#missing out on female!Hercules

[strawberry38]

We've missed out on

Girl Hercules

And

Woman Princess of Persia.

In my defence, when Hercules started out as a young lad, he was unsure and scrawny (who still had superstrength, I know 😋). So we could see ourselves in him, also him as a girl. Training with a master, hitting on spots with an arrow, learning moves, why not. All to the female improvement. And making a new well prepared version of herself.

[scleroticstatue]

Feminine Plots

Okay, I've been thinking A Lot about basic plot types and how classically feminine stories fit into neither the traditional (masculine) archetypes nor the traditional plots. After a lot of studying the major plot beats, I think all female-led stories* fall into one of seven plots. I'm using Disney movies to demonstrate this because just about everyone has seen them, but I think you could apply these to just about any feminine-based story.*

So, without further ado:

The Hard Work Plot: The heroine of this story is a hard worker and is tested by the plot to prove her kindness and generosity. If she passes the test, she wins and is rewarded for it. This is the basic plot of Snow White, Cinderella, and Tiana/Princess and the Frog.**

The Beast Taming Plot: The heroine of this story is put in a situation where she meets a monster, learns to understand it (usually through a heightened state of empathy), and then tames it to become socially acceptable for the norms of society, often ending the story by using the tamed monster to defeat a more villainous character who has been accepted by society. This is the plot of Belle/Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Jane/Tarzan, and Lilo/Lilo & Stitch.

The Transformstion Plot: The heroine meets an outsider who is threatening her home/family/people, who are stagnating or stifling. She spends time getting to know the person and their culture, and then uses her friendship to transform her own culture into one of flourishing modernity. This is the plot of Ariel/The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Jasmine/Aladdin.

The Restoration Plot: The heroine is in a kingdom/household of dwindling power. Her quest is to restore the damaged relationships and undo the evil that caused the kingdom to dwindle. There's a very high chance that the heroine doesn't actually do the restoration herself, rather she makes other characters realize they have responsibilities and duties they haven't fulfilled, who then fix the problem instead of the actual female lead. This is Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Elsa/Frozen, Mirabel/Encanto, and Nala/The Lion King.

The Balancing Plot: The heroine is proven to be unfit for feminine life and goes on a journey to prove she is capable of fitting in with the guys, only to realize that what she needs to restore peace and joy to her home/kingdom is the very feminity that she rejected. This is Mulan and Merida/Brave.

The Maturing Plot: The heroine is a naive individual who is exposed to the big bad world. Her idealism transforms the big bad world to be softer, but she also realizes there are bad things out there and that are/will take advantage of her if she lets it. In the end, she usually has to fight the bad guy/embrace her duties and responsibilities to save her home. This is Alice/in Wonderland, Wendy/Peter Pan, Giselle/Enchanted, and Rapunzel/Tangled.

The Sacrifice Plot: The heroine has a group that she is some sort of caretaker for (a princess, a lover, a support class). She does something, usually accidentally, that causes her friends to end up in danger, and she has to sacrifice herself to make up for those wrongs and save her people, usually ending up coming back to life because the other leads are so inspired and love her so much they make sure to save her. This is Tinkerbell/Peter Pan, Meg/Hercules, Esmeralda/Hunchback of Notre Dame, Kida/Atlantis, Anna/Frozen.***

EDIT: After workshopping this, I've decided I was missing one which seems almost exclusive to mothers and wives:

The Witnessing: The heroine must prepare another to become a Sacrifice/go to war/fight without her interference, and she has to let go and let them take on the trials of the world. Her plot arc succeeds when the people she's equipped successfully encounter the world without her guidance. This is Mrs. Potts/Beauty, Grandma Tala and Sina (the mom)/Moana, and Grandma Fa/Mulan. It's rare, so there's not a lot of these are protagonists, but it is a legitimate feminine archetype.

Star explanations under the cut.

*I'm being very specific here and talking about stories that are associated with the feminine, not stories that are traditionally associated with males who have then taken on female leads. And, while you can look at these as entire plots, these are also applicable as character arcs. The Lion King, told from Simba's perspective is the classic Call to Adventure. However, from Nala's perspective, she is the Restorer who, after watching her kingdom fall to ruin, has to go find the proper authority, mend his relationship with his father, and then return him to the kingdom to fulfill his responsibilities. While some more modern stories have female leads that don't fit these categories, I would argue they're not trying to appeal to women, but to a general audience and just happen to have a female protagonist, who could easily be swapped out for a male protagonist without changing anything of the story (and that, imo, makes for a very bad story indeed).

**There is a secondary dimension in these stories, which is the staticness or dynamicness of the characters. The classical Hero's Journey features a dynamic protagonist, who is expected to change throughout the run of a story. However, in most female-led media, the lead character is already virtuous and good. She is a static character that is then tested to see if she will fold under pressure. Snow White and Princess and the Frog both feature Hard Work narratives; however, Snow White is a static character who has to prove through a series of trials that she's good hearted and the world won't turn her cynical, while Tiana is a dynamic character who has to grow from cynicism to accept love as a virtue. While it is more traditional of older stories like Grimms' Fairy Tales, the Arthurian mythos, or Classic-era novels, static protagonists have almost entirely died out in favor of the Hero's Journey dynamicness. However, it remains a staple in Feminine Stories, even in modern stories: Moana, Anna/Tangled, Lilo/Lilo & Stitch.

***The Sacrifice Plot is a little odd, because there's usually another plot on top of it; Anna has a (slight) Maturing Plot, Meg has a Balancing Plot, Kida has a Restoration Plot. However, in the end, it's not a philosophical shift that defines their character, but their willingness to sacrifice for those they love. Yes, Anna was duped by Hans and has to accept he's not the good guy. However, she still falls in love with a man she just met (just a different one) and her narrative is instead trying to fix the problem she made when she upset her sister and her climax is when she essentially dies for Elsa, who then saves her with their sisterly love.

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Hello! Finally got to request!! I miss so many times 😭😭

How will the Gods react if they were fighting again reader in Ragnarok, a powerful an beautiful female warrior but once reader won, she suddenly changed into a child, with not memories of fighting with them and burst into tears from her injuries.

Pretty sure the Gods like Hades, Odin, Hercules, Shiva, and Apollo try to rock their now child opponent, trying to calm her down while a few probably stunned and panicked on what to do.

-You panted heavily, holding your sword to your opponent’s neck, your eyes focused on his own.

-This battle had been going on for a while, and the crowd was stunned stiff, seeing you as the victor as you took a step back, allowing him to roll to his feet while you were announced as the winner.

-Your stunning smile illuminated the stadium, relief feeling your body as your opponent grinned, you had earned your victory fair and square and you looked good while doing it!!

-You went to say something when an arrow from the stands shot out at you, and you yelped as smoke surrounded you quickly before POOF!!

-Everyone was trying to figure out what had happened before the sounds of crying filled the arena and as the smoke cleared, eyes went huge, seeing that you had been turned into a toddler.

-You were crying due to your wounds, which didn’t bother you as an adult, but as a toddler it hurt and instantly others were rushing to you, as you were now considered innocent.

-Hercules made it to you first, instantly pulling you into his arms, cradling, “You’re okay Y/N- you’re okay!” Hades made it there shortly after, shouting at the guards and Valkyries to figure out who shot the arrow.

-You were still fussing, as you hurt as Hercules cradled you close, rushing backstage to the infirmary.

-Nobody had ever seen anything like this before as Odin and Shiva joined Hercules and Hades in the infirmary, worried about you. Odin was trying to figure out what had caused this, as he had never seen magic like this before as the guards were constantly coming with updates.

-As your wounds healed, you were playing with Shiva, trying to catch his hands, but you were having a hard time, as he had four of them, so when you would catch one, he would tease you with his other three, so when you went to grab another, you would free his hand and he would tickle and tease you again, much to your adorable frustration.

-Soon you were tuckered out from crying and playing, snoozing happily away in Odin’s arms, as he tried to sense anything about the magic that had changed you.

-It was only when the weapon had been found, dropped with fingerprints on it, leading it to a culprit, someone who thought it was a love arrow, wanting you for himself, that Odin and Hades were able to figure out what had happened.

-You were going to be just fine and back to normal in the morning, it was something you would sleep off easily. However… it gave them a perfect opportunity to get some cute photos of you when you were so widdle!

-When you woke up the following day, in the infirmary, wearing a shirt that was a little too small for you, you were confused, wondering what had happened as you held your stomach, wanting food, unaware of the cute photos of you being passed around.

[detectivejay]

Detective/Mystery Media List

Open to more recommendations if I’m missing any favorites I should check out, let me know! Particularly any other good Sherlock adaptations, but also interested in finding more female, PoC and/or queer-led detective media.

