#my favorite example has to be the thin man from little nightmares

[multishipper-baby]

You know, I really like it when characters don't have names and are instead referred by impersonal titles or descriptors. I think it adds a little bit more mystery and appeal to them- really has the energy that nobody knows who or what they really are.

[little-nightmares-quotes]

I watched SuperHorrorBro’s analysis of Little Nightmares 2 and while I enjoyed the video, I can’t help but balk at the way he characterized a lot of Six’s actions in the game.   Spoilers under the cut

So, in his video he calls Six “sadistic,” and “says that there is a darkness festering within her.”  His examples of this are when she kills the unaware bully towards the end of the school level, and her snapping the fingers of a mannequin while waiting for Mono to return in the hospital.  

I don’t think either of those show that Six is secretly malicious.  I see those, and a lot of the other incidents in the game as trauma responses.  

PTSD-- especially in children-- is not always this easily digestible disconnection from the world.  Just because there are ugly symptoms does not mean that the person experiencing those symptoms is evil.  

One of the more common responses in children is to reenact trauma through play.  While we don’t know Six’s entire history, we do have a general idea of the terrible things that she’s seen given the world that they live in.  Breaking mannequin fingers could just be emulating what she has seen in an attempt to try and process it.  

Killing the bully-- well, for one thing, Mono has killed many bullies.  He’s not evil for doing so.  For another, fits of violence and rage are not unheard of in PTSD, especially not when the person experiencing it is in real, actual danger.  

It’s interesting to note that people only develop PTSD when they’ve had time away from the dangers around them.  Six had that time in the hunter’s shack.  

As far as I’m concerned, the hunter had no idea that Six was living in his home.  The way he acts when you encounter him clearly indicate he’s not the kind to take prisoners.  I think Six decided to hide out there as a respite from the outside world, which would give her mind time to settle down and try to sort out the hell that she lives in.  

When Mono breaks down the door to her room, she likely feels as though the jig is up, and she can no longer stay in the hunter’s cabin because he’ll notice the busted down door.  So she has to run, and try to escape to a safer place with Mono in tow.  

On the ride from the Wilderness to the Pale City, SuperHorrorBro notes how Six is “strangely withdrawn.”  Withdrawal being another symptom of PTSD, and not something I found strange at all given the circumstances.  

The only thing off about Six’s actions, really, was how she treated Mono in the end.  I read some great comments on why Six might let him go.  I don’t want it to be outright malicious power lust, as I find that a boring characterization for what could be a fascinating and rich character.  My favorite interpretation is, surprisingly, also SuperHorrorBro’s.  

“Six is a survivor,” he says, “And Mono puts her in dangerous situation after dangerous situation.”  And that is very true.  I always wondered why Six appeared at the TV with you whenever you were ejected, but it was because she was pulling Mono out, so that he could not awaken the Thin Man.  Were it not for Mono, Six would likely still be safe with her music box in the basement of the hunter’s cabin.  

So I think that when she drops him, she doesn’t do so out of malice.  She drops him because it is the reflex of a scared mind desperately trying to survive.  She drops him because she is angry that he would take her from what is likely the only safety she has ever known.  She drops him because the Signal Tower brings out the worst in you.  

It feeds on your fears and insecurities, and in a world like Little Nightmares, those pains run abundant.  We can see it do the same thing to Mono in the ending scene.  He finally has time to reflect on the things that have happened to him.  As he stands on the chair, the tower bears down on him as he cowers until he accepts what it wants of him-- to become the Thin Man, to start the cycle over.  To fester on the betrayal and the trauma and perpetuate it for the Signal Tower Once more.  

We also see it in the secret ending, where it is revealed Shadow Six from the first game is the result of a glitch from the Signal Tower.  The glitch allows the Signal Tower to cling to her, to influence her even when she’s far beyond its reach.  

I think there’s a much deeper narrative going on here about the cycle of abuse and PTSD than just, “Six is evil because she’s evil and she betrayed Mono because she’s evil.”  

[queen0fm0nsterz]

*Slides a 5 dollar bill* So what are some of your ideas for those Little Nightmares fics?

OH BOY ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO KNOW.

Weeeell, I have various idea that I'm writing down all at the same time. I'll list the various AUs here.

The Gang! AU

Ok no this isn't some sort of Criminal AU, I literally didn't know what to name it JSKDKS

Anyway, I'm actually writing this along with a friend of mine. It's based on a rp we had and it's quite long. We're writing one chapter each, I'm currently finishing chapter five. It kinda follows the story of Little Nightmares 2, but at the same time is canon divergent. Does that make sense?

We added two of our kid OCs to travel with Mono and Six!

Their names are Zip and Emerald respectively, from left to right! Zip was made by my friend while Emerald is my kid. The art was done by me!

They're not the only OCs we made for this story; we also have five glitch kids, a couple of bullies and a patient from the Hospital.

Since it's long, we decided to split it into three parts. The first part takes place in the Pale City, the second part in the Maw and the third in a location made up by us that we're still crafting.

The good news: Mono doesn't get dropped and Runaway Kid is alive!

The bad news: everything else literally every single thing

It's gonna have a good ending, though. It's the least we can do after everything we put these kids through😭

Restaurant Maw! AU

Just the monsters of LN put in a modern setting! Not only that, it's Maw employees centric!

Basically in this AU the Maw is a very well-known restaurant and hotel, in a very similar fashion to the bathouse in Spirited Away. The Lady is obviously the boss, the Ferryman becomes the driver of the Maw's personal bus, Roger is the keeper, Bellhop is still a bellhop and also the maître d'hotel (aka the guy who makes sure the guests are comfortable etc.), the Chefs are still the Chefs - their names are Bruce and Bernard! And lastly, the Nomes are a bunch of waiters, bellhops and cooks.

Things are going very well for eveyone until one day the Chefs go outside for a smoking break and they find a baby in a box. They take her in and keep her hidden for a couple of days before the Lady invitably finds out.

She decides to let them keep her with the condition that they raise her on their own and take care of all of her needs wihout bothering her - which of course doesn't happen at all and eventually all the employees in the Maw grow attached to baby Sawako nicknamed Six.

This one has all my favorite tropes: slice of life, found family, and I'm hoping to achieve comedy (which is very complicated for me because I have a very dramatic style).

Plus the Chefs are italian because I'm italian and I claimed them, so if you want to see one of them teach the Lady how to swear in italian you came in the right place.

RCG and the Pretender Live! AU

And they lived! I started writing this immediately after I finished VLN but I was blinded by pain so it's a little messy. I have to edit it.

But basically the point is: they survived! But are stuck on land. The first to wake up is RCG, who I named Valeria, and she spots the Pretender a few feet from her and realizes that somehow they both managed to float ashore. Luckily for her, the Nest is now very far away, although they can still see it from the distance.

At first she wants to leave the Pretender there, but then decides to bring her along, tying her hands behind her back first. And so begins the girls voyage in the big wide world, trying to survive and becoming besties in the process.

Im debating wheter I want the Pretender to develop a little crush on RCG or not. Mhhhh. I'll let you guys know.

Mono Jumps in Time! AU

THIS ONE WAS INSPIRED BY THIS ADORABLE FANART BY @kelpermoosee !! Go check them out their art is adorable!!! This is also a Mono centric AU!

So basically! When Six is kidnapped by the Thin Man and Mono goes to save her, his high distress and strong, swirling emotions lead him to not only travel from a place to the next, but to also accidentally go back in time.

He jumps out from a TV but, surprise surprise, he's not in the Pale City anymore. He's landed right in front of the Pretender, who immediately takes a liking to him and wants him to be her new friend. Mono is extremely confused and at first and doesn't realize what happened, so obviously he tries to go back to the Pale City, but then he sees a girl in a yellow raincoat and immediately assumes she's Six.

He assumes that's where the Thin Man brought her, so he tries to run after her, but he's costantly hindered by either the Pretender or her staff. Will he ever get to "Six" and realize that he jumped in time? I'll decide, because this story is still under construction.

Six Forgets! AU

You know that quote from the comics?

"What's the last thing you remember? Tell me. If you don't tell us, you're sure to forget altogether."

Beautiful. And also what prompted me to come up with this AU.

Some things to clarify: the Eye is a collective conciousness that feeds off from negative emotions, the Thin Man lives but can't leave the Pale City, and The Lady is a grown up Six. The Maw kids from the comics are here! Plus a few OCs of mine.

And lastly: Six couldn't handle the guilt from dropping Mono and repressed all memories involving him altogheter, so she completely forgot about him.

Six gets on the Maw, but this time instead of waking up in a suitcase, she's brought to Roger adn the other children by the Ferryman. There, she befriends a few children but no one gets closer to her than the Runaway Kid. They both want to be free and plan an escape together.

In the meantime, Mono is still trapped in the Signal Tower, but he's convinced that Six let him slip by accident and that she'll come back for him. (The Eye is very frustated with him bc they be planning on feeding on his sadness and rage and then he has the audacity to be hopeful? The nerve!) That's until he gets a glimpse of his best friend and this unknown child through one of the TVs on the Maw, joking and playing with each other, and she confesses to this... no one, really, that he's the best friend she's ever had.

As you can imagine, Mono goes feral. The Eye couldn't be happier.

Chaos ensues! We got a lot of angst, violence, Monster!Mono and also some wholesome moments. Also out of context spoiler: RK and Six lead a revolution.

The Lost Ones

This one is just a bunch of quick drabbles that talk about the glitching remains. They all deserved better.

Hunter and Veronica

I was not gonna miss the occasion of writing simp hunter. Take it or leave it.

Based on my Hunter theory!

My beautiful terrible disaster of a man works on the Maw as a chef, but no one really knows why since he's not good at it. Fortunately, the vast majority of the Guests is just too hungry to care and the current Lady, a woman with a scarecrow mask, doesn't want to fire him. A few Guests have complains, though; for example, a Teacher who seemingly never blinks and a very massive Doctor, whom he befriends.

One day, a filming crew gets on the Maw and the Lady informs her staff that they will be staying for a while to film a commercial-documentary of the restaurant, which will bring more and more Guests. With the crew came a famous, very talented chef named Veronica who has her own extremely successful cooking show, who offers to help the current chef as a thank you for letting them stay without having to pay.

Initially the Hunter is not too happy about this. In his eyes he doesn't need the help, but they start getting closer and closer with time.

This will probably be wholesome but end in a very bad, tragic way. I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not lol

✓✓✓

And that's it for now. I have some other things planned with my monster OCs (btw y'all wanna see them?), but this is the whole thing. It may be updated in the future since I always seem to get more and more ideas!

[sk1fanfiction]

the many faces of tom riddle, part 5

 - more myth than man... or not? the mortality of tom riddle and the anatomy of a villain-

That leaves us with Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of adult Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort in movies 4-8.

I generally find adult Tom Riddle disappointing, even in the books, in terms of character depth. Instead of delving into his motivations and the inner psychology of a villain, we get... slight body horror? And in the movies, it’s even more egregious. 

If a story is as good as its villain, adult Tom Riddle is a bit of a let-down, especially on-screen.

“I was ripped from my body, I was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost . . . but still, I was alive.”

Perhaps the very first time I watched it, I found this scary, but I must confess that nowadays, Voldemort’s resurrection is more funny to me than anything else. The forked tongue and the nose slits, yes, are supposed to allude to Tom Riddle’s loss of humanity, but I don’t think it...worked out that way in practice.

I know that’s how it is in the books, but ugly equals evil (and vice versa) is a tired trope. not only that, but under the CGI, Lord Voldemort is so difficult to relate to, so inhuman, that it’s hard to (1) see his true depravity (2) connect with him emotionally (3) at least for me, not laugh at him flapping around the graveyard in GOF like an oversized crow. 

Now, the reason I’m going on about this is not (just) me being petty. Lord Voldemort is the Boggart for most of the characters in the HP universe, meaning their greatest fear is Lord Voldemort. He represents Fear; as such, he should be utterly terrifying. Now, I don’t mean horrifying in that sense, but Voldemort’s grand entrance should at least feel somewhat unsettling, have some sort of a Gothic atmosphere...

"But then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron."

Visually, this looks great. But it’s not scary. And I’m not a purist by any means, but the words are scarier than the book. Darkness induces fear. 

“The lack of any kind of visual stimuli increases anxiety, uncertainty, and tension.”

So, having Voldemort’s pale body materialize isn’t as scary as it could be.

Furthermore, I think Fiennes’ overexaggerated expressions would actually come across as properly horrifying/threatening rather than funny if they just left his face alone. Yes, Fiennes does manage to emote the fear and the anger through the CGI, but it’s like he’s too alien to be scary, at least to me. The amount of memes with Voldemort suggest I’m not the only one this way inclined.

I think there’s probably a problem going on with the uncanny valley. (Images from the Mori essay linked).

[When things are still]

[Creepy things are creepier when moving]

Now, I assume Voldemort is meant to be zombie-creepy, or at least that how Harry describes him in the books.

"The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry...and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's but with slits for nostrils...."

Now, we can’t get Harry’s experience of being haunted by Voldemort in his dreams, because what I think makes Voldemort’s countenance so truly frightening to the other characters isn’t his snake-like nose or his red eyes, but the potential. Voldemort is, in essence, the Grim Reaper. You are at his mercy, and you’re probably going to be dead. 

“This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour.“

And yes, Voldemort can be quite funny and witty, but..

“I will allow you to perform an essential task for me, one that many of my followers will give their right hands to perform.” (To Peter Pettigrew)

...it’s still incredibly dark, sadistic humour. Whereas the teenage Tom Riddle we’ve been discussing has just barely dipped his toes into evil, Voldemort is, well... swimming in it. At this point, he think he undeniably enjoys causing pain.

And much of what makes Voldemort scary is subtle. 

For example, what I personally consider haunting is the fact that he’s got a cave full of Inferi. A cave full of reanimated dead bodies. 

Either he dug them up, which is unlikely... or perhaps, a twenty-seven-or-so-year-old Tom Riddle would lie in wait like a bird of prey, very quietly and patiently, perhaps reading a book, waiting for an unsuspecting Muggle to wander past. Maybe killing is a game to him at this point, when it’s not so personal as killing Harry Potter. Maybe it’s a whispered Avada Kedavra, and then he carries the dead body away to his cave. Maybe he Imperiuses them to walk off the cliff. Maybe he tortures them first.

Shudder.

And I don’t think you can show that kind of horror through any CGI or make-up, so...

You know what is terrifying? Revolting? True crime; real-life people who do unspeakably horrible things. And I think a lot was missed out on, in stripping Tom Riddle physically of his humanity. Yes, Riddle is a monster...

But, as we’ve seen, he’s a human monster, not some eldritch horror from the seventh level of hell or something.

I just think it would be interesting to have this perfectly normal-looking human do all the horrific things Voldemort does. I want to see that sick joy in a human face and feel disgusted. I want to see fear make his bottom lip tremble, and feel a misplaced sense of empathy. (Think President Snow from the Hunger Games -- now, that’s a sick, twisted villain who we can relate to as a human being, but still love to hate -- or what about The Joker?).

And out of everything they chose to CGI, why on earth did they not make his eyes scarlet? That might have made him look at least somewhat menacing, rather than a failed lab experiment.

(Don’t even get me started on his and Bellatrix’s death scenes in the movies-)

Here’s President Snow. He’s got a cute little granddaughter, he sends kiddies to kill each other Battle Royale-style every year, and he poisons all his political opponents. He’s also a master manipulator and has a penchant for white roses. They cover up the smell of the sores in his mouth from eating the poison too, to conceal his treachery.

Heath Ledger as the Joker in Dark Knight (2008), who is, according to NYT (which I totally agree with), the best Joker. Now this is a villain done right, with many Voldemort-like traits. On a scale of one-to-ten, he’s absolutely terrifying. Why? He’s (unlike Voldemort in the movies) incredibly intelligent, shows young-Tom-Riddle-like skills for charm and manipulation, plays with humans like they’re his own personal psychology experiment (and to hell with the Institutional Review Board), and has one, single, very clear goal -- chaos. Like Voldemort, he wears an inhuman mask that’s not horrifying in its own right; but unlike Voldemort, the human is all there -- terrifying, real, and with a bottomless, obsessive desire to destroy. His disordered thinking is all out there for the audience to see. The Joker’s motivation is to enjoy himself; whereas Voldemort seems to lack drive. Why does he want to take over the world -- who knows, with Voldemort? The Joker wants to see it burn.

