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walmartbrandwhatever · 4 months ago

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Cherrycola hunger games au

okay so I got sick and haven't been able to sit down and write all of this down BUT here's the basic ideas I have jumping in my head🙏. I am still very much working everything out and nothing is 100% soild yet

So basically, Soda would be in the role of Peeta, but would do katniss' volunteer thing. On reaping day, Ponyboy's name would be called, and Soda, not wanting his brother to go into the games, immediately calls out that he would take Ponyboy's place in the games. Ponyboy starts screaming, telling Soda not to go, pleading to pick anyone but him. It was bad enough that Darry had to rush over, grabbing Pony so he didn't run up and get himself in trouble. there parents still dead.

With Cherry as katniss but no one called out for her. no one cried and called out her name. Her father was drunk and not fully there, while her mother silently cried. She had tried to see Bob's reaction, but he was too covered within the crowd. (I'm still deciding where I even want bob in this, same with all the other socs and greasers 😔)

Soda and Cherry somewhat know each other. with the flashback scene for them, Cherry, who had just gotten into a fight with her parents and had just that day broken it off with Bob because he was trying to make it to the capital(idk I'm still working it out but it would be interesting if he wanted to become a peacemaker. is that even possible? Who knows, he has connections ig) she was sitting underneath a old tree in the pouring rain, starving because she hadn't eaten in days since there was "not enough to go around" but she wasn't sure how true that had been. Soda on his way home from working(idk where yet) spots her sitting underneath a tree and her eyes closed. him thinking she was dying/dead rushes over because the least he could do for the pretty girl he had always seen in class was check if she was okay.

He gave her the thin jacket off his back and what would have been his portion of food for that night. Through the rain he walked her back to her own house, and they didn't talk much after that both too caught up in their own world until they were staring at each other on reaping day. Cherry was glad he didn't bring it up that the good girl in school who's life looked perfect even through the hardships of what they lived in.

the train scene relatively stays the same, Cherry biting back at their mentor still happens which shocks Soda because he has never once seen Cherry angry but here she was nearly stabbing their mentor because they were refusing to help.

okay hear me out. I think it would be interesting to have Marcia be Cherry's cinna or at least on the team and that's how they get close. For Soda I'm not quite sure who to put as his so if anyone has any ideas please lmk.

during interviews Soda drops the same bomb Peeta does but Cherry reacts a bit different than katniss. Cherry isn't a violent person, she hates violence so I feel like she would more likely distance herself, maybe get a bit annoyed but ultimately is completely thrown off because they barely knew each so why the he'll would a boy like soda like her of all people?

other than that everything's pretty much the same up until the games honestly(this might change but as of rn I'm sticking with this). With the Games soda knows they want to get to cherry, within the practice period she made a lot of them look dumb, tricking them into failing things they're good at etc. also quick off thing I think soda would know how to somewhat hunt and would be okay at shooting definitely not katniss level but more than everyone else there. Cherry is surprisingly good at throwing knifes, and that's her main weapon.

anyways Soda like peeta joins the career tributes in hopes of protecting Cherry. She wasn't told about this, she went into the games thinking they were going to be partners in this but running towards him she sees him gather with the careers and she freezes for a moment. she quickly starts moving because someone throws some sort of weapon at her and she starts running because she will not die.

The scene where katniss is in the tree definitely still happens. Cherry in the tree after being chased out of her previous spot and up a tree. she's practically falling asleep but is fighting against it SO hard. Soda is watching her with such a soft and sad look of his face because he doesn't want to hurt her. he never wanted her to look at him with such betrayal in her eyes. the bee bit still happens and I'm in between either having Johnny be rue or foxface because both would be so interesting. I'm unfortunately leaning towards rue.

WAIT imagine Cherry waking up so disoriented from the tracker jackers and just sees some blurted face over her. She starts freaking an accidentally like kicks Johnny and he's just desperately trying to get her to calm down. when she does calm down he explains what exactly happened. He keeps his distant and he has a real nasty cut lining his cheek. with what little supplies she has she helps patch him up just like he had and they start trusting each other more and more.

Johnny's death isn't because he got caught in a fight he couldn't win. He died taking a hit that was fully meant for Cherry. He did it willingly, knowing that even if he survived, he wouldn't make it. Cherry had a chance, and he knew he didn't, and he was fine with that. Cherry is sobbing desperately trying to keep the blood flowing out of his open wound, but they know it's both a lost cause. He tells Cherry to win for him, tells her to live knowing she is a good person, and he thanks her before he falls silent.

the games I haven't fully worked out but I want to to be slightly different than the books (at least slightly I'm still keeping like the whole cave thing and stuff like that) so when I figure it out I definitely will add to this post. the games definitely end the same as katniss and peetas games.

this post is really long so I'll repost add on my catching fire and mockingjay stuff later.

#the outsiders #the outsiders musical #the outsiders broadway #darry curtis #ponyboy curtis #sodapop curtis #cherry valance #curtis brothers #the outsiders marcia #hunger games #cherrycola hunger games au #yall im cooking #cherry valance outsiders #johnny cade #the outsiders johnny #Johnny as rue is truly foul

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inkblackorchid · 1 year ago

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got any fluffy faithshipping headcanons?🌸🥀✨⭐️

Boy do I! Here’s a random assortment of the first faithshipping headcanons that come to mind:

Yusei is Aki’s first (and for a long time, only) sparring partner of a sort. During the period after she first controls her powers in the duel where her dad was present but before she’s fully gotten the hang of them, Yusei frequently volunteers to duel her for practice and eventually becomes the only one she dares to ask for it outright. She never manages to find the right words to thank him, but he can tell by the way she begins to feel more and more at ease with duelling, even starting to have genuine fun with it, like she used to as a child, that it means the world to her.

Speaking of duelling. Yusei loves to watch Aki duel. He also likes duelling her himself because she’s tough and provides good practice, but mostly, especially once she’s gotten the hang of her powers, he just loves watching her have fun with it. Watching her kick ass and enjoy herself while doing it is an endless source of joy for him.

I imagine that given each their history, both Aki and Yusei find out that they’re a little more touch-starved than they expected when they get together. (What with Yusei growing up in a harsh environment where trying to stay on top of one another’s needs for physical affection wasn’t exactly first priority, and Aki being avoided by and actively avoiding people herself for many years.) Thus, they find out pretty quickly that they love giving and receiving physical affection. And not even big things; anything from sitting while leaning against one another, to brushing hands, brushing a strand of hair behind someone’s ear here and there, holding hands, everything. (And the obvious stuff like hugs and kisses, too, yes.)

That said, I don’t see them being big on PDA. They’ll subtly hold hands under the table in public, maybe snatch a kiss when no one’s looking, but they don’t like to make a show out of themselves.

They switch back and forth on who’s the little spoon. Aki likes being held, generally, but the way Yusei melts into her arms when she holds him is nothing short of bliss to her. Also, Yusei’s clingy in his sleep. He always likes holding onto her somehow. Thankfully, Aki adores it.

Bonus to the above (with a smidgen of angst): On bad nights when Yusei either keeps waking up because of nightmares or has trouble falling asleep in the first place, Aki’s arms are the only place where he feels comfortable and safe enough to get at least a few hours of rest.

They both aren’t the greatest cooks (Aki mostly due to lack of practice since she didn’t cook herself at Arcadia and Yusei mostly due to Satellite, where there was both a lack of tools and of diverse ingredients to experiment with), but together, they make a solid team in the kitchen. They move around one another easily and can serve up a nice meal if they combine their expertise.

Aki isn’t actually terrible at physics. Really, she could figure out most of her homework entirely by herself. It would take her longer, yes, but she’d manage. But Yusei is a good teacher because he’s extremely patient and can explain things in ways that make a lot more sense to her than whatever scientist-speak her professor uses. Plus, if working on her homework together gets them to sit close enough together for their legs to brush, then that’s just a plus, really.

Yusei despises clothes shopping, which Aki picks up on quickly after he moves to the city. The big stores overwhelm him (Satellite had a lot less to choose from), he’s bad at judging at a glance which clothes will fit well and which won’t, brand clothing prices frustrate him, and the older he gets, the more likely he is to get recognised at stores, too, which he also doesn’t like. (Though he politely endures most people’s attention, unless they’re dicks. And for children, he’ll try to smile every time, even if it’s Tuesday evening, raining cats and dogs, he hasn’t eaten since breakfast, and is also in a hurry to get somewhere.) Aki eventually makes clothes shopping bearable for him, though—she figures out which price category he’s comfortable with, which materials he prefers, which cuts he likes, and she’s quick to usher him into a changing room with a modest assortment of shirts and jeans when it looks like someone is about to come over and bother him, too. He never really starts liking it, per se, but after a certain point, he never goes clothes shopping without Aki again.

Despite being an early riser, Yusei often doesn’t leave the bed until Aki wakes up (unless he urgently needs to get up to do work or some such). He likes holding her and listening to her soft breathing way too much. Sometimes, he’ll even try to fall asleep again, which he never did unless he was sick before her.

Yusei’s primary love language are absolutely acts of service. He’ll make sure they have Aki’s favourite tea at home before she comes over, he’ll offer to duel her for practice for the WRGP, he’ll track down the battery model for her phone and change the battery if she mentions that it’s beginning to drain quicker than she’s comfortable with.

Meanwhile, Aki’s primary love language is touch, mostly because she’s been so starved for physical affection herself for years. She likes the way Yusei will lean into her touch every time, how he’ll remark on how soft her hands are—it’s healing for her, in a way, too, because for so long, she saw herself as someone covered in thorns, unapproachable because she hurt everyone who came too close, and unable to give warmth because of it. But Yusei seeks her embrace like it’s the only place in the world worth being in, and it soothes her soul because she can finally give warmth, she can finally be a comfort, a safe place, rather than a danger to someone.

Yusei loves the smell of Aki’s shampoo and shower gel and will happily let her wash him with it every time they shower or bathe together. He doesn’t mind that it’s flowery and doesn’t smell “masculine”, it reminds him of his favourite person in the world.

Aki memorises Yusei’s scars over the years and will sometimes carefully caress or kiss them. Yusei doesn’t know what to do with it at first because he doesn’t exactly see these reminders of bad experiences as worthy of being caressed, but eventually, it makes him go terribly, terribly soft every time she does it because it reminds him that she loves every part of him, that she even finds him handsome, scars and all. It’s affirming in a way he can’t quite articulate.

#yugioh 5ds #aki izayoi #akiza izinski #yusei fudo #faithshipping #phew I could probably come up with a lot more I had to seriously hold back here #your honour I love them so much #headcanons #orchid rambles #ask the orchid #thank you for the lovely ask I always like sharing headcanons!

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needlemeister · 10 months ago

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hello! your art is amazing! i loveeee your scug designs :D

anyway, can you share something about your ocs? i don't know much, so it can be anything-- backstory, abilities, anything you find particularly cool? specifically the martyr or dragon slayer maybe :O it's hard to judge based on looks alone but thet seem like slugcats i'd really wanna play as lol

also, is the hy in your pronoun set pronounced he or hi (or some other way that i'm forgetting)?

have a good day byeee :]

hi i completely forgot to answer this ages ago sorry!!

I'll answer the non oc question first: you pronounce it like he/him! they're masc angelkin pronouns :]

also, if anyone wants me to do an info post like this on any of the antiscugs or my iterators, lmk!

MARTYR

Era: Post-Saint in a different facility entirely during a drought period induced by most Iterators dying out. Food is scarce, and there's no rain - only suffocating heat.

Diet: Batflies, Blue Fruit, Baby Centipedes - Each fills only one fourth of a pip. Larger amounts of food cause shock due to how overeating after starvation works irl. Four pips, no spillover. (OOOO|)

Abilities: Can starve one more cycle in a row before death. Always statistically considered to be in a starvation state. Can play dead.

Iterator: Calls Upon the Sea / CUTS, a lonesome Iterator whose facility acted as a giant lighthouse. Desperately pleading their siblings in their Local Group to say something, anything, unaware that they are the last one standing.

