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g0nta-g0kuhara · 1 year ago

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The Chapter 4 Essay Part 1: Kokichi Ouma

A metapost on my thoughts on Kokichi’s overall motivations and Gonta’s actions during ch4. Split into two parts. You can find the Gonta half here: (LINK)

I think the way Kokichi acts when he’s telling the truth says something crucial about his personality. When he’s telling the genuine truth, his expression becomes carefully neutral.

(post trial, chapter 1)

To me, it feels like he’s trying very hard to keep this face of neutrality. Normally, he’s able to expertly express any emotion that he wants to. In these moments, its almost like the emotion he’s feeling is so overpowering that he’s trying to repress it in order to maintain control over the face he presents to everyone else, but isn’t quite able to do so.

Kokichi is very careful about keeping people from seeing the parts of himself that he doesn’t choose to show. His villain persona and constant lying is part of this- He wants to keep people away from him. During the events of the killing game, he uses the distance that he creates in many ways. Part of it was that not having many close alliances allowed him to go off and do whatever he wanted during daily life. This let him explore the school and investigate the truth of the killing game without interruption or much attention. Lying also gave him distance between the game and himself. Pretending that the killing game was fun might’ve been his way to cope with everything that was happening. I think Kokichi is really damn good at separating himself from his emotions, lying to himself to do what he thinks needs to be done. This line from Chapter 1 is pretty telling…

(post trial, chapter 1)

This was also something he says himself to Kaito in the exisal hanger during chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

I’m inclined to believe everything that Kokichi says to Kaito in the exisal hanger. As Kiibo says when Kaito questions it, “I think his dying words may have been the honest truth.” Knowing he was about the die, and that he absolutely needed Kaito’s help to get his plan to break the killing game to work- to achieve his genuine, true goal- I don’t see any reason for him to lie.

This emotional distance extends past just the killing game. I think it's a key part of how he interacts with others around him.

Kokichi is an ultimate leader. I think he uses his talent throughout the game in an attempt to “lead” everyone from the shadows. He wanted to stop the killing game and escape with as many people as possible. However, his methods are very ends-justify-the-means. I believe that he did genuinely care about everyone at the ultimate academy, but in the detached way a distant king might care about his subjects. On the other hand, if he had to use or sacrifice a few as pawns for the greater good, that is what had to be done. It’s not like it didn’t emotionally affect him, but I think he was deliberately trying to keep his distance so that it would not impact him as much, and so that he could continue trying to tear the killing game apart with as many tools in his arsenal as possible.

(post trial, chapter 5)

With this core motivation in mind, this brings us to Chapter 4.

In my opinion, the Killing Game Busters was never a plan that was meant to succeed. From an in-game perspective, the idea that he was originally going to follow this mercy kill plan doesn’t make sense to me. Firstly, Kokichi already had suspicions that they were being watched as early as chapter 3.

(post trial, chapter 3)

…and he later confirms that he was fully convinced of this fact when Monokuma agreed to reuse the chapter 4 motive in the virtual world.

(post trial, chapter 5)

He knew that this killing game was for somebody else’s entertainment. I’ll go a bit into the secret of the outside world in a moment, but considering this, I don’t think he ever fully believed in it. Choosing to mercy kill everyone, in the name of a “truth” that was incompatible with what he had discovered… just doesn’t make sense to me.

Not to mention, from a narrative standpoint, I think the idea that he was completely for this mercy kill plan, decided to throw out the plan mid-trial, and then start an entirely different plan to end the killing game in chapter 5, isn’t very compelling. It weakens Kokichi’s overall character by making his motivation less cohesive and making him seem less organized over all, which I think is one of his strengths as a character. A Kokichi that is this fickle with what he’s trying to do would not have been able to write the script for chapter 5.

I think he always had different goals in mind with the Killing Game Busters. The first was something that is made very clear in chapter 5, but started here in chapter 4: He wanted to stop the killing to give himself room to break the game while minimizing deaths. The second was to further villainize himself, for all the reasons I talked about above, and some more I will get into in a little bit.

Seeing the secret of the outside world was undoubtably disturbing, regardless of whether he believed it or not; there is a noticeable shift in how Kokichi acts before and after he swipes that card key. Combined with discovering that Miu, someone he’d been working with closely, was planning on murdering him, I believe that seeing the destruction of the outside world pushed him towards more drastic measures than what he had been doing in previous chapters. He decided that in order for his plan in chapter 5 to work (which he had almost certainly already been planning at this point, considering how elaborate it was), he needed to make everyone question if pursuing the truth was the right thing to do at all.

After Miu’s body discovery, nobody was really worried about losing this class trial. Everyone had seen how Shuichi had guided them all to the truth and caught the blackened three times in a row, despite the unique difficulties in each case. They had full confidence in his abilities.

(investigation, chapter 4)

Shuichi is also not really doubting his abilities as a detective anymore. One of Shuichi’s core internal conflicts is his fear of the consequences of revealing the truth. Up to this point, it seems like he’s been moving past it. Especially after catching Korekiyo “Actual Serial Killer” Shinguji, who had no regrets or grey motivation for his killings. Shuichi’s morale, and subsequently everyone else’s, was at an all time high. (Of course, he was starting to feel a lot of pressure to solve these cases and save everyone on his own… but that’s another issue. ily Shuichi)

If Kokichi could take the wind out of Shuichi’s sails, really destroy the confidence he had built up so far, he could set up his impossible trial in chapter 5 to be more likely to work as intended. Everyone will be less motivated to try and figure out what happened if they are uncertain that finding the truth would actually result in anything good.

And I do believe he was trying to knock Shuichi off balance specifically. Damaging his confidence is one thing, but he was also deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and Kaito. He antagonizes Kaito all chapter 4 investigation, including making up a nickname for Shuichi (“Shumai”) that directly riffs off Kaito’s closeness with Maki. He insists into the trial that he and Shuichi are partners now.

(class trial, chapter 4)

(Sidenote: Kokichi’s behaviour during trial 4 is genuinely really interesting to me. On top of the direct digs like this, he says a lot more subtle things to get under Kaito’s skin during trial 4 that I think are super neat to pay attention to.)

Theoretically, pushing Kaito away from Shuichi, combined with the powerlessness he’ll feel in the wake of the truth of both trial 4 and the outside world, could make him easier to convince to join Kokichi’s “side”. He even directly asks Shuichi to team up with him before leaving the virtual world:

(daily life, Chapter 4)

This leads me to believe that Shuichi was originally the one that Kokichi intended to use to build his impossible trial. I mean, if Shuichi was the one in the exisal hanger and presumed dead instead of Kaito, the chances of everyone else solving that mystery drops Significantly. Everyone else, aside from maybe Kiibo, was 100% convinced that Kokichi was the mastermind at that point. No one except Shuichi would’ve tried to dig as deep as he did, for better or for worse. I think this idea is supported by the note that Kokichi wrote next to Shuichi’s face on the whiteboard in his room (“trustworthy?”). He was clearly considering Shuichi as a person for one reason or another, and I believe this is it.

By condemning Gonta, who everyone else perceived as a kind soul who would never hurt anybody, someone who was struggling to understand what the virtual world even was with his amnesia, would be perceived by the others as kicking someone when they were down. Gonta has an absolutely miserable time through the accusations and wholly blames himself for how things turned out in the end. That, and Gonta’s actions were even well-intentioned. The secret of the outside world was apparently so horrible, Gonta thought it would be kinder to mercy kill everyone rather than force them to face it. This result would make everyone question if the truth was really as undoubtably good as they had come to think so far; Not only did Gonta suffer because they had to find the truth, but seeking the secret of the outside world would apparently also only lead to suffering. This would make them hesitate during Kokichi’s impossible trial.

(class trial, chapter 4)

As I said before, Kokichi’s second goal for trial 4 was villainizing himself even further. He says that this was a goal himself to Kaito in chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

Part of this villainization was just adding to the persona he had already created for himself and that I already talked about his motivations for before. The other part was what he says here. He specifically wanted everyone to think that he was the mastermind. This gave him leverage in two main ways. First, making himself appear to be the mastermind with an actual mastermind as hands off as Tsumugi genuinely gave him power over everyone else. He used this in chapter 5 to put a pause to the killings and give himself more room to enact his plan to break the killing game from the inside.

(daily life, chapter 5)

Although he then says “You guys can commit suicide together or kill each other… / Or, you can change your mind and stay here! You’re welcome to do that too!”, having experienced the secret of the outside world already, I think he’s pretty confident in what they will be feeling in this moment. No one is going to kill each other, and he knows that. He wants them to take that second option for the time being while he sets up his plot.

Making himself appear like the mastermind also benefited his impossible trial plan directly. Everyone would be much more likely to vote for someone they were convinced was the mastermind rather than one of their friends. No one would suspect that it was really him that was the victim.

“Using Gonta and making him into a murderer” was a significant part of how he villainized himself, but the way he treated Gonta during this whole experience was also a major factor. Starting as early as just after Miu was killed, he begins to be really aggressively mean to Gonta. He just straight up bullies him throughout the second half of the trial.

(daily life, chapter 4)

(class trial, chapter 4)

And then, after all this, he acts remorseful and sides himself with Gonta at the very end. It isn't genuine emotion like he felt before Kaede's execution, shown by his neutral expression. To me, this uncharacteristically open expression of grief feels like it was just set up to exacerbate the impact of his cruelty after Gonta’s execution. At this point, everybody’s little faith in Kokichi has been shaken significantly. With the shock of the trial, maybe you Could start to believe they were on the same side, as a team. Then, at the reveal of the extent of Kokichi’s manipulation, that is all ripped painfully away again.