Let’s try to do the same with Lord Voldemort:

[SLIGHT FLASH WARNING]

I had to go with this because Voldemort isn’t legitimately terrifying in many scenes. And yes, this unrefined anger somewhat speaks to Tom’s immaturity

By this point, seventy-one year old Tom Riddle is a hollowed-out shell of a human being. After decades of building his power, he was defeated by a one-year-old, and ended up slumming it as a spirit for a decade, got defeated again, was a shrivelled-up baby for a year, then finally got his body back.

He’s angry, okay! And Fiennes does a great job of portraying the sheer, destructive, unbridled rage of this character.

The body language. again, since his face is inhuman, this is super important. and Fiennes’ body language is great. Voldemort/Riddle commits to his actions. He is very emotionally-driven.

But yet, he doesn’t feel capable, in the way that the Joker or President Snow do. Yeah, we know anecdotally that he’s incredibly evil, sadistic, and second only to Dumbledore in terms of power, but he loses to a baby, and then that same baby as a teenager. So, we really could have done with seeing Voldemort’s power, cruelty, and evil firsthand a lot more often.

Voldemort is not well-characterized. I don’t understand his motives, and the ones that I do understand are not compelling.

Not to die? Well, he’s already made several Horcruxes. Why not sit back and relax? Why start a war and risk himself?

JKR said that Voldemort’s great desire was to become all-powerful and eternal. But that’s... boring! It does little to tell us about Voldemort, other than that he’s a villain and a wannabe dictator. 

Furthermore, the charm, manipulation, and cunning that are hallmarks of younger Tom Riddle’s personality are gone.

Is Voldemort (to return to Jungian terms) all shadow? An empty creature of simple creation and destruction, perhaps? We’ll discuss this further down...

And this isn’t a problem of having a fantastical world with magic and the like. Grindelwald’s quiet, self-possessed, almost coy “So you think you can hold me?” was infinitely scarier than anything that has ever come out of Voldemort’s mouth. It was chilling. 

OOTP is my favorite book, and the Ministry sequence is one of my favourite in the films. 

This scene where he psyches out Harry, talking so quietly that he could just be a little voice inside his head (and again, during the possession scene)? Absolute perfection. 

Why? Because this showcases what’s truly scary about him. Voldemort can get into your head. He can make you do things. And perhaps, if we had seen that more often, we’d understand how scary he is.

I wish this had been his grand entrance, and not whatever that scene in GOF was. Somehow, him screeching “I WANT TO SEE THE LIGHT LEAVE YOUR EYES!” is not menacing. At all. 

But, I can’t help but think how much greater the emotional affect would be if he had more human features (think the burned-and-blurred, waxy features from Dumbledore’s memory). 

Just imagine these scenes if Voldemort looked human, and spoke as quietly as he did in this one.

Because of the reason that I have little to go on in terms of characterization that I haven’t already covered, we’ll discuss the myth and legend of Lord Voldemort.

I can’t decide if the statue in the films is supposed to be the Angel of Death or the Grim Reaper. He has a skeleton and carries a scythe, but he also has wings. There are so many different interpretations, attitudes towards, and personifications of Death across the world that I don’t want to draw any one conclusion. But I must wonder if Lord Voldemort, with his yew-and-phoenix wand (which carries heavy symbolism of immortality and rebirth) and almost deified figure is meant to be a personification of Death himself? His name, Lord Voldemort, is a shade close to Lord Death.

For years, it has stumped me that wizards and witches are afraid to utter Voldemort’s name, especially since we only see the Taboo in the middle of the last book. It didn’t make sense just based on fear; in the real world, we don’t circumvent Hitler’s name, for example.

Perhaps this may have been obvious to others, but it wasn’t to me.

Here’s a counterargument to myself; why Voldemort shouldn’t look human.

Voldemort, in the Wizarding World, is seen as a literal deity.

I promised to attempt to answer this question in Part 3: 

And so, I can’t help but wonder if the opposite is true… if Tom Riddle creates Horcruxes, would that grant him additional magic powers?

In Part 3, I likened Tom Riddle to a sorcerer in Russian folklore, Koschei the Deathless, also famous for sequestering his soul in objects. This source suggests that Koschei was considered not an ordinary magician, but a representative of the ‘other’ world, the world of death.

So, what if... creating Horcruxes makes you... more than human? Now, I could definitely see god-like status being appealing to sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle. Perhaps, even appealing enough to kill for. Now, his proclivity for Avada Kedavra makes sense. We know it’s an incredibly sinister spell, but at the same time, it’s a very humane way to kill. Why might it be so horrifying?

Here’s a weird theory.

To the best of my knowledge, no one but Voldemort is seen using the Killing Curse more than once or twice. 

Perhaps, ordinary mortals can only cast Avada Kedavra a few times, but Tom, having split his soul and having become in some way a non-human instrument of Death, can cast it however many times as he likes, and that is part of what serves to make him so terrifying.

This makes the idea of Voldemort tossing around Avada Kedavras actually incredibly terrifying, if you take into account what that might mean.

The collective cultural fear of speaking Voldemort’s name supports this theory.

Take the chthonic (underworld) deities of Greek mythology; most notably, Hades and Persephone, the king and queen of the underworld.

Hades, the god of the dead, was feared. 

So feared that the word ‘Hades’ (”the unseen one”) was so frightening, that people came up with all sorts of euphemisms to circumvent actually saying it and he was rarely even depicted in art. For example, they would refer to him as Pluto (”the rich one”), Clymenus ("notorious"), Polydegmon ("who receives many"), and perhaps Eubuleus ("good counsel" or "well-intentioned"), amongst many other names. 

However, he was not seen as evil; just stern, cruel, and fair. Like most Greek gods, he had an associated cult (the Death Eaters, anyone?)

Another interesting connection between Hades and Voldemort is that Hades was associated with snakes.

Persephone (suggested to have a pre-Greek origin and probably pre-dates Hades), who was also a vegetation/fertility/spring goddess, similarly, was referred to as Despoina (”the mistress”), Kore (”the maiden”), etc, because as the terrible Queen of the Dead, it was considered unsafe to speak her name aloud. In mythology and literature, she is sometimes referred to as ‘dread Persephone.’

--Just like how Lord Voldemort is referred to as The Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who... (and if you’re Dumbledore, ‘Tom’.)

Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis (which was basically a mystery cult devoted to her and her mother, Demeter), which promised immortality to initiates.

We don’t know for certain what exactly went on, because, mystery cult -- the members were sworn to secrecy -- but it revolved around immortality and rebirth and possibly psychoactive drugs. 

Perhaps ironically, in comparison to the Death Eaters, anyone could join, as long as they could speak Greek and had never committed murder.

And that concludes my assessment!

[djmarinizelablog]

hi! read your last ask and you said that you took up creative writing classes so you might have a wider knowledge about this but i was wondering when u mentioned different writing styles (like minimalistic, hightened imagery, linear vilennete and all of that) could you maybe explain the difference and what they really mean and maybe examples in our own levihan nation and writers? this might be asking for too much but i was pretty lost and i'd like to know more about all that. however you are def free to ignore this too!

Did you just ask me to write a comprehensive poetics essay, Anon? (I love writing about writing lmao)

Super long post ahead, and I’ll be citing certain fanfics that I’ve read so far and those that I think somehow exemplifies all the different writing styles I mentioned in the previous post. 

First off, the ones I listed beforehand (minimalistic prose, heightened imagery, poetic language, linear narrative, non-linear vignettes) aren’t the only types of writing styles. There are more if you consider the variations of tone (humor/comedy, sentimental, macabre, noir etc), narration/perspective (first person, second person, third person omniscient/limited), and language (dialogue-heavy or action/scene-driven). And the nice thing is that you can actually use of one or two of them in your work---or all of them, if you’re feeling bold. 

As Hange always loves to do: “Let’s experiment!”

--------

I’ll start with minimalistic prose. It is what it is: short, clear, and concise. Think less is more. You have an economy with words where you disregard most adverbs and focus more on the context to make way for meaning, thus allowing the readers to create their own interpretations of your writing. I think the method here is to write your intended draft first, and then cut the unnecessary words to flesh out the scene even more.

Notice how @stereobone wrote this paragraph of Black Dog (an Eruri fic):

Isabel's voice wakes him, brother, brother, has him sitting upright in bed and grabbing for the knife under his mattress. He braces himself for the attack before he realizes there isn't one. There is nothing in the darkness but him and his heavy, panicked breathing. Levi's heart feels like it's trying to beat its way out of his chest. He drops the knife on the mattress and shuts his eyes and tries not to think about Farlan's bloody resigned face before he was eaten. He tries not to think about how he left them. How it's his fault.

It’s very simplistic in language; the paragraph lets you focus on Levi’s innermost thoughts while he deals with an external action (ie, having nightmares). The author hasn’t unraveled the rest of the plot yet, but you already know where the tension is coming from.

Next is heightened imagery. If you’re familiar with the different figures of speech (metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc), then this is where they all come into play. I think the challenge here is being able to balance it well with the text itself and make sure that the imagery actually clarifies the context of the paragraph instead of convoluting the intended meaning. 

Here’s an excerpt from A Dangerous Game by just_quintessentially_me:

Hanji watched Levi, standing there, head bent and bloodied handkerchief pressed against his arm, and was reminded, irrationally, of a night years ago. When her parents had taken her to the circus. [. . . .] Holding her parent’s hands, she’d gaped, head craned back as she watched the spectacle, a cacophonous mixture of sound and color. At the center of it all, she’d spied a boy. Among the twisting colors and tricks, he alone, was still. [. . . .] The boy was high above, balancing on a platform atop a long pole. In front of him, stretched an audaciously thin rope. Below, no net waited to catch him.

[. . . .]

When Levi looked up, his expression was set - like the boy before the tightrope. And she knew, with sinking certainty, he was going to take the step. Into thin air.

Gray eyes met her gaze and held it.

“Yeah. I’ll go.”

At the door, Kenny smiled.

See how the powerful imagery of the boy on the tightrope was able to fuel the tension in that moment among Levi, Hange, and Kenny? 

I think poetic language is akin to heightened imagery, except that the former is more focused on the actual language. It’s very lyrical, wherein you can actually hear the lulling song of the sentences in a rhythm. One of my favorite works that does this is Deep sea baby by @smallblip. Here she makes use of various setting and scenery to create this entire atmosphere of Levi and Hange’s relationship:

Hanji knows whatever life they've led, this is her favourite.

The one in which her and Levi see the sea for the first time together.

The one in which she’s the Commander, and him, her Captain. And between them, a river of words left unsaid threatening to break the banks.

One day they must cross the ocean, but today they visit the shores again, without the kids this time. And Levi learns why when he watches her peel at her clothes. Her harness comes off first, then her blouse, then everything else, like a little dance for an audience of one. Levi tries not to stare, but he’s already seen her by candlelight in the dead of the night. And yet she never fails to take his breath away.

She makes her way to where the white foams dredge the past up the shores of the present.

"Come on Levi! The water is warm!" she says, and he hears it like a call to come home- where the heavens collide with the sea.

He takes off his clothes and folds them in a neat pile beside Hanji's mess. He swims out to join her.

It’s hauntingly poetic, the way the author is able to connect the metaphor in “a river of words” to the actual body of water right in front of Levi and Hange. Good poetic language is able to tighten up the texts together while keeping the sentence structure flowing with apt figures of speech.

When it comes to narratives, it only comes down to linear or non-linear. See how @lostcauses-noregrets does her opening statement in Trains (also an Eruri fic):

Levi hates trains. To be fair, Levi hates all forms of public transport, but he reserves a particular loathing for trains. They’re dirty, noisy, smelly and worse, filled with people. People who, heaven forbid, might attempt to speak to Levi, engage him in conversation. Levi’s worst nightmare is being stuck on a train with some friendly fuck who wants to pass the time making small talk. Admittedly it’s not a problem he has to deal with too often, his general fuck off demeanour deters all but the most aggressively friendly and hopelessly inebriated. But that doesn’t stop Levi from hating trains.

It’s a short fic and it’s very dependent on the linearity of events happening. But with that banger of a first sentence, the beginning already gives you enough of an idea of Levi’s pet peeve in the story, which in this case, is trains.

Here’s another hot and steamy fic called keep him waiting by keobuns that shows a linear narrative: 

He’s sitting with them in the back of the lab, nursing a cup of tea — it’s still pretty full, and even cold now, for he was far too distracted listening to Hanji talk to properly drink — when he sees it. Hanji’s too preoccupied with overexplaining the same Titan experiment they’ve gone over a hundred times to notice his stare. They just continue on and on and on, gesturing with their hands, pointing with their fingers, flexing their wrists…

Ah. Levi has to bring his teacup to his lips to hide the way his lips tremble. Hanji has incredibly nice hands.

The entire story just revolves around Levi simping for Hange’s hands and how it all goes down from there. But you as a reader are kept wanting more with every paragraph and every sentence that the author constructs (and trust me, it’s not just the sexual tension between Levi and Hange that keeps us going).

Now, as much as I love the straightforwardness of linear prose, non-linear writing brings a different round of ideas onto the table. It can create recollections from flashbacks, heighten the perspective or interior turmoil of a character due to trauma or grief, or even just re-invent what-if scenes that the characters have imagined themselves. 

Gnossiene by @thatalmondgirl​ is one of my all-time favorite Rivetra fics. In this excerpt, you will see how she switches between the past and the present, and how it affects Petra’s POV as a conflicted character:

Contrary to popular belief (fuck Auruo) Petra actually didn’t cry easily.

Alright, she could admit that at some times, she was...emotional. It was far from a weakness, but even she could admit that they sometimes got in the way and walled off all rational thought. Anger, frustration, sadness, hell, even happiness. The only one she could easily compartmentalise away was fear, which probably stemmed from her military career. Even so. It was never easy to separate all the others from her actions, think from a clean slate like the Commander could do, like the captain. [. . . ] Petra groaned, splayed out across her bed. She drew her arm across her eyes, willing the tears to go away. She’d already blown through her tissue box.

“Petra, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Mama sat on the end of her bed, with Petra on the floor between her legs. Even though Petra argued firmly that she was old enough to brush her own hair, Mama had insisted. Unfortunately, Petra wasn’t old enough - and probably never would be - to disagree with her mother.

“I know, Mama.” Petra grumbled.

“I don’t think you do. Else you wouldn’t be crying, would you?”

[. . . .]

“But a man shouldn’t complete you when you complete yourself. Maybe he’s an extension to your house. So you’ll be sad if the extension is compromised or burns down. But you still have the main house. And if it’s strong, the main house can still be standing even after the worst storm.”

Aside from Mama’s crazy metaphors that sometimes didn’t make sense, her message hit home. Even if it hit home years later.

See how it switched in between the before and after? 

An off-shoot of non-linear writing are vignettes (a layering of scenes separated by section breaks) wherein this writing style allows writers to curate scenes in terms of fragments, creating some kind of mosaic for the readers once they finally see the big picture. Nakimochiku’s I’m leaving, are you coming with me? stacks up scenes of interactions between Levi and Hange, enough to depict the kind of relationship that they have as young lovers in a school setting. You can string these fragments together, rearrange them in a different order, but in the end, you will still get the author's clear goal of highlighting how Levi and Hange’s relationship develops over time.

Those are the styles that I mentioned in my previous posts, but as I’ve told you, there’s more to writing than those, so I’ll give a short run-through of other methods in writing. 

Whether it’s dialogue-heavy works such as from my window to yours, or action-driven scenes like Carnivores (a Levi x Reader fic by CaptainDegenerate) that propel the story forward, we as readers should be able to follow through the actual storyline that the authors intend to take us. 

A third-person limited (we listen to Hange’s thoughts in Clockwork by @tundrainafrica) vis-à-vis an all-knowing/omniscient narration (the moon is dark by @sayonarasanity alternates the perspective of Levi and Hange) should be able to make us understand why the author chose this particular kind of point-of-view in order to tell the story. 

