#my two hyper interest coming together to kill me

[skeletonh0e]

A lot more people seemed interested in my interpretation of Underlust than I thought so fuck it, LORE POST

I'm putting this under read more because of length, but also while this is not a NSFW post there is talk of NSFW subjects and a slight tw for talk of non-con (it's not GRAPHIC or the main topic but it's talked about)

Also pls keep in mind none of this is meant to bash the og creator despite how problematic they are, this is simply my take on it

Without further adieu

UNDERLUST BUT I WRITE IT

I'll keep the basic premise, less in the sense that the underground was struggling with extreme fertility issues and more so that after falling into the underground it had entered a massive depression. Monsters were losing hope faster than ever, relationships weren't being formed and underpopulation quickly became a problem

Toriel and Asgore quickly realized that if something wasn't done they would be on the verge of extinction. So both to encourage monsters to have children AND to hopefully bring monsters out of this depressive funk they decided to push for a very sex positive culture

The two publicly opened their own marriage as example, they both started their own royal harems, they hired celebrities to put a focus on fun and sex appeal and even made so being a sex worker was a government job thus having a lot of benefits as well as a certain level of natural respect that professions such as military ranks or post workers get

The end result did actually help, monsters started having relationships and the environment became a lot less somber. It wasn't their intention to start an otherwise very hedonistic culture but that did come the end result. Do a lot of monsters do dress provocatively, there is a lot of brothels, clubs and there's a much heavier focus on drugs, drinking, etc, than there ever was in the vanilla undertale

So this is less "Undertale but everyone is OUTRAGEOUSLY HORNY all the time" and more Undertale if everyone was raised in an environment where it was just natural to be open about your sexuality. Think basically if you were trapped in Vegas 24/7

So some important things to note in general

Toriel and Asgore not only have kids, but a lot more than they did canonically. All of them are alive and as a result both of them are noticeably a lot older. Both silver foxes who can still get it tho, they're also still together technically but as said before open poly marriage with their own harems

Asriel is around and a full ground adult in this AU, his design is very similar to his hyper death god form and in this AU he's the one you meet in the ruins not Tori. He's not trapped there he's just a hermit (he flirts with the player but it's clear he's joking I headcanon Az as aroace lmao)

As those last two things imply Flowey is not around either

The amalgamations aren't around either, the monsters that created of them have simply fallen and passed. Alphys is still the royal scientist yes but we'll expand more on that later

No other humans have fallen into the underground therefore there are no human souls in Asgores possession and therefore there are no orders to kill any humans to gather said souls

The royal guard still exists, there is no "royal sluts" like in the original AU as funny as it would be. But it's noticeably more lax and even then like typical military bros they frequent strip shows, brothels, etc.

This also very importantly leads me to the next big thing that's very different about my interpretation of Underlust

Mettaton

This is not a post made to critique the og AU, but I will say I simply never cared for how he was handled in the original. In my interpretation Mettaton isn't hypersexualized either, though not afraid to use sex appeal here or there but his main role is basically the head honcho of the sex worker industry

The MTT Resort is a lot more expansive in this universe, covering nearly all of hot land, the capital, a decent chunk of water fall, and even has a smaller location in Snowdin. It is basically Vegas for lack of a better comparison, with a lot of strip shows, nsfw areas, bars, and even places where you can gamble

Mettaton is still a performer and not a sex worker himself, he still has family friendly segments but also late talk night shows for his older audience (it's not sexual not counting the ha ha funny raunchy jokes), he is strictly in his Mettaton EX form from the start not his boxy one and I can't draw for shit but if I could his aesthetic would he very pimp inspired dw it's just an aesthetic though he's a good boss

Further more when a lot of monsters being employed under him as show girls and/or sex workers this where I have to mention in this AU both Sans and Papyrus work for Mettaton. The former as an entertainer and escort, the latter as security (but Mettaton does give Pap a somewhat suggestive outfit so make of that what you will), various other characters are also employed under him but not all as prostitutes, Muffet for example has her own area dedicated to selling baked goods as well as managing the rooms of the guests.

Which leads us to the next talking point

Sans

I like to nickname Lust Sans as simply "Ace" for context, but what's different about him here aside from the obvious parts of being a sex worker, being very flirty and dressing different? Well first things first

This Sans is not aware of resets nor does he have ANY memory of them

Doesn't make sense for him too, no other humans, no determination experiments, flowey isn't around, etc, etc. The only time anyone gets the ability to reset is when the player falls into the underground and the most he'll be aware is having similar moments of deja vu that other characters get, but for the most part? Man isn't even aware that's a thing people can do

Adding onto that he's a lot less....depressed in this AU, ppl tend to forget that the knowledge of resets has upset Sans greatly. Man is DEPRESSED and it's at least part of the reason for his extreme laziness, literally takes the end of the world for him to get off his ass and do something (genocide route)

Ace as a result is a lot more proactive and noticeably less pessimistic, not to say he doesn't have any issues, the thing about this underground is the hedonistic culture is in a way to cope with the general depressing situation of the underground with Sans being no exception

I also like to think he doesn't have 1 HP as a result too, it's still low but not determentally low

For the most part he is still Sans, he's a lot more flirtatious and a low more show boaty that his Undertale counterpart but he's also still a silly little guy who loves to joke around and make puns. There's definitely a comedic twist to any of his performances, can you do a comedy routine during a live sex show or something akin to that? Idk but it's Sans he probably finds a way

And it's also worth noting that you don't encounter this Sans in Snowdin, you probably won't even officially meet him until you hit the MTT Resort. But you do see posters in Snowdin and hear talk about him at Grillby's (yes Grillby's is more of a nightclub here and Sans does frequent it just not as often)

Next question though

Frisk and Chara?

If you haven't figured it out, Chara never fell into the underground and was never adopted by the Dreemurrs, never died, etc. Chara is not in this AU in any form and adding onto that Frisk is not the character that we play as in this hypothetical Underlust Game

It does not make sense to include them and I cannot think of a way to include them that doesn't feel...weird somehow. Obviously it would be inappropriate to include them as children, but even if you aged them up you have to deal with characters possibly making advances on them and I uh- don't like that

So simply put they are just not here. So who do we play as in Underlust?

You play as whoever you want!

In my interpretation the protagonist is strictly 100% customizable so it can be your own OC or just a self insert, the only things that are for certain about the protagonist are:

They're human They're an adult The have the soul trait of "Lust"

Next question? What does it mean to have the "Lust" trait?

First off, your soul is pink in this AU!

Due to monsters not being as willing to attack humans (not all of them are super friendly mind you but you aren't entering battles left and right), having the Lust trait doesn't allow for a unique battle mode. Instead it allows you to enter "conversation battles" for lack of a better word

Think of it as being similar to the "Back talk challenges" in Life is Strange before the Storm, your ability comes to be able to charm, convince, befriend or even possibly manipulate others to progress through the underground. And yes hypothetically use seduction to get your way

How you use this ability is up to you, you can be as sweet as a peach only using the most moral method to progress or you can be a two faced bitch playing mind games. And just to clarify the option to sleep with characters is not treated as being either bad or good (unless you use it as a form of manipulation), you can go through the entire underground not being even a little sexually active or you can progress through it sleeping with nearly everyone you get a chance with

Neither option will reflect on your characters morality, the only thing that does is how you choose to treat others

Now....

Genocide Route? Pacifist Route? What's the end goal here?

This is where I confess that this is the one aspect I haven't 100% figured out so I'm down to hear some thoughts as I think ideally there would be multiple endings so far all I have is

-> Lustbound Ending (You choose to just stay in the underground) -> Bloodlust Ending (The genocide route) -> Lust Freed Ending (Neutral Route, you killed a boss monster then escaped the underground)

A genocide and neutral routes are possible in this AU, but its different as you 100% have to be the aggressor in this situation, I would like for there to be something akin to a trust pacifist ending where the underground is freed but I haven't 100% figured out how that would happen given that there aren't any human souls or Flowey in this AU

Other Stuff that I want to bring up but didn't fit into the other categories

Asriel does give you a phone and you can call him through out the underground, unlike Toriel he definitely answers though he takes on a similar role to Papyrus in this AU since you don't befriend the skelebros until later in the story

As mentioned before the amalgamations never happened, Alphys didn't experiment with determination in this AU. When Asgore and Toriel were pushing for a more sex positive culture, they requested her help (thus why Mettaton has his glam body from the start) but also to help the under population problem Alphys worked on drugs that basically functioned as aphrodisiacs / viagara to help monsters further populate

This....helped but backfired a bit as monsters started to use these substances for less than savory purposes (you can figure out the rest), but it made her guilty enough to disband ever working on them again, but the damage was still done and it is a part of the reason why there's a noticeable drug culture in the underground now that just wasn't there before

While I lean hardcore into the underground is just Vegas with the focus on booze, sex, etc, there are areas that are just normal. Mainly the Ruins, most of Snowdin, and of course Asgore's castle

Another thing I want to clarify is that the hedonistic life style isn't entirely bad, it did help the underground and pulled monsterkind as a whole out of a great depression. It is simply a different way of coping with a bad situation that a lot of monsters have taken to. That being said, it's not entirely good either as mentioned above there are problems and risks with life styles like this

Is it the right way to handle it? The wrong way to handle it? Does it matter because some monsters are finally happy now? Who's to say, a fun debate to be had for sure but the entire point is that there's a lot of room for debate to be had about it

But also like I said I haven't 100% figured out everything about my Underlust interpetation so I'm down to hear some thoughts and you are always welcomed to ask some questions

[purplepixel]

Listening to Cole constantly berate himself like

*nervous laughter* ok well damn. That third person when you self criticize.

I didnt think we were going to address the travelers tea but here we are and Im happy for it. HELLO SO HE WAS BLAMING HIMSELF OVER IT THE ENTIRE TIME? Ninjago does this thing where I think theyll just drop a plot point and move on but then they’ll exceed my expectation and pick up the threads a little later. And every time Im like, NO WAY SO WE ARE ADDRESSING IT.

Also Im a simple person. Give me a nightmare where real events are twisted and Ill eat that up.

Cole: But its about to fall!

Dream Kai: You should’ve thought about that before you lost the tea!

*flashbacks to season 10* UGH OUCH

It was really cute that Jay was like “hey, hey, we understand. Its ok” and its equally fascinating that cole just doesnt believe that. In his defense, they were reactive when he told them he lost their only way out but as far as I recall they moved on pretty quick after that and dont seem to hold a grudge. So I find it really interesting that cole choses to listen to his inner critic instead of trusting the word of jay or kai. Mr I Dont believe you so im gonna climb this mountain where a dangerous creature resides in order to fix the mistake I made. Hmmmmm.

I have a character study brewing in the back of my mind and it has something to do with cole being able to read people. The double edged sword of being hyper perceptive of other peoples intentions and feelings often times means you can over predict whats not there. HMMMM.

Also kai's "its to early for this" is sending me. Man that whole scene was great. I love them. The jay kai cole trio is peak

Backtracking a bit, I forgot that in reality, Kai and Jay were the loudest over this situation going "ugh, how could you drop it" and Jay's "well just thats great!" rant and then in his dream theyre the mean voice of his inner fear. Also that real kai was the one to save him from falling with the bounty, but dream kai is the one that stops him and is like "no dont come back unless you grab it" hold on lemme just. :-;

Jay's “Gumdrop” instead of a curse word at the end of the episode had me WHEEZING. Let him say fuck

"Krags lament" was also really solid. YES COLE JAY NYA TRIO I LOVE THEM.

And and AND its nya and jay who go to look for him, the two who WANTED to go after and talk to him inmediately when cole storms off but both ended up being stopped by two separate characters so they dont. Its the little things.

Man the disrespect to cole in this episode. Take a shot anytime snow falls on him. Take a shot anytime jay accidentally zaps him. Take a shot anytime krag falls on him.

Cole 🤝 Kai: getting beat up in the most slap sticky manner for no reason in this season

(No i still havent forgotten about lava vs ninja. The disrespect towards kai was crazy)

I know theyre both based off of the same creature, but my brain was like ITS THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (from the rudolf stop motion film)

ALSO. That was some of the best miscommunication that Ive seen. They really had me. Cole no, please dont beat yourself up, that was not obvious at all. Thats so sad that he is the last of his kind. Man.

Cole: burial mounds?

Me: WHAT.

...they really killed them all except him. Crying over cole inviting him to the village so he isnt alone. Their friendship is cute omg.

Me anytime cole interacts with a kid or befriends a creature: 🗣YES

And even tho cole doesnt technically understand him, i love that he knows enough to be able to put two and two together and kinda translate to the others (HMMMMM PERCEPTIVE MUCH)

Jay: Whats he doing?

Cole: Saying goodbye

Me: hold on now ;-;

“The travelers tea” and “Krags Lament” restoring my faith in this season. "An unlikely Ally" really did feel like a weird fluke in the writing cuz this felt back to normal.

[spinningbuster98]

Metroid Other M Part 6: Samus' weakness

Ok so this part is in Japanese, mainly because I had to record it again after the original video proved faulty (it had only audio but no video) so I thought to give it a change of pace of sorts, don’t look at me I had to technically replay this game twice for this

So we start off with might just be the single dumbest case of backtracking in the entire series: you make your way up a snowy hill and through a series of morph ball tunnels only to reach a room with a switch that you can’t hit due to an unbreakable window. The Wave Beam would be able to hit it, but apparently Lord Adam is asleep again so we gotta make our way back only to get ambushed by Zebesians trapping us in a glass cage. NOW Adam wakes up and allows use of the Wave Beam, meaning that NOW you get to go back the way you came from to hit that switch from before

This is the very definition of arbitrary, it’s so lazy and thrown together like they felt the need to check a box off a list. Oh Metroid games have backtracking? Well here’s some backtracking I guess! It’s so monotonous, you’re just retracing your steps with nothing to make the trip back shorter or more different, aside from there being a couple of electrified floors in the morph ball tunnel now. This is an actual waste of time

Wanna know what’s also a waste of time in this game?

Samus’ character

Yeah it’s time for the Ridley scene everybody, you all knew this was coming, we could only avoid it for so long

To put it simply there are essentially two main interpretations for this scene:

The most popular one is that Samus is suffering from a PTSD attack upon discovering that Ridley, murderer of her parents, is alive again

So many criticisms have been leavied against this idea over the years, but also some counter points

Some people say that she’s justified in having this panic attack because she was absolutely sure to have killed Ridley this time after Zebes exploded so this caught her completely by surprise. I don’t agree with this interpretation because she was also 100% sure of having killed Ridley after Metroid 1 yet upon meeting him again in Prime 1 (or, excluding Prime, Samus Returns/Super) she doesn’t react in any particular way other than trying to attack him with no hesitation

Some say that her not suffering from any episodes in the past doesn’t necessarily mean she wouldn’t now, especially by virtue of her more fragile mental state in this game, as PTSD attacks aren’t always consistent. I say that a story that features a seeming PTSD attack once and then never tackles the issue or even references it ever again probably isn’t very interested in giving a good portrayal of PTSD so I don’t feel like giving it the benefit of the doubt in the matter

And speaking of Samus’ mental state in this game

The other, somewhat more recent, interpretation for this scene is that it’s not supposed to be a PTSD attack at all, but rather Samus being violently reminded of her weakness as a person upon seeing that Ridley is still alive yet again despite her best efforts. This interpretation is supposedly present in the Japanese script. I say supposedly because I have not noticed any part of the script hinting at this, in fact I’d say that the scene does a pretty bad job at NOT looking like it’s featuring a PTSD attack given that Samus is quite literally hyper ventilating and losing control of her armor. But whatever, let’s go with this direction

Herein lies the fundemental issue of this scene, which is also the fundemental issue of this game’s story: the game is so laser focused on portraying Samus’ vulnerabilities as a person that it forgets to shows us her strenghts. It puts so much effort in breaking her down yet forgets to build her back up

See I don’t care about whether the Ridley scene is supposed to represent a PTSD attack or not. I don’t even particularily care about whether it makes logical sense to have it or not. My big problem is what this scene represents and how it’s basically a symptom of the big underlying problem

This game wants to humanize Samus. If you read just about any interview by Sakamoto about this game chances are he mentions something about this.

And that’s fine

Wanting to showcase the hidden vulnerabilities of a character that’s usually portrayed as being strong and stoic is not a bad idea, it can make the character feel like well...a character, a person.

The issue is that when you put so, SO much focus on the negative aspects of a character you kinda run the risk of forgetting what it was that made that character compelling in the first place

See, more often than not, people don’t wanna see characters who are complete, ineffectual fuck ups 100% of the time. The point of wanting to deconstruct a character and showcase their weaknesses is that you should then proceed to rebuild them, to have them crawl back from the pit, the harder the fall the more satisfying it will be when said character pulls themselves together

Ever read the manga Berserk?

