#my initial thought was some kind of sci fi thing

[shokogast]

brian david gilbert rehka shankar ally beardsley alex song-xia izzy roland zac oyama table. i don't know what they'd do this is just a personal dream for me specifically

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 [Teaser]

In which Jungkook really only went to earth to take home his new pet- but ends up leaving with a lot more than that.

Tags/Warnings: Alien!Jungkook, Human!Reader, Ocean theme, very wet planet, bioluminescence, sci-fi, Romance, strangers to lovers, God this ended up WAY softer and fluffier than I thought it would, Fluff, Kook is tall and buff but sometimes fails to realize that, a pet shark named Custard, another pet shark named Noodle, more TBA

Length: unknown yet, teaser is ~700 words

-> Masterlist

A/N: a silly idea I had because of fellow fish enthusiast @euphoricfilter

━━━━━━━━━━.~°🩵°~.━━━━━━━━━━━

“I’m pretty sure they’ll get along great.” Jungkook smiles. “Of course I’ll have to slowly familiarize the two- but Custard is very sweet, she’s just sometimes a bit moody.” He explains to you, who watches the other shark in the tank with him as he’s being fed by a caretaker.

“I heard they’re a.. popular pet.” You mention, and Jungkook nods.

“Yeah! I initially wanted a lemon shark first, but then things changed, and I got custard first.” He shrugs. “Which I think might have been a good thing, considering that lemon sharks are said to get jealous easily if not properly socialized. It’s easier to introduce them to an already established shark than have them first and get them comfortable with a new one.” The alien explains, watching his new pet swim around.

“You know a lot about them.” You say, and he chuckles a bit bashful.

“I uh- not really. I just.. wanted to know what I’d be getting myself into. A pet is a big responsibility. “ He explains to you, and you nod.

“I swam with lemon sharks before.” You mention. “they’re pretty cute, but.. a bit chaotic sometimes.” You giggle, remembering the time, and how overwhelmed you’d gotten as the sharks had began playfully fighting over attention of you and the other divers.

“So you’re a good swimmer?” He asks curiously, standing next to you in front of the gigantic tank that holds his chosen pet inside, the young shark swimming around for now, while he’s being prepared for the newer conditions soon to become his permanent home.

“..decent.” You laugh a bit uneasy. “I.. nowhere near, you know, your skills.” You say, and he laughs.

“Oh that’s- like comparing clams with mussels. It’s not the same- just looks similar. Like us!” He shrugs off. “I think you’re under-selling yourself. And even if you’re not a good swimmer- I could teach you!” He offers, making you look up from where you stand near the glass.

"I'm just.. still a bit scared." You admit. "You know, after all that happened. I don't think I could just.. forget that and just.." you sigh, and he gently bumps your shoulder.

"Hey.. no one's asking you to." He tells you. "It just might be a good chance to face your fears? And I'll always be right at your side. I have an underwater license after all!" He proudly reminds you, and you can't help but laugh.

“You really seem like you really want me to visit your planet.” You tease, though he clearly doesn’t take it as a joke- nodding with almost cute enthusiasm.

“Of course! You said you always wanted to- so why not do it while visiting a friend?” He proposes. “it’s safer than just going alone. You could get lost, or even hurt.” He tells you. “and you’d miss out on.. you know, the spots only locals know.” Jungkook says, before he looks as Noodle swims closer again to inspect something floating around.

“I mean, you’re right..” you mumble, watching the shark move around. “…but I don’t know. I don’t think I could.. really.. I’m still just human.” You tell him, and he nods.

“I’m aware.” He responds. “and my planet has already made many adjustments to accommodate humans in many areas. You seem to forget that my kind has been.. mixing with humans for a long time by now. “ He chuckles. “means we had to evolve too, and change some of our architecture and stuff to adapt to those changes.” He says.

He’s right. And, in a way, he’s a living example of that change- with his honestly surprisingly human appearance, minus the height difference, and the hardly visible stripes of his skin.

“so, if you’d like, I’d happily house you for your vacation on my planet.” He grins. “and we can see just how well you swim.” He teases, leaning down a bit towards you before you both leave the large hall containing the tank for his new pet-

And you feel like this won’t just be a vacation at all, considering that he’s made it clear that he’s found interest in you past just simply being friends.

And in a way, you don’t mind that one bit.

[arcan3-reliquary]

VERITAS RATIO HEADCANONS (because we need more content of him that's him-centric)

And because you guys asked. Most of these headcanons are purely based on my readings of him or have 0 basis in canon, so if you don’t like them, feel free to scroll past them!!

fighting the war on autism on the side of autism. As a neurodivergent he's very nd coded to me, especially with the fact that he's a very caring person but terrible with emotions and words. He's losing the idgaf war so badly like there's no way a neurotypical person has a temper that short over the most (seemingly) inane shit

Kind of pasty. not just like porcelain skin, like clay-sickly-victorian-boy type palor. He tries to go outside more often, but by the nature of his job he's rather sedentary and inside alooot. He's perfectly healthy, he just looks like that. Same complexion as Freminet in my head, with fewer freckles and a tooth gap he likes to deny he has.

Wears the alabaster headpiece not just to deal with idiots, but to self regulate out in public. It blocks out smells, and dampens sound and light enough for him to tolerate some of the veeery overstimulating environments he visits.

For a man that values creativity explicitly, not enough people seem to believe he’d have an interest in the arts. So I think he's into sculpting. A chisel and hammer are very comforting weights in his hand, and while he doesn't particularly care for pottery or wet clay, he gets why it's so well liked. He uses himself as reference mostly because he's most familiar with his own body and asking others can be awkward or seen as weird.

The dude has extremely obscure taste in sci-fi novels. Like he will yap on and on about why he can't stand most sci-fi and recommend the most odd shit out there if asked.

Not really a hc, but he has very brittle self-esteem. It simply comes with the territory of being labeled “gifted” or “a child genius.” For years, a lot of his perceived worth came from the quality of his work or academic validation, and now his big reason for staying in academics isn't the knowledge itself, but rather the joy of teaching and sharing the things he knows.

Somehow both touch starved and touch averse. Contact must be initiated by him on his terms, or a shutdown will happen. But when someone he trusts does this, it's the funniest thing because he thinks he's being so subtle about his enjoyment of it. (Aven played w his hair once and Veritas passed tf out like that and Aven couldn't move for an hour.)

Chronic over-explainer. Either he misreads someone's tone and thinks they need the detail, or past conflict was caused by him thinking he didn't explain enough (it was usually just people being purposefully obtuse or daft.)

Unsurprisingly terrible to deal with when sick. Non-verbal, sits under a mountain of weighted blankets, and only communicates via the notes app on his phone or having Aventurine help him.

Ratio is terribly farsighted - just genetics. Lasic surgery fixed most of it, but he still needs reading glasses and contacts.

Intimacy issues alert. Vulnerability is scary and being put on a pedestal your whole life tends to make letting down pretenses a lil nauseating. Mortifying ordeal of being known and all that.

Girl Anachronism by the Dresden Dolls makes me think of him. I can't explain it. I think it's a combo of him being hella self aware of his issues but also just kinda treating them like something of a character flaw or moral failing rather than something he can ask for help with. Just a thought

AND THATS ITS IVE YAPPED ENOUGH ABOUT RATIO. The Aveenturine and Golden Ratio posts will come soon but for now have these. He makes me insane.

[chillyfeetsteak]

5 pieces of animation that knocked my socks off in 2023

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

My favorite thing about this movie is how different it looks compared to most of the things coming out of mainstream animation right now. A lot of the rules that studios like Disney have laid out about what makes a character design appealing are ignored here, and it is so refreshing. They’re also doing all kinds of cool and interesting things with the rendering style and effects animation. I loved watching this.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

When I was younger I read the comic and enjoyed the movie a lot, but haven’t thought about these characters much since. I was expecting some cool animated fight scenes and a fun cast-reunion from this series, but not much more. We got that, but we also got some really thoughtful, funny, meta writing that showcases the supporting characters in a novel way.

Nimona

I’ve cried all three times I’ve watched this movie. When I’ve talked to the people who worked on it it is so clear that it was an incredible labor of love, both to the people who will be changed by it and to animation itself. It elevates the comic in every way while still being loyal to the source material. And it is a miracle that it was finished and released at all after Disney initially axed it. It feels extremely special.

Blue Eye Samurai

After Primal’s second season last year, I have been hungry for more adult animation that isn’t primetime sitcom. This show scratched that itch in a very satisfying way. It utilizes beautiful 3D animation that mimics traditional Japanese screen prints to great effect. Set in Edo-period Japan, it includes themes on race, gender, imperialism, colonialism, and revenge. Maya Erskine is incredible as the protagonist, Mizu. 

Scavengers Reign

I have been following @charleshuettner on tumblr for ages, so when I saw he had a show coming out I was psyched. I have long been a fan of his design sensibilities and weird animations. Scavengers Reign exists in the overlapping space between sci-fi and horror. One of my favorite things about it is that it kept surprising me: obvious writing decisions that other shows would have made are continually waived in favor of unexpected and compelling character choices. It doesn’t talk down to the audience, and it doesn’t pull its punches. It is also absolutely beautiful.

Honorable mentions/other recommendations: Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Star Trek: Lower Decks (season 4), Invincible (season 2)

[connorsnothereeither]

were there any specific styles/cultures you took inspiration from when designing the telchin clothing styles?

Honestly the tricky answer is: a lot-

Initially, it was very much just like “okay does this shape and colour palette and design look cool? Sick” and just throwing thoughts at a wall.

When it came to defining those broader shapes/colours and adding things like specific cuts, details, patterns, etc, I sort of worked backwards to grab inspirations.

Ulysses initial/main outfit is honestly quite Medieval, European (but notably Norse/Scandinavian in its cut/style), albeit with a ridiculously plunging neckline for some reason lol-

(it was even a bit early on that every time one of the cast drew Ulysses, we’d make his neckline just a little bit sluttier)

HOWEVER the details on the collar and sleeves are directly lifted from ancient Greco-Roman designs, specifically influenced by the “Greek Key” or “Greek Meander” pattern which can be seen in pottery, jewellery and architecture all over the ancient Mediterranean!

Specific to Ulysses, his clothing has currently reached a fairly fairytale-esque “fantasy” stage, drawing a lot of early Renaissance and pirate-style influences with his little poet-shirt and sash, since he’s been on the Overworld so much, and is slowly growing to become a part of that culture and world, and I really wanted to show that in his clothing changes.

Honestly, a lot of the broader telchin clothing when I have sketched it up is very Greco-Roman, at least in the way I tend to depict it (that is my field of expertise, given my degree haha) but there’s honestly a lot of broader Mediterranean ties in as well. The army and their armour is designed to be very Ancient Macedonian, and a lot of the more casual clothing skew very Ancient Egyptian.

Canonically the Telchin clothing style also definitely develops rapidly over the course of the war with the drowned, mostly for practicality sake more than fashion (loose flowing fabrics aren’t doing anyone much good escaping the undead), leading to an almost 1950s/60s American aesthetic? Of course still mingled with the Greco-Roman patterns. Especially in the way the scientists are presented in lore/my art, they always had a very retro-60’s almost sci-fi scientist aesthetic. If I was to give it a fancy/proper-sounding name I think “Wartime-Americana Retro-Classicism” would be more or less it, potentially lmao-

(You can even sort of see similar shapes and patterns in that first reference image to Ulysses eventual design!)

There was of course always a flair of Victorian-Mad-Scientist too, because I have a bit of a brand and I can’t help myself. And given the blurring of science, alchemy and magic in Fable I think it definitely fits.

It’s a shame Tumblr only lets me upload 10 images per post on mobile because I have A BUNCH of reference images for all of these stages of the Ulysses/broader telchin clothing design lol, but sadly I can’t include them here :(

But I hope this was somewhat useful/interesting!! I’ve had so much fun coming up with this kind of stuff over the course of Fable s3 for the telchin and I’m very grateful to Ocie and Metta for kind of just letting me go ham on a bunch of aspects like this lol-

[samthetrekkie]

for having watched this movie at least twice before (albeit several years ago), I recalled surprisingly little of the plot. and so did my dad, who had once watched this with me! I used to think this was my favorite tos movie and I think the reason was bc this movie needs the smallest tos context. like it's objectively a - not super inventive - but thrilling and interesting plot. I also only now realized how much this movie made parallels to the end of the cold war and overall had some really good dialogue, which, let's be honest, not all of tos has.

but I think the reason it's not my favorite tos movie anymore, is bc I now do have the context and for a star trek movie, it was pretty weak when it comes to the characters. and tos is especially character-driven (to the point were the same 2-3 characters are protagonists in each episode). and I find that really interesting bc I do like all of the tos crew, but I also need that kirk/spock relationship thrown into my face again and again. and there was very little of that this time (not nothing though) and each character had kind of important roles to play. I don't want to say this is the only tos movie that operated like that, but I do notice it more in this one as I used to think this was the best movie.

anyway, there were still a few things I liked about the character portrayal in this. kirk and spock seemed to have some bigger issues prior to this as kirk seemed to be pissed off and distant with spock the whole time. and you can't tell me this was just bc of the assignment with the klingons. kirk felt like spock had personally attacked him with this assignment and spock seemed really confused, probably thinking he had given kirk an interesting last mission. so in my headcanon, their seem to have separated at this point :( but later on I really enjoyed how unusually angry spock got when he found out valeris was the one responsible for getting kirk convicted and had ultimately put his life in danger. there was a certain level of guilt in there too, as spock had been the one to get them into this mission in the first place. and kirk having pretty much forgiven spock in rura penthe of all places, was really surprised to see spock's behavior and even felt bad for it, so it seems. he was not even initiating the kiss with iman's character! (also very interesting alien concept, similar to changelings, when it comes to gender.) in general he seemed almost never interested in any of the women in the movies, which I have mentioned before, but I love as it fits right into my headcanon :) but mccoy's "what is it with you" after the kiss was still amazing as it summed up the entirety of kirk's obsessive womanizing behavior in tos. generally, mccoy had the best one-liners ever in this. and he was by far not the most prejudiced one in this movie. and he was actually really nice to spock the entire time and seemed relatively tame in general. do we see a little character change caused by the last movie…? I still don't see mccoy and kirk being a thing, but mccoy and spock on the other hand…

I won't take this any further and rather conclude my tos walkthrough for good now (even though some of the characters appear in other series and movies again). I thought it was really interesting to see the changes the decades made on sci fi and to watch it with a person who actually lived through those decades.