And lastly, having a solid and consistent tone throughout the work (the macabre of Even Humanity’s Strongest could make mistakes by Rimeko versus the sweet sentimentality of Flowers for You by @fanmoose12) should be able to set the atmosphere that the authors want us to imbibe as we read through their works. 

So there’s your crash course on writing and reading. Enjoy? :) 

[dangermousie]

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor   antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both  as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men   always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be  friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest  parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is  also finding the middle path between their two very different  philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or  dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and  setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period  setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with  character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our   protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant,   sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s  servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as  we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and  occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named   Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers  and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both  out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely  likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two  take up farming, get involved in  the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then  they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

[fanfictrashdump]

Universe in a Jar, 5 - Phase 4 fic

Recap: Some days ago, I reblogged this post about the magical trio. And then my brain went off on a monumental tangent and, I wrote Universe in a Jar.

Characters: Stephen Strange, Loki, Wanda Maximoff, Wong, OC

Rating: T?

Warnings: Language! Mentions of sexual encounters, sarcasm, terrible storytelling, and typos prob.

Summary: Baby-sitting beings arguably more powerful than him goes awry for Doctor Strange. He knows one person who can possibly keep them isolated and out of trouble. Well, he knew someone who could… he hasn’t seen them in decades and for stupid reasons.

Previous Chapter

XX

"You have to stop getting frustrated, pet. You know that is what's keeping you from achieving anything," Loki suggested gently, holding onto Persephone's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. The way the words rolled off his tongue gave indication of just how many times he had repeated them. His voice was still gentle, the way it always was when speaking to Persephone, a gentle urging rather than the acid tone he was known for, but the thinning of his patience was beginning to bleed through.

Persephone groaned, falling back onto the living room rug with a dramatic flail. "I know! I just–I can't visualize it!"

"We're just molding the glass. Taking your magic and giving it different shape," Wanda added, helpfully. Luckily, Seph couldn't see the grimace set on the witch's face. "Take the house, for example. How did you shape your portal to fit into your apartment so that you could stuff the farmhouse in it?"

"I didn't. I summon, it happens. Like a fluid, it just fills the shape of whatever it's in. I can't actually control it."

"You can," Loki interrupted her rant, "because I can. I already showed you that I can warp the walls. So, you can, too."

With a huff, she threw her forearm over her eyes, as if this shielded her from the rest of reality. "I don't understand how it works. I haven't needed to understand how it works. The books aren't helping and this is stupid!"

"Hey..."

Seph involuntarily flinched at Stephen's voice coming from beside her. When she peeked over her arm, she found him crouched down to her right, a calm look set on his face–very different from the borderline pitying and frustrated looks she was getting from the rest of the room.

"Here." He held out a bar of her favorite chocolate for her to take, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Where'd you get this?"

Stephen then smirked. "Portal'ed into Old Man James' shop. Can't believe he's still alive, by the way. He has to be a hundred and ten, by now." He shook the bar. "Go on. You know you need it. Studying isn't your thing."

Seph sat up quickly, fidgeting in her place as she fought with the wrapper. "I didn't tell you–I thought you were busy–I didn't intentionally not tell–"

"Hey, you're fine." He waved away her concern. "We both know I don't have the patience to teach."

"That's not true. What you lack is the desire."

He laughed. "That too." He paused just long enough to reach over and tear the wrapper in the corner. "I have some things to take care of at the Sanctum. Do you think you can manage with these two?" He offered a nod in response to hers and he rose to his feet. "Chocolate and a five minute break when she gets overwhelmed. Works miracles," he muttered to Loki as he brushed past and patted him on the back.

"Thanks, Stephen," Seph called after him as he walked through the portal he had just made by the door.

He waved it off for the second time that day, seeming so much more level-headed than she ever remembered him being, and disappeared into the Sanctum halls.

Loki and Wanda stared at each other before the witch plopped onto the sofa nearest Persephone. "Why aren't you asking Stephen to help? He seems to know how you function pretty well."

"Learning from him is a nightmare. He actually has all the patience in the world, but I get easily frustrated, and then he gets frustrated… It goes south very fast from there." She shrugged.

Wanda groaned. "You know, you two not having sex is putting a real damper on our progress."

"Wanda!"

Loki snorted somewhere beside her and Seph stuffed a chunk of chocolate into her mouth.

"She's not wrong, pet."

"Well, you're both going to have to deal with it, OK? This is not up for debate."

Persephone's brow furrowed as she concentrated once again on the veil between the worlds. So far, not even a glimmer was present in her efforts and it was getting more frustrating by the moment. Tutting quietly under his breath, Loki slipped onto the floor beside her. His hand trailed gracefully down her shoulder until he grasped her hand in his. Locking their fingers together, he gently pried her digits open with his own.

"Focus. Can you see where your magic touches reality?" With a shudder brought on by his velvety voice in her ear, she shook her head in the negative. "Can you feel it, then?" She gave a nod. "Stretch your hand to where you feel it begin." He followed her movements until their entwined fingers were nearly touching the wall. No one could deny the smile on Loki's face at the imperceptible twitch of her fingers as the static of magic prickled at the tips. "Your magic is something flowy. Like silk or satin." He hummed under his breath for a beat as he paused to think. "Maybe lighter. Like gauze or gossamer. It's curtain between realities, keeping Nebraska inside of New York. A house within an apartment. An infinite within another infinite. How much or how little one world seeps into the other depends on how much you open the curtain. You control the curtain and you need only to grasp the fabric," he closed his hand around hers, "and pull it open."

His hand moved both of theirs back and a sliver of boring beige wall peeked through the intricate wallpaper that filled the house. Persephone gasped, doubly so when Loki let his own hand drop and the gap between worlds still existed. Committing the sensation to memory, she opened her hand and reality sealed itself back again.

"Once more, love. Peel away the garments and let reality figure itself out," he murmured and another shiver ran down her spine. This time she didn't hesitate, and though her attempt was a little shaky, soon a swathe of beige was barely visible. "There's a clever girl." His fingers danced over the curve of her waist, prompting Seph to stare questioningly over her shoulder. Their eyes locked, eternities passing in quiet contemplation of each other.

"Monster, monster, monster!" Wanda called in a panic, magic swirling in her hands ready for attack.

Seph dropped the divider with a shriek at the sight of the twisted maw of what she assumed was a hell beast. The creature hissed and growled as it slipped through just shy of this reality stitching itself together. Without missing a beat, Loki flicked his hands forward and the monster dissolved into green sparks and stardust that flickered and sparkled on the hardwood floor.

"It's just a void hound. No need to panic," Loki announced matter-of-factly.

"A what, now?" Wanda asked, twisting her hands with sneer to rid the floor of whatever remained of the creature.

"Void hound. Your people call it the monster under the bed or the grim. It's just a shadow that slipped through the cracks in reality."

"You knew this could happen?" Seph had shuffled all the way back against an armchair and away from the walls.

"It's a possibility, but I was here. Besides, I just wanted to show you what was possible. You can open the walls between realities, but what you want to do is mold from the inside. Hounds can't slip in if you don't give them a place to slip into, after all."

"So," Wanda began, "if I hadn't been here and stopped you from eating each other's faces off, what would have happened?"

"Consumed by ever-looming darkness and despair in the void, most likely."

The short silence that followed nearly drained the color from their surroundings.

"Nope. No more magic. Don't need it. Bye." Seph rescued her chocolate bar from the corner it had been flung and was moving quite swiftly out of the living room.

Loki rolled his eyes, a little glad he was well out of her sight. "I was kidding, love! Nothing's going to harm you."

"Nope. I don't–" A loud screech interrupted her. In her distraction, she had not seen Stephen arrive and was not expecting the warm hand on her shoulder.

"Jesus, Peep! It's just me!" He glanced at Loki and Wanda with a disappointed look. "You get rid of it?"

"Yeah, Loki turned it into dust," Wanda retorted simply.

"Good." Stephen turned to look at Seph's tight-knit brow and wide eyes. "Why are you running away?"

Seph answered the question for one of her own that she deemed far more pressing. "There's monsters!?"

Stephen frowned. "Sorcerer, witch, alien sorcerer," he started, pointing at himself, Wanda, and Loki, in turn. "At what point did monsters become too implausible?"

"I don't want monsters!"

"Which is why I told them not to have you opening the veil, but clearly that bit of information didn't stick."

"You told–you knew I was doing this?"

Stephen couldn't help but smile at the little notch forming between her brows, even as his right thumb smoothed it away. He nodded as if there was nothing to it. "I asked them to. I knew you wouldn't ask for help to try out what you've read and I didn't want you to try on your own."

Persephone sighed, her head hanging forward between her shoulders as she tried to work out the situation in her head. She gave up shortly after starting. "Why?"

Stephen shrugged. "I want to fix my mistakes. This is what I can give you, right now. Skills, support, making sure you don't go out without proper tools in a very confusing world. It's not much, but–"

"Shut up, Steve!" There was an edge of exasperation in her tone, though her volume remained soft. "You really gotta learn when to skip self-deprecation station." She wrapped her arms loosely around his waist with a little groan that he replied with a quiet sigh and a gentle, almost hesitant kiss on her forehead.

"My Jiminy Cricket has been busy. I'm out of practice."

"I am not a cartoon cricket, Strange. Or your conscience, for that matter. You wouldn't be in this shitshow if I were," she mumbled from somewhere within the t-shirt he wore.

That pulled a heartfelt chuckle out of the Sorcerer. "You say that, but I call Loki a conceited twat–"

"Be nice!"

"–and that happens."

"To be fair," the Asgardian Prince cut in, "he's not entirely wrong. Though he mistakes conceit with confidence."

"Oh, no, I am confident you're a–" Persephone's hand slammed onto Stephen's mouth, though he continued mumbling behind the makeshift muzzle. He would later swear up and down that it was the principle of the thing that made him finish. Stephen peeled her hand off, shit-eating grin beaming at her. "Do you want some help with portals?"

"Help from the Sorcerer Supreme? Lucky girl." Wanda's tone earned her a half-hearted glare from the woman still clinging to said Sorcerer. "What? It's cute! Stephen pretending he's not still in love with you, you and Loki pretending you definitely don't want into each other's pants, all us pretending we're not delaying an inevitable, tragic end by hiding out–"

"You are way out of line, Wanda."

The witch stomped a warpath, eyes glowing red and tendrils of scarlet weeping from her person. Seph jumped back, sharing a short look with Loki, a mutual understanding to de-escalate the situation if it got too out of hand.

"And you have no idea what you're doing, Strange! We're wasting time. My family–"

"Is a manufactured fallacy! Do you know how many holes you created in the multiverse just because you wanted to play house with Vision? Wong's up to his neck in timelines to be corrected, which I can't help with because I don't want you rooting around my brain to figure out where they are!"

"Stephen…" The hand wrapped around his bicep both made him start and settled down his anger long enough to notice he had been poised to deliver a blow of equal magnitude as Wanda was planning. He snapped his fists closed, orange runes disappearing. "Peep, step back."

Ignoring the command, Seph stared at Wanda with a quirked brow. "Drop it."

"Persephone–" The witch's lip quivered.

"I know. I understand, Wanda. But you two have the potential to destroy each other. Let's not do this. Please." Everyone let out a collective breath when Wanda chose to cross her arms and avert her gaze. "Thank you." She squeezed the bicep in her hand again. "You know, the tractor has been stalling a lot. I'm pretty sure it's the injector." Stephen opened his mouth to protest. "Please. For me?"

The group watched Stephen nod curtly and turn on his heel, marching out the kitchen door towards the barn.

Loki cleared his throat, awkwardly. "I'll put the kettle on, shall I?"

"Thanks, Lo." Letting her shoulders sink, she stepped quietly towards the witch and opened her arms. "Come here." There was no hesitancy at how Wanda launched herself into Seph's embrace, promptly breaking into a sob. "I know, honey. I know."

Wanda's response was a half-choked and raspy, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. We'll all be fine." Seph led them to the sofa, gently carding her fingers through auburn tresses in an effort to soothe her friend.

"He just doesn't understand."

Persephone chuckled. "Oh, honey. That is not true. He probably understands better than anyone." She titled her head to catch Wanda's gaze. "He's been losing people his whole life. He's still convinced he's responsible for some of them."

Wanda pulled away, sinking into the back cushion with a scowl. "Then why won't he let me search for my family?"

"Every Universe is slightly different. It's an amalgamation of every alternate path to every decision. There are hundreds of millions of Universes and the one where your family is still alive, may also be the Universe where Thanos won, or Vision joined Ultron or you died. It wouldn't be your family." She shrugged. "In his own, twisted way, he's trying to protect you."

"I don't want his–"

"Protection. I know. But… can you trust that he's doing it for good reason? If you work with him instead of in spite of him, I think you'd get a lot farther."

She got a scoff in return. "I hate him."

Seph giggled. "Join the club. He has one of those faces… and attitudes… and egos."

She smiled up at Loki who had brought out a pot of tea and was precariously balancing two mugs atop it. Craning her neck, she glanced out of one of the back windows to see Stephen scuffing his way up the hill to the barn. Smirking, she slapped her thighs with a resolute nod and got herself out of the sofa.

"I need to go check on him. He'll probably come back and apologize, later. Thanks for your help, today. It was actually good to understand how the portals work." Just as she rounded the corner to exit the house, she paused, stepping backwards until she was back in the living room. "Just for the record, if you ever feel the need to comment on my or anyone's love life to get a barb in because you're frustrated, again, I will lock you in a box and you better hope to God that Stephen and Loki can get you out. Understood?" She held Wanda's gaze until the witch nodded, cheeks reddening. "Perfect. Thanks for the backup, Loki."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, smirking behind his mug and giving her a two-fingered salute before she disappeared out the kitchen.

[kneamet]

Reader and Freddie Page have three sons. Freddie is very proud of the boys. He is a good father. It's Christmas. Reader is crying in the bedroom. She wants to run away with boys from her husband, but she knows her sons love their father. Freddie comes to her. He says he knows she is thinking of running away. He promises her that if she does, he won't rest until he finds her.

Trigger Warning: kidnapping, obsession, yandere.

Word Count: 

Character: Freddie Page/reader

Summary: You've been living in the house with your husband, Freddie, and your three sons for a long time. However, it's a pity that they don't know that you want to run away

POV Your

You didn't like Freddie Page. Although that was an understatement, because sometimes, but lately more and more often, you felt a fierce hatred for him. You didn't understand him. He was the exact opposite of you, and he forced you to do it.

But you knew you had to restrain yourself. That you should break off your "friendship" early and do not do it, since Freddie needs a huge psychological and moral support. You really tried to help him. Understand his feelings. However, in the end, all your thoughts and common-sense motives were stuck in a post. You didn't know what to do with it or how to help him.

Trying to get him out of the ' 40s and the war that Freddie went through with a lot of hard work, you didn't realize that you were bumping into Page's hard back, because you didn't need to understand him. Including at the very beginning and pay attention to it. Why did you go to the damn pub in the first place? I wouldn't have run into trouble and an unbearable friend in the person of Freddie.

And it seemed like everything started out fine, you could even say that it was good. However, after the support and the fact that he told you everything was getting worse. Again, you shouldn't have mentioned who you work for in your conversations.

You didn't get approval for your work from anyone. Including from Freddie. Apparently, he didn't want to accept that a delicate and delicate girl like you would do such things. But for you, it was normal.

Since then, Paige has taken too much care of you, even though you've rarely crossed paths. Unless it was just this obsessive presence and behavior on Freddie's part that really scared you.

How can you, a free woman who has achieved her own goal, be told anything? And then you didn't care about him or his feelings. You were just saying what you had to say. After all, you're not a car or a pet, you need freedom of action.

***

"...So you get the point, right? I tried to do it, but in the end... " you tried to listen to Freddie's never-ending chatter about the war. It was alien to you, you didn't want to listen to his speeches.

You sighed softly and looked at the door that was open. So wanted her to have gone from here. I wanted to. Yes, and this obsession. Since when does he have to know your schedule for the day? You always thought it was suspicious, but you didn't show it. I didn't want to spoil his mood.