In it we find a character called Farnese

When she’s introduced she’s presented as the leader of a religious company of knights and the daughter of the richest noble family in the land. She has a large group of men under her command and generally looks like she means business

...except we then find out that, deep down, Farnese is not all she’s cracked up to be: she can’t actually fight, having been chosen as leader of the group purely out of tradition. Most of her men don’t respect her, her religious faith is actually a lot flimsier than even she dared to realize and, above all...she literally had no real skills whatsoever, being a noble lady who had been pampered all her life. All of this wrapped up in a nice little package of childhood trauma and insecurities

Farnese’s entire character is brought down, deconstructed down to her barest elements, to the point that even she openly realizes just how worthless she is

But after this is when Farnese’s character starts to rise, as she makes a great effort at improving herself as a person, at finding a never before seen sense of courage and at finally becoming truly strong in her own way

Samus’ character arc in Other M feels like it’s focusing on the first steps...only for it to then call it a day before undergoing those last few, yet still acting like it did, though I’ll get more into detail next time as I feel it’s more appropriate

What makes it even worse is the fact that, frankly, she has little reason to act the way that she does here

Some like to say that it’s not a contradiction, as Samus never spoke in other games, so she had no discernable personality. After all Other M presents itself as showing us the “true” Samus, even down to the Japanese cover having this little gimmick with basically having an over-cover with Samus’ helmet, while the real cover underneath has her actual face, thus meaning that you have to “unmask” Samus to play the game. Get it?

Except people seem rather quick to forget Fusion, y’know that game that served as 90% of the basis for Other M, including by having Samus in a speaking role. And while there are certainly some similarities in both portrayals, Fusion Samus is nowhere close to being this insecure, passive and ineffective as she is here

But even ignoring that it’s pretty clear that the in-universe reason for Samus’ emotional state in this game is due to the Baby’s death.

And really?

Really?

Look, I’m not one of those fans who say that she’s never had any sort of attachment to the Baby because she gave it to scientists. That was at the start of Super, by the end she was clearly furious with Mother Brain for killing it, so she had definitely started to develop some degree of affection for the thing

...but to the point of its death breaking her? And I do mean “break”, later on upon seeing another Baby Metroid she fucking starts hyper ventilating

She knew the Baby for what? A couple of days at most? Yeah having it die on top of you after it protected and saved you is horrible, no doubt about that, but it’s hard to believe that Samus would be so broken up about it after so long: remember that during the intro Samus states that quite a bit of time had passed after the events of Super, evidently enough for the GF to start a whole illegal program on board of a space station, so we’re talking months at least, yet I’m supposed to believe that she’s still THIS torn up about it?

Samus watched her parents die, she had her foster parents driven away from their planet, has had to personally kill 3 bounty hunters who were possessed...yet this is what breaks her?

I guess I could believe it...had there been enough narrative build up in the games, which there simply wasn’t. After Super the only other game to make mention of the Baby was Fusion, where Samus only mentions it in passing and that’s it. Other M suddenly presenting its death as such a profoundly traumatic thing for her out of the blue is just so sudden that it becomes hard to swallow especially when accompanied to its consequences to Samus’ character

The funny thing is that if they truly wanted Samus to feel sad about losing something they had a much better alternative in the form of planet Zebes, her former home for over a decade, literally blowing up after Super! That’s her SECOND home being destroyed! Yet she only mentions it once like it was NOTHING!

I know that people like to say that Samus should be more than a silent stoic monolith, it’s why some hated the way she was portrayed in Dread...but guys?

Samus being a super badass has been a key feature of her character literally since day 1!

If you read Metroid 1′s manual it says that Samus’ perfect record is THE reason why she was sent to Zebes in the first place! It’s the reason why she’s always sent on these kinds of missions! And while it’s absolutely true that the character should not be limited to JUST this, it’s doubly true that it’s still a key aspect that NEEDS to be kept otherwise the series itself stops making sense on the whole!

If Other M is trying to tell me that this is what Samus really is like...then this just isn’t the same character that has quite literally been sold to me in every prior game, and not in a clever “subversive” way. She’s especially almost opposite from her Fusion portrayal, though again that one for another time

Hell she doesn’t even look like she could be a bounty hunter. Sure she can take care of random monsters and bosses, but given how little she truly accomplishes in the game, how insecure she is and everything else I find it very hard to believe that she could make it to the top of a line of work that requires you to have nerves of steel. I’m pretty sure that, in most professions that have you dealing with firearms and dangerous situations, people are psychally evaluated to make sure they won’t be a liability. Samus here is exactly that: a liability more than an asset, especially with the Ridley scene.

And all of this? Is without taking into account her relationship with dear ol’ Adam

Oh no no no, THAT is for next time...

[crazylittlejester]

I return with a short list of headcannons

Twilight has anemia. He is so pale despite being a farm boy and the only farm boy I knew who was as pale as him also had anemia. Give this boy some iron supplements pls.

You may think Wild and Hyrule are the problem children when together, but if you added Four it's as if you sent three overly hyper children into a candy store. Zero brain cells are to be found.

Every bird loves Sky. Every. Single. One. He has Disney princess vibes.

Warriors cannot sing for the life of him. You know Scuttle from the Little Mermaid? Thats what he sounds like.

Fairies love Hyrule and Time so much that it isn't uncommon to see the small balls of light attempt to "kidnap" them. (Which in reality is just them repeatedly hitting themselves against the two since they can't push them, and it's adorable.)

Time, in his youth, would starve himself since he was so used to eating very little. Malon threatened to throw a cow at him if he didn't start eating. Time hasn't starved himself since.

Wind believes babies come from storks and I will die on that hill.

Legend, despite what many others headcannon for him, is religious. I like to think that he doesn't worship Hylia, but Farore.

Twilight is also religious, but for the light spirits. I like to think that Ordon's religion is simular to our paganism.

All the Links (minus Legend and Wind) experienced horrible sea sickness when they first got on Tetra's boat.

Twilight has a prosthetic arm after his arm was cut off during his adventure. You know the "need a hand" joke? That's how he revealed his prosthetic to the chain. He threw his arm to Sky, causing the man to pass out out of shock and horror (since Skyloft hasn't made the medical advancements for prosthetics!)

Cats love the Links, even if Four is deathly afraid of them. It's because the remlets loved Sky back when they existed.

Thanks for sharing these I had fun reading them!! I’m sorry it took me so long to respond to ur ask, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to read through all of them and respond :)

- Oooh Twilight with anemia is interesting. I personally headcanon that Twilight has one of the darkest skin tones of the bunch, along with Sky and Hyrule, while Legend and Time are the two palest

- Four to me gives off incredibly responsible energy, but when you pair him with someone else, he goes nuts and gets real silly real quick

- SKY DISNEY PRINCESS REAL. That boy has sung and held out his hand and a bird has landed in it, I just know it.

- I actually have a fic series I wrote where Wars was just completely tone deaf but did not let that stop him from screaming along to the radio. I think normal Wars would secretly be a decent singer but be bad on purpose because its a skill he’s anxious about

- I headcanon that fairies will just it in Time’s hair and let him walk around and carry them, and that they also do this to Hyrule and Wild as well

- I have a similar headcanon that Time used to only live off of nuts and fruits and cried the first time he saw Malon kill a cow for food. He’s over it now, but he’s still upset if he has to see it happen and will not kill an animal himself

- WIND ABSOLUTELY BELIEVES THAT AND I THINK HE’D CRY IF SOMEONE TOLD HIM OTHERWISE

- As far as the Links and religion go, I don’t think any of the hate Hylia, I think some are a bit bitter but I think at the end of the day they all know its not her fault. And yes to Legend worshipping Farore and Twilight the light spirits!

- I would like to add that I don’t think Wild would get sea sick. But all the others? Dead. Gone actually. One boat ride and they’re on the floor. Sky’s been in boats before but he hates them

- Twilight with a prosthetic arm would be an absolute menace to society oh good god 😭😭😭 (I’m obsessed with this headcanon btw, i love it)

- CATS LOVING LINKS BECAUSE REMLITS LOVED SKY IS SO CUTE. TEARS IN MY EYES RN THAT’S ADORABLE.

[llycaons]

hl really is so boring. like it was fun in the moment when reading the novel for the first time but then there’s a post-novel clarity where its like huh the relationship is actually so shallow. idk how ppl can compare hl and wx and think hl is better (even tho novel wx has major issues too). but comparing it to cql wx? its not even a competition, cql wx wins by far 💀

for REAL. hualian's big strength is that they have fabulous chemistry. every scene with them together is genuinely really fun and silly and I can tell very easily how much they care about each other, which is why despite my griping I actually do enjoy a lot of the romance scenes in the book. but if you're looking for something deeper, or even something real....it's just not there. it's all fantasy and idealization and hyper-devotion to the point where you have literally nothing else in your life that you care about or think makes life worth living. hc giving xl his ashes and saying essentially 'if you die, there's no point to me living' is actually really sad. xl inspired a traumatized child to live and then instead of actually living his life that child just devoted himself to xl utterly...it's just a self-fulfilling loop. hc never found anything else that he cared about or loved or was passionate about to really live for. he died for xl MULTIPLE times and he never appreciated his existence beyond xl's presence, which is honestly one of the most depressing endings a traumatized child can have

also you're so right when you say it's shallow. hc like 'gege is absolutely perfect and beyond reproach' and xl is like 'hc is so funny and we get along so well' and sure you have the dramatic "I saved your life/I'll kill for you' backstory but that didn't make it more interesting, it's just made it more dramatic. their principles, their morals, their life experiences, their perspectives and goals and respective places in life - it's not that those things are incompatible in the relationship, they're just irrelevant to the relationship. so like...what does any of this matter besides 'well they're happy now!' I personally like when characters care about each other for actual reasons that tie into the themes of the stoy

and yeah, despite its issues novel wx was extremely compelling and their dynamic for the most part made sense bc they complemented each other rly well and there were such good romantic scenes in the book i shan't lie. and like if two characters have never actually had to deal with genuine issues in their relationship because they just accept the other as perfect the way they are, its a very fragile and unstable dynamic because they have no idea how to resolve conflict or come to terms with being angry at each other. yet another reason wangxian is so much more stable and rewarding than hualian. they know what it's like to truly be opposed to each other, disagree with each other, hurt each other, and they found a resolution to that. not that they're perfect but in comparison, they've put in the work

and comparing hl to cql wx is really funny to me actually. real hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby situation in terms of like...themes...knowing each other...growing as people together...living meaningful lives...yeah idk how mdzs/cql fans moved on the tgcf and got into the romance because it's so much more simplistic and, imo, unappealing

ty for the ask!

[little-meowyao]

Hello..If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, what are your top 7 (or top 10) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series/etc) and your top 10 favorite (fictional) characters from any media? Why do you love them all? Sorry if you've answered this questions before......

I haven't! And I'm so thrilled you sent this actually

(Readmore because long-ish post)

So when it comes to medias, I am going to say (and I hope you don't mind classics lol)

No Longer Human

This book is just. Everything to me. You have no idea I went through it so quickly I ADORE IT. Literature bible

Did you ever get the feeling of being so similiar to someone, so close, but there's just this sense of sheer disconnect from them? Like a thread that should in all reason hold two things together but doesn't? "Hello, I feel disconnected from humanity" "Hello, I feel disconnected from humanity too but I can't relate to you"

No Longer Human my beloved

2. Nirvana in Fire

This speaks for itself, I think. It is so incredibly intricate and compelling, also I love Lying Liars Who Lie. And trajedies. I like palace/political dramas a lot!

3. I Became a God in a Horror Game (GHG)

How do I even begin to explain this one. It's a 1.5 million words beast. I've only read half of it. I am on the edge of my seat always. The protagonist is kinda scummy, money-obsessed, and so so interesting. They have powers

Again, I've only read half of it, but it's that kinda novel that just keeps you READING READING READING. I like it a lot

There is a beast of a little girl and a little clown named Daniel. He only just started appearing but if anything happens to him, I will kill everyone in the room and then myself. He's murderous, but that's fine because he spent 10 years in constant torment

The worldbuilding is super intricate

4. Bungo Stray Dogs

I love the worldbuilding (although Fyodor's ability reveal was super whack) but the relationships are what get me. Fyolai especially, a hyper religious man with a savior complex that in the latest chaps I've read is implied to be kinda suicidal and an atheist clown who seeks pure freedom and wants to kill Fyodor because his affection for him is a cage and he also reeks of religious trauma. They are So Insane

Dazai is my most favourite for obvious reasons (see: NLH rant above) but Mori. Mori, this man. Wow

VERY controversial opinion within BSD fandom but I adore Mori and desperately want to know more about him. I will murder someone if his entire backstory isn't shown

Also Fuukuchi. [Weary sigh] I adore Fukuchi. Such a complicated man

5. Mo Dao Zu Shi

I really didn't think I'd put it this low but it's kinda whack actually. Very compelling but also unfortunately very vague world. I love the social dynamics at play and I do think that the ending, while super cruel and horrible to so many people, is thematically appropriate

Also it contains my currently favourite blorbo! Jin Guangyao my dearest. What an interesting little bug

6. The Inheritance Cycle

One way more childish than above (YA) but so good nonetheless. I love the implications of the magic system (a whole language that invokes magic! The Ancient Language) and of the dragons, but especially of the ra'zac. Gods the ra'zac

Birdish creatures that exist outside of the magic grid of the Ancient Language. They cannot use magic but they cannot be detected by it either. Most likely they don't have a name in the ancient language (the One True language of the world that dictates natural laws, kinda). They seem to be natural predators to humans

Their natural speech is hisses and clicks and stuff but they can speak. Then they metamorphise into lethrblaka and lose the ability to speak, and start flying

I also love the implications of the dragons being able to just erase things from existence (via bouts of magic they don't entirely control). They erased the names of the thirteen dragons that willingly participated in the massacre of their species. Their names cannot be spoken out loud and anyone that reads them quickly forgets. It also doomed the dragons to isolation, because any sort of communication or "I like [thing]" would be like naming themselves. Many of their riders (humans bonded to them since their birth) went insane because of that, and a notion dragons are wild beasts spread from that (they're not, they're as sentient and intelligent as any human)

And 7. The Plated Prisioner series

The worldbuilding is not super complex. They have powers that come from fae ancestors, and that's about it (so far; I've only read up to the 4th book)

What keeps me hooked is the story itself. The pacing is actually really good (I think) and the story just keeps going and you just want to keep reading and reading and reading. There are moments of massive tension and people who die and the transformation of the mc is incredibly cool

8. Genshin Impact

This would probably be further up if you'd asked me an year or two ago. I like the story a lot and the characters are really cool. All The Fuckery of Mondstadt has me hooked (why do essentially all the Mondstadt characters have some trauma or something weird about them. Genuinely. And what was the deal with the upside down statue. And why is Celestia pointing to it)

I am really looking foward to 7.0 version and beyond where we get to FINALLY face the main antagonists (HOPEFULLY BECAUSE IF IT ISN'T THE TSARITSA WHO COULD IT BE) and then for Kahenri'ah. There's a character (Dainsleif) that shows up once an year, drops a lore bomb, traumadumps, and then disappears, and he has the entire playerbase by the throath. Though the lsst two quests with him have been sadly very short :(

As for my blorbos, I'm just gonna list some of them (in no particular order)

This is /checks notes, 6 books (series), a show, and a game

Jin Guangyao (MDZS)

Qi Rong (TGCF)

Kaeya (Genshin Impact)

Dainsleif (Genshin Impact)

Bai Liu (GHG)

Dazai (BSD)

Fyodor (BSD)

Mori (BSD)

Nikolai (BSD)

Fukuchi (BSD)

Lan Xichen (MDZS)

Nie Mingjue (MDZS)

Daniel (GHG)

Georgia (GHG)

Tang Erda (GHG)

[kookaburra1701]

DELPHINE

OH BOY THAT LADY

First Impression: Well, first impression was staggering into the Sleeping Giant to try and ruin some stranger's love life because a lumberjack I just met asked me to. And what do I get? "You're that stranger been pokin' around." WHAT DID I DO Also the way she nags at Orgnar reminded me of every manager I'd ever worked for in food service.

Impression now: Still bossy. But since I'm not completely lore-blind now I see it as hyper-vigilance borne out of 20 years of constant anxiety. It still dives me nuts, and now that I'm writing a fic where her machinations during the main quest are part of a lot of the plot it became clear just how much she yanks the LDBs chain. She sends you hither and yon, and she doesn't even WAIT IN DRAGONBRIDGE or something when she's taken ALL YOUR SHIT INCLUDING QUEST ITEMS. Nope, you have to trot your happy ass allllllll the way back to Riverwood. You can't even complete quests along the way because of the aforementioned taking of all your shit. Basically if she ever had any consideration for anyone else, I think the two plus decades of running from the the Thalmor have completely ground it out of her. She sees everything and every one as a means to an end.

Favorite moment "If my analysis is correct, the dragon buried near Kynesgrove will be the next to come back to life." The analysis:

Idea for a story Delphine and Farengar Secret-Fire's association intrigues me. I assume he either a) knows she's a blade but *doesn't* know she's the Riverwood Innkeeper or b) knows she's the Riverwood Innkeeper and also some sort of information broker but *doesn't* know she's a Blade. I think exploring how they met, what sort of projects they've worked on together before would be really interesting.

Unpopular Opinion As much as she drives me bananas in-game, I actually love her as a character. The utter nonsense she puts Team Dragonborn through in the main quest drives a large part of the second act of The Wives of Shor, and honestly she is so much fun to write.

Favorite relationship Orgnar, hands down. I love how he just gray rocks her bullshit and that it drives. Her. NUTS. I could listen to him play her like a fiddle all day.

Favorite headcanon After the events of the main quest, her obsession with killing dragons and black and white thinking leads her to attempt to scale the Throat of the World to kill Paarthurnax and she dies falling off the mountain. This isn't even really a "favorite" I guess I just can't see her doing anything else without YEARS of therapy and I don't think that's a service Skyhaven Temple offers.