Watched/read/played/etc:

Sherlock Holmes (ACD canon)

Sherlock - Basil Rathbone adaptation film series

Sherlock - Granada, Jeremy Brett adaptation TV series (some episodes, need to rewatch) - shoutout to @thegreatandlovablespacedorito for reminding me to revisit this one

BBC Sherlock TV series

Sherlock - Robert Downey Jr movies

Enola Holmes (movies)

Moriarty the Patriot/Yuumori (manga and anime)

Ron Kamanohashi: Deranged Detective/Forbidden Deductions aka RKDD (anime, need to read the manga)

Hercule Poirot novels (not all but a large portion) - need to watch more of the TV show Spenser novels by Robert B Parker (not all but a large portion)

Auguste C Dupin - The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe (short story)

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (book)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (book)

Case Closed / Detective Conan (anime, some episodes/seasons)

Knives Out movies

Psych TV series

Only Murders in the Building TV series

The Dresden Files books

Brookyln 99 TV series

House MD TV series

Monk TV series (watched some episodes)

Murder She Wrote (a few scattered episodes)

The Clue movie

Anita Blake book series (up to book 10)

Some Nancy Drew books

Ace Attorney video games (AA1-AA6 plus Investigations 1)

Professor Layton video games (not all but I believe at least the first 3)

Sherlock Hound

The Great Mouse Detective

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

Inspector Gadget cartoon

Scooby Doo cartoons

The Boxcar Children

Detective Pikachu movie

The Case Study of Vanitas (anime/manga)

The Millionaire Detective - Balance: Unlimited (anime) - @prapo237 got me into this one x3 so silly

Currently watching/reading/playing/etc:

Sherlock - Elementary TV series (on 2nd season)

Only Murders in the Building season 4 (TV series)

The Invisible Library novel series by Genevieve Cogman recommended by a friend IRL - up to book 6 currently, The Secret Chapter

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (video game duology, includes Herlock Sholmes)

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (video game)

Persona 5 (video game) recommended by friends on the JR Discord

Sherlock Holmes and Co - podcast (seen a lot of posts about this, but I’m terrible at following podcasts so TBD, going to try some suggestions from @wasabitheweirdo to help with this)

To watch/read/play/etc:

My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files manga suggested on the JR Discord

Detective L - Chinese Sherlock-inspired TV series on Youtube recommended by @meg-pond

Miss Sherlock - Japanese series also suggested by @meg-pond

Bodkin TV series on Netflix - Irish, female-led, recommended by @rubycountess

Columbo tv series

Murder on the Orient Express movie

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes film

Bonnie MacBird Sherlock Holmes books recommended by @romanathree

Soviet made Sherlock Holmes film recommended by @imlostatau on Youtube

Baskerville play by Ken Ludwig suggested by @wolfyraged

Without a Clue suggested by @helloliriels

Young Sherlock suggested by @helloliriels

Charlotte Holmes books by Sherry Thomas suggested by @lej418

Sherlock Holmes stories by Anthony Horowitz ("House Of Silk" and "Moriarty") recommended by @bringerofworlds

Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie

Any other Agatha Christie novels I haven’t read (Sad Cypress recommended by @romanathree )

AJ Raffles books by William Hornung recommended by @romanathree

Dead Boy Detectives on Netflix

Elemental Masters by Mercedes Lackey

Holmes, Marple and Poe by James Patterson - curious to see how this book treats these original characters inspired by the greats, the new characters are Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple (maybe related to Jane Marple?) and Auguste Poe (takes his first name from Poe’s detective, Auguste Dupin)

The rest of the Dupin stories

The rest of the Raymond Chandler books

More Arsene Lupin stories (including ones vs Herlock Sholmes)

Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout

Pet Shop of Horrors anime/manga recommended by @eden-falls

Otherside Picnic recommended by @eden-falls

Lonely Castle in the Mirror recommended by @eden-falls

Phryne Fisher's murder mysteries books and TV show recommended by @milenathebrave

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, saw this one posted recently by @seeingteacupsindragons and I'm curious so added it to the list

Magnus Archives horror/thriller mystery podcast recommended by @writingandwritten

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

You know, now I really do want Morph and Iceman to date on X-Men 97. Because as much as I love the Morph/Wolverine pairing, realistically it is NEVER going to happen, unless maybe Morph winds up with an AU Logan (like the bisexual AU Wolverine that dated Hercules in the comics), and even that seems unlikely.

Iceman has already been established in TAS as one of the original X-Men who clashed a lot with Cyclops and eventually left the team to be with Polaris - then Lorna disappeared to join X-Factor and left Bobby for Havok. Bobby was portrayed as straight in the cartoon because he was still supposedly "straight" in the comics at that time. There's a strong chance that Iceman will get recruited to the team next season, with the main team largely missing and presumed dead - a perfect chance for an Iceman coming-out story.

Iceman/Morph could also be a kind of rewrite of the Cloud story in Defenders - Bobby was romantically interested in Cloud, a gender-fluid person (who I think was actually revealed to be a sentient nebula?) who could freely shift genders back and forth. I haven't read the Cloud story, so more knowledgeable people can correct me on the details, but I think at the time Bobby was interested in Cloud's female form and somewhat uncomfortable with their male form (because Bobby was supposedly "straight"), but that you could also interpret this as Bobby being in denial. Like I'm sure there's plenty of subtext to be found there.

So in X-Men 97 when the team is reunited Bobby finds himself getting along really well with Morph, they are vibing on the same wavelength, and this leads into little jokes like "You know I'd totally date you if you were a girl, ha ha," "Well, I CAN be a girl, ha ha" and Bobby becoming increasingly aware that he is actually attracted to Morph's more masculine form. Eventually they would get to banging, but it would be a dramatic mess, because both Morph and Iceman are walking disasters who use jokes to avoid talking about their feelings. Not to mention they are both sort of on the rebound from an ex or unrequited crush. (I can picture scenes where the two of them are making jokes to each other that get increasingly barbed, and the whole team is getting uncomfortable). Maybe Jean stages an intervention, not in a "Bobby, you're gay" way, but like "Obviously you two have some feelings for each other beyond friendship, you don't have to be a telepath to see that, maybe you should just explore those feelings without worrying about what is or isn't 'socially acceptable,' no one here is going to judge you." Or maybe Wolverine just steps in bluntly with "Hey, you two obviously wanna fuck, just do it already."

I mean, ideally I'd like Morph to move on from Wolverine pining with some kind of easy, idealized relationship, someone who immediately loves Morph just for who they are - but I also love the drama of an Iceman/Morph disaster relationship that gradually settles into something that makes them both happy. Morph's obviously got their own issues to work out - trauma and PTSD aside, they can only confess their feelings to Wolverine in Jean's form while Wolverine is unconscious. So both Iceman and Morph would be figuring things out together.

(Also, they'd both team up to annoy the shit out of Cyclops, like the snarky remarks would be endless.)

[bloodypeachblog]

My Hazbin Hotel OC: Vendetta

(image made with NovelAI and edited by me)

Name: Vendetta (Ven) Nicknames: Babe (Vox), Sweetheart/Sweetie (Velvette), Madam/Miss Ven (Alastor), Dearest/Sparrow(Zestial), maldita perra/perra [fucking bitch/bitch] (Valentino), Venny (Niffty & Rosie) Age: ageless, but appears to be in her 20s-30s. Death year: mid to late 1980s Cause of death: decapitated due to an onstage accident Gender: Female Pronouns: She/Her Sexuality: Pansexual Height: 6'2 Weight: 164 lbs Likes: music (all but country), DJing at her club, 80s stuff, sex, TV, technology, horror movies, spiders Dislikes: Jerks, useless fights, ungrateful and disrespectful people, country music, bacon Friends: Niffty, Angel Dust, Velvette, Charlie, Vaggie, Emily, Blitzø, Loona, Octavia, Rosie, Lucifer Enemies: Adam, Lute, Stella, Valentino Frenemies: Alastor Relationships: Vox (boyfriend), Velvette (best friend), Niffty (best friend), Zestial (2nd boyfriend) Speaking/Singing Voice: Susan Egan Abilities: Super hearing: she can hear a pin drop from 2 miles away even when music is blaring. She mostly uses it to catch unruly customers at her club. Sonic Boom: a scream that can reach 160 decibels and extend over 200 miles, causing massive damage, even physical. She can wipe out an entire city if she screams loud enough. Telepathy/technology interference: her headphones can play the thoughts of whoever she wants into her ears, they can also pick up any phone calls or radio/tv signals (audio only, of course). Killer Queen: She can summon black long arms and hands and use them in fights, from binding an opponent up to ripping them to pieces. She can manipulate them by using her own arms and hands (kinda like Nico Robin's Hana Hana no Mi from One Piece). ~~~~more under read more~~~~

Her personality and wit are a mix of Meg from Disney's Hercules and Chel from the Road to El Dorado, but she can be kind, sweet, and loving to people she cares about. Just don't make her mad, or your dead body is for dinner.

She runs Hell's music industry and she owns a majority of singers' souls in it, an example being Verosika Mayday. She treats her souls fairly and like they're people instead of possessions, but she won't hesitate to put an ungrateful bitch in their place.

She wouldn't call Alastor a friend, nor an enemy. She is civil when they interact, and she has nothing too personal against Alastor. She just doesn't like his uncaring attitude.

Alastor has no ill will on Vendetta and allows her to run her radio station, as long as she doesn't overstep her boundaries and try to take down/take over his radio station. They even collab on music sometimes, making electro swing works

Vox and her have been dating for eons, she isn't too keen on Valentino, who Vox is friends with benefits with, but tolerates him because of Vox.

Ven despises how Val treats the souls he owns, any of his workers, or even the other Vees, especially Vox.

She tries to keep Val from absolutely pummeling Angel Dust, and if unsuccessful, she treats Angel's wounds and comforts him.

Velvette and her are close, almost like sisters. They hang out and gossip whenever they can.

She makes her own music under her record label, Baphomet Records, playing it on the radio stations, music videos, and at her club.

Her and Niffty are best friends, Ven absolutely adoring Niffty. Niffty thinks she's really fun to hang out with. If you just looked at them together, you'd think they were related, like aunt and niece or mother and daughter.

Ven sometimes visits Rosie and they talk over cannibalistic lunches. Ven likes to buy meat from Rosie's store from time to time. Girl's gotta eat.

Vox and her are very close and very loving to each other. Val may be Vox's fuck buddy, but Ven is his true love.

She has 2 tv shows, including a TRL style show, where she shows the latest music videos. She also has a talk show where she talks about various topics and answers questions asked by viewers, sometimes having interviews and special guests. She even broadcasts the audio on her radio station.

Vox has Val as a fuck buddy, Ven has Zestial. The only difference is that Zestial actually cares about Ven, where Val couldn't give less of a shit about Vox.

She calls Vox 'Voxxy', Velvette 'Vel', Zestial 'Zest' and Valentino 'Mothman', 'Moth-brain', or just 'Asshole'.

one time, she saw Val abuse one of his souls and Ven called him pathetic and weak because he only uses violence to establish dominance instead of using respect. When he hit her in response, she took it like a champ, not even flinching, proving her point.

All of Ven's music equipment was provided by VoxTek. The nightclub even has VoxTek as one of its investors. Vox had offered to give it to her for free, but Ven feels better paying for it to support him. She does get good discounts tho.

the kind of music she makes: [SCRATON - Another Girl] [Madeon - Imperium] [Porter Robinson - Unison (Knife Party Remix)], [Madeon - Pop Culture]

Her and Zestial are very close, like almost husband and wife close. They definitely fuck, but they help each other out with anything bothering them. Like, they lay in bed and talk about anything after they have sex. Vox is pretty jealous about this, but he has Val, so he can't say shit. But he has told Zestial that if anything happened to him and he wasn't around anymore, he'd trust Zestial to take care of Ven.