"...So that's it..." without stopping, he continued, without stopping waving his hands. That was one of his tricks. He was so emotional."...When the Captain called me to his side..."

And you sighed softly again. No, it will never stop.

***

But now. You sighed softly. You couldn't change anything now. The Freddie of the new age is not at all like the old Freddie, who, although he was eerily obtrusive, at least supported you.

And the new Freddie... You sighed softly again, lowering your head. The new Freddie was terrible. Everything in the new age was terrible, except for your sons.

You gave me a weak, forced smile. They were the only ones who made you feel better in this prison. Your three favorite boys. The best and the cleanest.

Roger, Arthur, and Tommy. Their dark hair was passed down from their father and their beautiful soft eyes from their mother. They were all so different, but so smart beyond their years. Roger, for example, loved to draw and wanted to devote his whole life to art. You always told and encouraged him to ensure that he continued to draw and didn't give up. Arthur liked to design different buildings of houses. Tommy, your youngest son, very much and you would even say that a very long time ago-I saw myself as a military man. He was always your husband's favorite. Your face twitched involuntarily at the thought of Freddie being your husband.

You didn't want to think about it. For you, he has always been and always will be your captor, which is unlikely to ever let you go, and it was sad. You so wanted to break free, to see the white light again and enjoy the clean and fresh air. But Freddie never let you out into the street. Simply put, he almost strangled you with his annoying concern.

It was so stuffy. So unpleasant and suffocating. He made you just some kind of flawed girl that even a simple man's job can not do. Although that's what you used to do.

You didn't exactly call what Freddie did a kidnapping. Although he did not bring you to him by your will. Simply put, he made you, which always made you really angry.

You wanted to escape. Run away from this suffocating man, from this weather, and live a wonderful life again. That would be it... naturally. And you'd take your favorite boys with you, too. The only pity is that they loved their father too much.

Suddenly, a door creaked softly behind you. It was wooden and though new, but Freddie was never smart enough to lubricate it. He didn't seem to get tired of the squeaks. What not to say about you.

It wasn't just your husband who made you marry him that annoyed you, but the damn house you spent so many nights in trying to comfort Paige. But at this moment, and for the past few years, he seemed disgusting to you.

Although at first you thought Freddie was cute, but only if he looks good. Inside, morally, he was terrible and disgusting.

***

POV Freddie

He loved you. I loved him with all my heart. With all that heart that was literally sewn at the seams with a thin thread and was previously ready to burst from injustice in his direction.

Freddie never understood why he was so unlucky in love. After all, with Esther, his former girlfriend. He pursed his lips. A disgusting girl. And why had he treated her so tenderly and soothingly? He didn't understand.

Although Paige knew that she was just a lecherous girl, that she was ready to go to bed with anyone, just with money beckoning. Like a dog. And it was disgusting. Very disgusting.

She didn't even help him. Never. I never tried to comfort him, or even listen to him. But here you are, you were just a goddess in his opinion. The goddess who helped him get rid of his diseases and pens. You were the first to help him and listen to him, trying to understand the essence of his nightmares. It wasn't for nothing that you spent so much time with him in this house before you were married.

***

"Are you sure you're okay?" the woman asked, raising her right eyebrow and slightly arching it in a small bump, looking from her patient's card to Freddie himself.

Page pursed his lips, closed his eyes, and clenched his sweat-soaked hand into a tight fist. He hated to talk about it. It was so disgusting. Yell about your problems to some other person who really doesn't even care about you.

Freddie has felt this many times. He knew that his psychologist didn't care about his problems, and she just wanted to throw the former shell-shocked soldier out of her expensive and rich house as soon as possible.

"I'm sure, Mrs. Rogers."

***

But now. He felt great right now. He had his favorite girl, who was also happy for him and loved him as much as he loved her.

Oh, how he adored her. He adored her cleanliness, social behavior, and moral support. Freddie knew she was perfect. An ideal, a beautiful lady, comparable only to a Goddess.

And now it was bitter to look at his beloved. The way she sits on the edge of the bed in a fit of anger, anger and sadness, thinking about something bad.

What could it be? Quick thoughts flashed through Freddie's mind, and he ran at a brisk pace across the room he shared with his wife.

It wasn't very big. And the interior was as simple as an instruction manual for assembling a cabinet. An ordinary bed, which was of medium hardness, on which were white sheets, which were currently covered with a dark blue canopy. A small nightstand next to the bed, a dark wood wardrobe that contained all of his clothes, and a small shelf with books and a TV. It was hard to get, but Freddie was still able to buy it back from his friend for a decidedly inexpensive price.

"My lady..." Freddie murmured softly, kneeling in front of his beloved. He couldn't resist looking at her beautiful face again. Elegant, inviting eyes, his beloved lips that responded with great excitement to his voluptuous kisses, soft hair.

"Lady, I know everything," Freddie suddenly spoke loudly, making his beloved understand her gaze. She looked at him with disbelieving, sheep-like eyes that were wide open.

"W-what do you mean?" haltingly, after a little crying, she asked Page his favorite, to which he only frowned. Why is his beloved lying to him? "I don't understand."

"I know you'll think about running away," Freddie said calmly, resting his head on your thin knees. He talked about it as if he were talking to his friends about the weather. It was frightening. "I know, I know everything. I know. Don't take me for a fool," the man smiled to himself as he stroked your thighs. "But know this, my lady. I give you a promise: if you try this, I swear I will stop at nothing to find you," Freddie said with a strange, obsessive tenderness in his voice.

[snowbellewells]

“Saved From What Might Have Been”

(A bit of birthday whump for @hollyethecurious​)

By: @snowbellewells​   

I’m honestly not sure if this is much good, or really worth giving as a gift, but I’ve tried something new here, and I’m hoping you may like it, Hollye.  You’ve provided the fandom (and our pirate!) a lot of painfully delicious whump over the last few years. Particularly with “What Lies Beneath the Mask” - my personal favorite!  You also wrote one of my favorite examples of KnightRook fic in your recent MC “We Make Our Own Fate”.  I’m attempting to incorporate those things in this little drabble for you. I don’t really know where this came from otherwise; I had something else in mind, but then this is what I ended up with instead. Contains Season 7’s Wish!Hook/Old Hook and Rogers, KnightRook, and of course some whumpage, if those are things people aren’t interested in. Most of those are new things for me to try writing as well.

Enough of my rambling - here goes:

“Saved From What Might Have Been”

Rough hands grasp him harshly, grappling at him from all angles and lifting him bodily from his seat at the gaming tables. He brays out in displeasure, swatting at those forcing him to the tavern door, at first thinking it is a ill-timed and less-than-humorous jest. However, as raucous voices laugh and jeer in approval, hooting and hollering and stamping feet accompanying shouts of “Good riddance!” and “Bout time ye boys were takin’ out the trash!”, Jones begins to struggle in earnest. He jerks within the hold of many, bucking and swinging wildly, though his punches go wide, made effectual with too much drink and the number of opponents holding him back. His attempts to dig in his heels only lead to him tripping over the raised board at the tavern entrance when the group pauses to open the door. Their combined grip lessens slightly, but before Hook can gather himself to whirl and fight, he is tossed forward unceremoniously, hurled into the street face first.

Once he would have been on his feet in an instant, charging forward to take all comers, but the air is knocked from his aging lungs, and he feels the ache and disorientation throughout his aching joints as he pushes himself to scruffed hands and knees, glaring at those who mock him from the doorway, barring re-entry to the one place able to temporarily silence his demons.

A shaking, unsteady hand wipes away mud from the rain drenched streets and the coarse and unkempt gray hair hanging in his eyes as well. His voice is a hoarse growl when he warns, “You lot should know better than to cross a pirate!” He attempts to stand imposingly to his full height, hand tucked in his belt and hook in plain view, to inspire the sort of respect and fear he had once done and ignore the shooting pain in his knees and hip.

The mob of half a dozen or more look unimpressed, but still Jones moves forward, meaning to shoulder his way through them and back to his table indoors. However, upon nearing the group, he is shoved back harshly, sending his still unbalanced form staggering back again.  Rage blinds him along with the dizziness of a half-drunken haze. Brandishing the hook, he makes to charge into the fray once more, when he is stopped cold by their leader’s words. 

“Think carefully, ye doddering old fool,” the man’s deep tone orders. “Ye’ve cheated yer last at my tables, and used up the last of me goodwill. Payin’ customers’ve complained long enough. You’re no captain. Where’s yer ship? No sailor nor pirate; no more, at any rate.  Yer a has been, a worthless old drunk. And this be yer warnin’  - stay out of my tavern or face the consequences!”

The words sink in just as deep, and perhaps even more painfully than the hard landing had moments before. The grizzled man seems to shrink, his shoulders slumping as he faces the small mob barring his way. Though his bravado does not leave him, he sees that it will not serve him victory and there is no swaying the men standing against him. There’s nothing for him here - no longer can he seek refuge, drown his sorrows and try to forget. He wants to wipe that hateful sneer from the taven keeper’s face; to carve his mark in the skin of all their thick hides with the sharp point of his hook and prove their insults wrong. And yet… defeated he knows those words have long since turned into ugly truth.

“I’m not sure he’s gotten the message yet, Ed,” one of the burly louts adds gruffly, stepping from the collective shadow of the pack and circling around behind the old sailor, hands balled into fists.

“Ye may be right, Connors,” another chortles cruelly. “Seems he might be half witted as well as one handed!”

Outmanned he might be, but Jones still isn’t one to take such abuse in silence, and is about to tell them so when a sharp kick to his legs from behind buckles both his knees and sends him to the ground once more. Before he can begin to get up or even roll away from the unseen onslaught, another heavy booted foot hurries forward to step down on the arm that had hit the ground hardest, causing a garbled yelp to escape his chapped lips. The thug’s full weight on the joint makes an audible crunch of bone and sinew and it is all the aging Jones can do to bite back the sting of tears at the pain.  

Floodgates now open, the group falls on him completely. A broom handle cracks along his spine, ale is poured over his head, rocks pelt him over and over, and kicks rain across his abdomen until he feels one connect with his ribs. His breath is stolen by the blazing white hot agony, and for a second his consciousness wavers. All thought of fighting back ceases, and instead Hook merely curls in upon himself, trying desperately to shield his head and vital organs until their attack is over.

After what seems an eternity, the beating slows, the miscreants back away as they spit on him and issue final warnings not to enter the establishment again. One even mutters that he might as well curl up there in the gutter where he belongs and wait to meet his Maker.  In that moment, Jones wonders if he may be about to do so as his breath comes in harsh, ragged pants around the fragments of at least one broken rib scraping torment against his lung.

The sky opens in a frigid downpour again as the other men leave him in a crumpled heap. They go back inside, flush with victory and high spirited in his defeat. The greying man shivers from the cold and shock, the agony of his wounds and the decimation of his pride almost pulling him under. 

However, he cannot give in yet, there is something he must still do.  He cannot die here in this alleyway, even if he does deserve just such an inauspicious end. No, there is someone who would miss him, who needs the few pilfered coins and the crust of bread he had managed to hide before they discovered his game. ‘Alice,’ he wheezes, the name barely more than a whisper in the rainy deluge and the crash of thunder.

Half limping and half dragging his sorry carcass from the outskirts of the village, through the storm to the foot of her tower, the old buccaneer collapses at the base of the high, impenetrable edifice holding his darling girl prisoner.  Tugging on the rope attached to the basket where he has placed his hard-won treasures, he hopes that his Alice will hear the bell at the other end, letting her know he has something for her, over the tumult. Squinting against the pelting drops, the wavering of his vision and encroaching unconsciousness, he waits for even a glimpse of her at the window far above. He can no longer climb to her; his old bones and poisoned heart having separated them physically years ago. 