DRAGON SLAYER (anti-Refugee)

Era: Post-Pacifist, Pre-Riptide

Diet: Carnivorous. 1.5x pips from Lizards, 1/2x from any other creatures. Same amount of pips as Artificer. (OOOOOO|OOO)

Abilities: Same combat capabilities as Hunter. Deals 2x damage to all Lizards at the cost of always being fatally bit by them and locked at the lowest possible reputation with them. Bad swimming and balance due to lack of tail. Same mass as Gourmand.

Iterator: N/A. Avoided by Overseers due to attacking them one too many times.

MOTHER

Era: Post-Monk, almost immediately so. Outer Expanse is flourishing with Slugcats.

Diet: Default. Same pips as Artificer, in addition to two sets of three pips to also attend to. (OOOOOO|OOO + OOO|x2)

Abilities: Has a pair of Pups that they absolutely must take care of, or else they must repeat the cycle. Average stats. Can carry both pups on their back at once. If implemented in-game, players two and three are their pups when using Jolly Co-op. Combat stats are buffed if one or both of their pups are in danger.

Iterator: N/A. Too focused on keeping their pups safe - cans are dangerous!

SCHOLAR

Era: Pre-and-post-Martyr. Their first journey is to collect colored pearls for their Iterator before the heat burns them out, and their second is to deliver a message to CUTS.

Diet: N/A. Pips represent current charge (OOOOOOO|) and space for pearl storage (|OOO) respectively. Nap, hibernate, or interact with sources of electricity (Centipedes, Zappers, Electric Spears, etc) to charge. Charge slowly drains as they move and act. The heat will make them overheat if they spend too long outside between hibernations.

Abilities: Incapable of ingesting anything but pearls. Swift and agile, like a median between Spearmaster and Rivulet without the aquatic capabilities of the latter. Starts Marked.

Iterator: A currently unnamed Iterator that created them in order to collect and deliver pearls efficiently in the worsening conditions outside.

COVERT

Era: Undetermined, possibly before The Great Ascension. Maybe Technomancer mod era?

Diet: Carnivorous. Incapable of consuming Black Lizards. Same pips as Spearmaster, due to the slow metabolism of underground creatures. (OOOOO|OOOOO)

Abilities: Blind. Mechanically, this means everything has the Shaded Citadel or Filtration System filter. Edges of terrain are illuminated as if with Monk's Citadel assist effect to represent the Covert relying on sound and touch. Sources of sound are illuminated better, and all non-ambient noises have their volume increased. Faster tunneling speed than any other.

Iterator: there's a nonzero chance only LttM exists here

STARFALLEN

Era: Paradoxically before Spearmaster and yet after Saint. Rubicon is present.

Diet: Carnivorous. Not sure on the pips.

Abilities: Capable of holding and producing a charge similar to Centipedes. Immune to stuns or damage Centipede and Jellyfish shocks, instead entering an overcharged state that gives them mild contact damage and stuns to enemies susceptible to electricity. Can charge Electric Spears and electrocute creatures via mauling.

Iterator: Sixteen Shooting Stars, a strange Iterator whose can is only accessible in Rubicon.

REFUGEE

Era: Immediately after Monk.

Diet: Same as Monk, including the pips. (OOO|OO)

Abilities: Weaker and lighter than Monk, but also swifter. Lizard taming odds are doubled.

Iterator: Looks to the Moon, like their other siblings!

GATHERER

Not created with playability in mind. Basically a cross between Gourmand and Hunter, their parents.

WEAVER

Not created with playability in mind. An unstable cross between Rivulet and Spearmaster, their parents.

#meister answers #rain world #rainworld #meister ocs #martyr #dragon slayer #mother #scholar #covert #starfallen #gatherer #weaver #refugee

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posebean · 2 years ago

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Summer Rain: Sick in the Rain 1

Writer: Beanosei

Season: Spring

Characters: Niki

Niki: Nee-san~ I’m just being plain dumb? Why are you calling me dumb now, too? What did I do to deserve this treatment~

Disclaimer: This chapter includes Anzu heavily as a character. She is her own character here, but it's still Niki directly addressing her as "Nee-san" in order to stick to the Enstars story format as much as possible.

Studio, 2 days after

Niki: Is this where you wanted the camera? A little to the left? Okay!

Niki: There, all moved just like how you wanted.

Niki: I don’t need to help out? Oh, no no no, it’s fine. It’s the least I can do to help, Director-san! I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to meet your expectations.

Niki: Nahaha, it’s not like I have much else to do. I can just take over a side character role if you need that.

Niki: The rest of my unit is still here, and I already called off from Cinnamon for the filming period. I might as well help out in any way I can.

Niki: Come back~? I’m sorry Director-san, anything but that. I can cook snacks for the crew, I can help with props and such. But I really can’t act. I’ve been holding the whole team back, it’s for the best~

Niki: You haven’t found a replacement yet? Oh…

Niki: Definitely not Kohaku-chan…What about Himeru-kun? Or we can try asking someone else from the agency? Maybe Vice Pres has someone in mind?

Niki: You asked Himeru and Himeru refused? And you really don’t want to have to talk with Vice Pres again? Honestly, understandable from an outsider’s perspective, nahaha.

Niki: Vice Pres can be a little much at times, but he’s very fun once you get to know him~

Niki: I’m your only hope? You give me too much credit, Director-san. I’m just a chef~ If you want good food, I’m your best hope. You don’t come to me if you need a movie made~

Niki: Oh, is that your phone ringing?

Niki: I guess you’ll be going back to check on the others. Don’t worry, I’m fine here! I’ll make sure this camera stays in place and doesn’t budge at all~

Niki: (Nahaha…Director-san is understanding but still a little pushy~ As expected of an industry professional.)

Niki: (sits down in a chair, watching the filming in the distance)

Niki: (While they’re looking for a replacement for me, the other three are filming the scenes that they can. They’re still working hard, way better at this than me.)

Niki: ... I wonder why Himeru-kun rejected the role?

Niki: I’m a little glad-

Niki: (Wait- why am I glad? This movie is going nowhere without a second lead!)

Niki: Ugh…too much thinking. Need to get some food into my stomach ♪ Let’s see, I should have a leftover granola bar in my pocket.

Niki: Eh?

Niki: Oh right. I finished it two hours ago.

Niki: … Guess I’ll just wither away and starve here until everyone’s done…that shouldn’t be that long, I hope.

Niki: ...!

Niki: (Hmm? What’s that…delicious yet familiar smell? Almost like…that bread that I really love~♪)

Niki: Ah! Nee-san, fancy seeing you here.

Niki: Are you here to check in on the filming? If Vice Pres is pushing you around dumping work on someone else when he’s supposed to be the one handling our ragtag group, feel free to complain~

Niki: You’re here out of your own will? Really Nee-san, your arrival is too convenient to be a coincidence. Someone must’ve told you something~

Niki: Himeru-kun and Kohaku-chan? What did they tell you?

Niki: That me and Rinne-kun are being stupid and need someone to straighten us out because whatever they’re trying isn’t working? Ehhh~ They’re wrong Nee-san, everything is sorted out.

Niki: Ignore the fact that we’re at a standstill in all of the main scenes~ They’ll find a more experienced replacement quickly. They’ll be able to re-record everything and all the scenes that we missed at twice the speed compared with what we could with me as the second lead.

Niki: Oh, you have something for me?

Niki: Nee-san! I knew I smelled my favorite bread ♪ How did you know it was my favorite? It’s not really common knowledge, and it’s a little hard to get a hand on it normally.

Niki: ... You ran into Rinne-kun over there and he told you to give it to me? Oh…I see…

Niki: (Stares down at the bread in his hands)

Niki: He looked sad? Even while filming? Huh…

Niki: But he was so excited when we started…what changed?

Niki:?

Niki: No way, it can’t be because I quit. Even Rinne-kun understood, I did it for the good of the movie!

Niki: Some of the most important things are left unsaid?

Niki: …Nahaha, Nee-san. You’re really saying Rinne-kun was having fun…and enthusiastic…because I was there with him?

Niki: You’re really giving me too much credit. Maybe he was, but that was because he had someone to pick on~

Niki: You doubt that? Geez, why is everyone saying that? Is everyone saying that I, the one who knows Rinne-kun the most, don’t actually know him that well?

Niki: Not at all?

Niki: Nee-san~ I’m just being plain dumb? Why are you calling me dumb now, too? What did I do to deserve this treatment~

Niki: You’re joking? But you also mean it too? Nee-san…

Niki: I know that, I know that Rinne-kun cares for me. But that’s in the same way he cares about Kohaku-chan and Himeru-kun! And how he cares about his brother, his juniors, and everyone. He’s a very caring person, you know? He just doesn’t like to show it often~

Niki: It’s different? Very different?

Niki: Haha Nee-san, how are you so sure? I'm even starting to wonder if I really do know Rinne-kun…

Niki: You’re saying you have something else for me? Ah, what’s this CD for? Oh, I see, that’s why you have a laptop with you~

Niki: Eh? Nee-san, I put the CD in but it’s a blank video with just a black screen. Is this some sort of secret message or something?

Niki: Turn the volume up? Oh, it is muted. Let me do that-

Computer: ♪

Niki: (This…song…)

Niki: (It’s a completely different feeling… and the key is shifted… but…)

Niki: (It’s there. It’s definitely there. This instrumental, wherever Nee-san got it from…)

Niki: (It has the melody of mine and Rinne-kun’s duo debut song. Heartbeat Honey Drop.)

Niki: (The song that we started with. The song that symbolized the beginning of our journey to chase our dreams. Dreams…that we have at our hands right now, as Crazy:B.)

Niki: Nee-san, where did you get this? Do you know what it’s for? What it’s…from?

Niki: It’s a secret where you got it from? Ehh~ Oh? It’s the instrumental for a scene from the movie?

Niki: You don’t know what it’s from? You only know that I recognized it from watching me listen to it? Haha, you could say it’s nostalgic for me. In some way.

Niki: But if it’s for the movie…how on Earth did Director-san get ahold of that song…we weren’t popular and I doubt you’ll even find anything besides Crazy:B stuff when searching us up-

Niki: (Oh.)

Niki: (There’s only one way this could’ve happened. The only other person that knows that melody by heart.)

Niki: (The one that’s been there by my side this whole time. Waiting patiently, always there for me. The one that broadened my world, dragged me against my will into a world of blinding lights.)

Niki: (I didn’t forget this tune, but it did fade away behind all the new things we’ve experienced. But Rinne-kun…Rinne-kun, you kept it with you this whole time, chasing after me for so many years…)

Niki: (Nahaha, I guess everyone is right. Maybe I am a little dumb. Why else would Rinne-kun do all these things, only want to be a lead if I was the second lead, only be able to put his all in when I’m there, somehow get the Director to repurpose a song so special to us…)

Niki: Nahaha, Nee-san~ You’re saying that Rinne-kun only looks at me in that soft way? Haha, he’s such a sap.

Niki: It’s cute how loyal he is, even if it comes to the detriment of other things, nahaha.

Niki: (Sighs) It really can’t be helped. Nee-san, can you tell Director-san that I’ll do it? I’ll finish the movie, play the second lead like what was originally planned.

Niki: Nee~san. Why are you smiling at me like that?

Niki: Nee-san you are so sly. You are as sly as Rinne-kun is sometimes. You planned this. You definitely planned this, knowing what would happen. I don’t know with who, but you definitely had an accomplice…or accomplices.

Niki: Nee~san stop smiling at me like that you’re gonna make me cry~

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#enstars #rinniki #insanabean #bean writes #Summer Rain #rinky

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sweetfirebird · 2 years ago

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I know part of it is extreme weather changes because of climate change and all, but the sudden appearance of "bomb cyclones" in the news irritates me so much. First of all, suddenly calling severe storms "bomb cyclones" is designed to scare the shit out of people without actually telling them anything about it or what to do for them. Are they truly unprecedented? Then maybe tell people what you mean by "cyclone." The first one that hit us up here in 2021 was just called a big storm up until the last second. Then they called it a bomb cyclone, sent everyone into a panic (but not enough of a panic to order businesses to close early and send people home while roads were still passable and power was still on, btw. My whole separate rage for how America handles increasing natural disasters is for another time.) Then they acted like, well that was weird, anyway while we were all without power for days or stranded in our homes.