(post trial, chapter 4)

Even if these parts of trial 4 make my stomach turn, I don’t want to imply that Kokichi is completely cold-hearted and unfeeling. Actually, I think there were multiple moments in chapter 4 that show him struggling to regulate his emotions and keep face around everyone else while he enacted this plan.

1: I don’t think Kokichi initially planned to make the reveal that Gonta was the killer as dramatic (or frankly, a bit traumatic) as it ended up being. He had been carrying himself a certain way during the first half of the trial, and I think Shuichi lying to his face in front of everyone about Kokichi’s own alibi dramatically changed his attitude. I mean, Shuichi lied (as he had done almost every trial and gotten 0 flack for) and Tsumugi even called him out on it, but everyone believed him over Kokichi anyways. So when Kokichi lies, it’s completely inexcusable, even though he’s been working tirelessly on his own trying to save everyone?* But when SHUICHI lies, and gets caught in it, people go along with him? They don’t doubt their trust in him for even a second? This double standard infuriated him. It’s at this point that he completely shifts in energy. If Shuichi, no, everyone, is going to disrespect him like this, he was going to make them suffer for it.

(class trial, chapter 4)

2: Kokichi only goes full villain after Kaito says “Kokichi, If you really cared for Gonta, explain yourself to everyone” in the post trial. I think that even though he was always going to paint himself as the villain, he was legitimately affected by the things that had just happened (Gonta’s death, Miu’s attempted murder, the secret of the outside world, even if he knew it wasn’t real) and what he’d just done. Even if he was trying hard not to be. The sudden shift he has from not saying anything to cackling about how little he cared about Gonta feels to me like he was kicking himself back into gear after trying to process some genuinely difficult emotions. 3: After Kokichi punches Kaito down, and everyone completely ignores him in favour of helping Kaito up, Shuichi says these iconic words to Kokichi: “Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. / You’re alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.” Kokichi responds like this:

(Post-trial, chapter 4)

There’s something about the way he cuts himself off, pauses, and then his mask falls. I think Shuichi’s words got to him more than he wanted them to. Honestly, Kokichi’s attitude towards cooperation, keeping everyone at arm’s length, and insisting (to himself) that he (as a leader) must fix the killing game completely on his own just seems so lonely to me. Even if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself and get everyone to hate him, being so viscerally cut into like this must have hurt. Especially from someone he was trying to work to get onto his side. It’s no wonder he quickly left after this moment.

This is what I think drove Kokichi in chapter 4. He’s a leader who wants to “lead” his classmates into safety, but he isn’t afraid to use underhanded, cruel tactics if he thinks it will get him ahead in the game for the greater good. He viscerally represses his emotions in order to keep himself going and keep everyone else away from him. He tried to destroy Shuichi’s confidence and drive a wedge between him and Kaito to get him on his side for his plan. He used and made Gonta into a murderer to villainize himself and discourage everyone else from seeking the truth.

Whenever I imagine Kokichi on his own, out of the spotlight of the Audience or the eyes of his castmates, he’s never as expressive as he is in the open. I think in reality, Kokichi is a pretty depressed and lonely person. His clownish personality isn’t entirely a facade, and outside of a killing game scenario, I think he would act pretty similarly to how he does in game. But I do think that he uses it as a mask for his true emotions. While I feel like the “evil villain” persona is a genuine part of Kokichi’s personality, outside of the killing game he probably doesn’t act on it as deeply as he does in-game. I also think Kokichi struggles with letting people become close to him, even without anything on the line. The killing game just caused him to lean into these aspects of his personality hard, and in potentially the worst ways.

*I feel like here it’s important to mention that personally, I still think the collateral damage he caused in his attempts to stop the killing game matters. A lot. I don’t think he should be excused for the things he did, even if he had good intentions. This makes him a really interesting, morally grey character, and I like that about him. EDIT: I can't believe I have to add this, but please do not use this essay as ammunition for harassing people who ship ougoku… I don't agree with doing that at all. I hope I made it clear that I find Kokichi to be a complex character whose mistreatment of Gonta was never targeted, and more just an aspect how how he isolated himself and how he manipulated others to end the killing game, even if it caused suffering to them in the moment. Kokichi cares about everyone in the ultimate academy, in his own weird, detached way. He's not completely heartless nor is he an abusive monster. And even if none of that was the case, it's never an excuse to harass people for disagreeing with you. Please be cool!! Thanks <3

#kokichi ouma #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #ouma kokichi #kokichi oma #oma kokichi #drv3 spoilers #meta post #long post #(Sorry- I'm not putting this under a readmore because in the case where I change my username or deactivate #I still want this post to be readable)#id in alt text #Caveat that this interpretation is entirely based on the english localization #which I still think is valid #Part 2 coming in literally a couple minutes- just need to read over it one more time and add tags #shut up me

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rmwb-fanfics · 2 years ago

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How to remake Harry Potter:

(A step by step guide)

We’ve already had one god-awful adaptation that way too many people think is good. This is our one chance to have the book characters represented correctly, along with the plot they support.

I’ve put YEARS of thought into this. I’ve written scripts for episodes of a hypothetical tv show. I’ve drawn concept art. I’ve done shit. So I figured I’d share my thoughts.

1. Stick to the books*.

Stick to the books has a massive asterisk next to it because I mean the plot and characters. Some stuff (as you’ll see later) should be changed.

Nothing in this show should feel out of character. Harry should be closer with Ron than he is to Hermione. Snape should be a real d*ckhead. Hermione should be judgmental of those who don’t think like her, etc etc. The way these characters navigate their relationships is why the fandom is still relevant. It’s why canon-compliant fic is popular in the first place. We like their dynamics. SHOW THEM APPROPRIATELY.

Plot is a sticky thing because I’d say there’s wiggle room, but not too much. Certain characters have to die. Certain events must happen. You cant change that stuff.

2. Use the Medium.

You’re using film as a format to tell your story. Ideally you’d us animation, but I know Warner Bros has less creativity than Disney’s remake department, so I won’t even try and pitch that.

Use colour and saturation. It can help contextualize emotion. It can make us subconsciously recognize things. For instance, the scene growing more saturated when Ron walks into the room when Hermione is wearing the horcrux, or any multitude of other uses this could bring.

Bring in costume design that (actually fits the world) but also helps show how that character is feeling. What they’re thinking, their personality, their future, etc.

Make magic fun™️. The books sort of sidelined magic in 5-7. Don’t do that. Divert from the books. Magic should feel alive. Colour-code them so we as an audience can recognize spells and what they might do before we see it. Implement sound design to make each spell unique and vibrant. Make this world subtly bursting with magic like it was in the first few books. Have it weave around characters, wrap them up. Be creative with action scenes. Force transfiguration into battle scenes. Choreograph your duels. Show don’t tell us that a wizard/witch is powerful. Turn people into portraits. Lock them up as mice. USE MAGIC.

Your set design should reflect this. Everything should be bursting with personality. Don’t just use the shitty movie sets. Inject some colour, have the surroundings aid you in telling the story. Get weird with the camera. Use these tools to their fullest potential.

Actually fucking try.

3. Utilize Music.

Music is just… such a massive part of film. It’s frustrating how often even the best filmmakers overlook its use. Characters should have themes that mature and develop as the series goes on. Have action arrangements of the themes to play with heroic moments. As the series progresses, we grow attached to these themes. When they appear, the audience FEELS something. Don’t reuse great pieces to force emotion. (Dumbledore’s Farewell in The Prince’s Tale. Are you fucking kidding me?)

For example: Have a theme for Neville that starts out timid and uses very shy instrumentals, but we first hear a change when he stands up to the trio at the end of PS. Then it gains more instruments until OotP, when it grows again. Once we get to DH, it can be used in this heroic swell as he chops the head off the snake in front of Voldemort and everyone watching. The audience, consciously or not, will feel that moment even more.

Have a theme for Ron and Hermione that might not even be romantic until HBP when it gains that element. PLAY WITH MUSIC.

Themes for mystery, adventure, loss, love, friendship, LOCATION. Let them come back throughout the series to highlight various moments. See Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games, as well as (surprisingly) the Fantastic Beasts films.

Let music affect the visuals. Magic can bend and swivel with the music. Use it to tell the story. Use it to show emotion. Use it to progress a character’s arc. USE CONSISTENT MUSIC.

4 . Be Bold.

This is the big one and it may seem like I’m contradicting myself but I’m not. Rowling’s work hasn’t aged crazily well to modern fiction standards. This is your chance to rectify that. Fill plot holes, actually think through the politics. Introduce world-building elements that enhance the story/characters. (The house system, and how Slytherin fits in. The logic behind avada kedavra???) Get creative with solutions. Contradict the original work when it comes to description of location. If it doesn’t work for the film format, don’t force it to work here.

Spend more time with characters we know are relevant, but maybe not to the plot. These are your Ginny Weasleys, your Seamus and Deans, Nevilles, etc. Really fill them in. Give them more scenes. Ginny has two phenomenal arcs that play completely off-screen, explore them. Show us her friendship with Hermione. Show us her insecurities and her faults. Give us more of her and Harry’s friendship. We know they get married, so maybe fix the whole “Rowling wrote the epilogue first, but didn’t realize she was waiting too long to introduce these characters until HBP”.

Add scenes. Add jokes. Add smiles and covert looks. You have more time, which means you have a chance to focus on friendships, and romance, and world building.

Tell multiple storylines. Give Remus and Tonks a cool spy/thriller subplot interjected with the main story in OotP. Show us more of Fleur staying in England. Give us more of Harry and Sirius bonding. All of this stuff can fit loosely into canon, and be welcome creative additions.

