#meanwhile those of us who appreciate a story and characters as parts of a story......enjoyed the story and the complexity of characters

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - The Summer Games BLgin.

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top. Those Greeks did have that reputation for naked dudes rolling around together so I'm declaring it...

BL OLYMPICS!

I'll be passing out metals in various sporting events, as part of the weekly updates through mid August, just for funzies.

July 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Rebound (Weds Gaga) eps 9-10 of 12 - I guess mass murder is nothing next to having to raise funds for your basketball club. There were a lot of water sports in these eps (no not that kind). I’m not complaining. The street BB playoffs were fun. Frank is GOOD. I didn’t know he played. They aren’t using doubles for this. Meanwhile, it’s a bummer this one can’t be a poly romance. 

Winner!

Gold in Handball

for that shower scene in ep 9 (also... ya know, DUNK TANKS)

Balls in hands of all types.

Briefly must chat about that intro/outro music. It's like Thai autotuned Stray Kids. Which means I kinda adore it.

Century of Love (Weds Gaga) eps 5-6 of 10 - I guess he’s had a long time to learn how to fight really really well. This is a fun show. It does occasionally feel like a bunch of gay boys playing dress up. I LIKE P’Third a lot. I hope he doesn’t turn out to be an actual baddie. I’m finding the music a little intrusive in these episodes. I love the deconstructed suits look, and the velvet blazer. Very 90s. The confessions scene was very cute. It’s a good thing Vee is so easy-going, because the last few months of his life have been truly insane. And now he’s queen of the castle? Still working his convenience store job?

I honestly thought we'd just get kisses halfway through not a full on sex scene. But it was very sweet and tender. Appreciated, boys, thanks. However it’s never a good sign when the sex scene is it at the halfway point, it just means there’s gonna be a lot of trauma to come.

(I gotta say every time Daou smiles he actually looks his age.)��

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 4 of 8 - I like them now. I mean as a pair of characters. I wasn’t really sold on the main couple until this episode, and now I’m interested (yes I am shallow). The boy with the glasses is definitely sus. I’m quite drunk, thus I have to say Sailub is the hottest thing on my screen right now. Metas's taste in interior design sucks. OK, that physical therapy session was sexy. I wasn’t sold at first, but now I love this side couple too.

Argh. SailubPon kiss so well. Also COUNTER LIFT!!!! 

Silver in Weightlifting

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 12 - I’m the one who always says this stuff, but this pair might be the best at relationship heat. Let me try to explain. They are good at putting on screen the kind of NRE, want to bone, just really into each other physically and also connected and loving. It’s the way their bodies always arch towards each other. They’re very comfortable in each other’s space in a way that’s really rare to see out of Any BL country but Taiwan. I think they might be my favorite couple currently active. I don’t know how to put it except that

it looks like they want each other,

it looks like they like each other,

it looks like they’re into each other,

and it looks like they GET each other.

It’s nice to see on screen. The plots/stories/narratives that they're given aren’t doing them any favors, but man they’re a good pair. Meanwhile, was I screaming the whole time don’t rip the sample of the custom piece? Yes I was. But it was still sexy.

Sam getting discovered was fun! Yo is gonna burn his arse good.

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - Okay! Officially boyfriends. I almost like the friendship btw Atom and Mudmee better than the romances. But they all so cute. 

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 4 of 12 - I hate the gf intern so much. I think she is past redemption now - time for death. What is it they say about ADs? they do all the work, for none of the credit but all of the blame.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 10 of 12 - I guess Peak’s dad really is that awful. Jane is the beard? Got it. The show got suddenly quite sweet and complex. Where did that come from? Meanwhile ,Almond + Latte + sex education is awesome. Great trope we rarely get in BL. 

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 7 of 10 - Look, what’s really annoying me is that I am neither upset nor pleased with the show. I like to be driven one way or the other by Meme. Trash watch here. (delayed this week, I can't face it)

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 1-2 of 12 - Out the gate I don’t like it. I don’t really like the teasing thing and the acting is poor. That said, neck kisses in the very first episode do make me happy. So I’m gonna keep watching. As for ep 2, I like the sides, and we have gay brothers trope activated. I also like the paranormal element, it adds some much-needed tension, but it is still a little slow (typical of a pulp).

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - I like our poor lost puppy slowly figuring out what’s going on. It’s so elegantly done. Also, the the boy begs his quiet seme to SAY something, you know he’s gonna DO something instead. 

I could have done wihtout the pan around the head kiss. We over that, 8 years ago.

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - Why don’t I like this show? I had to think about it quite a bit. It’s the power differential. I never enjoy it when the character with less power is the one doing the pursuing, it comes off as too desperate or something. In this case he is: from the country, poor, and younger, It just makes Takara’s dismissive attitude and snobbery unpleasant to watch. Also, you know me, =/= obsessive stalker behavior. 

It's airing but...

Bad Guy (Korea YT) - yeah, erm, no thank you.

4 Minutes (Thai Netflix/Grey) ep... - Great, a rich boy studying business at uni, suddenly gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future. I try to catch up next week.

I have a source, but I simply didn’t have time to watch it. So sorry. Too much traveling too much BL to keep up with. A perfect conflation of conflicting priorities.

Meet You at the Blossom (China) - it's your funeral (or, more likely, one of the main characters'). You can argue but... statistics. You know my feelings on this matter. MY BLOG, remember?

64.media.tumblr.com

In case you missed it

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer IS COMING IN SEPTEMBER!!!!

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Coming Up Next!

7/29 Battle of the Writers (Thai ????) - trailer here, TutorYim return, and while I adore them, I really hope this is better than Middleman's Love. Won't be hard. However: the premise? Ugh. Something something authors fighting - save me. Why don't writers understand that nothing is more boring than writers?

8/4 Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - OMG a uni student who looks too young and a... COP. GAH. The subversion and kink of it all. Please Gaga pick this one up? They made it for US.

8/7 Cosmetic Playlover (Japan Weds ????) 8 eps - office romance around the makeup counter featuring a younger seme and sex by blackmail. I am intrigued. DFTUJ (don't fuck this up, Japan).

8/8 Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs WeTV ) 12 eps - I am so DAMN excited to see Big finally lead a BL. I can't even with this, one of my most anticipated of this year. He's a great kisser ya'll, he's kissed a lot of boys as second lead. I can't WAIT.

8/12 First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) 12 eps - About a singer with stage fright and his timid fan stars Charles (H4 the puppy one) and Michael Chang (the youngster in My Tooth Your Love), plus side couple featuring a Thai actor Jame (Koh in Gen Y) and Liu Min Ting (of Guardian fame). What a damn tean. I can't wait. With thier powers combined!

8/16 The Last Time (Thai Fri YT) ? eps - Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something.

8/22 The Paradise of Thorns (Thai movie) theater release - Jeff Satur is back but this does not look like a BL (the gay lover's death is the inciting event). More in Goodbye Mother vein. Looks dark and dramatic. He opposite and extremely well known actor Toey Pongsakorn who has never done gay before.

Addicted Heroin (Thailand adaptation) is also supposed to release this month. GIVE IT TOO MEEEEEE. I don't care about anything else but August back on my screen. It's been almost a decade since he did BL.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

This week's adventures in caption "out of" and "off" are not the same thing. This is an uncomfortable thought.

I'm so tired I'm seeing double. This is all you get.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in it's infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

Sports in Play (the jokes write themselves) )

Boxing

Breaking

(That's Not) Cricket

Diving (yes, for that)

Fencing (yes, with those)

Handball (exactly what it says, no, read the word.. again)

Rhythmic Gymnastics (obvs)

Squash (snicker)

Surfing

Swimming

Trampoline

Weightlifting

Wrestling

[sepublic]

It may be just us being involved in different fandom circles but I feel like you run into the stuff you complain about way more than I do. It always makes me surprised to hear some of the things you hear about (sorry you get exposed to so much of it btw that sounds pretty frustrating)

It’s because I used to frequent the Belos circles and enjoyed some of the popular blogs, but when the finale came around soooo many people went mask off when they realized the finale wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. And so that part of fandom became unbearable overnight, as I realized that a lot of people I thought were chill or assumed had a basic understanding of the narrative or even storytelling… didn’t.

It’s really disappointing, as someone who was a fan of Belos well before anyone else, since the fifth episode (something others might’ve noticed); Is it too much to want fandom to discuss a character as he is onscreen, recognize his role in the larger story, and appreciate how he contributes to other characters’ meaningful arcs????

It’s disheartening realizing people don’t care for the main characters at all, and how this all ties into this fandom’s larger White Guy favoritism; Because even white women are being ignored in favor of this specific colonial family (which includes Hunter)!

I dunno how anyone can be so brainrotted by the Wittebane obsession that they can’t appreciate at all how S3 was a love letter to Luz and her relationship with her family, some can’t even find solace in it… I guess none of it counts if there isn’t a dedicated section to those white guys! People love to take their anger out on Luz’s character by disparaging her arc and making “Fix-it” stuff about her being there for Belos, because they hate the finale said she doesn’t owe him a damn thing and doesn’t want to.

Plus, I often look through #The Owl House tag a lot, especially the Recent section. So I’ll see a lot of stuff regardless of whether I’m looking for that specific character, because all of the characters fall under that umbrella tag, naturally. And I can’t just filter Belos because sometimes there’s actual good stuff using that tag.

Overall, there’s a reason why I now avoid Belos-centric blogs, because so often there’s a dedicated tag to complaining about how their white guy fave got done dirty and how the entire show is retroactively bad, often reblogging a lot of those aforementioned blogs’ bad takes… I was all for the “We can enjoy him critically!!!” crowd until I realized they don’t actually enjoy him critically, they just stop at the “He shouldn’t commit genocide” bit. Which is not even the bare minimum, it’s just part of it.

I see PoC be harassed by waves of anons for criticizing how people discuss Belos on their own blogs. Meanwhile the top Belos blogs are so openly, blindingly white, and infantilize themselves in a White Fragility way; Esp when it comes to acknowledging their fave is racist, or that their writing and fanart has issues.

[thewisecheerio]

I have trouble recommending Fromsoft games to people not because they're hard--that can be ABSOLUTELY managed--but because of the environmental storytelling. People who like the environmental-storytelling style LOVE it and find straightforward, "canon"-heavy narratives to be really boring. But people who prefer overt storytelling will find environmental storytelling very frustrating and give up after a few hours of gameplay.

So even though I think the Soulsborne games are masterpieces, I absolutely cannot recommend them to most people.

In overt narratives, you get one, singular consistent (you hope) canon constructed from the abundance of cutscenes and written lore. You can then use that canon to think about its implications for the untold parts of the story--how certain characters would react in certain situations, what the political implications of the lore are for the world, etc.

The fun of the singular canon-style story is in having a world you already understand the rules of, and then using those rules to construct new fanfics and headcanons and such (essentially "applied lore" work). Meanwhile, you also get to appreciate the established lore itself.

In contrast, in environmental storytelling-heavy narratives, there is no singular canon. The compendium of lore facts doesn't exist yet. Your job is to go find the rules of the universe. You are given the bones of a story and must finish putting the meat and flesh on yourself.

This is a fundamental divide from overt narratives. You are tasked with coming up with a consistent interpretation (or perhaps 5 competing interpretations!) of the evidence put before you. When you find new evidence, you have to discard the narrative you were previously supporting in order to support a new, more consistent narrative that better explains the bones of the story. The fun is in discovery lore work, which is a fundamentally different kind of fun from applied lore work.

For people who enjoy discovery and testing multiple interpretations against each other, this is an endless playground of fun. But for people who like to have a singular canon, this is the most frustrating type of narrative to engage with. So recommending stories that let you play with the narrative itself and figure out which interpretation you like best is really hard for me to do, unless someone tells me explicitly that they prefer this method of storytelling.

[davyreads]

review of tomi adeyemi’s children of anguish and anarchy

zélie confronts her final enemy, the king of a foreign land who hunts her heart.