When Ven was alive, she witnessed the AIDS epidemic firsthand and lost many friends due to it. When she entered Hell, she was an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness. She doesn't promote condoms or anything like that (she would, but since who in Hell is gonna use them? Do they even exist down there?), but more like awareness, like 'hey, make sure you know what your partner has before you go and have fun, cuz otherwise your afterlife's gonna suck!' kind of stuff.

Her weapons are the following: An angel spear and an angel gun she took off of a few dead angels from Extermination Day. She easily gets the angel bullets from the black market. She also has a regular 1911 pistol and a silver dagger. She only uses the angel gun for instances where she wants the target to never come back, or absolute emergencies. More headcanons will be posted as time goes on! Feel free to ask any questions about her you have! Taglist: @omniuravity, @fatgumsurpremacy-remastered, @neonvehk

[ofenigmas]

(Ana de Armas) [THE RETICENT]. Please welcome [MIRANA DIAZ (SHE/HER)] to Huntsville, WV. They are an [33]-year-old [VISITOR] who lives in [TOWN]. You may see them around working as a [ASSISTANT EDITOR AT HUNTSVILLE DAILY]. Poor unfortunate soul. We’ll see if they survive.

BASICS

NAME: mirana isabel diaz

BIRTH DATE + AGE: april 1, 1991

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

ORIENTATION: bisexual heteroromantic?  

OCCUPATION: assistant editor at huntsville daily

BIRTHPLACE: new york city 

FAMILY: amara diaz née reyes - mother (alive??), martez diaz - father (alive??), julian diaz - older brother (presumed dead)

APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: ana de armas

EYE COLOR: hazel (golden)

HAIR: dark brown/copper.

HEIGHT: 5′6″

TATTOOS: a black cat (lower back, a drunken dare) sun and moon tattoo on left wrist (x).

SCARS/BIRTH MARKS: jagged line diagonally across her right forearm (from barbed wire fence), scar on upper right thigh from skiing accident

PERSONALITY

ZODIAC: aries sun, scorpio moon, sagittarius rising

MBTI: estp, the entrepreneur.

ENNEAGRAM: 7w8, the realist. sexual/self preservation subtype

ALIGNMENT: chaotic good/neutral

TEMPERAMENT: choleric

ARCHETYPE: the reticent / the defiant

ELEMENT: fire

ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS: april ludgate, megara from hercules, flynn rider, ron swanson, lois lane, han solo, georgia miller, cassandra gothel, rosa diaz.

AESTHETIC: crumpled newspapers, crimson, muffled laughter, ash- or ink- covered hands, rebellion, ruined dreams, the desire to stargaze on the roof, old history books, messy handwriting, irritatingly smug smiles, denim jackets, vodka, tight black dresses, broken champagne glasses, holding you an arm’s length away.

BIOGRAPHY TW: death (sibling and best friend), mention of skiing accident, illness (vague and in one line)

born in new york city, youngest of two children, daughter of a software developer and a history professor. 

always wanted to be an investigative journalist (a perfect outlet for someone with a penchant for never minding her own business) 

an extrovert, but her friendships seemed to follow her since birth. her family was incredibly close to the XXX and XXX families and she formed a tight-knit circle with their children, especially XXX and XXX. she’d never felt the need for more friends. 

despite an intense sibling rivalry, was very close to her brother Julian. 

got accepted into Columbia for Journalism, but soon after graduation her mother fell ill. after deferring a year mirana spent the first few years with only partial credit enrollment in order to stay at home until her mother recovered.

nearly twenty-one by the time she could go to university full time, mirana was forced to take a semester entirely off from a skiing accident. after all of that and a year-long internship, she graduated at twenty-six.

after a year of working her ass off at investmentnews, she finally got her life back on track for her original plan, landing a position at the new york times.

to make up for the college experience she felt she missed out on, mirana planned a week long ‘spring break’ trip in key west, florida to celebrate. the caravan ended up being her, her two best friends, her boyfriend, her brother julian, and julian's best friend.

after a particularly long night of drinks and fight over something so trivial she barely remembers, a drunken mirana broke up with her boyfriend. god, what a horrible start to spring break. it was fine. she’d sleep it off and they’d either make up or she could avoid him the rest of the trip. except... the trip never ended, as they never made it to florida, instead detouring into huntsville, west virginia. 

she tried every single day for a year to find a way to leave or communicate with the outside world. didn’t take it seriously at first, avoided any sort of relationship with anyone because ‘we’ll be back to our normal lives soon’ unless interrogating them on if they knew anything. 

after a year, julian (her brother who had agreed to be a hunter) never returned from his trip. that was the first time her resolve started to shatter. 

for two years, mirana lived in some sort of haze. maybe this wasn’t real, some sort of hallucination. what if she’d been in a coma from her skiing accident and never woke up? any absurd excuse to not accept her life falling apart, she was even more brash and impulsive than usual, only her best friends and now-roommates grounding her. except... then they watched soulless monsters destroy her best friend with their own eyes. 

since then (2 years ago), mirana has somewhat accepted that her life is ruined and she’s stuck in this living nightmare for the rest of time, and it’s all her fault. since she never wanted to make new friends before, she’s not been any better now. quite chatty and curious, but makes no effort to get close to anyone. 

works at the local newspaper as some sort of sick joke to herself. she's qualified, after all. 

math attempt tldr: 2019: arrived in huntsville on accident. 2020: julian presumably killed. 2022: best friend killed. early 2023: started working at the paper, got new roommates.

top 5 theme songs:

make it up as i go - mike shinoda, k.flay i keep on running backwards. i keep on losing faith. i thought i had the answers. i thought i knew the way. my brother said be patient. i don't know what i'm chasing. i don't know who i am. waking in the dead of night, i can't sleep. sleeping in the light of day for like weeks, reality was out of focus, i could be hopeless. instead i gritted my teeth.

we won’t - jaymes young, phoebe ryandon't go to war for me. i'm not the one that you want me to be. -- are we just gonna stay like this forever? floating, i'm serious, my heart is furious. -- don't waste your time convincing me that maybe someday we'll get it right.

when you break - bear’s den spoiled, selfish little child went out to play out in the wild. i found you shaking like a leaf underneath your family tree. you could never live out in the open, regretting every word you've spoken. when you break, it's too late for you to fall apart, and the blame that you claim is all your own fault.

crossroads - timefliesyou ever just go through the motions? it's like i'm stuck in a game, thinking it'll be different, then it just come up the same. man how the hell did i get here? not like i knew the way. just take me back to the start again, just one more time on the stage.

long story short - taylor swiftfatefully, i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me. -- i was in the alley, surrounded on all sides. the knife cuts both ways. if the shoe fits, walk in it 'til your high heels break. -- and i fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole. long story short, it was a bad time.

Her Pinterest board is here.

Her Spotify playlist is here.

FAMILIAL:

N/A (unless there’s a future way her brother could have survived in the woods for 4 years LMAO)

PLATONIC:

ROOMMATES - { 0 / 3 } - A BROKEN TRIO - { 0 / 1 } - - the one person mirana remains close to of the remaining survivors of their road trip and trio of best friends. only person she lets herself be vulnerable with. 

FRENEMIES - { 2 / 3 } - samuel ahn, rhys bennett - mirana is generally snarky to everyone, but especially to these few. the bad part ?? she actually misses days when they aren’t around to tease. not that she would admit that. 

BAD INFLUENCEE - { 0 / ? } - - mirana is far from ‘innocent’/’lawful good’, someone that she has no qualms about corrupting, perhaps even finds a small joy in dragging them to the bar or approving of what people would normally consider bad decisions.

GOOD INFLUENCE - { 1 / 2 } - wesley rivers - someone who has never given up on trying to befriend mirana. sort of a friendly “opposites attract” vibe in that they are more optimistic/sunshine-y/sillier than her in a way she begrudgingly finds she wants to be around. 

ACQUAINTANCES - { 0 / ? } - - maybe they frequent the bar together, are always at the diner for lunch at the same time and ended up sharing a table, etc. she often frequents the daily grind, bucky’s diner, the sasquatch, and the library.

CO-WORKERS - { 8 / 9 } - evelyn montgomery, stephanie barboza, samuel ahn, prudence wheaton, narcissa sakamoto, hudson cerulli, parker russo, [printer], katia lima - other people who work at huntsville daily - is probably generally friendly to them and likes them more than other people in town unless plotted otherwise 

NEIGHBORS - { 0 / idk 6? } - - people who live next door to her TRAINING PARTNERS - { 1 / 1 } - oakley muller - someone she went to for help learning to fight / defend herself after losing her best friend two years ago.

PROTECTIVE - { 1 / 1 } - elise byrne - someone younger than her that she has sort of accidentally adopted and is very protective over but acts like she isn't.

ANTAGONISTIC:

FORMER FRIENDLIES - { 0 / ? } - people who were warm and welcoming to her in the first year or so who did not receive the same treatment in return and eventually gave up on befriending her.

ENEMIES - { 0 / 3 } - a lawful good who can’t stand her chaotic good/neutral nature, someone who just can’t stand her snarky attitude, maybe she hates them simply bc they have a sunny disposition and don’t despise living in huntsville 

ALWAYS AVOIDANT - { 0 / 3 } -  • (roughly 2020) after losing her brother she decided to go after him in case he was alive and snuck out while her roommates were asleep to “monster hunt”, unsure if she had much intent to return without him. she nearly died and has a nice scar on her arm from getting caught on a barbed wire fence trying to escape one, but someone saved her and dragged her back to town. she generally avoids them and pretends it didn’t happen bc not good at saying thank you or acknowledging vulnerability.