BE BOLD.

And finally,

5. This is your chance to not only retell the story, but to do it better.

RECOGNIZE THIS. Take advantage of this opportunity and enhance canon, don’t fight it.

Don’t add Hermione and Harry dancing because *YOU* don’t like where the romantic pairings went. Don’t add Draco sympathy because you want him to have a redemption arc. Don’t dumb Ron down because you don’t like the fact that he’s just like the teenage boys you dated in High School, and he was a bit immature.

Make changes, be bold, use music, stick to the books*, use the medium, but take this as the opportunity that it is to enhance what came before.

Thank you.

#harry potter #harry potter remake #j.k. rowling #ginny weasley #ron weasley #hermione granger #draco malfoy #neville longbottom #albus dumbledore #hire me #remus lupin #Sirius black #remadora #romione #hinny #marauders

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glade-constellation · 1 year ago

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“We’re going to literally spell out why the bad guy is bad, and how to help them, but do nothing about it because they are Bad Guy™️ and bad guys can’t change.”

The current running theme for every single fucking villain in TSAMS. A running theme I viscerally hate with my entire being. I think KC was the only one to escape this, but even then they just killed him off later.

For a show that seems to want to handle sensitive and heavy topics, they sure as hell never handle them well. Listen, if a majority of your audience is young teens, you need to be careful with the story you tell and what might be taken from it. TSAMS is teaching its audience that bad people will never change.

That’s just not true. At all.

Often people who act out do so because of past trauma. Trauma can be healed with time and therapy. Yes, it’s difficult, especially when the person says they don’t want to heal. But you can do it. Did you know that rejecting help can be a subconscious survival tactic? It doesn’t instantly mean that the person wants to be bad, or wants to stay bad. They are simply living in survival mode, and their brain thinks the way they currently act is the only way to survive.

Just because Bloodmoon says they can’t be helped doesn’t mean it’s true. And it definitely doesn’t mean they immediately deserve death. Yes, they have done terrible things, but nearly everything they’ve done has been ordered of them by another person. That, or their coding. The coding may be a harder thing to fix, but listen. Look at your current cast. You can’t tell me Moon and Solar couldn’t work together to fix it. Or Earth couldn’t help them with therapy and they’d eventually turn to killing just animals. There are so many ways Bloodmoon could be helped, but no. Just no. They don’t want to be helped, so we won’t go out of our way to try.

It’s just so unbelievably frustrating that several fans have pointed this out and the show doesn’t seem to care. Bloodmoon has room to be redeemed, even now, but the show doesn’t want that. They seem to be stuck on this idea the Bloodmoon can’t be redeemed.

And it’s not like this is a new theme they’re trying to tell for the story. No, this has been around since Eclipse. Yes, Sun and Moon did try to help Eclipse in the beginning, but help is a strong word. It was more like they tried to bargain with him. No one actually tried to help. And the moment the bargaining didn’t work, they just dubbed him the villain and turned against him. In the end, Eclipse tried to help. It was pretty terribly done, yeah. But he was trying. He even gave up his one piece of power and told Moon he could send him anywhere in the multiverse. But no, the only way out was through death. I get that Eclipse did a lot of terrible things. I get that a large majority of the cast had their own trauma because of Eclipse. But he could have been helped. We have seen moments where he wanted help, but would immediately turn back to his survival tactics. Eclipse was bad, but he didn’t have to die.

Anyways, they already taught the “villains always bad” story with Eclipse. They don’t need to retell it with Bloodmoon. That’s just reusing old parts of the story.

The only reason I don’t bring Ruin up is because Ruin was different from all the others. There wasn’t anything that made him a villain besides the fact that he was a virus. There was no “sad backstory”. He just was evil. That is how you write a villain you want your audience to love but still want to kill off in the end. Ruin was fun to watch, and a great villain, and I wasn’t mad when they got rid of the virus. I was attached but not at the emotional level as I am with Eclipse, KC, and Bloodmoon. He had no backstory to make me want him to live. I love a villain that is enjoyable to watch but don’t mind when they’re gone. That is how you write a good villain you don’t want people to riot about afterwards.

This has just turned into me ranting about storytelling and character analysis, but honestly. TSAMS. Do better. A good portion of your fan base is screaming for a Bloodmoon redemption. Why are you pushing so hard for people to hate them? You’ve already told the plot line you’re currently trying to sell. What is the point of just upsetting your fans?

#🌟 Ten Talks #tsams #sams #the sun and moon show #sun and moon show #tsams bloodmoon #tsams eclipse #tsams killcode #tsams ruin #long post #not super long but long enough

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fullofgutsndopamine · 5 months ago

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all the earth around me (around you)

or: a drunk confession

tw: drinking

part of wcbah universe. not required reading, but you might enjoy it if you liked this.

charlie doesn’t drink.

this is a known fact, one of the first things you’ve learned about him.

he’ll say it’s too damn expensive to drink, or it all tastes like bread water anyways, while the truth is covered in the corner: he’s seen what alcohol can do, how it can turn you into someone you aren’t, betraying yourself.

So when charlie comes over as your outside, getting clothing down from the clothesline, a storm brewing on the horizon you aren’t sure what to expect.

“charlie?” you can’t hide the smile when you see him, “what’s up?”

and like, you didn’t expect to see him, but it’s always a pleasant surprise, a face you don’t mind seeing finally, someone you can hang up the responsibilities of the world at the door and just be yourself with-

his voice is low, “I have a surprise for us.”

his hands are tucked behind his back and he still has a towel tucked into the front of his pants, was obviously doing chores before he raced over. it made sense; you had heard his fathers old beat up truck slowly, painstakingly, turn out of the gravel driveway, chug and groan down the street-it was finally safe.

“oh?” you tease, “I hope it’s chocolate.”

and you’re laughing, because like-that’s such a rare occurrence and such a small thing, but when you’re burning overdue bills and notices to keep warm last winter the little things get overlooked.

“better, sweetheart.” his eyes are shining, the smirk pulling at his lips, “i’ll go get set up inside?”

it’s a question, not a statement, and you’re nodding, he’s laughing at you as you crane your neck to see what’s behind his back but he doesn’t loosen the grip, doesn’t try and stop you.

instead, he takes a step forward, his hand cups the back of your head as he gently brings it to you, kisses your forehead and he finishes by walking backwards into the house, narrowingly missing running into the wall.

and as your fingers go to your forehead where he kissed, where it still lingers and feels like static, and you remind yourself: this is friends. just friends. this is what they do when they’re forced to survive.

by the time you’re inside, charlie has two small plastic cups on the dining room table.

they’re reused and rewashed from the gas station but it doesn’t make a much a difference when you see the bottle on the table.

“thought you didn’t like that stuff.”

he shrugs, takes the dark bottle in his hands and rolls it around. it’s half gone, his fathers favorite bottle, but charlie will insist he won’t notice it, that it won’t be missed.

“It’s different with you,” he’ll say gently, like he knows the weight of it, says if with a shrug to try and hold the weight down, “safe with you, yknow? Nothing bad will happen when i’m with you.”

he shrugs: “you don’t have to, i just thought-“

and you aren’t going to be the reason he doesn’t drink. even if he’s been around it forever and has stayed away from it. if he wants one good night who are you to deny him it? and besides, maybe he’ll get some sleep finally.

“Pour me one too,” you say, opening a cabinet in the kitchen, “i’ll get us a snack.”

and he’s grinning now, standing and pouring the amber liquid into the bottles slowly, can hear the sound as it hits the bottom and slowly doubles in side.

you’re at his side, pulling into a seat as he hands you a cup.

“To us.”

he says, his eyes dark, biting his lip before you clink sides of a plastic cup with him:

“To us.”

you repeat back, throwing it back

the problem is, you’ll say later, is it tastes so bad you keep thinking one more drink will make it better.

you’re nearing the third cup, face bright red and charlie’s shirt sleeves rolled up, hiccups between the two of you.

“charlie,” you hiccup, “Shh. I-I gotta tell you somethin’.”

and you’re both giggling, he’s reaching over to tangle his fingers into yours, trying to move hair out of your face but failing, doubles of you.

“Go ahead.”

“I love you.” you’re giggling.

and he’s laughing.

this is something you two say all the time, after all. in passing, in letters.

he rolls his eyes, “honey-“

“no, no.” you huff, eyebrows one, “like. actually love you. like, can’t see you with anyone else-“ a pause for a hiccup

and this is wrong.

charlie realized this as soon as it leaves your lip. not how he wants your first meangiful i love you to go, wants you to remember it, not be under the influence of cheap alcohol.

it’s after he’s done dancing with you, no music playing but he hums a song he’s been working on forever, drawing you close to his chest as you two dance around the creaking floor boards, the house moans and groans in protest against you two as he spins you around again and again

“charlie-“

“Shh.”

charlie feels sober suddenly, like someone dropped cold water over his head.

“Cmon,” he puts the lid on the alcohol bottle, not much left anyways, stands and takes your hand: “let’s call it a night.”

you huff, pause for a second before your voice comes back lighter, suddenly the scared kid he remembers growing up with:

“you’re staying, right? keep the monsters at bay?”

and you’re too old for this. for him to stay the night, to believe in monsters of that he’d keep you save from them, but he takes your hand and tangled his fingers into yours, leads you up the stairs-let’s you out your weight on him as he guides you to your room, closes the door gently and helps you out of the old dress that’s two sizes too big that you’re constantly sewing up, let’s you rest against him as he goes through your closet, tries to ignore that all your pajama tops are his old shirts, still smell like him and are ripped and worn with age and their own stories-

when you’re dressed he slides you into bed, undoes his own jeans and crawls in next to you, you’re immediately curling into him, both ignoring how his feet hang off the edge of the bed, far too tall but doomed to live a life of twin sized mattress forever.