I have to say tos really is up there now in the star trek ranking for me, maybe even above tng. (but we'll watch that next, so this view might change very soon.) spock (as played by nimoy) is certainly one of my top 3 star trek characters and I think that says a lot for a show that was written in the 60s. (the other one is seven and I have no idea who the third one is, but... we got all the autistic-coded ones up there, don't we.)

I'm so glad we have so much to go when it comes to star trek, though! even if it'll take us several years, now that I've counted it… (there is some shows and movies I will skip, though.)

[fereldanwench]

👀 please share your thoughts on the emp threads and especially goro’s vanity I’d love to know more

Happy to oblige!!!

So for those who don't know, EMP threading in the Cyberpunk world is a type of cyberware that appeared towards the end of the Red Decades/Time of the Red, likely in the late 2040s. It was believed at the time that it could protect its wearer against electromagnetic interference from more intense cybernetics (like weapon augmentations and the like) and radiation. However, that was never scientifically confirmed, and in my opinion, it was probably some sci-fi woo-woo marketing bullshit.

It's cataloged as fashionware in the TTPRG, which means that it doesn't really increase the risk for cyberpsychosis and other negative side effects the way the real shit does. It's basically just about aesthetics and typically has little functional purpose.

I believe it was Goro's writer, Philip Weber, who confirmed on one Pawel's Twitch streams in fall 2021 that the markings on Goro's face are EMP threads and not "proper" cyberware. (I don't feel like tracking down the link right this second, but when I have a little more time I can verify and/or amend the exact source in the comments. I do know that Goro definitely has EMP threading.)

Goro's exact age has never been confirmed--We've just been told he's at least 45 years old in 2077, although I personally always felt like that was too young. My initial guess was early to mid-60s, and then I bumped my headcanon down to 55ish to find a happy medium between the two. Regardless, he's likely somewhere between his late teens to late 20s when EMP threading is gaining popularity, and I feel like this sort of new trendy cyberware probably has much greater appeal to young adults who are really finding their personal style and identity and whatnot.

So I've always had two different but not necessarily conflicting thoughts about Goro's EMP threading:

He got them for practical purposes, thinking they would enhance his abilities and make him an even better little super soldier for Arasaka-sama. Or maybe Arasaka even made their soldiers get them at one point, buying into the idea that they did have a functional purpose.

He got them because he just wanted to look cool. 😎 And I mean, he does still have them, even after presumably something traumatic damaged a part of the threading (that scar, to me, looks like it happened after the threading was implanted given how perfectly it lines up against the remaining thread), so I think there's some conscious fashion/style decision here. I don't see them as being something he'd have a hard time getting removed if he really wanted to.

And like I said: these don't even necessarily have to conflict. Maybe he got them on his own because he thought they'd be functional AND looked cool. 😎

As for Goro's youthful vanity--I really don't have any hard evidence or anything to back up this headcanon, it's just kind of one of those Vibes™️ type things based on the very little he shares about his life before Arasaka.

He does mention that he and his peers always made it a point to wash before the Arasaka transports would roll through Chiba, and I could see him really leaning in hard to having impeccable hygiene, which could also extend to style, to try to distance himself from his streetkid beginnings. Between the bullying we see with David in the Arasaka academy in Edgerunners and real-life stories my husband has shared from his time in a military academy, I imagine Goro was probably surrounded by some real fuckin' assholes who would love to take him down for anything they possibly could, so it would be not just a matter of pride, but self-preservation.

Goro also mentioned that he lacked discipline before Arasaka, and I think he was probably a fuckin' handful when he was younger. I just really love the idea of him being a vain, arrogant pain in the ass in his teens and early 20s and having a major humbling moment in the field, like losing fellow soldiers due to his over-confidence. (Side note: his time as a soldier is probably the era of his life I want to know the most about--He has that line about Saburo understanding what it was like, and I feel like if Goro can identify with someone who served in WWII that he's probably seen some shit.)

So yeah! There's probably other shit I left out, but this is basically the gist of my Goro's EMP Threading as a Symbol of Vanity thesis, lmao

[emberglowfox]

okay a few people have asked now abt steelheart redux so i will do my best to give an overview the maelstrom of vague thoughts it consists of at the moment

basically, steelheart is the oc story i've been posting a shitton of on and off for the past while. steelheart redux refers specifically to its latest iteration, which is completely (mostly) sci-fi and mech driven as opposed to the standard dragon rider story it was before.

it focuses primarily on these guys!

arthur is a human, while zarian is a DRACO, specifically a v1, which i will elaborate on below the readmore bc this is a little long haha

the setup for the story is essentially this:

the DRACOs (version 1, aka v1s) are big draconic mechs that are basically the equivalent of a super high-tech fighter jet with some other bells and whistles, the most notable being that they're pretty much human powered. but to be efficiently powered long-term, they have to be (or have part of them, really) permanently fused to a human host (or any living creature, technically, but humans are what they're like. made for).

despite all that, stuff surrounding their creation goes pretty well for a while, until the v1s mysteriously 'wake up'-- as in, suddenly attain self-aware consciousness, and start talking to their hosts (known as pilots) who understandably take this pretty badly. it's like if the fighter jet you've been flying around and are also kind of biologically fused to suddenly grew a brain and started asking about your day. things get even worse when the company producing the v1s attempts to like. undo this by forcing out an update patch, which has the unintended effect of corrupting the (previously entirely benevolent, just curious) v1s and turning them into crazed murder machines. stuff is bad for a while.

the ACTUAL story takes place 15 years after this, when stuff still isn't amazing but has mostly evened out. the company responsible for the v1s collapsed in the initial chaos, but from its ashes came a new company, Defenex, which has been producing DRACO v2s. they're the sleeker, badder cousins to the v1, made for the sole purpose of protecting towns from and hunting down remaining v1s. they're also, very critically, Not Mysteriously Self-Aware like the v1s are (or. were?) which is good.

the plot follows arthur steele, a fifteen year old boy living in one of the surviving cities, who through a series of accidents comes to be permanently fused to a (mysteriously un-murderous but distinctly unhappy) v1 calling himself Zarian. at first, his goal is to get Zarian removed from his back so they can go their separate ways and he can go back to his unremarkable, relatively safe life. unfortunately, this does not go according to plan. at all. but in the process, they start learning more about the mysterious origins of the DRACO incident and asking questions some people REALLY don't want answered. along the way, they make a few friends, come to actually like each other, and accidentally develop a reputation as Public Enemy #1, Definitely Evil, Kill On Sight. oops.

and that's the gist! i know... a lot of what happens, within that window, but most stuff isn't like nailed down clearly or in order yet, because i've discovered that while i am good with coming up with originally story ideas, actually plotting one from start to finish, coherently and satisfactorily, does NOT come naturally to me at all.

but, at the very least, it has become a fun brain playground and happiness generator, because i am veeery attached to these guys. moreso than i ever have gotten about my own ocs in my whole life tbh

:)

[dalekofchaos]

Things I would change about Life Is Strange True Colors

So after multiple replays of True Colors, I've finally come up with a list of changes.

My other LIS changes

LIS

LIS:BTS

LIS 2

First change would be the logo. This was the original logo and game menu. Just keep the True Colors logo and keep the record in the title and it's perfect.

Compare that to the bland logo we got, it really works better

To help make the game longer, I would've added a prologue chapter where it's about Alex's final days in Helping Hands. We get to interact with Alex's friend Chelsea, see what happened between Alex and Mari, see the reason why Alex wants to keep her power bottled up and tries to get away from strong emotions, get the call from Gabe and end with that final session with Dr Lynn.

In general, I feel like there should've been more consequences to Alex's powers. All we get is Alex beating the shit out of Mac and taking Charlotte's anger away from her turns Charlotte into a husk of a person, and Alex pisses Steph off and of course not telling Eleanor the truth causes her to turn against you. The trailers showed Alex has the tendency to be consumed by powerful emotions and Alex constantly talked about her power like it was a curse. There should've been more build up to Alex learning to control her empathy. High Empathy leading to good choices and good ending while low empathy leads to her friends turning on Alex.

I initially thought there would be more drama like helping Charlotte forgive Ethan. Her pain towards Ethan feels understandable when your loved one's death is indirectly caused by someone who's also dearest most.

Whether Riley and Mac continue their relationship or not, it doesn't feel if there's any impact in it.

Apparently there was SUPPOSED to be consequence for taking away Pike's fear.

"if Alex took Pike’s fear away, when she was down in the mines (apparently in this draft she wouldn’t have been shot by Jed but instead would have found an entrance to the mine another way) Pike would become this “weird emotionless serial killer” and would start chasing Alex around in the mines in order to protect Diane. If it isn’t clear to you by now, the game seemed to have a much darker tone than what we ended up getting in the final game. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing or not."

Honestly more consequences to Alex's powers depending on our high or low empathy should've happened in general.

I feel like more time should've been spent with Steph and Ryan. To me neither of these relationships are believable. The difference between Alex's relationship with Steph and Max's relationship with Chloe is that we spent a good chunk of the game with Chloe.

And as little time as Max gets with Warren, there is at least some substance with those scenes Max has with Warren. Warren starts up the plot of the game by getting the flashdrive, Warren helps Max against Nathan, Warren offers Max to take mind off things by asking her out on a date, Max can help Warren with his science experiment, Warren helps Max make a bomb, Warren saves Max and Chloe from Nathan, Warren takes the picture that helps Max get back and Warren is supportive no matter what choice Max makes.

Yes Ryan helps Alex in the record store, patches up Gabe, helps find Ethan and we have Ryan dealing with his grief and sorrow of losing Gabe. But that's it. Everything else is obligatory detective work or talking about trails and birds. Ryan is boring.

What we know of Warren

He's a geek like Max

He's into sci-fi, horror and a lot of obscure media

He loves science

He's helpful

a kind and sensitive nature

very shy and insecure and struggles to express and deal with his feelings, so he tries to hide that underneath humor and bad jokes

He's dealt with bullying in the background "knows how to be invisible"

He will ride or die for his friends

What we know of Ryan

He loves Gabe and his friends

He loves his dad to a fault and has good memories of his mother

He protects people

He loves birds n trails

*Cricket chirps*

I'm about to compare screen time between Chloe and Steph. I replayed both games and I counted up all the scenes in their respective games where the player is forced to have an extensive dialogue with them, this discounts optional conversations and interactions that are made of a single choice. I am counting the bare minimum number of times each game forces the player to somewhat meaningfully interact with them. Let's start with Chloe.

The truck scene

The scene talking about Rachel

The conversation after Max attempts to fix her camera, Chloe gives Max William's old camera and they reconnect

The Lighthouse conversation

Reconnecting at the diner

Funtime at American Rust

Train track walk n talk

The Chaos Theory talk in Chloe's truck

"Scary Punk Ghost"/Blackwell Ninjas

Pool

The aftermath of finding out about Rachel

Alternative reality Chloe at the beach

Alternate reality at Chloe's home

Returning to Chloe via Warren's picture

There are a total of 14 meaningful scenes with Chloe not counting optional interactions

With Steph.

Black Lantern conversation

Foosball

The LARP

The investigation after the festival

4 meaningful scenes. That's it. There's just a total lack of content regarding our two romantic options in True Colors, now sure the number of times we interact with a character doesn't necessarily dictate how much we grow to like or sympathize with said character, but it's glaring just how few meaningful interactions are had with Steph or Ryan.

Also, really? Steph and Ryan are really willing to run away with Alex so quickly in the amount of time they've known her? "I wanna spend the rest of my life with you" you knew each other for an entire month, calm down.

And I feel like there could've been more time and substance in regards to Steph & Ryan if the game were longer and were developed as an episodic game in terms of being developed like LIS 1 & 2 were. I felt like they just got all the superficial aspects of a young adult relationship, slapped it all together and called it a day. So yeah more time with Steph and Ryan is definitely needed.

In regards to the Jed & Mr Chen Twist. I felt like it was unnecessary.

Jed as a pawn for Typhon works. The whole Mr Chen being one of the miners left behind and emotion guiding Alex was so contrived and convoluted. Also it changed from Typhon to being an evil and soulless corporation to Jed being the guilty party and I strongly hate the notion of changing the perceived big bad to a lame twist from someone you trust. In LIS 1 it was Nathan and his father as the perceived villains but what a twist! It was Jefferson all along! Now it was Jed. Stop. Doing. That!

And boooy don't get me started on how impractical Alex surviving being shot and thrown down a mine shaft is.

Like if Alex can survive all that, Chloe can survive Nathan's gunshot in the bathroom.

So an easy fix would be Jed and Alex going down the mine together and Jed shooting Alex and leaving her for dead.

Just keep to the "Jed doing "Typhon's work for the devil" Add a subplot that Typhon was responsible for the death of Ann Lucan via lead poisoning or some other heinous crime. Jed and Pike were working together to bring them down. But the mining & Gabe's accidents happened. Typhon gave Jed a choice. Either he goes down with them or he gives him and Ryan a chance to live. He's a puppet, but he's being blackmailed into doing Typhon's dirty work instead of being the only guilty party of being judged. Like Pike, you should've been able to turn Jed up against Typhon in the end despite what he did to us. Honestly instead of Jed, Alex's judgement should've been reserved for Diana's boss Lena.

However, the bit I mentioned about Pike being turned into an emotionless serial killer, What we can do is have Pike purposefully screw up his and Jed's investigation and when the mine accident happened, Pike made everything go away and Typhon gave Jed the deal. Pike takes Jed's place as the hands-on villain, where he was always on Diane's side (because ACAB), and Alex thinks she's taking his fear of Diane, but in actuality, she takes his fear of everything coming to light, so that's what sparks him to take Alex to the mines, then chase her through them to try and kill her. Lena the big bad. Diane was a reluctant party and now Pike just doesn't care and wants to kill Alex to save Diane. Also because ACAB

As for the endings. This reddit post sums up what could've been.