[vendetta-if]

December 2022 Progress Update

For the past two weeks, I've been working really, really hard on Chapter 4 (one of the reasons I've not been too active on Tumblr lately, and I probably still wouldn't until Chapter 4 is done 😅). As of the time writing this update post, the word count is 23.6K words.

The talk with Yvette took quite a long time to write and it is indeed pretty long. Almost 12K of 23.6K words are dedicated to the talk with her. It's not only long, it also has a lot—and I mean a lot—of variations in responses depending on what your MC feels about her.

The last time MC decided on their feelings on Yvette, it was ten years ago during the comic book store incident. Now, your MC will be given an option to change what they think about her ten years later, before their very first conversation with her in their entire life so far.

The four different feelings MC can have on her are:

Hate Hate is straightforward; your MC still hates and is bitter about what she did and her neglect (not visiting MC for a decade).

Love-hate This is a more complicated feeling and I think it's a pretty good addition that makes MC feels a bit more unstable and add a bit more layers of complexity. Your MC still kinda hates her, but also yearns for her affection and mourns for the missing connection and relationship with her, and these feelings in turn feed into MC's hatred, anger, and bitterness against her.

Apathy/Indifference Pretty straightforward as well; your MC just doesn't really care about her and considers her a stranger.

Pity MC feels bad and pity for her and can sympathize with her plights. This might be the most positive feeling MC can have regarding Yvette, the second one being love-hate.

I spent a lot of time writing four different reactions and inner thoughts for MC based on these feelings they have about her. I hope I'll be able to showcase one of the variations in the Sneak Peek of the talk I'm planning to release tomorrow 😄

Also, in this chapter, you'll finally be meeting Skylar and Santana for the first time. Right now, I'm in the middle of writing the talk between MC and Skylar. After that, it'll be time to focus on Santana's talk instead.

These talks also take a long of time to write because I have foolishly decided to give six different options of responses every time MC talks with any of the ROs, half for different romantic responses and half for non-romantic ones 😭

I also did a lot of tweaking on the previous chapters (grammar & typo fixes, coding fixes, and adding some stuff).

First, by popular demand, MC can now choose their clothing style to be the same with Uncle Luka's style. The style is called "all-black".

Second, I tweaked and added some stuff with the Police Commissioner because it seems I missed the mark in trying to portray him as a grey character. Now, his involvement with the Nemesis Project will be more explicitly pointed out in the narrative than just implied subtly previously. Also, his other bad qualities, such as nepotism and hypocrisy.

Third, I tweaked MC's reactions when executing the commissioner—I think it's either your MC turns away and not wanting to witness the execution or your MC and Ash looking at the execution together in awe 😆 Now, instead of Merciful MC looking away and Ruthless MC spectating the execution, it'll depend more on your MC's choice in Chapter 2 regarding the mission (Ready to kill, reluctant to kill innocent, or don't want to kill).

Well, that's all I have to report for the month. As always, I just want to say thank you for all your support and enthusiasm for my story 🥰. I might not be able to answer a lot of asks in the coming days because I'll be hyper-focused on finishing Chapter 4 as quick as possible 😅

If you guys are interested in supporting me, getting some extra side contents on the side, including an early access for this upcoming chapter, please check out my Patreon!

[Patreon Link]

[obey-me-rot]

You're Mine

A/N: I guess as a writing blog I should be doing some writing right? Honestly this has just been the biggest headcanon I've had in a while since I started playing Obey Me of the brothers just...like Devildom culture must be so different! And then the whole pact thing with human masters must be so different as well! I just view them as big animals just wanting to get your attention u wu. Warnings: Jealous boys, public shows of dominance and a lot of biting.

It's almost painful being in the Devildom sometimes.

A cultural exchange program amped up to 100 %.

As much as you loved the brothers, you also were meeting some pretty cool demons in RAD. Surely you were the human student everyone was so excited to meet, but none of them really talked to you, you know? But there were some that were brave enough to overlook your pact marks and dive into a conversation.

Even some were bold enough to talk to you out of school!

Making so many friends was so exciting, especially since you still thought of yourself as new! Wait till the brothers see how many new demons you have met!

Problem is you forgot how weird demon culture is, especially when it has to do with a demon and their master.

"MC?"

Lucifer blinks as he notices the demon approaching the two of you, pausing your daily walk with him as confusion turns to familiarity and you run up to greet your friend.

The first thing he notices is how they are a low ranking demon, so there’s no need to be hyper aware of any sort of threat. In this instance he doesn’t need to look to make sure his pact mark is visible to the demon.

His mark was embedded right in your iris, so anyone could see whose protection you were under.

He smiles politely as you turn around to introduce them, the demon waving at him shyly as if remembering that, yes, this human made a pact with Lucifer and therefore should not be messed with in any way. Yet there was no sort of violent tendencies coming from this demon, which put him at somewhat of an ease.

That is, until the demon takes a hold of your hand.

It’s a simple touch, one that a human would mistaken for a sign of friendship and camaraderie. The demon was speaking excitedly about a new flower they had seen over at the Botanical gardens and how much they wanted to show it off to you.They tighten their hold and Lucifer has to dig his fingernails into his palm from ripping their hand off.

You had no idea what it meant and the action would most likely scare you.

And Lucifer wanted you to trust him as much as possible.

“Would it be okay if Lucifer comes along?”

“...y--yeah! I don’t mind!”

Hesitation mixed with fake happiness, this demon really thought that he would get some time alone with you, didn’t they? They probably planned this whole thing out and whatever excitement they were showing you was just a front to hide their true intentions. Besides, look how they are hanging off of you, they want to make a pact with you so badly it’s almost disgusting.

Might as well get rid of the pest now.

“Come on MC, I want to show you the huge petals--!”

“OW!”

You and the demon look back to see Lucifer biting down on one of your fingers, your ring finger to be exact, while making eye contact with the pest. His teeth are not necessarily breaking skin but the pain of the bite made all your attention go back on him, turning around to tug your finger away and cradle it close. “Lucifer what the hell!”

He smiles and tells you not to worry about it, your retort falling on deaf ears as Lucifer’s eyes fall on the demon one more time. Their eyes are wide and they have immediately taken two steps back, their back as straight as a needle as Lucifer sends them one last look that lets them know of his intentions.

Leave now or I will gut you in front of my human.

You turn to apologize to your friend for putting them in such a weird situation but the demon is already long gone, no sign of them ever being in your presence as you look around aimlessly.

“They left...” you frown and look at Lucifer, “Next time at least warn me.”

“If I did then you would have probably forbidden me from doing so.”

The Avatar of Pride smiles as he takes your hand, interlacing his fingers with yours as you kept talking about how you would apologize the next day. But Lucifer wasn’t listening, he just kept staring at you as you talked, happy that his master wasn’t particularly mad.

That demon would have to learn to get his own, this human was already his.

He had finally gotten you all to himself.

Mammon had a photoshoot today, making you tag along so he could finally show off his modeling skills. And it would help him out as well. The product they were trying to sell did not appeal to him one bit and he just really needed you as inspiration.

And inspiration did you give.

“Oh gorgeous Mammon gorgeous! Lean back and close your eyes.”

The cameraman was giving him compliment after compliment, excellent after excellent, it was as if all eyes were on him at that exact moment. He smiled as he thought about how you must be looking at him. His shirt was open, letting the cloth hang off the side of the couch as the camera focused primarily on the low riding jeans that showed off the boxers he was promoting.

“Perfect! Perfect!! Now turn around and stare into the camera!”

His eyes opened and his head turned expertly, Mammon smiling as he tried to make eye contact with you--

Only to see that you were gone.

Camera flashes stop as he bolts up, turning to look for you before his eyes focused on your form.

There you were...talking with someone else.

“Mammon?”

He doesn’t stare at the cameraman, only gets up and stalks towards you and the demon currently holding up the lights. Both of you turn to face him, a voice speaking loudly about a five minute break as Mammon stands behind you and hugs you from behind, placing his chin right on your shoulder as he looks at the interloper.

“Are you taking a break?”

Mammon smiles as he buries his face in your shoulder, hugging you tight as the demon tells him he did a wonderful job. Without raising his head, Mammon speaks up.

“MC, who is this?”

“Oh right! Haven’t introduced you. He is a friend from RAD! We sit together in Pactology 101.”

“Well we used to sit together...”

“We talked way too much in class, didn’t we?”

It’s like nails on a chalkboard when he laughs, Mammon feeling glad that he was closer to you so he could hear the sound of your laughter instead of the ugly screeching of the intruder taking up your attention. Did this guy think he was stupid? That he couldn’t notice all the goddamn pheromones he was releasing? Mammon shakes his head back and forth, breathing in your scent heavily as he tries to leave his own behind.

This guy was embarrassing himself with how badly he wanted to form a pact with you.

“MC.”

“Oh oh, remember when the teacher caught us texting in class?”

“I think he might want to just put us back together cause we are still causing trouble!”

The Avatar of Greed frowns, did you not hear him?

“MC…”

“Well the teacher knows we are a good match, doesn’t he?”

“A match made in hell, I would say.”

Why was this guy still talking? Why were you still listening to him?

“MC….”

“Hey after this...would you want to go get some coffee, MC? If you’re not busy.”

“Nah, I only have this toda---FUCK!”

A pair of teeth tug at your earlobe, Mammon growling in your ear as he makes eye contact with the annoyance in front of him. He should be counting his lucky stars that you were still in the room, if Mammon found him anywhere else this demon would be nothing more than a meal for his familiars.

“MC, you have to stare at me or else I’m going to take longer.”

You rub at your ear as Mammon lets go of you, breaking eye contact with the other demon as he gives you his signature pout. He didn’t want you to see him be all scary, Mammon wanted you to see him like the number one demon he always tried to be for you.

“And you had to bite me because of that!?”

“Because you weren’t paying attention! You have to keep your eyes on me or else I’m not going to sell this stupid product. In fact--”

He drags you back to the couch, yelling at the cameraman that he would be posing with you so he could actually get through this photoshoot instead of doing a solo shoot. The man sighs but calls makeup to get you ready, Mammon smiling as he sits down right next to you.

The farther you were from that guy the better, all of his master’s attention needed to be on him after all.

Of course something like this would happen. Bad luck seemed to follow Leviathan wherever he went.

"Did you see the finale of it live?"

"I did!!! My movie theatre put it on the big screen and everything!"

Levi was glad that you were a nerd just like him. It was refreshing and probably one of the biggest reasons he had decided to make a pact with you.

Well, he had tried to kill you first and then make a pact with you but it was still a special story! Who would have thought that he would land himself a human master with his own interests!

Though he guessed that was a bad thing now.

He couldn't keep his thoughts in check as the clerk of the comic store kept talking to you, Levi annoyed that he couldn't keep up with the conversation you two had. It was about some comic cinematic universe that had been adapted in the human world and he honestly didn’t want to put anymore thought into it because of how close the clerk was getting.

Dammit he should have bought the new manga volume in Akuzon...but you had been so cute irl asking him to get the manga in this comic store you found,and if his master was begging him so cutely then what else could he do?

“I actually got the limited edition of this one movie--”

Nobody cared.

“It was up for a lot in Akuzon but I’m glad I got my hands on it--”

Stop talking!

“And I have a pretty cool viewing set up in the back--!”

Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking, stop talking to MC!

Levi frowns as you gush about the movie some more, glaring down at you for letting your attention stray from him. But why should he be surprised, of course your attention would stray. Him being the yucky otaku that he is, of course you would go with the demon who took his interest and actually turned it into a profit--

No.

No! It wasn’t your fault! It wasn’t even his fault! It was this demon’s fault!

Thinking they looked so cool with their most basic of interests. If Levi could expose them for the fraud that they were, MC would be able to see the absolute fool that this demon was making themselves out to be. Smiling a lot more, inching closer as they talked, even offering to take you to the back of the store--!

People may say what they want about Levi but at least he wasn’t this desperate to get on the good side of a human...at least the first time he met you.

His eyes fall on the back of your neck, hair conveniently placed out of the way as he remembered something Lucifer had discussed with him and Mammon after they had made their pact.

You will not think rationally when you are with them, make sure to monitor your actions so you don’t embarrass yourself.

That’s what he said but…

Surely Levi wasn’t going to embarrass himself more than this demon already has.

“This is the one with the symbiote creature, right? And you got the bonus deleted scenes! Honestly I would be so down with watching it right--EEP!”

Levi made sure to let his tongue lick the back of your neck first before biting down, wanting to make the bite as painless as possible. Although he guessed that not making you feel pain was out of the question as he felt you tense up, his tongue swiping against your nape one last time as he pulled back and tugged on the back of your shirt.

“MC let’s go. They don’t have it.”

You turn to look at Levi, hand on the back of your neck as you tell him that he could have gotten your attention in any other way, but he knew for a fact that he had made his point across with the demon in front of him.

Summoning Lotan in his own home was one thing, summoning Lotan in a store would probably cost a lot…

Even if he knew brothers wouldn’t blame him with how nauseatingly this demon was trying to approach their master.

“MC, here.”

Satan breaks his pencil, but it seems the two other people don’t seem to notice.

“And it's the first edition too, but I took it out just for you.”

You smile and mention about how you didn’t need anything fancy for the assignment, just a simple book that talked about Devildom history. Which Satan agreed, this bug was acting like he owned the entire Royal Library. A pass to get a first edition title wasn’t that rare of a fucking find--if he wanted, Satan could call up any of his connections and get about 16 copies of different first edition titles that spoke not just about the Devildom history but about whatever the hell topic he could get his hands on.

This guy wasn’t that special yet he was acting like he had just given you the world on a silver platter.

The demon sat down at the table you and Satan were studying at, looking at you the entire time he explained how to open the book and how to make sure it stays in its pristine condition.

Which made Satan break another pencil.

From what you had mentioned, this guy was just someone you knew from RAD. You labeled him as the ‘smartest person in the class’. Which was a bit of an insult on his part but he guessed that as long as he wasn’t the one in your class it didn’t count as an insult towards his person.

He, of course, being the smartest demon you know.

But Satan didn’t have to be the smartest demon in RAD to know what this nuisance was doing.

If he were to read you any book on Devildom demonology, certain demons needed a human master. This insect in front of you would count as one of them. Lower demons usually tend to be without guidance and need a soul to feed from. In comes a human master, being able to fulfill that need with a pure soul of their own. The demon feeds and in return, develops a sort of ‘affection’ towards their master since they are now the hand that feeds them.

The same couldn’t be applied to Satan or his brothers, however. As the seven demon lords, they are able to gain the sustenance they need from the feed of other lower demons under the sin they were made in.

They are free to form pacts, but it’s not like they need it.

A good metaphor would be that they are essentially ‘picking off the plate’ of the lower demons, making the lower demons only cause minimal casualties up in the human world as they feed and keeping the seven lords from going feral with hunger.

Of course, things were different now. Satan had you now, a human all of his own.

Essentially, someone was trying to ‘take a bite’ of his favourite food, and Satan hated sharing.

Friends be damned, politeness be damned, he needed to show this demon his place.

“Isn’t it fascinating? The cover was made with a demon’s skin.”

“....really?”

“Yes. I believe it was from recently dead demon’s during the first Celestial War. Do you want to feel?”

You nod, curious about the black and shiny cover as the demon holds out his hand for you to take--

Only for you to yelp as Satan takes it first, dragging your hand back so it would be close to his lips as the Avatar of Wrath’s teeth bite at the skin near your wrist. You hiss in pain at the sudden sharpness, quickly pulling your hand back and staring at your demon as he gives the annoyance one last pointed stare.

“That is how demons started their pacts before we arrived in the Devildom, wasn’t it?”

The demon nodded slowly, his eyes darting to the mark on your wrist and then back at Satan. He opened his mouth to try and speak up but seemed to decide better against it, giving you one last smile as he stood up. “...I’ll...I’ll go get you the second volume. That one might include more accurate and updated information on pact markings.”

Satan smiles and nods as he scoots his chair close to you, looking back at you tracing the mark on your wrist with a frown before putting all your attention back on him.

“Did demons really used to form pact marks like this?”

The Avatar of Wrath shrugs.

“I was only guessing, he was the one who left thinking it was the truth. Here, let’s go look for a book on our own.”

Asmo would like to think that he had perfected the fake smile to the point he could keep it up for an indeterminate amount of time.

“MC! Try this!”

Yet the corners of his mouth twitched as he watched one of your friends, who happened to be a store clerk at Majolish, open the door to your dressing room to hand you another outfit they had picked out. And it wasn’t a bad outfit--!

Just...did they have to keep opening the door every single time?

Granted, he shouldn’t be in your dressing room in the first place but he insisted he would stay since you were only trying some shirts on! It wasn’t like he was seeing anything inappropriate and your pants were staying on the entire time.

This sight was okay for him because he was your demon and you were his master.

So it wasn’t right that some random nobody kept coming in to hand you shirts that they thought looked cute on you! That’s what you had Asmo for!

Yet here he was, secluded to sit down on the little chairs that someone would usually toss the unwanted clothes they wouldn’t buy. Which was already doing horrible things for his self-esteem.

“I learned a couple of things by working here. See? The color really matches your hair.”

The Avatar of Lust scoffs when he hears that. What exactly did the demon learn? How to match colors? Oh look, someone learned the basics of the color wheel, someone give them a medal.