"i'm not ready for our story to end."

children of anguish and anarchy is the final entry in tomi adeyemi's legacy of orisha trilogy, and it was preceded by commercial and critical successes children of blood and bone and children of virtue and vengeance. this final book continues where the second book left off, and readers are reunited with zélie, tzain, amari and inan, as they fight to free their people and save the life of an unknown girl. the plight of the maji has always been reminiscent of the struggles of the black community, but this is made even clearer and more visceral in this final installment.

keep reading for my personal thoughts (there will be spoilers)

the story follows zélie as she frees the maji from the captivity of those known only as the skulls, for the masks that they wear over their faces. after freeing her people, during the process of which an artefact from the skulls is embedded into her chest, zélie searches for a mystery girl and aims to save her life and protect her from the skulls and their monstrous power. whilst she does this with tzain and amari, inan returns with the rest of the maji to orisha to warn the rest of their people of the threat posed by the skulls. upon returning, they find their people still at war with one another, and they very quickly understand that in order to stand a chance against their new foes, they need to stop their infighting and unite. meanwhile, zélie, tzain and amari come across an island of people with different and unique gifts, and they find the girl they have been looking for. there are many time jumps, and a sacrifice made by one of our protagonists, but by the end, the maji and zélie’s new friend, mae’e, defeat the skulls.

the aspect of the trilogy that i really enjoyed, and that i have always enjoyed, has been the worldbuilding, and this final book carries on that legacy, and expands it to different continents. we’re introduced to new worlds and new abilities and, briefly, new systems of magic, with references to different cultures and mythologies. this is something that has never been an issue for this series, and i appreciate that this is something we get to enjoy to the very end of it.

another thing is that, as i said in the small blurb i wrote, the references to struggles faced by the black community from outside the community and within it have always been part and parcel of the series, and these themes have driven the story in an authentic way that allows readers to relate to the characters. i truly appreciate these inclusions and it helps the series maintain a flavour of what initially drew readers in to begin with. unfortunately, this final entry was a major disappointment to me, and it let me down greatly. the issues that i will discuss are the pacing, the characters, the story itself and its place in the trilogy.

i knew almost immediately that something wasn’t right, because the pacing was quite fast, and it felt abnormal. around 100 pages into the book, our characters have already staged a successful revolt without powers (mostly; with the exception of tzain, curiously); in any of the other books in the trilogy, this might not have really been an issue but since this book is shorter than the other 2, this is ultimately less than a third of the way through, and with the way the rest of the story is written and paced, this speed feels unnecessary, and it doesn’t feel like there was any point to this, because there was no clear compromise on any other aspect that could possibly explain this. there are many time jumps and skips and whilst these are good, and should be used, this just left the book feeling a bit spotty. when i think of my experience reading the book, there aren’t any actual gaps in my memory, it’s just that the timing of the novel is really bad, as much as it pains me to say. we don’t see any actual training for the characters, with the exception of a singular scene for zélie and tzain, if they can really be called that, but this takes me to my next grievance: the characters.

there is no development, and certain characters just straight up disappear (roën is nowhere to be found…?). the characters don’t change whatsoever. zélie is still zélie, amari is still amari (except she’s explicitly queer now, which i will discuss), and inan is still inan. tzain doesn’t really change either, he just gets a weapon (made from his own rib, which is pretty cool, i have to say), and whilst i can appreciate that he has felt powerless throughout the series as he has had to wait on the sidelines whilst the main action happens, this almost comes out of nowhere, and it felt like there was no buildup. i might even go as far as saying that there might have been a few out-of-character moments for some characters (inan consistently making terrible decisions even though he’s the closest we have to a military tactician was annoying to witness). this doesn’t seem as big of an issue as other aspects that i will discuss further, but it’s aggravating that with all these new threats and discoveries, everyone stays the same. inan sacrificing himself at the end of the novel felt like a very cheap way to shock the reader rather than it feeling like a necessary part of the story; in the book, it’s explained (kind of terribly) that inan must exchange his breath of life for zélie’s, and it is for that reason that inan dies and zélie lives, however it felt incredibly cheap and weak because nothing has changed about inan over the course of the novel to truly make us feel emotional at his death. it felt a bit like the ending of netflix’s chilling adventures of sabrina when nick scratch kills himself because it felt less like a needed part of the book and more like an attempt at shocking the viewers. i also think the book suffers from having too many perspectives, and i truly feel that tzain’s perspective was insignificant, especially seeing as with his point of view, we still know close to nothing about his training and what his experience in new gaia is like. this was really disappointing to read and very very annoying.

as i mentioned earlier, amari is explicitly confirmed to be queer, and many have read her as such since the first book, a popular pairing being zélie x amari. however, as much as i love queer stories, specifically black and african queer stories, this felt very lacklustre. amari meets mae’e and they pretty much fall in love instantly, with a short and uninteresting throwaway line from tzain where he remarks that amari looks at mae’e the same way she used to look at him (pg. 270). personally, this wasn’t very satisfying, and i can’t tell if it’s because the romance itself wasn’t convincing or if, in the context of the rest of the novel, this was just disappointing. the villain of this book is also very uninteresting and it got to a point whilst i was reading that i was waiting for the book to end because i felt so unstimulated by it, which really upsets me.

my final grievance that i will discuss is how well this novel works as an end to the trilogy, and the story itself. in short, i think this book was an incredibly disappointing and dissatisfying end to a beloved trilogy, and it truly hurts to say that, because there aren’t many times where i will see my culture written with such love and written so beautifully. this trilogy, in my opinion, really should have been a duology, and it should’ve ended after children of virtue and vengeance, perhaps with an epilogue that explored how their world was changed by the return of magic and how they are working to rebuild their country. this final instalment was so inconsequential, and really did not change much about the world of the trilogy, and because we were being introduced to so many new things in the shortest book of the trilogy, everything felt a bit out of place and time. nothing felt earned or deserved, and the only death that really moved me was one that didn’t even appear in the book (i miss you, imani). the epilogue was also very weak, in my opinion, because whilst it promises the hope of rebuilding lives and homes and orisha as a country, i think it would have been better placed at the end of the second book as it would have allowed the series to end on a high note.

[tobiasdrake]

With your tonal language I can’t tell if you are exaggerating or genuinely hating Yakou.

My relationship with Yakou is complicated, in large part because his creator and I have very different sets of values. Yakou is a character designed to be complicated, but to leave you with an ultimately positive feeling towards him. He's a man haunted by his past, but also one with strong enough values and convictions that he can serve as something of a role model nonetheless.

My issue with Yakou is that a lot of the things that are designated as his flaws - his heavy drinking and willingness to murder - are things I don't have a problem with. Meanwhile, the things that are designated as his virtues? Well....

Kazutaka Kodaka is a man with profoundly heteronormative views on gender that come out in his work. He has strong opinions about binary masculinity and femininity, which get expressed in his writing - and his record with trans and non-binary characters is spotty.

With Yakou, this comes out as a sort of inadvertent foot-in-mouth syndrome, where he can become incredibly obnoxious in the moments where he's meant to be likable simply as a consequence of what Kodaka thinks are good values.

Yakou and Desuhiko are the two characters through which Kodaka explores masculinity. Fubuki, Yuma, Kurumi, and Vivia all have genders, but their stories aren't about gender. Halara, meanwhile, has neither a binary gender nor a story about gender. But Yakou and Desuhiko have masculinity itself as a major topic of conversation.

Which. Means. Kodaka, a guy with spotty views on gender, uses these characters to talk about gender. That's. Okay.

Desuhiko is used as a negative portrayal of masculinity. His worst traits are derived from trying too hard to express his masculinity. He's a kid with low self-esteem chafing under the yoke of trying to live up to a cultural standard, to earn respect by Doing The Thing whether he even understands why he's doing it or not.

This leaves him drifting through life constantly exclaiming "HAVE I MENTIONED HOW STRAIGHT AND NORMAL I AM!? OH BOY I SURE DO LOVE WOMEN!" to everyone he meets. He's identified The Womenz as the cure for his insecurity, even though he doesn't actually seem that invested and is honestly surprisingly chaste. He's just performing masculinity, hoping he'll get an A+ grade in Manliness and that maybe that will finally give him value as a person.

For as much as I dunk on Desuhiko, this is a fairly good commentary on what a patriarchal and heteronormative society does to insecure boys.

But then we have Yakou. He offers the counterpoint, as a more positive portrayal of masculinity. But. Like. His central thesis isn't that different from Desuhiko's. He's a romantic at heart who's central thesis is that the true measure of a man is defined by his relationship to a woman.

He's the heteronormative ideal: A man who controls his emotions, loves with all his heart, objectifies women to demonstrate a healthy sexuality but is committed in his heart of hearts to this one woman, who he would give his life for without question. He would be happily married with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids if not for this one asshole who stole his woman from him.

The moments where you're meant to roll your eyes and chuckle at Desuhiko are when he's trying to express masculinity. And the moments where you're meant to like Yakou are, similarly, moments when he's successfully expressing masculinity.

But the values he expresses in those moments? The things that come out of his mouth that are meant to make you appreciate him more? They're things like "Men exist just for women" and "You'd be prettier if you smiled more", confidently asserted in what's supposed to be a touching moment of emotionally connecting with the player character and, by extension, the player.

Most of the time when I'm dunking on Yakou, it's just for fun. He's far from my favorite character but he's harmless, and there are things I do enjoy about him. But the moments Kodaka writes when he's trying to make Yakou look good are the times when I can't fucking stand him at all.

[gtbutterfly]

Jen and Gabby chapter 7 (FINALE)(kinda)

hey! so this is the seventh chapter of my first gt story and serves as the climax and finaile of the story so far. BUT, that being said, this isn't the end. I still have to write an epolouge to wrap everything up. and then after that, I have some more ideas for these characters and this world, so let me know if you'd like to see that! thank you for stayting with this story this whole time, and as always, criticism is appreciated.

cw: cages, dehumanization, some stabbing, near death experience (no one dies, don't worry.)

heres the previous part:

and heres the first part:

thanks for reading, hope you enjoy it!

______________________________________________________________

It was late at night, past nine pm. It was raining again, though a lot less than before. Sara was solemnly looking out the window at the raindrops streaming down. The ground out there looked cold, wet, and muddy. It was so dark, the only light was coming from streetlights and from the windows of houses that were still up. There were large, dark brown puddles on the ground from the grass being overflooded. Some of the water was flowing downhill, and into sewers, sweeping everything in it away. It was dreadful for Sara to think of what could happen to the borrower from earlier, who insisted on leaving and going out there to save her sister, but Sara couldn’t stop looking outside, thinking of where she was, where her sister and the tiny that was with her were, thinking of what else she could’ve done for them. She was caught off guard when she heard the front door open behind her. It was Sara's mother, holding some bags with groceries in them. 

“Damn, traffic was crazy with all that rain out there,” Sara's mom chuckled. Sara gave a light smile. 

“Hey Mom,” She said, walking towards her and helping her with the food. 

“Hey, sweetheart,” Sara's mother said, “sorry I took so long, probably too late to make dinner now,”

“It's fine, we had leftovers,” Sara rubbed the back of her neck as she put the food away on the fridge and cabinets, “so, dad went back to work for…something important, I guess,”

“Oh, he can never get a break from work,” Sara's mother said, “I swear, he spends more time at that damn place than in his own bed,”

“So… Mom, can I ask you something?” Sara said, before turning towards her mother,

“Sure sweetie, what is it?” Sara's mother said,

“Uh, do you know…what a ‘lili’...’lilipotan…..” Sara struggled to pronounce the word her father said earlier,

“Lilliputian?” Saras mom asked.

“Yes, you know what a Lilliputian is?” Sara asked,

“It means small and trivial,” Her mother said, “something that people act like is important but is actually meaningless and stupid,”

“...oh…” Sara said, a bit offended for the tinys she met earlier that are apparently called that,

“The word comes from this old legend, about islands with little people, and giants, and horses, and such, your father was obsessed with that old story back when we were in college,” Sara's mother said. “He usually doesn’t like fairy tales like that, so it was weird how into it he was,”

“Dad was into that when he was in college?” Sara asked,

“Yeah, he was majoring in bio-testing, and he liked the idea of experimenting on smaller humans for better results. I used to call him a mad scientist for it,” Sara's mom laughed, “I think he like, jokingly followed some conspiracy theory club about those things from the story being real, crazy, huh hun?” 

“Uh..yeah,” Sara said, looking down, “so….you should probably like…sit down or something for what I’m about to tell you,”

“Huh?” Sara's mother looked confused, “what is it?”

Meanwhile

“What happened to your hand?” 

The scientist was at a sink, wrapping their right hand with bandages after cleaning it. Their face still winched in pain from the wounds and the feeling of soap and water disinfecting them. They looked at the other scientist who asked the question.

“It was stabbed by one of those things, Dr. Smith,” the scientist said as they finished treating their hand.

“The lilliputians?” the other scientist asked, “they didn’t have any weapons when they were brought here by me, did they bite you?”

“There was a new one,” the scientist said, “they were dark-skinned and female, like the young one still in captivity, but they were older and had a sewing needle and a sling bag. They stabbed me in the hand, then the ankle, and then they ran away with the male.”

“There's another one?” Dr. Smith said, “Where did it come from? Is it connected to the two we already have?”

“I don’t know, it just showed up in the room that I left the male in, unlocked it from the cage, and stabbed me.” the other scientist said, sounding annoyed and angry, “I’m clocking off work, you can deal with the two loose subjects,” They said as they walked away. Dr. Smith took the radio off his belt and spoke into it while pressing a red button on it.

Jen and Tim were under a janitor's card while waiting for the main hallway to be clear. Jen was wiping her needle off with a small ripped-off piece of paper towel. Tim looked at her.

“You really, uh, went all out when that scientist came back…” he said,

“Thanks, I had to,” Jen said, “I’m not letting what happened at the house happen again,”

“So that's why you attacked the ankle?” Tim asked,

“I was aiming for the heel actually,” Jen said, looking out from under the cart. “So where is Gabby?”

“Back in the room the human took me from,” Tim said,

“Where in the room? Was it like, a cage, or a jar, or the thing you were in,”

“A cage, it was up high on a stack of other cages with white bars. The door was similar to the one I was in, but there's nothing in front of it to hold onto, so we’ll have to hang onto the bars without falling,” Tim said,

“That sounds easy enough, the hard part will be getting Gabby down,” Jen said, “she's never had to go down a string like that before,”

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Tim said, “by the way, how did you get here? Aren’t we far away from where we were?”

