the woman was pursued, but the roles were reversed. also, i don't think i need to tell you how fangs, blood and the extension of dracula through his wives were used as a gay metaphor). and carmilla by sheridan le fanu, depicting the imagery of a predatory lesbian hunting for innocent upper-class women. during these times vampires were not yet characters with complex personalities and values, but folklore monsters in a way, a way to show an enemy and defeat it rather than learn to understand them, which was a product of its time.

fast forward to the vampire chronicles and especially interview with the vampire by anne rice, vampires became complex people, who's oddities were considered alluring, beautiful, queer and unabashedly proud of it. descriptions of androgynous men, womens love of each other, several nods to gay culture throughout the books with the characters themselves having more to them than just being monsters (with that being said there are several critiques of an interview with the vampire, esp the original book, it is by no means the creme de la creme of queer rep in vampire literature!)

so, circling back, twilight vampires were in themselves like that, kind of. edward wasn't exactly the most macho man as was popular to faun over in media, he was, kind of, more androgenous and sensitive and a character with complex values and thoughts - but that doesn't take away from the fact that the book is lacking a lot of soul and seemingly doesn't show the true reasons why vampires became so popular (amongst young queers especially who found themselves relating to this sense of otherness because of who they were. it is a very sanitized version of a vampire romance, which doesn't mean its bad or that people shouldn't like it! but i'm just saying.

huff

[happyhuffles]

Angel - 08

Pairing: Idol!Hyunjin x Musician!oc

Genre: Fluff, SMUT.

Synopsis: Two strangers with the same love for the city and songwriting meet under the stars in Chicago. They fall in love, quick and easy. But, there’s a problem. They are both keeping a big secret from each other.

Warnings: SMUT! Praise kink, breeding kink, unprotected sex, marking, depictions of subspace, oral f receiving, d/s themes, dirty talk. 

3.9k

_____

Anne was pressed against the cool metal of the elevator wall, her breath hitching as Hyunjin's arms caged her in. His lips were warm and insistent, trailing hot, open-mouthed kisses along the sensitive skin above her collarbone. The faint scent of his cologne mixed with the lingering traces of the night’s concert sweat added to the unholy thoughts running through Anne's mind.

It was late—sometime past 2:00 a.m.—and the world outside felt eerily still. The only sounds in the hotel were the soft hum of the elevator, the distant creak of settling walls, and the quiet, hitched breaths between them. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. Everyone but them.

The elevator gave a slow, drawn-out ding as it reached their floor, and before the doors were fully open, Hyunjin grabbed her hand, tugging her into the empty hallway. His urgency made Anne giggle, her fingers barely catching onto his wrist as he pulled her along.

“What number?” he asked, voice breathless with impatience.

“528,” she murmured, his pace making her stumble slightly. “Second to last door on the right.”

Hyunjin didn’t slow down. If anything, he picked up his pace, his free hand reaching into Anne's coat pocket to grab the keycard as they neared the door. The air between them was charged in a way that had nothing to do with the soft buzz of the hotel lights.

As soon as they are through the threshold of her door, Anne is pinned back up against the wall indulging in another heated kiss. A soft moan passes through her lips and is swallowed down by Hyunjin's mouth that hasn't left hers. 

His hands found her waist, fingers splaying against the warm skin beneath her top. He traces slow, teasing circles there, each movement igniting a trail of fire against her skin. Anne shivered, her fingers trailing a path beneath his shirt clawing at his chest, just enough to pull a groan from his throat.

The kiss broke for only a moment, just long enough for him to grab at the shoulders of her jacket. His touch was impatient yet reverent, as if the fabric itself was an obstacle he couldn’t stand. Anne didn’t waste a second, shrugging out of the thick material with his help, the warmth of the hotel room quickly replacing the heat she’d lost.

The second her jacket hit the floor, Hyunjin stilled, his breath hitching at the sight of her. The tight white corset she’d worn on stage clung to every curve, accentuating the soft rise and fall of her chest. The dim hotel lighting cast golden shadows over her skin, making her look almost ethereal.

"Fuck," Hyunjin mumbles looking at her, "You're so fucking pretty Annie."

His fingers trace the hem of her top as his eyes rake across her entirety. A light flush fans across her cheeks at the pure heat she finds in Hyunjin's gaze. 

Anne bit her lip, her breath shuddering as the weight of his gaze pressed into her like a physical touch. There was something about the way he looked at her—like she was a masterpiece, something to be memorized, worshipped.

Hyunjin's hands eventually make their way to the tiny bow at the middle of her back. The little knot held everything together and one tug would expose her braless chest to him. His fingers ghosted over the ribbon, aching with restraint, his touch so light it sent a ripple of heat up her spine.

"Can I take this off baby?" he asks softly. 

The desperation in his tone sent a shiver through her, curling deep in her stomach. His eyes pleaded at her like he needed her permission just as much as he needed her.

Anne swallowed harshly, her heart hammering against her ribs. Her voice failed her, so she nodded, breath catching as Hyunjin exhaled a shaky breath of his own.

His fingers tightened slightly on the ribbon, but he didn’t pull, not yet. He dipped his head, pressing a slow, open-mouthed kiss to the curve of her shoulder, his lips warm against her flushed skin.

"Tell me," he murmured, the words fanning over her skin like a plea. "I need to hear you, Annie."

Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, gripping him like he was the only thing keeping her grounded. "Yes," she whispered, voice trembling but sure. "Take it off."

Hyunjin didn’t need to be told twice.