“And since you are wearing something long at the bottom, it’s only fair that you go with something short on top.”

This demon is going to win an award for making basic observations, Asmo could already see it. What a future they had ahead of them.

“These colors are summery too so...it goes great with the weather!”

Oh he wants to gag, Asmo’s heard enough.

“You don’t think it’s too revealing? I do like the color though…”

Before the demon can answer, Asmo grabs your shoulders and pulls you back to him with a smile as he makes you look in the mirror.

“I think it’s revealing enough for the summer look you are going for...except can you maybe get it in a light pastel? Any color would do it just needs to be a pastel color if we want it to go with the light color of your bottoms.”

The demon deflates at the sudden lack of contact with you but nods as they step out, waving goodbye and stating once again how ‘gorgeous’ you looked. Which Asmo guessed was the only compliment they had in their arsenal.

Gorgeous didn’t even begin to describe you.

“I did like this color, Asmo. Does it not look good?”

“No it looks perfect on you! But--”

He tugs on the floral print top and smiles as he wraps his arms around your shoulders.

“Floral prints are extremely last season and I want you to be on a more neutral type of clothing. Just simple colors. This way we can add some jewelry--some of my own creation of course.”

Asmo smiles when you giggle, fixing your top and looking at yourself in the mirror a couple more times as you mumble to yourself about how Devildom summers seem rather temperate compared to the ones you were used to and how you wouldn’t need anything sleeveless.

Damn the Devildom summers, if they could even be called that at all.

His ears twitch as he hears the pest start to make their way back, Asmo’s smile dropping slowly as he looks down at your neck. This was the spot they kept staring at, wasn’t it? Shame it wasn’t decorated--

But he could fix that~ “I found some other colors that would go well with you MC, do you want to--”

“OW OW OW!”

Asmo’s teeth are right on your neck, turning to look back at the clerk with a smile and a little wave as he hums at the way you clench and unclench your fingers while looking at him through the mirror, wanting to ask just why he was doing this but the pain keeping you quiet. It was cute how much you were hurting but how you were doing absolutely nothing to stop him. This could technically mean that you approved of what he was doing, correct?

He lets go as the clerk immediately closes the door, you calling out for your friend but Asmo brings you back and makes you look at the mirror one more time.

“There we go. That’s a pretty mark, right MC? An Asmodeus Limited Edition item, just for you~”

If this kept happening, Beel was going to eat this demon.

“You need to try some Devildom food, MC! I promise it's good!”

Beel stomach growls again as you laugh, ignoring the parfait in front of you. He gives you a tap on the shoulder and your attention is right back to him. “Oh sorry, Beel. Here!” You scoop up the delicious frozen treat and feed it to him, Beel smiling as he takes another two bites of his hamburger and watches you and your friend talk. He actually had no idea that you had any friends in RAD and was happy to see that at least some demons were treating you nicely, compared to theo ones who had teased you when you first arrived.

Well he said teased, more like threatened to eat you.

He figured you would make friends fast though, you were nice and all the demons here were already attracted to human souls so it was bound to happen that one of them would have the courage to talk to you.

Yet this one seemed rather...eager.

“How about this. Hell’s Kitchen serves good food but I know this awesome corner in the wall place we can get some grilled bat sandwiches. Guts and everything.”

His stomach growls again, he knew of the place this demon was talking about and would most likely want to take you there himself if you ever asked.

Beel takes another two bites before waiting for you to feed him the parfait.

Nothing.

He frowns and stares at you again, the demon keeping your attention all to himself as you spoke about how you didn’t necessarily want to eat anything with guts in it. His eyes went to the parfait, watching some of the perfectly placed scoops slowly melt and droop down on the plate.

MC, pay attention to him!

This was his time with you! He didn’t mind if someone else stepped in and he was glad you were making friends but this demon was interrupting his mealtime!

He ate his burger, you fed him ice-cream, this is how it had always worked!

People could say what they wanted but Beel was a creature of habit, and he was in the habit of having you feed him.

Not just that, he was in the habit of having your attention all on him when it was his time to hang out with you.

Wasn’t this demon just being a bother? Didn’t you also want them gone?

They kept talking about all the stuff that clearly grossed you out, seemingly delighted with your reactions as they kept trying to egg you on to say yes to an outing. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were smiling the entire time, Beel would have already made the move to unhinging his jaw and--

“I promise I’ll treat you to the best ghost pepper pizza you’ve ever had. You’re free after this, right?”

Beel’s stomach growls, whether in hunger or anger Beel wouldn’t be able to say. All he knows is that this demon is bad news for both him and you.

So what would be the quickest way to make him back off?

“I’m not but I can take a raincheck--!”

You drop the spoon you were holding as Beel bites your cheek, throwing the demon one quick glimpse before letting out a few sounds that seemed to make up your name. The demon stares at you and Beel as the Avatar of Gluttony pulls away from you, licking his lips as you slowly put a hand on your cheek and turn to look at him.

“The parfait is gonna melt. I want another bite.”

“Beel…”

Eyes turn to the demon once again, Beel frowning as he takes a hold of your hand underneath the table.

“Please leave. If MC is going to eat Devildom food then they’ll eat it with me. The only thing you are going to do is gross them out.”

“So what did you want to talk about?”

Belphie frowned as your fingers gently played with his hair. That is not what he had asked for when he asked to lay on your lap. Belphegor wanted the usual way you would comb through his hair, both of you gently whispering to each other as the planetarium ambience lulled him to sleep.

“Well...uhm...I wanted to ask something important.”

And who the hell was this person? He peeked up to look at you smiling at the screen, frowning that you still didn’t seem to notice you were doing a shit job at giving him the attention he needed. Whoever this was had been on the line with you for a good solid ten minutes, talking about useless subjects such as their day and what they had for lunch. If anything, Belphegor had no idea how this thing was taking your attention. You were doing most of the talking anyway, they should just hang up and leave you alone to pay attention to your demon.

“We’ve known each other for a while.”

Belphegor most likely knew MC for longer...maybe.

“And honestly I haven’t met a human like you before. You just...I just expected humans to be something and you aren’t that so it threw me off.”

The Avatar of Sloth yawns as he buries his head in your lap, smiling at the darkness he found in the small crook of your thighs. He yawns again and closes his eyes to try and fall asleep but the grating voice of the demon on the phone was sending nothing but warning signals to his brain.

“So I wanted to ask something I didn’t think I would ask a human before.”

He really wanted to yell ‘get to the point’ or ‘hang up the phone’ but he knew that you would most likely shush him and tell him to be patient, which would then result in you gently pushing him away so you could talk somewhere more private. And he wasn’t ready to lose his favourite pillow just yet.

So he continued listening, tracing random shapes on your thighs as he felt his eyelids start to droop.

“I know you have seven pacts already…”

Damn straight.

“But would an eight be too much for you?”

That wakes Belphegor right up, eyes wide open and head turned to face up at you to see your reaction. Of course you would be surprised, this demon really had the guts to ask the current master of the Seven deadliest demons in the Devildom for a pact?

You better be grateful that Belphegor found comfort in your lap and would prefer to stay here, rather than go break the neck of the demon insolent enough to try to take his master away.

So go ahead, reject him.

“A pact? With me?”

What were you doing?

Don’t give him such a hopeful answer! Belphegor had to share you with six other demons constantly and those demons were his siblings! He was okay sharing with Beel but he drew the line at anyone else! Adding an eighth demon to that would be like asking for a bloodbath, a bloodbath with only one target.

Belphegor frowned as the demon started talking again, stuttering and jumping over his words like he was a dog who asked to eat their masters table. Which essentially he was, not like there was room for him anyway.

“I know I’m not like those brothers--”

Damn straight.

“But making a pact with you would make me really happy...is what I am trying to say.”

He wants to gag.

A part of him couldn’t blame the demon, you were perhaps the best master a demon could ask for, but you were already t a k e n.

And you were to blame too, you know?

You weren’t rejecting him like you should. The face you were making was far too surprised and flattered at the proposition given to you. Were you that greedy? Had Mammon rubbed off on you? You had seven of the most powerful demons under your command, what more could you possibly want?

As a master, you were doing a bad job at rejecting this insect and an even more horrible job at not paying attention to the actual demon you were tied to.

He turns his head back to the darkness of your thighs, feeling you shift as you also struggle to find an answer. This was becoming too much, if Belphegor didn’t act fast you were most likely going to say yes, just because you didn’t know any better!

Fuck it, you could try to push him off but Belphegor would hold on tightly, he had to save you from your mistake.

“Uhm. Well that is honestly really flattering. And eight pacts wouldn’t be so bad--”

You slap a hand over your mouth, your teeth biting into your tongue as you look down at the demon nipping at the inside of your thigh. Belphie looks up innocently, batting his eyelashes at you as he bites down a little harder--

“I’ll-try-to-have-an-answer-for-you-later-got-to-go-bye!”

Fingers hurry to end the call as Belphegor quickly lets go, smiling as you gape down at him.

“I was in the middle of a call!”

“I know.”

“Then what was that about!?”

The Avatar of Sloth shrugs as he closes his eyes.

“You weren’t paying attention to me. It made me mad.”

You sigh and lean back, Belphegor waiting for a few moments before smiling as he feels your fingers combing through his hair.

“Next time,just talk to me, Belphegor.”

He would have answered, but that would make him promise something he most likely was not going to do.

[randomfoggytiger]

Paparazzi in a Post-2020 World

I mentioned a deep dive above, but decided to put the links and quotes together for those interested (a.k.a. me, when I want to refresh my memory.)

If you want the tldr, go to Applying What We Know: David Duchovny.

The Modern Relationship Between Celeb and Pap

(Credit to: Paige Vickers/Vox)

I keep circling back to the changing world of paparazzi because... well, it fascinates me. So, come-- indulge in my hyper-fixation.

tldr: Celebrity publicists team up with paps to generate buzz around their clients (and their clients' projects.) Paparazzi are divided into two camps: those that work directly with celebrities and those that freelance (the latter will set up shop at popular venues and take pictures with or without permission, e.g. Erewhon or Soho House, pre- and post-pandemic.) Even the most private celebrity will call on the camera sharks once in a while for a mutually beneficial promo-and-profit split.

The Evolution of Modern Paparazzi

(Credit to: Times of India)

CHANGES AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION

‘People think we are scumbags. But celebrities are ringing us!’ The changing world of the paparazzi

Many people believe that freewheeling photographers happen to stumble across reality TV stars working out in full makeup, or musicians walking very slowly to their cars outside five-star hotels, or soap actors frolicking in the surf in Dubai. What the public does not see: the paparazzi who go on holiday with celebrities; the agents who have paparazzi on speed dial; the paparazzi who give a cut of their income to the people they photograph....

“I think a lot of people are quite dumb to how it works,” says the Manchester-based paparazzo Aaron Parfitt. “People think we are scumbags hanging out of trees. But these celebrities are ringing us.” He estimates that 80% of his shots are set up in advance. “I’ve been on holiday with celebrities,” says Parfitt, 22. “Most of them are reality stars. We go to Spain, shoot six bikini sets and stick them out throughout the month.” ...

Fellow Love Island alumna Rachel Finni, 30, remembers the moment she was inculcated into this secret practice. She was having dinner with a minor celebrity, having just left the show. “He said: ‘I am going to text the pap guy.’” Finni was confused. “He said: ‘Honey, paps only come if you call them!” 

Whether A-lister or otherwise, the reason that celebrities notify paparazzi of their whereabouts is the same. “It’s an exposure game,” says Chad Teixeira, the chairman of the celebrity PR firm Daddy the Agency. “It’s about keeping relevant.” Teixeira often contacts paparazzi on behalf of his clients. “What everyone has to remember is that everyone is just doing their job,” says Teixeira. “Celebrities need paps to promote their profiles. Papers need celebrities to earn an income. One can’t exist without the other.”

For lower-tier celebrities, being papped regularly helps them to increase their social media following and secure brand work. Higher-tier celebrities are papped while on promotional tours for their latest project. “A common trope is famous people who are usually fairly reclusive suddenly being photographed every day canoodling with their new love, who happens to be a co-star in their movie,” says Rose. Other times, paparazzi are used to rehabilitate a celebrity’s public image after a controversy. “I know one high-profile footballer who’d had an affair,” says Parshotam. “He organised pictures of him holding hands with his family, to take the heat off the story.” ...

With the advent of social media, margins have been squeezed. Newspapers and magazines are less willing to pay for photographs when they can lift them from Instagram for free. Celebrities unhappy about being papped can upload an image of themselves on to social media, killing the value of a paparazzi photograph. While photo sets of rarely spotted A-listers still sell for tens of thousands of pounds, mostly paparazzi make no more than a few hundred pounds at a time. “I know so many people who are giving it up or struggling,” says Harris.

Because there is less money at stake, paparazzi have calmed down. “It’s not the feeding frenzy it once was,” says Harrison. “When people can get tens of thousands of dollars for a shot, it can make people bloodthirsty.” That is not to say that intrusive behaviour does not take place. ...

Many A-listers have reached an accommodation with the people who take their images. “Celebrities understand the benefits of it now,” says Parshotam. Harrison agrees. “It’s a lot less adversarial. As much as people overtly seem to dislike the paparazzi and the product, behind the scenes, people like it and embrace it.”... But when celebrities are spotted in public, most don’t mind having their photos taken, says Parshotam. “The other day, I photographed [the American model] Hailey Bieber,” says Parshotam. “I asked if it was OK to take some pictures and she said: ‘Give me a minute.’ When she was ready, I took them. I made sure there were none of her looking bad, none with her eyes closed.”

The A-listers who aren’t OK with paparazzi? Adele. Prince Harry. David Beckham. Woman-of-the-moment Coleen Rooney varies, says Parfitt. “If you get her on a good day, she doesn’t mind,” he says. ... Those who want to avoid being papped know to avoid notorious celebrity hangouts such as Carbone in New York or Chiltern Firehouse in London. “The people who want to be seen will be seen,” says Harris....

Everyone in this ecosystem is required to perform a complicated charade. Celebrities pretend they haven’t contacted paparazzi; photographers accept the public’s dislike as a necessary price for doing their job. “I’ve had people walking past going: ‘Leave them alone!’” says Parfitt. “And I’m thinking: they rang me to shoot these pictures. But celebrities can’t be seen to be working with paps. So they have to say: ‘It’s fine – I’m used to it.’” They partake in this unholy dance because it is considered unforgivably gauche to seek fame, rather than to stumble upon it en route to another destination. “We hold our hands up and say: ‘It’s set up,’” says Harris. “It’s the celebrities themselves who are embarrassed about it.”

The public partakes in this collective denial, too. As much as we heckle paparazzi in the street and pontificate about the invasion of privacy, we consume these images voraciously. Indeed, the market wouldn’t exist without customers. Harris says: “People moan: ‘Leave them alone!’ but they’re the ones looking at the pictures.”

The same applies to American markets, as well:

Your Favorite Celebrity Street Style Photo Is Probably an #Ad

And thanks to the public's endless enthusiasm for these daily ensembles, combined with infinite opportunities for the rich and famous to "step out," fashion brands have also trained their attention on celebrities' daily pap strolls and how best to monetize them. More and more, the outfits of fashion plates like Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid and Addison Rae have become billboards for brands looking to use those ladies' tastemaker status to seamlessly insert their wares into the zeitgeist. By utilizing this strategy of IRL unmarked ads that are then sold back to the press as authentic, fashion labels have found a way to boost their bottom lines and digital footprints while creating seemingly organic street-style moments that will be disseminated across every platform. When in reality, that moment was pre-planned and, in many cases, completely bought and paid for.

Unbeknownst to consumers, million-dollar deals are taking place behind the scenes of their favorite street-style moments; these types of branded paparazzi setups have become one of the biggest open secrets in Hollywood. In fact, according to Jessica Carmona, a public relations manager at RK Communications, the majority of celebrity photos you're seeing out there likely feature some sort of paid placement from a brand. 

"I'm just one person at one PR firm; there's a gazillion PR firms internationally. So imagine how many people are actually doing this on a daily basis with their clients that can afford it," she tells Fashionista. "I would love to be a normal consumer that knows absolutely nothing about what I do and then find out about it. I feel like my mind would be blown by just how much goes into getting that photograph that isn't just a photograph."

 I Just Learned How Celebs Stage Paparazzi Shots, And Apparently It Happens All The Time

In their behind-the-scenes showbiz podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, journalist Marina Hyde answered a fan question which read, “How often are celeb paparazzi shots staged, and how can we tell the staged ones from the real ones?” Marina joked that she’d have to “think carefully” about her answer and that she had “a tiny lawyer” on her shoulder” but shared that “quite often they are staged.”

Marina makes it clear that almost nobody is above the move, sharing that there are even recordings of Princess Diana making arrangements with photographers.

“At some point, people think, ‘I’ll turn the tables myself,’” she said ― “often, people used to feel, ‘the paparazzi are hanging out on the beach, if I give them one set of pictures and say, can you now leave me alone for the rest of my holiday in Barbados,’ then they would do that.”

But other people just want to be captured for marketing purposes and may even split the money with the photographers, Marina shared. “That happens a huge amount.”

She then says that some companies are better known for liaising with celebs than others....

“What they do is they take out all the ones that you look like you’ve got cellulite, you know ― you’ve sort of got picture approval on [staged pics],” Marina shared.