• one of the people on the road trip was her brother julian's best friend. in their old lives, she didn’t like him for some mundane and probably immature reason: he wasn’t from her tight knit families or he and julian tried to do things without her as kids, etc. since julian's death 4 years ago, she’s generally cut him off, worried he’ll blame her for being stuck in huntsville (she didn’t even want him on the trip!!!) or for julian and bc he reminds her of the past. must be a “visitor” who arrived around 5 years ago on their road trip. lived in nyc anywhere from just for a master’s/new job for a few years up to his entire life. age: 30-40 • best friend's sibling - Her other best friend who was killed 2 years ago - their sibling has been looking for them for 5 years since they and their friends never returned from their trip - mira would avoid them, not wanting to dwell on the past long enough to explain what happened -  must be a “visitor” who just arrived. lived in nyc at least for their childhood. age: any (alt: this could also be the alive best friend's sibling if approved, her brother's significant other, her brother's best friend's sibling or significant other, etc!)

ROMANTIC:

* ✨  i do not plot out ships so none of these are meant to lead to an actual “romantic” ship unless it does on accident from chemistry! ✨ 

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN - { 0 / 3 } -  - people who are maybe antagonistic-leaning as a connection that she’s accidentally had a one night stand with due to poor impulse control. any gender. 

“THIS WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN” - { 0 / 1 } - - same as above except definitely antagonistic connection + she keeps reminding them that this will “absolutely never happen again” and would deny having any connection with them if anyone asked.  inspo: (x) (x) “WE CAN BE CASUAL” - { 0 / 1 } - they’re both attracted to each other, and get along quite well,  but whatever this is at least originated after a drunken/sleep-deprived conversation abt how they have no interest in a romantic future with anyone. maybe seem kind of romantic to others. 0-3 years. male. inspo: (x) (x) (x)

UNREQUITED - { 0 / 1 } - whether they’ve not actually indicated this interest/did and were turned down and are still trying or agreed to be friends, he has a romantic interest in mirana, which is rather difficult since she... pretends she doesn’t have feelings. anything from acquaintances to fwbs. probably deserves better than her.  inspo: (x) (x)

EX-BOYFRIEND - { 0 / 1 } - they dated anywhere from 6 months - 5 years and his feelings can be anywhere from was cheating on her/using her for family connections to was abt to propose, sky’s the limit. she broke up with him the night before they got stuck in huntsville (probably a silly drunken fight hiding general panic over starting a new life chapter) and even if one or both of them would have wanted to make up, they never got the chance. it’s been over 5 years now so it could be a he despises her for dumping and then trapping him here, exes w jealousy, a will they won’t they where they always back out last minute, he wants her back when he rly shouldn’t, only she has unresolved feelings, he just wants to be friends again, etc etc!  must be a “visitor” who arrived around 5 years ago on their road trip. lived in nyc anywhere from just for a master’s/new job for a few years up to his entire life. age: 30-40 inspo: (x) (x)

OTHER - feel free to hit me up with any other ideas you have as well ! please feel free to mix or match any of these from any category ! 

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Craig Simpson

Published: Mar 25, 2023

Agatha Christie novels have been rewritten for modern sensitivities, The Telegraph can reveal.

Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have had original passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins.

The character of a British tourist venting her frustration at a group of children has been purged from a recent reissue, while a number of references to people smiling and comments on their teeth and physiques, have also been erased.

It comes after books by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming were edited by modern publishers.

The new editions of Christie’s works are set to be released or have been released since 2020 by HarperCollins, which is said by insiders to use the services of sensitivity readers. It has created new editions of the entire run of Miss Marple mysteries and selected Poirot novels.  

Digital versions of new editions seen by The Telegraph include scores of changes to texts written from 1920 to 1976, stripping them of numerous passages containing descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity, particularly for characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.

The author’s own narration, often through the inner monologue of Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot, has been altered in many instances. Sections of dialogue uttered by often unsympathetic characters within the mysteries have also been cut.

In the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, the character of Mrs Allerton complains that a group of children are pestering her, saying that “they come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children”.

This has been stripped down in a new edition to state: “They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children”.

Vocabulary has also been altered, with the term “Oriental” removed. Other descriptions have been altered in some instances, with a black servant, originally described as grinning as he understands the need to stay silent about an incident, described as neither black nor smiling but simply as “nodding”.

In a new edition of the 1964 Miss Marple novel A Caribbean Mystery, the amateur detective’s musing that a West Indian hotel worker smiling at her has “such lovely white teeth” has been removed, with similar references to “beautiful teeth” also taken out.

The same book described a prominent female character as having “a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed”, a description absent from the edited version.

References to the Nubian people – an ethnic group that has lived in Egypt for millennia – have been removed from Death on the Nile in many instances, resulting in “the Nubian boatman” becoming simply “the boatman”.

Dialogue in Christie’s 1920 debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles has been altered, so where Poirot once noted that another character is “a Jew, of course”, he now makes no such comment.

In the same book, a young woman described as being “of gypsy type” is now simply “a young woman”, and other references to gypsies have been removed from the text.

The 1979 collection Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories includes the character of an Indian judge who grows angry demanding his breakfast in the original text with “his Indian temper”, a phrase now changed to say “his temper”.

References to “natives” have also been removed or replaced with the word “local”.

Across the revised books, racial descriptions have been altered or removed, including, in A Caribbean Mystery, an entire passage where a character fails to see a black woman in some bushes at night as he walks to his hotel room.

The word “n-----” has been taken out of revised edition, both in Christie’s prose and the dialogue spoken by her characters.

It is not the first time Christie’s works have been altered. Her 1939 novel And Then There Were None was previously published under a different title that included a racist term. 

Agatha Christie Limited, a company run by the author’s great grandson James Prichard, is understood to handle licensing for her literary and film rights. The company and HarperCollins have been contacted for comment.

==

“The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”

-- George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

[marciabrady]

Outside of the 3 original princesses, do you have any Disney favorites? By that I mean favorite character, favorite vocal performance, favorite song, favorite movie, etc? (Apologies if you have answered these questions before.)

Yes, I have many, many, many! I'll also exclude The Little Mermaid, as the original four princess movies are equally my favorite but! For more broad answers:

Favorite character: since i always talk about female characters, i'll switch it up and do a male character! hercules is my entire heart

Favorite vocal performance: again i'm going to try to say something that isn't obvious but i think 'my own home' from jungle book is captivating and kathryn beaumont is a certified genius

Favorite song: i bring you a song from bambi makes my heart smile and is the essence of romance imo

Favorite movie: hmmm i like so many like fantasia, bambi...but perhaps fun and fancy free??? ichabod toad? i really don't know, i like so many

But also, just for general appreciation:

pinocchio is a BEACON of light and so fascinating. i love the rich european setting and the original colors- especially the use of red- and the blue fairy is genuinely captivating. i love the realistic characterizations and the artistry is unsurpassed imo

fantasia's fairies might be the peak of filmmaking for me and i love the inclusion of classical music.

dumbo is so heart warming and i love the emphasis on his mother even though it makes me cry and i think pink elephants on parade is a bop and i love the way they included it in fantasmic

bambi is GENIUS, as i mentioned above i love the song so much but i really just think it's the spirit of filmmaking and is so real and authentic and i think it'll survive as a film until the end of time

fun and fancy free has really great water animation and cloud scenes in the bear segment but also mickey and the beanstalk is so much fun from start to finish

melody time has once upon a wintertime, which makes it have merit as a film, and i looove frances langford's voice

the adventures of ichabod and mr. toad gave us katrina and brom bones and FOR THAT i salute this film. i love the music and the old american town and like the halloween influence and the mansion and just. everything so much about it. it really is like feeling the crisp autumn air. i love the miniature scale homes of the animals in the toad segment- it's so comforting

alice in wonderland. just everything about it

peter pan - where do i even begin. the music is a religious experience, marc davis's work on tinker bell's walk is LEGENDARY, but also i was sooo intrigued by the mermaids and their design as a child. it's the high point of the film for me. i love love LOVE kathryn beaumont's wendy and mrs. darling is so dear

lady and the tramp is a movie that's so cozy- i absolutely love the smalltown american vibes and the moment with the spaghetti is iconic for GOOD reason

101 dalmatians deserves to exist for anita and anita alone

sword in the stone is a film i loved as a child. madam mim was fun to me and she freaks me out now, though i do love her attractive form, ngl i kinda think kay is cute, and i LOVE archimedes and merlin is a top disney character for me

the aristocats ALL the female characters <333

robin hood gave us lady kluck is one of my top ten characters of all time. she gave us everything and she has yet to receive her flowers

winnie the pooh is cute

the rescuers has such an intriguing voice in miss bianca and, again, the miniature animal homes are comforting to me. i love how underground and gritty it feels

the black cauldron is an amazing experimental film that is sooo gorgeous

beauty and the beast is worth it for me because i love mrs. potts, i love the bimbettes, i think adam is intriguing, and gaston is a fav

pocahontas has one of the best soundtracks but also can we talk about NAKOMA

hercules maybe has top 5 art but also hercules as a character is someone i love so much it makes my heart physically hurt :(

mulan- i love the connections people make with her and shang being bi is pretty much is everything

princess and the frog gave us a wonderful design for tiana

[call-me-vendetta]

Bio

Name: Vendetta (Ven)

Nicknames: Babe (Vox), Sweetheart/Sweetie (Velvette), Madam/Miss Ven (Alastor), Dearest/Sparrow (Zestial), maldita perra/perra [fucking bitch/bitch] (Valentino), Venny (Niffty & Rosie)

Age: ageless, but appears to be in her 20s-30s.

Death year: mid to late 1980s

Cause of death: decapitated due to an onstage accident

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Pansexual

Height: 6'2

Weight: 164 lbs

Likes: music (all but country), DJing at her club, 80s stuff, sex, TV, technology, horror movies, spiders

Dislikes: Jerks, useless fights, ungrateful and disrespectful people, country music, bacon

Friends: Niffty, Angel Dust, Velvette, Charlie, Vaggie, Emily, Blitzø, Loona, Octavia, Rosie, Lucifer

Enemies: Adam, Lute, Stella, Valentino

Frenemies: Alastor

Relationships: Vox (boyfriend), Velvette (best friend), Niffty (best friend), Zestial (2nd boyfriend)

Speaking/Singing Voice: Susan Egan

Abilities:

Super hearing: she can hear a pin drop from 2 miles away even when music is blaring. She mostly uses it to catch unruly customers at her club.

Sonic Boom: a scream that can reach 160 decibels and extend over 200 miles, causing massive damage, even physical. She can wipe out an entire city if she screams loud enough.