After finishing True Colors for the first time, it felt wonderful. But after I finish the game for the second time, I don't bother to play it again as the outcome is pretty much the same. True Colors' endings don't affect me much emotionally compared to LIS1 & LIS2 endings.

Whether you choose to forgive or condemn Jed, he just broke down into tears in similar way. Unlike LIS2, you can spare Lisbeth's life and let her witness her downfall or have your revenge by killing her; you can spare the vigilantes by breaking them out of custody or let them remain locked or even killed them.

Outside LIS franchise, there're other games (e.g Bioshock 1 & 2, Dishonored 1 & 2, etc) that also gave different endings based on how the players play. Kind merciful gameplay -> optimistic endings; Harsh brutal gameplay -> darker twisted endings.

In LIS2, you can actually transform Daniel into a law-abiding citizen or a career criminal based on your morality choices. Your treatment towards your little brother will also affect the brotherhood.

Tell Me Why is another worthy mention because it's a choice-based game developed by DONTNOD. Despite it's not a LIS game, it's still able to capture similar energy with LIS1 and your choices do matter. Since the game focuses on twin siblings reunited after many years of separation, good choices will strengthen their bond; bad choices will strain their relationships -> their conversations become less compassionate but more awkward.

Since True Colors is about empathy, they should give us different endings depend on how Alex treat people around her in Haven Springs.

High Empathy rewards happier endings like we have in game. Every council members sided with Alex for showing kindness to them. Empathy also increased by forgiving Jed, calming Mac down that earn his respect, helping other people in Haven (e.g a guy who lost his dog, telling two people that they were in love with each other, etc). In the end, Alex would use her power to help people in need, also being kind, merciful and show forgiveness.

The worst ending is nobody believed Alex in the final confrontation, Jed & Typhon got away and Alex was forced to leave Haven and go back to foster care. Harsh reality, some bad people do get away (e.g Chad & Mike in LIS2 EP4; if you chose to hit Hank & steal the camping gear, Hank would be labelled as a 'local hero' in the newspaper in LIS2 EP2). Low empathy would cause Alex abuse her powers to manipulate others, make others look worse like how Alex chose not to calm Mac down.

Second-worst ending is low empathy with nobody believed Alex except Pike. Alex hard-exposed Jed & Typhon that they had to face their crimes in the end. The whole town resent Alex as they were still in denial how their local hero turned up to be a liar, miners losing their jobs in Haven.

Neutral ending is half of the town believed Alex. Jed & Typhon were exposed and the town initially was in denial but eventually accept it. Alex would use her powers to help good people, but manipulate others who are bad (I'll show you kindness if you're kind, I'll give you asshole treatment if you're being an asshole). Neutral may be achieved like Alex calmed Mac down, but condemned Jed.

What bugs me is there are absolutely no consequences for the actions you take in the game. In LiS 1&2, and BTS you can get people killed if you do the wrong thing, you can ruin lives and end relationships if you commit to the wrong choices. There is absolutely no consequences in this game in the end. No matter what you do it ends the exact same way and you get to choose your own happy ending it feels so unearned.

So yeah big things I would've changed.

Helping hands Prologue chapter

Episodes are longer lengths, episodically releases and more development for the game in general.

More negative consequences to Alex's powers

Actual development with Alex's relationship to Steph and Ryan

Keep Typhon as the villain with Jed as a blackmailed pawn

Actual consequences to our choices and endings

[sickness-health-all-that-shit]

thank you @callivich for sharing the idea of making fic dvd commentaries! I thought I'd give it a go 🥰 @shamelessdvdcommentary

Broken things

summary: When Lip brings home an advanced android in order to test it for the company he works for, Ian doesn't know what to make of him. MIK-940810, or Mickey, seems virtually indistinguishable from a human being, throwing Ian for a loop as he feels an undeniable connection to the android. Their relationship deepens when Ian finds out about something that Mickey has been keeping from Lip and the people who built him.

There’s a faint blue light shining from the place where Lip’s thumb rests for about two seconds. Ian’s expecting some kind of whirring noise, like when you turn a computer on, but there’s just silence.

And then suddenly the blue eyes come alive.

some stats: I started writing this about a year ago, as part of the latest shameless big bang and finished it around january this year. it's a multichapter of about 28k words divided into 8 chapters

What was the initial inspiration for your story?

probably something I was watching at the time. I love sci-fi! I think I would've had the initial idea in the spring of 2023 and then let it marinate for a while, until the big bang came a-knocking lol. I'm pretty sure it was always gonna be android!Mickey and human Ian, and when I remembered Lip's canon interest in robotics it all started slotting into place for me

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character?

like I said it was always gonna be android!Mickey and I really wanted to explore Ian trying to figure out what made him tick and questioning what makes us human in the first place

What was your favourite scene to write?

probably their initial conversation when Ian asks all sorts of questions that make his brain explode more and more, while Mickey sort of watches him spiral and just seems to have an obvious answer for everything lol. that and the scene where Mickey heavily flirts with an increasingly flustered Ian, that was a lot of fun

How did you come up with the title?

one of the main themes of the fic is the coming together of these two individuals who meet at a time when they both needed it because they were feeling broken, for different reasons. there's a parallel especially between Ian's relationship with his bipolar disorder and Mickey's feeling that he's malfuctioning as an android and that he'll be seen as a broken toy. in both cases it's because of heightened emotions compared to what's considered 'normal', but they heal each other throughout the fic and overcome that sense of brokenness together

Are there any little moments or references you hope readers will notice?

hopefully all the little references and parallels to canon! (things like Mickey's serial number for instance) I had a lot of fun with those, it was like winking at my fellow fans like 'get it? it's like in the show!' lol

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this?

I struggled a bit with the resolution of the main conflict/angst, especially explaining how Lip suddenly decides to help them in the end, after being a dick for most of the story lmao. hopefully it doesn't feel that sudden or rushed, but yeah. I still think about it at times lol

Favourite line in the story?

“Well, ask away, doc. You studyin’ human anatomy all day, right? Bet you’re curious as fuck to know all the ways they replicated that shit in this hot little android body o’ mine.” - like I said, I really enjoyed Mickey shamelessly flirting xD

Did the storyline change in any way as you wrote the story?

I just checked my original (handwritten) outline, and I think I had meant to make Ian catch on more to the fact that Mickey is a different type of android, even with Lip's reassurances, but I think in that version he ended up being suspicious in a way that didn't gel with his blossoming feelings for Mickey, and maybe as a result I made Ian a little bit more unsure of himself, which goes back to him feeling broken because he feels like he can't trust his brain too much. also when I was still gathering my ideas for the story I initially thought Mickey might turn out to have memories of a human Mickey Milkovich who had died, but I scrapped that because I wanted this Mickey to be the real Mickey, android or no

If you are writing a particular trope or genre, was it your first time writing this?

I'd definitely never written sci-fi or an android fic before! I might delve more into science fiction in the future though, who knows 😌

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc)

overall plot and dialogue, probably. I'm really proud of how I developed my original idea, and some of the lines still make me laugh (or cry)

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story?

going back to my original outline, I apparently had a whole chapter that never came to be? here's what I'd written down: "Lip's boss shows up at the house. Mickey needs to pretend to be a regular android despite his anger. Ian defends Mickey. The police gets called. They have to make a run for it." maybe this would have helped the resolution feel less rushed/anti-climactic but it also seemed to complicate things a bit too much for my taste, so it got scrapped

Would you ever write a sequel to this story?

I think the epilogue leaves things in a good enough place!

Were you nervous or excited to post this story?

both!! but more excited overall, I think. it's probably my favourite story I've written

Ask your followers to pick a snippet (no more than 500 words) and share your thoughts about it.

please!!!! I will love you forever <3

this was great, I highly recommend it to all writers 🥰

[ravenwolfie97]

okay so initial thoughts on honkai star rail after i played like half of the tutorial bit this morning before work

first off, for the record, i have not played or heard much of anything about honkai impact 3rd and i have only played genshin impact pretty much since launch so my expectations were "genshin but sci-fi fantasy" but i can say that's not quite what i got (here’s a read more if you don’t care lol)

- immediately i notice that the graphics fidelity is gorgeous, very sleek and clean - it startled me a bit but also made me happy that the lip flaps are synced to the english dub! it seemed to flow really well even with the expression changes. the dialogue system doesn't seem all too different from genshin or. any other system like that. but it's got a pretty nice polish on the transitions between different states - the animation in the cutscenes and battles are really good, clearly they had a real talented team working on them. the characters feel so bouncy and expressive and it is pretty darn satisfying - the UI and interactive language is pretty much exactly the same as genshin with a sci-fi coat of paint. that's not a bad thing necessarily but like. it's pretty obvious - so the way combat and elemental powers work is very different from genshin, which frankly i should have expected, given this is a turn-based rpg. and i shouldn't have too much trouble with it, since turn-based rpgs are kind of a staple in my game roster, but for some reason i had trouble connecting with it. obviously finishing the tutorial would help, but it didn't feel as intuitive as i expected elements are presented in more of a traditional jrpg type of way where there are clear weaknesses you can exploit on enemies if you attack with a certain element. idk if i fully mean this but i think it kind of ruins part of the fun of discovering an enemy's weakness when the game itself just. tells you what it is off the bat also the types are weird in that they have pretty static effects in terms of what they do, the variability in moves is probably also explained further in character profiles but i haven't found how to look at that yet bkjljl - i'm fascinated by the ideas of Quantum and Imaginary types. what does that even mean. how do those manifest - i think it was a bit of a bold move to start the game off with two random characters talking about the world as if things are normal and known, and then having them influence your player character into. being in the plot not that i didn't like kafka and silver wolf. in fact i love both of them a lot. but i also had no context and had no goddamn idea what was going on so i was thrown pretty off-guard first thing which isn't exactly the greatest first impression lol - why is she named March 7th. does anyone know. is there a joke lost in translation or is it because she's like a pseudo-mascot character or. what - speaking of march actually i really want to like her but so far her character reeks of "hi i'm a girl". her skill is called "The Power of Cuteness" and one of her abilities is called "Girl Power" and so far her personality is cute, kind, and kinda stupid. it's a bit much. but she's neat - i have no big opinions on dan heng except he's neat and people keep saying he's the kazuha of star rail bc windy maple leaf boys but they're wrong bc dan heng has a stabby not a slicey and he can only hit one person at a time while kazoo thrives on the multi-hit AoE damage - i do love that the MC's weapon is just. a future baseball bat. that they get to smack people really hard with. no element, just big smack - oh yeah hyv loves to queerbait i guess cuz that wasn't CPR honey the twitter crowd wasn't kidding - i can’t think of anything else rn cuz it’s past midnight but star rail is neat and i like the little train rabbit dog mascot it’s cute and i wanna get past the tutorial hkjbjk

[cherrysoulth]

Pissin' Our Pants Yet?- Chapter 2: Match in the gas tank

💕Pairing: Negan x Female Reader 

✏️Genre/au: Canon, Action, Smut, Sci-fi, The Walking Dead Fic

✏️Rating: PG 18+, explicit

📝Wordcount: 9954

⚠️chapter warnings: Shitloads of cursing, Gore details (zombies), Mentions of cults, mentions of cult practices, dictatorship status

<<< 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 1 | 𝕸𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 | 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 3 >>>

Hii! Did you stumble across this work? Glad you're here 😊 Please, let me know your thoughts once you are finished. Feedback keeps me motivated to write 😁

Note that English is not my first language, so please if you find grammar mistakes, let me know. :)

My gratitude goes to @alldevilsarehere90 for her hard work on beta reading 🧡

The silence quickly spread across the room. He wants that kind of social pressure on you. He wants you to feel the tension of the expectancy on you to give the right answer.

"I. Am. Negan." You say in a firm tone, as his eyes study you closely.

You realise now why he chose this moment and does not wait for you to be more integrated. Being Negan means giving up your identity to be part of the team, doing things as a group, as Negan would. If you were not Negan, your attack on George would then have been an attack on Negan. So, even if you don't mean it, it was the only possible answer.

"That's true, you fucking are!" he smiles at you with a wolf grin. "Let's see what succulent dinner my wives have made tonight. See what I was talking about? This will be my treat for your cooperation earlier. Still though! You can ask for anything you want." he says, rubbing his hands first then looking at you from up with a smile. "Anything..."

After that little moment of initiation, you follow him through the backstairs in the building, to the top floor where his chambers are. Two beautiful women in elegant black dresses are waiting, leaning on the frames of the double doors. They both look surprised to see you but not a single word leaves their perfectly painted lips.

"I'm going to make myself comfy and then I'll show you around." He gestures for you to come into his room but you stay in front of the open door, seeing how black and grey reign in his private space. It looks fancy, neat, with the big squared windows giving light to the space, it contrasts the general shadow staining the hallways on your way here. One that isn't real an illusion feeling towards the unknown. What is his life like when he is there, alone or with his wives? His mouth twitches, followed by a raised eyebrow in what you interpret as his way of saying 'Ok, don't come in then'.

You watch as he takes his jacket off and does the same with his white tee. Now, you can see his toned back and some tattoos on his body. An old marine unit sticks out in his upper arm, as the only one with known meaning for you. The rest seem pretty personal, you would need to ask about them to get more understanding.

He's not too muscular but sexy as hell. Gorgeous. It stirs those basic instincts in you, making you want to kiss his jaw, his neck, his throat going down his chest. Bite him, lick him. You gulp, without realising. As he grabs a clean piece of clothing and, he reprimands you , with fun, easily read in athe singsong tone.

"I know you're staring."

Instantly you look away towards the wife at your right, then to the left one. They both are giving you a pitiful look. You can only guess it's because Negan can't see them. You've seen their earlier reaction when he arrived: fear. Almost perfectly covert with stoicism but too familiar to miss. 'Why do they fear him? They are his wives. Is he mistreating them?' The idea angers you.