“Anybody can make anybody look dreadful if they don’t co-operate ― and I think awfully, women got sick of someone thinking, ‘oh if I get her with a bit of cellulite’... there was a long period in the early ’00s that was an absolute wild West for women, and celebrity, and paparazzi,” she added....

“Quite a lot of paparazzi pictures are staged,” she ended. “If they look good in the pictures, I’m sorry to tell you they’ve been staged.”

Meet the photo agency that turns celeb watchers into conspiracy theorists

Throughout the 2010s, these clashes [catastrophic paparazzi invasions] have become less common, in part because the role of paparazzi in the media landscape has lessened. Following the Great Recession, many photo agencies, as well as magazines, consolidated. Most of these companies have also adopted subscription models, which magazines pay for — so rather than receiving a lump of cash per photo, photographers are offered a small fraction of a subscription fee based on how many of their photos are used each month. Plus, the explosion of social media — where users upload their own celebrity sightings or send them to gossip accounts like Deuxmoi and celebrities produce their own images — has naturally decreased the novelty of these photos.

That’s not to say that paparazzi don’t hold any value in our current culture — as the ubiquity of Backgrid has shown. More accurately, the predatory dynamic between photographers and celebrities has shifted in many cases. While they were once celebrities’ main adversaries, photographers, and photo agencies have become extensions of their PR teams.

Publicist Monique Tatum is the CEO of Beautiful Planning Marketing and PR, which serves “A- and B-level celebrities and stylists” among other industry figures. She says that it’s practically standard for “publicists to call paparazzi for clients and client events.” She also notes that many of her clients have their own photographers on staff.

The current culture has, of course, caught on to the paparazzi connection between pap walks and marketing celebrities:

For the suspicious, their concerns seemed confirmed when they noted the credit for the photos: Backgrid, a photo agency that’s been the subject of plenty of online speculation. Since its formation in 2017, the multinational photo agency has become an increasingly omnipresent force in tabloids and celebrity culture. While largely associated with the Kardashians, who are often accused of being in bed with the paparazzi, a wide range of celebrities — from Tom Cruise to Hilaria Baldwin — have appeared in photos and videos emblazoned with Backgrid’s orange watermark.

“The common misconception a lot of people have about Backgrid is that they’re actively sending photographers out to certain events and dictating who is photographed and where,” says Donaldson. Ostensibly, this assumption has something to do with the paparazzi’s association in the 21st century with outlets like TMZ and the Daily Mail, which employ their own photographers. However, Donaldson says that “most photographers in the field are freelance.”

The majority of users’ concerns, though, is not if Backgrid is dispatching photographers, but if celebrities are arranging photoshoots directly with Backgrid. Presumably, this has something to do with the particular faces users have noticed repeatedly in their photos. (Although, again, the agency hosts content featuring a wide range of public figures.)...

Donaldson agrees that we still haven’t found a ���happy medium” between understanding how celebrity works and the fact that “not every photo is a nefarious setup.”... “Sometimes a celebrity just gets photographed because they’re famous, and sometimes they want to be photographed to remain famous,” she says. “That’s not the conspiracy of the century.”

Changes After the 2020 Pandemic

(Credit to: Backgrid, Vanity Fair)

The world, again, changed after COVID 19. Now, PR firms include walks and grocery store (the infamous Erewhon Market) trips in their pap shot deals.

What Do the Paparazzi Do Now?

When there has been demand and opportunity for paparazzi work in the last few weeks, photos of celebrities wearing masks have often been the most highly sought commodity. Fashion PR agencies continue to send press releases noting when celebrities are wearing their clients’ brands—it’s just that a higher-than-usual proportion of the appearances come from trips to the supermarket....

Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron Among Stars Spotted Stocking Up on Groceries Amid Coronavirus

Forget, “Who are you wearing?” The most popular question during the coronavirus pandemic is: “What are you buying and where?”

Stars have been flocking to local supermarkets to stock up on self-isolation essentials, and a THR spy spotted newly minted Oscar winner and proud vegan Joaquin Phoenix (wearing a LA Animal Save hoodie paired with black latex gloves) in the checkout line at Erewhon by The Grove in mid-March with three shopping carts full of groceries, including plenty of produce. On another day, Cara Delevingne, Ashley Benson, Tommy Dorfman and Kaia Gerber were on a group outing at Erewhon, helping boost the high-end grocery’s business 75-100 percent, store vice president Jason Widener tells THR.

How Erewhon Became Everyone’s Favorite Grocery Store Hot Spot

Unsure of where they'd snap celebrities in a dystopian Hollywood, paparazzi set up among the shopping carts in parking lots across Erewhon's six-store mini-empire (including Fairfax, Venice, and the Kardashian-settled Calabasas). “You used to get celebrities there on occasion pre-pandemic,” said Grant Hodgson, news editor at photo agency Backgrid. Leonardo DiCaprio and Dakota Johnson are regulars; Kanye West famously tweeted about the “Erewhon drip” (a trying/not-trying outfit of fleece, sweats, and one athletic sandal). “But post-pandemic, it's become an absolute staple. It's more popular than ever.”

For shoppers of the Who? Weekly set—your Brody Jenners and Tommy Dorfmans—an Erewhon jaunt under quarantine offers both CBD lemonade and a stab at relevance. “It says, ‘I'm going to the grocery store,’ ” says Chris Black, cofounder of brand consultancy Public Announcement and a self-aware Erewhon shopper, “even though it's a grocery store where everything is very expensive, and it's completely out of reach of most Americans.” 

Erewhon opened early for the elderly and gave them free chlorophyll water. A few Nextdoor complaints reported Erewhon shoppers failed to social-distance, but those who balked at the store's mask order weren't turned away. “If you can't put your mask on, listen: Give me your credit card, give me a list,” Widener said he told people at the door. “I will go shop for you personally right now.”...

The rise of Instagram coupled with the nebulous notion of “wellness” helped make Erewhon the new Ivy—a Stories-worthy scene where influencers in mauve leggings pop their heels before the rainbow wall of juices. “It attracts guys who drive G-Wagons and girls who are sporty and rich and like Yeezys,” Black says. “Those people, 5 to 10 years ago, would have been in a club, doing coke, partying, drinking. Now, being healthy is cool. Having a $30 lunch at a grocery store is cool.”

What Do the Paparazzi Do When the Stars Are Quarantined?

In the last few weeks, Mr. Diggs has ventured out of his New Jersey home to work only a handful of times. He got an “easy shot” of Sarah Silverman cheering health care workers from her balcony in Manhattan that landed in People.com’s “Star Tracks” feature, a daily roundup of paparazzi photos.

But it is “a $40 to $50 photo,” he said. “She does it every day at 7:00 sharp and many people have gone to try and get their pennies off of the shot.”

Since then [the 2008 Recession], magazine advertising budgets have shrunk, and celebrities have often turned to social media instead of the paparazzi to share their personal moments.

Tabloids have filled their pages with these shots from Instagram, which makes it harder for agencies to sell photos. And since March, there have not been nearly enough photos to sell. Mr. Bauer, 51, went from moving 7,000 to 8,000 photos per month to 500 to 1,000. His agency canceled contracts with freelance photographers and is relying on a Paycheck Protection Program loan to keep paying a few people in the office.

Competing agencies like Splash have furloughed or laid off their staff photographers, which means almost all paparazzi have to freelance now — take their own shots, give them to an agency and hope they sell — to make any money.

“My prediction: I think it’s going to be a lot more of a collaborative effort,” Mr. Diggs said from his New Jersey home. As the coronavirus crisis wears on, celebrities who, in normal times, are regularly photographed may decide they would like to do that again.

“I’ve gotten tons of messages from people that are, like, ‘Look, I can’t get photographed. Would you mind coming and taking some shots for me?’” he said. “And I think that that’s going to happen a lot more frequently in the next coming months.”

Over the course of his career, Mr. Diggs has built relationships with stars like Mr. Bieber and Ms. Grande, and if some of them decide they would like to set up some shots, he is all for it.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it,” Mr. Diggs said. “Most of the time when I shoot on the street anyway, I show myself. People are aware of my presence.” He asks, “if they want to fix their hair before I take the shot, ‘are you ready?’ Boom. Smile. 10 foot, 10 clicks, three seconds, boom. Everybody on their way.”

“So I like working that way,” he continued, “and I’ll definitely want to continue building relationships, especially during this time where I can say, ‘Hey, look, I need to get something for this week. Do you want to get dressed up and go to Target? Do you want to go walk your dog in 15 minutes? OK, cool.’”

There’s Kylie Jenner, in full hair and makeup, slowly and almost sensually putting on a face mask on an outing in Beverly Hills, in photos conveniently taken a few days after less flattering shots of her wearing no makeup were everywhere on Twitter.

For celebrities aspiring to Kardashian-level fame, now is the time to walk around outside, Mr. Bauer said. “I’ve noticed some of them, they come out with their masks on and then they know that they’re being photographed and they take the mask off to make for a nicer picture,” he said....

In Miami, the pop stars Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes have been taking long, slow walks around Ms. Cabello’s neighborhood, holding hands and carrying (seemingly empty) coffee cups as props.

But perhaps no one has been photographed more in quarantine than Ben Affleck, America’s favorite divorced dad. “Ben Affleck’s one of those people that you can make money off of him, weirdly, no matter what he does,” Mr. Harrison said.

...Before the crisis started, Mr. Harrison was already experimenting with ways to draw out these kinds of stories. In 2019, he started an app called MoPho — “money photo” — that allows everyday people to submit photos they catch of celebrities or other newsworthy subjects in the wild. If they’re good, Mr. Harrison sells them and pays the user a commission. The app has helped his business “tremendously,” he said, especially in this time, when fewer photographers want to go out and shoot.

Paparazzi Tiers

(Credit to: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

The highest levels have direct access between the photographer and a celebrity--

Meet the photo agency that turns celeb watchers into conspiracy theorists,

Rihanna is also known to engage in this form of PR trickery. When the singer-turned-entrepreneur announced her first pregnancy via a glamorous pap stroll in Harlem with her partner A$AP Rocky, the photos were taken by her frequent collaborator Miles Diggs a.k.a. Diggzy, and sold to Shutterstock. Diggs has also made a name for himself in this regard, maintaining relationships with other A-listers like Hailey Bieber and Cardi B. Most of his photos capture his subjects showing off — if not advertising — designer fashion.

--while others are go-betweens from their company and a PR agency.

Still others are freelance, waiting near hot spots for a chance celebrity sighting to come their way.

As celebs shelter at home, paparazzi hustle to find new angles

In the complex and fiercely competitive paparazzi ecosystem, photographers can spend years working to cultivate different patches of turf: red carpets, nightclubs, the LAX arrivals area. In a matter of days, the pandemic threw all of that out the window. Now many find themselves cruising the same neighborhoods and grocery stores across Los Angeles, hoping for a single exclusive shot, or fruitlessly sitting for days outside of celebrities’ homes — “doorstepping,” in the parlance of the trade.

Pulling from the previously cited "As celebs shelter at home, paparazzi hustle to find new angles",

The pandemic has shifted the power even further away from individual photographers. “A lot of the guys who work regularly for specific photo agencies will work on retainers or guarantees: Say, ‘I’ll give you $2,000 a month and hopefully you’re going to generate $5,000 a month in material,’ ” said Harrison. “Now, since the material isn’t coming in, a lot of those agencies are pulling those guarantees and making people go freelance because it’s not sustainable.” (The Times reached out to four photo agencies that specialize in celebrity photography but none responded.)

The Nuances of Staged Photo Shoots

(Credit to: Backgrid)

Why would a celebrity make a deal with such an invasive species? Besides cash money, this method is a proven way to control them:

A Photographer Explains How Staged Celebrity Pictures Work

Cosmopolitan: Why would a celebrity ever set up and stage photos?

Justin Steffman [NYC paparazzo and creator of "Stupid Famous People"]: The biggest reason is money. But they also release photos because they want to have control of their own image.

Many set-up photos include a paid product endorsement, where a photo agency works as a middleman between a celebrity and a company who has a product to sell. It could be the latest phone, food, beauty product, or something as simple as them being seen shopping at a certain retail outlet. Some photo agencies specialise in these types of fake paparazzi photos. They usually try to make them look natural and candid, but in reality, the celebrity and the photographer are working together. It’s a paid photo-shoot and the celebrity gets a big cheque. The readers of tabloid magazines and blogs have no idea.

Control is another big reason for staging photos. There are certain celebrities who hate being photographed by paparazzi and they will do anything to avoid it. When your image is such an important part of your career, the last thing you want is to be photographed looking badly. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are a good example of a celebrity couple who hate paparazzi, but you will see nice photos of them released on a regular basis. Those photos are totally set up. When they see paparazzi in real life, they put their heads down and hide their faces — unless they are promoting something.

Another example is when there is high demand for a certain photo. When Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter Apple was first born, they worked directly with an infamous paparazzi photographer in New York. Together, they staged the first baby photos and made them look like candid pictures, then they sold the shots to a major magazine. The pictures were rumoured to sell for upward of a million dollars. The paparazzi got a cut, and they took the rest. Kim Kardashian is the best example of a celebrity who releases staged paparazzi photos. Kim has a personal photographer who she texts regularly. This man flies around the world, going wherever she asks him to be, and they work together to produce the latest pictures of her. She reviews every image before they start selling them to magazines. If they shoot on a beach, these images are heavily Photoshopped and she chooses her favourites to sell.

Cosmopolitan: How frequently does this happen? 

Justin Steffman: Very often. I can’t remember the last time I flipped through a tabloid or browsed a gossip blog without seeing set-up shots in the mix.

How to Spot Pre-Planned "Pap Walks"

Hint: they don't have to be perfect-- just better than average, with a few neatly-angled shots.

Pulling again from Meet the photo agency that turns celeb watchers into conspiracy theorists,

“The paparazzi I’ve [celebrity fashion writer Emily Kirkpatrick] talked to are always like, ‘Is there anyone in the background of the photo? Is there anything like blocking them in the foreground? Are they looking dead at the camera? Okay, that’s a setup.’”...

For actual A-listers, it allows them to stand out in an attention economy that’s shared with an increasingly wide pool of public figures, from YouTubers to Twitch streamers to model influencers to Congress members.... For minor celebrities, paparazzi photos telegraph a level of public interest that may not actually exist, or might at least be overexaggerated....

Still, Allie Jones [celebrity news writer] argues that being able to call the paparazzi on yourself is its own flex. “The agencies and photographers would never set up a staged photo if they didn’t think it was going to sell,” says Jones. 

Your Favorite Celebrity Street Style Photo Is Probably an #Ad

Pull PR founder Lexi Pulling... explains, "A lot of it is paid and staged. And I feel like you can really tell it's one of those staged photos when it's well-curated — there's not people in the background, the girls have their makeup and hair done, they have the outfit on. I feel like that's a really good telltale sign of [a setup]."

For Harrison [paparazzo and founder of London Entertainment Group], arranging one of these setups is often as simple as the celebrity's publicist, stylist, or occasionally the star themselves, calling him up and saying, "'I'm going to be here. I'm going to walk down this street.' It's not much more complicated than that." The celebrity does their walk, Harrison gets his shots, and then he sends them off to the celebrity's team for approval. The most difficult part of these situations, he says, is that, "you've just got to try and make sure you do it in a secluded place where nobody else is paying attention to you. The key to a setup is keeping it exclusive."

An older article from 2016 lays out the reasons fairly simply:

Signs Celebrities Called The Paparazzi On Themselves

They make brand names very, very visible

Stars will often make deals with both photographers and publicists of the most random things you can think of to earn a quick buck. When Lindsay Lohan poses with an energy drink, when Emmy Rossum holds up anything, when Taylor Swift magically has her hand holding up a bottle of Diet Coke without covering the logo at all, or when Katie Holmes wears a very conspicuous necklace while shopping in a drugstore and holding up a bottle of lotion for the cameras to catch, it's not a coincidence. It's a paycheck or an awesome gift bag.

They're promoting their own brand of something

When a celebrity has an official endorsement with a brand, it's pretty clear that they're going to carry whatever the item is around really conspicuously. Similarly, when a star has their own lifestyle brand, they have to promote their lifestyle. Jessica Alba is the face of the Honest Company, which has a slew of baby products, so don't think it's a shock to her when paparazzi catch her at the park with her kids.

Or a mega a-lister

Sources claim to Rolling Stone that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie occasionally will tip off photographers to their location, but their motivations are much different than the Jessica Albas or Kris Jenners of the world. Brangelina-level stars will give a heads up once in a while to paparazzi so that the same photographers will leave them alone the rest of the time when they actually need privacy. It works pretty well—how often do you see candids of the couple or their kids?

Their projects haven't done well lately (or they have an up-coming venture)

Hilary Duff's last album, 2015's Breathe In, Breathe Out, flopped, but somehow you always saw her walking around Los Angeles for close to a year leading up to it—when she had nothing going on. Now that she's found some success on television with Younger, her paparazzi shoots have died down. That's common: a paparazzo revealed to Rolling Stone that bigger names may encourage paparazzi photos when they're having a bit of a bad luck streak in the box office. Rolling Stone claims, "Ryan Reynolds routinely finds himself 'captured' eating Chobani yogurt, carrying a Burger King bag, smiling at a Nespresso cafe and caressing a Can-Am motorcycle, all in apparently pre-planned shots." That all went down after Reynolds' series of box office bombs between 2011 and 2013. Thankfully, Reynolds has Deadpool (2016) coming up, which should remedy a lot of this.