Anne's back was flush against the hotel bed the moment the flimsy material hit the floor, the cool sheets a sharp contrast to the heat pooling between them. Her breath came in shallow, uneven waves as she reached for the button fly of her jeans, fingers trembling with anticipation.

Hyunjin stood at the edge of the bed, his gaze dark and heavy-lidded as he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head in one fluid motion. The dim hotel lighting casting over the taut lines of his torso, every dip and ridge of muscle accentuated in the shadows.

Anne swallowed hard, her fingers stilling for a moment as she took him in. It didn’t matter how many times she had seen him like this. The sight of his bare skin and heated gaze never failed to make her head spin. 

Hyunjin smirked at her hesitation, leaning down until his face was just inches from hers. His lips brushed against her cheek, then the corner of her mouth, teasing but never quite meeting her lips.

“Need some help with that?” he murmured, his fingers replacing hers at the waistband of her jeans.

Anne exhaled shakily, her lashes fluttering shut for a brief second before she met his gaze again. "Maybe," she admitted, voice barely above a whisper.

Hyunjin chuckled, the sound warm and intimate, before pressing one last lingering kiss to her lips. And then, with a slow, deliberate touch, he unfastened the button and eased the zipper down, his fingers grazing over the soft skin of her stomach in the process. 

Two long digits hooked both the waistband of her jeans and panties. Hyunjin leans down even further to place a soft kiss to the exposed skin below Anne's belly button.

And then, in one fluid motion, he stripped her bare.

Hyunjin’s gaze raked over her slowly, worshipping the sight. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, dark eyes filled with something deeper than just desire.

"You're goreous," he murmured, his voice hushed like he couldn’t quite believe she was real. "A real angel, baby."

Anne felt the blush creep down her neck, her hands instinctively moving to cover herself, but Hyunjin caught them before she could. He shook his head, his fingers threading through hers as he brought them up to his lips.

“Don’t hide from me,” he whispered against her knuckles. “Too beautiful to hide from me, baby."

Anne’s blush deepened, warmth blooming across her cheeks, but she didn’t look away. Instead, she let the weight of his words settle in her chest, melting away the last remnants of hesitation.

Slowly, she slipped her hand from his grasp, her fingers gliding up his arm before wrapping around the back of his neck. There was no hesitation in her touch only certainty, as she pulled him down to her, their lips colliding in a kiss that stole the breath from both of them.

Hyunjin groaned into her mouth, his body pressing flush against hers as he braced himself above her.

Anne’s fingers tangled together behind his neck, tugging lightly, pulling him impossibly closer. The kiss was slow but deep, a push and pull of longing and love, of every unspoken word exchanged in the way their bodies gravitated toward each other.

Hyunjin broke away just long enough to rest his forehead against hers, his breath coming out in uneven pants.

“Gonna let me taste you, baby?” he murmured, his voice thick with want. He pressed a featherlight kiss to the tip of her nose, the tenderness of the gesture a stark contrast to the filth dripping from his words. “Been thinking about it since I had you last. It’s all I ever think about.”

Anne’s breath hitched, her thighs instinctively pressing together at the raw hunger in his voice. She swore she could feel his words as much as she could hear them—each one sending a fresh wave of heat pooling low in her belly.

Hyunjin chuckled, dark and knowing, his lips ghosting over her jaw as he trailed kisses down the delicate column of her throat. “Don’t get shy on me now, pretty girl,” he murmured, nipping playfully at her pulse before soothing the spot with his tongue. “Not when I already know how sweet you are.”

Anne’s fingers tangled behind his neck again, tugging slightly, but she didn’t stop him—not when his mouth was already moving lower, tasting every inch of skin he could reach, his hands gripping her thighs as he parted them with ease.

"Please, baby," he whispered, his lips grazing her hipbone, the heat of his breath sending a shiver through her. "I just wanna make you feel good."

Anne exhaled shakily, her entire body alight with anticipation. She bit her lip, fingers threading tighter in his hair, and nodded.

“Yes,” she breathed. “All yours.”

Hyunjin groaned, a sound of pure satisfaction, before lowering himself fully between her legs.

A loud moan tore out of Anne's throat. When Hyunjin flattened his tongue, licking a strip up from her leaking hole to her clit.

"Fuck, H."

Anne's hands grabbed at his hair her fingers desperate for some leverage. But, the fresh buzz of his hair prevented her from doing so. 

Hyunjin noticed immediately. Even in his hunger, in his need, he was always paying attention.

A smirk ghosted against her skin as he tightened his grip on her abdomen, keeping her pinned beneath him. But his free hand moved, sliding up her body with deliberate slowness before reaching for hers.

Anne took the hand gratefully. Needing his comforting touch to guide her through the pleasure he bestowed upon her. 

Her grip on his hand tightened, nails digging into his skin as pleasure built and swelled, consuming her. And Hyunjin only moaned at the sting, like he craved the marks she left on him just as much as he craved the taste of her.

Diligently, he continued his movements. Expertly switching between pumping his tongue into her tight hole and sucking on her clit. 

Anne's eyes fought to stay open. Wanting desperately to watch her lover ravage her but struggling against the eye-rolling pleasure that brought tears to her eyes. 

When her thighs began to tremble around his head, Hyunjin felt the shift instantly. A groan slipped from his lips as he pulled back just enough to watch her—his gaze dark and possessive as he drank in every subtle movement of her body.

Without warning, he quickened his pace, the intensity of his touch matching the desperate need in her movements. Anne’s fingers tightened around his hand, nails digging into his skin, and she couldn’t hold back the broken whimpers that spilled from her mouth as he pushed her closer to the edge.

“Don’t close your eyes, baby,” he whispered, the command laced with a mixture of desire and tenderness. “I want you to see me. See how I make you come apart.”