"You ok? Have you seen a ghost?" asks Negan, snapping you out of your thoughts, being just a few centimeters right in front of you. Then you notice the wives are back to staring to the front again, like two beautiful fallen angels protecting their master's door.

"Yes. I mean... No. What are we having?" you wonder in an almost childish tone following the rhythm of his earlier reprimand, letting him pass and following his way. 'Why is everyone so scared of him?' Then something twists in your stomach, sensing the danger possibly creeping in the shadows, from the nervous atmosphere suffocating the room..

As you take a tour through each floor, you can observe there's a general flow in the decoration, since his living room matches his quarters and at the same time is similar to the one in his wives' dormitory. Negan has shown you around when he's decided to 'ask' a subtle order- the wives to add another plate for you at dinner and the four women in that room glanced at you sympathetically while Negan explained to you how having his wives can make him feel human again.

Those stares on their own, would have pissed you off at another time but for some reason, it hasn't hit yet. You are not sure what that look is for, anyway. 'Do they think I'll become a new wife or something...?' you brush it off, not really caring about what they might think about you.

You see the general palette: black, grey, silver, champagne and gold. Except for the flowers on the table: red velvet roses. Perfect, as if they were specially chosen for an advertisement. Everything looks as if you are not at the end of the world at all but in a luxurious house, except for the windows that shake you back to reality. Dust stains them since there's no way to clean them from the outside at this height, but you can still see through them clear enough, the extension of terrain where walkers may lurk between the trees. The outside world that once was precious to look at from above but now just makes you think how harsh it is to walk in it. Truly harsh.

You are surprised by Negan's classy ways. You would have expected something more like a gangster-style kind of thing; sexist, with strippers or at least a pool bar. Maybe because some of his guys look like the kind that lack such classic taste, who prefer vulgar stuff and looking at a woman like they are meat, only made to please them. Maybe you are just judging by bad experiences, you don't know these people anyway, because you have found this place to look like a king's harem instead.

You used to like motorbike gangs. Most of them were cool, some were even hot. Usually, you got involved with a guy from a club and fled before things got too serious. Especially if they got emotional.

Your mum and dad had you and your brother at a young age as a consequence of their love. He was a police officer and ended up being shot when he tried to arrest a thief. That was one of the reasons for you to avoid falling in love with someone, that fear of people dying on you. But a broken heart was the main reason.

You had a boyfriend once and you fell in love blindly. The guy was too broken or you were too young and inexperienced to help him at all. You tried your best, god knows you did, but it all ended up as a useless effort.

He had been your first love, your first in all and that always leaves a mark.

You avoided drugs and guns too, even though you knew some people inside the gangs worked on that. You were just a hangar under or maybe they considered you a lay on, - although you never heard them use that word towards you because of your brother's association with a club. If they ever did though, you were deaf to stigmas in order to avoid being banned from entering a club, for causing trouble because of those comments. You needed to be thick-skinned when it came to male-centred clubs because sexist jokes or comments were almost the norm.

The percentage of drug dealers in motorbike gangs was really low but you happened to come across the wrong people a couple of times. Especially when it came to your ex-boyfriend's brother who was a dealer and a consumer. 'Even with that, those were easier times,' you think 'Or at least I didn't have that many life-threatening situations...' Your brother and your ex made sure to keep you away from trouble as they knew what was behind the curtains and wasn't shown publicly.

His wives are already seated at the table when you snap back into your current reality. As he properly introduces them to you, you notice that they are all dressed in black and high heels like the other two, they look ready for a party in the hot spot club of the moment. But it seems more like you are at a funeral with the kind of tension coming from them with the; 'I don't know what to say' hanging heavy in the air. You think that someone else, in your place, would feel uncomfortable because of it but you like them, like someone that enjoys a bird that's inside a cage. Beautiful creatures on display.

Some people feel the need to free them, and you are that type.

You do not understand how their relationship with Negan works. So far you get that Negan likes to explain things loud and clear, so you probably just have to ask a question, sit down and listen but you don't know if it is a sensitive subject to break on your first night in this place. Especially in front of his wives. 'Six wives!' you think. 'What is he trying to compensate for?'

The wives almost don't say a word during the dinner and you just add the necessary conversation just to keep Negan talking. You need to know more about him, how he thinks, how he moves but he starts to talk about the attack on his outpost and the fact that it has to be a group running around his territory without him knowing who they are. He seems pissed about it again by the way he chews on the bread. The ones he knows don't have enough nuts to defy him this way, according to him.

"So, honey, what have you seen before you arrived at the mall?" he asks before putting the fork with the last veggies in his mouth. The redhead wife, who presented herself as Frankie, looks at you for a second, seeming surprised.

"Do you want a full report of the situation surrounding your safe perimeter or do you want just the general concept? I'm gonna need some maps and our current location, to be able to do the first but in general, everything is screwed up. I've seen a couple of places where you can get interesting stuff, useless for other groups, useful here." you explain, while you play with a pea with your fork. Sherry, at this point, asks if you need to be left alone.

"No, it's fine, finish your dinner, sweetheart," he tells her in a gentle tone and then returns his attention to you. "So, hearing the way you said that, it sounds as if you had military training. Were you infrom the Army?" he asks genuinely curious but with his normal tone.

"My mum was. She taught me to be the tough person I am now," for the way he looks at you fully focused on your words, you understand he wants you to keep talking. "She died a few months ago, along with my brother and I left the group I was with. No hard feelings, no shit, I just couldn't stand to care about someone else... and see them die too." Then you see something in his eyes like it resonates with him, something deep down his soul that he shows from his heart, just for a second. Only to compose himself with that intimidating look that clearly hides his feelings.

'That ain't about the men he lost last night' you think. 'Who have you lost, big bad wolf?'

After the wives leave for the night, you two stay chatting about all kinds of things that come to mind. Just as if you were two friends catching up with each other's lives after a long time apart. At least that's how one could see the scene because there is a point where you can tell he's somehow letting his guard down with you with how he speaks and what he says, even his gestures.

It's not difficult to know, aside from his comfortable stance of walking around the world like he owns it, he's always aware of everything. And at the end of the day, it must be exhausting. Even with that in mind, you can't fully pity him for what he is and what he means to other people. There's also the fact of how easy he's making things for you, when you are sure there's others who have had to claw their way up to the top. Or so you've assumed from what George said.

It means he has something in mind for you. Things are never this easy and when they are, there's always something behind it. There's always a price to pay. Breaking the silence that's formed after your internal cognition, you excuse yourself, wanting to get back to your room and he insists on escorting you.

"It's been a pleasure, Negan. It was the best meal I've had in a long, long time," you say to him when you are just a few steps from your door. "Thank you. Have a nice sleep. I'm sure I will." you give him a little smile, more out of tiredness than gentleness.

"No goodnight kiss?" he questions, when you open your door, putting an arm against the door frame with a smile, while you enter backwards to keep facing him.

"I don't think so," you answer, arching an eyebrow while turning to take off your jacket and leave it draped on a chair.

"What a shame! Maybe tomorrow... Goodnight darlin'." he says, staring back at you for a second with that smile before he starts to walk back to the corridor. You stand there listening to his footsteps retreating as he walks away. It has been an intense day but at least tonight you have one less worry: you aren't going to wake up with a walker chewing your face off. The rest is just the same.

It takes you practically seconds to fall asleep once you get inside the covers and your head falls onto the fluffy pillow. Your chat with Negan lasted until the early morning, when everyone seemed to have gone to bed, quietness reigning inside The Sanctuary and you are very tired already from sleeping rough on the road. When you are alone, time seems to lose its sense. At some point you stop counting, now you can't remember how long you have actually been alone. You think it has to be at least six months for the seasons' change but that isn't precise enough.

No nightmares this time, but no dreams either. Just the whiteness of an empty mind. At least that is the sensation you feel before the knock on the door breaks your state of mind travelling nowhere and you wake up startled. For a second you panic 'Where the fuck am I !?' as you frantically search for the knives on your belt. Then you remember everything that happened the day before and breathe, as you stand to look through the dirty glass of your window. This new day is starting to break, you can see it in the faded purple and orange that stain the horizon. You wonder what time it must be until you remember the clock. Half past six. 'Why!?' you roar internally for whomever it's outside the door.

"What?" you voice out in a dry and moody tone as you open the door.

"Good morning sweetheart...Uuuh...Nice panties." says Negan, who's already resting his forearm on the door frame. You remember now that you took everything off and just left your panties and top on. 'Like he hasn't seen a woman in her underwear...' "You ain't wanna go out like that, right? So hurry up and get dressed, it's time to see what kind of cards you keep up your sleeves." you have already started to dress before he's even ended the sentence. "So," he says as he leans with his right side against the door following your every move with his dark eyes. "Today you'll go with Arat. You're gonna check the places you told me about yesterday. And that better be good, 'cause I'm coming too." he adds with a grin and some brow raising.

"I thought the king would be too busy doing..." you roll your wrist while looking away as if you are thinking. "Whatever kings do..." you conclude looking at him. "If they do anything at all," you add in a lower tone, as you turn around to pick up your backpack from the closet.

"You think you're funny, uh?" he says, faking offence. When you turn around his smile tells you he did find that funny.

"You look like you had a good fu--sleep last night." 'He's not your friend. His private life has nothing to do with you.' you think while tying your boots. To your surprise, there's no immediate response or a joke and when you look at him, he seems to be trying to decipher you as if you were talking another language.

"Are you... jealous?" he asks you as if having a lot of fun with the question. You know he is joking but you roll your eyes. "The candy shop is open for you too, darling. You just have to ask for your favourite sweet," he adds, bouncing his knees thrustingraising his pelvis, as a sexual insinuation.

"Jealousy is for insecure people or those who see a cheating bastard on their partner or cheat themselves. Besides...I should feel or have something for or with you for that to be even possible. So, no. I'm sorry for your ego but the answer is no." you answer, as you walk to the door expecting him to move aside to let you pass but instead he walks towards you. "I don't want sweets either. You can get decayed teeth." 'I can be metaphoric too, you know?' you add for yourself.

"I know I'm growing on you. Since the moment we met," he tells you, with a hot voice that runs chills down your spine. 'What if I do? It doesn't mean anything is gonna happen.' you say to yourself. He gets so close, his mouth is almost touching yours. "Besides...We do have something." that thought gets lost in your mind when you feel his breath on your mouth and kiss him, letting passion do its own work.

You put your hands around his nape between his deliciously warm skin and his leather jacket. Your lips smoothly caress his and you feel the wetness at the centre, inviting the caress from the tip of your tongue before you deepen the kiss. Then you stop for a second, without letting him go, just to take his lower lip between yours. Just after a second, you're back to attach your mouths again. Meanwhile he grabs you by the thighs to put himself between your legs, then moves to press your back against the wall. But when he puts his hand under your top where it meets your hip, something switches inside your head.

"Ok, ok, ok. You proved a point here." You say, breathlessly. To that, he lets you down softly.

"I'm not sure about that. I think I could keep with this all day long...Just to make sure you get it." he says without moving, proudly looking at you from above, with a mischievous smile.

"I don't think that's gonna happen." then you recall that's what you said last night. 'Be more true to your word if you want to be taken seriously.' you tell yourself. "What I mean is, stop playing with me. I don't want this mess. Just be with your wives and leave me out of it." Just as soon as you say that, you leave your room with the devil hot on your trails if chased by the devil.

Minutes later, you ask the first Saviour you find in the hallways where to go to find Arat because all corridors are so similar you are not even sure where you are anymore. You find her near a truck. Negan is already there, bouncing and giving orders while some jump in vehicles and head out. As soon as you reach Arat, Negan gives you two maps and instructions, acting as if you are just any other Saviour. Exactly what you want, even though you still have the taste of his mouth in yours and it's driving you insane.

It's been too long in abstinence and he's like the red juicy apple for Eve.

You and Arat are meant to go to the head of the convoy, just behind Negan's truck. There are another four trucks that will take other routes with him, to be able to check other spots near the one that's been chosen for you; the abandoned school, to try and find out if there's anything interesting.

When everything started, the schools were used as camps for the special forces because of the open spaces and many classrooms. So there could be something left behind.

But you don't get that lucky. After expecting to find a good load of guns, it seems that the army left only a few men here. As far as you can see, they were attacked by walkers while they were trying to move the few survivors to the military helicopter. You two start clearing out the outside from the last walkers wandering around and decide to leave the inside of the building for later, in case a herd decides to appear and you lose the chance to pick up the stuff that's waiting outside for whoever wants to take it.

You start checking the place for any weapons left on the floor and any car that might still be useful.

"This one is fine," you say to Arat after checking a four-wheel engine but after looking for the keys in every place inside the car, it comes up empty. "It needs a jump starter, the keys are nowhere to be seen," you tell her, then notice she isn't near anymore, searching for her you see she's putting a couple of assault rifles and some ammunition inside the cab of your truck while she keeps an eye on where you are.

Then, both of you walk to a unit for medical supplies in sync, you open the door like the SWAT would do and a walker comes out after a few seconds, falling through the stairs. Just to find himself stubbed with a throwing knife. You two enter and check if there are no other walkers inside. The place is clear and kind of clean, with only little stripes of skin stuck to any sharp edge as if the walker has been moving around the room attracted by something that's been outside.

"Pick up three plastic boxes." Arat orders, so you walk outside directly to the van.

"Kyle, do you see anything?" you ask through the radio to one of the Saviors. His mission is to look after you and Arat from a highway road next to where you are. He's using a sniper to see more accurately if anything moves around to the camp.

"Two lost souls, no horde. I see many walkers through the windows of the building. Be safe." says the man cutting the communications.

When you two have put the medical supplies in the back seat of the truck, you two decide it's time to check inside the building.

You two stay in front of the door for a few seconds before pushing the entrance open. The hallway is clear all the way along the school, as you move around to take the fire extinguishers and other supplies that were left along the walls. Mainly boxes with basic camp supplies such as; torches, batteries, pillows, blankets, disposable medical outfits and masks that you two put on a metallic trolley. Next to it, you notice an exhibitor with yearbooks and trophies. Taking everything to the truck that Arat has now moved to the front of the building to ease the work.