“alright, honey.” the pad of his thumb draws constellations across your arm, “close your eyes. i’ll take first watch. you’re safe.”

and it isn’t until you’re snoring, when he’s sure you’re fast asleep and won’t remember this that he pressed his lips against your forehead and speaks:

“i love you too.”

#caroline writes #wcbah lore #wcbah #charlie slimecicile #charlie slimecicle x you #charlie slimesicle x reader #charlie slimesicle fanart #slimecicle x y/n #slimecicle x you #charlie slimecicle x reader #slimecicle fic #slimecicle imagine #slimecicle x reader #charlie slimecicle #slimecicle

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witch-of-illusions · 15 days ago

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Lately it was translated in English a light novel from 2007 called ''Kuradashi-hen'' with content that Ryukishi wrote originally for the VN but then it was discarded/changed. The parts I found more interesting: • Satoshi's original personality was ''cool'' and ''down-to-earth'', he was supposed to be a transfer student from Hinamizawa school to Okinomiya Middle School, in the same class as Shion, that should have been their first meeting; he also would have known since the start her true identity. I actually don't really like his ''original'' personality, I prefer how Ryukishi changed it, it also fits more Satoko and Rika's description of him back to Tatarigoroshi! ''What's more note worthy is Satoshi's characterization. …What can I say…? This cool and down-to earth Satoshi who'd interrupt to say "shut up Shion" is completely different from the Satoshi we have today. I think I'd like to salvage this rejected version of Satoshi and reuse him in a future work. This Satoshi might make a rather nice Satoshi. Even this type of Satoshi would get Shion's heart racing. (bitter smile)'' I also prefer how they met in the version we know 💝 But I like that here Satoshi has knows Shion's true identity since the start. It's also written ''First off, Shion isn't at St. Lucia Academy. She's attending a school in Okinomiya here'' so I'm not sure if it means that Shion originally wasn't supposed to be sent to that school but just kept secretly in Okinomiya (because Satoshi had no clue about Shion's existence until their meeting here)...? • Originally, when Oiishi tells Shion about Satoshi's disappeareance, she was already supposed to have ''homicidal' thoughts toward the people she thought were behind it ''This Fragment is from a scene at the police station, where Ooishi is breaking the news about Satoshi's disappearance. Her beloved going missing has caused Shion's world to collapse, and little by little she seems to slip into a vivid psychological coma. In the main story, there's a scene where Kimiyoshi says something like 'That Houjou brat deserved to be cursed…' that leads to a similar collapse. I recall wanting to make a large impact around that part of the story, so I decided it was too early to have a development like this, and cut it back.'' I think it was better it was changed because I think it was too early for Shion to have such thoughts and it makes more sense for them to act like when she's going L5 later in the story, considering how they are descripted. • Shion originally was supposed to not commit suicide in Tatarigoroshi's ending and to help Keiichi's to recover: I actually already made already a post about this some times ago I guess Ryukishi wanted Tatarigoroshi to have a more tragic ending, as the arc itself wasn't already tragic enough, so...but considering how hard it would have been for them to go on with the awareness they lost almost of all their beloved ones, maybe it was better that way. • In Minagoroshi the player was supposed to choose if to make Rika to suggest to Keiichi who to give the doll or just to watch. If you would have chosed the second option, he would have given it to Rena and it would have led to a Watanagashi/Meakashi bad ending. Even though Shion's is Satoko's nee-nee there, I wonder if she would have still killed her too or spared her instead? I read that in the console version it was still included the fact you could choose but not matter what you choose, Keiichi will still give the doll to Mion; actually, if you choose to make Rika to try to talk to Keiichi before he makes the decision, he kind of says he already knows what to do. I honestly prefer it was changed, Keiichi giving the doll of Mion on his own, not because Rika tells him to do so, it's really meaningful.

• In Minagoroshi originally Teppei wasn't supposed to be arrested immediately, but somehow he would have been able to escape to Okinomiya. Of course the club doesn't give up on him. "We saved Satoko. …But from here on it's different. We'll make sure he gets what he deserves for forcing all that hard work on Satoko. Let's teach him the high price of messing with our friend." Along with the Sonozaki family and Akasaka, they are able to catch and to deal with him. "…So you're that scumbag Teppei? We meet at last." "Who the hell are you?!" "I've come to pay you back for doing such a fantastic job with Satoko!!" I would have liked to see the club dealing directly with him, but I think that for Akasaka, it's better to have his moment in Matsuribayashi.

''Rika-chan...I came to save you.''

#higurashi #higurashi no naku koro ni

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canmom · 1 year ago

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Animation Night 169: Sex. 2.

So. Storytime.

Two years ago, we had a joke. "We should totally show some hentai on Animation Night 69." we said. Having said that, we were honour-bound to totally commit to the bit. Teaming up with @mogsk, I wrote a massive post on sexuality in animation and the history of 'hentai', from the hentai seiyoku discussed in 20th-century sexology journals to the modern subcultural kaleidoscope.

It is, genuinely, one of my favourite posts I ever wrote in this project. It's definitely not perfect - the sections on BL and the lolicon boom are especially weak, but still! There's no way I'm beating that.

Mogs, meanwhile assembled a perfectly pitched playlist of animation dealing with the theme of sexuality, from classic oldschool BL like Kaze to Ki no Uta to charming little comedies like Oruchuban Ebichu, and a scattering of actual h-anime like Weather Report Girl. For my part, I led with the genuinely classic film Kanashimi no Belladonna (Belladonna of Sadness).

So somehow - somehow! - we managed to make the idea of getting together with your online friends to watch a bunch of anime about sex just... plain fun and uplifting, to the point that @footsteps-on-the-dance-floor will tell me years later how much she enjoyed it. Not to mention, we got a pretty good cross-section of the different dimensions of sexuality in animation as well!

I didn't even get banned on Twitch.

This week, the counter has drawn the sex number. So can we do it again? Well, my friends, we're gonna try~ Tonight, @mogsk and canmom present: the long-awaited sequel to sex. Sex, 2.

This time we're narrowing our focus a bit. One of the distinctive elements of eromanga, by the analysis of Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga, is how particular images get encoded as signs that can be reused by other mangaka, and these signs can become the seed for particular subgenres. So, our selection tonight is in part designed to give a brief cross-section of some of these visual tropes.

So let me introduce you to our program. CWs: sex, obviously; also a couple of these films (Cleopatra, Parade Parade) cw for rape. Here's the programme, read on for brief descriptions of each item and a lil cultural context~!

Cleopatra (1970) - oldschool Tezuka weirdness

Boku no Sexual Harassment (1994-5) - 90s salaryman BL

Interspecies Reviewers (2020) - monstergirl sex comedy, and an instance of the trend of recent cable TV h-anime

Agent Aika (1997-9) - panty shots to the most ludicrous degree

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (2015) - ONA comedy framed as fetish education

Parade Parade (1996) - futanari + yuri

Golden Boy (1995-6) - 90s sakuga and a classic comedy

Queen's Blade (2009) - kyonyuu

Colorful (1999) - panty-centric comedy skits

after that: if you still have energy, I might take requests~

[n.b. a lot of these are TV series - we will only really be getting a 1-2 episode sample of each one, for runtime's sake.]

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ), 1970

Last time we led with certified classic, genuinely moving and good as hell film Belladonna of Sadness. This was part of a last gambit by the struggling Mushi Productions, the studio of Osamu Tezuka, credited with inventing TV anime back in the day with Astro Boy. Long before there would be such a thing as an h-anime subculture, Tezuka experimented with creating erotic animated films based on history and mythology.

Belladonna is the best remembered of the three, and with good reason. Tezuka was largely not involved by this point. The others, though... are some plain fucking weird movies, I'll tell you that much. So tonight we'll be watching Cleopatra (1970). I may have shown you the trailer before - this is the Caesar trampoline movie. That is only the beginning.

I recently finished reading Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako, written in 1972-1973 - not long after this movie, actually, during Tezuka's gekiga phase. I'm sure it's common knowledge by now, but Tezuka was one horny old guy! Ayako has all manner of skulduggery: incest, murder, gangster stuff, more murder, etc., but the core story is about a girl who is imprisoned in an underground cell for 20-some years by the machinations of her family. As she grows up, she ends up in an incestuous relationship with her protective brother - and once she finally escapes, she is highly agoraphobic but also throws herself at nearly every man she meets.

It's very much a story of the sins of the past echoing down into the future, shot though with post-war history and gangster movies, but its central fixation is the figure of Ayako herself: the soft cloistered object of obsession and attraction. Whether they want to protect Ayako, seek absolution from her, fuck her, or exploit her.

But it's also in places a really wacky manga, with a lot of very comical contrivances or hyper-cartoonish panels with extreme squash and stretch. It's a completely different way of displaying action.

I think this gives me a sense of the sort of wavelength Tezuka was on when he draws a scene where Cleopatra is tied down by stakes and a bunch of guys line up to rape her while she shouts at them defiantly. It's all very theatrical, a huge contrast to the much more internally oriented Belladonna. Just a plain strange movie, but it's one I've been fascinated to watch for ages.

Whatever we make of Cleopatra, we'll jump into the program that Mogs drew up! Once again she's come through magnificently.