They're at a well-known hotspot

If a celebrity dines at the Ivy, Craig's (like Meghan "Once Made Out with Charlie Puth Onstage for Press" Trainor and Grammy winner-turned-reality-star Toni Braxton, above), the Nice Guy, Urrth Cafe, Lemonade, Hyde, or 1OAK in Los Angeles (mostly in West Hollywood) or places like Up and Down in New York, they know darn well that paparazzi cameras will be outside waiting for them. That's the only reason to go somewhere like that. Seriously, the food isn't good enough to sacrifice the privacy....

The Daily Mail is also a dead giveaway. Pulling from the aforementioned "What Do the Paparazzi Do When the Stars Are Quarantined?"

Plenty of celebrities are probably already doing this, though it is difficult to confirm — most paparazzi are loath to talk about such arrangements. But take a look at The Daily Mail and you can see which celebs may be, ahem, collaborating.

Applying What We Know: David Duchovny

David Duchovny papped while shopping for groceries (and looking unkempt and bothered by the photographers)? Not pre-planned.

David Duchovny and his daughter put together, nicely framed, walking with no one behind them, and making eye contact with the paps?

Highly likely a pre-planned promo for her (then) in-progress project, with him there to support and show her the ropes.

David Duchovny walking in front of a pre-placed Instagram paparazzo while repping a recognizable brand before turning aside to conduct a street interview?

Absolutely planned.

David and his partner glossily captured while walking around with their perfectly groomed bandana-ed dog, both dressed up and walking slowly toward the paparazzi? And captured by Backgrid?

Definitely a staged setup to get ahead of his accidental ring slip (post here.) All part of reclaiming speculation.

Regardless, the buck stops with David Duchovny (and his manager): with modern celebrity, it's more advantageous for the paps and rag articles to work with, and not against, the celebrity in question.

CONCLUSION

(Credit to: Getty Images)

The post-2020 paparazzi world has changed, for the better. As the demand continues to dwindle with the advent of social media, the paps are forced to make deals with celebrity publicists for survival.

Some celebs make friends, others utilize the paparazzi for necessary promotion circuits. Each public-facing person has their own style; but they all use it.

If you can make a mad dog heel and get paid for it, kudos to you.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

Paparazzi, Celebrity Deals, and David Duchovny

Credit to: ibble dibble's top-tier videos explaining the inner workings of upper echelon society. Clips taken from her video here.

Paparazzi is part and parcel with celebrity culture. Celebrities themselves likely have to deal with harassment, boundary stomping, and any and all pap craziness as regularly as their juice cleanse bowel movements.

However. All celebrities have contractual obligations with at least one paparazzi company, picking and choosing which locations and events they want leaked to the press; and when' and how "edited" the final results will appear.

It's not so much manipulation (though it can be) as strategy: they want to live their lives on their own terms but also know the health of their projects and "brand" depends on a certain degree of public exposure and opinion. Therefore, celebrities in New York-- as mentioned in the video-- and, more relevant to this post, California exist mostly unmolested, surfacing for promotional circuits or other public and social events. Paps who harass, stalk, or follow a celebrity, unwanted, are generally bottom feeders who are too foolish or greedy to let a quick opportunity pass in exchange for, perhaps, a deal with that celebrity's team later down the line.

In David Duchovny's case, his brother summed up the situation quite succinctly here: "We'll go out to dinner, and out from the weeds pops up some paparazzi guy shooting away, y'know. Dave'll be like-- he'll know his name, he'll go, 'Look, Warren, I thought we talked about this: you can shoot me surfing, you can shoot me on the beach, which I let you do, but I'm here with my wife-- you said you wouldn't.' 'Oh, I gotta make a living, gotta make a living!'-- and then they, like, disappear like little rodents under the bush...."

Therein, Danny delineated between cooperative pap shots and vulturistic opportunism-- two very different beasts. (Beast One keeps their distance, takes their shots, and splits the proceeds between their company and the celebrity. Beast Two tails after and mouth breathes in the celebrity's vicinity, opening themselves up to harassment charges or future opportunity loss. And if Beast Two is making money off of informants, the celebrity will be able to quickly narrow down who in their close circle has tipped off the paps.)

It's part of the business; and probably a contributing factor to David expressing "shame" or embarrassment over being an actor: his work is an artistic expression of himself, yes; but as an actor turned director and author and musician, he won't be able to escape "selling" himself, to an extent, to stay relevant (a frustration he's echoed since the early days.)

This post wasn't written out of judgment, just exploration. After all, even girl scouts have to make numbers.

[a-student-out-of-time]

Yeah...I guess a lot of it does make sense.

__________________________________________________

I figured, if you were looking for alternatives, you’d want to ask their ancestors for advice.

Of course...there are details about everyone’s lives that don’t play out how we’d wish. I’ll get to that.

What’s interesting to me isn’t just the fact that everyone in Season 53 is related to you and the others. It’s the fact that, as we were talking about before, the fake personalities they gave everyone seem like they were meant as deliberate insults toward their families.

_____________________________________________________

Yeah...how, exactly?

____________________________________________________

“Akamatsu Kaede- or rather, Erika with altered memories- was presented as an ideal; a heroic, friendly, outspoken leader. She was trying to be the one who carried everyone forward and rally them together...only for it to come crashing down and for her to be executed first.”

“Saihara Shuichi was a soft-spoken, withdrawn detective who hated his talent, but who was meant to be serve as the everyman. The person to whom the audience was meant to relate, with two close friends and with a dead girlfriend to serve as his inspiration.”

“Momota Kaito, my grandson, was also presented as this inspiring figure, the best friend who would never give up on anyone. Someone who Saihara could look up to. But he was also deliberately infected with a lethal disease, and was slowly dying throughout the game.”

“Harukawa Maki was made into an orphan who was taken in by the Holy Salvation Society, and turned into a killing machine. Cold, aloof, borderline heartless, with nothing to return to. But of course, her world is made brighter thanks to her love for Kaito.”

“Tojo Kirumi, who became this seemingly unflappable, hyper-competent maid. Someone who was able to accomplish any task, to the point that, when it seemed Japan was facing a crisis, she was made the de facto Prime Minister. A motive that drove her to commit murder in a utilitarian mindset, but all in vain”

“Hoshi Ryoma, who was made into a death row inmate. A young man who’d crossed paths with the yakuza, who murdered his family and his lover, and who in turn slaughtered them all with a steel tennis ball. Someone who felt he had nothing to live for, and just when he found a new sense of hope, it was taken from him.”

“Yonaga Angie, turned into a religious fanatic who attempted to form a cult within the academy and force everyone to reject escape. Disturbingly cheerful, from a mysterious island with inexplicable customs and practices, including brainwashing, blood sacrifices and orgies.”

“Chabashira Tenko, made into an aggressively volatile misandrist, one who was obsessed with Yumeno Himiko, and who actively hated and insulted men at every opportunity. Not to mention she didn’t even practice a real form of Aikido, but some nonsensical version, which felt like the setup for a bad punchline.”

“Shinguji Korekiyo, an anthropologist on the surface, but twisted into some delusional serial killer who believed that he had a personal mission to send his dead sister- whom he was involved with- 100 friends. One he set out to accomplish by murdering women, including Yonaga and Chabashira.”

“Iruma Miu, a genius inventor whose tools contributed to ending the game, but also arrogant, aggressive, brash, hypersexualized and yet quite cowardly when anyone stands up to her. So much of her dialogue was vulgar insults and sexualized comments that it’s impossible to keep track.”

“Gokuhara Gonta. A kind-hearted man who was clearly more intelligent than he let on, but who was made into something of a simple-minded fool. Their explanation was that he’d be raised in the woods for 10 years by dinosaur people, which...need I say more?”

“Ouma Kokichi, turned into a self-confessed villainous mastermind. Someone who seemingly had the skills necessary to manipulate and out-think everyone, and who used them for his own amusement or to sow discord in the game. And nothing he said could be trusted, given how often he lied about everything.”

“And K1B0, who was repurposed to become the eyes and ears of the audience. A means for them to interact with the story directly and make decisions of their own. One that ultimately meant very little, given that he was simply a tool for Shirogane and Team Danganronpa. Still, had it not been for him, the survivors likely wouldn’t have escaped.”

In different ways, I can’t help but feel that these personalities were all meant to be shots taken at their ancestors, like you and me.

____________________________________________________

This woman’s petty as hell, isn’t she?

____________________________________________________ 

Yes, but that’s the strange thing: why Omigawa, Amami and Yumeno? What do they have to do with this?

And what reasons would Shirogane have for targeting the descendants of people like Ouma Kasumi and Yonaga Mio? They had nothing to do with your missions.

I feel that she overplayed her hand with this. There may be context clues for to figure out why they were included.

[3d-wifey]

Temptation Sings

Pairing: Ryūnosuke Tanaka x Reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: Smut, fluff, senpai kink, p*rn watching, implied bisexual reader, excessive use of the word "babe" & some curse words

A/N: The senpai kink is sort of one-sided, but what kink isn't 💀 and the title is sort of based off a lyric from Super Freak by Rick James. Also, those are actual lines from a Hentai, but I fucking lost it half way through so I had to improvise. Anyway, this is over 3,000 words of straight dog water. Enjoy!

Synopsis: You ride Tanaka while watching hentai

"What kind of porn do you watch?"

"What?" Tanaka let out a quick bark of laughter before staring at you with wide eyes. His hand was frozen over the bowl of popcorn as he turned his full attention to you. The two of you had been dating for over a year now, yet, you've never had sex.

Sure, there had been some over the clothes stuff before. Some tops off heavy petting, some groping while making out, but it had never progressed past that. Not for a lack of trying, of course. Anytime you could find time to hang out alone, something would always interrupt you.

You weren't a virgin, but you didn't have much experience, so, naturally, you were more than a little nervous. And Tanaka, bless his soul, was pretty understanding. As long as you two could still make out and he could grab your ass, he seemed fine. But, he's still a teenage boy, no matter how respectful. He could only handle being blue balled so many times. And you wholeheartedly felt the same way.

This seemed like the best way to go about it. Establishing a common interest in what you both liked to get the ball rolling.

"Porn. I know you watch it, Ryuu. So...what kind?" You sat up on your side of the bed and leaned against the headboard, knowingly making him eye level with your breast. Nothing wrong with a little incentive.

"Okay, wow. You're serious. Um," he stuttered, eyes flickering over your chest and back to your eyes, before a blush settled flooded his cheeks, "You're just gonna laugh." He moved his gaze over to the movie playing on the laptop, avoiding eye contact. Was he embarrassed? He should know by now that you didn't judge.

You wouldn't be dating him if you did.

"I promise I won't laugh, baby. Look, I'll go first," you moved the bowl of popcorn off his lap and grabbed his hands to pull him up, "Pay attention."

"Wha–"

"There's Amateur, Lesbian," you ignored his questioning look and kept going, "Creampie, Fingering, Solo male and female, Public, and Taboo. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. You like any of that?"

He stared at you slack-jawed. Had you been too forward? You thought if you were honest about it, you both could be comfortable with each other. You watched in anticipation as he moved his gaze from you to the ceiling.

"Thank you, God," he whispered, almost on the verge of tears, "I must truly be blessed."

"Are you serious, Ryuu," you scoffed, hitting his arm to hide how relieved you really were, "You made me anxious for nothing!"

"That is so hot, babe," he grinned excitedly, moving to sit on his knees with his legs folded under him, "All that stuff sounds cool, and we're definitely gonna come back to that lesbian thing later, but I usually just watch...Hentai." He cleared his throat, scratching his cropped hair.

You pulled the laptop over to you and paused the movie playing. Pulling up the browser, you typed "Hentai" in the search bar, and hesitated for a second.

Hentai. Of course, it was hentai. You weren't surprised in the least that he got off to cartoon characters fucking. In fact, you expected it. You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to date him. You briefly wondered what kind he watched before it hit you.

Oh, yeah, you thought, he'd like that.

"What are you doing, babe?" He questioned. You paid his nervous laughter no mind as you queued up the perfect video. You were a genius.

_

"Are you okay with this, Kasuri?"

"I've been telling you that it's okay!"

You watched as the small girl pushed the boy on the ground and climbed on his hips to straddle him backward. To your complete surprise, you were actually kind of invested in the plot. Sure, some of the lines made you cringe and the ethics behind the sister trying to fuck her brother were a bit iffy, but, somehow, it was keeping you entertained.

The less than spectacular writing didn't seem to be affecting Ryuu any. With how much he jerked off to this kind of stuff, you figured he was probably used to it.

"I want you to take it...take me Senpai."

You felt Tanaka stiffen up beside you before quickly relaxing. Well, more like you felt him force himself to relax. You watched out of the corner of your eye as he subtly, or as subtle as Tanaka could be, adjusted himself in his sweats.

He was trying very hard to hide how much the video was affecting him; however, you always found Tanaka easy to read. The furrow of his brows, the twitch of his muscles, the restless tapping of his fingers along his thigh—all of it was effortlessly understood like the words of a well-loved book.

He was holding himself back for some reason that you couldn't find the effort in yourself to figure out, but he wasn't the only one affected.

"You have to tell me what you like. You have to teach me, senpai."

There was that stiffening again.

You placed your hand high on his tense thigh, completely ignoring the eyes burning into the side of your face. Unlike Ryuu, you were a fantastic actor. You decided you would wait for him to fully relax, or be as relaxed as any teenage boy could be while watching porn before you would strike.

You waited for the moment his leg softened under your hand and oddly enough it was at the point in the video where they showed a very detailed shot of the boy coming inside of the girl. He probably thought it was ending soon. Little did he know you were going in for the kill.

You cuddled further under his arm before you looked up at him with imploring eyes.

"Do you wanna do that...with me, senpai?"

It was just like any other kink, you rationalized. It was on par with the guys who were into being called 'Daddy' or 'Sir' or some other title. It didn't do anything for you, but if your magnificent hunk of a boyfriend got turned on by being called senpai, you were more than happy to go along with it.

"Well?" You prompted when he said nothing and gawked at you like a test he didn't study for.

"What did you call—is this—are we actually about to—" His wide eyes switched between you and the computer screen before deciding you were far more entertaining.

Instead of answering his stammering, you rose to your knees to pull the sundress over your head. You unhooked your bra and threw it off the bed with no regard for where it landed. It was a shame it wasn't one of your cuter ones, but you doubted Ryuu cared.

Your hands paused on the waistband of your panties when you realized he was frozen beside you, eyes flickering over your body like he didn't know where he should look.

"Am I gonna be the only one naked?" You would have thought he was on the court with how fast he jumped off the bed.

You watched from his bed as he struggled to get out of his clothes. It was adorable how excited he was, but he wasn't the only one. You've been waiting nearly thirteen months for this and you were practically vibrating out of your skin.

You were content to watch him almost bust his ass as he tried to get his sweats off when you remembered something.

"We don't need a condom. I'm on birth control." You started birth control years ago to handle your irregular periods, but it also came with the added benefit of Ryuu being able to cream you like a Twinkie.

He stared at you for a second with a blank face before closing his eyes with his hands clasped together...almost like he was praying? You heard him whisper something suspiciously along the lines of him being blessed before he practically bounded up to you like a hyper puppy

Probably not the best analogy to be made in your current situation, but it was true! He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and shaking his hands out like he always did before a match. You briefly wondered if he ever did this before. He never told you if he got this far with any of his exes and you never asked.

At that moment, you decided it didn't matter what he did before because you would be the best he ever had.

Your hands shot forward to pull his underwear down before pausing.

"Is... Is this okay?" You asked, hands hovering over his boxer briefs. For the first time during the entire affair, you were hesitant. What if you were pushing too fast? You hadn't exactly asked anything. You just gave out demands and he followed. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you ended up pressuring him into this.

"I—," he stopped, staring down at you with wide eyes and for a split second, your heart stopped, "Are you kidding, babe? God, yes, it's okay!"

You honest to God giggled when you pulled him onto the bed with you and clamored onto his lap, like the stereotypical school girl. You calmed yourself down enough to just look at him. The way he gazed at you with a year's worth of pent-up desire made slick dampen the seat of your panties.

"You're just—you're beautiful. God, I love you so so much," the sincerity in his voice was amplified by the goofy grin he gazed up at you with and the blush on the apples of his tan cheeks, "you know that, right?"

One look at Ryuu and even a blind man could see how much he loved you. It was a good thing his feelings were mutual or it'd be pretty embarrassing.

"I love you too, idiot," your hand settled on the back of his close-cropped head to pull him into a kiss. And in typical Tanaka fashion, he kissed you like you were the only thing keeping him alive. He kissed like his only goal was to leave you as breathless as you made him. And he always succeeded.

"Now," you took a deep breath, "are you gonna fuck me, senpai?"

The groan he let out against your lips was more than enough of an answer for you.

You rushed to pull your panties off, thanking whoever was watching over you that it wasn't one with holes or bleach stains on it.

You reached to pull him out of his boxers, but he beat you to it. It gave you pause how he whipped it out like it was nothing to gawk at.

A little over half the length of your forearm, his dick was nothing to scoff at. He was the same width as your wrist with a thick vein running up the underside of his shaft.

Not the first dick you've seen but by far the biggest. Your heart rate picked up as you thought of the logistics of how he'd even fit inside you. You'd probably have trouble with just the tip.