Keep in mind that no storm here in my lifetime has ever been deemed a cyclone before. So everyone here was sort of??? about what that meant for us the first time as well. Sounds real scary (because it is) but what are we supposed to do? What does that mean in practical terms? Oh you just wanna fearmonger and not be helpful? Cool.

Then now there have been two this year so far, with people buried and starving or freezing to death under snow or isolated by water/mud, and the media sort of treats it like, "we've just decided to slap that label on extreme weather I guess."

And it's the least helpful thing they could be doing, honestly. If they said, "hey we are possibly about to get winds up to whatever mph and that on its own is going to cause serious problems even without the heavy rain or snow--though we will also be getting that--and here is what needs to happen before this storm arrives" that would actually be helpful.

You'd think after the handling of Covid, I'd be less surprised by how incompetent the people in charge are, but... here I am still shocked at the constant mishandling of shit.

Also when severe weather is predicted, I don't care how used to it your area is, workers and schoolchildren all need to be sent home. Period. And frankly, even if you are used the occasional storm, we don't live in normal storm times anymore. Send people home before the roads and trains and buses stop being available and stop expecting like... fast food workers to come into work during this shit.

(oops here's that rant now)

Also with rising costs to live in urban centers, most poorer workers... actually most workers... do not live near city centers, which means they have to travel to come into work. Nope.

(Also those people expecting like a Subway sandwich shop to be open during a hurricane.... what is wrong with you?)

....I am avoiding formatting. But my rage is valid. When we had the first big fire up here, once the phone lines and towers went back up, which took a couple of days *while the fire was still burning out of control* my manager got calls from people mad about businesses being closed. People had fled across the county/state and were waiting to learn if their homes burned. People died, a lot of people. Businesses burned down. Communications were down. Absolutely no business was getting done anyway.

Honestly the most selfishly stupid stuff from humans who did not deserve politeness.

#rant #flor mode activated #sorry i saw some dumb bomb cyclone news again and it set me off

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casspurrjoybell-19 · 8 months ago

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Does it Matter? - Chapter 59 - Part 1

*Warning Adult Content*

The spirit of exploration had taken Dara after they were done with breakfast and Maric had discovered that there were few greater joys in life than simply following him around.

Everything in Maric's life was so bound up in duty, purpose and presentation that Maric rarely got the opportunity to just aimlessly wander around and enjoy the world.

Dara balanced along a fallen log and then hopped from it onto a rock before turning to Maric.

"So. How do you feel about what happened last night?"

"I feel like jealousy is a trap I've fallen for before."

"You're allowed to feel it. That's your right. Not as a prince but as a person."

"Should I be jealous?"

"There is no 'should' but if you're asking whether I have feelings for Bug, the answer is still no. I just... I wanted to watch."

"You certainly did that and you seemed to like what you saw."

"There is something very appealing to me about that type of sex but I know I would panic if I tried to receive it and my interest isn't particularly in being on the other end of things. It was vicarious enjoyment, not a fantasy about switching places with either one of them."

"Ah and I take it your hints that if I wanted to bed Brayan again, you would allow it so long as it wasn't a secret, had a little to do with that as well."

Dara twisted his lips together and tipped his head from side to side.

"A little, maybe. I mean it sincerely as well but... yes. Though I'm not sure how Bug would feel about that idea."

"Or Brayan, for that matter, now that he's a man of love."

"I have no intention to push for anyone to do anything they don't want to do. I'm happy with things how they are. I'm happy with you. I just... have an appreciation for certain other things, if they happen to occur where I can see them."

"Then we shall have to see what happens."

********

That afternoon, Bug lay on his back in the tent, shut his eyes and started skipping through moments in time to check the weather.

Peering into the future had become a grim task he did only when necessary but this time he found himself catching and lingering on some of the things he saw.

None of it was bad.

Sometimes, Brayan was there and he was soft, attentive and though sometimes a little aloof, always caring.

Bug heard a sound and opened his eyes to see that, back in reality, Brayan had entered the tent.

"It's going to start raining tonight," Bug told him.

"I'm not sure how long it will last. I got distracted."

Brayan sat down next to Bug.

"Are there any exciting things in store for us in the near future?"

"No, just... you being nice to me."

"Ah. Yes, I had planned to be. Would you like me to help you wash off in the river?"

Bug nodded.

"If you have time. I keep finding bits of dried mud on me."

"I have more time than I know what to do with at the moment."

Just getting up was an effort but it felt good to be moving.

In some ways, at least.

Bug's body felt like a mess of competing needs.

Movement made him feel more alive but halfway to the river he was already mentally calculating how much energy it would take to get the rest of the way there and then back and that wasn't even considering whatever they did while they were there.

It felt like he would be this way forever but of course that was ridiculous.

He'd only had a couple of days of rest and good food after very nearly dying and before that he'd had only a short period of stability after being starved, abused and nearly poisoned to death.

He was stronger today than he had been yesterday and there was no reason to think he wouldn't be a little stronger still tomorrow.

It was easy to feel hopeless when a short stroll felt like it took everything he had.

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findafanfic · 1 year ago

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✿Weekly Best Reads✿

(sep. 21 2023) |:| includes genshin impact, naruto, star wars, & jjba fic

bad guys don't always do bad guy things || skunabf

Where Aether bumps into Enjou multiple times across Inazuma (and sometimes not just there) doing the most mundane things - but bad guys always have bad guy things to do right? Enjou can't possibly be just enjoying himself, right? No way.

--- enjou/aether, about 30,000 words. Very fluffy and chill. Complete. this is a major rare pair of mine so glad this exists!

orochimaru & tsunade's lesson on drinking moderately || MonsegnorSnek

Lost in the Warring Clan Period, somehow shrunk beyond belief, Orochimaru wondered how he found himself being kidnapped by the Shodai Hokage. Lost in the Warring Clan Period, wearing a body of her six-year-old self, Tsunade would cling to Uchiha Madara's leg and swore to herself that she would never let this man go. Or in which Orochimaru and Tsunade got batshit drunk and because of a Fuuinjutsu scroll, they suddenly found themselves in the past, in a body too small for comfort, lost from each other's company and had the unanimous and silent decision that they would do everything for Konoha to be built again even if both Senju and Uchiha would not like it.

-- Gen, about 10,000 words. crack/humor. Incomplete

no line on the horizon || blakkat

For the sake of his pride, Jiraiya's going to imagine that his double went out in the bed of some voracious and lusty twins—no, make that triplets, with everyone wildly satisfied and a smile on his face. The whole alternate universe thing is easier to swallow that way.

-- minor relationships, around 5000 words. Fluffy and funny. love my sannin content. Complete

learned men || Trixree

It becomes the Question—the one every vod is talking about from the bridge of the Negotiator to her dark bowels where the laundry rooms churn and chug along: who takes care of the General? -- In which Obi-Wan is touch starved and his men take notice.

-- codywan, about 8000 words. VERY SWEET. complete 💛

Interstitial || galateaGalvanized

“Alright, how do we fight it?” Cody asks, squaring his shoulders and adding steel to his spine. “You know as well as I do that the Vigilance’s armory is unmatched by any modern warship. If there’s anything that can carve through this, then we’ve probably got two.” In the scattered light reflecting off a thousand broken hulls, Obi-Wan’s eyes are as clear and inscrutable as well water. “Cody,” he says, “this isn’t something you try to fight. This is something you try to survive.”

-- codywan, about 20,000 words. cosmic horror. it very much spooked me. you dont see much fic like this. complete 💛

you know i'm good on my own (do you know, i could break beneath the wieght) || abstract_psychopomp

«Wolffe had commed him, one night. From Coruscant Fox had smiled at him tiredly, and Wolffe had felt his heart sank at the sight of the ugly eye bags that seemed to scar his face, the dark bruise on his cheekbone and the exhaustion in his eyes. In the eyes of the only brother he thought as safe. Fox said it was nothing, that everything was okay, and Wolffe cried. He cried, and told his twin how he knew that his anger would have been his demise, how he knew that his General wouldn't have waited long before requesting a new CC, maybe a CC that didn't hate him so strongly. He cried in the way he was able only to with Fox, ugly and freeing, wet and rare.» or Wolffe and Fox, their life together, their life a galaxy from each other

-- Gen, about 25,000 words. Wolffe centric. LOTSA family feels. incomplete

last man standing || lilyconrad

A ghost story the clone troopers might pass around late at night in the dark.

-- Gen, about 1000 words. lowkey spooked me. complete.

living, rising, unifying || Skylarium_Rose

Returning to Coruscant after a campaign siege in month-long rain Obi-Wan is actually looking forward to relaxing during the break he and his troopers have been given. In taking time for himself and involving himself more in his new role on the Council, Obi-Wan finds himself in a situation that he knows vividly. And it is one he would take on, even if the Force was not already brilliantly dancing at the decision he had come to.

-- Gen, about 60,000 words. obiwan gets a padawan!! complete 💛

only bend when it breaks || roktavor

“Just take me home,” Buccellati had insisted, dripping with rainwater and blood – and Abbacchio was panicked and torn enough not to argue. (Buccellati gets shot and refuses proper medical care, so Abbacchio tends to him as best he can.)

-- bruabba, about 10,000 words. hurt comfort. ROKTAVOR STRIKES AGAIN. complete

hell is for children || Speedwagons_Glorious_Mane

While out to lunch, the gang are attacked by three would-be assasins, one of whom has a very peculiar stand ability: Hell is For Children. Now Giorno is stuck babysitting his younger self. One thing is certain: Giorno can't let his fellow gang members know this child, Haruno Shiobana, scared of his own shadow, is him.

-- Gen, about 25,000 words. heavy exploration of Giornos childhood trauma. its very good. complete 💛

#naruto #jjba #star wars #fic recs #jjba fic recs #star wars fic recs #naruto fic recs #etc

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mysmistree · 2 years ago

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The Starving Artist (Short Story)

It was one of those nights. My mug of coffee had run dry, and the day’s Times was just dreary and unmoving. The rain struck hard against my windows, the bleak streets broken only by the yellow glow of their lamps on this dark night. The ceiling fan spun wryly over my olive-green office, threatening to put out my last cigarette. It was then that I heard a faint strike on my door. The rat-tat-tat of a youngster, unsure if this is the place.

“Come in,” my voice answered before I’d decided. I’d had enough money for the week, and it was late enough to pretend to be away. Oh well, what’s done is done.

The door creaked open, and a young woman stepped inside. She had a flapper’s dress on, and in her hands she carried her purse and her gloves. She was dressed for a party, so I couldn’t help but wonder what lover’s quarrel led her here. I had her sit down, handed her a glass of whiskey, and turned to the streets, my eyes watching the lonely motorcades of the normal and mundane strike up the waters of the street, intermingled with the image of myself in my coat and bullfrog trousers.

“I came for advice,” she said at last.

“Well that comes cheap.”

“And assistance.”

“That, not so cheap.”

I hear a rustling, and catch a glimpse of her pulling a framed photo out of her bag in the window’s reflection.

“It’s about my husband.”

“What, sudden disappearance? Suspected cheating? Maybe he’s getting out of dodge due to a debters?”

I was callous, cold, but it was a late night and an unexpected visit, can ya blame me? Well, the daggers in the reflection told me she certainly did.

“He’s not missing, nor cheating.”

I withheld further smart-alec comments.

“Then what brings ya in? Ain’t exactly desperation that brings ya in at 2 AM.”

She looks off to the side.

“He’s been in our apartment for a week. And he hasn’t left once.”

“Do you know why?”

“His work.”