My Sexual Harassment (僕のセクシャルハラスメント), 1995-6

Our next act is some old school yaoi! One day I'll get to do that big effortpost on the history of BL, but not this day. In any case, Boku no Sexual Harassment is an OVA from the mid 90s about a young man called Junya Mochizuki trying to fuck his way up the company ranks for the sake of himself and his partner Kazunori Honma. In particular, he has an affair with his boss, Mr. Honma, running across the whole OVA.

This is perhaps best known for an infamous scene involving corn. It's here as a window into this period of BL - not quite as high-mindedly aesthetic as its 80s predecessors, and with its erotic focus being on like... 90s salarymen, which is quite a specific thing!

Interspecies Reviewers (異種族レビュアーズ), 2020

Next, a series which has the dubious distinction of proving too steamy for Crunchyroll. Interspecies Reviewers enters the general milieu of modern videogame-inflected fantasy anime, a comedy dancing along the line of whether it's too overtly porn to air on TV. The story tells of a group of fantasy characters who are the clients of monstergirl sex workers, hoping to encounter as many different species as possible. This is a frame device for a series of episodes focused around what it would be like to have sex with various kinds of monstergirl.

This is an example of a recent trend in TV anime, namely very overtly sexual cable TV anime such as High School DxD, which have in a way come to fill the gap left by OVAs. This is a niche that also includes the likes of Goblin Slayer and Redo of Healer. In contrast to those series' "big grimdark plot with a side of rape" approach, Reviewers is light-hearted fantasy sex comedy mixed with (if you live in China) a certain amount of actual porn, which fansubbers have kindly spliced back in to the censored release for us.

Agent Aika (AIKa), 1997-9

The panty shot is one of the more popular visual tropes in eromanga, to the point that Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga dedicates a whole two page spread to the history of the trope. (Surprisingly, I can't find any more substantial account in Kimi Rito's History of Hentai Manga).

You'll see it often enough in anime, overtly or subtly, and certainly in the early works of Katsuhiko Nishijima, who debuted in 1986 with Project A-ko, a classic Kanada-inflected OVA that still bears signs of its hentai roots. But there is nothing that takes the panty shot to the same extreme as Agent Aika (1997). The degree to which the camera in this action anime contrives to show panties at a machinegun rate... it crosses over into a level where it feels less like outright fetish material and more like experimental art.

This is a series that is only coherent through the erotic focus. And yet, it's not generally categorised as porn. Nobody actually fucks. Lines are very arbitrary...

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (アニメで分かる心療内科), 2015

This ONA adapts a gag manga series themed around the idea of an education series on fetishes, paraphilias, and so on - not so different in concept from Peepoodoo and the Super Fuck Friends, from the sound of it! The ONA is produced by Shin-Ei Animation, a venerable studio known for beloved characters like Doraemon; it's a bunch of five minute bite-sized chunks which I plan to sprinkle in between the other stuff we watch as a palate cleanser.

Parade Parade (パレードパレード), 1996

Having warmed you up sufficiently, this is the point in the evening where we pull out the futa porn.

Parade Parade is an OVA by the studio Pink Pineapple, one of the giants of the 90s erotic OVA scene - I wrote about them a bit last time. It's a relatively "tasteful" example of the futanari (二形) trope, literally 'two forms', referring to basically a character with a mostly cis woman-typical body except for a penis (generally in addition to a vulva), which she will typically use in penetrative sex. This is typically represented as either the result of magic, an intersex condition, or just a fantasy world where it's not unusual.

Depending on your subcultural corner, this might be further distinguished from other niche variants of dickgirl (e.g. a futa must have both sets of genitals).

In anime and manga, the futa trope apparently traces back to the introduction of American trans porn magazines to Japan, inspiring mangaka such as Kitamimaki Kei to start drawing futanari characters. Futanari manga first spread through dōjinshi in the 80s, and became popular in eromanga in the 90s, before circling back to the West. So actually yeah I guess this one is on us trans girls! I always assumed it was like, an independent invention. The more you know...

Here we have succesful idol Kaori, who's secretly intersex - and only her girlfriend Yuko knows. She's very careful to let nobody know, for the sake of her career, but a rival lesbian idol is about to find out...

Golden Boy (1995-6)

youtube

Now here is a true classic.

Golden Boy is a comedy series about a wanderer named Kintaro, who dropped out of uni to travel around Japan getting into sexual escapades. Each episode, he runs into someone and hopefully falls for them while coming across as an idiot pervert, but gradually reveals that he's actually a decent and resourceful guy - and yet, having found love, there will always be a reason he must move on. A setup to hang all sorts of plots, carried by some honestly unreasonably impressive animation from the realist school, most notably Mitsuo Iso. It's just... very very well done.

The above clip did the rounds on here a while ago (I think maybe the dubbed version), and we will indeed be watching episode 4 to put that in context.

Queen's Blade (2009)

So this is a studio ARMS OVA - the guys who did stuff like Mezzo Forte with Yasuomi Umetsu - a fantasy story about a warrior tournament. But for our purposes it's standing in for the 巨乳 kyonyuu subgenre - meaning 'huge boobs'. So if you wanna do the meme in Japanese, that's the word you need.

This has a rather specific history in eromanga, recounted by Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga. Per Rito, the popularity of the term dates back specifically to 1989, where it was used to promote porn star Kimiko Matsuzaka, as well as Western gravure porn magazines. Gradually displacing other terms like 'D-cup', the onomatopoeic ボイン boin and portmanteau デカパイdekapai, kyonyuu soon became cemented as the term for a type of character design. It grew in popularity in the space opened up by the bishōjo genre established by the lolicon boom.

So under the pen of mangaka like Kei Keitamimaki (him again!), designs with massively exaggerated boobs became very popular, defining a subgenre of their own. Artists would sometimes express anxiety over whether they would be 'allowed' to draw such extreme designs, but it became widespread in seinen magazines. Gradually, these genre boundaries dissolved and boob size started to become a symbol of characterisation.

Queen's Blade is a fairly longrunning series but as far as I understand, it's broadly a silly ecchi anime about women with very large boobs fighting to become queen. It's not the most comical example of this trope necessarily (nothing can really beat High School of the Dead's supersonic bullet dodging tits) but it's pretty up there.

Colorful, 1999

Colorful is a comedy series of brief (~7 minute) skits about boys trying to see panties and suffering many consequences. As a late 90s anime it's got some interesting stylstic Y2K stuff - look at that rotoscope clip! - as well as strong animation from people like Norio Matsumoto of Naruto fame.

So!

Mogs's encylopedic knowledge of weird obscure horny anime once again coming to the rescue: I'm fascinated to see where this night will take us. And whether I'll still have a Twitch account tomorrow.

I realise this is a much later start than we'd like with such a big programme, but I hope you will come join me for some weirdly educational sexy animation! Dip in and out or stay for the whole programme, the choice is yours - see you at twitch.tv/canmom, going live now, programme starts in about 30 minutes at 22:30 UK time!

Animation Night 169 is gonna be a little postponed - we'll be going at 7pm UK time on Tuesday (29 August) at twitch.tv/canmom! Hope to see you there! I will try to write a little more interesting info as we lead up to that~

#animation night

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queen0fm0nsterz · 1 year ago

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Thoughts on how TSON will tie into the lore of LN3?

As of the location of the last episode, as well as explaining some more small chunks of lore and locations to expand the world, I think TSON is preparing us already for what we will see next with Low and Alone. Give us something to expect, as well as a minimal explanation of how the Nowhere works, because this is information we need to know for Low and Alone's story to make sense.

Six's story, which was the main plot line of Little Nights up until now, explained how she travelled the world only to end up right at the place waiting for her. A destructive cycle of events that had set locations (the Pale City, the Tower, the Maw -- the Nest being a small detour but an interesting addition to the bunch) and events. Whether you believe Six left the Maw or not (I like to think the former), hers was a story about losing a part of herself to the world she tried to desperately to flee, and while she "won" that piece back, she will never be the same again. It did not necessarely need to elaborate on whether the world itself was her "home" or not -- though it was always strongly implied it was not.

It did try, though. The discontinued comics were an attempt at showcasing that the world beyond the Maw was vast, and that there was even ANOTHER world beyond that same dimension, with the tales of the Refugee Boy and the Humpback Girl respectively. However, at the time, it was confusionary: we didn't know anything but the Maw, so many fans misconstrued what was trying to come across, and ultimately this partially led to the decisions that had the comics be discontinued and the DLC be made instead.

The podcast to me is just that: to make up for those discontinued comics. Some of these storylines sound very similar to the ones you would read about in the Little Nightmares comics in structure: I would not be surprised to find some concepts from them were reused, modified to fit the plot of the podcast and even added to the lore of Little Nights III.

A lot of people seem to think that Mirror Man and North Wind will both make an appearance and frankly, I can see why. I am leaning more strongly on Mirror Man: I wish to see him in action in his own realm considering Low's abilities.

I've heard some concerns about the game potentially reusing the comic characters, but personally I find it a brilliant opportunity to expand on them. Mirror Man in particular is a... blank slate, essentially. He does have a minimum of characterization (<- post where I analyse just that) but besides that you could go wild with him. I'm interested to see if they do bring him forward.

Anyhow, sorry for derailing. As of episode four, we have been brought to a location that seems to match the circus we see in the trailer of Little Nightmares III. Considering the information we are given, it seems that it is suspended in the sky, with it being a literal ship floating above land.