You pulled the foreskin back to see precum already collecting at the angry red head. He jerked when you took the heavy weight of his dick into your hand and you could barely wrap your fingers around him. You didn't think he'd be so sensitive but you called yourself thankful for it. Easier to tease.

You rubbed his tip against the opening of your pussy and pulled away, strings of slick still connecting you. You repeated the action a few times before taking pity on your poor boyfriend. You used his quiet moans as motivation as you pushed his head past your tight hole.

You hissed at the unexpected stretch. The burn veering on the side of uncomfortable, but not painful. You couldn't tell if it was because of how long it had been since the last time you had sex with anyone or if it was because of the sheer size of him.

You decided it was the latter as you tried to take more of him.

"Here," you grabbed one of his thumbs and rubbed it over your clit in quick circles. The callused pad pleasurably rough against the slick covered bud. Luckily, he caught on quickly and kept up the pace as you tried to sink further down. The ache in your walls added to the pleasure on your clit.

You sighed once you finally reached the base. You hadn't expected this much effort would go into just taking him.

He was panting hard, eyes closed and struggling to hold still enough to let you adjust.

"Okay," you breathed, "okay." You slowly rose to your knees and peeked at his dick as it came out coated with your slick, before driving yourself back down with a moan. You settled your hands on his shoulders as you picked up a rhythm.

"You're such a badass, babe," he praised and you would have laughed if him shoving himself into you, thrust for thrust, didn't fuck a series of moans out of you.

You peppered quick kisses against his lips as you drove yourself up and down. You ran the tip of your tongue along his bottom lip before nipping at it. He eagerly took the hint and opened his mouth to you. You swallowed his groans as your hand slid up to the front of his neck and squeezed, tongues pressing together in an openmouthed kiss.

When you pulled away, his eyes flickered between your bouncing breasts, where his dick split you open, and your lidded eyes.

"I've dreamed of this for so long," you moaned as his hand resumed its motion on your sensitive clit. How he was able to piece together coherent sentences was beyond you, "Wanted you so bad, baby. So. Bad."

The headboard slammed into the wall as you sped up your pace. You were lucky you two were the only ones in the house.

"That's right, babe. Bounce on Senpai's dick. Fuck," he cursed, voice cracking when you swiveled your hips, "You like that, don't you? My pretty girl." You didn't want to admit it, but the senpai thing was really doing it for you. Not the actual word, but the sheer affect it had on him.

You can't say you were surprised by how talkative he was, his dirty words dripping over your overheating body like rich syrup. If you knew watching porn would lead to this, you would have done it ages ago.

His big hands used his grip on your ass to rock you back and forth at a faster pace. You relaxed your legs and let him take the lead, pulling his head towards your chest. The animated girl's moans on the computer combined with Tanaka's and created a harmony that pushed you closer to your release.

You moaned freely into his neck as the change of positions dragged your swollen clit over his pelvis with every buck of your hips. Sweaty bodies pushing and pulling against each other in a motion that was more grinding than riding.

Wet and sticky slaps echoed around the room, punctuated by the meat of your ass meeting his wet thighs. Thighs made wet by your juices collecting at the base of his cock.

Your release bubbled low in your stomach, steadily being pushed higher with every one of Tanaka's sloppy thrusts. It pulled heavily from below your naval, expanding to the point where you felt like you could burst. You weren't a virgin—this wasn't your first time, but, God, it felt like it was. And it might as well be your first time with how sensitive he made you.

You were sweaty and you were sore and so, so completely overwhelmed. But your mind was wonderfully cloudy with the pleasurable haze of an incoming orgasm and it made it hard to care.

"You close, babe?" You whimpered out a weak yes as his lips trailed from your jawline down to your damp neck before sucking on the skin.

"Can feel you squeezing me. So damn tight." He panted against your heaving breasts.

You knew it was coming, but knowing and feeling were too different things. Your thighs burned with fatigue, but you couldn't stop. You were so close and the humid air blurred out everything that wasn't Ryuu's cock plunging against that spongy patch on your wall and you didn't want it to end.

He couldn't take his eyes off of you as you used him for your pleasure. Head thrown back and skin gleaming with sweat.

"Shit, I'm-" he grunted at the tightening grip your walls had on him, just begging him to cum, "Fuck, 'M not gonna last, babe." His hips twitched uncontrollably as he rammed into you.

The knot in your stomach built and built before suddenly loosening, your vision blanking completely. Not that you could tell with how far back your eyes rolled. Hands shooting forward to desperately cling onto him as you trembled. Nails digging into his tense biceps, a mantra of his name falling from your lips like a prayer. Your thighs shook as you rode yourself past the sensitivity.

And that's what does it for him, your impossibly tight heat clamping down on him. Tender balls pulled taut against his body as the white ring of cum coating his cock grew with every one of your thrusts down.

The only sound that escaped him was your name broken by his breathy moans.

Once you came back around, you're still dazed with cooling sweat gathering on both of your bodies. The air is still clammy and you were sore from your neck to your thighs but it didn't stop you from looping your arms around Ryuu's neck.

He gathered you into his warm chest, heavy arms locked around your waist.

"So," he huffed, "lesbian porn, huh?"

"Shut up, Ryuu."

[inthehouseoffinwe]

(Literally same. Whenever I reblog I have to keep the sarcasm and word choice in check. I truly don’t intend to be mean, but my way of speaking doesn’t always show that and it’s left me hyper aware of anything that could come off wrong 😅)

Eregion holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons, and Celebrimbor and co deciding this is a place of working together and just. Making things. Brings me so much joy, especially as an artist. (Me and my sisters always joke if Tyelpë had stuck around he’d create some kind of wifi equivalent. Maybe Sauron kicked off his ring making because that was in the works and when couldn’t have messages being sent between elves and men that quickly 💀😂)

And yep! I totally agree with you about both Fëanor and Fingolfin. Ngl I’ve always been little biased towards Fëanor here, partly because of what you just said. Fingolfin honestly comes across lowkey slimy here. (I love you Fingolfin, but my dude. You gotta take some responsibility here.)

Thanks for reminding me that it wasn’t really a power thing until later though, I didn’t realise that. In terms of my original post, I imagine some of those details get lost.

With the Oath I feel like even if they didn’t know the consequences exactly, they probably knew the power of words and invocation. Especially with Fëanor being so skilled in all manner of things and creation. (I’m of the opinion the Oath was an almost physical bind over them. They didn’t know that would happen, but I think they should’ve known this is a Bad Idea. But grief can do many things.)

Morgoth being the catalyst is something I picked up on too and that’s what makes the whole situation so interesting to me. I have a lot of thoughts on this but they essentially boil down to Morgoth knew he couldn’t take on the Sons of Finwë if they worked together, so he put a bunch of time sowing mistrust between them as much as he could.

Idk if it’s idealism but I think if we had Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin working together, between all their skills and abilities, Morgoth would’ve been defeated.

Onto the Nirnaeth!

I think anything post Nirnaeth is seen through the lens of ‘the time for choices is gone. Now they just have to survive as long as they can with the decisions made.’ They definitely see this battle as the Last Chance the elves had. Here is where a lot of the anger at Thingol and his people comes in. I’ll get back to this.

On the Fëanorians’ decline… that’s a can of worms that they still hesitate to make clear cut statements on. Some of this stems from the situation around the Oath being relatively unknown - Elrond gives his insight of a chain like analogy, but admits he was still young at the time and didn’t know exactly how it worked. Like you said, he’s not sure if Mae and Mags even knew how it worked, even all those years later.

TA Elves generally take a middle sort of approach to the Fëanorians. There’s an element of Oath pushing them, and Dior and Elwing’s own decisions. They acknowledge that the two kinslayings were horrific but inevitable with all the factors that went into them. Sirion proved that there was *something* there that the Sons of Fëanor couldn’t entirely control. They’re still guilty of murder, no question, but there was clearly more to the situation than cold blooded killing.

And with all the years the Fëanorians spent fighting Morgoth, and Maedhros at the forefront of his Union, it says a lot about all of them and what they could’ve been without the Oath.

I don’t know if they prefer that the elves kept the Silmaril as opposed to Morgoth having them, simply because of the chaos it caused. While Morgoth had the jewel, the elves were more united and focused. I think there are many who ultimately wish Morgoth had kept it, and think Doriath and others might have helped more without that whole… situation.

There’s the whole ‘would the Valar have come otherwise’ angle to consider though. But that’s combatted with would they even have been needed if everyone had just joined the Nirnaeth and fought Morgoth? Personally, I don’t think so. But it’s a complicated question that has many conflicting answers, TA Elves included.

(There’s also the additional bias of everyone relying on Gil Estel as a sign of hope, especially as the world grows darker around them in 3rd Age Middle Earth. It’s a pure light that was able to withstand even the darkest of powers, and it gives them the strength they need to keep going. If the Silmaril stuff hadn’t happened, they’d have no guiding light. Probably. Maybe they’d have three.)

But to summarise: The Nirnaeth was the last chance. Fëanorians are guilty but it’s not entirely their fault and the Kinslayings were inevitable once the Silmaril got involved. And despite it going against everything they believe, most think Morgoth should’ve kept the Silmaril because the elves would’ve been more united and could have successfully taken him down with Beleriand’s full force behind the Union.

Sorry for such a winding answer, I hope you see what I mean? Let me know if not.

I think they do take comfort in knowing there are elves who regret what came to pass and would have acted differently with hindsight. My post generally focused on their initial arrival to Valinor. But over the years they spend there getting to know these figures and understanding their regrets, they soften towards them and help deal with things.

Genuine apologies and admissions of guilt and regret go a long way to healing.

Edit: Regarding Elrond and Elros specifically, I think there’s a general consensus to follow what Elrond says and leave it at that. They all know the half-elf is tired of everyone shoving their own opinions on a thing they never experienced, mostly for political and ‘moral’ gain. So they let him take the lead.

For me that means pretty much what you said: Elwing wouldn’t have known what to do if Morgoth launched an attack, and specifically with EnE they did end up safest with Maedhros and Maglor. And they received good care, love, and training while they were there.

To finish off:

😂😂😂😂😂😂

THE MEME. I accept.

This is me for many reasons mainly because it’s the best time for elf spiralling and deep dives because no one can distract or judge me except my siblings but they’re used to my late night rambles by now. Before tumblr they used to get paragraph long messages to read in the morning, at least it’s more spread out now.

Also It’s somewhat reassuring to know even people who have the Milker are getting jumpscared by him because sometimes I’ll go to notifications and just see a *barrage* 😂

It is once again past 3am, I hope this makes sense!

Hc that elves of the Third Age might appreciate the deeds of those of the First, but they have little respect for them.

It’s one of those things where you look in history and are like ‘cool.’ But you know if you saw these guys irl you’d punch them in the face.

Like these elves of the Third Age, especially those who stuck around at the beginning of the Fourth, are so done with all the drama, prejudices, and feuds. They were never meant to fight this war, it should’ve been over long before their time. The last generations born in ME can’t believe the First Age elves were so self-centred that they put personal feuds over banding together and taking out Morgoth.

This ties into another hc I have of Thranduil and Elrond being the ones to essentially say ‘that’s enough.’ They actively send elves to each other’s realms to end the division as much as they can. Internally Thranduil bridges the Sindar and Silvan etc, whilst Elrond deals with the ten factions of Noldor and ensures their kids get to play together as they grow up, stopping these 6000 year old arguments leaking into the next generation.

They’ve all lost too much to it.

It really starts with Elladan, Elrohir, and Legolas at the beginning of the Third Age being taught together as often as they can, groups of Sindar and Noldor being sent with them in an exchange of skills and knowledge. And the focus is forever on:

One day Sauron will return. Are we going to make the same mistake our parents did and let him use our divisions against us?

Galadriel gets involved too. She’s grown in wisdom, has lost more than anyone else. She lies as the final authority on the most problematic of elves who bring up the past for no reason but to go back to the ‘old ways.’ She’s older than most, or close enough in age that even those who refuse to listen to these ‘naive young leaders’ (Elrond and Thranduil) have to listen to her.

By the end of the Third Age it’s common for Sindar, Noldor, Silvan, whatever Cirdan’s lot are, and *insert elf kind here*, to have friends amongst each other’s races. To even have friends amongst men or dwarves, or at least respect and civil relations with them. It’s this mindset that brings Sauron to his knees in the end. He has no one to manipulate. No one to cause internal strife. No one to distract from him.

But back to the arrival in Valinor.

These young elves who have friends crossing cultures and races, have mortal friends they’ve lost over the years to orcs and to Sauron and darkness, find themselves *furious* at the First Age elves.

They lived in so much decadence and luxury that this is what they turned to? Wars and Political Drama for the sake of what. Ambition? What ambition is it to drag your people to the slaughterhouse, unprepared with ideas of glory that will never come to pass?

They lived a life of peace and plenty and never appreciated an ounce of it. Doused themselves in gold paint and heavy embroidered silk and jewellery for the sake of a beauty you couldn’t afford to wear in Middle Earth, no matter how much you wanted to. What if something went wrong? How could you outrun orcs if you were restricted by unwieldy fabric and shone like the sun in the dark. Even children knew better.

These elves of the Third Age would have sacrificed lives and limbs to let their families grow up in such safety.

The worst part is finding out there were older elves who made the Great Journey who warned these veritable children for their lack of life experience, of the horrors that awaited. The foolishness of their decisions. But they were ignored and labelled cowards.

To make matters worse, these glory seeking elves couldn’t even finish the job. Instead it fell to elves and men and dwarves and Hobbits, all of whom had no choice in their circumstances, to fix their ancestors mistakes. All because they’d chosen pride over working together to defeat the evil steadily encroaching and covering their safe havens. 600 years of war, and they learned nothing.

Elwë is not except from this. Aside from his own pride and arrogance, Lady Galadriel and Lord Elrond kept their realms safe, but they never turned away a weary traveller. Never hesitated to give aid and shelter to those who crossed their paths even in the darkest of times. Galadriel knows this best of all. She once lived in Doriath, and is right alongside the younger elves, scorning the King’s false shroud of safety, clinging to a past long gone in his heavy cloak and gilded crown.

How easily it all came crumbling down.

So yes. The elves of the Third Age can appreciate the growth and how their elders learned to adapt to the worsening situation. But they will never lose that flame of anger that so many of their friends, so many mortal friends above all who already had firefly lives, were spent and lost to a force they’d never had a choice but to fight to the end.

They will never respect them.

(They do however hold great respect and sympathy for Celebrimbor. It’s easy to be deceived by Sauron. And between him, Gil Galad, and Oropher, they got the closest to unity that they could with their factions of traditional First Agers and the early next generation learning to see past their history.

Celebrimbor and Idril were born in the golden peace of Aman, but grew up in the harsh lands of Middle Earth. They understand the younger elves’ anger more than anyone ever could, and find themselves sharing it. But now they have a voice for that simmering anger. And the Second and Third Age elves have protectors and allies in the older generations.

Glorfindel ofc is always at their back. He spent too much time seeing the little Dunedain Chieftains he helped raise falling far before their time not to feel pure, unadulterated rage at the past. Not to feel guilt and shame with it.)

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

So I was peer pressured into reading Dune, and this had the unfortunate side effect of me hyper fixating on two unimportant characters, causing me to be more invested in an imaginary plot line I created in my head.

So here I am.

The Harkonnen brothers don’t have a single conversation with each other in the book, and that’s sort of disappointing, but maybe that says something about how the Baron wanted to separate the brothers for his own personal vendetta. But here’s the thing about Rabban; it’s said in the book that he’s nothing but a sadistic brute, but I don’t think that’s actually true. For the one scene Rabban actually has, and not just a footnote of what he’s doing, the Baron is trying to trick Rabban into having a downfall, Rabban keeps asking all these insightful questions and it’s frustrating the Baron. In fact, throughout this entire scene, Rabban seems like he just doesn’t want to be there, that he has no interest in whatever political mind games the Baron is doing and just wants to go about his day. I think Rabban is much more intelligent than people give him credit for, I just think he has no ambition and just wants to do whatever he wants without being bothered. Is whatever he wants sadistic and violent? Maybe, but we never truly get his perspective on that, so much about him can be left up for interpretation. 

As for his younger brother, Feyd, he’s all ambition, in fact maybe that’s partly why Rabban stays away from politics; he doesn’t want to get in his brother’s way. Maybe Rabban secretly helps Feyd in the background, whose to say. Also, can we talk about how Feyd was basically raised by an actual pedophile? That probably adds a whole other layer on Feyd wanting to replace the Baron in terms of power. I was kind of hoping that in the book Feyd would kill the Baron and take that political power he’s always wanted himself, but he didn’t. Also, I think that Harkonnen brothers should have interacted with Paul more. The only time they talk is when Paul and Feyd are in that duel to the death thing, and they had such good chemistry. Like, Feyd was just trying to chat it up while fighting to the death, and Paul was just practically silent, it was fun. Imagine if they had met earlier, had a whole rival thing going on.