Telepathy/technology interference: her headphones can play the thoughts of whoever she wants into her ears, they can also pick up any phone calls or radio/tv signals (audio only, of course).

Killer Queen: She can summon black long arms and hands and use them in fights, from binding an opponent up to ripping them to pieces. She can manipulate them by using her own arms and hands (kinda like Nico Robin's Hana Hana no Mi from One Piece).

~~~~more under read more~~~~

Her personality and wit are a mix of Meg from Disney's Hercules and Chel from the Road to El Dorado, but she can be kind, sweet, and loving to people she cares about. Just don't make her mad, or your dead body is for dinner.

She runs Hell's music industry and she owns a majority of singers' souls in it, an example being Verosika Mayday. She treats her souls fairly and like they're people instead of possessions, but she won't hesitate to put an ungrateful bitch in their place.

She wouldn't call Alastor a friend, nor an enemy. She is civil when they interact, and she has nothing too personal against Alastor. She just doesn't like his uncaring attitude.

Alastor has no ill will on Vendetta and allows her to run her radio station, as long as she doesn't overstep her boundaries and try to take down/take over his radio station. They even collab on music sometimes, making electro swing works

Vox and her have been dating for eons, she isn't too keen on Valentino, who Vox is friends with benefits with, but tolerates him because of Vox.

Ven despises how Val treats the souls he owns, any of his workers, or even the other Vees, especially Vox.

She tries to keep Val from absolutely pummeling Angel Dust, and if unsuccessful, she treats Angel's wounds and comforts him.

Velvette and her are close, almost like sisters. They hang out and gossip whenever they can.

She makes her own music under her record label, Baphomet Records, playing it on the radio stations, music videos, and at her club.

Her and Niffty are best friends, Ven absolutely adoring Niffty. Niffty thinks she's really fun to hang out with. If you just looked at them together, you'd think they were related, like aunt and niece or mother and daughter.

Ven sometimes visits Rosie and they talk over cannibalistic lunches. Ven likes to buy meat from Rosie's store from time to time. Girl's gotta eat.

Vox and her are very close and very loving to each other. Val may be Vox's fuck buddy, but Ven is his true love.

She has 2 tv shows, including a TRL style show, where she shows the latest music videos. She also has a talk show where she talks about various topics and answers questions asked by viewers, sometimes having interviews and special guests. She even broadcasts the audio on her radio station.

Vox has Val as a fuck buddy, Ven has Zestial. The only difference is that Zestial actually cares about Ven, where Val couldn't give less of a shit about Vox.

She calls Vox 'Voxxy', Velvette 'Vel', Zestial 'Zest' and Valentino 'Mothman', 'Moth-brain', or just 'Asshole'.

one time, she saw Val abuse one of his souls and Ven called him pathetic and weak because he only uses violence to establish dominance instead of using respect. When he hit her in response, she took it like a champ, not even flinching, proving her point.

All of Ven's music equipment was provided by VoxTek. The nightclub even has VoxTek as one of its investors. Vox had offered to give it to her for free, but Ven feels better paying for it to support him. She does get good discounts tho.

the kind of music she makes: [SCRATON - Another Girl] [Madeon - Imperium] [Porter Robinson - Unison (Knife Party Remix)], [Madeon - Pop Culture]

Her and Zestial are very close, like almost husband and wife close. They definitely fuck, but they help each other out with anything bothering them. Like, they lay in bed and talk about anything after they have sex. Vox is pretty jealous about this, but he has Val, so he can't say shit. But he has told Zestial that if anything happened to him and he wasn't around anymore, he'd trust Zestial to take care of Ven.

When Ven was alive, she witnessed the AIDS epidemic firsthand and lost many friends due to it. When she entered Hell, she was an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness. She doesn't promote condoms or anything like that (she would, but since who in Hell is gonna use them? Do they even exist down there?), but more like awareness, like 'hey, make sure you know what your partner has before you go and have fun, cuz otherwise your afterlife's gonna suck!' kind of stuff.

Her weapons are the following: An angel spear and an angel gun she took off of a few dead angels from Extermination Day. She easily gets the angel bullets from the black market. She also has a regular 1911 pistol and a silver dagger. She only uses the angel gun for instances where she wants the target to never come back, or absolute emergencies.

[paperback-bitch]

Review: Liar's Beach

Liar’s Beach #1 By Katie Cotugno Hardback: $18.99 – Paperback: $12.99 – E-book: $8.99 Approx. 288 pages – Audiobook: 9 hours YA Mystery/Thriller

SYNOPSIS

Michael Linden—or just Linden to his preppy boarding school pals—doesn’t belong in wealthy, storied Martha’s Vineyard. But when his roommate Jasper invites him to spend the end of summer at his massive beachfront home, August House, Linden tries his best to fit in. Linden wouldn’t call it lying, exactly. Though it turns out August House is full of liars. Then someone is found unconscious in Jasper’s pool, and everyone has something to hide—Jasper, his beautiful sister Eliza, their older brother Wells, and their friends. The accident is written off as just that—an accident—but Linden begins to wonder... Enter: Holiday Proctor. Linden’s childhood friend, and the one person on the island who knows the truth about Linden. There’s nothing Holiday loves more than a good old-fashioned mystery and she’s convinced there's a potential killer on the Vineyard. The only question is…who?

Themes: Classism, Keeping Secrets, Jumping to Conclusions

Tropes: Teen Detectives, Rich vs Poor, I Love The Idea of You, House Party Gone Wrong

Warnings: Minor character death (it is a murder mystery retelling, after all), underage alcohol usage, mention of an affair.

REVIEW

Have you ever picked up an Agatha Christie novel and thought to yourself, “Wow, I sure wish Hercule Poirot was a female teenage socialite, and also not the main character of his series”? No? Unfortunately, Katie Cotugno has written that concept into this book, the first of a series in which the second book has already been released.

Liar’s Beach sets itself up to follow Linden, a boy from “the wrong side of the tracks” as it were, who happens to attend a wealthy prep school on a sports scholarship. His school friends invite him to their summer home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where Linden spends the entire trip trying to fit in with the gang and keep his financial status a secret. He spends his time pining after his best friend’s sister Eliza, unless he’s busy treating his childhood friend Holiday like she’s an uncomfortable nuisance.

Holiday is our Poirot stand-in, since this book is a retelling of Agatha Christie’s novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and she’s part of the wealthy world Linden so desperately wants to belong in. His mother used to be the maid for Holiday’s family, and Linden is terrified she’ll spill his secrets and “ruin” things, despite the character never once giving the impression she would behave that way.

I don’t try to summarize too hard in my reviews; I usually prefer to give you my impressions and let you read the book or not, so I try to avoid spoilers and plot by plot recounting. I will say this mystery is woefully simple, especially if you’re a frequent reader of mysteries or thrillers. The book makes you suspect pretty much every character at some point but Linden and Holiday, to the point that the reveal felt kind of meaningless. There was no skill employed in dropping hints and weighing the odds of who might have done it because it was so vaguely possible it could be anyone. I managed to predict who was guilty, and it wasn’t even very fun to try and do so.

Liar’s Beach has a cast of forgettable and/or unlikeable characters, including the POV character Linden who was especially irritating. He alternates between dismissive, paranoid, and confrontational so quickly that I got whiplash, and his priorities were essentially to sleep with Eliza and to bury his head in the sand at every opportunity to make things harder. Holiday is just as frustrating, but in other ways.

She has an insufferable mix of quirky and smug going on, where she’s just so brilliant and special – but usually just off screen so she knows everything we don’t and the reader has no chance to participate in the sleuthing. We’re left following along at her heels and missing all the best bits, which brings me back to my initial question: Who on Earth wants the protagonist to be recast as a side character in their retelling?? Certainly not me. It felt lazy and unsatisfying and ultimately left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This book wasn’t awful, it just wasn’t good either. I ended up being really glad that I got this book for $5 at the Barnes and Noble café, because I would have been very disappointed to pay the full price for it. 2/5 Stars, and a tentative ‘maybe’ on if I’ll be giving the sequel Hemlock House a chance.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I have to remind myself when I’m reading YA that it’s technically classed for ages 12-17. While I don’t think I could recommend this to most preteens, I would say this is an easy introduction into mystery novels for young teen readers. If you or someone in your life is 14-16 and needs a mystery novel they can toss in their beach bag this summer, Liar’s Beach could be a great choice. Otherwise it’s a bit too immature for most mystery fans I know, myself included, and ultimately I suggest you support your local library if you’re really interested in reading it instead of buying it.

[tracinginwardinvestigation]

Note #41: Personal romance and platonic companion in Golden Age detective fiction

It is interesting to think about the aversion of personal romance in Golden Age detective fiction. Of all the GA detectives that I know such as Philip Marlowe, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot, none of them is in a romantic relationship nor has a (recurring) potential love interest. In particular, the platonic relationship between Perry Mason and Della Street remains a surprise for me seeing as they often flirt with each other in most volumes that I’ve read. While couple detectives do exist in GA fiction, they are the exception rather than the norm.

I wonder if this aversion might have been influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s Auguste Dupin and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, two most influential classical detectives. Based on my impression of them from reading some of their stories, these two detectives seem to be the embodiments of a solitude lifestyle. Since the detective genre has the tendency to repeat its familiar clue-puzzle structure over and over, I can see how other detective figures might replicate their predecessors' lifestyle. On a narrative level, the exclusion of romantic feelings somewhat made sense also—why should the detective, a representation of order, be associated with romance, a product of feelings? After all, many used to (and still do?) consider feelings to be an irrational, unpredictable thing compared to the orderly, concrete logic. Thus, romantic feelings, with its supposedly high degree of irrationality, might have been excluded to prevent its interference with the ratiocination commonly found in GA detective’s methodology. In a way, this dichotomy between ratiocination and romantic emotion could explain why GA detectives were always accompanied by a male companion: Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes, the unnamed narrator to Auguste Dupin, and Paul Drake to Perry Mason. By pairing two men together, the writer did not have to write a romantic plot between the partners. Nevertheless, this line of reasoning does raise quite a few points:

I basically imply that GA detective writers could not write a male-female detective duo without pairing them together? Seems like a weird conclusion for me to make; it is not as though the writers were forced to write romance, were they? However, romantic stories generally sold well around that time period through, so it might be possible that the writers were encouraged by the publishers to add romance into their novels?

An alternate explanation for the disdain toward male-female partnership is that the disdain might have reflected the Golden Age period’s difference in attitude toward friendship between two men and between a man and a woman: the former is good friendship while the latter is “impossible”. In short, it might just be sexism in writing?

On the topic of sexism, did the myth of rational man/emotional woman that has been circulating around for ages also play a factor in the lack of female companions in detective fiction? Would that be too uncharitable of a reading? Then again, female detective stories themselves really only gained more recognition after World War II (although they did exist before), so I do think that that myth did have an impact on women’s presence in detective fiction.

But ultimately, this is mostly a speculation with no evidence to back up. I probably should do some research on this.

That aside, I should also check out detective stories with couple detectives. I’m curious to see how those stories treat romance between two logical figures as well as how such romance can impact the narrative.

[berattelse]

The first thing you saw when entering the Dangerous Beauty exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a vintage dress from Versace's 1992-1993 "Miss S&M" collection. Straps of quilted leather crisscrossed the throat and décolletage of a headless mannequin, each strap adorned with a dollar-sized brassy coin bearing the head of a howling Gorgon, a play on Versace's usual logo of a placid Medusa face. The overall effect was oddly militaristic, a sort of four-star dominatrix look. The exhibit, subtitled "Medusa in Classical Art," was tiny, tucked away in a single room in the mezzanine of the Greek and Roman art collection next to the study gallery. So perhaps the dress was there to grab the attention of tourists who might accidentally have wandered up from the floor below, a broad indoor courtyard across which a young Hercules, lion-skin coat held meaningfully over his arm, stares impatiently at a statue of his older self. This is often the purpose, after all, of women's bodies and the clothing that adorns them, especially clothing that highlights the body's constraints. Clothing like this exists to catch the eye. In this case, though, gawkers lured by "Miss S&M" were deposited into a room full of artifacts depicting not only Medusa but a coven of other female creatures of antiquity. Gorgon faces -- both horrible ancient ones, with tusks and beards, and later ones, whose placid classical symmetry is broken only by a few demure snakes at the temples -- stared out from roof tiles, armor, cups, and cameos. A piece of pottery showed Scylla with her snake legs splayed, a pack of dog heads lunging out of her crotch. Sirens perched their bird bodies on plates and mirrors. On the side of one shallow goblet, a Sphinx was painted in loving miniature, crouching over a male victim who appeared to plead for his life. Chasing after the female torso in her chic bondage, in other words, landed you in a nest of monsters. The sixty pieces in the exhibit were intended to track the way Medusa and her counterparts became subject, despite their monstrousness, to principles of beauty. A gold pendant with a Gorgon's face from 450 BCE showed a grimacing creature with sharp teeth, a protruding tongue, a creased brow, a knobby chin. An exquisite nineteenth-century cameo, displayed in the same case, showed a perfect, precise neoclassical profile -- which is to say, she looked a bit like Graham Chapman, but that was the style at the time. Apart from the coil of snake at the crown of her head, like a fascinator, and another knotted scarflike beneath her chin, she had no visible markers of monstrousness. You'd easily mistake her for a proper young lady with Bohemian hair and odd taste in accessories -- the youngest Downton Abbey daughter, maybe. A Siren on one oil vessel from the sixth century BCE sported a full beard, though Sirens were generally coded as female, and had no arms; its head sat atop an awkward, turkey-like bird body. Catty-corner was a 1910 French woodcut in which a Siren, despite having developed bear arms and a fish tail to go with her wings, was still depicted as a beautiful bare-breasted feminine figure with a crown of flowing hair. Creatures conceived as repulsive were gradually reimagined as appealing, even seductive -- at least on the surface. The monstrosity remains, but it's no longer visible. "In a society centered on the male citizen, the feminization of monsters served to demonize women," writes curator Kiki Karoglou in an accompanying bulletin. The later monsters don' tjust look more beautiful and more feminine; they look more human, underscoring the idea that monstrousness is somehow the human woman's natural condition. As monsters became more pleasing to the eye, they were defanged -- beauty being equated, in classical Greece, with moral goodness -- and, paradoxically, made more dangerous. A Medusa with tusks, whiskers, and a grotesque distended tongue could be easily pegged as a threat; a human-looking Medusa could fly under the radar, until you tried to brush her hair. The resulting girl-faced beasts, read the exhibition text, foreshadow "the conceit of the seductive but threatening female that emerges in the late nineteenth century in reaction to women's empowerment." When a feminine face might belong to a secret Gorgon, any woman could be a monster. Perhaps every woman was.

Zimmerman, Jess. Introduction to Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology. Beacon Press, 2021.

[notmuchtoconceal]

Been thinking about the Slavic Svarog, and how the uncertainty stemming from limited surviving textual and anthropological evidence seems to posit him as both a Blacksmith God and a potential Sky Father. My thinking is this could be easily reconciled by imagining him as a Demiurgical figure, and the potential conflation between Prometheus and Hephaestus jives with that quite nicely.

The Jorgani gentleman I mentioned above is quite keen to point out the "twinning" between Prometheus and Hercules. The Father and Craftsman of Mankind embodying Wisdom and Illumination with the Warrior Hero who is Instrument and Son of the Earthly Governor. The Greek myths obfuscate a few things, but thinking along these lines, it's quite easy to see Prometheus and Hercules as somewhat analogous to the Sumerian Enki and Ninurta, the brother and son of Enlil.

That is, the culture hero who is both mortal and God, the Archetypal Son who is the extension of His Father (and the potential ambiguity, ala the conflation of Source with the Israelite Tribal God) would naturally feed into the figure of Jesus Christ and Crissendom as a whole, which is simultaneously too dense and too simplistic to make much sense of at a glance, as it is the blood and wine of all previous religions diluted by the waters of the church.

Compare also -- Prometheus's binding and liberation with Christ's crucifixition and sacrifice of Odin to Himself, and his own much-loved and stylish Warrior Son Thor, similarly a storm deity like Ninurta.

Ares cucks Hephaestus who is the only fellow son of Hera, Zeus being a serial philanderer and shapeshifting rapist; less a moral paragon than a force of nature as all pagan gods. Hephaestus can be seen as the twin or shadow of Ares, being a dogfaced cripple as opposed to a lumbering embodiment of male virility and fitness.

Aphrodite, his wife and lover, I view as twined with Athena, also a contrast to Ares, as she embodies both military strategy in opposition to berserker rage, and detached female intellectualism in opposition to sensuously overflowing female fecundity. She is also a Goddess of Weaving with some obscure ties to other Spider Mothers (see the myth of Arachne). This may be now going so fast, there may be more connective tissue necessary to rope in the Norse Tyr and the chain of unbreakable golden thread with which he bound the wolf Fenrir.

The historical Jesus (if you believe him to be more than allegorical) experienced a spiritual awakening for he had studied every world religion and found the truth in the overlaps. Recall he was Hebrew by birth, raised under Greek cultural hegemony, taken to Egypt by his adopted father Joseph, and inevitably came to oppose the Romans before being assimilated by them. I believe the missing years between his youth and his ministry can be explained by his traveling east to study the Buddhist and Vedic cultures, in continuity with his methods of passive resistance and threefold nature.

If you consider spirits and spiritual practices as living entities which continuously evolve with their practioners, there's a tension between academic orthodoxy attempting to reconstruct historical practices by extrapolating from scarcity versus how a more intuitive approach is unverifiable and would necessarily be taken on faith. Yet the practices of the day were shaped by past material conditions, while taking the route of belief in external entities or subconcious archetypes would lead one to naturally accept evolution in tandem with our current social and material needs, in spite of the lacunae in the archeological record from material being perishable.

Depends on what matters to you more, I suppose.

Would you like a snapshot of a dead time where your private daydreams of your ancestors can autofill the gaps in the historical record ala a more organic machine algorithm, or would you like to be more honest about how spiritual tools ought serve the people and our private daydreams are impossible to disentangle from this, as studying our minds and souls is always an occult practice, the bodies we see being perishable material which is simply a vessel for something greater and more intangible.

\\./

@notmuchtoconceal

Glad you'd prompted me once more to consider the metaphysical aspects of Majora's Mask, bro. Was actually just reading about the Scythian religion. A gentleman by the name of Jorgani points out that Prometheus, as we understand him in the Greek context, is a melding of Enki, the Babylonian Wisdom God Who Was Father of Mankind and a figure from Thrace/Scythia. I was considering the Enochian figure of Azazel, who was a War and Blacksmith God, and of how in some tellings it's Prometheus who performs the Cesarean Upon Zeus Which Births Athena, and in some Hephaestus. How it's said that Prometheus stole the fire from Hephaestus's forge. He is a god of Metallurgy, or Chainlink, once again connections to DNA, to metal, to liquid states, to Mercury. This also ties into my Unverified Personal Gnosis about Ares as A God of Bondage. In many myths, he is trussed up, humiliated publicly, ensnared, laughed at, abandoned, thrown into a jar. The similarities with Goetic lore are self-evident. Part of it, the bondage element -- is tied to discipline, some of it to force of will. In my heart, the thrill of bondage is not in succumbing to the inescapable, but in overcoming it, in escaping. This is quintessential in the art of the stage magician, escape artist, strongman, circus ringleader -- you can see, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Dionysos, there is plenty of overlap in the function of the brothers. Bodybuilding and bondage. An absolutely winning combination. Fight clubs and bondage displays. Sheaths slick as hotrods. Show off those bodies, boys.

In the Scythian religion, there is a belief in seven primary Gods, a pattern in line with the Hermetic division of the personality in correspondence with the Seven Classical Planets. The first three Gods are Considered to be as follows: An Absolute, An Earth Mother and A Sky Father, and they are understood to be largely impersonal. The next four are associated with the physical world as we know it and are more immediate and relevant to day to day life. Of these, is the Scythian Ares, as well as what are believed to be correspondences to Dionysos and Apollo and a Fertility Goddess Perhaps Not Dissimilar From Aphrodite, or maybe Artemis.