“What’s he, a novelist?”

“No, a painter.”

I rolled my eyes. Reclusive and a painter, of course I get the eccentric types. I felt I was in for a long night.

“So, you want me to scare him out of the flat?”

“I want you to check on him.”

“Why?”

She didn’t answer for a period, her eyes crossing the floor.

“He hasn’t been eating.”

The silence was powerful. Had I been any shorter, I’m sure the ash falling from my cigar would’ve been audible. But all I heard was the rain, as her words sank in. I took a moment, and slipped my revolver into my jacket pocket.

“When did you last see him do so?”

“What, fast?”

“No, toots, eat.”

“On Monday, at breakfast.”

Shit. Six days. And in a handful of hours it’d be seven.

“What was he like this morning?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not? Weren’t you worried?”

“Of course I was!” her voice cried out, “But he locked me out. I can’t get in, and I’ve had to stay at my sister’s while he’s been like this.”

I suppose it was the discomforting sound, but I couldn’t turn this case down now. I knew too much. I should’ve turned her away at the door, as now it’s do or don’t-sleep.

“Fine. I’ll check up on him. Give me the address to your sister’s, and yours. You’re welcome to wait here until I get back, but that might be a while. If you do,” I added, as I stopped in my doorway, “You’re welcome to anything you can find to drink, but do your stressed mind a favor and leave the coffee untouched.”

Admittedly, after closing the door, I groaned. I was starting to sound like my mother, giving advice to people who didn’t ask for it. But I shook it off; now was not the time for social regret. The situation was urgent. I got down to the street, and took a cab up to the place in question. When I stepped onto the curb, I got a startlingly good look at it.

At the ground floor, it was like any old apartment building. Glass revolving door against simple painted brickwork standing out like a gas-lamp to the lonely travelers of the night. But once it crossed the first floor, things changed. The building began to warp. Warm orange rooms began stretching and changing into flat yellow lights, the walls of the building darkened, as the whole structure literally loomed over the street, becoming a more and more abstract version of imposing, until it was this dark, stretched tower of almost children’s book origin. And yet despite this childish design, it still managed to imbue me with a feeling of impending doom.

There was no question; This was the place, but I may already have been too late. As I entered the lobby, I found it had been painted over. Doors looked outlined, pictures seemed re-designed, and there were arrows on the floor leading to the proper rooms like in a children’s playground. The shape of the building made me uneasy, so I found myself taking the stairs. As you might expect, the higher I went, the weirder the situation became. The floors quickly swapped from tile to inked-over wood. Dark splotches struck the walls in odd places, like a fountain pen that went projectile. Some rooms had the furniture bolted to the ceiling, some were covered in words and strange writings. All in all, the place seemed entirely abandoned. After wandering the twisting corridors and stairs for a few minutes, I finally made my way up to the fifth floor. The way my coat dangled despite standing straight up told me we were in the section looking straight down at the street. Bizarre what these things can do.

As I walked down the corridor, which often chose to invert itself or twist in peculiar directions, I could distinctly observe everything becoming weirder. Every occurrence becoming worse. Paintings became solid colors, furniture was painted into place, odd colors adorned the walls, words became meaningless letters and then scribbles. All of which seemed to be drawing from the same door, the apartment in question: 527.

The door was pure-black, glistening and dripping with the air of fresh paint. And yet, despite the simple look, it carried the brunt of the towering energy within the building. Every step towards it seemed to cry out as though it were cruel, and every commanding glance was met by a far more overwhelming silence. But this door wasn’t the source, merely the gate.

This was it. Like a leaflet on the wind, I felt the pull of this room. I took a good look at myself, checking I was prepared. Had my revolver, my hat, and my bullfrog trousers. Though I could distinctly see the edge of my hat had gained an outline. I would have to be quick.

I grabbed the ink-black handle, and swung the door open.

The room was undoubtedly the champion of this horribly enigmatic building. It was meters longer than it should have been, the walls twisting their way up to an impossibly high ceiling, far enough up that I couldn’t see it in the darkness. All of this served only as the surrounding context of an enormous window, easily six times my size, which overlooked the street. But all of this meant very little to my mind, for my eyes had focused on the central figure of the room, the main cause.

Standing before a canvas and easel that could give a double-decker bus a run for its money, was a strange figure. Looming over the easel with a palette in one hand, and a brush held like a sword in the other, the creature continually swung at the canvas.

It was tall, well over my height by a good three or four feet, and it was dripping from head-to-toe in ink. Despite this, I could see the back of a clean vest and slacks, merely trimmed with ink on the sleeves and otherwise somehow stainless. The only sound that came about was a series of swipes. Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. The rushed sound of the brush against the canvas, multiplied so loudly it may as well have been nails on a chalkboard. I was several hours too late.

As I looked around at the discarded mess of canvases and painted walls, knowing hope was lost, I determined the best solution was a quick execution. I drew my revolver from my pocket, and cocked the hammer. At the sound, the immense being craned its neck behind it to reveal two brightly glowing yellow eyes, and a crooked yellow smile across its face. I lined the gun up and pulled the trigger.

BANG.

…

It didn’t even flinch. But it didn’t appreciate it either. All in one moment, the strange beasts eyes and mouth ceased their almost child-like glow, and all that was left was a gaping, horrifying maw and sockets, which began to scream.

I held my ground, and as a giant paintbrush swung towards me, I leapt using the springs of my trousers on their lightest setting to get over it. I had to think, as I didn’t have many options. The Painter struck at me again, this time I narrowly avoided it by dodging off to the side. My gun was useless. And this beast was immense. Clearly if I had any choice at all, it would be through the window. But would a window that big even break if I smashed into it? I didn’t have many choices. I ran to the door again, using my opponent’s immense size to my advantage, and braced my legs against the door.

Ksssssssssshhhht. The hiss of my bullfrogs set as they were armed to launch. I waited, and sure enough, the beast drew up his paintbrush to bring down on my head, and in that moment, I launched myself between his legs at the window. CRACK! For a brief moment I felt success. And opened my eyes for the next step. And saw an unbroken window, and a lot of blood. I had completely shattered my shoulder, and failed to crack open the window. I fell to the ground, a crumpled heap, the pain only stifled by my sheer adrenaline. And in the corner, I could hear it. The shuffled wet steps of those gigantic, ink-covered feet rumbled the room, as I saw him raise his choice weapon above my head. In a last frantic effort, I threw myself aside right as the weapon came down.

The pattering sounds of glass being shattered deafened my eardrums. The giant’s brush was halfway outside the glass, its head turned to look at me, fury painted in the edges of its face. This was my only chance. I rolled my way over to the door, batting away leftover canvases with my good arm, until I was in position.

Ksssssssssshhhht.

Pomfph. I kicked off the door with everything I had, and I smashed right into the head of that wretched has-been. He stumbled backward, falling out of the newly shattered frame. And on his way out, he dragged me by my foot.

I found myself falling. Miniscule shards of glass were making their way past me as I hurtled towards the Painter, as we both hurtled towards the road. I looked at him, and observed his eyes had returned their bright orange glow, wide-eyed with fear and sadness as he looked passed me. I turned my head in the fall, and saw the same.

The apartment careened upward, the windows color becoming more complex, and the size reducing significantly, as the towering machination that had once been this fortress of ink and paper returned to its original position. The creak of brick and metal hollered as the size compressed, the last few possessions of the artist making their way out the window, as if left behind. It curled, retracted, and returned to its position on the side of the road.

And then it all went dark.

#writing #creative writing #short story #original fiction #my story

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hazele-omega · 4 months ago

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Okay. Rain world campaign concepts. I have 2 of them; they're not particularly in-depth just yet but I hope there's something here

#1: The Diplomat. Occurs after Artificer's campaign, potentially between Hunter and Gourmand. This slugcat has been sent by the Outer Expanse colony as an emissary to the scavengers, in an attempt to restore relations after Artificer's rampage and therefore prevent dangerous hostility or even war between the species. In this campaign, reputation with the scavs starts at -35 (Hunter's value) and goes down more slowly than normal, and the goal of the campaign could be to raise it by a certain amount in each region with scavengers.

#2: The Heretic, or The Deserter, or perhaps The Martyr. This one is the most interesting to me, and it involves the headcanon that Hunter wasn't the only Hunter that NSH sent out. It seems unlikely to me that NSH would create just one failing organism and send it off into the wilderness with the fate of one of his best friends in its hands; I think that the most likely occurrence is that NSH made several copies of this organism and the neuron that it carries, and sent them all out in the hopes that one would make it through. Hunter is the one that did, and Heretic is one that was forced to abandon its mission to ensure its survival (it had to eat the green neuron), and must now figure out what to do with the rest of its short life. The significant gameplay difference in this campaign is that the Heretic has figured out how to delay the rot's consumption: by periodically starving itself, and thus the rot also. The Heretic's food pip requirement increases every time it ends a cycle without starving (including the end of a previously induced starve cycle), but decreases every time a cycle is ended with a starve. This creates a loop of the double-or-nothing, where you can choose not to starve and make future cycles harder on yourself, or attempt to keep your rising food requirements as low as possible to make this world survivable. Your cycles are limited by a countdown, but also by how much food you can reasonably collect in one. I have no idea what the plot of this campaign would be, but the idea of this gimmick (loosely based off Hunter's state after cycle 0) and its added difficulty makes this a really intriguing concept to me.

Ahem. I don't have any art of these guys yet but maybe one day.....If anyone has name suggestions/opinions for Heretic please share

silly rain world headcanon: the joke rifle was the result of the combined creation powers of gourmand and artificer. arti went up to gourm one day and was like "hey. I have an idea for a Destruction Machine that (Generally) Won't Kill the User and if you help me make it I'll give you free bombs and a bunch of these yellow flower lookin things." and gourmand was like "won't ask what this'll be used for. deal" and they put their heads together, licked some metal, and thus created their Magnum Opus. then arti took it and disappeared into the nearby iterator superstructure, never to be seen again. from that day on the scavengers seemed to stay a little further away from the slugcat colonies but that's probably unrelated

#rain world #rw spoilers #rw ocs

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adonis-koo · 3 years ago

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wicked • 3

↳ Summary: In a desperate hope to stop war from breaking you are a serviced to wed the most vile man alive, the one who has committed atrocities and war crimes beyond comprehension, he who is responsible for the fall of many nations, the wicked prince who’s heart is made of stone. You are to marry a man who challenges every belief and moral you stand for, all while being faced in a foreign land with nobody but yourself too trust…But are you both truly that different? Or is hate not too far from love?

↳ Pairing: Jungkook/reader feat. Seokjin

↳ Genre: arranged marriage AU, enemies to lovers, it’s kind of a period AU??? Historical but also technically not? prince!AU, eventual smut

Word Count: 5.2k

Previous | Next

Note: I told myself I wasn’t gonna rewrite anything in this series yet here I am, rewriting things because I really do love e2l where they actually mf hate each others guts at first

The next two days of your life after a disastrous first dinner, had been perhaps some of your darkest, staying reclusive in bed and nobody had looked for you nor checked in on you, after all, who would? You’d only leave your room at the dead of night and had made yourself acquainted with the kitchen and the late night maids who, you had the faint impression they felt sorry for you and therefore began saving you leftovers to eat long after dinner had passed.

And this new found routine had first started at two days, then four, and soon a week had passed at your new life in Penumbra.

That was until a knock at your door arrived.

Wheein.

That was her name, she was a little skittish at your rough appearance but had a tender dimpled smile and long raven hair that truly highlighted her beauty despite the dirt that smudged on her face. She had introduced herself as your personal maid which had been assigned to you, you didn’t question her words though it made you briefly wonder who in court took it upon themselves to give you a maid.

Or maybe they had simply just remembered they were supposed to have assigned you a personal maid all along, after all, nobody beyond yourself was allowed inside the closed gates of Penumbra. And you could only assume you were supposed to be thankful at this rare chance of gaze upon the barbaric, proud nation of Penumbra, just the idea made your lips twist bitterly.