Hyunjin's words were the final straw that broke the dam inside of her. 

With a shaky gasp, Anne came, her body seizing in the pleasure that swept through her. Her legs snapped shut instinctively, trembling around Hyunjin’s head, holding him in place as her fingers dug into his skin.

Hyunjin chuckled at the sensation, the sound of it vibrating through his chest as he slowed his tongue, giving her the space to ride out the waves of pleasure. His hands remained firm at her hips, guiding her through it, steadying her as she breathed through the intensity.

Anne’s eyes fluttered shut despite her best efforts, her chest heaving with each breath, but Hyunjin’s voice pulled her back.

“Look at me, baby,” he murmured again, his hand slipping up to cup her cheek gently, his thumb brushing over her skin.

Her eyelids fluttered open, and when she met his gaze, there was nothing but adoration in the depths of his eyes, something far deeper than just the physical hunger that had been between them moments ago.

“Good girl,” he whispered, a smile curling at the corners of his lips, his voice still thick with affection. “You did so good for me.”

The praise melted through Anne, her heart still racing, her body still trembling with the aftershocks of her release. She didn’t think she could feel any more exposed, any more raw, but when Hyunjin’s lips brushed against the tender skin of her inner thigh, she gasped softly, her breath hitching.

His kiss was gentle against her bare skin. His tongue darting out to gently soothe over the crescent marks his nails had embedded into Anne's skin. 

Hyunjin didn’t linger long, though. His lips left her thigh and with deliberate slowness, he crawled up her body. Anne’s pulse quickened once more as he hovered above her, his face inches from hers, their breaths mingling in the quiet space between them.

His gaze softened as he searched her face, his thumb gently stroking her cheek as he let the silence settle around them.

“You feel good?” he asked, his voice a quiet whisper, the tenderness in it like a balm to her still-tingling skin.

Anne hummed in response leaning into his touch. Her hands came around his waist and then starting trailing pattern's up and down his back. A light gooseflesh covered Hyunjin's skin at the sensation, causing a satisfied grin to break out on her face at the sight. 

"Ready for all of you," she whispered, gazing into his eyes. 

The words cause an immediate reaction. Hyunjin lets out a low groan and whimper's softly as his cock twitches excitedly in response. 

"Yeah?" he breaths. 

He adjusts his body so his hardness presses directly against Anne's soaping entrance. The movement causing them to both shudder in anticipation.

Hyunjin guides the fat head of his cock over Anne's folds. His eyes watching her every reaction closely, taking in the effortlessness it takes him to make her fall apart. 

"Fuck," Hyunjin groans, pulling back slightly. "Condoms Annie."

Anne's legs wrap around her boyfriends hips in response, keeping him in place. Its a desperate thoughtless reaction, one that has her cheeks burning a deeper shade of red. 

Hyunjin looks down at her and studies her reaction thoughtfully. "You on the pill pretty girl?" 

Anne shakes her head no. 

"Then I'll pull out."

"No!"

Hyunjin's gaze snaps back to Anne's immediately. The poor girl is burning a furious shade of red and her wide eyes start to fill with a thin line of desperate tears. 

The way that her hips subconsciously rock up into his and her nails dig into his back, Hyunjin knows what she wants immediately. He always knows what his Annie needs.

Slowly, he pushed the tip of his cock into Anne. His body quivering at the restraint it takes not to bottom out at once. 

"You want me to cum inside baby? Is that what you want?"

Anne’s breath caught in her throat, a heat rising to her cheeks at the boldness of the question. She wanted it, desperately, but the words felt like they were stuck, lodged somewhere deep inside her throat. It was so dirty. A fantasy she found herself picturing late at night when she was desperate for Hyunjin's touch. A fantasy she desperately wanted to indulge in. 

Sex with her boyfriend always came with such a natural dynamic. He seemed to have the sixth sense when it came to Anne's body and was hardly shy when introducing his interests. Why was it so hard for Anne to open her mouth and say what she wanted?

Hyunjin’s dark, playful gaze made it impossible for her to look away. The glint in his eyes was teasing, a mixture of challenge and desire, and it tugged at something deep inside her. She nodded, her legs tightening around him, trying to pull him deeper, her body aching for more. 

“Tell me what you want, angel,” he purred, a small, evil smile playing at the corners of his lips as he resisted the pull of her legs. “Tell me, and I’ll give it to ya.”

Anne whimpered softly, her face flushed with a combination of embarrassment and desperate need. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the words swirled on her tongue, but they felt so foreign coming out of her mouth. Still, the pressure of his gaze, his slow, deliberate movements, made it impossible to keep quiet.

Her voice came out as a shaky whisper, barely more than a breath. “Please cum inside me H, need it” she murmured, the words slurred in her cloudy mind.

Hyunjin’s eyes flickered with a dark satisfaction, and his lips curled into a wicked smile. He paused, just for a moment, savoring the way her words had cracked through the tension, the way she’d given in to the need that had been building between them.

“Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it, baby?” he teased, his hands sliding down her body, gripping her hips as he moved bottoming out inside of her in one fluid motion.

Anne gasped, her legs tightening around him as he shifted, his fingers digging into her skin in the most delicious way.

“Good job pretty girl,” he murmured, voice low and full of praise as he kissed her deeply, his tongue tangling with hers. “You know how to make me wanna give you everything, don’t you?”

The moment he said it, Hyunjin’s pace quickened, a low moan escaping his throat. His body pressing into hers with a steady, commanding rhythm.

Anne clawed at his back her long nails leaving angry lines in their wake. The pain only added to Hyunjin's drive. 