“Oh, uh,” Jen rubbed the back of her neck, “I got help…from…” she sighed, “you know,”

“Rebecca?” Tims eyes widened, “so, you trust her now?” 

“Just to bring me here and bring us back,” Jen said, “not with anything else, especially not Gabby,”

“Oh,” Tim looked down, “well it's a start at least you trust her  little now,”

“Can we stick to the point?” Jen said, annoyed and a bit embarrassed from Tim finding out that she needed help from Rebecca, help from a human. “Come on, lets go,”

“Wait, where is Rebecca?” Tim asked,

“outside, in the car.” Jen said, “she's waiting for us to get out.”

“Oh,” Tim said,

“Come on, we’re wasting time,” Jen held her needle as she stepped out from under the cart. She looked around before waving for Tim to follow her. The two borrowers traveled much in the same way Jen traveled alone. They would quickly and quietly move along the side of the wall, being careful to stay in the shadows and hiding wherever they could whenever a human got near. They noticed some of the humans were specifically looking behind potted plants and under chairs, and going in and out of empty rooms for seemingly no reason. They were looking for something, more than likely them. Jen kept her needle drawn at her side. She gave Tim the fishing hook she had so that he would have something to defend with. It was a lot slower getting back to the room where Gabby was than it was for Jen before, there were more close calls with humans looking around. The door was already open when they did eventually find their way there. Jen stepped through the doorway first through the side, and Tim followed. The room was very white and cold. The walls were tiled and the floor was concrete. There was a desk in the middle of the room and counters at the walls, one with a sink. There were tall metal wire shelves with boxes of equipment and scientific instruments. There was one shelf made up of metal cages that seemed to be for rats or mice. Tim pointed at the stack of cages,

“That's where me and Gabby were,” he said to Jen. Jen nodded and looked around for a way to get up there. She looked up at one of the metal shelves. She took the fishing hook out of her bag and threw it up the shelf, latching it onto one of the metal bars.

“Come on, let's get up there and see if we can find a way to get to her before anyone comes in here,” Jen said, beginning to climb up the rope.

“Did the human from before leave this door open?” Tim asked, following Jen up the string, “I don’t remember the door here being left open,”

“Well, when he put you in that other room, he left to get something.” Jen said, “Maybe he went back here to get it. That or it was someone else,” she pulled herself up to the first shelf of the metal rack. She pulled up Tim and then threw the hook to the next shelf. 

“Maybe, but it seems weird, right? Why would any of these humans leave this door open for us to get through?” Tim wondered. Jen started climbing again.

“Maybe one was in here, but they left thinking they would be back so soon, they wouldn’t have to close it,” Jen said, “if that’s the case, we have to hurry and get to the top of this thing,”

“Right,” Tim said, climbing after Jen. The borrowers made it to the second shelf, which was on level with the counters around the room. Jen and Tim got onto the counter and got to the side of the stack of cages. The counters were mostly empty, other than some glass measuring containers and unused beakers. There wasn’t much to hide behind, which made Jen anxious. The side of the tower of cages was made out of metal. The front of the cages were bar doors. Jen turned to Tim and handed him the fishing hook. 

“Hang onto this, I’m gonna try something,” JEn said. Tim nodded as Jen took the other end of the string and leaned over the edge of the counter. Tim held on tight to make sure Jen didn’t fall off. Jen held onto the string with one hand and tried to grab the bar of the cage. She managed to grab onto it and pull herself onto it. She nearly fell as she pulled herself onto the front of the cage. The door had metal bars close together, and a side lock similar to the one from the top of the container TIm was in earlier. Jen put the end of the sting in her mouth and started climbing the bars like they were a ladder. Tim looked at her from the side of the counter. Jen looked down at him. She took the string out of her mouth.

“Keep a lookout. If a human comes in here, tug on the string, but don’t make me drop it, alright?” Jen said,

“Got it,” Tim said, wrapping some of the string around his hand. Jen put the end back in her mouth and kept climbing. She got to the top of the empty cage and started scaling the second one. 

Meanwhile, 

It has been nearly over an hour now. Rebecca was still in the car, waiting for Jen, Tim and Gabby to get out. Every so often she would check around the ground outside the car to make sure the borrowers weren’t waiting there for her. Part of her was worried that someone would come out of the building and tell her to leave, though she was more worried about whatever was happening inside. Rebecca checked her phone. It was eleven forty-three. Jen said to go in and find Tim and Gabby at midnight, but Rebecca was so anxious, she was considering going in now. It wouldn’t have been the first time she went to find the borrowers before they wanted her to go find them, earlier she promised Jen not to go out and find them until the next morning, and she went out that night instead because of the rain. Jen didn’t mean to mind too much then, though that could’ve been due to her needing help at the time. Rebecca didn’t want to betray Jen's trust, even if it was for the tiny's own good. But she couldn’t bear to think of what could be happening inside. if Jen was caught, if she was too late, if she was still looking or stuck somewhere. Rebecca was antsy, practically squirming in her car seat trying not to go inside and look for Jen before she was supposed to. Suddenly, another car pulled up a couple of spots away from Rebecca's parking spot in front of the building. It was a gray minivan driven by a woman with dark, blondish hair. In the passenger's seat was a girl, no older than 16. With unnatural-looking black hair that seemed to have been dyed. They both had green eyes like the eyes of the kid Jen said took Gabby. Rebecca watched them silently from her car as they got out of their car and went inside. The woman seemed mad about something. It seemed like she was speaking sternly to the secretary at the front of the window. Rebecca decided to step inside for a moment, 

“I’m telling you, I desperately need to speak with my husband right now,” the woman said, 

“My apologies Mrs. Smith, your husband is busy right now with something important,” the person at the front desk said.

“This is urgent, we need to talk to him immediately,” the woman said, “you have to send him up here,”

“Ma’am, when Dr. Smith came in here, he said he was here for something very important that couldn’t wait for anything,” the secretary said, “you and your daughter are just gonna have to wait for him to be finished,”

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing! He's doing something terrible!” Mrs. Smith exclaimed. Her daughter spoke up from next to her,

“At least leave a message for him that we’re here,” Sara said, leaning over the desk.

“Sorry, he specifically said not to be disturbed.” the secretary said. “He's the head scientist here, there's nothing I can do,”

Sara and her mother sighed and walked away from the desk.

“Sorry honey, there's nothing we can do right now.” Sara’s mother said, “We’ll have to wait for him to come out on his own.”

“Maybe we could try calling him again,” Sara suggested,

“No, it’ll just go to voicemail again,” Mrs. Smith said, before sighing again and looking down, “we’re not leaving until we talk to him about this. I can’t believe your father would do something like this… completely disgusting.”

“Thanks again for believing me about this, mom,” Sara said, “I thought you would think I  was crazy,”

“Don’t mention it sweetie,” Saras mother said, sighing and gesturing to some chairs in the lobby. “You go sit down. I’m gonna keep trying to get a hold of your father,”

“Ok mom,” Sara said. She went over to the chairs and sat down. They stared at the floor for a moment thinking about everything, as a woman walked inside from the rain and sat a few chairs away from her. Sara looked up at her. She had light brown hair, blue eyes, and wore a black rain jacket. Sara recognized her as one of her neighbors, she had seen her around at neighborhood events and remembered going to her house while chaperoning Danny on halloween. The neighbor looked over at Sara, who quickly stopped looking.

“Hey,” the neighbor said with a small wave. Sara looked back at her.

“...hi,” she said awkwardly.

“We live on the same street, right?” the neighbor said,

“Yeah, you’re that lady living alone at the bottom of the hill,” Sara said.

“Well it takes a lot of work to afford your own house on your own nowadays,” the neighbor said. “I’m Rebecca,”

“...Sara,” Sara said, scooting away from the stranger. 

“You have a little brother, right?” Rebecca asked,

“Uh, yeah, we went to your house last halloween,” Sara said, 

“He’s the one with green eyes, just like you, right?” Rebecca asked,

“Yeah, we get that alot. Everyone in our family has green eyes,” Sara said.

“Yeah, I think he took something that…um, doesn’t belong to me, per say, but, uh,” Rebecca looked down, “well, he took something I’m fond of,” 

Sara was silent for a moment, “....yeah, he’s… a brat…sorry,” Sara said, wondering if Rebecca was talking about what she thought she was, “...what was this thing? That Danny took?”

“Uhhhh, nevermind that,” Rebecca said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck,

“Was it something small?” Sara asked, “something…tiny?” She was trying dog whistles to see if this lady was talking about the tinies. Rebecca's eyes widened when she heard Sara ask her that.

“Um, yeah, actually, it was…” she said, “it was actually something I…uh…borrowed,” Rebecca looked down.

“Uh, cool, cool.” Sara said. it was obvious now, this woman was here for the lilliputians too. The only thing was there was no telling if she had good intentions for them or not. “So…why are you here so late?”

“Uh, I have a…friend here…and I’m waiting for them to get back…they’re….looking for someone here, hopefully won’t be long,”

“Oh, really…” Sara said, looking down, “uh, how is this friend of yours? Um, short? Curly hair?”

“Um, yeah, actually. Way short,” Rebecca said awkwardly, “you’ve seen them?” 

“Yeah, yeah, earlier, a couple hours ago, they were…uh…looking for their sister, right?” Sara asked,

“Yeah, she was.” Rebecca said. “They’re also…pretty close to the precious thing I lost, too.” she rubbed the back of her neck, “so, why are you here,”

“Me and my mom are trying to…uh, talk my dad out of something. It's a uh, experiment he's doing that…might ruin his career and stuff…y’know, ethics,”

“Oh, cool. He, uh, works here?” Rebecca asked,

“Yeah, yeah. We would just go and see him, but we can’t just walk around and find him, so my moms trying to get him to come here.”

“So, you’ve been here before?” Rebecca asked,

“Yeah, plenty of times,” Sara said, 

“For no reason, do you know  where the uh…animal holding center or whatever is?” Rebecca asked,

“Hmm, well, that's upstairs,” Sara said, “but the place they do the tests on animals, like the ones they just recently found, would be near the end of that hall, to the left,” she gestured towards a hallway that the lobby opened into.

“Oh, well, that's interesting,” Rebecca said, “well, nice talking to you, Sara,”

“Yeah, see you later, Rebecca,” Sara said.

“I’m gonna go…find the bathroom,” Rebecca said,

“Alright,” Sara said, “see ya,”

Rebecca got up and casually walked away from the chairs. She walked past the secretary desk, where Saras mom was still negotiating with the worker there, letting Rebecca go down the hallway unseen.

Jen was nearly at the top of the stack of cages. She was at the one which was second to the top where Gabby was. It seemed like she was finally going to make it. She had just then reached the top of the cage below the top one. Meanwhile, Tim was still on the counter to look out if any humans were close to the entrance of the room. He hoped there wouldn’t be, there weren’t many places to hide where he was, and especially not for Jen, holding onto the bars above for dear life. There was a sink nearby he could jump in, but then he would be stuck, and it would be only a matter of time before he was found. Luckily, for the time being, it was pretty quiet around that room. There were no shadows looming outside the open door, no footsteps vibrating in the ground, no human voices appriching in the distance, at least not yet. Tim considered going to the door to try closing it, but it was a large metal door, the kind that slammed when it closed. Tim wouldn’t be able to push it closed, and even if he could, he didn’t want to leave Jen up there, so Tim just stayed put. The borrower looked around the room some while Jen was climbing. The room was very sterile and white. The counters were all gray and the ceiling was made up of cardboard tiles, with a few vents spread around. Tim wondered if it was possible to escape the room from the ceiling, he knew from his time with Rebecca that those ceiling tiles were movable. Maybe Jen could throw the hook up there and they could break through one and escape undetected through the ceiling of the building. He looked around more at the ceiling and noticed something. It was like a piece of glass, or plastic, it was hard to tell. It was in a dome shape, and was attached upside down on the ceiling. There was a glowing red dot in the otherwise black objects. Tim could have sworn he’d seen one of those before.he’d been out with rebecca to various public places humans went, and there were plenty of black dome-things just like that one scattered about a place humans called “the store.” he thought he remembered what Rebecca said they were for, to keep people from stealing, but it never made sense to him how. Then the name of the device came to him, a security camera. He really thought about that much before. From what he knew a camera was something that humans used to “record” things, which wasn’t helpful because they also used microphones to  “record” things, and would “record” information in books and such. Except microphones recorded sound, and books recorded information. What did this leave cameras to record? That was when he realized.

Oh. oh no…

Jen finally made it. She grabbed the first bar of the top cage and pulled herself up in front of it. She heard quiet, mild crying coming from within the enclosure. She pulled herself up more. She keeps climbing upward and upward, eventually getting to the side lock of the cage. She unlatched it, and looped the end of the string around one of the cage bars, still hanging onto the end. to the inside of the cage bars. Still holding onto the door, she pushed against the rest of the cage, sending her backwards. The sound of crying stopped at the sound of the door opening. Jen, still holding onto the string, swallows her spit and jumps from the door. She swinged into the side of the cage below, and started again pulling herself up. The rope rubbed against and burned her hand. Her arms and legs ached from the climb. Her ribs were still sore from being kicked earlier. Her needle poked her slightly in the thigh while she was climbing the rope. There was a pit in her stomach from being up so high. She grunted as she climbed, finally putting her arm over the side of the cage opening. She used her remaining strength to pull herself up one last time. She climbed into the cage, taking a moment to  catch her breath before standing up. She looked forward. Their eyes met for a moment. There was silence.