Wheein however, was a breath of fresh air you had much needed, a small light to brighten your days which had quickly turned dull, she kept you fresh and had been convincing you to go out as of late.

You had been wary to leave the castle but alas, there was still plenty to do within it’s walls, Wheein had been currently showing you around the garden’s which you could at the very least admire though it made you sad, “Everything is just so…” Your lips quirked a little at the dried shriveled leaves, blooms attempting to live on as it was fresh of spring, but you had quickly learned Penumbra didn’t have sunny days often.

It’s nation shrouded in a murky overcast of grey and it often was plagued with rain and thunder, on worst days you could still feel a raw cold nip in the air despite it being mid spring where Eunoia would be in full bloom by now, the flora here however, was vastly struggling, “Barren.” You finally spoke, a frown on your lips, these plants didn’t look native to Penumbra either, had they been surely they’d be doing much better in the murkier weather.

Wheein offered a weak smile as she watched you kneel down, you could tell she was not used to speaking so freely with a royal but she had quickly learned you were starved of social interaction and contrary to the word she had heard around the court, you weren’t the primadonna some royals were attempting to make you to be, in fact, Wheein felt as though you were far from it after she had gotten past your sulky outer demeanor, “...Not much is invested into the gardens here in Penumbra…” Her lips parted as if she was going to say something before she stopped herself, her eyes darting around a little as if looking to see if anyone else was around, “...I’ve heard that the late queen used to love the gardens and made sure they were well tended too but…”

You stood up, curiously as you watched Wheein shift a little nervously, “After she passed they’ve been wilted ever since…” Her voice lowered further, “Some say the king let it die out of spiteful anger. That the memory of her was too painful, so he let it die alongside her. They’ve looked like this for as long as I’ve been a maid here.”

Your expression softened a little as you sat down on the stone bench, the cold surface causing goosebumps to appear on your skin as you wrapped your arms around yourself, the late queen…? It was only in this moment you realized just how little you actually knew about Penumbra, you had just assumed the queen was probably not allowed to leave the capitol.

In fact, you weren’t sure anybody outside Penumbra even knew she was dead…

A loud caw caused you to jump, twisting as your eyes widened at the large crow that perched atop of the stone bench, it’s dark brewing eyes staring at you as it twisted it’s head to the side, your eyes staring back at it as you frowned.

“Have you talked with him yet…?”

You gazed back at Wheein as you raised a brow, causing her to elaborate, “With the king…? Have you spoken with him yet?”

“No…” You mumbled, your eyes looking towards the crow that still sat perched, as if keeping you company as you gazed back down at your hands, “...I haven’t spoken to any of the court since my first day.”

Wheein raised her brows a little as if surprised by this news before she frowned a little, “Oh…” You didn’t need to know her well to tell she was obviously dreading something as she looked down at her feet, perhaps sensing you could tell something was up as she offered a weak smile, “Umm, well...I have some...unfortunate news then…”

You could feel a knot twisting in your stomach, your eyes lingering back to the crow which had been perched as if a third wheel in the conversation, it’s little head directed at you and occasionally twitching to the side before it hopped down onto the bench, pecking at the stone in hopes of finding something to eat.

“...The king asked me to fetch you for supper...he requested your presence tonight in his private dining quarters…” Wheein spoke a little rushed, wringing her hands nervously as your brows shot upwards, the king…? Your gut felt wrenched as your gaze shot back to the ground, so this was it…? If the king wanted to speak to you then surely you were as good as dead…

“Don’t worry too much my lady!” Wheein finally bounced a little, worry in her eyes at your stiff expression as she hurried to sit next to you, the crow cawing as it suddenly flew off, it’s peace disturbed, “He just...I can take a guess as to what he might want to talk about…The midnight walk is tomorrow...it’s been a past tradition that a newly wed royal couple are the first to enter the forest, it’s said to bring goodluck.”

You sunk into your seat...a midnight walk…? You felt perplexed and furthermore you had been left alone up until this point, was it too much to ask to be miserable in peace? You would be asking for an actual death sentence if you stood up the king himself, “Did he say...if it would just be us…?”

Wheein only shook her head apologetically, “I’m sorry m’lady, he didn’t say, just that you’d be dining privately, what I do know is that sometimes the royal family dine together in private, but it also isn’t uncommon for the king to dine by himself, he tends to not socialize with the court unless it’s for business.”

You only leaned back in your seat, taking a deep inhale while closing your eyes. Perfect, just perfect.

“You’ll be okay Princess,” Wheein whispered out, a weak smile on her lips at your stiff expression that was glued to the large oak double doors, just like everything else in the castle is was elaborate woven and carved into with intricate style and design, it’s wood stained a deep woody brown that didn’t due the low lit hall any service for light.

You glanced at Wheein as you nodded a little before she spoke once more, “It’s a little early for supper, so I imagine it might just be you and him. Good luck m'lady, I’ll be waiting out here for when you’re finished.”

Wheein stepped up to the door, knocking on it gently as she leaned in a little closer before hearing word of confirmation to come in, opening the door for you as she gave a small courtesy as you stepped through before she shut the door once more. Your heart was pounding in your chest but you kept your composure as you gave a courtesy of your own, “Your Majesty.” You spoke softly, your eyes unable to meet his as a servant guided you to the long table where the King sat at the end.

A chair at the other end was pulled out for you as you sat down, your eyes finally lifting to see the King leaned back in his chair comfortably holding a large goblet with you could only assume liquor in it.

King Jeon Dae Seong, the Bloody King.

That was what he was called to the outside world, it was for all the blood that had been spilt on his hands. Penumbra had once been nothing but ashes in the ruined wake of the kingdom of Seoul, having been completely destroyed in the Great War, much like Eunoia in that war, they had simply got caught in the crossfire of other ruined nations, but unlike Eunoia they were in the middle of two much larger kingdoms that waged war, leaving them seen as nothing more then a base to be captured and used to thwart an enemy.

From those ashes rose Penumbra, a humble beginning at first that nobody paid any mind too, and as time went out rumors had begin to stir about them as they gained metal and made their own wear, completely cut off from the world around them.

And then ten years ago struck the first war that would soon be many wars, Penumbra was a fresh nation and hungered for the blood of those which had betrayed and used it, first fell Lithia, the smaller kingdom to the west of Penumbra, then fell New Londo in the south, and soon Rolon fell to their power. And then five years ago, the great siege of the powerhouse nation Prokiev happened and Penumbra claimed victory overnight, it was then the council of kingdoms had come to a bitter defeat that something needed to be done or Penumbra might surely swallow the whole world in their vengeful nature.

It was a domino effect, what had once been a vast great land soon began to fall one by one and it only made other surrounding nations nervous. Nobody knew what Penumbra wanted though, what the end goal was, after all Penumbra had been set apart for many years now, living secluded and not allowing any foreigners into their lands. But it had seemed obvious, all of these nations played a hand in their predecessor, Seoul’s downfall.

Revenge was a terrible disease. Most of your life had been lived as a sanctuary kingdom, taking in refugees of other falling nations and providing a safe haven for them to recover before they would journey back to their war-torn lands in futile attempt to rebuild them.

Even Penumbra had once taken refuge in Eunoia as well, a small inkling of what they were now, and perhaps that was why when they were presented with the option of any nation of their choosing, they chose yours. Your lips briefly wanted to twist at the idea. Yes...of course, it had to be yours, and thus an arrangement would be made, Penumbra would lower their weapons and their disease stricken revenge and bloodthirst if in turn, they allied themselves with Eunoia, and thus, your marriage to the Wicked Prince had been forged.

His Majesty Dae Seong was what pushed war after war but it was his father who had built Penumbra brick by brick, a nation so terrifying it rendered all others powerless. This was the legacy you were faced with.

“I’ve been told you haven’t been settling in well, have you? Eunoian Princess?” Dae Seong’s voice was deep and raspy, his skin was paled as if he was sickly but his eyes were a burning deep coal that pierced through your very existence, they were the same eyes as your husband for sure.

You swallowed thickly, grabbing your own goblet as you looked into it, red wine sitting inside that you knew would help calm your nerves as you took your time to speak, taking a sip before you answered,”...I’ve been taking my time to adapt, Your Majesty.”

“In your room?” He questioned immediately, his lip lifting as his eyes glowered down at you, as if your very presence disgusted him, “Sneaking out alone in the dead of night like a pauper since you’re too good to eat with my court?”

Your eyes were glued to the wooden table, refusing to wither into yourself at his cold words and it became all too clear to you now that the king and the prince truly were father and son, something oddly familiar in his words, you were dully aware however, that you could not speak out of line to the King the way you could your husband, “My presence wasn’t requested at dinner, and I find myself only to be a fool when I attend. I apologize, your Majesty but I seek to be by myself these days as I become acquainted in these new lands…”

Your gaze met his once more as he began eating, not looking sympathetic for you whatsoever and you had no intention of trying to gain any for him, for how could a man with so much blood on his hands find a softness for one woman when he had mercilessly taken from thousands?

He only ate for a moment pondering your words before he suddenly snorted, chuckling out as if you had said something funny, “A fool, you say? Then don’t act as such and this won’t be a problem, I won’t have any weak spots in my court, whether it is from an outsider or not,” His eyes grew cold once more.

“Stay in your room as you like but you’ll be attending public events for the moral of my people when I request as such. Be as it may you do have impact on them,” His words came grumbled as if he resented the idea of your affect, “The midnight walk is tomorrow and it is our tradition that newly weds be the first to enter. This won’t be broken because of a stubborn girls resistance to change. Understood?”

You bit down on your lip, glaring into your plate which was once again full of rich meats, “Yes, Your Majesty…” Your eyes flickering to what looked like a potato stew with various vegetables, true it wasn’t meat free but you could make do, though your appetite was spoiled you couldn’t just leave until you were dismissed.

“Good, then eat, the others will be here soon. We eat as a family once a week, I expect you at each meal, the less you resist our ways the easier your integration will be.” Dae Seong spoke with a tone of finality that you had little to no desire to fight with as you stared down at your bowl as your stomach churned, the others...Perfect…

The meal continued in silence until the doors had been opened again.

“My boy you have to be more aggressive, with that attitude you’ll be defeated as champion this year.” This voice was unfamiliar but his face was not, you had seen him in court before and something about him just never sat right with you, perhaps it was the way his face would contort occasionally, a false sense of kindness in his eyes perhaps...?

“I’m not worried about my position as champion,” This was a voice all too familiar to you, “Titles mean nothing to me, surely you of all people would know that. My opinion won’t be changed, Uncle.” Jungkook had paused as his icy gaze shot to you, whatever desire you had to immediately engage in a fight with him was lost at the feeling of a hot burning gaze on you of the King. Your eyes flickering down back to your plate.

“Dae Seong, what is the meaning of this?” The other man spoke, clearly the King’s brother which only meant he must have been his advisor, his voice was jolly as he laughed, almost in mockery at the sight of you and you could tell it was anything but friendly. This had to be the most painful position you had ever been put in, a thousand times worse than your wedding day surely.

“Relax Jeong Dae, she is a Jeon now, she’ll attend private meals with us from now on.” Great…

Jungkook slowly sunk into his seat, his cool icy glare settling on you as he suddenly snorted at his father’s words as if he clearly didn’t agree with them, this caused the King’s gaze to shift to him as he raised his brows, “Do you have something to say boy?”

Jungkook’s gaze slid from you to his father, his expression just as unwelcoming as before and you curiously tilted your head, almost fascinated at their interaction, curious to see just what his relationship was like with his father.

At first you had assumed Jungkook would immediately throw a fit, demanding you be escorted from the room- as he probably would’ve done had his father not be present. But it was clear in this moment of silence between them both that everyone feared the king to a certain degree, even the wicked prince you supposed.

“No. I don’t.” Jungkook spoke plainly before he cuffed the sleeves of the royal blue jacket he wore, beautiful gold threatening weaving along it’s hem as he fixed his sleeve.