A deep growl rumbled in his chest as he took in the sight of her beneath him, absolutely beautiful. Anne's chest was covered in bruises that his mouth had left behind. They were carefully placed below her collarbones on the sensitive skin that begged for him. 

Her pretty face was fucked out already. A thin line of tears streaming down her eyes from the uncontrollable bliss that clouded her senses. Hyunjin bent down as he fucked into Anne, kissing the tears off her cheeks and moaning at their salty taste. 

“Fuck, baby,” he groaned, leaning down to capture her lips in a messy, desperate kiss. His hands gripped her waist tightly, holding her in place as he drove deeper into her. “I'm so deep. Gonna stuff you f-full."

Anne’s nails dug in harder, her back arching as she pulled him closer, desperate for his cum. Her mind buzzed, but all she could focus on was him. His touch. His presence. The way he was making her feel.

“Hyunjin, please…” she gasped, her voice shaky with desperation, the heat of her plea spilling out of her. “I need you to cum in me H, need you so deep."

Her words hit him like a wave, throwing him dangerously close to the edge. But he couldn't cum yet, not before his Annie.

One hand snaked between their bodies finding Anne's throbbing nub. When Hyunjin pressed two fingers to her and began rubbing expert figure-eights her whole body clenched. Above her, he watched her teary eyes roll back in her head. A loud moan of his name falling from her lips. 

She was close, Hyunjin could tell by the way her walls spasmed as they tightened around him. 

He sat up slightly, keeping one hand focused on her clit and the other came to press down gently on her abdomen. Beneath it, Hyunjin could feel himself rutting deep inside of her. 

"G-Gonna cum H, I-" Anne's words word broken and slurred in her blissful haze. Her eyes fluttered, half-closed in the ecstasy that had her on the brink, while her body quivered beneath his touch.

He leaned down, capturing her trembling lips with a gentle, assuring kiss. "Cum for me baby."

Anne came hard. Every part of her body was alight. She clung to Hyunjin, hot tears rolling down her cheeks at the immense pleasure that flooded her. 

He wasn't far behind. The first quiver that fluttered through Anne combined with the sight of her beneath him sent Hyunjin overboard. 

With one final deep thrust he bottomed out deep inside of her and came with a whiny moan. His release coated her walls as she milked him for all he was worth. Just what she wanted.

As they came down from their highs, Hyunjin's body went slack above Anne, his arms still wrapped protectively around her. His larger frame completely covered hers, each beat of his heart pounding directly over hers in a slow, steady rhythm.

For a few long moments, time seemed to stand still. Anne’s body, still trembling from the aftershocks of pleasure, relaxed into his embrace, finding solace in the steady thump of his heartbeat and the pressure of his body over hers. Hyunjin’s gaze softened as he looked down at her. He brushed a stray lock of hair from her flushed face, his fingers lingering as if reluctant to break the fragile connection that had bound them so completely.

Hyunjin’s hand rested against her cheek as he whispered, “You were amazing, baby,” his voice low and filled with adoration, "so good every time, always do so good for me."

Anne’s eyelids fluttered in a heavy haze, her mind barely registering his praise as exhaustion and bliss tangled together in her thoughts.

Not needing another word, Hyunjin’s eyes softened further as he studied her, a quiet determination replacing his earlier intensity. Wordlessly, he shifted his weight, sliding his arm around her waist. With tender care, he lifted her effortlessly into his arms, cradling her as if she were something precious that needed protection.

Gently, Hyunjin carried Anne to the small bathroom just off their room. The soft glow of a nightlight cast warm shadows along the tiles, and he guided her toward the sink with practiced ease, careful not to jostle her too much. Anne, still adrift in her blissful fatigue, barely protested as he helped her remove the remnants of their passion. A few scattered hair strands, the faint scent of their shared heat, the mess between her legs. Hyunjin was an expert, washing her gently with cool water that refreshed her flushed skin.

He took his time, every movement imbedded with love. Because nothing else in the world mattered more than taking care of his Annie. 

Once he finished, Hyunjin carefully carried her back to the bed, laying her down as though placing a cherished treasure. He helped her arms through the t-shirt he had worn earlier and slipped a pair of boxers over himself before joining her on the mattress. 

His arms circled around her and she moved delicately to rest her head directly over the heart that beated for her in his chest. The rhythmic pulse was like a lullaby, that lulled her closer to sleep.

They fell asleep like that, their bodies remained entwined. Two souls, wrapped in each other’s embrace, their hearts forever intertwined. In the quiet afterglow, nothing else mattered but them. Hyunjin and Anne.

 They were together and nothing else mattered.

A/N: umm I'm a slut.

tag list: @my-neurodivergent-world

[oonajaeadira]

Hi Adira! I am in awe of your tarot decks collection. As someone who’s long wanted to explore the practice, can you suggest some starter decks for newbies? Or just some favourites - I love seeing the ones that people are especially attached to! Thank you! ❤️

Heya, Rose!!!! Oooooo. I have opinions. Let's go with these three:

RIDER-WAITE-SMITH

I mean, you can't go wrong with the original Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Most illustrated decks are built on the iconography of that deck and if you end up reading any books on the subject, they're going to reference that deck.

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LIGHT SEER'S TAROT

However. If that one doesn't resonate with you, I highly highly highly recommend the Light Seer's Tarot. Chris Anne has done a phenomenal job of reinterpreting all of Pixie's original illustrations, but have given them so much life and emotion that they immediately evoke feelings (unlike the OG deck which can feel very flat if you don't know what to look for) and this can make it easier for you to start remembering what all the cards mean. And they're so layered too so as you grow, you'll see and understand new symbols and nuances in the card which can help you be a more intuitive reader.