“.....Jen…” Gabby said, her eyes widened,

“Gabby,” Jen said, her face breaking into a smile. The two sisters ran towards each other. Jen got on her knees and they hugged each other as tight as they both could. Gabby put her head over Jens shoulder. Jen squeezed Gabby in her arms, holding her.

“Jen, I missed you so much,” Gabby said, tears in her eyes,

“I thought I lost you…” Jen weeped, “I’m so sorry Gabby, I’m so sorry,”

“I thought I’d never see you again, Jen” Gabby cried,

“I’m sorry I let you get taken, I’m sorry I lost you, I’ll never let anyone take you ever again,” Jen said, hugging Gaby tighter,

“Th-thank you for coming for me, Jen, thank you,” Gabby said,

“Your…you're welcome,” Jen said softly. They stopped hugging for a moment and looked at each other. “Gabby, are you ok? What did they do to you? Are you hurt?”

“I’m…I’m ok, Jen….I’m ok,” Gabby said, “I was so scared….I was in a jar, then a…a human helped me…and fed me strawberries, then I was taken here with Tim, and Tim was taken away,” tears swelled in Gabbys eyes,

“It's ok, it's ok,” Jen hugged her sister again.

“I was so scared, I couldn’t be brave like you are,” Gabby said, 

“Are you kidding?” Jen asked, putting her hands on her sister's shoulders and smiling softly at her, tears of joy in her eyes, “you were so brave, you were just as brave as I am,”

“But…but I was scared,” Gabby said,

“That's ok, Gabby. You were still brave, you talked to a human by yourself, you gave yourself up to save Tim, you were very brave.”

“I was?” Gabby asked,

“Yes, you were,” Jen said, hugging her again. “I was afraid too, afraid of a lot of things,”

“Really?” Gabby asked,

“Yes, really,” Jen said, before sighing in relief. She got up from her knees and stood before Gabby. “Come on, let's get out of here.” she said. Gabby smiled. The two sisters went to the edge of the opened cage. Jen looked to the side, at the counter. Tim was waving his arms and yelling. Gabby's face brightened.

“Tim! You're alive!” She said, looking down at him. Tim seemed worried about something.

“Hurry up! Get down from there!” Tim yelled. It was just about audible for Jen and Gabby to hear. Jen nodded, and pointed at the string for Gabby.

“Gabby, your going to have to climb down from this string,” Jen said,

“Wh-what?” Gabby asked,

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Jen said, gulping. She grabbed the looped string around the metal bar and started tying it into a knot. “Wrap your legs around the rope tightly, and either put one hand over the other to go slowly, or wrap your sleeves around the rope and loosen them slightly to slide down, just make sure to slow down near the bottom.

“I…I want to go slowly,” Gabby said,

“Ok Gabby, just…hold on tight. I’ll be right above you the whole time, ok?” Jen asked,

“Ok,” Gabby said, “I’ll try to be brave,”

“Atta girl,” Jen smiled softly. Gabby grabbed onto the string and wrapped her legs tightly around it. She slowly put one hand over the other, letting herself slide down. She had her eyes closed tight. “There you go Gabby, you're doing great!” Jen said, “You've almost passed the cage below us, keep going!”

“O-ok, Jen,” Gabby kept her eyes closed and kept climbing down. Jen looked down at her sister and started to climb down the rope too, but right before she stepped off the edge of the cage, there were footsteps in the distance.

“sh*t,” Jen whispered to herself. 

“Jen? Whats that?” Gabby said, hearing the footsteps coming closer to the room.

“Gabby, Slide down!” Jen yelled, “wrap your arms around the rope and slide down, quickly!” 

“What?!?” Gabby yelled, opening her eyes and looking up at Jen, “but..but what if I fall?” The footsteps were getting louder. 

“It's ok, Gabby, I believe in you,” Jen yelled, “you're brave, remember? You're brave! You can do it!”

“I’m brave….” Gabby said, looking down at herself, before closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around the sting. “I’m brave…” she loosened her arms slightly and screamed as she slid down the rope. She didn’t slow down near the bottom, like Jen said, but Tim had the end of the rope, and managed to get Gabby to fall over the side of the counter. She fell on her back and was pulled up by Tim. 

“Gabby, are you ok?” Tim asked. Gabby hugged him.

“Tim, thank you,” she said, before letting go and looking up at the cage. She couldn’t see Jen from where she was, she was still up there.

“Come on, Jen will get down on her own, let's get out of here,” Tim said,

“No!” Gabby yelled, “I don’t want to lose her again!” 

Just then, the human walked into the room. It was the scientist that brought them there. Saras dad.

“Hey!” he yelled, seeing the Lilliputians on the counter, not noticing Jen in the shadows of the cage. 

“Gabby, Run!” Tim yelled, as Gabby started sprinting as fast as she could. The human rushed to the counter. Tim bit the string that was wrapped around the fishing hook and started running after Gabby. Meanwhile, Jen took out her needle as the human got here. She let out a deep breath, before running towards the edge of the cage. She leaped from the door and landed on the scientist's shoulder. She stabbed the human flesh and pulled the needle out, causing the human to yell in pain briefly before reaching for Jen on his shoulder. Jen got grabbed, but she stabbed the inside of the human's palm. She was let go and grabbed the human lab coat. The borrowers swung from the humans coat buttons while Tim and Gabby got down the metal shelf. Gabby looked back.

“Jen!” she yelled, before being pulled away by Tim. The scientist was stabbed by Jen through his shirt before he managed to pull her off and throw her, and the needle, onto the desk. He went after Tim and Gabby, and managed to grab Gabby from the ground. Tim yelled and ran around the human's legs, stabbing him in the heel with the fishing rod. The human screamed and kicked Tim backwards. The scientist turned around and picked Tim up. Gabby was squirming and screaming at the top of her lungs.

“JEN! HELP!” she screamed. Jen got up and picked up her needle again. She ran towards the human from the desk and jumped on him again, stabbing him multiple times in the hip. The scientist threw Gabby onto the desk and grabbed Jen off his hi, squeezing her in his fist. Jen grunted.

“don’t touch her!” JEn yelled at the top of her lungs. The scientist was completely silent. He just stared at the borrower for a couple seconds. It was almost awkward, or scary. The human's large green eye twitched. He was completely emotionless. He just looked at Jen, as if inspecting her. Finally, he cleared his throat. He dropped Tim onto the desk and kept holding Jen.

“We only need an adult male and a female lilliputian to make our own population” the scientists said, almost out of nowhere. His voice boomed in Jens lungs.

“Wh-what?” Jen asked, sounding angry, but genuinely confused too.

“We have no use for a Lilliputian child.” the human said, reaching towards Gabby. Gabby backed away, almost falling off the edge of the desk before being grabbed. TIm couldn’t do anything.

“L-let go!” Gabby yelled,

“What are you going to do to her?” Jen screamed. The human was still silent, staring at them through his glasses. “ANSWER ME!” Jen screamed again. Without a word, the human started putting pressure on Gabbys throat. Gabby couldn’t scream, there was no air in her throat. The human kept adding more pressure, but never enough to break any of Gabby's bones. Jen realized what this was. She kicked. She screamed. She tried to get her arm loose so she could use her needle. Nothing worked. There was nothing she could do. Gabby started making violent coughing sounds as tears started falling from her eyes. JEn started crying to. It was all happening again. There was nothing she could do, soon, there would be nothing left. Everything was hopeless until,

“Hey!” 

a voice came from behind the scientist. He turned around with the tinies in his hands. His grip on Gabby loosened, and she let out a large gasp to catch her breath. The human grip on Jen also loosened. 

“What are you doing?” The voice asked angrily. Jen looked up at the source. It was Rebecca.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” the scientist said sternly. “Who are y-”

The scientist let out a gasp of pain. He held up his now empty hand, which was covered in blood. He looked down. Jen was on the floor. She drove her needle into the humans shoe. He screamed and let go of Gabby. Gabby screamed as she fell. Jen dove to catch her, leaving the needle in the scientist's foot. Jen got  Gabby to her feet and ran out the door, passing Rebecca. Jen looked up at her as they ran past. Rebecca exchanged a glance back, before looking back at the scientist, holding his hand in pain. She looked behind him and saw Tim standing on the desk. Rebecca shoved passed the scientist and scooped TIm into her palm.

“Tim!” Rebecca said, smiling. Tim smiled back,

“Rebecca! It's so good to see you!” He said,

“Oh god, I’m so glad you're safe,” Rebecca hugged TIm to her chest. “Come on, let's go home.” 

Rebecca started to walk out of the room.

“H-hey! You can’t…that's…” the scientists started to say, ‘you can’t just….. Get back here!”

Rebecca ignored him, and walked down the hall, catching up with Jen and Gabby.

[maul-of-shame]

I will say one thing Cel is not and he is NOT boring whatsoever. That's why he's so fun to talk about, although it may not be fun to certain people, but that's only because they don't know how to curate their own fandom experience.

Let's be real here. With how fleshed out he is, Tolkien practically wrote 'I married a powerful and memorable character while I'm attached to her like a Male angler fish' on the front of his shirt, and slapped a target sign on his back for not giving him any qualities that stand out.

Hi there, Anon! I’ll start by saying that I’m genuinely not sure if you’re being sarcastic or sincere about Celeborn here, so apologies in advance if my response misses the mark!😊

But either way, I do want to address a few things in your message.

First off, I fully agree that everyone has a right to enjoy and explore the aspects of Middle-earth that resonate most with them.

However, the point about ‘curating one’s own fandom experience’ goes both ways. Just as Celeborn’s fans are entitled to focus on what they love about him, so are we—Elrondriel fans—entitled to do the same with Elrond and Galadriel, even if our opinions diverge from theirs.

In fact, I’ve noticed a pattern where Elrondriels generally stay within our own spaces, tags, and communities, yet some who disagree still go out of their way to enter those spaces to voice their negativity. So if it’s acceptable for some to share critical takes about Elrond, Galadriel, or our ship, I think it’s equally fair for us to express our own opinions about Celeborn and his characterization, even if they lean toward the negative. It should work both ways, right?

I do respect your view of Celeborn and am totally fine with you appreciating his character! Clearly, my own opinions don’t quite align there—and I’m open about it in my posts.

Tolkien’s works leave a lot of room for interpretation, which is part of what makes this fandom so diverse and interesting. But in the end, if we’re all respectful of each other’s opinions, even if we don’t share them, then this space can be a richer experience for everyone.

I actually agree with part of what you’re saying though.

Honestly, the line about Celeborn having ‘I married a powerful and memorable character while I’m attached to her like a male angler fish’ practically written on his shirt is spot-on! It’s a funny but fairly accurate way to sum up how Tolkien set Celeborn up in relation to Galadriel, giving her this magnetic, richly developed presence and leaving him largely undefined by comparison.

In my opinion, Tolkien didn’t flesh Celeborn out in ways that would make him stand out as a character on his own; instead, he seems to serve as an extension of Galadriel’s story without strong qualities or distinct personality traits that capture readers’ attention.

While I respect that there are fans who enjoy him as-is, I feel that his limited role in the lore doesn’t quite measure up to the depth of other characters—Elrond included. For me, Elrond’s dynamic with Galadriel is refreshing because they’re both portrayed with their own agency, wisdom, and vulnerabilities, which makes their connection layered and compelling.

Celeborn, meanwhile, just doesn’t leave the same impression, and his presence can sometimes feel more like a placeholder than a fully realized character.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and feel free to clarify if I read your tone wrong!

[vivataurus]

I've finally finished the book in the series I was so scared of reading because someone wrote to me of how much of a dick D would act in it. After the last disastrous book, I was worried about reading another flop in the series. With that being said, here's my thoughts on Vampire Hunter D : Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane with a shit ton of spoilers...

My fears were for nothing, since this is now one of my favorite books in the series I've read so far.

I love how each book paints a picture of the locations of places relevant to each story in their own preludes. Although hesitant to compliment the book in any way at first, I appreciated how short and sweet the introduction was. A little questionable with the bugs and pink petals, but nonetheless efficient in piquing my interest.

The first chapter was extremely enjoyable with the exchange between the best of the best on the Frontier including Granny Viper (the Frontier's greatest Finder), and the Bullow Brothers (the greatest warriors on the Outer Frontier). Their interaction perfectly captures how mind-boggling the whole scene was for the desert townspeople in the bar/brothel. Their heated argument and fiery prides were portrayed like a ticking time bomb, and just as things can't get any more shocking, fucking Vampire Hunter D shows up and everyone is floored.