I was thinking of the Hylian Religion, it's own Big Three, then the Four Lesser Divinities of Termina -- boundary markers, perhaps demons of the compass points, cardinal directions, Guardians of the Four Corners.

It's not simply nostalgia, though I do appreciate the low-res look. Rather, I do believe the moment in time, exploring a pioneering new technology and all the possibilities it offered, provided the atmosphere to tap into some uniqe creative potential, which latter software updates and corporate franchise-making was not as privy to nurture.

OoT is the Narrative Equivalent of Induction Into A Gnostic Mystery Cult. Down to the Plot Twist Which is the Reveal of the True Nature of the Triforce -- a Metaphysical Bond where One Unity Is Severed and Binds Three Souls -- the player ascends into Virtual Godhood. In Majora's Mask, Link is himself the Protean Figure of Mercurius/Hermes changing Shape and Identity at Will, Mastering Time and Space, Land and Sea, Underworld and Spheres Beyond the Spheres, Becoming a Radiant Purifying Force Which Shatters All Illusions, Even the Illusory World of the Dreamscape Itself as the Evil Hands You Your True Face as A Righteous Devil and Deems You Fit To Slaughter It.

There is a sense of transition, of completion, and a sense of accepting death, but I do think Link's literal death is thinking too small, too narrowly, though we do know he dies with regrets, his spirit living on to bestow knowledge upon his descendent. The Death angle is touching on something real, but it's also letting itself off too easy. As Style comes from practice, Specificity in Analysis Comes From Keen Observance.

\\./

//.\

@flyoverkushtaka

Well, this is certainly a lot to take in. I'll probably have to respond piecemeal over a few days, having to go back and reread these things to really grasp what you're getting at. I had said nothing yet about Majora's Mask and Buddhism because the right words had yet to come; I needed to refresh my understanding but could not find the time to.

It's a complex subject that I've never seen breached satisfactorily. The three-day cycle is symbolic of samsara. Link is the bodhisattva who liberates the inhabitants of Termina from their suffering. The completion of this task rewards him with apotheosis into the Fierce Deity, perhaps puzzling to Westerners but an obviously reference to the Wrathful Deities of Buddhism, who harness their wisdom and compassion into passionate fury to achieve their goals: They attack, harangue, aggress. They confront you with your own sins and shortcomings, not to make you feel shame, but to strip away your ego and show you how to overcome moral and existential hurdles. . . . Oh! Yes then!

Majora is the culmination of the primal scene of Skull Kid's abandonment, and Link as the Fierce Deity is literally stripping the delusion and suffering away from him so Skull Kid can reconcile with the trauma of losing his friends. Termina is an an inverted Bardo!

It's all coming together now! I can see it oh so clearly, Mister Jacek!

Majora's Mask's thematic core is Buddhist myth and philosophy turned on its head, like a wasteland tower flipped into the sky!

It's Buddhism in Wonderland, Vajrayana Mabinogion! On the surface, Termina is a Bardo for Link, wandering through endlessly, confronted with demons to assail and demoralize him as well as eerily familiar faces to evoke comfort and unease. But if Link makes the effort to act as a true bodhisattva and heal the suffering of the land, you realize that Termina is *everyone else's* Bardo, a shared Bardo, and Link is rewarded with (brief) ascension to Buddhahood as the Fierce Deity.

Oh! But also the Fierce Deity is the completion of the logic of heroic violence! Link is the crusading knight on a mission from the gods, the sort of warrior-figure so intricately woven into so many cultures that it loses some of its teeth in this representation, the little fairy-boy with his little sword who slays monsters that vanish in a puff of smoke when vanquished. Cartoon violence. The Fierce Deity is not a superhero but the expression of violence in its realer, more horrific form.

Violence is the imposition of will to remove agency from another sentient being. Its use requires the harnessing of dark forces inside all of us. Its aftermath is every bone that doesn't heal neatly, every friendship permanently soured, every empty seat at the dinnertable.

Link is a tool of violence wielded by divine forces for their arcane cosmic purposes, and it's cute when he's a little boy fighting monsters and standing up to evil, but you don't come back easy from being a child soldier, from every talking tree and glowing stone telling you your destiny is to kill, over and over again. And so Link incarnates as a violent god to permanently break the cycle. OoT is a clash between good and evil; MM meditates on the question of using violence to stop greater harm. Great Hindu epics have been written about this moral puzzle. Yes.

//.\

[rukia-writes]

Hi!!! I was just wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing a RoR Hercules x Female Reader short story (whatever you call it lol) but can it please be a Hercules dominant/meek-shy female reader. Hercules saves his childhood friend from a pride of lions as he’s in his Cerberus 12 labor form. And he confesses his love for her but she’s too shy to admit she loves him too. And can they please have sex 😅 pretty please

A/N: I love! Love love love me some Hercules ♥️🎀 request granted ♥️🙇🏼‍♀️ The voice PV dropped 💦

Warnings: 18+, tried to make it short, Dom! Hercules, Sub! (Fem) Reader,

“Don’t worry I’ll always protect you-“

Alcides, later known as Hercules, proudly announced he would protect his best friend before wincing in pain as his nose was currently bleeding and his best friend applied pressure to stop the bleeding as Alcides protected her from bullies.

Alcides protected everyone and was always on the side of justice. However, he was particularly protective of (Name), as she was shy and was just a sweet person.

“Thank you for saving me, but you should be careful next time.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be defeated by those guys. Are you okay, they didn’t hurt you did they?”

Turning bashful and looking elsewhere (Name) told Alcides that she was fine, relieved Alcides sighed and smiled his cheerful smile thanking Zeus that she was okay. Both were under a tree outside of Thebes, it was their spot as (Name) took care of Alcides all the time as Alcides was constantly defeated by the bullies in their village.

In the following days, (Name) and Alcides were close and looked after each other. Alcides found (Name) being bashful sweet and always took up for her. Alcides trained for years and when he encountered a choice, always took the toughest path without any hesitation, in order to gain strength to protect the weak and (Name).

That is until the day Alcides ascended to Valhalla, while tearful (Name) was happy Alcides protected Thebes and was hinted throughout Greece. However, there were days she missed Alcides and unbeknownst to her Alcides missed her too, currently now known as Hercules. Even though Hercules resides in Valhalla he always kept an eye out for his best friend that had his heart.

“Don’t worry, I’ll always protect you (Name).”

Ever the protector, Hercules rescued (Name) from a group of lions. Amazed the shy (Name) now a full grown adult thanked Hercules from danger, Hercules smiled and held her close to him. Comforting her Hercules confessed that he always loved her and protecting her was always something he cherished doing. While the scene was romantic it was a bit too much for her at the moment and made an excuse before excusing herself leaving a pouting Hercules behind.

Luckily, Castor was nearby and comforted his friend by saying she’ll come around eventually, “She’s just shy.” Words that Hercules took to heart responding with “That he would wait forever.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll always love you Hercules.”

Night had fallen in Thebes, Hercules was welcomed in the king’s palace with open arms. What he didn’t count on was everyone in Thebes wanting to party with Hercules and so his palace was crowded with everyone in Thebes and people from nearby cities. Partying until late had Hercules asleep in his room alone, of course since he snored a bit.

Hercules was quickly awaken by feeling someone ontop of him, while it was dark he knew it was childhood crush. Bashfully saying “My apologies for earlier, can I make it up to you.” Smiling the hero responded with “Of course.”

A night full of lust and love.

Hercules was new with sex and so was (Name) but passion ruled the two with an iron fist as (Name)’s moans echoed throughout the room as Hercules’ had his thick and well endowed cock inside of (Name)’s wet and tight cunt. Being new to the world of sex Hercules was simple, missionary style ruled for the night. Still shy (Name) wanted to say so much but couldn’t as Hercules’ repeatedly struck her g-spot and with each thrust feeling like the demigod was fucking her stomach.

Hercules was very careful not to be rough with his childhood love, but the way her cunt tightened around him, the way her breasts moved to his thrusts, the way she held on to his well defined and toned biceps, stirred something inside Hercules that he never felt before.

Lust. Unfiltered lust.

Hercules was in a world of his own as the feeling clawed away at him, (Name) knew that lustful look anywhere and when Hercules abruptly slide his cock out of (Name)’s abused cunt both moaning a loud missing each other already. Catching her breath (Name) quickly asked Hercules why he had stopped only to be meet with Hercules teasing his cock at her entrance making her whine each time he teased her.

“I love your shyness, but now isn’t the time for that. Tell me what you want, use your words or I won’t give you what you want.”

“But-Please don’t tease me-“

“I’m not teasing, I would never tease you. But-I just want you to tell me how much you want me. Don’t be bashful.”

Lust was truly ravaging Hercules’ mind and he wanted nothing more than stick his cock back inside (Name)’s sweet cunt but he wanted to hear her say how much she needed as much as he wanted her. Hercules kept his teasing (Name)’s needy entrance with his cock that would twitch with excitement when he felt how wet she was.

“I want you, is that good enough love?”

“No, my sweet. Say what you want.”

Bashfully did her best to say what she wanted to say while Hercules teased her, eventually (Name) caved in to her lust and told her love “Make love to me, and fuck me.” While she stuttered over her words a bit Hercules was satisfied and wasted no time in sliding his cock back into (Name)’s cunt once more both moaning again at the feel of each other. Hercules would sometimes tell (Name) how she felt and would feel his cock twitch with excitement when (Name) answered back with “Amazing.” While dominant Hercules was never disrespectful but praised his lover like a goddess and once she felt her her orgasm building up Hercules held her right hand that was much larger in size with his ferocious pace inside her never faltering.

“I can feel you coming, my sweet. Go ahead and cum for me. Nothing would make happier.”

His sweet words laced with his animalistic thrusts sent the shy (Name) over the edge making her cum reaching her orgasm and feeling the delight euphoria running thru her veins as her eyes were rolled back as Hercules chased after his own orgasm as his cum filled (Name) womb to the brim, making a shiver run up (Name)’s spine enjoying the feel of her favorite demigod’s cum.

The room was quiet as the two laid beside each other with (Name) catching her breath, only to be interrupted with Hercules jumping on top of her again with a big smile on his face.

“Ready to go again?! That was amazing! Come on let go again!”

(Name) saw the seriousness and joy in Hercules and was so taken back by Hercules wanting to go again so quickly, but it was something would soon get used to.

🎀Rukia-Writes🎀

[carnal-lnstinct]

Title: Lightweights ☆☆ Pairing: Broly (DBS) x Female Reader ☆☆ Word Count: 2k ☆☆ Contents: ( M/18+. Minors DNI, established relationship, fluff, possessive behavior, consensual drunk sex ) ☆☆ Warning: ( explicit language, mentions of alcohol ) ☆☆ A/N: This was originally for smutember "Take Charge" day, I forgot about this one prepping for SOTS. So I came back to it because it is Broly and I love him and I don't need any other reason ♥