She REALLY understands the meaning of the cards and knows what to include and what to update to give it the same push, PLUS there's high diversity in the people that are depicted in the cards when it comes to race, age, orientation and style depicted, making them feel very modern while still very mystical.

The whole deck also feels very hopeful and forward moving, which really helps to temper some of the messages if you're looking for a gentle therapy deck.

And, of course, it's inexpensive! You can generally find it for around $20. There's a standard size and a "travel" or mini size, depending on your preference. (Minis are good for on the go and shuffling with small hands, but standard size really allows you to see the images and read better.)

What's more, Chris Anne provides free learning materials! Not only is the included booklet a good starter reference, you can go to her website to see/learn more about each card and download a "field notes" journal for free!!!

LABRINTHOS

Of course, if you wanna just dip a toe in with minimal commitment or cost, I can highly recommend the Labryinthos app.

Not only is the app free, but it will give you free daily readings and allow you to journal about them. There are tarot lessons so you can learn the cards as well. I will say that the readings and lessons are very very general and short, they won't go into a lot of detail. But if you're the kind of learner that wants to build a quick and easy association with the cards, this is a really helpful resource for daily practice.

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Of course, with these three choices, it depends on what kind of learner you are! If you are a flashcard-method person, go for Labyrinthos. Want to dig around in books and learn a little more classically? Rider-Waite-Smith. And if you want to learn to read with your heart and dive in a little more poetically, Light Seer's is your gentle and loving teacher.

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Bonus deck:

PAGAN OTHERWORLDS

Now if you wanna talk about my attachments? If I had a tarot soulmate, this is it.

This is my very favorite deck for its faithful interpretations and soft + wild + classical style. This is a deck that's best used if you really love the RWS original but want to look past the people--all the minor arcana cards are depicted faithfully...but without people. It also comes with a few extra cards that are for mysterious intuitive reading. So it's best to know tarot a little first before diving into this one, but it is beautiful and speaks to the old things in my soul. This is a great graduation deck, and one that feels like a big treat because it's not cheap, but it's beautifully manufactured, nice to handle, and has some beautiful surprises. While the Light Seer's deck sings to your heart, the Pagan Otherworlds deck whispers to something hidden deep inside.

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I hope that was helpful for you!!!! I'm excited to see folks start on a tarot journey!!!! <3

[lunawings]

While I was in Japan during March 2024, I was able to visit the Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live 10th Anniversary Exhibit. This is my favorite anime of all time, so it was an incredible honor.

Unfortunately, you could not take pictures in many areas and I always try my best to be respectful and follow the rules. So, I will describe it.

The walls of the first room were covered in several tapestries depicting each individual episode of the anime, so you could reminisce about everything that happened as you slowly walked through the room. In the middle of the room, there were several exhibits perfectly recreating every single paper, notebook, sketch...

Hokkaido itinerary? Wakana and Bell's test scores? Momo's Happy Rain costume sketches? Naru and Bell's manager applications? The score to pride? Any piece of paper you can think of that appeared in PRRL, it was all HERE! Recreated with meticulous accuracy...

The next room was the photo room where you could take pictures in Prism Stone or in front of Rinne's feathers.

Something else they had here which was really neat, was all of these mini photo ops of various scenes from the anime that you could put your plushies or figures into! As I rarely have someone with me to take photos of myself at events like this, and I rarely post them even when I do, NGL I loved it. I wish I had brought something! I did have a PAF Naru on my bag I could have used, but it would have taken time to unpin her so unfortunetly I did not.

The next room contained an exhibit of various merch from throughout the years.

Unfortunately, there wasn't really much merch to look at in the classic section. Just the guitars, some stones, and the Smart Pod Shot. But I definitely think there was more than that back in the day! There has to have been because I own at least one thing that was not in here (a pool bag) haha!

They also had a REAL prism guitar on display, which apparently they are actually going to sell at some point!?

The last part of the exhibit before going to the gift shop, was a hallway with messages from all the voice actresses and the director. This was also a zone where photos were banned, but I remember in the director's he acknowledged Rainbow Live as being the only Pretty Rhythm season to achieve a 10th anniversary celebration and ended his commentary with "Glorious Pretty Rhythm" hahaha. Next was the gift shop...

Which was honestly super disappointing... I was prepared to spend a lot of money here, but in the end, I barely bought anything. Everything, EVERYTHING good was blind and the stuff that wasn't was just so expensive.

Like, they had this set of Hiro cards with his magazine covers and debut poster and I really wanted them but when I actually saw them it was like... 2,000 yen? FOR THREE CARDS!? Those tiny little cards you can see up there below the keychains?

????????????

Am I missing something!?

In the end I bought two Wakana boards and two clear files. And the one blind thing I couldn't resist was the Prism Stone badges... which turned out to be Otoha x2 and one Ann. Gah.

I also might have bought a Wakana plush doll, but she was sold out. Out of all the Rainbow Live girls she was the only one sold out both here and at Tokyo Station Prism Stone.

And here were the bonuses I got. Including, yes, the AiPri card. So for people who saw me posting it over on @pretty-idol-hell, this was where it came from.

I also got a very special letter, which I am saving to translate at a later date...

Outside the event was an up and running Pretty Rhythm machine, or so I thought. Wow, no line! I said to myself as I happily bounced up to it only to find the coin slot taped over and a sign reading it could not be used. Darn. (I know there's no prism stones left in the wild, but come on, there's no free play mode...? Well, I guess even if there was they wouldn't want people loitering around the exhibition.)