Now I won't say that the person who warned me about the book was completely wrong, because D was indeed a bit of a grumpy pants in the beginning. To be honest, I couldn't blame him for it. He was sent to do a job by a questionable employer that randomly involved crossing this crazy ass desert that he had to find notes about from a dead guy! Meanwhile Granny Viper sinks her claws into him as soon as the Bullow Brothers refuse to help her and her "precious merchandise" across the desert. She literally pulled a Stewie from that episode of Family Guy where he goes "MOM. MOM. MOM. MOMMY. MOMMY." Her pestering was so bad, she literally just walks into his hotel room at night and triggers his dark Nobility aura that seeps into her very being. Dude literally said "no" "get out" "leave" so many times in not even 3 pages, and the lady would NOT take no for an answer. Then Bullow Bros who were acting fake as hell 'nicey-nice' to him at the bar were on his ass about crossing the desert with them after they pinned him for a 'biting incident'. It's like damn, can't a dude just exist without someone wanting him for something all the time??? I digress...

What the story really excelled in was characters and their interactions. Unlike the last book, I actually enjoyed all the characters that were written about. Everyone was interesting, down to the dead guy with the notebook in the middle of the desert! Viper's precious merchandise being one of The Hidden was interesting for someone who's delved into the world these books revolve around. You wonder what happens to those who get snatched up by the Nobility and never come back. And the whole time I fucking knew she was pregnant with a dhampir baby; I felt it in my bones as I was reading! It was so wholesome to have Lance the emaciated stranger turn out to be a genuinely good dude instead of some backstabber traitor, even though he had done so much in the past in his captivity with the mummies. Hell, even Clay Bullow and his hot-headed antics were enjoyable to read with his childish nature. In some strange way, although D never agreed to be part of any party, all of them came together and grew close with one another.

What the story lacked was explaining the main antagonist of the plot. Now after reading the end, it was meant to be that way, but as you're immersed in reading, you're kinda like "wtf that's it?" The desert they are traveling on is sentient, and is using people who travel on it as experiments to better understand people. Our party of main characters had been attacked by just about anything and everything,; including butterflies, undead mummy vandals, tornadoes, spider people, ...shit even a whole ass moving forest! And the final blow out with the heart of the desert ended in barely a page and a half...? Bruh.

When you get to last 20 pages of the book it makes sense why what you think is the 'big bad guy' and their last interaction is so short. Because in the end, there was an even bigger badder bad guy. You find out the Bullow Bros were hired to kill Vampire Hunter D by the same man who hired D in the first place! Him crossing the desert was just a ruse to have the bros kill him! I think D knew the whole time, but like damn! And when they get to their final destination of Barnabas, poor Tae the Hidden gets rejected by her remaining family so harshly! Literally her sister-in-law speaks for her brother and tells her to fuck off. And even after all that talk of "I just do my job and bounce" that Granny Viper talks about, she was so upset that Tae was rejected like that!

In the end, Barnabas was the true test for the whole desert-crossing party. Granny Viper is revealed to be a dhampir herself, and that's why she has hatred for their existence and why she wanted to kill Tae's baby so she doesn't have to face that kind of hardship of raising a dhampir. Then the Bullow brothers have to reluctantly face off against D after their employer kills Granny Viper and they hold a funeral for her. It was an emotional end, but ended in a heart-warming way regardless.

I loved how Tae is resolute in taking care of her baby and won't let anyone talk shit about it even if they're her family. I loved how they did a funeral for Granny Viper. I loved that D took care of Tae and sent her on her way to raising her new family. And I especially loved how D was able to genuinely smile at the end of this book.

VHD 6 Rating: 8/10

[zehecatl]

2024 media thread part JANUARY :D

1st January: Super Mario Bros. Movie

finally got around to watching this, and okay, yeah- it was a lot better than i expected. a good time! really fun to watch! it definitely felt like actual fans worked on it, or at the very least, that Nintendo kept a real close eye during production. loooved the little nods to canon; when Pauline showed up, i literally paused to excitedly tell my mom about who that was, haha. also LOVED the difference uses of power ups!! tanuki suit AND cat suit my beloved :]

Bowser was definitely the high point, like!! that IS my little guy!! Jack Black did SUCH a good job, and man. the ANIMATION. the bits where he got all snarly was SO good. would have loved to watch those on the big screen. Luigi was also very Luigi, which i always appreciate. Mario was... eh? not bad! Chris Pine did an okay job, and while i would have preferred something more, it was... fine. and Donkey Kong was a whole lot of fun, actually? tempted to check out his games, because i did really like him

meanwhile, my BIG BIG complaint, is Peach. like, holy fuck. they absolutely butchered my girl! like, yes- as characters, none of them have a lot of personality to work with, but they're archetypes. you're supposed to push within the archetypes- they even did this with Mario. but they just- they completely abandoned who Peach is, as a character. straight up just wrote Daisy instead, which is. really frustrating! and i dislike it A LOT, because there is so much you can do with Peach as a character, and they didn't even try

but otherwise- fun movie! could have been so much worse!

4th January: Outpath

really relaxing and chill game, where you basically just run around collecting resources, upgrading stuff, and unlocking more island. definitely one of those 'put on some music and zone out for a bit' games. that is not a negative

really liked the graphics, and it was fun to just- run around? you get more movement upgrades as you go along, and it actually plays really nicely. also some tasty environmental sounds

i'm not a 100% done with it yet, but i hit the end credits, so. not sure i'll get all the achievements, but i do intent to go back and clean up some loose ends. also really like how it incorporates some idle elements, like you still getting credits(/money) while being offline. makes it more rewarding to open it up and vibe for a bit

i do think there was an.. attempt? at some kind of story, but i entirely missed it, so i guess that's my only real critic. it was just a fun chill game to sink like, 25 hours into lol

9th January: Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

i've had this game in my library for literally who knows how long, and it's one i've always been aware of, since it was really big back in the day, and oh my god. oh my god, why did i not play this sooner?

it's rather short, took me around 7 hours, but it just- it nails what it wants to be, this tough little game with so much moodiness and tragedy, and i'm so enamoured. i tried playing the original one before this, but it wasn't quite hitting, but man. this one just. it hit so fucking good

there's so many layers here, so many unspoken little details. so so much tragedy you could really dig your fingers into, and as a Tragedy Enjoyer, ooooh it hits good

i'm considering either replaying it myself, or watching a LP and then writing some fic, because there is a little thing hiding here, something i want to put words to. it's good, can't wait to check out the rest, and the upcoming sequel/finale. also, the game is gorgeous

18th January: Switch OVA

so Switch is a two episode long 'adaptation' of a manga, and while it very much just drops you into the middle of the plot, it- works? like, i personally wasn't missing anything, and the case they chose to adapt works really well as a teaser for the manga, because i did leave it considering checking out the manga, and while the whole thing isn't anything to write home about, i did enjoy myself

(i also watched the whole thing on my phone, curled up in bed, so that did maybe increase my enjoyment. it was cozy! what can i say!)

funnily enough, i did walk into this thinking it was a yaoi, and while i don't think it is, there really was nothing to disprove me of this assumption. there's literally a moment where protag guy gets told 'he likes' the other protag guy, and he bLUSHES. LIKE. STRAIGHT OUT OF A YAOI FR FR

all in all, it was honestly just a really cozy time. it wasn't long enough to lose my interest, and there was enough in it to keep it- and i really like the design of the red haired guy! very simple, but really appealing too. i genuinely might check out the manga, my interest is definitely piqued

[melrosing]

I really appreciate your insight on Jaime, so I thought I’d might ask something that’s been puzzling me for a while about his endgame.

One of the most common predictions for Jaime is that he ends up at the Night’s Watch, possibly as its 1000th commander. While there’s certainly some foreshadowing for it, I struggle to think of a reason for the Night’s Watch to exist after the Wall falls and the Others die. What do you make of this? Do you think that Jaime could end up at the Wall?

Btw, sorry for the nasty anon messages. You’re super cool and I love your art <3

thank u so much!! and genuine lol @ the anon messages like imagine launching a personal attack because someone said Arya likes adventure you can't make this shit up 😭

I have heard this theory and I'm not a fan bc I just.... don't really enjoy reading about the night's watch/the wall/beyond the wall etc etc so ideally my fave's endgame would not be there of all places but I kind of see where the theory comes from. I don't think it's foreshadowed so it's not something that worries me but these are like my sparknotes on it.

the night's watch may well still exist even when the Wall does not; I think in Jon's story we see both the good and the bad of the NW, and what's contradictory between each. I think the primary contradiction of the NW oath is that they swear to 'guard the realms of men' whilst guarding against those who live beyond the wall. Jon's story highlights the hypocrisy in this, and I think the end of the story will be about Jon and the NW finding a new purpose in embracing the world and peoples beyond the wall as part of Westeros, helping them rebuild, keeping them safe, etc. the good that does exist in the NW can be put to real use, in a way that serves everyone. I can really see the story pointing that way for both Jon and the NW as an institution

Jaime meanwhile.... I guess the only foreshadowing I can think of is that Ned suggested after Jaime killed Aerys that he be sent to the Wall, but Jaime remained in the KG, a supposedly 'perfect institution'. comparably, the NW is famously made up of 'less than perfect' men, who enter it from all walks of life. and there's a consistent, underlying contrast between the KG and the NW - the KG in their gleaming white cloaks and the NW in their blacks, and the truth being that the KG is the corrupt institution whilst the NW (not without problems of its own) is the one with the ultimately selfless objective and that exists for the common good. and the NW is also considered a kind of atonement. so sure, there's some poetry in Jaime shifting from one to the other

there are also many interesting parallels between Jon and Jaime, particularly as lord commanders of their respective institutions - it's a fun exercise in compare and contrast. again probably a whole other post but if AFFC and ADWD were combined in one book I think these points would seem a lot more obvious

however, I don't see Jaime becoming the Lord Commander of the NW - as he has no history in the watch, it would be probably a bit insulting for Jaime to take immediate charge of the whole thing - it should really be someone with that history for it to resonate for both the NW itself and the reader. I think it'll be Jon, i.e. that he'll leave Winterfell to become the LC again OR they just won't have an LC, they'll revise the structure of the whole institution

do I think Jaime will end up at the Wall?? I guess not really?? I think his story is just so far removed from anything beyond the wall and the Night's Watch itself that it just feels too mismatched. all the key plots and characters he's tied up with are and always have been based in the south, so throwing him in the NW would feel to me a bit out of left field. ultimately I wouldn't hate the idea of Jaime rebuilding with the wildlings and kind of committing to a humbler good than worrying about a grander legacy. and it's more of an open ending than death, in that supposedly he wouldn't have to swear the same dehumanising oaths (re. personal freedoms) as the existing NW - you'd hope that when they're rebuilding from scratch they kind of. loosen up on that shit. so the idea that even if Jaime spent the bulk of his time there he's not cut off entirely from Brienne, Tyrion etc (it's not an ending I like for Brienne either but who knows maybe she'd join him). but yeah idk I'm just not a huge fan of Jaime beyond the wall. maybe I could come round to it but you know. eh

[ben-talks-art]

Puss In Boots, the Last Wish - Spoiler talk

When I shared my thoughts about Puss in Boots 2, one of the things I said was that, while I was impressed with the style, animation, and overall vibe of the movie, I still felt like the writing itself was mostly just good.

But the more I think about it, the more these ideas and the way these ideas were handled start to pack a bigger punch, to the point where I'm like "Yeah, this is actually really clever writing, isn't it?"

And everyone already talked about the obvious topics, the way we treat our relationship with death, how much should we try to truly appreciate life and what we already have, the different ways we can handle an antagonist by sometimes making them people with depth that can be redeemed and sometimes just making them fun monsters who just enjoy being evil, and so on.

But something I was randomly thinking about was the kinda commentary that this movie does on the concept of male stereotypes.

What I mean by that is that, when you look at all the ways Puss died, they are all what's often considered by the media as "manly."

Flirting with women, gambling, drinking, picking up fights with people much bigger than you, being reckless, trying to show off how muscular you are... The only one that avoids that was the one about baking (who I still would count as a jab at the "real men don't listen to advice!" trope)

I especially like how they build up how Puss' biggest regret with Kitty was going to be some sort of heist where he left her behind but it turns out it was actually him running away from marriage.

Maybe I'm thinking too hard about it but it feels like this is all a jab at the idea of the "perfect action hero", the guy that fears nothing, needs no one, listens to no one, and is always rescuing those that are hopeless without him.

But in here, Puss is constantly in danger, constantly vulnerable, constantly needing others to support him... And what I like about it is that it never feels shamefull. It actually feels very pleasant to admit you do need help and to receive that help.

The only time someone tries to laugh at him for being less "manly" is when he confronts his past lives. Like, think about it, Puss is literally the only one who has a problem with the fact that he's become more vulnerable.

Kitty doesn't care, the dog doesn't care, none of the antagonists care, even the citizens like the doctor from the start of the story, he was legit being super nice about his whole situation.

Even when we get to the climax, I kept thinking the wolf had said "Or you're gonna fight like a man!?" But then I saw it again and realized he never said the "like a man!" part, that was just in my head because I'm just so used to seeing it in movies all the time.

It was really just Puss who had a problem with his vulnerability.

And yeah, we know the line "you're your own worst enemy" has been used billions of times in the past, but I really like how this concept was used here.