(Two images depicting the "carnival" as seen in the trailer [top] and the steam page for LN III [bottom])

The idea of such a location is an interesting one and, considering the nature of the Spiral, possibly not that far out of reach. It was mentioned that Low and Alone would be travelling behind the Spiral... considering the nature of the Necropolis, which was mentioned to be a city powered by wind, I wonder if the spiral is... a giant hurricane. Or storm. And the locations are all in the middle of it - in its eye, stacked on different points in altitude.

It would be just as Noone said if that was to be the case: places who are on top of each other, like the building she's in, but that do not work together. I think that for this reason, the locations we have seen in the podcast such as the Stone Giant and the Mall might return later on as locations in LN III in some shape of form.

... We have seen a stone giant already...

.. although it would be more metaphorical than literal in this case as the Stone Giant was not really described as a giant baby thing, and the location is different, but you get what I mean hopefully!

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crossing-into-your-parallel · 3 months ago

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the adventure begins!

welcome to CROSSING INTO YOUR PARALLEL, a kirby AU centered around magolor and the master crown, mistilteinn.

this part will be updated later with a summary; we want to get the ball rolling first! all we'll say for now is that both magolor and mistilteinn have had their own share of experiences already.

our tag directory is here!

this blog is run by two mods, both adults:

MOD VANILLA (it/its, he/him), who handles coming up with ideas, doing a whole lot of sketching, and writes for magolor

MOD JUKEBOX (they/them, he/him), who handles writing in a more broad sense, drawing the longer comic sequences, and writes for mistilteinn

art will vary in style as a result, and you'll see nilla's drawings more often than you will jukebox's.

rules for asks, and the answers to some questions you might have, are under the cut!

RULES FOR ASKS:

no NSFW asks (this isn't the place for it)

some asks might not get answered- they didn't fit with the story, we couldn't figure out how to incorporate it, or a particular ask may be getting saved for later. try not to worry if yours doesn't get answered; it's nothing personal, we promise

you're welcome to ask us mods about stuff if you want! just be respectful, please :]

QUESTION SECTION!

Q: Your blog is a little... A: we know; that's what gives it charm! (on a serious note, we're just really excited to get this blog going. it'll look nicer as time goes on)

Q: Is there any significance behind your names? A: nilla has cookie run autism, and jukebox likes the jukebox from RTDL/DX

Q: Why do we see Nilla's drawings more often? A: jukebox has health issues, plus they tend to draw on big canvases with small brushes.

Q: I want to draw something for you! Do you have references? A: sure do! here:

Q: Can I send you constructive criticism regarding a drawing? A: no. if you do anyway, jukebox is going to make fun of you.

Q: My ask didn't get a new drawing! A: yup, that'll happen sometimes; for many reasons, sometimes it'll be easier for us to answer questions with colored text, or we might reuse an old drawing. we're not content-creating machines :P

Q: I like your art and want to follow you! Can I know your main(s)? A: reply to a post asking, and we'll DM you!

Q: What disease does Nilla have? is it contagious? A: yes. you will begin coughing within 5 minutes. Run.

#kirby #kirby askblog #magolor #master crown #mistilteinn kirby #rtdl #rtdldx #welcome to the false finale || main story #<-for ease of access

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two-of-tails · 5 days ago

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Hey Tails!

I can imagine with all the inventing you do, sometimes you might need to salvage a specific part from past projects for your current ones. Do you ever feel bad taking apart old projects?

I DO!!.... all my inventions are very dear to me, and I try my best not to reuse parts, so a few of the inventions that I don't use that often end up collecting dust in storage... Although I do prioritize what is needed for the present so I can take certain parts with the idea in mind that I can simply put it back together later.

I like to reassure my little inventions that they will be fine after the procedure every time, though...,,

#sonic the hedgehog #tails #miles tails prower #tails ask blog #tails the fox #rp blog #sonic rp #sonic rp blog #sonic

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shukufuyu · 12 days ago

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[A3! Backstage Translation] Tasuku Takato SSR — BE.MINE Ver.Tasuku (3/3)

Tasuku: I get the “pleasant” part though, but what do you mean “heart pounding”?

click below to read more, announcement/notes at the end of chapter

Izumi: We’ll be in your care today!

Tasuku: Thank you for having us.

Staff: The pleasure is ours!

We’re currently preparing for the photoshoot, would you mind waiting for a few minutes.

Izumi: Understood.

…Anyways, Tasuku-san. I heard that for this photoshoot you got special training from Citron-kun.

Tasuku: Yeah. For practice, I ended up wiping a lotta people's heads with a towel.

Honestly at first, I thought it’s a little extra for a practice, but in the end I noticed there were moments that were useful as a reference for the photoshoot.

Izumi: Hehe, I’m glad. I heard it from everybody. Like “It was more pleasant than I thought” or like “It was heart pounding”....

CHOICE A: It’s mostly well received!

Izumi: It’s mostly well received!

Tasuku: I don’t know if I should be happy or what…

Izumi: I believe the practice for the reliable boyfriend paid off well! [1]

Tasuku: I guess yeah, it feels like staying up until late was worth it.

CHOICE B: Everyone had varying thoughts.

Tasuku: I get the “pleasant” part though, but what do you mean “heart pounding”?

Izumi: Apart from when someone was a kid, people usually don’t get their heads wiped.

It’s heart pounding because they’re not really used to it, I understand that feeling somehow.

Tasuku: Huh, really. I don’t really get it though.

Staff: I apologize for the wait! Takato-san, we’re starting now.

Tasuku: Aight, I’ll be going.

Izumi: Yes, please do your best!

Cameraman: I look forward to working with you today.

Then, please hold this towel and stand over there.

Tasuku: Understood.

Izumi: (....Ah. His expression suddenly became softer. Seems like he’s immersed in his role already)

Cameraman: Now picture your girlfriend before the camera, could you try striking a few poses for the shoot?

Tasuku: Yes.

Cameraman: First, let’s start a pose as if you’re wiping. Mhm, that’s good! Like that, that way…

Tasuku: …

Izumi: (It does feel like when a couple who happens to get back after an interrupted date)

(Even though they just got drenched from the rain, Tasuku’s expression shows that he’s having fun…)

(making the most of his time with his girlfriend, he wonderfully conveyed how much he cares about her wellbeing)

Cameraman: That’s great! For the last one, would you look over to make an eye-contact with the camera over here…like that!

Tasuku: …

Izumi: Nothing came out of Tasuku-san’s mouth…but I can see that he’s saying “You alright?” that’s Tasuku-san for you…)

later that week

Tasuku: …We’re back.

Izumi: Welcome home. Wait, you guys…what happened…

Citron: We were practicing soccer when there was suddenly a guerilla heavy rain, we’re soaking wet~!

Omi: Even though the weather forecast said it’d be sunny today.

Tasuku: It’s a shame, but we had to stop our practice.

Izumi: That’s terrible…

But anyways, I’ll go bring some towels, so please wait there for a bit!

Izumi: Alright, please use this!

Tasuku: Aight, thanks.

Tsuzuru: Helped us a bunch.

Citron: I’m drenched from the top to the tip of my feet~

Azami: So cold…

Omi: We should go take a shower as soon as possible.

Tsuzuru: Yeah we should. Or else we’ll catch a cold…

Tasuku: That’s how it is. Then I’ll prepare a change of clothes and go to...

Izumi: Ah! Tasuku-san, water is still dripping from your hair. Can you hand over the towel for a sec?

Tasuku: Yeah…

Izumi: …Alright, this should be fine! Please warm up the bathtub so you don’t catch a cold.

Citron: Tasuku, you’ve gotten better at wiping everyone’s heads, but looks like you’ve got a long way to go when it comes to wiping your own~!

Tasuku: That’s an entirely different thing.

[1] this story reuses the atama wo taoru de fuku 頭をタオルで拭く(to wipe one’s head with a towel) phrase a lot, but I might go insane if i have to translate it in many more instances again, and when spoken in english, it’ll totally sound unnatural in an unironic setting, so i changed this specific line.

t/n: Hi! apologies for the wait, just a bit of an announcement, I'm getting closer my graduation and i need to realize the gravity of situation so I'll be spending more of my free time focusing on that. however, if you have a personal request for translation (exclusively for backstages), I'll happily translate it for you—please @ me on twitter and dm me a recording of the requested backstage (preferably gdrive links)

I'll try to be more active on my own accord by the end of the year or after finals, for more details/status regarding requests, you may check my blog description.

#a3! translation #tasuku takato #izumi tachibana #citron a3 #azami izumida #omi fushimi

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avelera · 6 months ago

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I'm not sure where to ask this, so I thought I could ask you, maybe?

Do you know, if I expand on a magic system in a fanfic, meaning actually define what it is, create names for concepts and lay out rules that.... could be guessed from the orginal but aren't stated, sometimes, and sometimes just make up things, can I put that magic system, my parts of it, on a later date, into orginal fiction? Or, if I transform the world in the fic through the use of plot into a world which would resemble (or be, really) a world I'd use as setting for orginal fiction but, without the context of the fanfic, you wouldn't guess that that's that, can I do that? Can I reuse a plotline I would use for a fanfic, and portray it in an orginal work as something which happened in the past of the orginal work, with the events in the fic even as they were being plausibly, but not explictly, a part of the, uh, fanfic's orginal material?

I feel this may be a silly question, and the answer feels like it should be "obviously yes, those are your ideas", except for the last one which feels more iffy, but, I'm still worried? I dont want to start writing orginal friction right now, I want to try something more casual, but I feel that if I put the cool ideas about plotlines and worldbuilding into a world of something which doesn't belong to me then I'm like, giving it up? Like it doesnt belong to me anymore, it belongs to... I don't know, the collective conciousnes of the fandom in question or something.