Anyway, as you read I did have a few complaints, but it still makes my heart happy that this event existed at all. I loved all the time and effort that went into making all the recreations of things!

[coltishcaterpillar]

Unmasked / Platonic!Alastor x Teen! Daughter Reader

Chapter II: Sneaking Suspicion

Summary:

After reading over thirty-one entries, three disturbing pages are brought to light….or the darkness, depending on how Emily wants to look at it.

WARNING: This entire chapter (and probably the next one) depicts a very disturbed, traumatized, paranoid child (who is you, the reader.), who has just lost the person she loved most in the world. A HUGE deterioration in her psyche is seen here.

Look out for: Murder, Mental Illness, Paranoia, Anxiety, Delusions, Cannibalism, etc….

November 12th, 1933

I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, my dear diary. Please, Jesus, please help me find my way back, I’m…I’m shaking relentlessly and the monsters at night won’t leave me alone.

My Pa….he’s not come home in three weeks. I know he will never open that door again, but I wish he would just one last time.

It started with a simple hunting trip. I saw him bringing a large trash bag over his shoulder whilst he was going out, and I just assumed it held his gun and other necessities.

A few hours later, people heard gunshots go off in the area he hunted and now he’s…..

When they opened the bag they found another mangled body….and concluded that my Papa was the serial killer terrorizing New Orleans since 1922.

No, he couldn’t have done anything of the sort. He was a good man. PAPA was a good man. He was. He is.

I read it in the papers…nobody wants to see me anymore. I’ve tried contacting everyone I knew and loved, and they told me to never set foot on their property again, they thought I was involved in this hellish situation!

Anne, James, Elbert, Carol, Mr. Devereaux, Charlotte, Martin…..EVERYBODY has abandoned me!

I wanted to desperately contact Grandma, so I wrote her a series of letters. Her caretaker wrote me a letter back that she went into shock after finding out Pa died, and she’s….well, she’s in Heaven now too.

I just turned sixteen, please. I need my Papa back….my Grandma….

I’ve been in the house surviving off of scraps. I’m afraid to leave again; I don’t want to be shot, I don’t want people coming after me because of what my Papa allegedly did. I’ve lost so much weight, I’m tired, I feel sick….

I’m not ready to be a woman, to grow up, quite yet. I grew up taking things for granted; I thought I would have my family and friends for life. How will I find a job? Will anybody take me in? Can I find a new family?

I’m still here, I’m still here, my dear friend. My beautiful…I’ve not lost my mind, not yet. I’m not crazy, am I? No, no….I’m just….going through some traumatic moments!

I’m hungry….

My stomach is hurting so bad, I’m perspiring and my toes are curled…I need more food. I’ve eaten nearly everything, I have no money to purchase anything else…

Every time it growls, there’s a new tang of pain….

Papa, you would never….you’re a good man, Pa. I love you, I’ll always love you….

Oh, it all makes sense now! Why you never wanted me to see what you brought home, why you were always out late, why you were so secretive…oh, Pa, why didn’t you tell me?! I…I would’ve….contacted the authorities.

Which is what you didn’t want.

I HATE YOU, YOU FUCKING DEMON! HOW DARE YOU BRING THIS UPON ME AND GRANDMA, I HOPE YOU ROT YOU SICK, TWISTED, SORRY EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN-

I miss your kisses and your hugs, Pa. Please….please come back. At least tell me where your grave is so I can hug your body one last time….I’ve never wanted to hear your voice more, whether it be in real life or the radios, please!

Oh my god, what are we having for dinner? I’m starving, Pa….

I have a headache, Pa….please give me some medicine to ease the pain…..

I need you, I need somebody. Anybody. Please….

I never want to see you again. If I ever see you again after this lifetime I will do everything in my power to slaughter you a second time for all the pain that you’ve caused….

I’m going to take a breather soon, my dear friend. I need to let off some steam. I’m….I just need to find an energy source. I’ll be back, I promise.

——————————————

November 13th, 1933

Oh, I’ve found something to eat, finally. It didn’t taste as terribly as I thought, and in fact, it tasted similar to how you cooked our meat, Pa. So tender….so, so, tender…..

The gangster didn’t even see it coming. I don’t think he liked me, he was looking at me like I did something wrong. I hushed him, hushed him well, and said,

“No, no, sir. Why are you giving me that look?? I’m only hungry! I’m just trying to survive! Please don’t let me starve!”

I hated that gaze. That look on his face made me feel like a monster, like I wasn’t justified in my action to cut him into tiny little pieces-

Pa, it’s just like you used to make. I never knew how…similar the meat tasted until now. Why did you do that? To so many innocent people….this man was not innocent, Pa. He was part of a cartel, I was doing this world a favour!

I feel better, I think. My stomach feels more satisfied than it has in days.

I don’t feel any better, though. I just…I just ate somebody….

I don’t know what to do! How is….how is his family going to react when they find this out?! I….I caused him pain, so much pain….

But I need more. I want to live….I have so much goodness to offer to the world, I promise I can be better! I’m not usually like this! I promise to make you proud! To make everybody proud…like I’ve always tried to do!

I know how much I was lacking in performance, I’ve never been cut out for the big leagues, but I am positive I can amount to something! If this world will give me a chance, I’ll be the best version of myself I can ever be. I can, I can! You always said I could do anything I put my mind to, I can do this. I can still be a happy girl and young woman, I can still grow up, I can make new friends. Perhaps I’ll move? Yes, maybe that’s a good idea…

I miss you. I miss Grandma, I miss our talks. The things you would do with me…how you used to sing to me when I was scared of the monsters under my bed, our weekly theatre nights; we’d always go to see Charlie Chaplin, that was your favourite; and it grew to be mine too.