I also like how they show this isn't a problem exclusive to Puss as Kitty also suffers from feeling like she has to be strong all the time because if she affords to be vulnerable she could get hurt.

Meanwhile, the most vulnerable character in the story, the little doggy, seems to be the happiest out of everyone because he has nobody to impress. Same with Pappa bear and Momma bear. They don't care about appearances or about looking strong, they just want their kids to be happy.

So, yeah, this writing was legit much better than what I initially thought. I like how it promotes the idea of truly thinking about what you consider to be important vs what really is important, and I feel this is a very relevant message nowadays as the media keeps trying to tell us all the time what's important or not.

This movie literally gets better the more I think about it! 😊

But, again, that's just a random idea I had. Idk, am I thinking too hard about it?

[vacantgodling]

well 447 pages later i have finished the book

a review of sorts:

it picked up a bit in entertainment and intrigue and was everything i thought it was going to be from jump for the last like 100 pages or so. but tbh i was already so exhausted from how annoying, ridiculous, pretentious, and —ist it was (as an aside i use ‘—ist’ to refer to a multitude of bigoted views all at once so like antisemitic, racist, misogynistic, etc all at once) from the beginning that it was extremely hard to even appreciate it. the beginning and middle especially are muddled with pages and pages of tangents about virtually nothing in relation to the plot; just the author rambling on and on about his hamfisted viewpoints that he will then backtrack and “apologize” for (with zero remorse for wasting my fucking TIME) or he’ll claim are not his views (which he’s fucking lying!!!) ntm the adoration the characters all have for trilby herself it feels. shallow. and the characterization in GENERAL especially for little billee is so goddamn annoying that i wanted to just lay down!!! these characters have no flaws; the only flaws they have to speak of seems to be in the expression of human emotion in a way that isn’t socially acceptable (which given the time period makes sense but Still). yet the villain character is so fundamentally “evil” from jump with virtually no redeeming qualities. it doesn’t help once again that this is all tied to racial/ethnic relations; the author time and time again not just with svengali but also with other characters makes broad swathing assumptions about their character based on their country of origin or his own personal —ist ass beliefs about them.

the narrator in this story is PARTICULARLY grating not just because of the tangents but because of its inconsistencies. something i particularly appreciate about the phantom of the opera is that it deigns to explain to me who the hell is narrating and why they’re writing. gaston leroux (the character) is writing the phantom of the opera as a book as a journalist set to uncover the truth about erik being a real person and not just some ghost. it’s a good framing device and it’s consistent throughout the entire book. meanwhile This Fucking Asshole will alternate between being a random “scribe” writing all these events down (but doesn’t place himself in the narrative in any way so you’re left wondering who the fuck is Speaking when it suddenly goes from third person to sentences of first), then he’ll break the fourth wall and out himself as the author of these events (towards the end of the book he says “oh when you make a character…” — not in those words but essentially referring to the writing process of making a character) and it’s just ???? what are you DOING.

i bring up the phantom of the opera because i’m researching this book as well before i started reading it it apparently inspired what would become the phantom of the opera in 1910. however y’all know i love the phantom and the book is just chefs kiss to me and it is much much better like honestly i don’t even know if this book is worth the three days it took me to read (probably would’ve been one if i didn’t have to work bc it’s not particularly long but it is taxing to read. looking again at that aforementioned 107 word long sentence that was so utterly useless to the narrative and also fucking —ist i’m so tired)

i think i came to enjoy Some of the characters at the end? taffy and laird are likable and even though i think trilby isn’t really given enough agency of her own in a book named after her for gods sake, i realize that this book isn’t about her so much as it surrounds her. this book is an ode to the ideas of the bohemia movement in france and calls on the dark and sinister winding elements of gothic literature to tell its story but it’s just so fucking muddled and messy through the beginning with explaining it that it’s a wonder if you can??? make it to the end to get to the parts that actually focus on the plot. genuinely this book could be so so condensed and you’d get the same points across just take out all the meaningless drivel from the author who can’t fucking resist adding it in for some reason. just edit it out!!!!! fuck!!!!!!

and as much as i hate the mantra of show don’t tell this book (and many books from this time period) could use that advice. so much of what i’m supposed to feel for the characters is just TOLD to me. i’m told i should like little billee but i hate him. he’s whiny and vapid and misogynistic and stupid and he’s just overall EXHAUSTING. what an exhausting fucking character man. but like. this entire book is just EXHAUSTING. i can usually read for long swathes of time in one sitting but between authorial pretentiousness, the story just Not. Fucking. Going. Anywhere until page like 330??? and how fucking shallow everything is?? like my god.

also the lack of direct translation for half this fucking book is fucking ANNOYING to me. many of the characters are multi lingual and there will literally be paragraphs and paragraphs of text in just straight french sometimes which the author will hastily explain it just not explain at all with the just? expectation that whoever is reading this is trilingual bc the same happens with german every now and again as well. and it’s a particular choice to do so which good for him yknow dunk on me stupid american blah blah but it’s just tiring. i gave up going back and forth to google translate and just skimmed over it bc the paragraphs and dialogues in french aren’t even that relevant to the plot so much as it feels like the author just wants to flex that he knows it. nothing of any importance is said at any given point where someone is speaking another language.

anyway there’s probably more that i could say in a proper review which is sort of why i think i want to make a video talking about it—and other stuff i read, which i might but like. bruh. exhaustion. this book is just miserable to read lowkey.

1.5/5 jfc.

[nextgenconsole2023]

Dead Space - feels great, especially on PS5

Dead Space ended up being a premiere survival horror series that included sequels, spin-offs, comics, and animated films, which were then dropped following Dead Space 3. Returning to the beginning of the story, EA Motive has set out to recreate the original recreation as faithfully as possible, with additional features to heighten the terror. The game starts with a distress message that you got from the USG Ishimura, the planet-breaking ship that is used to extract resources from serious locations. One small team, which includes the engineer Isaac Clarke, acts on the distress signal, and soon they are stuck on a ship full of horrific monsters with no way to escape. The plot is mostly faithful to the original, but it improves on it by providing meaningful insights and fresh new interactions with the characters. The story is also examined in greater depth through treasures and voluntary side-quests, which are carried out with great success.

The narrative is among several areas that gain massively from this method. The story that follows Isaac Clarke and the aging Planetcracker-class vessel USG Ishimura has been preserved in survival-horror culture books, and the new edition wisely chooses not to mess with the plot in any way. The main beats remain intact, and at the core, the mix of conspiracy theories, mystery, sagas, and psychological horror remains as thrilling and captivating as it was fifteen years ago. In the same way, Dead Space makes several important improvements that inject more energy into the narrative. In the first place, unlike the first game, Isaac is a spoken hero, which means that he takes on an active role in the narrative. Instead of passively watching crucial sequences, Isaac converses with characters, reacts to situations, expresses emotion, and becomes increasingly involved in the story. Meanwhile, a great number of scenes have been revamped and revised, all for the better, with the modifications ranging from the simplest, like discussions and dialogue flowing better, to more and more dramatic ones that ramp up the tension in key scenes or change the order of events in other scenes to make the story more memorable. We are one of the leading online suppliers of New Xbox One games.

The fight nevertheless feels satisfying, even as you upgrade your RIG or arms. And there are also plenty of jump scares to be had. But Dead Space has always been more than just jump scares, because the USG Ishimura is still the most terrifying and dramatic thing ever, possibly even more so now.

Large and modest heroes retain more and more dialog that helps flesh out the whole world's stories overall. Thankfully, Isaac's added dialog from his Dead Space remake never lets you feel out of place. The production widened hero roles, and execution never feels as if they're trying way too hard to make specific heroes appear more and more credible and much less general. The most important thing that potential players should appreciate is truly this: Motive Studios has proven successful in making Dead Space Remake the ultimate method of enjoying the very first chapter of Isaac Clarke's adventure. Get the best deals with us and our PS5 horror games.

In terms of visuals, it appears more spooky and enhances the atmosphere of Ishimura. The improved lighting effects and the way that fleshy surfaces glisten at particular angles bring it together. For those who thought the Necromorphs were creepy, they will change appearance whenever they are right up next to your face, trying to eat the face. Improved visuals can also be used in combat because shooting opponents can cause parts of their flesh and bones to break. You must still aim for your enemies' limbs to cut them all off; however, when you miss – which is normal given the circumstances – your shots will give you the false impression that they are causing damage, which increases your frustration in a game like this. Other improvements also enhance the game's gameplay and ease a lot of the frustration that the original experienced. The controls are tight at all times, and your stomps and melee strikes are more appropriate when you want them to be. Zero-gravity areas are much more fun to surf as they allow you to freely move through them without having the camera stuck all the time like before. The map even got an overhaul in 3D, and your location is more aware of routes, pointing anyone toward the next desired destination.

Dead Space is a done remake that not only gives fresh life to an old and much-awaited game but could also pave the way for future installments in the game series, sooner or later. While much of the gameplay will be familiar to those who have played the first game, the significant upgrades and innovations do a lot to keep the experience fresh, modern, and unique. If you're an avid Dead Space fan or new to the franchise, this game is worth the money and time, so long as you have the confidence to go for it. Some predict it will be an early winner of the year.

[gracemyface]

Daryl: The Professional (Daryl Dixon x Young! Reader)

Chapter Six

Key:

Y/n - Your Name

Y/l/n - Your Last Name

Y/e/c - Your Eye Color

Y/h/c - Your Hair Color

Series Masterlist | Previous Part | Next Part

Summary: Things are unsettled at camp after the fight and Jim's breakdown, and the Reader finds themselves too worried about Daryl to really enjoy any of the festivities. Meanwhile, Daryl finds himself struggling in the city, wanting to return to camp but not wanting to face the wrath that would come from leaving Glenn behind. They're finally reunited when, in a turn for the worse, the camp is attacked by a wandering herd of walkers...

Warnings: Major Character Death, Canon Typical Violence/Gore, Some Angst.

A/n: I will have no real Lori slander. She did some shitty things, yes, but she loved her kids and the other women’s kids. Anyway, how do we like Daryl’s pov? I really, really struggled with it bc he’s such an asshole (I mean that affectionately.)

Shit really goes down this chapter. You guys have a slight breakdown, but it's been a long time coming. Character development ig?

also, do we want more stories from when the Reader, Daryl, and Merle were together?

Word Count: 4.8k

The first time Daryl ever saw you, the blood-soaked orphan with a far-off stare who’d barricaded themself into the corner of his father’s cabin, he felt a prickle of annoyance travel up his spine. 

He didn’t know why you were out in the woods, or what had happened to result in you being covered in the crimson liquid (though, if his father hadn’t just been eaten in front of him, he would’ve assumed it was a pig slaughtering gone awry), or how you got into the cabin. He, especially at that moment, hadn’t even cared. He knew immediately that Jess wouldn’t have left you behind, cursed his father’s half-brother and his bleeding heart, and reduced you to nothing in his mind but another mouth to feed — a weak, sniveling mouth at that. He wasn’t ever keen on being around kids, smart-mouthed teenagers even less, and he didn’t really want to have to handle the collapse of society with anybody who couldn’t fend for themselves. 

You showed him, though. You really did.

In those few days when it was just you and him after Jess took that fall off the truck when you officially became his responsibility, you proved you weren’t weak. You adapted to the end of the world quickly — learned to be quiet when you needed to be, to be useful most of the time, and to just eat whatever he managed to catch. And then you took on Merle in a way that nobody really dared to, most nights ending with you sending his older brother a heated gaze over the fire, the flames reflecting in your y/e/c eyes. Now, he still wouldn’t leave his life in your hands if he had the choice, even after you shot that man clear in the head back in Fontana and walked it off, but he knows for sure that he can trust you to handle your own — and, even if he doesn’t really appreciate being wrong, he can’t help but admire you for it… though, he’d never admit it aloud.

Standing in a long-abandoned lab building in an overrun Atlanta, the redneck stares down at the whimpering kid they picked up with pure disdain. His lips are curled back over his teeth in a sneer and his eyes are slanted as he stares down, internally picking apart every little thing the teenager does. That is what he expected from you.

What a shit show this little expedition-slash-rescue mission has turned out to be.

Not only was Merle not where they left him — currently down one hand and on the run through the sweltering pit of hell that has become of the once lively city — but now they’ve lost Glenn, too. If Daryl’d known that the younger man was going to get taken hostage by a bunch of wannabe gangsters and hold them up like this, he’d have left before these assholes could’ve even thought about getting into the truck with him.

He wanted to be the hell out of dodge three hours ago. “Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won’t protect your family or put food on the table— you’re gonna give that up for that kid?”

Both of them give him a stern look, and he resists the urge to roll his eyes. Sure, the kid is nice and all, and half the camp (including you) would be really pissed off if they came back without him, but they can’t give up half of these guns. It’s either Glenn or a better chance at survival and he picks survival.

“If I knew we’d get Glenn back, I might agree. But, you think that Vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?”

Daryl nods in agreement. There’s that, too. They have no idea for certain if giving up the guns will even get them what they want. It might just be a trap that gets them all killed.

“You calling G a liar?” Their hostage— Miguel, was it?— inserts himself into the equation.