Jeong Dae sighed exasperated as if he was able to sense the amount of tension at the table before he spoke wistfully, “Well there’s no reason to let silence linger,” He began digging into his food as he spoke, “We have the midnight walk tomorrow, yes? I’m sure our lovely newlyweds will be the first to walk, yes?”

Jungkook’s eyes only cut further and if his expression was anything to go by when he looked at you it was obvious he had not consented to this either and was holding his tongue for whatever reason as he glared into you, “Yes,” Dae Seong spoke with a contented sigh as he looked between you both and either he was actually blind or he blatantly chose to ignore the ill looks you both kept giving one another, “The Rosewood clan with be there, I think it’ll be an excellent show of unity to have our newest wed presented first.”

Of course, you slightly deflated in your seat as you let out a silent sigh, taking a long drink from your goblet, the warmth of wine slipping down your throat and you could only hope to drink your sorrows of this pitiful night away. A show of unity...that's why you had to go to this event…? You didn’t understand the court system of Penumbra but you could only assume this was important if the king himself made a declaration that you were going, regardless that didn’t mean you couldn’t still be bitter about it.

“Unity won’t matter if they get a foothold into the court council like they’ve been planning.” The deep cold voice of Jungkook cut into the conversation, his eyes just as icy as he looked between his father and uncle who only exchanged looks with one another, “Nor will being seen with that woman matter to them.”

He just couldn’t keep his mouth shut…You sharply inhaled, looking at the blood red liquid in your goblet and silently wished you could be like the servants in the room and awkwardly melt into the shadows of the wall at the moment as tension rose once more, you dared to look up only for your gaze to shoot back to the table at the sight of the king’s face. He didn’t take kindly to being challenged, that much was clear.

“Are you questioning my decision, Jungkook?”

Jungkook’s expression however didn’t change at the sight of his father’s displeasure, in fact he had no problems looking the man straight in the eyes and it was only in this moment that you realized he truly did have nerves of steel as he spoke, almost bored, “No, just that It’s not the decision I would’ve made. Unity means nothing to the Rosewood’s if their own discord is anything to go by.”

The loud slam of a goblet on the table had silenced everyone, King Dae Seong’s expression twisting as he gritted his teeth, “I’m about damn tired of my decisions being questioned, my choice has been finalized, you may know much on the battlefield boy but don’t get cocky, you have much to learn before you ever take the throne.”

Jungkook’s expression didn’t change however, his eyes only cutting further- as if that was even possible and briefly you felt a cold draft in the room, his chin lifting only slightly as if this was some challenge he wasn’t scared of, no further words were spoken however they glared between one another before the King puffed, “You’re all dismissed. Go, I desire to be alone.”

You let out a silent breath, the first to get out of your chair as you had been dying to the last half an hour, giving a short courtesy before the doors were opened to you, Wheein jumped up at the sight of you as you only shook your eye, gesturing for her to follow you.

That could’ve gone worse you supposed, but it certainly could have gone better.

“What...was the purpose of this midnight walk again…?” You mumbled as you looked behind you as best you could as Wheein got you dressed, it was late at night and you were admittedly tired and if you could have it your way you’d simply just fall asleep and let the night go on without you.

But here you were, finishing getting dressed in the long black gown, mesh glittering with a deep sea blue tone that melded beautifully with black, you weren’t sure who had been in charge of your wardrobe thus far but you wished you knew so you could at least thank their taste, even if wearing black was odd to you, after all, it was a color of mourning yet the entire court was often seen in dark shades of rouge or black most of the time.

Wheein offered a small smile, dusting off her own simple black dress as she spoke, “Of course m’lady,” Kneeling down she began to lace up your boots as you’d be walking in the woods, or so you had gathered, “We have a cycle of traditions that represent our kingdom’s death and rebirth. The midnight walk is in honor of the death of Seoul which in light birthed Penumbra, the land of woods that was once barren from all the fires had grown into a thick barrier that would protect us from any surrounding nation. It’s a solemn event, you’ll simply walk with the Prince down the path towards the Seers altar, you’ll have a seat there while the Seers bless the grounds and they’ll dismiss you when they’re finished, once you exit the next person, the King and his advisor will go in and so forth.”

Tradition...you said nothing as Wheein stood up offering a small smile, “It’ll go more quick then it sounds like I promise...once all the royals finish everyone from all different villages will go into the woods after and the entirety of the next day to pay their thanks for Seoul’s sacrifice.”

You only nodded slightly before casting your gaze down, something about the way they talked about their previous nation of Seoul just...felt rather morbid, Wheein lead you down the staircase as she spoke, “And in a months time- just like in the wake of Penumbra, we’ll have our Swordsman championship in celebration of the wielding the first blade. Please let me know if you have any more questions, otherwise the rest of the night should be held in silence.”

You noticed many people gathered in black as they all spoke in hushed murmurs and that's when you noticed everyone seemed to be holding a long black candle, not yet lit but still held with both hands. You looked to Wheein who had quietly thanked a guard before she came back over with a reassuring smile, handing a black candle to you as she murmured, “The black candles are lit in respect for Seoul, we light them before we go into the woods, they’ll be placed at the Seers alter before you leave.”

You nodded quietly, pulling up the hood of your cloak as you felt many stares begin to pique in curiosity at the sight of you. Clinging to your candle you fought the immediate thought of how cultish this probably came across to any outsider- much like yourself.

Tradition...you wanted to laugh at the sentiment but you supposed even as barbaric of a nation such as Penumbra even had traditions, none which you had ever heard of or anything like it from other nations, but traditions nonetheless, even in the newly awaken kingdom of Penumbra which hadn’t even stood for fifty years.

You were curious though, your eyes wandering through the all the cloaked figures and mismatch colors of black that all had their heads hung low as Wheein escorted you through the crowd, the sight of the royals beginning to gather in the fields outside the woods had you wrapping your cloak around yourself, feeling a trickle of anxiousness inside you as you followed behind Wheein.

Your husband of course had just arrived with his own servant, you had seen the boy around a fair bit, always looking a bit warmer than the ice prince himself but he was a fair bit younger than Wheein, perhaps sixteen? Seventeen maybe? You stepped in line with your husband who simply ignored you, his eyes cast out over the thicket of woods as Wheein gave a small courtesy to you both before she stood next to his servant.

Minute by minute passed and more people had gathered and you shuffled a little in your spot, keeping your eyes forward though you really wanted to look around in hopes of at least spotting the Rosewood’s, the same clan which was the reason you were here in the first place.

You stiffened slightly at the sight of what looked to be the head Seer walking toward you both with a candle of his own, already lit, he bowed himself to you both before leaning forward, lighting Jungkook’s candle before lighting yours, bowing he stepped aside.

You felt a little confused as to what was going on now or where you were supposed to go, Jungkook only looked ahead, an arm suddenly hooking around yours before you were roughly yanked, fumbling as little your lips parted in a silent whine at the feeling of black wax spilling onto your hand, the slight burn causing you to wince as you walked along side Jungkook though it felt like he was practically dragging you into the woods.

He could kill you here if he really wanted. The notion had you stiff as you forced your legs forward, your eyes kept on the ground as you were dragged along the path, you felt as if this moment was supposed to be reverent but you didn’t have a chance at how you were being manhandled.

The area up ahead glowed however as you tilted your head in fascination, there was a large globe that glowed a light fluttering blue that lit up the area, Seers all had their hoods up but you could never mistake the expression Taehyung who was currently pouring a basin of water in the bowl that the orb sat, his lips quirking a little at the sight of you both before he went back to his duties.

Another Seer had gestured you both to sit down kneeled as you grasped your black candle in both of your hands, as your eyes glanced around where the Seers had worked on different things that you didn’t understand the reasoning for but...you felt oddly connected here, to the forest, to the Seers doing. You even felt at peace briefly as you closed your eyes.

Water was sprinkled on the ground and soft murmurs of words were ushered that you couldn’t hear and once they finished the Seer took both candles from you and Jungkook as he gestured you both to stand.

Dipping his hand in the basin of water, he thumbed a little onto Jungkook’s forehead before onto yours, he bowed once more and you were roughly yanked away from the altar. What was his deal!? You really didn’t appreciate his rough manhandling of you…!

After you had gotten out of range of the altar and walked in the dark woods, the only light source being the full moon that's high in the sky, one last tug and you had yanked yourself yank causing Jungkook to fumble a little, “I am not a doll!” You finally growled out, yanking your hand away from him once more.

“You might as well be with how much of a lost puppy you look like, have not bothered to study at all in preparation for this?” Jungkook towered over you as he snapped out, “Honestly here I thought if you had such a bitchy mouth surely you would’ve told my father exactly how you felt about me and everyone else here and that maybe you’d anger him enough to be permanently banned from any and all of our traditions.”

“Call me a bitch but don’t mistake me for stupid,” You hissed back vehemently, not letting his height scare you away even if it was in the dead of night and he could easily leave you to be lost along the woods by yourself, “After all you were more then welcome to tell him to just let me brood as I may! I would much rather be sleeping right now than to be dragged around like a bitch on a leash with you for some cult-like activity of mourning for nation which ceases to exit!”

Jungkook’s expression twisted in a rage-induced icy expression as he sneered as he stepped closer to you, his warm breath hitting your face as he spoke deathly quiet, “Talk about me all you like, but leave my nation and my people out of your mouth. You don’t have a drop of humility nor have you gone through even an ounce of suffering to ever understand the struggle my people fought through to get to this point. Now be a good bitch and follow me out of here and never show your face at another event with me again.”

Your teeth surely would have cracked under the pressure of your clenched jaw as you glared into his back as he whipped around, how dare he…! Your nation was the shelter for his left over ruined…! Ugh! Your teeth grinded together as you followed him, tension not leaving the air even as you exited the woods together. An icy distance between you both as you returned to your original position.

Your mood had only soured as the night continued and you were happy when it was finished, your body and mind both exhausted from having stayed up the entire night, Wheein as if sensing this hadn’t spoken yet, only getting you changed and ready to rest before she offered one last smile to you, giving a small courtesy as she saw herself out the door.

Collapsing in bed you sighed, pressing your hands to your face, surely the king wouldn’t make you go to any other events after this...right?

#bts #jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader smut #jungkook au #jungkook fanfic #jungkook x y/n #bts scenario #bts fanfic #bts au

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maxwell-grant · 3 years ago

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What are your thoughts on Jekyll/Hyde and his archetype of the human periodically changing into a monster ?

Jekyll & Hyde was the 2nd horror story I read following Frankenstein, I got it off the same library and it always stuck very strongly with me even before I got into horror in general. I even dressed up as Jekyll/Hyde as a kid for a school fair by shredding a lab coat on one side and asking my sister to make-up claw gashes on my exposed arm and paint half of my face, although in hindsight I think I ended up looking more like Doctor Two-Face than Jekyll/Hyde, but I was 12 and didn't have any Victorian clothing to use so I had to make do. The first film project I tried doing at film school was intended to be a modern take on Jekyll & Hyde, and I didn't get much farther than a couple of discarded scripts

Much like Frankenstein, Mr Hyde as a character and a story is something that's kind of baked into everything I do artistically. And it's not just me, as even in pop culture itself, none of us can escape Mr Hyde. I would go so far as to argue Mr Hyde may be the single most significant character created by victorian fiction, if only by the sheer impact and legacy the character's had.

(Fan-art by guilhermefranco)

Part of what makes Mr Hyde such a powerful and lasting icon of pop culture is that the very premise of the book invites a personal reading that's gonna vary from person to person. Because everyone's familiar with the basic twist of the story, that it's a conflict of duality, of the good and evil sides, but everyone has a more personal idea of what those entail. Some people make the story more about class. A lot of readings laser-focus on sex and lust as the driving force, and there's also a lot of readings of Mr Hyde that tackle it to explore a more gendered perspective, and so forth.