Um. To ask in a way that is less, these long and confusing sentences up there: can I put something orginal into a fanfic (like an oc) and then use it in an orginal thing I'd sell for money? (without renaming the oc?) If you dont feel like you can/don't want to answer this, could you still post it, so maybe one of your followers might? 😅 Thanks in advance! ❤️

I think what you’re asking in a roundabout way is “can I file off the serial number and use something from a fanfic in original fiction?” And the answer is yes, it’s so common we have a term for it. Just look at 50 Shades of Gray, which is perhaps the most famous example of this, in which a Twilight fanfic was turned into original fiction.

Now for the next part of your question as I understand it with regards to the magic system: the things that get copyrighted, if you have a legal concern about using bits of another magic system, for example, in your own work tend to be things like proper nouns.

I can have a school of warrior monks who fight with magic swords made of light and channel the power of the universe to move objects, I just can’t call them Jedi. And if you look closely, many many magic systems in original fiction are borrowing bits from other magic systems. No one is getting sued unless you use specific proper nouns or original words that are unique to other stories. Otherwise it’s all plausibly deniable.

Now the bigger thornier question is: are you providing enough foundation in your own story once you make it original that a reader can understand what’s happening without knowing about the fanfic you wrote or the other universe? Because that’s the difference between a good original story and an incomprehensible one. You have to rebuild those foundations in your new story without leaning on the old one. The best way to know if you’ve done that correctly is to pull in a beta reader who is unfamiliar with the other work and ask if they understand your story as it stands on its own (and, of course, if it’s entertaining).

Hope that helps!

#writing #writing advice #Maggie rambles

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honkceasar · 1 year ago

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Okay big infodump that might not make any sense about The guy who didn’t like musicals, Black Friday, and genloss!!! They’re very similar and I think that’s very cool!!!! I love finding similarities between media I enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

‼️Spoilers for all 3 episodes of generation loss, Black Friday, and The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals!!! Also various descriptions of gore!!!‼️

-So this isn’t really an actual in-depth comparison but both the hatchetfield musicals and genloss are live comedy-horror shows that reuse actors and have an edited version posted on YouTube later and I think that is a really funny coincidence lmao

Okay so the first real thing that stuck out to me is that the comedy to horror balance of genloss is SOOO reminiscent of the hatchetfield musicals!! It’s part of why I adore genloss so much honestly. Starkid already has such a place in my heart, so watching something that gave that same comedy-to-horror balance made me fall in love with it immediately.

- Tgwdlm and Spirit of the Cabin I think are most similar in terms of tone. Both genloss and tgwdlm have that quality of “not scary until you think about it but once you do it’s HORRIFYING” concept and I’m SUCH A SUCKER FOR THAT. Granted, the horror of the first ep of genloss doesn’t hit that hard without the revelations of the second, but I feel like my point still stands. Also they both kind of poke fun at the horror genre in general?? Tgwdlm is supposed to parody the ENTITE horror genre, and I feel like with the amount of references to old horror movies in spirit of the cabin, I think it’s safe to say ranboo was doing something similar. (Also they both involve strange colored goo that replaces the appearance of actual gore?? Like when I realized what the slime was in genloss I couldn’t stop thinking about Charlotte’s blue intestines in Join Us And Die)

- While I don’t think it’s as great of a comparison, ep 2 and 3 of genloss definitely have a tone similar to Black Friday. Black Friday and The Mastermind of the Warehouse both have parts of them that are so absurd you start to wonder how it’s ever going to get that scary and then a bombshell drops out of NOWHERE. Like the feeling I got between What Do You Say and Feast or Famine in BF was the same as Charlie’s silly slime dissection turning to real blood and guts. I’d say towards the end of Black Friday it starts to feel like The Choice, but I don’t know how similar I could really say they are without reaching lol.

Okay here’s where I might just really want these to be more similar than they are BUT there’s also some really fun plot similarities between the hatchetfield musicals and generation loss!

- Mind control!! They both kind of have mind control! With tgwdlm, the weird goop shit can make people do things they normally would NEVER do. (Paul participating in a musical, Charlotte hurting people, Sam literally pointing a gun at his wife’s head and later ripping her insides out.) Wiggly in Black Friday also alters people’s perception in that way, making them more violent and desperate. The comparison of tgwdlm and genloss gets me the most though honestly. I think about how Professor Hidgens sings “you’ve just got to give up your choice” in Let It Out a LOT in terms of genloss ranboo. Nothing gl!ranboo does is HIS choice. He has to comply with the various games showfall makes him play if he wants to live or have any free will at all. Any time he breaks through the control and the filter, he becomes even more of an npc. None of his choices are his own.

- Okay this one’s more funny than serious but all of the hatchetfield shows and genloss have fucking time loop theories that make me insane actually. I keep desperately trying to make What If Tomorrow Comes make sense for genloss cause of the time loop implications but I’m really just grasping at straws lol let me BELIEVE.

- THE PROTAGONISTS DONT WIN (and it makes me so sad every time). Literally everyone in tgwdlm eventually dies/becomes a weird singing zombie. They even lure you into a false sense of hope with Paul and Emma that they managed to escape, just for it to be revealed that Paul has already been transformed and Emma has no hope for survival. In Black Friday, Wiggly remains undefeated, and the implied ending is that they get nuked by Russia due to the misplaced bomb. (tomorrow never comes!!) In generation loss, Sneeg is always so close but never truly reaches freedom, Charlie dies the moment he understands what has happened to him, and ranboo…..well. ⬛️ He even gets that same false sense of hope!! He defeats showfall, shuts it all down!! The exit is right there!!!!! He’s going to escape!!!!!! Just for him to get captured and crucified. The audience doesn’t even get to know if death really freed him. It’s that same kind of cruel ending where the protagonists efforts just,,,, don’t accomplish anything. The hero doesn’t succeed, and suffers for trying at all.

-there’s also like,,, religious imagery in Black Friday and genloss but nothing really to compare there, just neat

Okay silly rant over!!! I just really like genloss and the fact that it feels so similar to previous fixations I’ve had just makes it even more special to me :^)

#ps if you remember my starkid era you’re a real one #generation loss #genloss #gen loss #ranboo #ranboolive #starkid #team starkid #tgwdlm #the guy who didn't like musicals #black friday #black friday musical #shut tf up jules

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jo-harrington · 1 year ago

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Jo, love of my life, star that lights up my skies, can I get Werewolf for your blurb game?

Ashley my sun and stars. I have a thought you may or may not like. Keep an open mind here.

In terms of werewolf...I think lets keep an open mind for this one. What even is a werewolf? This might be relevant to some kind of plot in some kind of story later...idk...

TW: Billy Hargrove (he is a trigger warning in and of itself), minor aggression, violence, threats, allusions to difficult family life, foreshadowing(?)

Thoughts of Eddie's looks in this chapter are inspired by this and this by my beloved friend @hearsegrrl. You can buy her prints here.

Find other Hymns of Heaven here.

And find the Master List for As Above, So Below here.

Halloween 1984

Halloween was Eddie's favorite holiday.

A momentous occasion filled with ghouls and frights and candy.

This year, he'd done everything to make it a special one. For himself, his friends, and for you.

The Halloween one-shot on Friday had gone off without a hitch. Jeff, Gareth, and Dave were about to shit their pants when the boss was revealed five hours into their game, right at the stroke of midnight.

You, of course, had joined just like you promised Eddie you would; a little hesitant with the roleplaying, but you tried, and it made him proud.

Then last night, he and the guys planned a special Halloween show at the Hideout. To fit the Corroded Coffin name, Eddie insisted they all dress up as vampires, complete with costumes, fake blood and fangs, black nails that you helped paint, and a fog machine that he borrowed from the theater department at school.

It was no different than any other Tuesday; the same five drunks showed up at the bar plus you and a handful of your coworkers from Bradleys that you convinced to come. They were certainly not the typical audience for the music they played but they enjoyed it nonetheless.

And Eddie showed how grateful he was when he drove you home, fangs still glued on as he nibbled love bites all over your neck. Your squeals were music to his ears.

Tonight, Halloween itself, Tina's "epic" party raged on. The music was bad, the food was worse. The booze was acceptable--someone had picked the lock of Tina's parents liquor cabinet--but the company made it all some big headache.

You and Eddie were huddled in a couple of lawn chairs, solo cups in hand. Jeff and Dave had tagged along, finally upperclassman and eager to be invited, but they had disappeared a while ago, only to be found once it was time to leave. Eddie's lunch box that was filled with pre-rolled joints and tiny plastic bags was slowly emptied and refilled with handfuls of candy and a growing roll of cash, and it was safely trapped between his feet until people decided to approach while you "enjoyed" the party.

The music at these things was always bad but Eddie enjoyed people watching. At the homecoming afterparty, he'd cracked joke after joke about what couples would break up by the end of the night, and which ones would hook up. Tonight the two of you were trying to figure out what everyone's costumes were.

"I think they're supposed to be a horse..." You tilted your head to the side. "Half of a horse."

"A horse's ass," Eddie chuckled.

"Wait! A centaur!" you gasped and grabbed Eddie's shoulder to shake him. "Oh my god."

"That's a really shitty costume for a party," he grinned and sipped at his drink.

Not that either of you were really dressed up.

Eddie had considered reusing his vampire getup from the show but it was a little chilly, so party be damned he was bundled up in a hooded sweatshirt and his battle vest. You had tried to put in some effort and had shown up at his place in a belted white dress with a basket and mannequin's head from some display at work.

"Judith," you grinned. "And the severed head of Holofernes."