His mind once again drifts to you. If you were kidnapped, you wouldn’t be this stupid. You’d be smart enough to not mouth off to the people who held you captive, smart enough to figure out how to get yourself free, and smart enough not to make promises on his behalf that he might not be able to keep. You’d be mute, sitting there and watching your captors with those dangerous little eyes of yours.

This kid, though? Christ.

“Are you a part of this?” He crosses the room and leans down over the kid, slapping him lightly. “You wanna hold onto your teeth?”

T-Dog continues on, ignoring the violence. “Question is, do you trust that man’s word?”

“No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?” He holds Rick’s gaze.

Truth be told, Daryl doesn’t quite get risking why anybody would risk their life for someone who wasn’t their blood. Glenn wasn’t any of their brother, son, or cousin — he was just some (former) pizza running kid that was on the highway, in the right place and at the right time when Shane spearheaded the group and lead them off the highway. Merle is probably the only person in the world that the redneck would even think to sacrifice anything for.

(Except maybe…)

“What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't.” Rick loads his revolver and sticks it in his pocket. “Neither will I.”

Daryl scoffs in his soul. “So you’re gonna hand the guns over?”

“I didn't say that.”

The sheriff's voice has now taken a quality that has his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

“There's nothing keeping you two here. You should get out, head back to camp.”

T-Dog winces from his injuries, rubbing his head with his hand. “And tell your family what?”

Daryl and Rick stare at each other for a beat, a silent conversation happening between them, before he sighs shortly and reaches for a weapon. You’d probably be really pissed at him if he didn’t try, and he doesn’t want to deal with an emotional teenager right about now.

“Come on, this is nuts.” The boy sits back down when Daryl holds a hand out to him. “Just do like G says.”

The redneck ignores the whining boy and starts loading a shotgun. He needs this to be over as quickly as possible, and he needs the gangster assholes to go down without a fight.

He made a promise to come back alive, after all.

──────────────────

Jim has a heatstroke. Or, at least, that’s what Shane keeps dismissing it as. With the current state of the world, it could’ve very well been post-bite fever or a psychotic break.

He’d been digging for reasons unknown and unintentionally ruined the good news of the incredible amount of food they were going to have tonight in the process. Shane went all cop on him, which didn’t really surprise you after what happened with Ed, and the whole ordeal ended with Jim being tied to a tree after ranting and raving about how he left his family for dead. Everyone seemed to move on after that, the mothers dragged their children off to do schoolwork and a few of the other adults started setting up for the fish fry, but you found yourself a little nauseous.

It looked like he was digging graves, and why did he go into such intense detail?

Hiding away in your tent, you lay down on top of your sleeping bag and throw a ball of socks up just to catch it as it comes down. You hoped the action would be therapeutic — something to take your mind off the image of Jim’s poor family and how it bleeds into the image of your own — but the socks lack the weight of a real ball, and you can’t get out of your head.

Had washing your parents’ blood off your skin absolved you of any responsibility in their deaths? Were you doomed to end up like Jim?

Would you also, someday soon, have a psychotic break?

“Hey, Y/n?” Lori’s soft voice drifts through the thin fabric of your tent as he speaks timidly.

For a beat, you decide if you want to be silent and let her think you’re asleep. “Uh, yeah. What’s up?”

“Shane’s gonna teach Carl and Sophia to clean fish. He wanted to know if you’d join.”

You already know how to gut an animal. Squirrels, rabbits, and even a deer, once — Daryl had always been very big on you learning how to survive in the time you spent together, and that learning involved getting over the grossness of animal entrails very, very quickly. You were living through the end of the world, he’d reasoned, you don’t have time to be weak-stomached.

And you don’t want to spend time with Shane. That’s at the top of the list of things you don’t want.

But you’re not going to tell the woman that you dislike the man she was sleeping with, so you say, “I already know how to.” 

There’s another beat of silence, and you can see the shadow of her willowy figure shift through the wall of the tent.

“Can I come in?”

You, certainly not expecting that, pause. 

“Uh, sure.”

You sit up and push yourself to the back of the tent, watching as Lori unzips the door and ducks down inside. She’s got sincere eyes. So sincere that when she crouches down in front of you and meets your gaze, your skin starts to crawl.

“You feelin’ okay?”

You hate that question. Something burns behind your nose and you snuggle, shrugging pitifully. “Dunno. Pretty shit — what happened to Jim, I mean.”

Lori nods thoughtfully. “Yeah… it is.”

She looks a little pale. Surely, the death of children doesn’t sit well with a mother, even if they aren’t her own.

“I, uh, I understand that you’ve had a rough time.” The brunette doesn’t seem to know what to say to you, and you almost feel bad. “I mean, I don’t. Not really. And you don’t have to tell me anything.” She stresses that point with a sweep of her hand. “But I know something must’ve happened because everyone has something happen.”

You nod along, fiddling with a loose string on your jeans. 

“I— Daryl and Merle don’t exactly seem like the easiest people to talk to, so if you ever need anything, me and Carol are right here, okay?”

“…okay.”

She smiles softly at you, and you spare one back. Lori and Carol are perfectly nice women, but you almost prefer Daryl, who has put a ban on personal questions and mostly ignores the emotional side of everything. You know you aren’t going to go to Lori and tell her things.

You wouldn’t even know where to start. 

“Y’know, Carl likes you? Like, a lot.” 

“Really?”

“Mhm. Sophia, too.”

Deep down, you know this is her trying to coax you out of the tent, but you let it boost your ego anyway. There’s something so incredibly normal (and endearing) about being looked up to — even if, sometimes, it gets a little annoying.

“And I’m guessing they would really, really like it if I went out there and helped Shane gut fish with ‘em?”

“Yeah. They would.”

Pursing your lips, you stare at the woman through slightly narrowed eyes before sighing and giving in.

“Alright…”

She grins widely and it kind of makes up for it.

Shane seems to be getting frustrated with the ordeal when you arrive, correcting Sophia’s stance with a tightness pulling at his smile as Lori gently nudges you along. You take the seat next to him without a word, pretending you don’t notice how he and the woman exchange a look, or how Carl shifts toward you on the log. It’s a hundred degrees out and he’s attached to your hip already, watching with those big blue eyes of his as you silently grab a fish off the pile and get to gutting it. 

You can remember the steps well: descale, cut a slit in the belly, remove the guts and fins and head, and rinse. 

“Look at you.” Shane compliments in a drawl, finally getting Sophia to do what he needed her to. “Like a swan to water.”

With a wrinkled nose, you drop fish innards into a bucket and turn to look at him as you shake the blood off your hands.

“Yeah, well, you spend enough time with the Dixons and you’ll learn how to gut anything.”

Something dark flashes across his face but you don’t care. You turn back to the fish, making a little joke to Carl about fish eyes that makes his entire face scrunch up and draws a long ‘Ewww’ from his lips. The laugh that bursts from you rattles in your bones.

──────────────────

“Hey, Dale, you got a?—“ The question dies on your lips as, upon stepping over the threshold of the RV, you stumble upon Andrea.

Every cabinet in the mobile home’s little kitchenette is open and she appears to be rooting through them desperately. At the sound of your voice, she pauses, looking up at you like she’s an animal and you just caught her looking through your garbage cans.

“Hi.”

“Hi?” You retort, shifting your weight. “Do you know where Dale is?”

“No, but I wish I did.” She heaves a sigh and runs her hand through her hair.

You don’t think you’ve ever seen the woman quite so frantic. Somewhere down the line, Andrea Harrison was a lawyer, and it’s hard to imagine her standing in the front of a courtroom, prim and proper and ready to kick some ass, with her standing in front of you like this.

“Can I help you any?” You ask just as Dale finally responds to his summons, stepping over the threshold with a quiet, “Did I hear my name?“

“Yeah.” Both you and Andrea answer at once, but you step back and gesture to her. “I think she needs help first.”

The blonde spares you a nervous smile.

“Alright. What do you need?”

“Wrapping paper, color tissue, anything?”

(Okay, maybe you regret letting her go first. At this rate, you’ll never get that bandaid.)

You stare at her with furrowed brows and a scrunched-up face. 

“Seriously?” Dale shares in your confusion, glancing warily between the two of you. You offer him a shrug.

“How could you not have any?”

“Had I been informed of the impending apocalypse I'd have stocked up.”

Your snort at the old man’s dry words earns you a particularly derisive look from Andrea. “What? It’s the end of the world and you need wrapping paper. Shoot me for finding that amusing.”

“It’s Amy’s birthday tomorrow.” She says it like you should know that (probably because you should.) “I've been marking days on the calendar just to make sure.”

Your eyes wander over to the calendar on the wall of the RV as she lifts the necklace that she stole for a gift to her sister. Surely enough, Andrea has been crossing out the days on it. 

Despite what you expected, there is no big circle over Amy’s birthday or anything, but you then figure that would probably ruin the surprise. Your older (in age and not maturity) blonde friend had come to you earlier in the week and lamented to you about the situation. While you’d always known that Andrea was the older of the pair, you didn’t know just how much until Amy filled you in on the ghosts of birthday past; she told you all about the older blonde’s broken promises to return to the nest for her little sister’s birthday, about how, more often than not, college and other things got in the way. She must’ve seen the calendar, too, and been disappointed by the apparent lack of acknowledgment that it was growing closer and closer to her favorite holiday.

“You can’t leave a gift unwrapped.” 

“Oh, it’s good that you got something. I think she thinks you forgot.” That was told to you in confidence, but you stretched the truth a bit, so it isn’t that bad, right?

Dale and Andrea both look at you for a moment before he nods his head slowly. “Alright. Deep breath. I’m sure we’ll find something.” He turns back to face you. “What did you need?”

As if a lightbulb turned on over your head, you lift up your hand and the handkerchief that’s been wrapped around your minor flesh wound. “Carl cut me while I was demonstrating. I just need a bandaid.”

The old man shakes his head at you and steps around Andrea to go get the first aid kit, muttering to himself about the youth of today and how you’re going to lose your limb if you aren’t more careful.

──────────────────

As the grating summer sunlight fades into the darkness of dusk, taking the heat with it, the whole group (excluding the men in Atlanta and Ed, who refused to show his face around camp) sits down for the biggest meal most of them have had since the end of the world.

Cold beer and water are handed out as serving trays full of fried fish get passed around between the clusters of people who gather around their fires, the murmur of their happy chatter and soft laughter cutting through the blanketing sounds of the night. After the big fight and Jim’s foreboding breakdown, it’s nice to see everyone smiling and knowing that nobody’s going to ruin it this time — even if you can’t really find yourself joining in on the festivity.

“Pass the fish, please?”

“Here you go.”

“Man, I missed this.”

Sitting down on the end of one of the logs and feeling a little removed from everyone else, you wrap your coat tighter around your frame and let yourself worry about the group of men who went into the city. You don’t know Rick Grimes too well — he didn’t exactly give you the chance to get to know him, did he? — but you do know Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl. You know that they’re very capable men and that, in certain circumstances, most of them have more experience with geeks than you do, but you can’t help but worry. The sun has long since set, meaning that the men, wherever they are, are stranded out in the dark. You don’t really remember the nights from when it was just you and Daryl (a combination of many sleepless nights and too-high adrenaline made the memories blur together), but you know enough to know that things do get worse when the sun goes down; geeks aren’t exactly quiet, but they can really sneak up on you when there’s no light and your body wants to sleep.

Experienced or not, they're going to be tired eventually, and, if Merle doesn’t try to kill them, something else will.

“Hey, Nervous Nellie.” Shane draws your attention to him by nudging your leg with his boot, “Yeah, you— how's the fish?” 

Your eyes flit down to the bottle in his hand. Beer surely makes him a little looser.

“It’s alright.”

The ex-cop cocks a brow and echoes your response. “Alright?”

You really wish he’d just leave you alone. 

Truth be told, you don’t really like the food. It’s bland and it tastes fishy in the worst way, and (even if you’ll admit that you’ve been eating it like a death row inmate getting their last meal as if indigestion isn’t a thing), chasing it down with water isn’t helping. Sure, it’s better than the food you’ve been eating for weeks — better than measly mushrooms, canned rations, and whatever game the Dixon brothers could hunt up — but it’s not great.

“It’s no cheeseburger.” You shrug, stabbing some more of the pale flesh with your fork. “But beggars and choosers, and all that.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Morales interjects lightheartedly, tipping the head of his beer in your direction. You smile a thin-lipped smile.

The arrival of his long-lost best friend has made Shane rather… unsettling. Whether it’s because of how cold Lori has been acting toward him or his superiority complex, you’re not sure. You just know that you want Daryl to come back, even if that means putting up with Merle for the rest of his life.

“I’ll be right back.” You dismiss yourself quietly to Jacqui when the temperature changes and your discomfort proves to be too much. She nods absentmindedly, too engrossed with whatever Dale is saying to really respond, and takes the plate from you when you hand it over. 

You slip away into the darkness pretty easily, retreating to your tent in search of a sweatshirt, a breather, and maybe some reassurance that the redneck you’ve grown to like could survive whatever came at him. 