Minutes flow by, lengthening and playing tricks. Has she turned away from him too?  “Alice!” he cries, his voice as broken as his body dying out on the howling wind. “Alice, my Lass! Are you there?”  No answer comes, and her honeyed curls and beguiling smile never appear over the ledge. Even she has gone… he failed her too… just as he had feared…

~~~~***~~~~

Two delicate hands shake Rogers into wakefulness, his Alice’s concerned voice ending his nightmare anxiously.  “Papa, wake up!” she pleads. “I’m here! You’re dreaming! Wake up!”

Blinking against the strangely wavering bluish light from the television still playing in the living room before him, he turns to see his grown daughter, restored to him just before they came here to Storybrooke in the United Realms, seated on the edge of the couch at his hip. Alice leans over him, where he had fallen asleep watching the nightly news, her hand still clutching his shoulder where she shook him awake. Her eyes are wide as she studies his face, sure that something real has disturbed her stoic and strong father. 

He still feels a bit blearily fuzzy-headed, the dream having muddled him with the anguish and shame slow to fade from his brain.  “Alice? Did I wake you? ‘M sorry, Love. You can go back to sleep.”  He runs a hand haphazardly back through his dark hair, just beginning to show a few strands of silver, in an attempt to clear the cobwebs and offer her a tentative smile. Shaking his head, Rogers hopes the thin excuse will appease his grown child enough to drop her queries into what troubled him.

“You were calling my name, Papa,” Alice offers hesitantly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He sighs, reaching out to cover her hand on his shoulder and twining her fingers with his to squeeze tightly in affection. “No, Lass, no need. It’s nothing to worry about. We’re both here safe and sound. All’s as it should be.”

Not one to be easily dissuaded, she leans forward, pressing her forehead to her father’s playfully but holding his gaze with her curious eyes. “Are you sure?” she presses.

“Aye,” he nods with certainty, a bit more of the usual twinkle returning to his eyes as he stands to meet the day and pulls Alice up beside him. “No use worrying your pretty little head about me. Let’s have some breakfast, shall we?”

A matching sparkle of mischief lights her eyes as well. “Is there marmalade for the toast?” she returns cheerily.

“Of course there is, what do you take me for?”

“Then, let’s do it!” she exclaims, looping her arm through her papa’s as they troop into the kitchen. He follows easily, a full-throated laugh bubbling from his chest, only too happy to let the last shadows of the dream fade with the light of day.

Tagging a few others who (may?) enjoy -  not sure this will be all of my usual readers’ cup of tea?

@kmomof4​ @jennjenn615​ @sherlockianwhovian​ @killian-whump​ @artistic-writer​ @resident-of-storybrooke​ @teamhook​ @revanmeetra87​

[happymetalgirl]

The 60 Best Metal Albums of 2018

2018 was such a huge year for metal, and I know that every year is great for metal with the abundance of fantastic artists big and small out there, but this year felt so big to me, perhaps because of so much of what the music this year was the soundtrack to, but also for the sheer number of unexpected masterpieces. This year I reviewed 170 metal albums, not including the 15 I briefly talked about missing in 2017, which is more than the total number of albums I even listened to across all genres last year, which is weird because I have actually been busier this year than last. But I am rather pleased with how much more I was able to immerse myself into metal this year, at all levels of accessibility, and given the fact that the coming year might come with some changes and limitations to my output, here’s to 2018, and the 60 incredible albums (LPs and EPs alike) that captivated me this year.

Also, this should go without saying, but this is not just my opinion, these are objectively the 60 best metal albums of the year, and if you disagree, well then you’re wrong.

60. Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

I was expecting to kind of tolerate this one at best, which is weird because I enjoyed the band’s last album quite a bit. But this album took me on such a little nostalgia ride through my adolescence and the music I enjoyed at that time in my life. I’m glad I got an album like this that can make me look back at that part of my life fondly, because God knows lots of other stuff makes me look back with a little bit of shame.

59. Harm’s Way – Posthuman

A fresh batch of lethal Chicago hardcore with a modern update, no bullshit, no nonsense, just punishing, crushing, proficient metallic hardcore that adds to the genre’s growing dominance within metal.

58. Unearth – Extinction(s)

I was so glad to hear Unearth put out an honest, classic metalcore album (with a few modern updates as well) instead of following so many of their peers into the clutches of radio rock pandering, and Extinction(s) is an excellent example of the punch the mid-2000’s style can still pack.

57. XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX – Gore 2.0

I’m amazed a comical grindcore album actually had the content to sustain an hour’s worth of songs, both playfully mocking and proficiently conjuring the absurdly gory brutality of the genre on a tremendous variety of creative tracks whose impossible-to-articulate lyrics are well worth reading along with.

56. Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn

Even performing below their peak form, Bloodbath is a force to be reckoned with in death metal, and The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn is a fine representation of their continued mastery of the genre. The slight drop in chemistry due to their less frequent and consistent output since Mikael Åkerfeldt’s departure can be felt a bit on this project, but even so, it’s a crushing album that I am glad to have from them this year.

55. Jesus Piece – Only Self

An excellent debut from the hardcore freshmen, Only Self isn’t the most adventurous of hardcore albums, but it sure hits the nail on the head and makes up for its lack of novelty with fiery performances.

54. Chelsea Grin – Eternal Nightmare

It was a quiet year for deathcore, but not a bad one, as Chelsea Grin made a resounding comeback of sorts after their lackluster 2016 album. Eternal Nightmare finds the band seemingly taking noted from the likes of Carnifex and Fit for an Autopsy, who all trimmed the fat on their respective deathcore styles and modernized their sound to help them stand out more.

53. Deadspace – Mouth of Scorpions

Any EP that makes this list must be doing a lot right to surpass so many other albums, and the three songs Deadspace bring to this album are among their best, returning after their slightly disappointing LP last year, to the potent DSBM that drew me to them in the first place. The band have announced a new album for early next year, and this EP has me rather excited for it.

52. Summoning – With Doom We Come

With Doom We Come was definitely one of the most interesting pieces of folk metal I have heard in a long time, with Summoning taking their winding, cinematic, Tolkien-inspired ambient approach over the course of eight songs. I liked the way the band was able to transform he central motifs they based the songs around in interesting ways for the extended lengths they took.

51. Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness, Pt. 1

The heavier of the two discs from Panopticon’s double album this year showed Austin Lunn’s slight imbalance in his compositional strength when compared to his second, folk-driven disc.

50. Machine Head – Catharsis

I know a lot of people hated this album for Robb Flynn’s preachiness before and during the promo cycle and on a few moments on a few songs on the album, but honestly, it really wasn’t that preachy when you actually got into the lyrics, and there were a lot of good deep cuts on the album that I kept coming back to. As a pretty big fan of Machine Head, I do agree though, yes, this is rather subpar for them given we’ve been blessed with a string of truly tremendous albums over the past decade or so. But this album’s weakness lies not in its “SJW-ness” or Robb’s politics. It’s an album that shows the band’s creativity wearing thin, which makes sense in the wake of Dave and Phil leaving the band a few months ago. Catharsis sounds like a very natural progression from the diversity of the incredible Bloodstone & Diamonds, just an unfortunately watered-down version of that album. Nevertheless, I think there is enough quality on Catharsis to consider it a good album, even it will naturally be outshined by The Blackening, Burn My Eyes, and Bloodstone & Diamonds.

49. Impending Doom – The Sin and Doom Vol. II

Deathcore album of the year right here; Impending Doom came back after a relatively long break, sanded off the rust, and picked up where they left off with The Sin and Doom Vol. II, an album of straight-up early 2010’s-style djenty deathcore bangers.

48. Wreck and Reference – Alien Pains

This surprise, four-track EP showed a lot of Wreck and Reference’s experimental sides within black metal, as well as their proficiency at industrial rock on the two songs in the middle. It’s definitely a thirst-quenching appetizer for whatever their next album might be.

47. Innumerable Forms – Punishment in Flesh

One of my favorite debut releases, Punishment in Flesh was in many ways this year’s answer to Primitive Man’s Caustic, not a cheap rip-off of that project, but definitely one that carries a similarly pessimistic and relentlessly sludgy atmosphere, although much quicker and less drone-y than Caustic often got. It’s a great start for this band and one that has me eager to see where they take their sound next.

46. Frontierer – Unloved

The Car Bomb comparisons this album has been piled atop with are certainly warranted, though I’m not sure I’d say Frontierer show the same knack for groove that Car Bomb did on their 2016 album. Nevertheless, Unloved is a properly punishing and comprehensive mathcore album. At just under an hour, the band prove they can still hold attention spans with the sheer madness they harness.

45. Thou – Rhea Sylvia

This was the third EP to precede the release of Thou’s full-length album, Magus, this year. I enjoyed the grungy twist the band took on their signature sludge sound, especially on songs like “Deepest Sun” with some sorrowful vocal harmonies that hearken directly to Alice in Chains.

44. Holy Fawn – Death Spells

Holy Fawn take an incredibly beautiful and extremely nature-inspired approach to the sounds of ambient black metal on this album. It’s a truly welcoming and meditative album, and one that I think makes a great case for the lighter side of black metal.

43. Judas Priest – Firepower

Judas Priest came back with such an unbelievably powerful classic heavy metal offering this year, indeed a late-career masterpiece and one that proves how passionate and talented the band still are. It’s an album that showcases their expertise with the style without coming off as joyless exhibition.

42. Thou – Magus

Thou’s full-length album of 2018 is definitely their most well-produced and sonically pleasing release with the way everything from the down-tuned guitars to the drums and bass are allowed to shine simultaneously to best represent Thou’s signature sludgy doom. Compositionally it’s pretty on par with most of their work in this lane too, but it’s really an album more about the thick atmosphere than anything else, and that it certainly delivers.

41. Halestorm – Vicious

Definitely my favorite straightforward hard rock album of the year, this record has so many tightly composed rockers, and with such a tasteful note of heavy metal, I couldn’t help but repeat so many of the songs on here throughout the year. It’s a bit inconsistent, but when it’s high its really high.

40. The Body – I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer

Finally, after a few poor splits and collaborations that made me more irritated than hyped for their following full-length, The Body did pretty well on their new, focused LP. It’s in many ways The Body as usual, but with a few new twists that make it an interesting experience and not just a rehash of previous efforts.

39. Echo Beds – Buried Language

It was a good year for experimental black metal, and this one was one of my favorite pieces of it. Definitely in line with Wreck and Reference, this album takes a slightly more industrial approach than W&R usually do, and it is a thrilling, interesting listen all the way through.

38. Mamaleek – Out of Time

Speaking of experimental black metal, Mamaleek continues to push the genre’s boundaries into more hushed, folky territory that still retains the sinister quality of the genre, and this is probably their most comprehensive foray into the black metal unknown, yet they sound so comfortable and confident doing it.

37. Wayfarer – World’s Blood

Another American black metal release, World’s Blood is a more standard display of the style’s post-metallic power, though with a subtle Western flair itself. With five focused, well-constructed pieces, it’s a pretty engaging listen each step of the way, and one that does well to highlight its subtle differences from the rest of the ambient black metal crop.

36. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

And on the topic of American black metal, we have the fourth album from Deafheaven, one that I was a bit confused with at first but still ended up loving for its nice representation of the band’s brighter side. It’s an album that reminds me so much of the love I have for certain people and how unperfect, yet precious and beautiful it is.

35. Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest

Along with Deafheaven’s new album, this was probably my most anticipated release of the year, and as much as I knew it was likely not going to outdo The Satanist, I was pleased with how well this album continued from where Behemoth left off on that album. Channeling the same grand, biblical style of blackened death metal the band had found their sweet spot in, it came with a bit odder experimentation, but not enough to sink the album. Overall, it’s a respectable follow-up to one of the best death metal albums of the new millennium.

34. Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue

I like the angry death metal anarchy that Phil’s band conjures on this album. It and Phil’s unfiltered vocal aggression are a nice match for each other, and it makes for a wild ride all the way through. It’s definitely an album whose appeal is based on the rawness of its delivery, but it’s not just senseless cacophony; the band clearly know how to harness this type of death metal and let it rage on a long leash in their favor.

33. Keiji Haino & Sumac - American Dollar Bill: Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On

This one is favorite collaborative release of the year with Keiji Haino and Sumac playing off each other’s respective styles so well, knowing how to ebb and flow within the waves the other creates, it’s a very noisy and odd release, but one that finds everything on here in such a complimentary form. I wish more collaborations in metal had this kind of well-worked chemistry between artists.

32. Of Feather and Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion

One of the year’s earlier and most punishing straight-up death metal releases, Bestial Hymns of Perversion is all meat, no fat, and such a quick, but ripping example of death metal at its rawest and most primal.

31. TesseracT – Sonder

As short as Sonder ended up being, I definitely found it to be a step up from Tesseract’s previous album, with the band doing well to craft the kind of shimmering progressive metal anthems that Daniel Tompkins can shine on.

30. Sumac – Love in Shadow

It was a good year for Sumac, coming through with a strong collaborative effort earlier in the year and then following up with their third LP. At only four songs, the album makes the most of the long time is has with each piece, and it’s one that I found myself coming back to so often throughout the year. I think the band outdid all their previous efforts, including their other collaboration this year.

29. Horrendous – Idol

Watching the evolution of Horrendous has been fascinating for the past several years, and seeing them transform into a fully-fledged progressive death metal juggernaut on Idol is one of the most rewarding sights to behold. The band channel raw, snarling growls and expert instrumental power on this album. The band still manage to retain their harsh, ugly roots, but pour that malice into a much more elegant form on this album, and I am definitely here for it.

28. High on Fire – Electric Messiah

It was a pretty big year for Matt Pike, and a major part of that was High on Fire’s follow-up to 2015’s Luminiferous. Taking a bit more of a proggy approach to their thrashy sludge metal worked out pretty well for the most part. It’s in many ways, High on Fire as usual, but also a more extensive application of their gruff, no-nonsense metal.

27. Portal – Ion

The wait between this album and their harrowing Vexovoid was well worth it as Ion captures the band’s most abysmal and spaciously apocalyptic sound in the form of chaotically collapsing technical death metal compositions that take a tremendous amount of listening to fully wrap one’s mind around.

26. Watain – Trident Wolf Eclipse

Watain’s long-awaited follow-up to The Wild Hunt finds them taking it back to basics in the shortest time frame yet, and as overshadowed as this album is likely to end up being next to albums like Sworn to the Dark and Casus Luciferi, it’s still a fiery piece of straightforward black metal that I have enjoyed all throughout the year.

25. Evoken – Hypnagogia

Definitely one of the most thrilling death/doom releases I’ve heard in a good while, Evoken go in for the long haul on this album and come through with a thick, well-cultivated atmosphere of gloom and remorse.

24. Thou – The House Primordial

This was he first-released EP leading up to Magus, and it did so well to concentrate Thou’s harsh black metal side into an interesting arrangement of songs that quickly establish a deep, sardonic atmosphere that takes that side of Thou to the extreme.

23. Thou – Inconsolable

The second EP of the three, and my favorite, is not really a metal album at all, but one whose sorrowful beauty I kept returning to. I love the vocal features the band brought on to give each of the moody, grungy songs on here a unique flair, and the band’s excellence with this softer style of music is incredible.

22. Architects – Holy Hell

One of the most triumphant metalcore albums I have heard in a long time, and one on which I think Architects managed to outdo themselves. Overcoming a crippling death to carry on with =, I think, their best album to date is certainly a feat to appreciate.

21. Sleep – The Sciences

This album took a while to grow on me, but grow it did, and I found myself enjoying and appreciating the thick walls of sound of a genre I had previously been apprehensive about. After finding the most fitting way to listen to this style of music, I can say now that I do enjoy myself some stoner metal.

20. Vein – Errorzone

Definitely one of the most punishing hardcore albums of the past few years, Errorzone is a bold amalgamation of nu metal and metalcore that takes the best of both worlds and smashes them together in an explosive array of violent noise that shoots Vein straight to the upper rungs of the genre.

19. Carnation – Chapel of Abhorrence

Another excellent debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence gave Bloodbath and Cannibal Corpse a run for their money with the dense brutality Carnation were able to conjure up on this album. Without any real notable weaknesses, this album is a tremendous opening statement for one of death metal’s most ambitious newcomers.

18. Polyphia – New Levels New Devils

This was such a fulfilling and unique math rock album that took the swagger of hip hop and made the band’s instrumental show-y-ness even cooler and flashier, elevating it above the autopilot mush of the style.

17. Hissing – Permanent Destitution

Another excellent debut album, this time channeling the experimental noisiness of black metal into a harsh, slightly industrially ambient experience that no other album has really ever captured before. It’s the kind of album that appears to be just standard abrasive black metal chaos on the surface, but the way the band work with so many different musical ideas and swirl them round so well o this album is what makes it so intriguing.

16. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury

And on the topic of intriguing music, Imperial Triumphant come through with one of the most uniquely blues-y, jazzy incantations of death metal this year. Taking the eerie dissonance of traditional jazz and mashing it together with the apocalyptic sounds of death metal to convey the metropolitan filth of the Big Apple.

15. Andrew W.K. – You’re Not Alone