Once you've emptied the corridors, you two move room to room from the entrance all the way back to the rear doors.

The library is full of books but there's only one body sitting at the study tables with a bullet wound in the head and a handgun still held by his unanimated fingers. Taking the gun and checking there's still bullets inside, you place it in your backpack. You also check inside the librarian's desk and find a gold handwatch and a bottle of Nina Ricci perfume. You place them in your backpack too. On your radio, you notify the scavenge party that's with Negan, about the books on the next channel. The man on the line says they'll pick it all up later. Somehow you expected Negan to answer but you shake yourself out of the thought.

'That can only end badly. Stop thinking about it.'

You meet Arat at the entrance as she walks carrying a box towards the truck. There you take the watch out of the backpack and place it between the sheets inside of it, taking one of the material bedding with you back inside the library, to cover the body with it.

"Why am I not surprised?" says Arat leaning on the door frame. "Don't bother, he's going to be left outside. We don't waste time burying people." You are not surprised because it would be a task that never ends if you buried every single dead body you found. But you still leave the body covered before following her.

As you open the science classroom door, you're met with a huge walker, coming at you, desperate to eat your fresh flesh. You stab him in the cerebellum through the jaw with your hunting knife. But before you are even able to open the lab cabinets, you hear Arat's footsteps approaching you.

"What are you doing here?" she asks impatiently as if you are wasting time.

"We need to pack this stuff, it can be useful for someone who knows how to use it."

Arat raises her shoulders in response. "Fine. But leave it for later, let's keep going. I've found the rest of the supplies in the gym but there's some dead-not-so-dead there." she says.

You take your knives from your belt and nod. You two walk the hallway side by side and push the door open with opposite feet. She kills the first walker with her hunting knife and you throw your knives putting three others out of their misery, as she kills another one from further away before it even has time to come her way. You kill the last one left with your own hunting knife.

"Good job." she congratulates you, as you move to pull out your knives from the putrid skulls.

"Thank you," you nod, as you clean them with a rug hanging from the edge of a bed. There you notice a couple of bodies between the lined-up bunk beds, shot in the head. When you look around there's more. Placed exactly like that. What you hate the most about it, is that it doesn't phase you. Something that would have kept you awake at night almost three years ago, doesn't affect you that much anymore. You've stopped trying to see the person behind the corpse in order to keep your sanity but they were people and they were shot before turning.

"At least they didn't suffer," Arat tells you from behind as she picks up a box.

"But why would they do this if they had supplies?" you wonder. She stops for a second and looks around, then towards the supplies.

"You saw what happened with the helicopter, maybe there were too many of those things around and they thought it was the best they could do." she says as she places a box in your hand. "The ones we've killed just now, they weren't shot. So they didn't have enough bullets to defend themselves and there was definitely not enough food to feed this many people."

"They thought they would starve to death because of the walkers and decided to end it before that," you reply in understanding. Some bodies were chewed on by the ones that died in other ways. "The ones we've found in the other classrooms were locked from the inside..." you tell her as you two walk down the hallway. You can only imagine why. "We should park the truck next to the emergency door, we'll go faster. I'll go pack the lab stuff and I'll take it to the gym."

While she manoeuvres the van, you manage to open the cupboards and fit a first cardboard box full of test tubes and other glass materials. You decide to leave the chemicals for later and run to pick up the trolley from the entrance to place the boxes in it and go to the gym. While Arat places some supply boxes filled with dry food and other survival supplies, you position your boxes in the gap behind your seats. Pulling up the folding bed to be able to place them next to each other and avoid piling them up. Then you jump out to help her with the boxes and a defibrillator that was in the gym instead of the medical unit, for some reason.

When everything is on the back of the truck you two take a walk around the playground at the back of the building, directed to where the four-wheel is so you can drive it to find the rest of your group. That's when you find something you didn't expect in the slightest; a flamethrower. Without thinking twice about it but knowing you probably shouldn't have, you aim it at the school bus, which is already a little bit tatty and shoot against it.

'I might never get another chance...' you think with a smile on your face.

"Did someone hate school?" you hear Negan from the radio in a fit of laughter, probably watching the scene from the highway too, and in a matter of seconds Arat appears.

"I wouldn't have guessed this would happen today. Now, I know you're having fun, but, stop playing with that shit. I want it." he says, the last part with a stark, authoritative tone that reminds you which position he holds above you all.

You don't answer to the radio but roll your eyes as Arat gets down from the cabin and walks towards you, along with the radio in her hand and a cheeky smile. When you start to walk towards her, you hear a weird noise, like metal cracking and you two drop to the floor just as an explosion bursts behind you.

"Are you psychotic!?" asks Arat, not smiling anymore and still on the floor. The noise of flames and metallic parts falling around is almost deafening

"What the hell just happened!?" you ask, eyes wide open in shock. Your confusion clears, thinking you were being attacked before you realize what you've just done.

"You did it, you silly bitch!" she says laughing from the depths of her lungs. "What are you surprised about!?"

When you look behind, the bus you've just burned is all messed up with pieces of it surrounding you. You two were lucky to not get badly hurt or winding up dead by the shrapnel. You just have a few cuts, the same as Arat.

"Was that supposed to happen!?" you ask even more surprised now that you understand the mess you've just made. She shrugs her shoulders.

"Are you guys ok!?" you hear Negan's voice over the radio.

"We are heading in your direction, are you under attack?" says Dwight, getting on the frequency. You hear the sound of their engines in the distance.

"Negative. I just bombed a school bus!" you say, starting to laugh. "Oh my God! That was...fun," you say as you keep laughing.

"How old are you? Ten?" Dwight replies, trying to sound serious but you can hear in his tone he's actually amused. "Be careful that's sure to call the attention of the walkers," he warns, cautiously.

"Don't be such a pussy, Dwight! You think I'll let the ladies be eaten like a red velvet cake by those tasteless pieces of shit?" says Negan. "Not on my watch," he adds, with no reply from Dwight. Not that he expected one, of course. "Coast's clear, ladies. Pack whatever you found and get hell out of there 'cause we can't see shit through the woods."

"Yes, sir." you hear Arat answer dutifully through her radio. "Seems like we are done here," she tells you while turning towards the truck.

You put the flamethrower with the rest of the stuff in the trunk and make sure everything is safe inside for the journey. Then you head to the road following her with the car, you see through the mirrors that some walkers are arriving at the place.

'What counts is not the amount, it's their position and they are coming from everywhere.'

"Negan, you see that?"

"Hm... Yeah. It might be risky just for some books." he says. "Boys, turn around, we'll pick up the readin' if we drive by. Another day," he orders.

When you two meet with the rest of the convoy, you find Negan staring at you as if he's going to lecture you like an undisciplined child. Instead, he just checks what's in the back of the vehicle to have an overview of everything.

"Well done! That's a good load!" he says, with a smile that doesn't fool you or anyone who knows him. The tension in his voice says otherwise, and you are unsure if he's even trying to hide that fact. When he gets near his car, you realise that he's having the courtesy to wait for you two to be alone to say whatever he needs to. From what you've picked up from Arat, Negan's very public about everything. So it has to be bad. "Alice, you'll drive with me. I think we have to discuss some of the rules again." Just like that, without giving an option, he jumps inside his car and puts the engine on.

You hop in and wait for some shouting and blaming but instead, he remains silent for a bit

.

Come as you are by Nirvana sounds on the music player masking the silence.

"What in the fucking fuck were you thinking!?" he says suddenly while looking at you sideways. "I'm good at reading people and I don't fucking think you are one of those kamikaze shit-fucks who don't give a fuck about dying or getting someone else dead. SO. Tell me, are you nuts!? 'cause I would like to know before I put someone else at fucking risk because of a sudden fantastic idea you might have..."

"Don't be an asshole! I might seem nuts to you but I didn't know that was going to explode like a fucking balloon!" you respond, rolling your eyes and turning your body towards him.

'Well, I kind of knew. But I thought it wouldn't look the way it does in films.' To that, he calmly pulls the car to the side of the road and with his arm out of the window gestures for the rest of the trucks to keep on their way.

"Ok, then you are just a reckless lady," he says, looking at you as he keeps gesturing. "You are out of the mission. No Saviours for you. I'll find you something to do inside. If that ain't enough, I can be a lot more of an asshole, just try me." he continues looking at you directly, resting his elbow on the top of the headrest.

"Hm, I think that's unbeatable. I think I'll pass, thank you," you say sarcastically, looking at the front quite angry. It takes you a minute to cool down a little and notice that he's right to be angry. Looking at him again, only to see he is giving you the 'no shit' look. "Oh, 'c'mon. I thought you had a sense of humour." you say with a tone still stained with sarcasm causing him to arch a brow, still not smiling.

Then he moves his arm and puts it around your shoulders, and places two fingers down your chin invading your personal space with his body, as he moves. He kisses you, somehow needy, causing you to melt as it turns deeper and sensual, starting to create tension in your lower body. You have the urge to straddle him but instead, you hold yourself back and try to keep up with his kiss. 'He is such a good kisser...' His tongue slides between your teeth and that makes you lose control, pulling him to you by the jacket and cutting the space between your bodies. At the very moment you are about to move on top of him, you hear the growl of a walker as it gets near your side of the car and you pull away quickly.

" 'C'mon baby don't run away again," he says, with a heated tone, almost sweetly, as well as a little bit frustrated. This time it's you who kisses him with your hands at the sides of his face.

"I'm not doing this here with a half-rotten undead dude trying to get into the car to eat our asses off. Simply not my kink." With that, you free yourself from his hold and make yourself comfy on the seat. "By the way, you better not look me down on me like another one of your caged birds or be sure there will never be another kiss for you from these lips. Just biting and blood," you warn him, meeting his eyes directly. To your surprise, he doesn't say a thing, instead, he chuckles and starts the car again.

When Negan pulls in at Sanctuary and you jump out of the car, you listen in to what Simon is explaining to Negan.

There's a place named Alexandria, where the people that killed the Saviours in the outpost live. Then they laugh about someone called Gregory and Negan gives orders to a group to go find those people the next day.

You take the chance to get away and head to the showers. It's not as if he will not know where you are if he wants to, you are aware of that. Even with that, you need some space from him. 'Don't let him play you around. You are stronger than that.' you think. 'It will be just for fun, no emotions involved' speaks your demon, very convincingly.

You step into the cubicle and turn on the shower, the water runs warm just a few seconds later. It falls over your body taking with it the dirt and sweat from your work with Arat. You wonder why you are letting yourself get so carried away with him. You don't even know him. Some of his character traits can be analyzed by his behaviour but you can't really know how he is without being too involved. He does not have friends, only subjects and that's exactly the way he treats them. 'How could I ever get to know who he really is?'

Negan looks like the kind of guy who knows where his place in the world is. Self-confident. But these kinds of things are usually the ones that get girls and women confused, what he does is what matters. How he treats you and the people that surround him, not what he says or what he tries to scheme. The wives' behaviour is a red flag and the smart choice would be to run away. As usual norm noone is ever an exception to the rule if they do it to another person they will do it to you, no exceptions.

Most people who need to exercise control above everyone around them are usually abusers at one level or another. You understand that Negan uses power to control people and also violence to punish those who don't follow the rules. It's an acceptable measure in extreme times like this but still, unacceptable if he overpowers his wives to make them do what he wants. Instead of running like your instinct and knowledge tell you, you choose to stay, thinking that it is too early to judge.

You come out of the shower all built up in your decision, then get dried and dress in the same clothes you wore the first day you came here. Clothes aren't so difficult to scavenge but someone's bothered to wash them and leave them folded over your bed. Thing that you appreciate since you've been in this placeset is, without any doubt, it's very comfortable. You finally put on your new boots. When you go out, there's no one in front of the bathroom but still you walk to your room stealthily. You come across Sherry who seems to go around just as careful as you do. For good or bad, you think maybe that's a sign from the cosmos to ask her some things.

"Sherry, can I talk to you?" she gives you a suspicious look, as if she thinks you're untrustworthy. "Please," you put your hands together, pleading.

"Sure, follow me," she says and, with an unsure look in her eyes, leads you to some back stairs that don't seem very busy. "Go ahead."

"It's about Negan. I need to know how he is." First, she seems troubled, then she looks around worriedly. "It's just that I need to know what happens when there's no one around," she seems confused at first but then her eyes turn a little more soft and you read sadness in them. Suddenly you feel disappointed about Negan as if you expected something better. "I mean, how is he with you when there's no one around or when there's just the wives with him?" you clarify, in case she's taken the question as you lusting over her husband.

"He doesn't hit us if that's what you're asking," she says, leaning on the wall behind her but looking at the ceiling. "But he has terrible ways to make you do what he wants," you look at her horrified and your stomach curls. "Well, I don't mean in a sexual way... He's against rape as you might know already and he gives us protection. He's a gentleman in that way but we're with him because that's all we could do or we had no other option." She explains to you her story, when her sister Tina, said she would think about Negan's marriage proposal. Her and her husband, Dwight, tried to escape, but Tina had died and they had no choice but to return, she had to marry Negan to save Dwight's life.

"So you two... Shit... That sucks..." you mutter. She just gives you a nod and you don't want to bring her down with memories.

"One way or another, he always gets what he wants. If you give it to him it'll make your life easier, believe me." She then explains to you about the other wives.

You are furious and want to face him, even though you know it wouldn't be a smart move. 'How can he be such a bastard to make people abdicate their will like that. He's a fucking dictator. I already knew that but he's definitely not a clean-handed one...' He has a full army with him so it wouldn't be very smart to threaten him physically to leave you alone. You are not getting out of this place, now you know for sure. It would be smart to do your best with the situation.

"Ok, thank you for your time." you say, softly.