I don't particularly take much notice of the Jekyll & Hyde adaptations partially because the novel's premise and themes have become baked so throughly into pop culture and explored in so many different and interesting ways, that I'm not particularly starving for good Jekyll & Hyde adaptations the way I am for Dracula and Frankenstein. The Fredric March film in particular is one that orbits my head less because of the film itself (although I do recommend it), but because of one specific scene, and that's when Jekyll first transforms into Hyde on screen.

Out of all the things they could have shown him doing right that second, they instead took the time to show him enjoying the rain.

Just Hyde taking off his hat and letting it all cascade on his face with this sheer enthusiasm like he's never been to the rain before, never enjoyed it before, and now that he's free from being Jekyll, he gets to enjoy life like he never has before. It's such an oddly humanizing moment to put amidst a horror movie, in the scene where you're ostensibly introducing the monster to the audience, and it makes such a stark contrast to the rest of the film where Hyde is completely irredeemable, but I think it's that contrast that makes the film's take on Hyde work so well even with it's diverging from the source material, even if I don't particularly like in general interpretations of Hyde that are focused on a sexual aspect.

Because one, it understands that Jekyll was fundamentally a self-serving coward and not a paragon of goodness, and two, it also understands one of the things that makes Hyde scary: He wants what all of us want, to live and be happy. He's happy when he leaves the lab and dances around in the rain like a giddy child, he's happy when he goes to places Jekyll couldn't dream of showing up, he's happy as a showgirl-abusing sexual predator. Hyde is all wants, all the time, and there's not that much difference between his wants, his domineering possessiveness, and the likes exhibited by Muriel's father and Jekyll's own within the very same film, which also works to emphasize one of the other ideas of the original story, that Edward Hyde doesn't come from nowhere. That no monster is closer to humanity than Mr Hyde, because he is us. He is the thing that Jekyll refused to take responsability for until it was too late.

(Art by LorenzoMastroianni)

While many of the ideas that defined Mr Hyde had already been explored in pop culture beforehand, Hyde popularized and redefined many of them in particular by modernizing the idea. He was the werewolf, the doppelganger, The Player On The Other Side, except he came from within. He was not transformed by circumstance, he made himself that way, and the elixir merely brought out something already inside his soul. To acknowledge that he's there is to acknowledge that he is you, and to not do that is to either lose to him, or perish. Hyde was there to address both the rot settling in Victorian society as well as grappling concerns over Darwinian heritage, of the realization that man has always had the beast inside of him (it's no accident that Hyde's main method of murder is by clubbing people to death with his cane like a caveman).

I've already argued on my post about Tarzan that the Wild Man archetype, beginning with Enkidu of The Epic of Gilgamesh, is the in-between man and beast, between superhero and monster, and that Mr Hyde is an essential component of the superhero's trajectory, as the creature split in between. That stories about dual personalities, doppelgangers, the duality of the soul, the hero with a day job and an after dark career, you can pinpoint Hyde as a turning point in how all of these solidified gradually in pop culture. And I've argued otherwise that The Punisher, for all that his image and narrative points otherwise, is ultimately just as much of a superhero as the rest of them, even if no one wants to admit it, drawing a parallel between The Punisher and Mr Hyde. And he's far from the only modern character that can invite this kind of parallel.

The idea of a regular person periodically or permanently transforming into, or revealing itself to be, something extraordinary and fantastic and scary, grappling with the divide it causes in their soul, and questions whether it's a new development or merely the truest parts of themselves coming to light at last, and the effects this transformation has for good and bad alike. The idea of a potent, dangerous, unpredictable enemy who ultimately is you, or at least a facet of you and what you can do. That these are bound to destroy each other if not reconciled with or overcome.

You know what are my thoughts on the archetype of "human periodically changing into a monster" are? Look around you and you're gonna see the myriad ways The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde's themes have manifested in the century and a half since the story's release. Why it shouldn't be any surprise whatsoever that Mr Hyde has become such an integral part of pop culture, in it's heroes and monsters alike. Why we can never escape Mr Hyde, just as Jekyll never could.

It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character that almost every country in the world has learned to fear and despise. Our Barbie-doll president, with his Barbie-doll wife and his boxful of Barbie-doll children is also America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde.

He speaks for the Werewolf in us; the bully, the predatory shyster who turns into something unspeakable, full of claws and bleeding string-warts on nights when the moon comes too close… - Hunter S. Thompson

There is a scene in the movie Pulp Fiction that explains almost every terrible thing happening in the news today. And it's not the scene where Ving Rhames shoots that guy's dick off. It's the part where the hit man played by John Travolta is talking about how somebody vandalized his car, and says this:

"Boy, I wish I could've caught him doing it. I'd have given anything to catch that asshole doing it. It'd been worth him doing it, just so I could've caught him doing it."

That last sentence is something everyone should understand about mankind. After all, the statement is completely illogical -- revenge is supposed to be about righting a wrong. But he wants to be wronged, specifically so he'll have an excuse to get revenge. We all do.

Why else would we love a good revenge movie? We sit in a theater and watch Liam Neeson's daughter get kidnapped. We're not sad about it, because we know he's a badass and he finally has permission to be awesome. Not a single person in that theater was rooting for it to all be an innocent misunderstanding. We wanted Liam to be wronged, because we wanted to see him kick ass. It's why so many people walk around with vigilante fantasies in their heads.

Long, long ago, the people in charge figured out that the easiest and most reliable way to bind a society together was by controlling and channeling our hate addiction. That's the reason why seeing hurricane wreckage on the news makes us mumble "That's sad" and maybe donate a few bucks to the Red Cross hurricane fund, while 9/11 sends us into a decade-long trillion-dollar rage that leaves the Middle East in flames.

The former was caused by wind; the latter was caused by monsters. The former makes us kind of bummed out; the latter gets us high.

It's easy to blame the news media for pumping us full of stories of mass shootings and kidnapped children, but that's stopping one step short of the answer: The media just gives us what we want. And what we want is to think we're beset on all sides by monsters.

The really popular stories will always feature monsters that are as different from us as possible. Think about Star Wars -- what real shithead has ever referred to himself as being on "the dark side"? In Harry Potter and countless fantasy universes, you have wizards working in "black magic" and the "dark arts." Can you imagine a scientist developing some technology for chemical weapons or invasive advertising openly thinking of what he does as "dark science"? Can you imagine a real world leader naming his headquarters "The Death Star" or "Mount Doom"?

Of course not. But we need to believe that evil people know they're evil, or else that would open the door to the fact that we might be evil without knowing it. I mean, sure, maybe we've bought chocolate that was made using child slaves or driven cars that poisoned the air, but we didn't do it to be evil -- we were simply doing whatever we felt like and ignoring the consequences. Not like Hitler and the bankers who ruined the economy and those people who burned the kittens -- they wake up every day intentionally dreaming up new evils to create. It's not like Hitler actually thought he was saving the world.

So no matter how many times you vote to cut food stamps and then use the money to buy a boat, you could still be way worse. You could, after all, be one of those murdering / lazy / ignorant / greedy / oppressive monsters that you know the world is full of, and that only your awesome moral code prevents you from turning into at any moment. And those monsters are out there.

They have to be. Because otherwise, we're the monsters - 5 Reasons Humanity Desperately Wants Monsters To Be Real, by Jason Pargin

(Two-Face sequence comes from the end of Batman Annual #14: Eye of the Beholder)

For good or bad, Hyde has become omnipresent. He's a part of our superheroes, he's a part of our supervillains, he's in our monsters. He lives and prattles in our ears, sometimes we need him to survive, and sometimes we become Hyde even when we don't need to, because our survival instincts or base cruelties or desperation brings out the worst in us. Sometimes we can beat him, and sometimes he's not that bad. Sometimes we do need to appease him and listen to what he says, about us and the world around us. And sometimes we need to do so specifically to prove him wrong and beat him again.

But he never, ever goes away, as he so accurately declares in the musical

Do you really think That I would ever let you go...

Do you think I'd ever set you free?

If you do, I'm sad to say It simply isn't so

You will never get away FROM MEEEEEE

(Art by Akreon on Artstation)

#tw: injury #tw: blood #tw: disfigurement #replies tag #dr jekyll and mr hyde #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #robert louis stevenson #two-face #batman #monster tag #universal monsters #horror tag

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millenialfanfictionaddiction · 4 years ago

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Go Go Nekoma! Push it, Push it Nekoma! Coaches Chemisty (pt. 1)

Warnings: Angst, breakups, mention of virginity loss, Swearing

⚠️THIS FIC IS 18+ NSFW, MINORS DNI ⚠️

Word count: 6000+ (split into 3 parts)

"I'm really sorry Y/N. I just don't see this going anywhere. We are both leaving for college soon and going to different schools at that" your boyfriend of the past 2 years, Naoi Manabu said as he looked down to the ground kicking the dirt below his feet.

Your eyes watered as you drown out the words he's saying.

"B-but we can make this work. I can come see you on weekends and we can still see each other over holidays and school breaks" you plead trying to save a relationship you know is doomed.

The past weeks had been rough to say the least. Manabu had been growing distant from you. Making excuses and staying later for volleyball practice to avoid walking home with you. To say it hurt would be an understatement. It broke your heart.

"Y/N I'm sorry, I just can't do this" Manabu said as he looked up seeing tears welling in your eyes.

"I love you. Doesn't that mean anything?" You say sternly as tears roll down your cheeks.

"Y/N-" he starts saying as you place your hand in front of his face.

"No. Don't. I gave you everything. I stuck by you through it all! I stayed late to walk with you home from volleyball practice. I came to as many games as I could! I stayed up late helping you study! Fuck I gave you my virginity!" You scream.

The emotions are just too overwhelming.

"Y/N-" Manabu tries to say as you turn.

"No. I'm done. Good luck with your life Naoi" you turn away letting the tears flow as you start to jog away.

Almost on cue the sky opens up and rain pours down on your head. This is just like one of those awful romance novels. The girl gets dumped by the love of her life only for rain to continue to dampen her day. Just fucking fantastic.

This was quite literally the worst day of your life.

*8 years later*

"Y/N darling can you please water the flowers outside. I forgot to have Vee do it this morning" Your boss asks you politely with a smile.

"Of course! Let me just finish this arrangement and I'll get to watering. You can head home if you like Bella. I know your poor husband must be starving waiting for you" you giggle as Bella rolls her eyes.

"Let him die. No good worthless piece of crap. Couldn't even take the garbage out last night like I asked him too" Bella huffed as she walked over to your table.

"Stay single Y/N, trust me getting married is for the birds. Sure you meet some handsome young man and he charms his way into your life but the MINUTE he says 'I do' its all down hill from there" Bella says to you as she sternly shakes her finger.

You can't help but laugh. Bella is in her 70s and has been married to the same man for 50 years. He's really very kind and helpful in the shop when he comes and visits. Sometimes you think Bella expects too much from her husband but she's quick to shut you up.

"If you don't establish dominance Y/N, these men will walk all over you! You are young and beautiful. You don't want any man. And if you do, find one who will worship the ground you walk on. A man who will lay his coat over a pile of manure for you to walk. A man who will put your pleasure before his own" she says as she lectures you for the 10th time this week.

Bella loved you like her own daughter. Her son had moved away years ago and wasn't around much. She often invited you and Vee to have dinner with her and her husband. The dinners were entertaining to say the least. Usually ending with Bella ranting about how naive women now a days are or how shallow men are.

You enjoyed your time with Bella and her husband even if you didn't share the same sentiment as Bella did.

You hadn't been on a date in over a year. Every relationship seemed to go the same way. There was never a connection. You tried hard through college and after to find someone but always managed to come up empty.

After you graduated college, you took a high paying job in Tokyo. While you were more than qualified for the job, it provided you with little pleasure. It wasn't until you stumbled into Bella's flower shop that you found yourself truly happy.

Surrounded by beautiful flowers and arrangements. It was like heaven. You returned to Bellas weekly to get a bouquet. Soon you found yourself becoming friends with Vee and Bella. It wasn't until Bella mentioned needing help that you made the decision to quite your job and start anew. While the jobs pay was much less than you had become accustom too, your lifestyle really didn't change. You sold your suits in exchange for overhauls, shorts and t-shirts. You got accustomed to dirt below your fingers rather than finely manicure nails. Sure it was a big change but you were so much happier.