I miss how close we were to each other. We were like….we were like two peas in a pod. We couldn’t be one without the other.

1917, was the year of my birth. How well do you remember picking me up that day? When I was alone, cold, nearly dead…in a dumpster? You saved me.

That’s why….I don’t want to believe you did those things, Papa. I don’t. I have a very strong sense of morality, you know that. I….I can’t fathom you ever being capable of something like that.

I…I don’t think I knew you, Papa. You…

You betrayed me.

Everybody was right, you know. The suspicions people had about you. Anne…she always talked about you with a certain look of fear in her eyes, and I always made the time to defend you to anybody who ever judged.

How was it, that the only person who never saw the signs, was me? The person who lived with you for sixteen years?

Maybe I just didn’t want to believe it.

And now look at what you’ve done. You’ve killed a part of me…you killed Grandma; your mother! I was supposed to meet her up for tea a few days after your death, but time had beaten me to it. What ever will I do, without your love?

I miss you, Pa. And I love you, so very much. But you better pray to the devil himself; that I do not die for another five decades. I won’t be able to hold myself back…from hurting you. And I’ll hurt you bad.

To be hated….to be attacked by somebody you protected, nurtured, loved with all your heart….yes, that’s the pain I want to inflict on you. Your daughter, the person you’d kill for, turning against you.

I love you, Pa, I really do. But….a serial killer will never be somebody I bode well with.

———————

January 10th, 1934

I am sorry. For everything. It’s very frigid out here due to winter, and I’ve been camping outside for quite a while…I can’t feel my legs anymore.

To….anybody I may have scared or hurt, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry.

[108garys]

The Clarkes haunting the narrative is THE point

The following was a response to the idea that the prologue and end hold little hope back that ended up being way longer than intended, no shade on the person who said that I just realised that I didn't want to drop a whole essay on them, so without any more preamble:

Truthfully I am completely disinterested in making Little Hope more palatable to people who require the story's soul to be torn out to enjoy it because that's what the beginning and ending is. The broken heart of little hope.

That said I very much love the middle too but the Clarke family's story is the heart and soul of little hope and the whole point, otherwise why does anything in the town matter? Vince? Just some dude, the subplot of the town falling apart, being in the literal wreckage of 1970s era Little Hope? Random set dressing because a straight up three century old ruin of a town would just lack the infrastructure required to have the facade of searching for help in town… So many of the secrets are about them, you straight up spend a good chunk of the runtime passively learning about the individual family members both in private and public and even though I think some people choose the shallowest reading out of spite it is very deliberately stated that there is an element of choice in interpretation, the curator says so at the start. The more praised facets would be greatly diminished without the Clarkes, the subtextual nature of overcoming your demons gives meaning to the outright textual fighting of demonic monsters and the parallels would not be as strong between the 2020 and 1692 eras alone.

It is a common mistake that there are better or worse versions of the characters but it's simply not true as they are all different aspects and much like a triangle needs three points the cast of little hope needs all three points of reference to fully appreciate their stories. My earliest read of Little Hope centred on Anthony recontextualising his family in two divergent ways, 1692 where they are presented as victims of circumstance and 2020 where they are more deliberately flawed people who must overcome their demons because the truth is that both things are true of the Clarkes and so they are separated out into their different aspects and analysed accordingly.

Angela's characterisation doesn't work exclusively compared to Amy, her story of fighting for her agency doesn't land the same without Anne, Amy on paper is a woman who did everything right bar being too harsh to a child and was killed for it, Angela is a woman burnt by her past yet soldering on and still retains the same flaw of blaming the child, where as Anne being a snowed under house wife who struggles with keeping her family together and feels like she has zero agency in her situation and all the while fails to understand the perspectives of the very people she feels responsible for is the context between Amy the beloved wife who is wrongfully accused and uses her one bit of agency to place mistaken blame on Mary and Angela who refuses to rely on or believe in anyone or anything, the fact that she's divorced and starting over in her late forties does not work when only compared to the wholesome yet tragic Lamberts who's marriage is never depicted in the negative to justify Angela's divorce. She'd appear as a nearly fully different person for no reason without Anne to bridge the gap and make their depictions consistent, without the 1970s it just looks like she's angry at her husband for failing to save her despite his best efforts and that severely damages her character and arc.

Connected to that, J places his trust in the wrong places, delegates, blame shifts and runs from facing the bigger problem, the alcoholism is emblematic of this but the refusal to see the truth about M's innocence and place responsibility at the feet of the proper authority because he'd have to confront his misplaced faith requires all three, Joseph failing to his dying breath to understand Mary's innocence and James getting blackout drunk over the stress of problems he finds insurmountable are necessary context to John's sobriety and further arc and John being a recovering alcoholic would just be flavour text without the harsh sting of how addiction colours James.