"I'm sorry if I broke your fairy tale," she says genuinely, making you think that she thought you might be falling in love with Negan. 'If they think that, maybe Negan does too,' you think. 'That could be an advantage.' You don't say anything to her to make her think otherwise, instead you part, walking back to the corridor. Before the door to the backstairs closes behind, you hear the sound of a lighter.

You take your time, caressing the walls with the tip of your fingers. When you enter your room it catches you off guard that Negan's there, sitting on your bed with his left ankle on top of his right thigh and dropping the weight of his torso on his arms, tilted backwards. Lucille's resting on his lap.

"What are you doing here?" you ask him, in an annoyed tone sounding a little bit more pert than you meant to. "It's wrong to invade other people's privacy, you know?"

"The last time I checked, this was my fucking building and the questions were asked by me. Have we changed the roles? Because fuck, I had no fucking clue." he says narrowing his eyes as a way to intimidate you but when he sees that you don't change your expression, he looks at you like: 'What's wrong with you?'. Maybe he's being genuinely himself but he definitely hits a nerve. 'I can't just act like I'm dumb and let him get away with everything.'

"I'll just tell you this once: I'm not below you, more than an employee for its boss. And with this, I mean that I respect you and you respect me. Understood?" you say without any kind of fear, before he opens his mouth.

"What a nerve! How dare you," he replies, with a rough chuckle. It seems to you as if you have pointed out something obvious to him. You expected another kind of reaction but for some reason, he hasn't considered your claim a problem. Maybe it's because you are alone. You get that's your only advantage over all these people. "As I tried to make you understand, I have my tactics to make people do what I want but my only intention with that is to create a chain and order. Not to abuse my position of power."

'Liar.'

"When people follow the rules everything is fine, they produce and receive points for it but I don't intend to dominate what they do with the rest of their free time in certain terms. The same goes for you. There's also the fact, that I have a fucking soft spottingle for you, I think I've been pretty clear on that. But you are not bound to anything, sweetheart. Everyone has a choice, even if they take dumb ones."

'Do we? Do you even know how untrue that is?' That's just a bunch of lies but he really seems to believe his words so much, if you didn't know any better, you would believe him. It pisses you off.

"Till when?" you ask, frowning. You are so furious that you let your tongue loose. If he wants you around, he's gonna get what that means. "Until you get fed up and decide that there is something you can hurt me with to convince me?"

Sherry told you that's how he got three of the wives and you're definitely not accepting that. "I don't have a family, so you have nothing to grab me by the balls with. For now. Should I keep an eye on not making friends, so I don't make them a target of your anger when I don't do what you want?"

"Watch that tone," he warns, suddenly serious and sitting rigid on the bed, staring at you with a 'Be careful.' written in his eyes.

"What if I don't Negan, you gonna kill me?" you say expressionless, letting your hunger for balance and justice get the best of you. "Come on, do it, who the hell cares? Show me what you got."

He looks at you, furious, and stands closing the distance between you but you notice he leaves Lucille on the bed. He approaches you quickly and without warning, as he raises you by the thighs, kissing you. His lips own yours hungrily and makes way for his tongue to invade your mouth while backing you against the wall. His taste raises your skin in goosebumps and suddenly you forget that you're angry. His mouth descends to your neck and you lose the north. You feel that pressure coming down your stomach to the innermost part of your being but it is his hands moving towards your rear that shoot something inside your head and there's no turning back.

You slide your right hand behind his neck from inside his jacket, while your left-hand goes down between the two of you searching for the end of his white shirt. You slip your hand underneath and find yourself in direct contact with his skin. His toned torso tightens and relaxes with the movements of his breathing, his heated skin feels so smooth under your fingers.

You feel him hardening like a rock right against your centre, making you lose the relaxed rhythm of your breathing when he breaks the last of the distance between your bodies. You gently bite his lower lip, pulling it towards your mouth and intensifying the kiss. You feel like a drug addict about to receive a dose of your favourite high, except that this time it's superior quality.

You drag your nails gently over his abdomen, wishing to leave a mark on his skin as your hand travels lower to the button of his pants, while your lips stay moulded to his. You begin to introduce the tips of your fingers into the waistband of his underpants.

"You see I wasn't kidding, huh?" he says confidently, half-laughing in your mouth but making space between you so you can manoeuvre.

"Shut up..." you reply, stopping your hand from going further. You move your hands against his jaw as your lips explore his, parted, tongue sneaking inside his mouth to caress his with the tip, an invitation to dance. His tongue responds, twirling around yours, dominating the movements. He can't avoid grunting, as your hips push against him in pleasure.

He whisks you over to the bed, discarding Lucille out of the way but leaving her carefully standing against the bedside table. Then he liyes you down, like a fragile piece of crystal, appreciating the lines that form your body, focusing on the ones in his direct line of sight, the way your top hugs the sensual curve of your breasts. As his eyes grow with lust, his head is working on what he wants to do to you while he takes off his jacket and places it on the armchair in front of the TV unit.

As he walks back to you he stops for a second staring at the image of you leaning on your elbows watching his every move, studying the frame of his body, the straight, secure, yet relaxed, posture of his back. The way his white t-shirt hugs the width of his shoulders and gets a little bit loose at the end, insinuating an easily accommodating hips size, as tall and broad as he is. When your eyes set on his bulge his smile widens proudly, but your eyes soon move to his feet as he kicks his boots off, triggering you to do the same, eyes still fixed on each other.

"Wait." you ask, before getting out of bed, as he curiously watches your every move. You press the button on the door knob locking it with a click and turn on the music player sitting on top of a bookshelf next to it. It's loud enough to cover up the sounds Negan has been inflicting on you but not so loud to bother anyone.

"Come down to the black sea swimming with me ah-ooh uuh." you sing with it before you turn around walking back to him, circling him as you wrap your arms around his back and hug him from behind, kissing his back before gently grabbing his hand to leading him to your bed.

Your synchronized movements escalate from the foot of the bed to the pillows, with you moving backwards as he crawls with you until he's towering over you. He fits himself between your legs, pulling your hips towards him while claiming your neck. You gasp when you feel one of his masculine hands climb up your side to get under your shirt, raising up goosebumps in its wake. At this point, you know this is going to be worth your while.

'Negan's hot like the damn sun.'

Something visceral inside of you takes over your conscience and you practically wrestle him under you, flipping him over using your hips and legs. You yank off his white tee, frustrated by it obstructing your vision and toss it aside. Finally able to see the full glory of his chest and abdomen, covered in a decent amount of unruly dark hair until it trails down, hiding underneath his pants. The perfect amount on the perfect body.

'Shaved six-pack youngsters are overrated.' your mind defines.

Your red top slides up, slowly, as your hips roll over his hardness to the rhythm of the music. Making it all feel more like a strip tease. A little groan escapes his throat.

Your mouth attacks his neck, nipping and sucking hoping to leave purple love bites but you don't remain there before moving down his chest and stomach trailing soft and poisonous kisses full of desire. That is until your chin meets the edge of his trousers, you lift up to observe him; arms crossed behind his head letting you do as you please while enjoying the view.

Your fingers trace the form of his member, caged inside those tight black pants and his breath halts. Your hips settle over his just to see him react, as you move them teasingly whilst slowly unbuttoning and unzipping his pants. His hands grip your waist tightly before you stop moving them, then one hand moves to undo you too as the other keeps you firmly in place.

"In case you change your mind and go running, this is the moment to stop it. Please, don't play with me," he says and you feel a sense of wariness and frustration in his tone, disguised in sarcasm. He wants you so bad he's letting his guard down just long enough for you to hear that out.

'I'm far away from running, big bad wolf...'

Then he raises his torso and your noses rub against each other. "Oh! Turns out you can ask for things nicely..." you fake surprise. "Will it turn out that you are indeed a charmer, after all..." you say, your nose nudging his again before your lips meet his. Tenderly you bite on the lower with a slight smile, making him grunt a little.

'Fuck. Shit!'. You squeeze your eyes shut. 'This bastard is gonna make you fall for him!'

"Everything ok, babe?" he asks, worrying creasing his forehead.

Just nodding before going straight back to kissing him again, you hope that whatever is starting to grow inside of you for him will die as soon as you see his bad side for yourself. Deciding it's too late to worry, knowing that the fear transpiring all over Sanctuary isn't due to a one time incident but too many.

Getting to your feet at the edge of the bed and pulling his trousers off his long legs. 'Hell if I don't love his body and his height already...' your inner demon sounds, much to your dismay. As you toss them aside too in a mess on the floor, Negan's already sitting up at the edge of the bed, kissing your belly as he slides the fake leather covering your legs down to your ankles. He bites your hip bone making you shiver as you resume your seat on his lap, feeling his warm and full form now that there are not many clothes left between you.

"Do you have condoms?" you ask him, knowing this is the right moment to ask before you get too into it. Knowing if the answer is no you're just not going to do it.

'I should have asked beforehand...'

"Of course, darling." He reaches down to his pants and takes out a couple of condoms from the pocket.

'Great! He actually came here with the intention to get in your pants.' Somehow, valuing the situation, the idea makes you frown. 'Well, who's to blame you for giving into your urges at the end of the world. You could die tomorrow. Although with Negan around it doesn't seem likely.'

"Well, honey, as you may know I'm married to a lot of women." he responds to the expression on your face. "Not all married man take fucking care of this stuff as they should. But if you're gonna cheat, do it safely at least, don't bring a fucking disease to your partner or get your lover pregnant. You don't need to be too smart for the 'better be safe than sorry' shit." you understand his point and find it something to agree with. You rub him with your lower body parts to get him back in the game, although his erection hasn't ceased.

'Hell does he ever relax?'. You notice his body is slightly tense too, you put pressure on his shoulders as you keep grinding.

It has its effect, and you are soon under him as he takes your panties off. 'I guess we are done talking.' you think, right before he lures a moan out of you by attacking your neck, going down your body mercilessly. His teeth meet parts of your body that make your lower body tense, as if he knew where to bite and kiss. He's exploring every inch, getting to discover those little secrets that will make you ready for him.

Your arousal is quick, after who knows how much time since you've been touched like this but at this point you are raging and needy. He must have read it on your face because he rids himself of his boxers as he meets your eyes, pulling the condom open and down his length in no time.

'He knows what he's doing, damn if he ain't hot as hell!"

His tip meets your entrance without wavering from your gaze, attentive to any sign of discomfort,as he slides inside slowly. You notice you didn't quite size him up correctly before unless it's the sheer lack of sex thwhat has made you unprepared. The pressure of your walls trapping him inch by inch of his advance. Both of you seem to have forgotten how to breathe when his length is fully inside of you but he doesn't move, to your surprise. He seems perplexed somehow, with something clearly on his mind.

"Did I leave you drained of energy already?" you say in a mocking-like tone. "You should do more cardio Negan or you will die here-"

He cuts off your prattle with a quick push in before pulling out just as fast, with a smirk of victory. His face relaxes as he moves slowly, studying yours.

'He's trying to see if he's hitting the spot.' your mind babbles.He moves his hips with experience, aiming at the right angle, while grabbing your left thigh to hold you in place, making you feel like you are in heaven. His mouth meets your neck when you let your head fall backwards as your back arches. "Negan..." you whisper.

"M'Right here, babe..." he whispers against your neck. Your only answer are quiet moans. You can feel goosebumps under your fingertips along his back. His mouth meets yours between airy breaths as his pace accelerates, feeling his thickness hit just the right way.

"Oh my God..." your breath hitches as his precise movements build up pressure in your stomach, your impending orgasm looming.

"I know, darlin'..." he mutters in your ear as his pace increases, speeding up your climax and putting you over your limit, until you explode a shaking, quivering mess underneath him. Faster than you ever have and more desperate, as your nails trail sharp lines down his back making him growl deep.

Taglist @stxrg4zer

I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know your thoughts and reblog to let it spread 😊 See you soon! ~

[eattacheesepaw]

So, I have a question for all of you fellow MDtBH (My Dad the Bounty Hunter) fans. This involves major spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2.

Are Tim and Pam the same species?

Because as we know, they're both alien reptiles underneath their "human" skins. I'm debating whether they are the same species or they are different but similar. For one thing, Tim (or The Fixer) would frequently blink his real eyelids, which are obviously reptilian. It's also worth noting he has human eyelids he blinks as well, which are completely separate from the real ones. Pam, however, is never seen doing that. This may be because Pam has learned to control when she blinks her real eyelids with her human ones. They both have higher strength and resilience in comparison to humans.

As for their true forms...

Unfortunately, we never got to see what Tim looked like with all of his human skin off, so part of his face is all we see. When comparing what we have with Pam's true form, their eyes are similar, with Pam's pupils looking more like slits. Now, you could say Tim has a similar reptilian form to Pam because Pam is clearly able to shapeshift in some way that lets her fit inside her human skin. Though from what we see with Tim, aside from his skin and eyes, nothing is all that different from his human appearance. That may be, however, because he can't turn into his true full reptile form because he would need the human skin to be completely off.

So that answers the question of Tim and Pam being the same species of alien reptile. They are lizard-like aliens that can shapeshift themselves to fit inside skins to make them look human and unsuspecting.

But what if that's not the answer?

Then, there would be two more possibilities:

Tim and Pam are NOT the same exact species. While they share similar features between themselves, the simple answer would be that they are both reptile aliens, but different kinds. Tim is from a more anthro/human-like species of reptiles and Pam is from a more lizard-like species. This was my initial thought when I first completed both seasons before thinking about it more.

Tim and Pam ARE the same species BUT the differences are due to their sexes. This answer is basically my case of "having your cake and eating it too". We have seen many species in fantasy and sci-fi that have their differences between the males and females. We would more commonly see the males as more rugged or animal-like while the females take on a more human and conventionally attractive appearance. With Tim and Pam, this could be the other way around. It could be the females are the ones that are animal-like and the males are more human-like. This is an idea that I REALLY love, but it wouldn't surprise me if my main answer was the correct one.

So, those are my thoughts on this topic.

Am I thinking about this too much? Yes.

Do I care? XD Hell no!

That just shows how much I LOVE these characters! 💕

[max1461]

Ok, @mitigatedchaos, I'll respond to this in a new post.