This whole album is the injection of positivity metal needed not just this year, but more of in general. While it’s on the borderline between hard rock and heavy metal, I still found it to be a refreshingly uplifting and encouraging set of songs that embody the type of positive outlook on life that I think needs more endorsement in heavy music. And of course, it opens with my song of the year, “Music Is Worth Living For”, which just perfectly captures my deep love and appreciation for music, which the rest of the album continues unashamedly.

14. A Perfect Circle – Eat the Elephant

Eat the Elephant was a lot softer in most parts than I and a lot of fans were expecting, but A Perfect Circle really proved that their return to music was really based on artistic inspiration and not financial desperation with the evolved and magnificently cohesive sounds they traversed on the album’s various tracks.

13. Infernal Coil – Within a World Forgotten

So many strong debut albums this year, and Infernal Coil’s was definitely one of my favorites. Channeling the heaviest side of Leviathan’s menacing and abysmal depressive black metal, Infernal Coil conjures a short, but enthralling experience on Within a World Forgotten. It’s one that I continually return to for its massive, abusive heaviness and one that makes me eager to see how Infernal Coil continue to shape their sonic identity in the years to come.

12. Obscura – Diluvium

As much as I like Obscura, I was surprised with how comprehensively thrilling Diluvium was. Wrapping up all the musical ideas that have enhanced the group’s progression through the years, the same band that made the stunning Akróasis return with clearly developed chemistry to expound upon their previous work

11. Ghost – Prequelle

It took bit of adjustment from what I usually enjoy about Ghost’s music to appreciate this one. It felt so off at first, but after a while the extra extra cheese melted over this album is really just the very essence of Ghost taken to such a campy and unpredicted extreme, and it is all executed so tactfully and brilliantly underneath the album’s fun externa.

10. Alrakis – Echoes from Eta Carinae

It’s one single song, but I chose not to include it on my top songs list because it would be redundant talking about it here too, and I did want to express its greatness in the context of its comparison to other albums. However, this song, unlike most extensive proggy epics, really is one long, sprawling piece that takes its time to push and pull and really swirl in a well-thought-out aura of ambient black metal that manages to stay fascinating all throughout its one-of-a-kind ride.

9. Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic

I know this one’s not really super metal, but the thick sets of horns, organ, and tom drum beating against the gothy appeal and dark ambiance Anna von Hausswolff constructs is something I have been enjoying so thoroughly this year, and for many of the same reasons I’ve enjoyed so much of the dark ambient metal on this list.

8. The Atlas Moth – Coma Noir

This was such a fulfilling album that captured the ascension of the band’s evolution beyond standard post-metal-flavored blackgaze and into a realm all their own. The grooves on here, the sludgy riffs, everything about this record from a stylistic and compositional standpoint was so satisfying as an elevation of the band’s sound.

7. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name

Such a breath of fresh air for technical progressive death metal and such an exponential continuation of growth for Rivers of Nihil, the pure emotion this album is album to pack into such an ordinarily soulless genre is something to behold and something I have loved relistening to all throughout the year. As nuanced as it is, it sacrifices nothing in the way of death metal brutality to get there.

6. meth. – I Love You

This has been by far the most criminally underrated debut by any band this year. Although only a five-song EP, the band showcase such a compelling excellence with the harsh, abrasive chaos they wrangle on here, mashing the harsh blackened noise of a band like Full of Hell with the whopping hardcore punch of the kind of metalcore pioneered by Converge and recently enhanced by groups like Code Orange. These few short songs are all such an incredible display of prowess with a bold blend of styles that makes meth. THE band to keep an eye on for future releases.

5. Revocation – The Outer Ones

Revocation quite possibly outdid their already phenomenal discography on this album with a shift in focus toward cosmic technical death metal while still maintaining a firm grasp on the thrash roots that have given their music the grounded appeal in delicious riffs and solos. The Outer Ones is such a tremendously technical yet tasty release, I have been so thoroughly enjoying it this year. I love all the delicious guitar work and tasteful bass on this album and of course the magnificent drumming too, it’s all so awesome. Hell yeah Revocation, hell yeah!

4. Gevurah – Sulphur Soul

After a strong enough debut in 2016, Gevurah made an even more emphatic perfection of their blackened death metal sound that rivals in-form Behemoth on this four-track EP. Somehow without simply aping the Polish giants’ sound, Gevurah manage to capture the grand carnal essence of albums like Evangelion and The Satanist in a few sharp pounders boiling with cultish aura to give the band’s ravenous death metal a sophisticated lining.

3. Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit

I was completely and pleasantly surprised with the thoroughness and the quickness of the band’s remedying of the flaws the held Devil Is Fine back, while pushing their sound forward with confidence and justified assuredness into bold new territory, coming through with so many incredible and diverse songs. This was exactly what I wanted from Zeal and Ardor, and I’m amazed I got it so quickly after their debut last year.

2. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want

Such a hellish and truly terrifying comeback album that shatters expectations or boundaries set by the band’s previous work, this album has such a primal and theatrical appeal to it that really works its way deep into the psyche and exposes the darkness in all of us, which is catalyzed so fearsomely by the unreal harsh noise across the album that the band so neatly and meticulously weaves into their performances. This album really captures the darkness of the human condition and the degree to with civilization has enhanced, rather than mitigated it. I love this album; it’s like nothing else I have ever heard.

1. Khemmis – Desolation

My Twitter fed and my songs-of-the-year list definitely gave this away, but Khemmis’ third album, Desolation, is far and away the most perfect album I have heard since Gojira’s Magma in 2016, and definitely my favorite album of the year. This album is just dripping with catharsis at every step of the way, and I have not been able to resist it all year since hearing it. From start to finish, it is nothing but raw, emotive heavy metal with a somber doom edge that the band still manages to twist into something incredibly triumphant. I cannot give this album enough love. After sitting with it for so long this year, I can say it is undoubtedly an unprecedented improvement upon the already excellent Hunted, and one that established Khemmis as heavy metal’s most exciting new band.

[melody-inwonderland]

Character sheet - Melody Kotobuki (season 1-3) It looks like it's done by hand but it's actually done thanks to the Clip Paint pencil The card is obviously on 1-3 season - Name: Melody

Nickname: Melly, Mel, Melody-chan, Sweetie and Little-angel Lastname:Kotobuki "Kimizuka" * (Kimizuka is the surname of her adoptive parents) Age: - 1 season - 15 and a half years - 2 Season - 15/16 - 3 Season - 16

Height: 1.62 cm Deck: Fairies and Angels Relatives: Dark Lillian The Eternal Queen/ Princess Lillian (Ancestor) Rose (Victorian Age)(Ancestor) Relatives: Mother: Lily Collins Kotobuki (Deceased) Father: Koichiro Kotobuki Aunt (Lily's sister): Angie Collins Twin sister: Ashley Kotobuki Kimizuka Seiji (Adoptive Father) Jolene Lopez (adoptive mother) Zodiac sign: Libra Date of birth: October 17th Favorite food: Fried shrimps, egg sandwich, crambled eggs and poochy Hated food: Oysters School: Duel Academy Dormitory: Slyfer Red

Character: Melody is a girl with a shy and caring character, but it is difficult for her to make friends because of shyness, but when she gets comfortable with people she is equally kind.

She throws herself headlong to help people in need without knowing who they are, given that for her kindness is what puts her first, but often her naivety does not often help her to distance good from bad, it's only because she thinks that there is more of a good side in people than a bad side. She gets embarrassed many times when she has to show up in front of a group of people or when they compliment her. Despite everything he knows how to be available and very sweet with the people he cares about. She is able to see the spirits, most converse with her friend Kuribon (and other spirits) but she hides this talent to prevent it from looking like a strange girl in front of the others.During the duels she becomes decidedly brave, even if sometimes she takes that slight panic, puts aside the fear and becomes more determined not to give up easily, she always tries to find new techniques with her deck to win, but it does not always happen. It is clear that she is available, the proof is when she helps Mrs. Dorothy / Tome-san to cook for the Slyfer dormitory. Melody she has not had any love experience, it is clear from the beginning that she is inexperienced, considering her naivety even on two-way speeches but being a girl who loves romance she daydreams us, and is committed if she wants to demonstrate the his feelings to someone. Often she is afraid or worried about others, and for this reason she wants to protect all her friends and loved ones, without thinking especially of herself, as she has a great fear that she keeps hidden from everyone, the only thing she has thought of , is that phrase that always remembers her mother that makes her strong. She is easily frightened when she has nightmares or strange dreams, and this intimidates her because she wants to know the truth, even if this can scare her, she wants answers.Melody proves to have a heart of gold and pure, not only because it is a part of herself but it is also because she is the heir to the power of Gentle Light, a pure and innocent power, but very powerful as it becomes complete. Enveloped, she influences people or animals next to her in a positive way, for example when she sings her voice, she lifts people's minds and makes them calm and calm.

Relationship (in progress): (These female characters that I am listing are from my OCs and I will also make them depicting drawings to introduce them to you.) Ashley Kotobuki: She gets on very well with her sister, and their bond is even more united after that tragic event in their past that made her separate happened. Since then Ashley becomes protective with her enough to make her look like an older sister, they are twins but they have a different mentality even when it comes to boys, which protects her from boys who don't like her, threatening them with her exits, for Melody she is not very quiet when Ashley takes it out on Judai, despite having done nothing and her sister can't stand it. She knows he can always count on her when she needs it. Lucy Suzuki: In the beginning she found it difficult to make friends with her, indeed Lucy hated girls who had big breasts, and Melody did not even get to understand the reason but she still tries to chat with her and find nice topics that they could open a conversation, even if Lucy was silent she did not give up. This amazes her so much that she doesn't know if she considers her stupid or kind. They manage to become friends enough to make Melody look like an older sister. Lucy calls her "Nee-baka" (stupid big sister) affectionately ... maybe?

Judai Yuki:

They are roommates with Sho and Hayato, she met him at the lake when he was looking for her, since Daitokuji-sensei / Professor Banner was worried about her and asked Judai, Sho and Hayato to look for her. being a new student who arrived and feared she might get lost.  From that moment on she started to have a crush on him, but most of all you feel a sense of familiarity as if he has always known him, and the same also applies to Judai, even if he thought it was just his impression. growing this feeling more and more, she tries to take courage to open up with him. (during the second season timeline) Knowing that he always finds the food she prepares for the canteen Slyfer good, she feels happy when he receives a compliment from him. In the adventure there at the academy she claims to be noticed by him, albeit so light, and in a shy way, but she simply tries to be herself even if she does not mind showing herself and does not want to be the center of attention. of all, but it is easy to worry about Judai when trouble arises that hovers over him

Gentle Light:

There are dreams that Melody often makes, and in those dreams a girl appears who has the physiognomy of a pure girl, is one of the many skills of Gentle Light, she can appear in people's dreams. Initially she rarely appeared in her dreams as the power in her is mild but when she is complete, she often appears to give advice to Melody and give him the right answers to every question. Melody feels protective of her and makes sure to protect her at all costs from Darkness of Distruction and her brother Light of Distruction.

Eternal Queen / Princess Lillian:

The ancestor of Melody, was the princess of the kingdom of Light and Water (Symbology of each monster that belongs to the "Light" "Water" category). Lillian was also an heir to Gentle light and was the betrothed of the Supreme King. In the arc of the "Dark World" Melody will understand the truth about who she really is and what binds her to Lillian, thus freeing Lillian from the darkness, thus becoming one with her to stop with Judai, Yubel and Heriel, and returned in their world..

Heriel: The angel who in childhood was next to a melody together with Splendid Venus, belonged to a Lily before being switched to a Melody, held, his mind was corrupted after the fire that killed Lily, believed that the family had abandoned her, since Melody's father exiled her by sending her into space, accidentally finding himself with the capsule where Yubel was also kept, since then he vowed to take revenge together with "Her", Yubel, her lover. In the final battle between her and Melody, Melody decides to combine her soul with Heriel's so as not to make her suffer anymore and to bring her back to see the truth, never abandoning it again, remembering that in the Lillian era they were linked by a deep and unique bond .

Background:

Melody was born into a very rich and famous family in the working field, since it is the third richest family after Maximilian Pegasus and the Kaiba corporation, Kotobuki Enterprises is very united with the company precisely with the latter, in terms of business and work on the production field of Duel Monsters. Lily Collins gave birth to twins: Ashley and Melody, of which the latter suffered from a weak constitution as a child, easily got sick but was somehow strong and for this she was able to recover positively, but they avoided making too much effort, living in one of their villas, one of which was located in the countryside. She and Ashley had a happy and normal childhood with their family, they were united and helped each other. They spent more time with the servants, their nanny and their mother, not many times they spent it with their father as he was often busy with work, the times they saw him usually was on weekends. She was the first to see the spirits of Duel Monsters, at her 7th birthday, her mother gave her her first two cards: Splendid Venus and Heriel Angel of Light. After their 7 years, in December, someone lit the fire in the villa, the flames gradually destroyed everything that was in the villa and there Melody and Lily separated from Ashley and the housekeeper. They tried to escape by finding a loophole in the secret streets of the villa, but they met someone. That someone, or rather a man, killed his mother Lily, and the girl entered a state of shock, crying and screaming, creating a light that surrounded herself, by away the man from her to her unbeknownst and then, she disappeared into thin air, saving herself. Nobody knew what happened to Melody, they said she had died at the fire like her mother, or disappeared. Ashley believed that she was still alive and would keep her pendant every moment of her life until she found her missing sister. Melody was found in Domino City, in a family home no longer remembering who she was, she remembered very few things like her name, she only had Splendid Venus with her, feeling that it was an important card of an important person for her. For months she frequented the family home by being with his peers in which she lived, always having questions about who she really was or if they had abandoned him, yet even if he got sad, she always found hope. She is eventually adopted by the Kimizuka family, taking care of her, treating her like a real daughter. After that he passed a quiet and safe childhood, and growing up he engaged with his studies and became kind every day, often remembering those words he remembered: "Strength, kindness and courage are the keys to being a heroine or princess but she must not forget to be loving and sweet towards others."

Trivia: - She and Ashley are twins, the first to be born is Melody even though she herself calls Ashley big sister - His favorite subject is the story of Duel Monsters - She is Nippo-American, born of an American mother and a Japanese father. - When she was a child, she suffered from a weak constitution, which, growing, seems to improve little by little. - She is able to see the spirits. - Heir to Gentle Light's power - It's the reincarnation of Princess Lillian - She is afraid of thunderstorms and fire because of a shock that occurred when she separated from Ashley when she was a child. - Can play the piano - His singing relieves the soul of people and many other creatures, giving a positive effect. - Communicate with Gentle Light through dreams.

[drabblesfromthemoon]

Serene

Serene

Chapter 1

Sighs of Mystery

Disclaimer: I don't own A Court of Thorn and Roses and all characters in the series. All of the characters and dialogues are the property of Sarah J Maas, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Spring Court – After the Chaos

Spring breeze in the Spring Court is always has been – inviting. Inviting any Fae to stop by, sitting on the green, soft grass and enjoy the smell of roses. To bring lovers after their long fight, in a hope that they will reconcile after listening to the sound of birds chirping. Or for the adventurers who happens to pass by, to pick some Calla Lily for their beloved. Not even Amarantha's wrath years ago could stop nature to keep flourishing the land with flowing, lovely abundance.

The visitors in Spring Court has been increasing day by day as their High Lord Tamlin reduced his Tithe offerings amount. The mountains of jewelry he had collected through brute force has turned to many tourist attractions. To make people enjoy their days in the Court. The forced collecting soon gone as the villagers trusts their High Lord more and more and offer their Tithe with all their hearts.

Spring Court still never boasts any city, unlike the Nights' Velaris. But there are many amounts of little village spread here and there. People lived relying on farming and planting flowers to trade the goods to other Courts. Winter Court, for example, would die for Spring's flowers to add some color in their crystal realm.

Months, years had gone after the War, some villagers tried to move on from the gruesome tragedy which befallen the lands over and over. Some still being forced to be awake by nightmares, but Spring's realm was so peaceful, the birds' singing and the smell of flowers quickly beckoned them back to their sleep. Ensuring that this – this peace – is real.

The Land of Flowers has found their calm.

But little did they know – not even His Majesty Tamlin himself – that across the mighty castle, almost in Day Court territory, hidden in the lush forest, lies a mystery.

Spring Court Mansion Library

Tamlin sat on the high stool, flipping through books in the Inner Library. He was desperate to find some information about cross-breeding flowers method that he saw long time ago. Damn that Winter Court High Lord, challenging him to make another flowers creation. Never enough variation for those fools, he thought. The golden haired man wanted to find the information to pass it to his engineers, so his people can play with it later on.

It's been ages since he last proceed with his education on how to rule a land. But as he walked through his realm, seeing difficult his people lives is, he ended up cares. He called every scholar to taught him what happened beyond his lands and what can he do to fix it.

He lost many things, already. All he has is time, endless time, to redeem himself.