You'd dressed the part of some vampiric acolyte for the show the night before and he thought it had been hot but this? He was speechless.

"You look...I...weh...it's pretty badass baby," he agreed as he gave you a once-over.

Parts of the dress and your fingertips were stained red with leftover fake blood and there was a knife on your belt. Where had you gotten that?

"I...uh...don't think anyone's gonna know what that is though. Knife's pretty cool; use it to keep the creeps away."

"But that's what I have you for."

You had gotten cold about a half-hour in and had gone to the van to get your jacket and ditch the basket.

Eddie scanned the crowd for another ridiculous costume but he was simply annoyed by all of the Madonnas and people in their Star Wars bed sheet togas and--

"31...32...33..." the crowd over by the keg started chanting louder and louder, and party goers abandoned their conversation to see what all the hubbub was.

Eddie got to his feet to try and get a good look at which douchebag was marking their territory and immediately fell back into his seat when he recognized them.

"Not this fucking guy," he muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"Who is it?" you asked. "That Harrington guy you told me about?"

"No it's this other guy," Eddie shook his head. "Just started at Hawkins High. Been here a grand total of 3 days and already acts like everyone's scum."

"34...35...36..."

"Maybe he's scared, looks like he's trying to show off," you offered. Eddie knew you were too nice, too good...you gave people the benefit of the doubt.

"No, he's a real piece of work," he explained. "Parked next to me on Monday. Slammed his door into the side of the van and when I tried to say 'hey pal,' he slammed it again, told me it was a piece of shit anyway, and then flipped me off."

You pursed your lips and looked over at the crowd.

"37...38...39..."

"I think he almost ran a bunch of kids off the road earlier too. Saw it as I was driving home."

"What the fuck?"

"40...41...42..." The crowd started cheering and a spray of beer soared over heads and rained down on the concrete of the patio. "Billy! Billy! Billy!"

He howled, hands curled into triumphant claws at his sides, head turning up to the sky. He called out to the stars and the moon as the remnants of beer foamed at the corners of his mouth.

"That's how you do it Hawkins," Billy Hargrove then roared amidst cheers of his name. "That's how you do it."

He and his entourage passed the two of you as they made their way into the house, and Eddie felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end when Billy's eyes stopped on you for the briefest of seconds.

And it truly was only a second. Hell, he might not have even looked at you, there were plenty of people there. Eddie already didn't like this guy, already made his mind up about him, but it was though he could sense something inside of Billy, and it ignited something inside of him.

Danger. Protect. Hide. Fight. Run.

He wanted to ask if you felt the same way, but your attention had already drifted away from the commotion as you scanned the crowd for another silly costume. So he just pushed it down.

After a few more hours, sales started drying up and Eddie announced it was time to go. You agreed; it was a school night for Eddie and the guys and you had work in the morning. Eddie tossed you his keys and the lunchbox and told you to get the van started while he found Jeff and Dave.

Jeff had been easy to find. Tina's parents had a great home theater in the rec room in the basement and Cinephile that Jeff was had made his way down there once he saw that the party life wasn't really for him. It was a cozy little spot with sodas and a bowl of candy, and Jeff was settled on a cozy couch to watch The Wizard of Oz with a girl actually dressed as Dorothy, sparkly shoes and all.

"Alright, time to go," Eddie announced and he flipped the light switch. "There's no place like home."

"Come on Ed," Jeff whined. "Just a few more minutes. They're about to melt the Witch!"

Eddie sighed; these kids were lucky that he liked them so much.

"You have 10 minutes while I find Dave," he grumbled. "Then you better be in the van or you can walk home."

Dave took a little longer to find. Eddie checked the makeshift dance floor, he checked all of the bathrooms, and then he got to a corridor of bedrooms and walked in on several scenes he wished he would rather not until he came to the last door in the hall. Pretty and pink and carved with the name "Tina" on the front of it.

It was the only place left...and Eddie didn't know whether he should be a dick to his friend or proud of him. Especially for possibly bagging the popular party host herself.

He banged his fist on the door.

"Dave, stop your smooching," he hollered. "Jeff's mom said curfew was midnight." A wet smacking sound of lips separating emanated through the wood and then Dave's soft "oh shit" and Eddie had to hold back his laughter.

When the door opened, both Dave and Tina looked a little drunk and a little embarrassed as they straightened out their clothes. Eddie slapped a hand on Dave's shoulder and let him back through the house.

"Call me Davey," she called after them.

"Don't worry, he will," Eddie laughed. "Thanks for the party."

The crowd had already died down but there were still some stragglers. People milled about in the yard, bodies gyrated on the dance floor, Tommy Hagan and his girlfriend were horizontal on the couch and it was getting pretty heated.

"Get a room," he hissed at them. "Tina's is free now."

But as he and Dave passed the kitchen on the way toward the door, Eddie caught sight of a familiar white dress splattered with fake blood, crouched on the floor helping someone.

He had told you to wait in the van, but of course he took too long...hopefully whoever it was that you were with wasn't hurt or anything. Damn it.

But it wasn't until he noticed who you were leaning over that the uneasy feeling that had been ignited in Eddie earlier flared up again and his throat clenched.

Danger. Hide. Run.

The leather jacket, the sticky shirtless chest, the hand gripped tightly around your wrist that you kept tugging and tugging to get out of his grasp.

"I don't want to be here, they t-took me away from the only home I've ever known and it's not my fault," Billy whined to you, heaved. "And now I'm here and I can't go. I'm stuck."

"I know," you said sympathetically.

"I just wanna see the beach again," his grip on your wrist tightened. "The water and the clouds and the sun. And there's this diner where she works and I'd always go to get a burger and a malt."

"Yeah?"

"And she'd call me Silly Billy."

His eyes wrenched shut and he tugged you closer, enough that you lost your balance and had to steady a hand against his chest, right over his heart.

You froze and gasped in pain and Eddie saw red.

Fight. Protect.

Eddie shoved Dave towards the door with a quick "waitinthedamnvan" and then stormed into the kitchen.

"I think she was one and I'll never--"

"Get your filthy fucking hands off my girlfriend Hargrove!"

Eddie reached over and pried Billy's hand from your wrist, and then tugged you to your feet and into his arms. You were shaking.

"Are you ok?" he asked frantically, looking over every inch of you. "What did he do? Tell me. What did he do?"

"N-Nothing, I just saw him there on the floor," you stammered, eyes distant. "I didn't know...I didn't know..."

Eddie ran his hands over you, cradled your face for a second to make sure you were alright, and then once he was sure, he turned his sights on Billy.

He crouched beside him on the ground and grabbed the lapels of Billy's jacket. He hoisted him up enough so he could slam him back down onto the floor again.

"You don't get to look at her," he warned through gritted teeth.

"E-Eddie," you called softly. He ignored you and did it again. Up the slightest bit, and then forced back down again until he could hear the breath wheeze through Billy's mouth.

"You don't get to touch her," he growled.

"Eddie stop, he didn't do anything, he's just drunk. He's empt--" you reasoned but Eddie ignored you. He listed Billy one last time, up and up and up, until both of their noses were touching and glassy, vacant blue eyes had nowhere to look but murderous brown ones.

"And if you ever get near her again, I'll kill you."

"EDDIE!" Eddie dropped Billy onto the floor and straightened himself up. He turned back to you and faltered at the sight of your wide, fear-filled eyes. He looked down at Billy again, who was on the ground again but curled in on himself.

Eddie looked at his hands and then back up at you.

"Please, let's go," you shuddered and held out your hand to take his, and then you tugged him through the house and out the door.

Jeff and Dave noticed the tension between the two of you but didn't say anything, instead just silently sat in the back until they were dropped off. Eddie vacantly drove through Hawkins all the while caught up in his own thoughts.

He was only trying to protect you, he wasn't trying to hurt Billy, Billy was hurting you, you were scared, you were hurt...

But you were still scared and hurt. Your breathing hadn't returned to it's usual evenness and when he looked over your hands were shaking. You kept pressing into the palm of the hand that had touched Billy's chest and Eddie wondered...

What did he wonder? He had so many questions. Questions he knew you weren't going to answer. But he couldn't just let it go.

At the end of the night, after Jeff and Dave were dropped off at home, and Eddie had parked the van outside your apartment, he clenched his hands on the steering wheel and gritted his teeth.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized softly.

"You didn't scare me," you replied and relief washed over him. "You didn't do anything wrong. You thought I was in danger...and I'm grateful that you stepped in Eddie. I'm just...I'm...I don't know...shaken. He felt...wrong."

"Felt?" he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. You had said something like that before about people. How they felt. He just thought it was...what you thought of them.

"There's a lot of anger but also a lot of pain..." you started and then your eyes got distant again. "And then...a great, wide void..."

What did it mean? A void?

Eddie felt the panic build inside him again and your eyes immediately darted to his. The smile that suddenly appeared on your face was soothing but Eddie could tell it was forced.

"I think I had too much punch," you explained. "I need to sleep it off."

You leaned over to kiss him goodnight and mutter a soft "I love you" but before you could get out of the van, Eddie stopped you.

"Listen," he began. "I know...I know I took it too far tonight. And I'm sorry again. But...but if you ever see Billy Hargrove again...you put as much distance between the two of you as possible. Something's...wrong with that guy. He's bad news."

"Eddie, that's...you know how that feels when someone says that about you, I don't think--"

"No, I'm serious. You keep your distance from him," Eddie warned. "Not because of me, but for your own safety. Hargrove...he's dangerous.

"He's a beast."

#aasb #hymns of heaven #Eddie munson x reader #tw violence #tw angst

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