I do not think there is evidence for the claim in your first comment. I am not an economist, but I have a friend who actually is an economist and who reads this blog, so hopefully he will see this and tell me what he thinks. Granted he works in mechanism design and not welfare econ or whatever this would be, but I think he is informed enough to tell me if this take has much currency.

My impression from him is that there's no reason, from the standpoint of economic theory, to think that e.g. massive income redistribution via taxation would (significantly?) hurt production. This is on the basis of the fact that his favored economic policy, which we have discussed at some length, is laissez-faire markets in conjunction with very high tax rates and direct redistribution on the basis of income, serving to approximately equalize everyone's wealth. This is supposed to retain the desirable properties of markets in terms of efficient distribution while counteracting their tendency to inequality (which, evidently, actually reduces their efficiency). He strongly favors this kind of direct cash redistribution over welfare schemes run by the state, e.g. government run housing initiatives and so on, again for reasons of efficiency in distribution.

That's what I recall from talking to him. I hope I've gotten the details right. Anyway, your claim is of exactly the type that I think he is very eager to rebut, so I'll wait to get his thoughts on this. I don't have the econ chops to address it myself, but suffice it to say that it does not line up with the impression I've gotten from those who do have econ chops.

As for your second comment, I... I'm never sure how to reply to these sorts of sci-fi opinions. I should probably contemplate a more thoughtful response. In the meantime: I hope that human genetic engineering for economic reasons never becomes a thing, even though I realize it probably will. I really do not think there is evidence for the claim that redistribution without genetic engineering will implode the economy.

[anghraine]

Hello! Sorry if this seems out of the blue and naive, but I have to ask: Do you write about P&P on an academic level and if so, is the fact that you write thoughtful near-academic content about it on social media detrimental to that? Basically I am trying to ask this:

Are you allowed to write academically about something after you wrote so much about it on social media? Especially since what you write about it isn’t, you know, “memes”, but textual analysis?

Again, sorry if this sounds weird and ignorant, but I also wrote extensively about my favorite novel on here and I also one day want to write about it on an academic level, but I don’t know if it is “allowed”, so to speak?

Sorry if this is a personal question. You can answer it in private if you want to or ignore it.

Hello! It's no problem.

I've written about P&P for grad school (both in my MA and PhD) and a bit in my dissertation, but much more about Mansfield Park. That's about all I've done with P&P academically. I've actually had more ... let's say, success as externally defined with early modern (Renaissance) stuff, which I also specialized in. So there's that.

But there's also the fact that my style and approach are quite different between academia and fandom. My Tumblr style is probably more academia-adjacent than is usual (partly for autism reasons, to be sure), but it's still comparatively casual for me and integrates fandom conventions far more than my academic work, so even when I talk about ideas that I initially was thinking through in Tumblr posts, I handle the discussion differently in an academic context and tend to advance it very differently.

So there's not much of a connection in terms of my colleagues and there isn't really anyone who's going to say, well, this basic point in the larger discussion was already made in a different context on anghraine dot tumblr dot com, you don't get to talk about it. I do avoid talking about ideas that strike me as really novel or really specific to me on social media, though.

That said, while I've maintained some separation between my Anghraine social media presence and my academic one, a lot of academics rely on social media to publicize their work and engage with other academics (for better and worse) outside the glacial pace of academic publishing.

I used to have a Twitter account for that (before the reign of Musk) and I'd just ramble on about academic stuff, including Austen, and it was usually in respect to Austen that I'd have really interesting conversations with considerably more advanced academics than me. People aren't going to want to share so much that full publications are meaningless, but they do often share enough to participate in academic discourses.

But another factor for me personally is that I actually try to avoid mixing full-throttle academic work and the works I love the most. People talk a lot about finding a way to commodify integrate what you love most into work and making it a kind of vocation, but for me, at least, that does not remotely work. It just drains the joy out of something I used to love.

I could have specialized in sci-fi/fantasy scholarship, for instance, and it would likely have been much easier in some ways, but it would also likely have soured me on SF/F (my great love otherwise). That was one of the main reasons I decided not to do it and instead went with things that interested me quite a bit, but not too much. So I tend to shy away from thoroughly mixing things that are extremely important and joyful for me with academia.

When it comes to stories I love, I kind of relate to them like a dragon with a hoard, you know? Nobody's going to take this from me! So a lot of the things I write about academically have rarely or never shown up in my fandom content because I maintain that bit of distance.

So it can be a bit complicated. I would say that I imagine publicizing some ideas makes them less likely to be published, but at other times, it's helpful in connecting with people and becoming part of academic discourse. It really depends, which is probably not very useful despite the length of this response. But there aren't many people who are in a position to allow or disallow me to write professionally about whatever I want and am professionally equipped to discuss.

[nimrodinked]

A Tale of Two Triguns

Or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the PLANT

Hello out there. I recently finished up watching Trigun: Stampede with a friend, after having a rather viscerally negative reaction to the first episode. Well, I've come here after watching the whole show to say that it doesn't get much better. My ramblings below were meant to be sent to a friend initially... but I had so much to say I figured that a blogpost would be easier to share around my frothing rage. So if the prose starts rather garbled and stream-of-thought-like, I apologize, but bear with it to the end, or at least as long as you can stomach. So, the show is a mess as far as a timeline goes. Looking at it compared to the original, there are similar beats, but they don't line up right. And the show is trying to tell the Vash vs Knives story, but in a garbled way. To spoil it, the entire 12 episodes is a small timeline of events that happen in the original show. The problem is that aside from the overarching event, everything else is wrong. It could be trying to tell a prequel to the original, but if that's the case then they didn't do a good job because plenty of plot points from the original are in the prequel. Vash encounters a number of Gung Ho Guns that he would meet in the original show, not to mention meeting Meryl and Wolfwood, all before the event in the city of July. So, if it's intending to be a prequel, why does it just throw in a bunch of extraneous details?

Speaking of extraneous details, the new show has a cultish obsession with the lore of Vash the stampede. Not who he is or what he's done. In truth, Vash accomplishes very little in the realm of deeds, that aren't done off-screen or talked about as past heroic actions. But the show absolutely loves to talk about and involve the Sci-Fi parts of the original show in all facets of the new show, including adding special powers to Vash and Knives. Episode one has Vash save a PLANT that's going bad somehow. The nutty thing is that, despite the increased focus on PLANTs and Vash and Knives as weird offshoot PLANT entities, the new show explains very little when it matters. At one point near the end, a scientist man just asserts that the PLANTs are energy sources because they're conduits for accessing a higher plane of existence. Out of nowhere. He also "Explains" that Vash somehow has the ability to access that higher plane. This is only an explanation of why Vash's arm was consumed by a black hole in an earlier episode, it's never talked about as to why Vash has the power to do this while Knives, who is also an "independent plant" as they describe, cannot. This is one of many examples of the show treating PLANTs as some kind of common knowledge while really flippantly, if at all, discussing what they are and why they are around.

On the matter of not explaining, and to touch on the earlier issue of "temporal problems", the show has a nasty habit of progressing story beats off-camera, to an almost baffling degree. To give a few examples, Meryl and her partner (The infuriating exposition reporter "Robert De Niro") are marveling at vegetation in a biodome, and robert wants to go find a smoking area. The scene ends, the episode continues on. two scenes later, Meryl and Robert are in the middle of the PLANT storage facility, in….. somewhere. It's never shown how they got there, they simply appear. Hilariously, both characters don't know how they got there either, and since it's never addressed it's almost as if the storyboard itself shunted these two hapless side characters into the next exposition dump scene without them knowing. That's perhaps the most blatant example, but little fragments like that happen constantly. A character blows up, end scene. An episode later he's shown with bandages on him, so apparently he survived. In that same episode a child falls out of Meryl's grip in a static shot, then the shot ends. Come episode end, he's bandaged up and wounded somehow. It adds up to the show being a disorienting mess to watch at times, there's just too many blocks of missing time seemingly hacked out of the plot.

Oh, and the plot. The wonderful plot. So, this is already a spoiler talk, for both the new show and the original, but this is where I really burrow into those details so if you really don't want to be spoilered, stop here. The plot is a topsy-turvy mess that can't seem to muster up the brainpower to make sense of it's own details. The opening of episode one reminded me of the first star wars prequel. That's a great sign…. Anyhow, you meet the twins when they're young, at the Big Fall event where the entire Seeds project fails and crashes to earth due to Knives' meddling. How did he meddle? Guess. No I'm serious, the show simply states that Knives did it somehow, and apparently Vash "gave him the passcode" which makes him "an accomplice" which is it's own infuriating mischaracterization, but we'll get to that. So, Knives crashes all the space ships because "humans bad." After that, Vash runs away, and that's the last we see of (new) flashbacks for a while. They love to use the same flashbacks so the first few episodes have kid Knives saying "Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash~" in his silly voice, which is an amusing anchor point. Not amusing in a good way. Every flashback is a sore reminder of how awfully they're piloting the show.

Now right off the bat, the show has problems because it's trying to fit in references from the original show in a season that's half the size. Our first nostalgia story is Vash Vs the Nebraska Duo, which starts out much the same. Unfortunately it starts out under different circumstances that make it a more infuriating ride. In the original, Vash saves a diner from some small-time crooks, driving them out and receiving a free meal as a reward. However, upon realizing that he's Vash, the 60 billion Double Dollar outlaw, the town decides that they can turn in this relative stranger for a huge reward. The diner owner, who I believe is named Rosa like in the new show, says she feels sorry for doing it because he seems nice, but the town needs the money to survive. Antics ensue, because this is the og Trigun, and Vash is still his happy-go-lucky normal self. The Nebraksa Duo come in, hold the town hostage, and Vash swoops in to save the day, even after they all collectively tried to kill him. This warms the peoples hearts, how sweet etc etc. now, onto the new.

The storybeats are the same, with Vash saving the town… but here the ship leaves port, drifting away from believable into wishy-washy emotional gobbledeegook. So, episode one Vash saves the town from July police officers there to arrest him. The officer, for no real reason other than to show off a big flashy budget, fires a cluster missile into the air that breaks apart and will scatter all over town with bombs, destroying probably the entire area, PLANT included. Vash saves the day, though he does so in the rather ludicrous method of throwing a rock at a cluster of missiles wide enough to saturate the town with shrapnel, then shooting the rock so that it spreads and somehow air-explodes the whole cluster missile payload. Again, it seems to just want to be flashy, and having any sort of sense or logic isn't a concern. So, Vash is the hero of the town, and they all celebrate. Now, before I say this next story beat, Rosa, the tavern owner now, explains that, in addition to him just now saving the town, Vash also came by sometime in the past to save their plant. So that's twice he's saved the entire town out of pure charity. So, they decided to hold him up for ransom. The given reason is…. the same, they need the money to survive. What? No, seriously, what? They don't explain anything, Rosa just says she's a mom and has children and needs to feed her kids. So they're going to cash in 60 billion double dollars… for groceries. They can't be using the money to fix the PLANT, because Vash fixed it already, for free. And if the power structure around it was failing and they had to make repairs Vash couldn't do, then… why not say it? They don't, they just do it because this is the "town tries to ransom vash" episode. Antics ensue, although much more toned down (in tone, not in wacky spastic animation) antics this time around.

More differences come as the Nebraska duo show up, and instead of Vash escaping the town, they catch him, and the Nebraska duo decide to just steal him and take the bounty. A short lived and lame chase sequence happens, and then the duo is defeated. They immediately return to town and decide that they'll just steal the PLANT instead, marking the beginning of the new show's obsession with the hitherto mysterious space-age power source. They take the PLANT to the top of a long hallway, presumably to attach it to a crane because it's quite large. This also serves as an ultra-obvious setpiece for a confrontation. A confrontation is had, and in contrast to Vash using his gun and bullets to beat the Nebraska's without even really wounding them, this Vash just hops around like a 3d jumping bean before finally drawing to counter the Nebraska father's gunshot. Yes. He shoots the bullet head-on with his bullet. That's…. Alright for those that haven't watched, the original trigun had Vash pulling some really incredible stunts with guns and gun avoiding. The closest I can reckon to this feat of improbable "accuracy" is the water thief episode. To make my point simply, Vash is able to dodge someone's bullets fired at him from close range. The one firing realizes that he's able to read the trajectory of the bullets whizzing by by carefully watching the gun in his hand and how he aims it. That's far-fetched, sure, but it at least makes some semblance of sense for Vash to have learned over the many years of getting shot at. And while the explanation of "bullet trajectory" isn't entirely accurate, at close range and with proper spacing, Vash could make enough room to dodge where the bullet could go. Because gun's aren't laser-accurate, but the body can be flexible enough to give it the extra space to whizz by.

Now, going back to that gun's aren't laser-accurate point, Nebraska Sr. fires what looks like a standard handgun (I'm not going to go super nerdy because I'm not a gun nut, but I understand enough to go through this) at Vash, and Vash fires back with a .22 revolver. From what I can tell, he draws while Nebraska is firing, and is able to hit the bullet dead-center before it travels too far from the gun. That's… I barely know why I'm focusing on this one dumb shot among a million other issues I have, but It's not so much an issue of "a normal person couldn't do that" and more an issue of a level of superhuman not only required of the person, but the gun they're firing. And considering Vash is shooting just a regular revolver… sure, it's a nitpick, but it's one drop in the pan of this nonsensical stew I'm trying to chew through. Let's move on.

So, after that "gunfight", the beam the Nebraska's are on begins to fall. Sr makes a run for it, but Jr grabs the big PLANT because it's valuable. He almost makes it, making sure the PLANT gets to safety first which seals his fate of falling. Thankfully, he's got extending rope-arms like in the original, so he's able to grapple upwards, but his arm is slipping. Vash naturally grabs it, and Nebraska Sr is about to as well, when Rosa comes in again to bravely shoot at him for taking their livelihood. She's going to gun him down, the villainous scientiest… but he has a son and he loves him! It's about family, that's what makes it so powerful, truly words to live by. After that the story goes off on it's own strange and strained beat, which leads me into my next point.