With a press of your hand, the nylon flap of your tent opens and you step in. Pausing briefly to turn on the little electric lantern on the floor, you then scan the small space with your eyes, looking for anything that might pass as something with long sleeves. There’s already a pile of dirty clothes forming in the corner and most of your stuff is strewn about, but you ignore that and grab for your bag— an old duffel that belonged to Daryl’s deceased father. Curling your fingers around one of the fraying straps, you pull it up and toward you, rooting through the stuff in there until you find it. A red and black flannel.

Somewhere down the line — just like most of your stuff did — the flannel belonged to one of the Dixons. It hangs loose on your frame, the sleeves too long for your arms and the length stopping mid-thigh. 

Buttoning it up, you cuff the sleeves and fiddle with the ends for a few minutes until they sit in a way you like. 

Just as you’re able to breathe a deep breath and feel remotely at peace, a blood-curdling scream, followed by many more, cuts through the quiet dark of the night. Adrenaline is the first thing you feel, your heart beating in your ears and your lungs squeezed of air, and worry is the second, fear for your friends forcing your legs to move and push out of your tent again. Though, before you can do that, you’re greeted by two rotting hands shoving their way through the opening and grabbing at your shoulders in a surprisingly iron grip. The shock of seeing a geek so up-close causes you to stumble back, but your ankle twists harshly — sending you sprawling to the ground with the monster right on top of you. 

“Oh, god!” The cracked scream leaves your lips, the now-shattered glass from the lantern digging into the skin of your leg.

The walker is — or, was — a man. It gnashes its teeth and pushes toward you, the sound of the bones clacking together making you whimper. Is this what your parents felt in their last moments? Jim’s wife and kids? Very quickly, your arms start to tremble under the weight of the much larger body, and you decide to not resign yourself to the same fate. Craning your head, you search for a weapon. 

There’s no way for you to reach your gun right about now, which you can’t really shoot with one hand anyway, but there has to be something else — anything you can use.

As the walker claws desperately at your shirt and groans miserably, you have to make the rash decision to remove one hand from its chest and give yourself less leverage to reach blindly behind you. Panicked breaths puff past your lips and your head starts to feel light as you grab at your stuff. Your fingers tightening around your sleeping bag, you give a harsh tug and hear the faintest sound of objects clattering around. The walker pushes down on your forearm as your fingers touch what feels like the hilt of a knife. Daryl must’ve thrown it in with your belongings a while back.

Letting out a strangled and panicked sound, you take the weapon and stab the walker with all your might.

The steel of the blade pops the walker’s eye upon entry and slides right through to its brain. Closing your eyes and mouth, you whip your head to the side as a mixture of ink-like blood and gel-like eye fluids drip down the hilt of the knife and onto your face. Its body, now eerily still and limp, falls on top of yours, making it hard to fully inhale as stuttered, panicked breaths rack your chest. As the sounds of gunshots and screams continue from outside the tent, you roll the body off you and force yourself up on your knees, gasping breaths through frightened sobs as you try to tug the knife out of the dead head.

As you pull it free, another walker stumbles into your tent and tries to pounce on you. Before it can bite a chunk out of your body, the tent door is being pushed open and a bullet is shattering its skull.

“Y/n!?” Glenn’s voice is just audible over the deadly mixture of your heartbeat and painful ringing in your ears, his eyes wide as he hopes what he just shot was actually dead before he shot it. “Y/n?!”

“Glenn.” You whimper, kicking the other dead body away from you. Your alleviation that the men from Atlanta are alive is short-lived.

“Oh.” He breathes in relief and slings the gun over his shoulder, reaching out to hold your forearms. “Oh. You’re okay. Oh, god. That’s good.”

“Daryl— is— is Daryl?” You can barely form words, your fingernails digging into his skin.

“Daryl’s fine. C’mon. We have to get out of here!”

He ushers you to your feet. The pain in your calf worsens as you stand up on shaky legs, every movement causing the glass to shift in your skin, and you stumble forward into his chest.

“I can’t— I hurt my leg.” You hiccup and Glenn sighs softly, wrapping one of your arms around his shoulders so he can half carry you.

“I have you.”

Glenn leads you out into the chaos. What’s left of camp isn’t very different from what Sedalia was like all those weeks ago — bodies, both rotting and fresh, littering the floor and the once-contained fires roaring loudly against the stones. Howls of anguish and sobs fill the air. 

“Y/n! Y/n!” Daryl’s southern drawl echoes through the remains of the camp, worry, fear, and anger lacing his words. “Where the hell is the kid?!”

The survivors are all gathered around the RV, and you watch as he shoves Shane lightly for getting in his way.

“Where are they? Did you leave them alone?” Rick tacks on as T-Dog tries to get in between them, his son in his arms. “Has anyone seen Y/n?”

As the moonlight casts a blue shadow on your blood and grime covered skin, you let go of Glenn and find it within yourself to shout. “I’m right here!”

The redneck’s head snaps over to you and he abandons his antagonism against the ex-cop in favor of running over to you. Daryl grabs your face in both of his hands and starts scanning over your features.

“You alright? Any of this blood yours?” He whispers gruffly.

“I’m… I mean I hurt my leg but otherwise I’m fine. No bites.” Your hollow voice cracks slightly as you speak, and your gaze flits away from him as he bends down to check your leg. “Is that?…”

Andrea sits, crumpled at the foot of the door into the RV. In her lap is Amy. Sweet Amy. Amy, who missed texting more than most and still had this beautiful ability to wonder in her twenties. Amy, whose birthday is tomorrow.

Amy, Amy, Amy.

Your blood runs cold and your stomach drops so fast you might fall over as the older blonde’s bloody hands brush across your dead friend’s pale skin. 

“Don’t look.” Your guardian orders once he’s followed your gaze, but it’s too late.

Tears, burning hot and long coming, spill out of your eyes and down your cheeks. Daryl sighs and, because the attention isn’t on either of you, lets you curl into his chest, his hand rubbing down your back in an attempt at comforting you.

It’s useless, though. 

Andrea’s sobs filter through the air as a heavy silence overcomes the rest of the group, each and every one of them consumed with the weight of what they’ve lost.

──────────────────

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[oceandiagonale]

Offering some advice to Cidenam-Mango for making good OCs in response to that ask. I'm doing it this way both because he is more likely to see it this way and I enjoy sharing my creative processes with others.

I've been doing it for a couple of decades now and I have found a few tricks to making a good OC.

1) Canon Compliance is Good - Everyone is tempted to make their OC super special by breaking the rules and giving them a ton of stuff to make them super powerful, especially extra stuff from other series that are so cool, etc. It's the teething stage of character creation. Instead I find it more interesting to what sort of characters you can make while following the rules of the setting and canon. Restrictions breed creativity and you can find a surprising amount of space to play around with in most well made canons to still make good characters.

2) Personality, Not Powers - Again kind of tying back into the first part, this is another area early writers struggle with. They focus too much on the powers and not enough on the people who have those powers. See cheap cash in isekai protagonists #1-1000 who are all boring generic nice guys who all have "such totally cool amazing powers and they're so OP and it gets them all the fame and wealth and women they deserve" etc. Meanwhile Mumenrider from One Punch Man is one of the more beloved characters of the series despite being one of the weakest just due to how well his character is written. Sit down and ask yourself what kind of person your character is. Just imagine some mundane scenarios to put them in and how they would act and react. For example: Imagine they having an interview for a job. What sort of job would they go for, how would they answer the interview questions? Would they do a good job if they got it, and if they didn't how would they handle the rejection? Questions like these help you get a better handle on what sort of person you OC is, flaws and all. And yes, remember to include flaws and have their be consequences for those flaws, otherwise your character is going to feel very flat and artificial. Flaws are material to work with for stories and plot points so having a few gives you more to work with, something writers really appreciate.

3) Motivation Matters - What is the character's goal? What do they hope to accomplish, prevent, achieve, or obtain? It doesn't have to be static either; it's is allowed to change over time, either as a result of character growth or changing circumstances. They can also have more than one motivation at the same time, and circumstances that cause these to conflict can be compelling.

4) What if Thing, but X? - Now then perhaps my favorite thing to do when making an OC. The formula is pretty simple, take an idea and give it a twist. It doesn't have to be the main focus of the character. For example Night Crawler from X-Man is "Highly religious person/actual priest but looks like a demon". That doesn't change the fact that he is largely a wisecracking, swashbuckling, teleporting mutant superhero but it's an interesting detail. You can also use the same twist as other people but come at it from a different angle. For example both Spare and WIP/Cream can be summed up with "What if a legendary made a hero, but did it badly?" While Spare took that idea and was made a horror victim/monster, Cream was instead made into an overpowered rom-com protagonist. It also again helps with creativity as you take a thing others already know and change something about it to make it fresh again.

Anyway those are my 4 big tips for breathing some life into your OCs and making them sing.

@codename-mango some other folks’ thoughts!!

(I think for #1 of kriss’s point it also helps to define what you want to be canon - like how, in game canon, most people can’t talk to pokemon which makes N stand out, but I personally like the idea that some people can talk to them (at least somewhat) so I added that to my own lore for fun!

like, build yourself a little world and then see how far you can get within its rules!! (but also like, if you want to change something literally no one is stopping you -- I ascribed to the split mega/ non-mega timeline thing but now I kind of just ignore it because tpc has completely dropped megas from the games 😔))

[dwarvishring]

comforting is the word! To think back to the time an unexpected journey was released (and before) and then the rest of the trilogy is still something I hold so close to my heart. If you don't mind me asking which film from the trilogy is your favorite?

you wrote a simple question. forgive me for the long winded answer i’m about to give

the simple answer is i think auj is the best film out of all three, in terms of pacing and structure. it keeps the focus on the company, and bilbo actually feels like the main character. in my opinion, dos sidelined him for the white council + kili/tauriel/legolas + bard subplots, and 50% of botfa is a battle sequence. to be fair to those two movies, i understand auj was the movie that had what was closest to a decent planning stage, and out of the three movies it was the one less impacted when they made the switch from two to three films.

however, i recently watched the extended editions and botfa is a movie i really really enjoyed (the extended edition specifically as it includes key character moments that make the film feel more bilbo/company centric and has better pacing overall) and i think they handled the thorin/bilbo arc really beautifully.

i’ve said this before but while lotr is overall a darker story, it has a much more uplifting/hopeful ending, whilst the hobbit reads more like a tragedy. 

my personal interpreation about the movies is that they’re about home (i think most of us can agree on that). i think the key is that home isn’t ultimately a place, but people. bilbo is a person with a lovely house but no home. he’s got a comfortable hobbit hole on top of a beautiful hill, but friends and family are nowhere to be seen (family that he likes, mind you. sackville-bagginses don’t count). this is especially true if we considered the hobbit takes places not that long after bilbo’s parents, seemingly the family he was closest to, passed away. meanwhile thorin is a person with no house but with a home. he lost the place he lived in, but has family and friends that are extremely loyal to him. the company represents thorin’s literal family (kili & fili), his friends (dwalin, balin, etc) and just in general his people that he’s ultimately doing all this for.

at some point in the narrative both thorin and bilbo make the switch. bilbo is taken away from his house, and ends up becoming part of the company. they become his family and in a way become his home (this, i think, would’ve been made more clear had there been more focus on the company during dos and botfa), and thorin rids himself of his family (by being a dragon-sickness induced jackass) but wins back erebor (thorin’s house, devoid of anything but cold, hard gold)

because of the dragon sickness, thorin stops thinking of the company as his home the moment he starts doubting their loyalty. at this point he hangs onto bilbo (who is now part of the company) as the last thread of home, cause he’s convinced the hobbit woudn’t betray him. that’s the reason in the acorn scene and the mithril scene thorin has his few moments of lucidity when talking to bilbo. and the moment bilbo proves to be unloyal too is the moment where thorin truly loses himself and retreats away from everyone. the scene with dwalin highlights how alone he is by his own doing. only when he breaks free of the hold the dragon sickness had of him (by listening to the voices of the people he cares about) does he realize his house is worth next to nothing without the people, his home, inside of it.

bilbo leaves erebor only once thorin (the dwarf in the company bilbo has the strongest bond with and his biggest connection to the family the company had become) dies, and he goes back to an empty bag end where all the hobbits in bilbo’s old life are gleefylly auctioning his possessions off after a few months of him being gone instead of mourning him (like i said, if there were andy friends or family in bilbo’s life before the quest, they weren’t very good ones).

this is why to me these two moments in the film, while having wildly different contexts and happening at different points in their respective character arcs, mirror each other thematically. they’re both at their lowest point when they lose the home they had built but gained back the house they had been longing for.  i dont think at any point the concept of a house, bag end or erebor, is demonized either. just the concept of an empty house, with no people to call it a home. we know eventually 

and part of the tragedy, i think, is that it’s implied that bilbo, being at his lowest, finds comfort in the ring. he bounces from that low obviously, but i think it’s worth noting that when we see him again in lotr he has frodo, and gandalf, and to some extent his community, but even then he still seems to be missing something his home in the shire wasn’t able to provide even after all these years.

and i think botfa executes this theme wonderfully, and very effectively. i could go more in depth about thorin and bilbo’s relationship arc but this is the main reason i’ve gained such a big appreciation for botfa after watching it a few times. so while i think AUJ is a better film by virtue of being more carefully planned and executed, i usually enjoy them as unit and as a single narrative that i think starts and ends beautifully.