"Thanks for helping us get home." You expressed with a toothy smile, genuinely grateful for the necessary escort. There was no way you were able to get yourself home or your plus one, but at the expense of a free buffet, an open bar, and getting together with everyone you knew for some carefree fun, the consequences were all worth going all out. There was no reason to miss out on attending a party hosted by Hercule. For a beloved con man, he sure knows how to treat his party guests, but you suspected the majority of them being much stronger than he was had something to do with it.

Holding onto the threshold to steady yourself and wrapping up the chatty recap of the night with your driver, a large hand reaches out from the darkness behind you gripping the side of the threshold as well, great strength testing its support. A hulking figure emerges into the moonlight, leaning his weight against your backside. His brows are tense above his stare at your driver gives a cranky impression, contradicting his otherwise relaxed demeanor.

"Thank you...for your help." Broly thanked them as well, steadying his drunken sway with your body and relaxing his chin at the top of your head. You giggled under his closeness trying not to fall forward with him, all the while his glare never letting up from your driver making them uncomfortable. Broly feels you've been talking to this man for too long, leaving him to stumble his way around in the dark without you only to come back for the light and find you distracted by this other being. No, no— it's he who needed you now. Broly's arm comes around your waist and guides your backward footing inside with him so the door could close. You managed to get out a final "thank you and goodbye" before the door shut at least. You pry yourself from Broly to lock the door and from muscle memory manage to find the light switch to reveal your home.

The both of you were stumbling but successfully made your way to the living room where Broly sinks into his favorite chair. You proceed into the kitchen to get some much-desired water. Before letting yourself get too comfortable in one room, you manage to get your shoes off leaving them where they fell for your morning self to retrieve, and headed out the kitchen with three bottles of water.

Slugging your way by the chair, you paused to look over Broly, checking to make sure he was okay from how he slumped over into his own lap with a relaxed sigh. "Hey, you may be better off in bed this time." You suggested to him, carefully placing two of the water bottles beside him.

"No," He insisted, lifting from his hunched posture and clawing his shirt up his back to pull over his head. "Here..." Broly turns to look over his shoulder at you, just in time for your hand to mess with his naturally touseled hair. You can't say you didn't try to warn him. He scrunches his face as a disgruntled hum leaves him and he sways away from your hand to hold his head. You recognize the display when he leans his head back against the chair and smile teasingly at him.

"Are you suuure?" You coo adoringly, invitingly even, placing your own water bottle against his head to help soothe him. He leaned into the cool touch with closed eyes, taking in the comforts of the relief and your attention on him since he felt like crap at the moment. You didn't think he drank as much as you did. In fact, he couldn't have had more than just a few— you ordered his drinks for him. While you took advantage of the free drinks to experiment with combinations of flavors and test your own tolerance for fun, you were sure to keep his simple as you knew he had a wariness for new foods and drinks. Maybe a single shot and top-shelf tequila cocktails weren't the best places to start for a first time, but you rarely see a saiyan consume too much of anything they can't walk off. Broly continues to surprise you with how different he is from the saiyans you knew for years. You started to feel bad for him, looking at his flushed face and tense brow but he was still holding it together very well.

"Aww, my tough guy." You leaned over and kissed the back of his hand where it pushed up his bangs and blocked his forehead. "It'll pass." You held out your water bottle in front of him and broke the seal, removing his hand from his forehead and placing the open bottle in his hand. "Drink up."

The first sip was gentle, almost hesitant to ingest another thing and testing the coldness against his mouth before the rest disappeared from the bottle in a matter of seconds. To get the last drop, the bottle itself folded in his large with a loud crinkling. Already he is starting to feel somewhat better. You brush his forehead and ease back to stand up, his hand grabbing your wrist before you could walk away. A firm and urging enough hold to literally pull you around the chair and into his lap. Quick enough to make your own drunken head spin for a moment, planting your hands against his warm chest to right yourself up.

"Stay here with me." He earnestly invited.

"I was just goin' to get some more water." You managed to laugh out, surprised by his persistence to keep you close.

"Stay." Broly murmured with tense brows again and you feel the crushed water bottle against your back as he pulls you in closer. He feels compelled to keep you close to him and less abash about it, whether that was driven by how awful he feels or not. He is normally more careful of you, only hesitating with you when wrought with worry of not doing something right or doing too much and of course being certain to keep his internal state in line. But he really didn't want you to disappear into your room for the night and in your state, you're really not against conceding to his urgency to keep you close.

You're delighted by his assertions, a side of him you've rarely seen outside of watching him train now viewed so seductively. There is an ironic attraction in witnessing glimpses of something that could easily make you submit, and a beauty of it choosing to surrender instead. This was certainly a look into the former.

He will take care of you too if it meant you would stay with him. Broly takes one of the water bottles off his side and opens it up for you. Not waiting for you to take it, but pressing the nozzle to your lips and letting the chilled water pour into your mouth. You could only balance it on your lips to carefully swallow it down. Cold and refreshing. You tilt your head back and he tilts the bottle higher to let it flow, spilling over the corner of your lips and causing you to grasp each side of the bottle with your hands. You're certainly not matching his record time, but willing to take as much of it as you could before pushing the unfinished bottle away with a replenished sigh.

This feels familiar; feeding you more than you can handle and watching you accept the challenge anyways as he has done to you so many times before. But this isn't that. And yet, you wipe your mouth with your tongue and with your hand scrapped the droplets back up your neck to slurp them. Just like you always do.

"You look like you want to eat me." You point out his unwavering stare with a gentle chuckle, placing your hands back on his chest and leaning forward. "Do you want me like I want you right now?" The water bottle started to crackle in his tense hand and you can feel the other up your back, crushed bottle slipped from his hand in favor of your curves instead.

"You want... me?"

Your nails on his scars and inebriated eyes dim further with lust, you bite your bottom lip as a last-ditch effort to contain yourself but your desires are quick to rise and possess your vulnerable state. "Real bad..." Uttered in a soft whine. You stole a kiss and indulged the selfishness, letting your body lead you where it wanted to be and opting to guide the venture into satisfaction as the norm. You are answered in kind and suddenly overpowered by large arms cozying you in closer and Broly's mouth wanting to steal the cold remnants on your tongue.

Affirming Broly's desire, you were not going to leave him tonight.

Every attempt of yours to drive this further is perceived and stolen by his own lead: clothing purposefully shed by his hands, pillows and water bottles carelessly cast to the floor so he could lie back and fit your legs at each side of him. All you could do was hold on, adjust where he placed you, and anticipate. The forwardness and haste of his actions, and pauses in between to kiss you a little deeper, a little more when you pulled on his shoulders wrapped you in knots around his finger. Practically suffering with his body between your thighs and trying to work up friction against the growing wetness.

The more his hands found your skin, the harder it was to be heedful of his restraint. That impulse that had already wooed you. Broly pulls your hip up against his lower stomach, acting on muscle memory and hot instinct to drag his rough finger along your glistening slit. He lifts your ass with his other hand and coats his finger in back-and-forth motions to allow it to slip inside you. Digging to spread and excite, kindling the joy of giving you pleasure and you wiggling against the thickness of his touch. You're thankful to be so involved with a fast and grateful learner. But this was tedious and not what you wanted now— to simply jump into it is what your body cried out for.

You sit yourself up enough to reach behind you to feel around for his lap and position his cock behind you. He looks up at you with a husk in his breath and looks into your eyes as if he could see your thoughts, withdrawing his finger and letting you settle into the spread from the pulsing head. Bravely sinking further down with eager rolls in your hips to find the perfect angle to let more of his swelling length inside. Mixing his heat with your own until you couldn't take anymore. It was enough to thrill your roused nerves to hold on tight and tease your buttons. Perhaps the alcohol coursing in your system was making it all the more easier to drive yourself to cum. You take what you could with heated breaths, riding his cock from your knees with one hand rubbing at your clit and the other balanced on his chest.

A blessed sight, Broly licking at his lips with an affectionate groan and supporting your arm with his other hand caressing your cheek. It was all to keep from forcing himself beyond your limits, though you did get a jerk or two from his hips kissing against the deeper corners of pleasure. Something he's used to, but you've never just stuck him inside you without the foreplay you encouraged so much. A flow of pleasure that came so fast, a corrupting taste of action he would want more of. Broly's head felt full and fuzzy from drunken wonder and instant gratification. All that was left to do was cum. He was relaxed by the rock of your body in his lap and looking up at your motions through his bangs.

His vision wanes and he closes his eyes pulling your chest down to his to blindly kiss you, wanting more of you to indulge with his arms wrapped around your upper back. You adjust your knees to sink a little further with a deep whine against his lips and drag your hips into the coils of pleasure built up inside, filling your hands with his face to kiss him more.

The eagerness of his lips ebbed away, as did his firm hold on your body. It suddenly felt quiet and you lift up to look upon his flushed face, listening to the soft breaths falling out of his parted lips and drawing your hips still. He couldn't be...

"Broly?" You speak up, then again more firmly. "Broly." You gently pat his face in your hand only to feel the weight of his head sink against the cushioned arm of the chair. You pursed your lips in a mix of feelings. Mostly disappointed, but amused. Trying not to break out into a laugh right in his face that even with a hard-on, you had effectively, regrettably, put the drunk saiyan to sleep. There was a lot to take in about that, but you did have quite an eventful evening. And it's not like you could be angry at such a peaceful expression. Truly a man who had yet to know how to hold his liquor. You slide your hands from his face and rub at his scarred chest letting your insides release his cock. Getting comfortable on his chest as well. You were quite frustrated, but you knew he would make it up to you.