Characters. Vash, centrally, is barely given anything to do in the new show. He's mostly relegated to moping around, and trying not to use his gun at all, except for a bizarre scene where he's beating up thugs with it as a makeshift tonfa. Not to say that Vash was a powerhouse of awesome might in the original show, but he was a much more active protagonist that got a lot more work to do. Almost half of the total runtime are small stories about Vash's character, his past, and the kind of person he is. Just looking for clips I was able to find 4 different episodes where Vash is either helping to save people, or trying to talk someone down from the ledge of killing someone else. Compared to the almost saccharine sweet message most often played in the new show. Vash just wants to help everyone and save them. It's the same message… but it's barely portrayed outside of him directly saying it. Adding into this teeth-cracking sweetness is the bizarre character choice to make him a character with a guilty conscience.

So, as far as I can reckon (because again, they do not show the backstory of the Big Fall, it just happens and Knives talks about how Vash was part of it), Vash feels guilty because of the just-mentioned help that he offered Knives. This "help" equates to him knowing a passcode that Knives doesn't, when the twins are snooping around ships records in the specimen storage room. They find a supposed third independent child, and pulling up their file also happens to release them from the floor, in what probably should be a horrific scene. It is on it's own, but that traumatic event is never talked about or discussed, only vaguely alluded to in the future. The event in full is a series of glass containers that house the third child, or what remains of it. It's rather gruesomely torn to pieces, and the bio-signs read out that it's still alive even in it's flayed state. This is, in what appears to be a theme, never expounded upon. Who was the third child? No idea. Maybe it's the same child shown later on in the show, although the scientist that created him certainly didn't make it sound like his creation was stolen from the body. Maybe I need a supplementary brochure to understand the deep lore that this show insists on bringing up, only to drop like so much trash soon after. Getting back to the passcode, however.

Apparently Vash knows the master passcode. Somehow. Not explained. Him using it to access the third child documents apparently was enough for Knives to memorize the password. Or he copy-pasted it? Again, it isn't explained, but it's the only "password" shown in the show so I have to just assume that's it. If that is the case, Vash having a guilty conscience makes no real sense, because even if he gave his brother the password, he did it in a completely unrelated outing that they both thought was innocent snooping. Sure, it certainly turned out to be a horrific event (that they never bring up again) but that's a flimsy foundation for his guilt. It could be that he's motivated by the desire to stop his brother's plans as he states in a later backstory section, which would make more sense at least, but once more, that resolution is brought on by his foster caretakers discovering the black box that recorded Knives telling Vash that he helped him by giving the password. He has no other stated reason for wishing to atone, so once more I must assume that his desire stems from the guilt of helping Knives. Helping knives in an unrelated scenario when neither of them knew better. I understand that emotions like guilt are strong and often irrational in real life… but when the foundation of your narrative is built on the sci-fi equivalent of a rom-com misunderstanding, the story will suffer for it.

And oh, does the lack of character not stop with Vash. Knives has argueably come out much worse in the hack job. He's been boiled down from his old self, remade into a strange and cartoonish brooding villain that is almost never, ever, not playing a piano. The man who systematically tracked down the blood-relative of Rem Saverem, killing him before Vash got there entirely to break his brother. Who then forces him to activate his angel arm and scour July from the map (yes, the city of july in the og was a past event if you recall my earlier ramblings) and is still angry and hurt when Vash aims his PLANT-mutated death-cannon at him. Because Knives is a deeply disturbed individual with a central idea that humanity is a waste of space, but he does love his brother. NuKnives maybe loves his brother, it's unclear and not well explained because he, like many other characters, is obsessed with PLANTs. His only real stated reason for wanting to kill the humans is when he's shown to be reading a history book, and he comments on how humans never change, and always have wars. Which is sophistry, to the highest order. He is a child so it's not as if that's an unreasonable take-away from an alien's perspective, but once more, the narrative suffers from weak motivations like that, regardless of how "realistic" they might be. Knives' motivation is also skewed off-kilter, as instead of living on a new world with his beloved brother, he now wants to create a new generation of stable, independent PLANTs that will survive and thrive in the new world. Again, not inherently terrible, but it's confused, muddled, barely explained until the ending where everything is dumped all at once. In fact, Knives and Vash's relationship can be shown by looking at each respective ending.

At the end of the original show, the climatic battle is between two brothers with opposing ideals that can't reconcile them with each other. They have a gunfight with each using one of the guns the Knives made for them to have. While Knives gains the upper hand, Vash hears the voice of Wolfwood, and uses his gun to regain control of the fight, and win. It's simple, it's really fun to re-watch, and can even be a little symbolic, with wolfwood's cross representing Vash's connection to human beings as a whole, that burden to them turning into a blessing that helps him win. Contrasted to the end of NuGun, which is an obnoxious orchestral-blaring city battle where Vash zips around on his magical devil wing while Knives follows and blasts away with magical PLANT-conjured knives. Of course shortly before this epic big big bigly battle, there was an episode where exposition and nonsense was shovelled down the viewers face as Knives unveils his master plan to turn Vash into a tree which will simultaneously engulf the world to kill all the humans, and forcibly impregnate all of the PLANTs he's collected to birth new independent PLANTs which he will imbue with souls by going to the higher dimension and tapping into the consciousness there, using his brother which he turned into a tree as the portal to go through, after erasing his memories, because apparently in order to turn into a portal tree person you have to have no attachments or memories. Vash turns the tables after his memory is wiped of Rem, by remembering a song that she taught to him (off-screen). Now, Rem's song is a motif in the original show, but from what I can tell with an untrained ear, the little melody Vash is singing isn't that, just some song he was taught. So, Rem Saverem, a character that has had less on-screen impact to Vash than his adoptive caretakers on the crashed ship, is the magic spark that re-awakens his memories. That would make sense… if you've seen the original show, and know the background of just how much Rem meant to Vash. Here… it's just a copout really. Now, If all of that sounds like nonsense, you're correct. If you think there should be more explanation, well you're also right, but the show has no answers for you. At once too much and too little explaining happens so that a slew of new pieces of information are cast to the wind, without a single string to ground them to actual NuGun-established reality. Vash is still saved by his connection to humanity, but keeping with the new show's theme, he is captured and loses all his memories over the course of 2 and a half episodes, before finally mustering up some main character gumption to fight back. It doesn't hit nearly as hard. Frankly it misses the mark of a hit at all.

To finish off this confusing mess of a story, Knives dies trying to reach a mcguffin cube, because Vash is able to "condense the gate energy into a tesseract" that will still open the gateway to the higher dimension…. which, I suppose is still bad? Honestly I don't know why it's still bad, obviously Knives doesn't have pure intentions and wants to kill humans, but as was shown, his actions already resulted in a bunch of pregnant PLANTs. If they don't get souls from the higher dimension will they… just become normal PLANTs? Search me. Vash wants to get rid of the cube because Knives wants it and will eventually do bad things with it. Okay… alright, there's such a deluge of nonsense at this point that I barely registered that initially, but okay. So, in what I'm sure was cool to see for those still invested in the show, Vash unleashes his Devil arm. Looking back at the clips from the og, Vash had the angel arm, and Knives the devil. It was a simple characterization, and as shown in the finally fight, the arm isn't connected to the person; it's connected to Knives gun's. But Knives didn't make guns in this show, so now Vash can summon the power of the devil arm with his newfound power of anti-creation…. or whatever (look he sprouts a black devil wing and flies around while holding a cube made of gate portal energy that he also made and condensed apparently by accident, or maybe on purpose. There isn't time for explaining, it's time for BIG BIG BIG ACTION SETPIECES!!!!) Vash uses his devil arm and wing to fly up into space to blast away all the tesseract energy, but Knives won't let him. So, Vash blasts, and Knives, rather than go around the massive beam, puts himself directly in it's line so he can get melted down in slow motion. I feel my stomach churn as I write that sentence because it sounds like a cinema-sins nitpick. It kind of is, but it's also another ridiculous bit of contrivance that Knives can't bring himself to pull out of the death beam stream and grab the cube from it's completely exposed side-hole, so I'm touching on it. Vash kills Knives, even if accidentally, and Knives' last words to his brother, are "Nai is dead, you killed him." I am baffled, on the verge of hiring a private eye to research just what the hell that even means. I don't know where Knives feels this big betrayal happens, since he's literally using his brother as a frozen in time gateway to achieve his perfect world, with no promise that he'll ever unturn him from tree back to brother. But he's still sad about it? Suddenly? After all of this? Because he has shown not a lick of remorse or sadness towards his brother ever since they parted ways after the Big Fall? I'm rocked to my core at how nonsense this line is. Anyhow, that's how the story proper ends, which moves us, blessedly, onto my final point.

Everyone knows Marvel properties. Everyone knows the Marvel movies. And at this point, many of you probably know about the more recent movies and how they have an audience clap-pause for when something you recognize comes on-screen. Famously used in the third spiderman movie, where Toby Maquire comes on-screen to dead silence for just a bit to allow the marvel fans time to clap and holler in the theatre. Thank the lord above there are no such egregious references in Trigun, but there are an insulting amount of "remember the old property?" moments. To name a few, obviously there are the members of the gung-ho guns that Vash fights in this new show, including Zazie the beast, who has been turned from tragic esper child who can control massive sandworms, to strange native-dressed child that can still control worms… but might also be a worm? She bursts into literaly swarms of flying little glow-bugs when shot at, but they don't explain that. Go figure. She's just made of worms now. There's Legato, who is a reference for old fans, not a character. He appears in 2, maybe 3 episodes back to back to meddle with Wolfwood, then fades away without even a face reveal. Maybe that's for the planned second season. I say that these are all references, not characters in the new show done differently, because they really don't have a lick of substance behind them, beyond the most forgettable of the og gung-ho guns who has been turned into a roided-up bane out to kill Vash. He also serves as the "wolfwood murders a child" catalyst, although again, there is almost nothing done about that issue, and Wolfwood continues to hang out with Vash after it's over (Seriously, stakes in this show are so low they're nearly subterranean). Beyond that there are bits of a large robot that looks like the Nine-Lives gun from the og. Cute. The most offensive nostalgia and sequel bait combined references are saved for the last minutes of the final episode, however.

Meryl pays her respects to the annoying exposition reporter Robert De Niro at the wrecked city of July. A voice comes over her radio, telling her that if she doesn't stop slacking, she'll be sent over to the insurance agency (she was an insurance agent in the og, which is a funnier occupation and makes more sense, as she and her partner are following Vash because he's a walking liability.) The voice also tells her that she's been assigned a new partner, a woman by the name of Millie Thompson. Yes, stun-gun Millie, one of the more jovial and light-hearted members of the original cast. She was an amazonian woman with a minigun that fired "stun-rounds" which seemed to consist of metal bars that would whack into people's chest and stop them in their tracks. Possibly also break ribs, but Millie isn't known for being smart, yet she's a wonderful part of the cast that adds to the initial levity. She's also Wolfwood's implied romantic partner, though they do only share a single scene together. The scene is adorable though, I would look up Trigun Pregnant scene to find it. I know that sounds like a bit, but that's the youtube title of it. Anyhow, after that stomach-churning force-feeding of 'member berries, the scene changes to a familiar face, telling Vash that he'll be okay and get over his "amnesia" soon, calling him Eriks in a reference to the mini-plot where he went underground under the same name in a fit of manic depression. It's unclear whether he actually has memory loss now, since the July incident did cause him to lose his memory. But really, with the amount of faith I have in the show's writing for this season, an eventual season two will probably botch that plotline over 3 episodes.

So… that's it. That's the entire thing, I've been expelling the bile built up in my neck after watching his sad trainwreck for quite some time, so if you're still reading then I both applaud and thank you for being interested. I truly didn't wish to hate on a show, but it's because Trigun is such a beloved property for me that this new rendition being made sloppy and shoddy gets to me so much. It's a confused mess that's riddled with a baffling number of cliches, bad writing, over/under explanation, an obsession with a sci-fi aesthetic, and a desperate attempt to have flashy animation that is a poor, slipping mask for the rest of the trainwreck. I mean… the animation did (mostly) look quite good. Having 3d models affords a great deal more general movement and crazy action on a tighter budget. They seemed a bit too Gung-ho (hah, reference) with the movement though, as some scenes of just talking featured quite a bit of bouncy wobbling model flailing, which just looks off-putting. The animation team clearly cared and tried their best to get creative, and there's a fun amount of camera swings and reels for the few actual fights the show has. Who knows, the friend I watched this with said a season two was already confirmed. I was appalled at the ending of Dragon's Blood season 2, and then 3 had me in tears. Maybe they'll be able to scrape and salvage this flaming pile, and get their nonsense together for a season two, as that will probably be a re-telling of the original story, considering this first season ends with what was a past event in the og, and ends with setup for Millie. But…. Oh dear god, but…. The season also ends with a shot of Earth, and a radio broadcast as a few personnel confirm that the SEEDS project fired a signal, and Zazie the plot-exposition Beast warns Meryl… for some reason, that humans will be coming. I am not even going to ask why the sentient pile of bugs that looks like a child knows that. I'm just not. I can't imagine that MORE sci fi, more bigger blastier actionier flailing, and more over-explaining concepts will benefit this show, and I don't have much hope that their "humans are coming to the desert planet" plotline will be anything but disappointing.

But hey! I like to remain positive, so at least the original show is still there. I have the Blu-Ray box set of it, I might just dig it out to watch once more! I mean, what's stopping me from re-living the amazing show from my youth? And for that matter, what's stopping you? There's plenty of ways to get a hold of it either online or physically, and I promise you that the original Trigun is at the least a better-written show than the new trashfire. It might be antiquated, I'm aware that not everything ages gracefully… and I'm also aware that some people just don't know what good media is. Pearls before swine and all that. But I won't judge! Honest. So give the original a watch. And hey, you could try the new show, if you really wanted. I don't think it will hold up, but…. Well, again, some people don't know what good media is. Any way you slice it, again, thanks for listening to the longest ramble I've had in a good long while. I hope it gave you something to chew on, or something to chuckle at. I'll see you next time.