Years after the war, Tamlin had found himself growing tired. Tired of the chase and finally learnt to accept. Accept that she was not for him right from the start. Their relationship was bound to fail no matter how hard he tried. Accept how unfair it was, the mating bound. Pairing two souls which never knew each other to become one. Nothing will come between the pair, ever.

He groaned.

Once in awhile, the High Lord would take a glance to his table. The object was a place of many books he'd found, but he was looking at a tiny piece of paper which he pressed to become is favorite bookmark.

"I hope you find happiness too." It says.

His eyes will wandered, then. To the first day when his dear lover came to the mansion, her deviant eyes toward him and his entire Court. Her cheerful reply when he asked her hand for marriage...

And it stopped there – only at the happy parts, just how he loved to remember her – until he found himself back to his search.

"Your Majesty," a woman's voice came to his senses.

"The dinner is ready," she continued, bowing.

"Later," he replied, clearly uninterested.

The maid dismissed herself with a sigh and one last bow and went back to the kitchen. There, many maids has gathered, waiting for their friend to bring the news.

"How is it?" asked the red headed one while swarming their returned friend. Her question answered with a gentle shook of her head and yet another sigh.

"Maybe we should just stop making dinner," she fumed, "he never eat any of it!"

"His Majesty hardly ever eat anything these days," said another, "all he did was work."

"That and staring at a piece of useless paper...," one of the maid said, which soon had her lips covered.

"Holy Cauldron! Shut your lousy mouth!" one of them exclaimed. It was a maid that offered a dinner to Tamlin,"If His Majesty hear we will all be in trouble!"

The rest of the maid exchanged glances and slowly sighed as they go back to their work. There's nothing they can do except accepting the fact that their master has lost his spark. Not that they're complaining, because the times when the human lady left the palace, his 'spark' was too much as he wrecked everything on sight.

His temper soon declined after the war.

The High Lord suddenly ordered to reduce the Tithe and start rebuilding his realm. He would spend his days outside, surveying the areas for nights after nights and came back only to dwell in the library. Sometimes, he went to the tower and howls will soon be heard. The agonizing howl which trying to call his lover back.

At that time, the entire workers in the Court knew. That even the most fierce beast can have his heart broken.

Soft creaks heard echoing across the West Wing – Tamlin's Chamber. The poor man tossed and turned, letting out growls as he did. His face contorted in agony, fighting whatever it was running in his mind tonight. Last night was when he witness Feyre's battle with the Middengard Wyrm, another was her authoritative voice of hers during the war. It's all the despair about her that he refused to think at day came to hunt him at night.

He bolted up from his bed, cold sweat covered his body as he snatch his robe and walked into the balcony. He bit back a growl as if holding himself back not to howl. To call for her, beckon whatever feelings left in her to come back to him and soothe his entire being.

She would never come back, fool.

The High Lord let his eyes look up to the sky, to the bright Fullmoon. He let himself relaxed at every caress of the light touched him. He was closing his eyes in attempt to go back to sleep at the bench in the balcony until a loud noise came from outside of his room.

He tilted his head as he walked outside, only to find his maid trying to pick up the mess she dropped. Broken plate and glass scattered along with a thick piece of meat, and purple liquid which smells like wine. Probably the dinner he had left earlier.

"I'm sorry, Sire. I didn't meant to..."

"Clean up and leave," he retorted, walking back to his room.

"Y-Your Majesty!" she mildly shouted to him which earned her a glare, a very adorable glare, she must say, with that bedhead and sleepy eyes. He quietly moved to face her, almost daring her to talk with that same tone she used earlier.

"I'm sorry but.. there's something I wished to tell you.. your nightmare..."

"It's none of your business," he growled audibly, "leave."

"I know how to make it stop, Sire!" she shouted, forcing the words out of her throat. Tamlin had really tried to be kind to his people, but his cold demeanor still there. One wrong move and you will receive his roar. She wouldn't want to test him. Not at all. Not when her family all depend on her for food and shelter.

The High Lord eyed his maid as if trying to reason with himself. Inhale, exhale. Remember the anger management lesson, Tamlin, he thought. But a little Fae girl telling him that she knows how to control what he can't with all his power...

The girl gulped as she handed him a folded piece of paper.

"There's... a tale among my tribe, Sire. About a place, a little pond inside the Dark Wood which holds a power, a true power... to retrieve what was lost," she explained as he opened the paper. Inside it was a map of where the Dark Wood is.

He scoffed.

"It's a myth. A myth to send poor lazy men to the Dark Wood and die," he said, "and the last time I retrieve something, I did unforgivable things. I have no need of this."

"I wouldn't lie to you, Sire," she replied, "please, please, just try to find it. Dark Wood isn't dangerous for a High Lord as you are. There's nothing to lose."

"Near the pond was a silver tree, a tree which only could be seen by those who truly needs it. Many has fallen, My Lord. For it was greed that calls for them, not humble wishes. The force refuse lust, greed and anger, and it will twist every path in the woods and let them those who unworthy lost in darkness, eaten by the beasts."

"I'll think about it," he said as he walked back to his chamber.

"But it has to be tonight, My Lord!" she exclaimed, earning another annoyed glare, "the Silver Tree only glows in Fullmoon, it will be harder to find it otherwise."

An old tree glowed dimly on the vast land, seemed ready to collapse at any minute. The thin branches ready to crack if the wind blew too hard. That poor tree stood alone in the mountain woods, away from any lands in the Spring Court. Rusty stone paths led the way from forest ground, across the crystal water to the elder tree. By the time the moon lit, graced the lands, fresh cold wind sweeps across the holy soil, causing the little branches to dance.

Each second the moon glows stronger, so is the tree roots. Its feet reach further and stronger to sustain the other transformation which awaits. The trunk grows thicker, higher, releasing the power hidden within. Little branches sway, slowly expanding its coverage, releasing more and more branches follows, until hundreds of it scratching the skies. When the final stage of moon ensue, silver leaves burst forth filling the branches. The vulnerable tree turns into the Silver Ancient Tree.

As it waits. Waits for those who it deemed worthy.

[artificialscorpio]

3,4, 10, 20

Sorry I’m answering this so late, but life ya know (my computer kept freezing, traveling, then school, work and sleep). Thank you, love for sending in some numbers; I never get asks when I reblog asks post, so now you’re my favorite person ever- for the week.

3- Name three favorite (rpdr fanfic) writers

@lindseyluvsdrag pearlet is amazing. She’s one of the few that still writes pearlet and I adore her as much as I adore her fics

theartificialwolf and aphistas on AO3 are incredible writers their Vatya fics are so fucking perfect and just have the best plots (I recommend To Make an Angel Fall it’s so good and it’s complete)

One of my favorite writers on AQ is Ruby his fics Jealousy and Cigarette Burns are so good and I love the way he writes.

Honorable Mentions: Dani from AQ, who no longer writes (for AQ anyway) I just love their stories, Hot Pink, who I’m hoping comes back and @veronicasanders because she’s incredible and always has these amazing ideas that just appear from thin air

4- Name three authors that were influential to your work and tell why

This was the hardest of the asks for me (and unfortunate for you the longest), because 1- I haven’t read an actual book not required for a class in a long while and 2- I’m not attached to any particular authors, I look for plots instead of name’s if that makes any sense. Also, I just pull my inspiration from so many places. So, I put a twist on my answers.

Tim Burton (screenwriter, but still). His work is my biggest influence as an artist. I’m a big fan of fantasy films and I love the way he creates these weird, but enduring characters and the way he presents his stories. I love that odd, gothy aesthetic that is so famously Tim Burton. I just feel like he creates these worlds that you can get lost in, i.e. Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Giant, Nightmare Before Christmas, and one of my all time favorite movies Edward Scissorhands. I’ve always been attracted to the ‘odd’ characters in books and on screen, even in real life I’m attracted to people who aren’t technically mainstream; I love my artists, free spirits, rebels, just people who don’t fit the mold and gets the most shit in life for being them and a lot of my characters fit that description in someway.  

Comic Book writers. I’m a fucking nerd and though I don’t read comic books I love them because they are the base for superhero movies and television shows, which I love. My first fic on AQ was a superhero au, inspired by X-Men. I’m a big fan of action, but action with superpowers are just a million times better. Superhero movies always have backstories, adventures, fighting, supernatural stuff, they usually are comedic and also have angst (someone dies or gets seriously injured and half of the time it’s like my favorite character), which is like this perfect combination for me because my life has been fucking crazy and I’ve always found finding the comedy in a situation a perfect way to balance the craziness and an outlet. I just think everything needs something that will make you cry in heartache and cry in laughter. Plus I really want superpowers, so one of my goals is to be in a superhero movie. I really wanna roll over or run over a moving car while running from people, and beat up several people at once.

Songwriters. Like 94.7% of my inspiration for my works (example in Tree House Kisses, each chapter title is a song). Music tells stories and they give me story ideas to write.

10- How do you do your researches?

Oh, man. Google is my best friend. I don’t have a strategic way to research, but it’s super random and the stuff that I research is super random. For Just Some Runaways, I mostly was googling maps and cities to know where they were located,  (I didn’t take geography in high school), what they were like/attraction, cost of train tickets, where it stops. For my Superhero AU, I was googling types of superpowers and the name’s of them. For Tree House Kisses, I’ve googled dates of when song, movies and tv shows came out, the different types of clothing styles, little stuff like what technology was out, but mostly I’ve had help from Veronica with anything I’ve been unsure about. And even parts of a gun for a fic that I’ve started writing, but its on hold for write now.

20- Favorite character to write?

Adore, she’s so open with her emotions and her philosophies and just the way that she thinks and stuff that it’s really easy to take aspects of her personality or just really be able to translate her personality that into whatever setting I need. Plus, she’s really fun to write.

Again, thank you so much, babe for being curious about a nobody like me.

[valentinaforerocreativeblog]

Who & What Inspires Me

Background Information / Process

For this project, the question was 'who or what inspires me', while thinking about it I was trying to figure out something that I was truly interested in. I started off with fashion since it was a clear example given in the packet but suddenly it came to me, film! I have always been so interested in films, the fact that a film can transport you in to a completely different world for two hours and simply make you feel as if you are part of the plot, the feeling that you connect with the characters and what to know how their story ends, it's magical. Knowing that I wanted to do something with film, I choose my favorite two films which are, The Matrix (1999) and Shutter Island (2010). Both happen to have the common theme of questioning reality. Reality can be questioned throughout the whole movie. With The Matrix, it is all about how the world is controlled by a higher power, everything is programmed to happen for a reason, the main character Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) is naturally curious to doubt his reality, believing there is a greater force. This plot line is all about the main character being able to take his control and realize the greater truth, the reality.

Shutter Island has a different plot line, the whole movie is based off a character that is not in charge of his own reality. Falsely believing a lie, his whole reality is like a dream, disoriented and incomplete but what is fascinating is noticing the little details throughout the movie which indicate the false reality of the main character. Shutter Island is a clear indication of the effects on post-traumatic stress, mental illness. The main character Teddy Daniels simply does not have that 'sixth sense' to actually realize the truth of his existence, you could say it felt like all a nightmare for him.

I decided to take surrealism as another inspiration for my project, I thought it would be best since my whole concept of blissful ignorance and dreams are themes in which both movies have. I decided to research on Man Ray since I knew I wanted someone that had a photography background. His photograms appeared and I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do. The clear contrast between black and white by producing an image from the shadow of objects seem to me as a fascinating idea. So, I decided to go into the Darkroom at the university and tried it myself. My photograms are done with my hands, to represent the characters taking their own reality into their own hands. The hands are shown over lapping since I wanted to symbolize how both character's life decisions have a thin line which makes them take completely different life choices. I decided to recreate the sense in The Matrix (1999) in photoshop by incorporating the pills (red & blue) based on the scene in The Matrix (1999), where Neo the main character has to decide which fate he wants to belong in by taking two types of pills. The red pill represents knowledge, freedom, and truths in reality. While the blue pill represents security, beauty, an illusion. I decided to dedicate the red pill to Neo (The Matrix) since he decided to take his reality into his own hands, while Teddy Daniels (Shutter Island) played along with his illusion till the very end where he had no choice but face his reality by force. The photograms show a slight movement within the fingers showing the indecisiveness of the characters while taking this decision, the hard reality of truly know what is real and what truly isn’t. Along with the movement, you can also see that I decided to create the illusion hand a bit abnormally, a bit nonrealistic to symbolize when you take the path of illusion (the blue pill), nothing is seen normal.

Planning

Photograms

Finished Project

[elwright13]

Crispin Glover as ” Mr. World” in the Starz series American Gods

On June 16th and 17th at Alamo Drafthouse (Omaha ), I attended both nights of Crispin Glover’s appearance consisting of live performances, film screenings, Q&As, and book signings. And what a great time it was! Crispin Glover is one of the most wonderfully gracious, down-to-earth, and intelligent people I’ve met. His live performances films and should be experienced firsthand, because they defy easy description. But I’m going to try anyway.

Before I get to that, I want to foreground this review by saying that I didn’t know too much of what to expect from the event or from Crispin himself, and didn’t want to bias my opinion of the event by reading detailed reviews in advance. Aside from enjoying Crispin’s quirky performances in various films (including his recent role as “Mr. World” in the Starz series American Gods), I didn’t know much about him as a person, aside from media articles describing him as” eccentric” or even “crazy,” two terms that are neither equivalent nor interchangeable. Usually, the “evidence” for the “crazy” label consists of speculation about his cringe-inducing first appearance on Letterman in the late 1980s, or the fact that he used to collect antique medical equipment (a fun-sounding hobby that mostly makes me feel envious). As I discussed in an earlier post, “crazy” is a nebulous label, a sloppy blanket term for a range of behaviors and attitudes that don’t necessarily indicate actual mental illness. I’m not just carping about the descriptor “crazy” merely because Crispin Glover clearly isn’t.  I also find it egregious because it’s an intellectually lazy way to dismiss someone whose ideas or behaviors are merely inconvenient, outside the status-quo, or fail to support one’s own agenda. More on this later.

An unexpected reference to bestiality in “Rat Catching”

This isn’t to say that Crispin’s artistic output isn’t eccentric or massively weird, because it is. If you have the opportunity to attend both nights, do so. There is some overlap in content but not so much as to be overly redundant. Both nights began with variations of “Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show,” in which Crispin crawled out from somewhere beneath the stage (literally) and then presented dramatic reading of several of his books accompanied by a powerpoint presentation of the book text and illustrations. Most of Crispin’s books consist of Victorian-era texts and illustrations, which have been redacted, recombined, and annotated in ways that transform the narrative entirely, usually making it funny or into absolute nightmare fuel. For example, “Rat Catching” contains a surprise reference to bestiality. Other books, such as “Round My House,” consisted of Crispin’s original text, reprinted from his own handwriting. This was my favorite among the books available for purchase at the event and on his website. The others were out of print or never printed for distribution in the first place. My favorite among these was “The Backward Swing.” Crispin’s dramatic reading style most often further mutated or obfuscated the meaning of the text, because he would often read with an emotion that didn’t seem to fit the text, or would read in a counter-intuitive cadence or put emphasis on atypical words. I enjoy the books themselves, but would argue that they are best experienced when performed by Crispin himself.

Poster for It is Fine! Everything is Fine

Following the Big Slide Show on night one was a screening of It is Fine! Everything is Fine, which is directed by Crispin as part two if the “IT” trilogy. Part one, What is It? was screened the second night. In retrospect, I think I understand his reasoning for screening his films out of order. It is Fine! is a good way to warm up audience members who attended both nights, because of the two films, it is more palatable for mainstream audiences. Moreover, it’s in some ways helpful to learn about the screenwriter and lead actor Steven C. Stewart before seeing the first film. Steven C. Stewart, who had a severe case of cerebral palsy, portrays a serial killer who has a fetish for women with long hair. I won’t spoil this film for readers as I tend to do. While there are several taboo elements in It is Fine!, it’s a film with a coherent, linear plot.

Promotional still for What is It?

That said, the oddities of the Big Slide Show and It is Fine! did not adequately prepare me for seeing part one of the “IT” trilogy, What is It?, which Crispin describes as, “Being the adventures of a young man whose principle interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home. As tormented by an hubristic, racist inner psyche” ( the racist inner psyche is portrayed by Crispin himself). In his Q&A afterward (as in interviews which can be read online), he states that one controversial element was the fact that the cast of What is It? consisted almost entirely of actors who had Down syndrome portraying characters who do not necessarily have Down syndrome. That’s really only one of many controversial aspects of the film. I would go so far to say that there is something potentially offensive or disturbing for every viewer. Some of those things include excessive use of Nazi swasticas, screaming snails, and unsimulated sex scenes involving women in animal masks. In multiple interviews, Crispin said his goal in making What is It?  is for audience members to ask themselves, “Is this right what I’m watching? Is this wrong what I’m watching? Should I be here? Should the filmmaker have done this? What is it?” It worked. Among the things that pushed my personal buttons were gratuitous scenes of snail-killing and some…unique soundtrack choices that included Johnny Rebel’s rendition of “Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)”  and selected songs by Charles Manson. To clarify, these songs were played in the main character’s subconscious by the aforementioned “hubristic, racist inner psyche,” which didn’t prevent me from dying a little on the inside anyway. 