Daylor wouldn't lose its questionable reading if they were only siblings in 50% of other eras instead of two thirds but Dennis expressing his frustration at Tanya pulling away contextualises their codependency and mutual need to be needed in a way that is incomplete, you see a couple in the early stages of dating and siblings who got killed three hundred years prior, the 70s contextualise T's need for stability and dependability and her survival instincts pushing her to flee and D's arrested development in the way he struggles to function when they aren't a unit, beyond that David and Tabitha care for Mary together in Amy's trial scene and after her death he doesn't even fight his own execution, not even to continue the task of raising his only remaining orphand sister alone, this isn't to say David doesn't love Mary as he blatantly shows care for her in not wanting her to be traumatised by his death but he simply falls apart without Tabitha and Dennis being the way he is when Tanya is pulling away from the family shows a lower stakes, longer depiction of that breaking down but she's still physically there so it isn't collapsing in grief, it's the simmering resentment of feeling like a person you care for isn't prioritising you reciprocally, these feelings aren't wrong in of themselves but they aren't pretty and Daniel's outbursts and more negative dialogue choices and David's quiet grief don't capture the way that feeling of being stabbed a million times over everything time you aren't the first choice but the other person didn't wrong you by choosing differently so there is no proper way to get that out feels. D is often mistaken as a shallow generically decent guy with a random angry iteration that doesn't fit into a boring whole but it's simply not the case, him proving he can be reliable in 2020, his fight against his various insecurities is something he needs to do for himself as much as T, the others aren't better adjusted or better people compared to Dennis, their circumstances just present entirely differently.

Furthermore Taylor feeling like an outsider doesn't work alone with Tabitha being part of a family unit, I've seen it misinterpreted as Taylor being less proactive than her counterparts but the truth is that T's behaviour is characterised by survival instinct and a need for stability, Tabitha realises something is wrong after the first death and attempts to protect Mary but counsels keeping their heads down, Taylor being vocally in favour of staying put and Tanya's quiet desperation to get away from everything are not opposite but different flavors of the same base needs, Tanya legitimately being a practising witch adds a layer between the other two versions, Tanya appears very conventional despite her secret unconventional beliefs and Taylor is the inverse being visually the most nonconforming member of the cast while her desire for a knight in shining armour is very traditional in its own way, pair this with the straight forward trial of Tabitha and you get an exploration of not going with the first assumptions that blankets the rest of the narrative.

Carver is a great antagonist all his own but without 1972 there is no broader context, and even if you still have that era but not the Clarkes it would just be "this guy's bloodline remained assholes for centuries" and not the direct parallel to Carson, there is no canonical 2020 equivalent to his character yet he haunts the narrative beyond himself, judge wyman intentionally mirrors the passing neighbour who immediately demanded to know what Anthony had done when the matchbox is revealed, the accusatory paranoid hysteria of puritan little hope and Anthony's poor treatment after the death of his family are directly connected and that's the point, Melissa is there to bring the conversation about the little girl's guilt or innocence to the forefront in a way that makes it a present plotline that goes beyond Mary and brings in the nature that the past is reflected in other eras and without Megan you lose a lot, Melissa requires her context in a way that Mary alone doesn't achieve and Abraham and Andrew's decision on the matter is in fact a question over Anthony's guilt and his internal struggle between blaming himself and blaming Megan and the further grief around this unresolved guilt to the point where he was psychologically unable to process the death of his family for nearly fifty years is the point, the whole point, of the 1692 reframing.

the Clarke family haunts every aspect of Little Hope and without the ending it would be pointless, the way their deaths hang over everything to the point where the puritan versions are doomed to die in the same way they were already depicted as dying and the way an engaged person would quickly catch on that 1972 death=1692 death and therefore 2020 character faces the same fate, it would be meaningless without the Clarke tragedy, it would simply be shock value that builds towards nothing without the ending and the ending doesn't make the game any less about the other eras because they are one and the same in every way that matters.

[extremely-judgemental]

Even when I don’t like an artist’s works, I have respect for them for their discipline and dedication to the craft. But that’s hard to muster for SJM. I was told one of her favourites is Anne Bishop’s The Black Jewels series which could have been an influence for the vivid and unnecessary violence in her plots. I haven’t read those books and so I googled it.

One of the major character is Lucivar Yaslana who is Half-Hayllian/Half-Eyrien which sounds suspiciously close to Illyrian. And in fanart, he is depicted with (surprise surprise) bat like wings which are uncannily like the Illyrian wings, and mind you, the first book in this series came out in 1998.

Going through the plot in wiki, there are a lot of names or titles that are similar to the ones in ACOTAR. Prythian. High Priestess. Whore/Consort. Dark Court and First Circle. One of the books’ title is Dreams Made Flesh, and that instantly reminded me of the Made weapons and the phrases often associated with them but that could be nothing. Even the male lead Daemon has quite similar experiences as Rhysand.

Since I don't have much authority in this case to call out SJM or her books, here are some from people who have read both series.

This on Reddit listing the obvious parallels between the two.

And this from @alexcollix7 is by far the best and detailed post I could find on this topic where they address all three series.

I would love for the SJM fans who think she invented commonly used genre conventions to read the Black Jewels trilogy and tell me Cassian isn't a direct result of Lucivar existing (or Rhys and Daemon, for that matter).

By author Katee Robert although she said this in favour of authors reimagining tropes.

Black Jewels is explicitly dark fantasy and deals with and normalises strong themes such as abuse and sex slavery to name a few. It explains why abuse is romanticised in ACOTAR as well since SJM seems to have copied so much from these books. Given the initial drafts of the sequels were scraped off after TAR received much appreciation, there’s no excuse that this was only a fanfic that developed into an original series. Though the plot development and most characters like Tamlin are her own, some key plot points or motivations leading up to it might not be. Her books are applauded as original and unparalleled fantasy of this age by many young readers but the foundations of her world-building heavily imitates Bishop’s own.

A quick google search proves Maas is more popular than Bishop, so is ACOTAR over the Black Jewel series, and maybe it’s the reason why not many are talking about this. Drawing inspiration from real world and existing art or paying homage to one’s favourites is understandable and healthy but what SJM does seems dangerously like rip off.

Thank you @thrumbolt for giving me new reason to hate her.