You're days were long and busy. Often starting early and closing late. You didn't have family close by, and no significant other so you often took extra shifts and offered to help so the other two ladies could enjoy their husband's.

Both ladies knew about your past dating relationships and the "one that got away" as they so ironically referred to it.

You couldn't lie to yourself. You often thought of Naoi Manabu.

What was he doing?

You were sure he had to be married by now. It had been 8 years since you had last seen him.

After you broke up, you avoided the man like the plague. It helped you only had a week before school ended and you graduated. It didn't seem like he was too worked up over your break up. You had spent far too many nights crying over him.

You felt like you had lost the love of your life.

You, in fact, had.

💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐

"KENMAAAA" Coach Nekomata screams "stop running from the ball! We've been over this a million times!"

"I'd like to keep my limbs thanks" Kuzome Kenma whispers as he turns back to see Kuroo Tetsuro snickering.

"Kenma you act like you've never blocked a ball in your entire life" Kuroo teases the setter mercerously.

"Well I wouldn't have to if someone had read into the switch" Kenma glares at Kuroo who's smile drops.

"Alright that's enough" Naoi shouts as the boys return to their practice match.

He sits next to Coach Nekomata as he sighs "do you think they will be ready for nationals? We've only got a month before we leave. They've still got a long way to-"

"Naoi have faith. They will be ready. They are strong" Coach Nekomata smiles as he watches the boys continue to practice.

The game ends as the boys begin to pack up the gym.

Yaku Morisuke sighs as he finishes his stretches.

"Yaku what's got you bothered" Kuroo says as he kneels down to the team libero.

"I'm just thinking about Mai. I really like her but how do I even tell her. Confessing isn't really my strong suit" Yaku says as he rubs the back of his head.

"How about chocolates? Or maybe flowers?" Kuroo says with a smug grin "girls love flowers!"

"Tsk like you'd know Mr. Periodic Table" Kenma says non-chalantly as he walks by.

Yamamoto Taketora and Haiba Lev laugh at the rooster headed team captain as he glares at the 2nd year setter

"Are you even sure she likes short guys Yaku?" Lev laughs as the team shakes their head.

Yaku runs up to Lev kicking him straight in his back.

"Dumbass" Yamamoto shakes his head as he puts the remaining volleyballs away.

"Why don't we go check out that flower shop on the way home? What's it called like Bella's or something. It looks pretty nice" Kuroo says as he gestures to Yaku.

"Kai, you coming?" Kuroo says to his fellow third year and co-captain, Kai Nobuyuki.

"Sure I'll tag along" Kai speaks softly with a smile.

"Alright guys good practice! Remember we have practice this Saturday as well in preparation for nationals" Naoi shouts as the boys groan.

"And Kenma no skipping out. I'll have Kuroo drag you here if he has to" Naoi glares at Kenma who shakes rolls his eyes and huffs.

The boys showered and change, preparing to head to the flower shop as they wave their fellow teammates off.

Naoi boards the train heading home to his small apartment. To say things have gone to plan in his life would be an understatement. While he was doing what he loved, his love life was lacking to say the very least. He had tried numerous relationships, only to have them fail because he could never fully commit. He often found himself in a one-sided relationship where his partner would confess their love but he couldn't.

It became draining for the people he was with so he ultimately stayed single. He knew, in fact, what the problem was. The problem was that he had messed up the only relationship that mattered to him. He'd blown his chances with the only person whom he ever truly loved.

He had blown his chance with you.

When he decided to break up with you, he really thought it was for the best. He knew you had a bright future ahead of you and he couldn't help but feel like he was weighing you down. He thought it would be best to let go before it became impossible. Not that it wasn't hard to do. It broke him.

He found himself unable to date for years. You had been his first everything and you had been it. He eventually forced himself to move on. Having one night stands and short term relationships but never more. Commitment was hard when it wasn't you. He still kept the ring he had wanted to give you for your third anniversary.

Unfortunately he never got the chance to after he inevitably broke you heart. He often found himself staring at it, wondering how life would have been if he had in fact stayed with you.

By now you must be married with babies he thought to himself. It hurt to think about but he knew it would never be. You'd never be his. And he'd never be truly happy.

#nekoma cats #nekoma #haikyuucoaches #haikyū!!#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyu x reader #naoi manabu #justiceforthehaikyuucoachs

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chokemeanakin · 5 years ago

Text

Hi my name’s Maeve! 😇 I write for Anakin and a tiny bit of Obi.

My inbox is closed!

Feel free to send me any thoughts you have, but if you send a fic request I can’t promise that I’ll get to it anytime soon. I still love to see your ideas though!

(ps check out my ongoing fic Give Me Love)

First Kiss - Anakin treats reader to their first kiss

Drunk - Reader comes home from a party wasted, and Anakin is there to witness it… and maybe make out with…

Anakin Cuddling Hc’s - What it’s like to cuddle with the Best Boy

Anakin with giggly reader Hc’s and Anakin x Jealous/Insecure reader - first half is hc for a giggly reader and second half is a fic where reader gets jealous and insecure and Anakin comforts them

Anakin x Short/Shy/Insecure Reader Hc’s - Just some headcanons of a soft boy

Loving On You - Slight Anakin angst, basically you hold him after a crappy mission

Be My Forever - Anakin proposes with as little words as possible

Anakin Teaches You How To Drive Hc’s- nice car go zoom 🚗💨

Anakin With a Pregnant Reader Hc’s- use protection kids

Anakin x Touch Starved Reader Hc’s - definitely not self indulgent

Touch Starved Anakin x Reader Hc’s - this was actually rlly cute

Playing with his hair imagine - i know i write about this a lot but cmon

Anakin Comforting Reader Hc’s - cue the uwu’s

Distraction - Anakin distracts reader as they study

Walking with Anakin as he does General stuff- small blurb

Domestic Anakin Hc’s - random thoughts I had of him

Giving Anakin a massage - w a tiny hint of smut

Complimenting Anakin - is never talked about enough

Anakin x curvy Reader Hc’s

Anakin x skinny Reader Hc’s

Fluff blurbs! - one, two

Stargazing with Anakin

Wearing Anakin’s Jedi Robes Hc’s

Sleepy moments with Ani Hc’s

Jealous Anakin x Reader Hc’s - mentions of smut

Anakin x Jealous Reader Hc’s - mentions of smut

Patched Up - Reader comes back from a mission all cut up, Anakin helps patch her up

Sick People Should Stay Away from Balconies - Reader is sick and asking for trouble, Anakin deals with her shit

Jelly toast - a request for a reader coming back from a mission all bruised and cut up, Anakin takes care of her

Anakin x Asthmatic Reader Hc’s - how he would act to you having asthma

Bad Dream- Reader has a nightmare during a thunderstorm and goes to Anakin for help

He Kicks Your Ass And Then Lets You Braid His Hair - see title

A Helping Hand (part 1) - Reader hurts her arm during a mission, and Anakin comes to help her (in more ways than one). Whump is in part 1, smut is in part 2 listed under Smut.

Anakin x Reader on her Period heacanons - shark week oofs

Anakin x Sick reader headcanons

Don’t Forget About Me - Reader begs Anakin not to go break up the fight between Mace Windu and Palpatine

I Gave You All - Our war-torn baby just needs a hug

Anakin x Reader w/ Mommy Issues - bro i just

Night Bus - The Council forces you to leave Anakin

A Reason to Stay - read this at your own risk, deals with severe mental health issues. basically Anakin helps reader through a dark time.

Misunderstandings - angst ending in fluff, Anakin and reader go on a bodyguard mission together and both get jealous.

Anakin crying blurb - give sad boy a hug damnit

Anakin and Reader Take a Shower -basically what the title says. The shower gets heated in more ways than one.

What That Mouth Do Though 👄💦- he eats you out like a champ 💪🏻

Needy Anakin - (you give him a blowie)

Say My Name- jealous Anakin, choking, fucking, you know 🤷🏼‍♀️

First time - Readers first time HAVING SEX with Anakin 🥰

His First Time - The first time Anakin HAS SEX, & it’s with you :)

Welcome Home - Anakin comes home from war and reader welcomes him back with open arms... and open legs

Save a Spaceship, Ride a Starpilot- Anakin has reader sit on his face and then she fucks him slowly ;)

Giving him a lapdance short - just a lil imagine

Jealousy (part 1) - classic under-the-table action at a high end event

Jealousy (part 2) - he gets his revenge

Master Kink Hc’s - exactly what it sounds like

A Helping Hand (part 2) - Anakin helps Reader out bc she has a broken arm :) very sweet and soft and fluffy to mend y’alls broken hearts. (part 1 is under Whump)

This is what he sounds like when he cums - grab ur headphones

This is what he sounds like in bed - grab ur headphones again lol

Anakin Eating Pussy Hc’s (part 1) - from the top make it drop thats a wap

Anakin Eating Pussy Hc’s (part 2) - wap wap wap

General Kink blurb - credit goes to @kenobikittens

Cruel Intentions - holiday smut, this hurt ppl’s feelings for some reason woops. anakin is mad and he’s got a dirty mouth, and also it’s Life Day.

Anakin x fem reader Pregnancy Sex Hc’s - i hate kids but this was cute

NSFW blurbs! - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty

Sub Anakin Hc’s - good boy ;)

Deepthroating Anakin Hc’s

Dry Humping Hc’s

A Dream Come True - Anakin helps reader masturbate and cum for the first time

Anakin & size kink hc’s

Anakin is smart - just a post talking about how intelligent our favorite Jedi is

More proof that he’s smart

Anidala Fluff - A request where Anakin and Padme do it in the fields of Naboo for the first time (no smut it’s romantic get ur head out of the gutter John B)

Love at First Sight - Anakin falls in love with you as soon as he sees you

All These Little Things - Padme x Reader / Anakin x Reader Hc’s where reader is romantically interested in Padme until she notices all of Anakin’s little things

Anakin’s hands appreciation post

Anakin’s Cheekbones Appreciation Post - he’s just got em okay

Anakin’s arms appreciation post

Aggressive Negotiations (part one) - Anakin and Reader go to a ball and it doesn’t turn out the way they expect

Aggressive Negotiations (part two) - combines the ‘he sees her dressed up for the first time’, ‘handcuffed together’, and ‘stuck in a closet’ tropes all in one mission gone wrong ;)

When he does the hand-on-cheek thing - *cries*

For people who have freckles

For people who have freckles p2 - not my work but thanks to @haydens-moles you guys have to suffer through this post with me

Anakin can sing

Anakin + drinking - some musings about the jedi and booze

Anakin loves rain

Anakin’s Eyelashes Appreciation Post

Random facts about his childhood

Sad Anakin fact

Anakin Reaction Pics

Random Anakin Thoughts - im so disorganized my b

What does his dick look like?

Is he brunette or blonde discourse - spoil alert: it’s neither. see next link

What color is his hair really?

It’s you- Obi Wan x Reader fic where he comes back from a mission planning to break it off with you, but then realizes he can’t let you go

You Can Rest Now - Obiwan x Reader where you take care of him after a mission that’s left him tired and sick

Obi-Wan Hc’s - random thoughts I had about him being in a relationship

What I Imagine The Star Wars Boys Wear For Underwear

What I Imagine The Star War’s Boys Dicks Are Like

Rating the Star Wars Boys Cum Faces on a Scale from 1-10

Kinky R2

The fanart that ended thousands of careers

R2D2 x C3P0 Smut

You get Acid in your Vagina Hc’s

Carrot Fun w Anakin - two parter, includes videos

Yoda smut snippet

He gave you a specific order

If Anakin can pull off a butt chin then so can I

How many shots it would take for me to sleep with the stars wars men (part one) (part two)

Anakin w a weave

Which Star Wars Characters Have a Foot Fetish

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