To say What is It? is disturbing is an understatement. More specifically, I actually found it more disturbing than one of my perennial favorite movies, A Serbian Film, and as least as disturbing as my friend Andrey Iskanov’s Unit 731 quasi-documentary film Philosophy of a Knife. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way at all. In contrast to a lot of big-budget dreck that is entertaining in the moment but which leaves you without a thought in your head, What is It?, like the other disturbing films I mentioned above, is not necessarily pleasant to watch , but is something to be appreciated in the long term precisely because it is thought-provoking.

Which brings us to the Q&A sessions, which were an oasis of calm rationality after the strangeness of the dramatic readings and the films themselves. In response to each question, Crispin gave thorough, intellectual answers that reminded me of my favorite professors’ lectures in film theory classes and from subsequent graduate school behavioral science courses. Although each night’s roughly two-hour Q&A had a different overall focus, one unifying theme was Crispin’s argument that corporately-funded films function as a type of propaganda because they discourage audience members from asking questions of any kind. Another observation was, and I hope I am paraphrasing this appropriately, that corporate films are intended for the eyes of children, because anything that could make an audience member uncomfortable is excised. I very much appreciated his in-depth insights and discussions in this subject, in part because I have a similar perception of such films. For over a decade, I’ve believed that most mainstream, corporately-funded films force the filmmaker to take a “No Child Left Behind” approach to storytelling, insofar that even if a film has subject matter deemed not suitable for children, that film is ultimately scripted and edited in such a way so that even the most intoxicated or least intelligent test screening audience member can understand it. Additionally, it seems that the budget of a film is inversely related to how taboo it is “allowed” to be. While that isn’t a terrible thing for every type of film, it’s obviously deleterious for horror films and any other type of film that by nature needs to convey things that are disturbing or controversial.

Crispin Glover as the screaming hair fetishist “The Thin Man” in Charlie’s Angels

Since What is It? was a reaction to corporate straightjacketing, it’s not entirely without irony that a significant a percent of Crispin’s acting work is in corporately funded and distributed films. However, that doesn’t indicate that Crispin’s views on corporate propaganda are somehow inauthentic, but rather that corporate control over the U.S. entertainment industry is so ubiquitous that it’s virtually impossible for an artist to detach entirely from the system. Crispin states that he used income from Charlie’s Angels and other corporately-funded films to cover the cost of making his independent films What is It? and It is Fine! Which brings me back to the issue of some journalists labeling Crispin as “crazy” or some variant on the term. On one level, it may just be an attempt to entertain celebrity gossip junkies or reflective of a common difficulty in separating an artist from his work product, but on another, more insidious level, it is also an easy way to dismiss Crispin’s more subversive views about the U.S. entertainment industry.

Crispin’s Q&A sessions weren’t restricted to professor-like discussions about corporate propaganda and relevant works by  Noam Chomsky and Edward Bernays. He also discussed the influence of the Surrealist movement on his own work and shared several humorous personal anecdotes, including his intent behind his first appearance on Letterman. (I won’t reveal the answer here.) The fact that he openly answers questions in his Q&A sessions that he will not answer in typical media interviews is yet another reason to attend his live performances and film screenings. 

Finally meeting Crispin at his book signing Friday night

  After the Q&A sessions concluded, both evenings ended with a book signing. While it was a long wait to meet Crispin (I didn’t make it home until 2 a.m. on Friday and 1 a.m. on Saturday), I’m glad I did, and appreciated the opportunity to speak with him one-on-one. A staff member at Alamo Drafthouse told me that they had recommended that he spend only two minutes with each guest, but he generously spent quite a bit more time with those who wanted to talk. As I mentioned earlier, he was very gracious and grounded, and also genuinely interested in each guest and in hearing their feedback about his presentations and films. Even though I intended to not bring up weird or inappropriate topics, my conversation with Crispin started benignly and then evolved to an academic discussion about paraphilias. Fortunately, he seemed unfazed.

Crispin is currently writing a book about propaganda (I can’t wait for it to be released) and completing an untitled film starring his father, Bruce Glover. Visit crispinglover.com to sign up for his newsletter, buy his books, and get information about his tour dates.

[mvalleefootball-blog]

2016 Super Bowl Champion Leftovers

By Michael Vallee

BostonFootballBlog@yahoo.com

-Evil Genius:  Looks like the verdict is in on Belichick’s controversial decision to trade Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins.  Jones started 16 games and registered 11 sacks while his replacement, Trey Flowers, started 11 games and finished with 9.5 sacks, including a monster 2.5 sack performance in the Super Bowl.  Not only did New England not miss a beat this year on defense but trading Jones freed up millions in cap space and netted New England two big-time contributors in Joe Thuney and Malcolm Mitchell.  As for the Collins trade, the Patriots defense improved significantly after the so-called franchise linebacker was shipped to the NFL’s basement in Cleveland.  With stories surfacing that he reported to camp overweight along with his choice to commit long-term to a loser team like the Browns, you have to wonder if this guy was all in on the whole winning thing.  Once again, it’s another example of Belichick knowing exactly when to cut bait.

-Dual Threat:  Belichick the GM might have had his best year in 2016.  Whether it was offseason trades, in-season trades or the draft it’s hard to argue with virtually anything he did over the last 12 months.  And how about this nugget: the Patriots had 30 new faces on their 2016 Super Bowl Champion team that did not play for the 2014 Championship squad.  How many NFL executives can win two Super Bowls in three years while turning over half the roster?  An argument can be made that the Patriots have the best QB in the NFL, the best coach in the NFL and the best GM in the NFL.

-Back up the Brinks Truck:  I think it’s safe to say Patriots fans are hoping Belichick the GM signs pending free agent Dont’a Hightower.  Not only is Hightower a team leader on defense but the Patriots are dangerously thin at linebacker.  And while we all know Belichick isn’t the most sentimental guy it can’t hurt negotiations when the player can argue that the Patriots would be minus two Super Bowls without him.  If Hightower doesn’t make that goal line shoe-string tackle on Marshawn Lynch in 2014 and doesn’t cause that fumble on Matt Ryan the Patriots might still be stuck on three Super Bowls.  As Teddy KGB once said, “Pay him, pay that man his money.”

-Super Bowl Shell Shock:  Speaking of those two Super Bowls, Falcons coach Dan Quinn must be a basket case at this point.  How do you mentally process being a part of arguably the two biggest choke jobs in NFL history.  Yeah, Brady and the Patriots had a lot to do with it, but if you are on the losing end of those games the only thing on your mind when you think of either loss is, “We blew it.”  As the DC for Seattle, Quinn can’t be blamed for Pete Carroll’s horrendous goal line play call but the loss Sunday is squarely on his shoulders.  Everybody needs to stop blaming Kyle Shanahan for the decision to not run the ball after Julio Jones spectacular 4th quarter catch.  Quinn is the head coach, that call is his and his alone.  Can you Imagine Bill Belichick just standing there in the 4th quarter of a Super Bowl and letting Josh McDaniels pass the ball in that situation?

-Mic’d Up:  The NFL Network’s Sound FX show for Super Bowl LI wasn’t quite the full blown football porn I was hoping for, but it’s definitely worth a watch.  The mics picked up a quote from Quinn that proved to be prophetic.  Just before Matt Ryan took the field after the Patriots cut the lead to 28-20 Quinn said to him, “Let’s go attack, Matt, let’s go attack it brother.”  Perhaps instead Quinn should have said, “Let’s go attack, Matt, unless we get in field goal range then, naturally, we will just run the ball three times and win the Super Bowl.”

-Roger That:  How about the stones on Brady to record that alternate ending to his Shields MRI commercial months BEFORE Super Bowl LI.  Brady, alone in a commercial, discussing a Super Bowl win that hasn’t yet happened isn’t exactly the same as half the Chicago Bears recording the Super Bowl Shuffle for all the world to see, but considering how things are run down there in Foxboro this was a huge break from business as usual.  I wonder what Belichick thought when he first saw the commercial, and I don’t mean whatever bullshit he said publicly, I mean what he REALLY thought. 

-Trendsetters:  Prior to Sunday, NFL playoff teams trailing by 17+ entering the 4th quarter were 0-124.  If you’re thinking that the Buffalo Bills overcame a similar 4th quarter deficit when they rallied from 32 down against the Houston Oilers in ‘92, the Bills actually scored four 3rd quarter touchdowns and only trailed by four entering the final quarter.

-Thank You Sir may I have Another:  For those keeping score at home, the Patriots final Deflategate punishment was a four game rest for Brady, which probably didn’t hurt in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, and an opportunity to showcase Jimmy Garoppolo which has already triggered rumors of a Bears, Browns, 49ers bidding war which should net the Patriots more than the 1st and 4th round draft picks that the league took from them.  So if you get a chance maybe drop Goodell a nice thank you note for all he has done for the 2016 Super Bowl champs.

-Commissioner Clown Show:  When the Patriots returned home from Houston Matt Patricia exited the plane wearing a Roger Goodell clown t-shirt from Barstool Sports and soon after reports surfaced that Goodell was “really bothered” by the t-shirt.  Can you imagine making $40 million dollars a year to do a dream job like NFL Commissioner and still being such a thin-skinned, insecure narcissist that you actually care what t-shirt somebody wears?  Goodell is pathetic.  The report also states that NFL executives were “seething” at Robert Kraft for not stopping Patricia from wearing the t-shirt and for his fairly tame declaration that the fifth title was “the sweetest”.  Those guys at NFL Headquarters have a set of brass ones.  After all the crap they put the Patriots thru and all the cheap shots they took at New England, they have the gall to leak to an NFL reporter that they are upset over a t-shirt and a brief comment made after winning a Super Bowl.  NFL executives strike me as the type of guys that cheat on their wives then tell everyone they are “seething” about their wives choice of a divorce attorney.  If I were Kraft I would have been handing out Goodell clown shirts as I walked off the plane, shooting Goodell clown shirts out of a potato gun during the victory parade and then I would have gone full “Trading Places” and sold Goodell clown shirts for one dollar at the Patriots Pro Shop.

-Deflate This:  Since Brady has been playing with those “legal” footballs, he is 28-6, has thrown 80 TDs to just 16 INTs and has won two Super Bowl MVPs.  Maybe the rest of the league would have been better off just letting him play with the “deflated” footballs.  I can’t imagine the results would have been any worse for them.

-America’s Funniest Home Videos:  It is impossible to provide links to all of the wild social media reactions to the patriots comeback win but here’s a few you might enjoy:  This video features David Ortiz going crazy when the Patriots win in overtime and has bonus footage of Lil’ Bow Wow, at the game, despondent over his Falcons collapse.  Snoop Dogg weighed in praising Tom Brady as the best quarterback that ever lived.  Click here if you want to watch one of several Atlanta fan meltdown videos, click here if you want to see a radio host lose his mind, click here if you want to see a gambler that bet on Atlanta go on an angry rambling diatribe and click here if you want to see a fed up Adolph Hitler flip out over the Patriots victory.

-What Size Straitjacket do you Wear?:  This Super Bowl matchup really brought out the crazy in Ray Lewis who was at his bizarre best when he, for no apparent reason, recorded pregame pep talks for both the Patriots and the Falcons in what appears to be his garage.  We have always known Ray was a little off but this is padded room type stuff.  Can somebody close to the former linebacker please check on him or at least contact his doctor to see about upping his dosage.

-Deja Vu:  On Sunday the happiest person in Houston should have been Stephen Gostkowski.  If New England had failed on that final two-point conversion that would be back-to-back seasons ending in major disappointment because the kicker couldn’t make an extra point.

-First Time for Everything:  108 times this year teams had a 1st and 10 and their opponents 22-yard line.  The Falcons were the first to punt.

-Running on Empty:  It used to be that you would wear down a defense by running the ball but in the modern NFL the new method for exhausting defenses is with the pass.  The Patriots snapped the ball over 100 times on offense (more than double Atlanta) and 70% of those plays were passes.  In the 4th quarter the Falcons defense looked more exhausted than a Kardashian after NBA All-Star weekend and was a shell of the defense that was so effective in the first half.

-The Very Early Edition:  So the Boston Globe had their “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment when they ran early editions in Florida with a picture of a dejected Tom Brady lying on the turf after his interception.  Also Dan Shaughnessy claims that one of his editors told him to finish his story when the Patriots were down 28-3 and Shaughnessy, to his credit, refused.

-Second to None:  Brady’s stats the last two Super Bowl 4th quarters and overtime: 35-43, 372 yards, 3 touchdowns, zero INTs, QB rating: 126.  

-The Reports of My Death have been Greatly Exaggerated:  Remember, not long ago, when analysts were throwing dirt on New England’s dynasty following that nightmare in Kansas City when they got shellacked 42-14?  Immediately after the game certain critics bellowed “let’s face it, they’re not good anymore” and that week Grantland ran a piece suggesting that the Patriots were “fatally flawed”.  Since then the Patriots are 43-9 and have added two Lombardi trophies to Kraft’s mantel.  My favorite part of the Grantland piece: “Edelman is a college quarterback who nobody else in the league wanted in free agency before the 2013 season. Danny Amendola, who some idiot expected to replace Wes Welker, is almost a punch line…”  

-Tough Act to Follow:  Did Super Bowl LI ruin the Super Bowl?  Seriously, how will any future Bowl come close to measuring up to what we saw last Sunday.  If next year’s championship is a competitive hard fought 27-21 game it’s going to feel like a disappointment after what we just experienced.

-No Rest for the Wicked:  The best part of New England’s comeback might have been all of the Patriot trolls that spent two hours laughing and celebrating only to sit there in stunned silence while Brady brought New England all the way back.  If I could have been a fly on the wall in two houses it would have been these:

Michael Che:  Che is the inarticulate talentless hack that co-anchors Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.  Che fumbles and stumbles his way thru every broadcast making multiple mistakes, rarely saying anything funny and the entire time has this miserable sourpuss look on his face that makes you wonder if he even wants to make you laugh.  He is abysmal.  He is also opinionated, and on SNL the week before the Super Bowl he said, “I just wanna relax, turn my brain off, and watch the blackest city in America beat the most racist city I have ever been to”.  Somebody please tell Che that we have nothing against black people, we just don’t like annoying, unfunny comedians.  I would have loved to watch this no talent mope react to New England’s comeback.  Is it possible for him to look more dour?    

Maine Governor Paul LePage:  This buffoon claims to boycott the Patriots because of what they did to Connecticut but in reality he’s just a grumpy lifelong NY Giants fan.  By most accounts LePage is an unhinged wacko that specializes in offending people, threatening those that criticize him and generally saying a lot of dumb shit.  He has never received 50% of the vote in any election and currently has one of the worst governor approval ratings in the country.  LePage is also a notorious hot head and I hope his family hid the guns while he was watching those hated Patriots make history on sunday.

-Check My References:  The NFL announced its 2017 Hall-of-Fame class Super Bowl week and one name on that list was Jason Taylor, who apparently got an assist from an old foe.  Brady, who Taylor sacked more time than any other QB he faced, wrote a letter passionately arguing that Taylor belongs in the HOF.  Dolphin Stadium (or whatever the hell they call it now) was often a house of horrors for Brady and the Patriots when they faced Taylor.  Taylor’s Dolphins were the last team to shutout Brady when they beat him 21-0 in Miami during the 2006 season.  Former Patriot, and ex-Brady teammate, Ty Law came up short this year in his bid for the HOF and might be wondering where his letter of recommendation was?

-At least We still have Our Health:  Not sure where the Falcons go from here.  How do you mentally rebound from quite possibly the worst loss in sports history?  With the offseason in just its first week they are already off to an inauspicious start, firing two scapegoats coaches in the wake of the Super Bowl meltdown and hiring a college coach with a drinking problem, Steve Sarkisian, to replace 2016 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year, Kyle Shanahan, who was left to be the head coach of the 49ers.  Not only is the hiring of Sarkisian risky but it has reportedly ticked off a lot of Quinn’s offensive assistants who were passed over for the job.  This year’s Super Bowl hangover appears to be kicking in early.

-On Second Thought:  If offensive coordinators were stocks, thru three quarters Kyle Shanahan was Google and Josh McDaniels was Enron, but by the time the game ended you have to wonder if the 49ers were thinking they may have hired the wrong coordinator.

-Oh Ye of little Faith:  President Trump reportedly left his own Super Bowl party when the Patriots were losing 28-3.

-Walker Texas Ranger:  You know you’ve reached the pinnacle as an athlete when your game jersey is stolen from your locker and the Texas Rangers are asked to help locate it.  Then again Brady’s game-worn Super Bowl jersey is estimated to be worth 200K.  If it was stolen what exactly is the thief’s plan?  With all the hype around this story it would be nearly impossible to sell, making it the sports equivalent of stealing a Picasso or a Van Gogh.

-Fountain of Youth:  As we accurately predicted in this space the Brady/Goodell Super Bowl MVP trophy presentation proved to be rather benign but something was said that day which is fairly astounding.  Talking about his future Brady said, “When I was 25, I was hurting all the time, and I couldn't imagine playing as long as I did, just because, you know, if your arm hurts every day when you throw, how can you keep playing? And now, at 39, my arm never hurts and my body never hurts.”

We all know Brady has this crazy next-level training regimen and diet but it is unbelievable to hear a 39-year old guy that plays in the NFL say, “my body never hurts.”  This isn’t racquetball or beach volleyball, it’s the NFL, a league whose culture of violence and injuries has been the focus of numerous books, lawsuits and a big-budget Hollywood movie.  I have no idea how long Brady can keep playing but a quote like that certainly makes the reported 3-5 year estimate seem very realistic.  Either way it’s been an entertaining ride.  It certainly was on Super Bowl Sunday.

*Paul Heffernan aka “Mr. Internet” contributed to this report