I think it has great AU potential if it was discovered that Paul was a Harkonnen when he was a child, and the two houses had to deal with that. The families could maybe use the chance to get close to one another under the guise of merging their families, all while both sides plot to destroy the other. At this time the Harkonnen’s are in running Dune, so the Atreides’ come to live with them there, all while plotting the other’s downfall. Paul and his new cousins on the other hand, form an actual bond that is very annoying for everyone involved. The three of them didn’t expect of bond of course; Feyd was planning to fake niceties and then crush Paul, Rabban was ready to be his brother’s muscle/self preservation, (also, apparently Rabban is much older then the other two, but for the sake of this AU I’m going to make him just a couple years older) and Paul was hoping to avoid his two weird cousins at all cost. Whenever the Harkonnen brothers would approach Paul at first he would probably just jump out the nearest window or something. But, through a series of misadventures, the three end up spending time together and are horrified to find out they actually like each other, something they each furiously deny when asked. But they end up doing everything together, and are complete menaces about it. They were so wrapped up in this strange new family bond, that when the two families made their attack on each other they were taken off guard. In the chaos, Paul ends up getting lost to the desert. Now, at this point, I think Paul is still a child, maybe like 10 years old or something, and completely alone in Dune of all places to fend for himself. 

This probably warps Paul’s personality over the years as he struggles to survive on his own, learning for himself the ways of the desert, now entering Paul’s feral era where he is practically one with the desert and bites people. Back with the Harkonnen’s, they were the side that won but the brothers still miss their quiet cousin. So they play their parts, for now, and then one day, with Paul being 17 now, Rabban was out slaughtering people, as you do, when he finds Paul again, who is currently single handedly bringing down his men. So the two reunite and it’s a good time, and they sneak Paul into their house to Feyd, who is also overjoyed to see Paul again. They get to talking, and I have this theory while reading the books that Paul doesn’t seem to care about doing what’s right or having power or anything; he just wanted security for the people he cared about. So when Feyd reveals his plans about wanting to be emperor, Paul is onboard, using his own powers as a Mentat and his new found knowledge of the desert to help. So then the book continues with it’s political power struggles, our trio secretly scheming against the Baron’s schemes, making sure Paul isn’t found out, some catching up and family bonding times, Rabban trying to be the voice of sanity as the other two were teetering on the edge with theirs in different ways, it’s a fun time. And it all comes to ahead when they dethrone the emperor, with Feyd now in charge. It all comes completely out of left field for the emperor and his allies, since the three pulled some next level mind games. So the three of them wait there, waiting for the Baron to come in with Feyd lounging on the throne and the other two standing on each side of him. The Baron is slightly pissed for sure, and Feyd challenges the Baron to a duel. After some taunting on both ends, Feyd wins, and the three of them go on their slightly co-dependent ways, ruling over the galaxy for better or worse (Probably worse).

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

One of my favorite narrative choices/interpretations in twdg is how tied together Clementine’s “death” scene and Lee’s death are. Yeah sure, there are the obvious visual parallels but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.

For the longest time, I was one of the people who always shot Lee, y’know? It just makes sense, you can’t let Lee become a walker, it’s so much more tragic for Clementine to be the one to put him down. Clearly shooting him is the right answer. After all, the player percentages don’t lie.

But then years passed and I eventually played the other route where I asked Clementine to leave Lee, and I am no longer one of those people.

Don’t get me wrong. Both endings make me cry. They’re powerful in different ways, but there’s something about the way that leaving Lee to turn into a walker can affect an interpretation of TFS and Clementine as a character.

[note: this turned into a bit of a Clementine character analysis and it’s long and I’m sorry that this is the way I am]

Y’see, having played through the series as much as I have, I’ve grown to love this narrative that you can build leading back to this choice and the ways it stuck with Clementine over the years, and subsequently affects the way she raises AJ.

When you ask Clementine to leave Lee, he gets the chance to give her a little more advice and it get progressively heavy:

Lee: You can leave me. It's okay.

Clementine: You'll be just like them.

Lee: It's okay. It won't be me.

Clementine: Lee...

Lee: Clem, it's time to go. You gotta get out of here.

Clementine: You can come with me.

Lee: No, honey, I can't. It's okay.

Clementine: Please?

Lee: You have to go, now.

Clementine: Maybe...maybe...I shouldn't let you turn.

Lee: I don't want you to have to do that.

From here, you have a set of options that allows Lee to explain why she shouldn’t shoot him: Shooting people changes you and Lee doesn’t want Clem to get used to that, she can remember him alive as her last memory of him rather than her shooting him, she should save the bullet, or the noise will draw more attention than it’s worth.

After that, depending on your choices, he’ll further explain himself. I usually get:

Lee: Pulling the trigger of a gun and ending a life, Clem...you feel yourself lose something every time. The first time, the most. Don't do it unless you absolutely have to.

Clementine: I'll go. I'll...leave you. I'll go as fast as I can.

Lee: And as safe as you can. Always be safe.

Lee is barely breathing at this point, he can’t keep his eyes open, he looks like he’s on the verge of turning into a walker at any moment. Clementine, gun her in her little hands, turns to him and one last time, asks him not to go.

Like… the whole scene is more than enough to make you teary eyed.

There are a lot of reasons for making this choice, most of which you’re allowed to explain through Lee. Some people have a more logical take on this by saying that it doesn’t matter if Lee turns or not, Clementine isn’t in danger with him chained up, therefore she doesn’t have to waste a bullet in killing him. That bullet might be the difference between life and death in the future. 

Then there’s a more emotional approach of not wanting Clementine to be the one to have to kill Lee, forever traumatizing her even further after everything she went through with the stranger and her parents. Lee can’t ask her to do that, he can’t force this little girl to kill him just so that he won’t turn into a walker. It’ll change her.

I like to think it’s all of the above. Lee’s made sure that he can’t get to her, she’s armed and knows how to protect herself, and he cares more about her having an extra bullet that could save her life rather than wasting it on him when no matter what, death is inevitable for him. It’s like what he says about Larry if you tried to save him: 

“It's like with Larry, honey. He was goin', one way or another. But at that moment I couldn't do more violence. You have to be careful about that. It'll consume you.”

She shouldn’t do that if she doesn’t have to. Lee has no idea what’s going to happen after he dies, if he’ll just be dead and gone or if part of him will remain as a walker, or something else. He reassures her that the walker left in his place won’t actually be him, but no one actually knows that. Yet, that doesn’t matter, he cares more about Clementine than himself at this point.

But what does this choice do to Clementine?

Sure, she doesn’t have to live with the fact that she killed the man who swore to protect her, even after she was indirectly responsible for him getting bitten in the first place. He asked her to leave him there, to let him become a monster, to leave before she could see him like that. He makes sure she knows that this was the right thing, the best thing for everyone, and I do think she believed him, or at least want to, in that moment. Underneath her grief and stress of the worst day of her life, she at least had Lee’s last words to her and his reassurance that she’s going to make it through this.

But then we move onto the other seasons, and Clementine isn’t the little girl she was in the first season. Season two is pretty much summed up with: “Clementine does ANYTHING and gets punished for it.”

She goes through so much shit in S2. You can try to make all the morally good choices you want and Clementine will still end up getting slapped around, people she grows to care about fall dead all around her, and she gets a lot of blame for it. She’s forced to kill a dog that attacks her, Kenny lashes out at her more than once, blaming her for Sarita’s death no matter what you do, she can’t save Sarah, she couldn’t save Luke, everything is falling apart and by the end, everyone’s fucking dead with the exception of either Jane or Kenny, depending on you choices. 

Clementine carries all this shit with her, like Kenny and Bonnie telling her that just because she’s a little girl, she thinks she can get people killed and it’s okay since she’s sorry. Of course she’s going to internalize all of it and bring it back to Lee. She has conversations with Kenny where she’ll open up about how it was her fault he died. Kenny, for all his faults, will usually try to reassure her that it wasn’t.... but then pulls the shit he does so y’know... mixed messages that help no one.

But by the end of it, no matter what ending you get, little newborn AJ is left in Clementine’s care.

From all of this, we know that Clementine tends to blame herself for the deaths of those she cares about, which is traced back to Lee. It’s when we get to ANF that her tune changes a bit. She’s jaded, bitter, selfish, and Lee was right..... all of this violence did change her. 

I mean, she just fucking shoots the guy who traded her bad bullets, and while she didn’t mean to... she still pointed a loaded gun at his head and pulled the trigger, something Lee taught her to never do unless she had to. Then, she wants Javi to cover for her, to lie... and if you don’t, because hey murder and lying bad, she gets upset and tries to make Javi feel like an asshole for telling the truth rather than validating her actions.

When I say ANF Clementine is my least favorite, it’s because her behavior, while it makes sense, is so frustrating and unbearable at times. It making sense doesn’t excuse it. 

She steals, lies, pulls several Kennys where she gets pissy when you don’t do what she wants you to, is willing to assist in Lingard’s death if it benefits her without even considering any other options or what a dark place he’s in, and she’s at a point where she just assumes everyone around her will inevitably die or leave her. That’s just what happens, that’s why she’s alone, and as a means of coping, she tries to spin it this way to alleviate some of the pain she’s had thrown at her for years.

Now, ANF Clementine isn’t all bad, she has a lot of redeeming moments where the Clem I knew in the past two seasons will shine through. You as Javi can help her grow and get onto a better path than the one she was goin’ down. She makes friends with Gabe, which is important since as far as we know, she hasn’t had a friend close to her age since Sarah. She has hope again after David tells her AJ survived, and she has more than just survival on her mind.

It’s just.... it’s sad to think that she’s at a point where she seems to have momentarily forgotten Lee’s final words to her. And when I think about it..... this behavior would almost make more sense if she DID shoot Lee, y’know? But in this timeline we’re discussing, she didn’t, she left him to turn and he gave his reasons for why he wanted that... but she still ended up this way. Nothing he could say or do could’ve prevented that. 

But at the end of ANF, Clementine has one goal: get AJ back.

Through all of this, through ANF and before the events of TFS... I truly believe that Clementine lost herself. 

She’s forgotten a lot of the things Lee taught her, she’s forgotten about her parents in the sense of “what would they think if they saw me now,” she’s overwhelmed with all that bad that those good things, that hope she had, has been put on the backburner.

She’s been forced to live in a world that’s cruel to you no matter if you’re “good” or “bad”, and that can put you into that selfish mindset where you tend to just disregard everyone you don’t have any emotional connection to, and even then, people you’re close to will get the same treatment, whether intentional or not. It’s unflattering, unlikable, and the only reason more people don’t see that is because it’s Clementine. 

It gets to a point where she has a few different paths she can go on, and right now, she’s on a destructive one. 

I think through knowing the Garcia’s, she was put on a better path but she’s still lost. She’s hyper focused on getting AJ back. Nothing else matters, nothing will stand in her way, and that leads to a breaking point in her character.

So...the McCarroll Ranch flashback is a thing. 

The varying interpretations of this scene are interesting to discuss.

Some will say Clementine was continuing her extremely selfish and destructive behavior when she found the ranch in flames and was willing to commit more murder in order to get AJ back, even if it meant traumatizing him with the death of his caretaker, and if she had shown up earlier before they were under attack, who knows how far she would’ve gone to take him away.

Others say no, that Clementine found the ranch compromised, she was acting in self-defense when she shot Eddie and AJ’s caretaker, Helen. It was either her or Clementine, as Helen was pulling a gun out when she spotted Clem, who reacted accordingly. If she hadn’t shown up, perhaps AJ wouldn’t be alive right now. We don’t know. 

For me, it’s a bit of both. She finds the ranch and panics because yeah, it’s on fire and there are assholes running around, shooting the place up. She holds Eddie at gunpoint, demanding to know where the kids are. He thinks she’s another asshole raider and even tells her that he’s not gonna let her take a kid, and she kills him. She doesn’t try to explain herself, she just demands the info and kills him. It’s not great, but yeah, he would've hurt her if she didn’t kill him. 

Then, she hears Helen talking to AJ, who is in the locker. I don’t know why she didn’t say anything. There isn’t an option to. Maybe she thought silence was the more peaceful route, or it would give her an upper hand. But, then Helen hears here and panics, pulls out a gun, and Clementine shoots her.

This is the moment. 

She shoots this woman in the children’s room, and after examining her body, realizes that she was the one caring for AJ. Clementine is looking over this woman, and you get pieces of her thoughts like-

“She was taking care of him”

“I had no choice”

“I’m sorry”

Then, Clementine finally gets what she’s longed for- she has AJ back... and he’s covered in blood, sobbing, terrified of her. She coaxes him out of the locker and he sees his caretaker dead on the floor.

This scene, with Clementine looking at the body, walking through rubble and fire to put AJ in the car, he’s staring up at her with this unfamiliar look in his eyes.... and she stops for a second... 

I truly feel like this is the moment where Clementine is suddenly hit by everything all at once, and she’s actually questioning, “Oh god..... who am I? How did I get here and what have I done?”

She did all of this for AJ, and now she has him, so it was worth it, right? Everything she did was a necessary evil and it was worth it... right?

... but imagine if Clementine did inject Lingard, killing him. She assisted in a man's death to get here. Was taking his life necessary? If you know how the choices work, then no, it’s not. But Clementine doesn’t know that. 

If you stopped her, then she still gunned down several people to stand where she is. She’s has left AJ so wounded by killing Helen, and while we know she didn’t have a choice in the moment, AJ doesn’t understand that. He doesn’t even recognize Clementine and she can see that in the way he looks at her.

“Pulling the trigger of a gun and ending a life, Clem...you feel yourself lose something every time.....”

TFS is where I think Clementine has found herself again and that’s why she’s more balanced and likable, and there are more references to Lee and her parents.... yeah, I know it’s mostly the writers doing it for fanservice and to make us cry, but I’m choosing to look at it in the narrative rather than with that intention.

Clementine has AJ back, she’s been raising him the best way she can, she’s taught him to use a gun since he needs to protect himself, and Lee taught her when she was little, too. She’s taught him to read,  taught him survival techniques she’s picked up, all that. She’s also more playful with him, she smiles more. She’s not a bitter 13-year-old like in ANF. Survival and safety is #1 and her attitude is mostly serious, but she isn’t afraid to tease or be a little silly.

But here’s the deal..... usually when I replay the series, I’ll leave Lee to turn but I’ll have Clementine tell AJ that if she ever gets bit, he’ll shoot her.

“What?” I hear you say. “But... haven’t you been rambling on and on about how murder bad and how leaving Lee was better because she didn’t have to live with the fact that she killed him?? but you want AJ to?? CJ you make no sense!”

I know that, but allow me to elaborate. Remember, this is all my interpretation after years of replaying this series. This is the narrative I find most enjoyable. This is my Clementine and the way I interpret her. 

So, Clementine listens to Lee and leaves him to turn into a walker. He tells her that it won’t be him, he’ll be dead and gone, save the bullet. Yeah, yeah, I already covered this. But remember my “what does this do to Clementine?” question?

I swingin’ back to it because I didn’t really answer it directly, now did I? It’s basically followed up with another question: What if Clementine comes to regret leaving Lee instead of shooting him?

She herself even says that maybe she shouldn’t let him turn, and he tells her he doesn’t want her to have to do that. She listened to him, and left him behind to turn into one of the monsters that tore their world apart. She’s lived with the fact that she’s the reason Lee was bitten, that he died.... but there was always another thing that pricked needles into her guilt: Lee’s a walker. He’s going to spend the rest of eternity as a walker handcuffed to a heater. There is the big possibility that no one will ever find him, will never kill this walker version of him.

Was that the right thing to do? 

I don’t know about you, but the walker debate is kinda fun to explore, and oh boy, do they try to explore it in TFS.

It’s easy for us to be like “Nope, there is nothing to walkers because they’re dead. Nothing human is left behind. Leaving Lee is fine.” 

…but then I have to ask, why did most people shoot him when the episode released? Why do people still pick that option? You don’t want Lee to be a walker, but at the same time, it’s actually fine because nothing about him would be left behind?

Is it because you couldn’t handle seeing him as a walker and didn’t know if the ending would show it or not? It doesn’t, you know that now. Were you afraid he would hurt anyone else? Well, you chained him up. He’s not going anywhere. He’s no longer a threat. 

So why do so many people still choose to shoot Lee and insist it’s the right choice even if by this logic, it doesn’t matter if he’s a walker because it’s not him? Save the bullet, don’t put Clementine through that, right? 

Maybe you just like the way the tragedy plays out when Clementine shoots him, and that’s perfectly fine. Maybe you don’t believe there’s more to walkers, but still pick this because how can you not? It’s Lee! He can’t become a walker.

Again, I feel you. My reasons for always shooting him in the past were that. It’s Lee, he can’t become a walker. I can’t do that to him. I love him, and that would be wrong. 

But that’s the thing... I believe we’re not the only ones having this debate. Clementine is having this internal debate within herself at different points over the series, but it’s especially prominent in TFS. 

Lee asked her to leave him, but was that really the right thing to do? He took care of her, saved her life and taught her to survive, and after he was bitten, she left him to turn into a monster. He didn’t deserve that, but his final wish was for her to leave. Should she have shot him anyway, ignoring his wishes? Would that have been worse? Disrespectful? Is it okay to ignore his wish if you think he’s wrong and you think you know what’s best? 

What if there is a part of him still inside that walker form? There’s no way to know that. What if she condemned a part of him to cruel fate because she didn’t shoot him? What if he’s truly gone and she’s worrying herself over nothing? What if she had shot him and needed that bullet later, or what if the noise drew attention? 

...What about her parents? They were walkers, too... roaming the street together... are they suffering, too? Or are they truly gone? 

I believe this is what lead to her decision to tell AJ that if she ever gets bitten, he should shoot her. All of these thoughts and regrets can resurface depending on your choices, like in the dorms at the beginning of ep2.

AJ: You told me your friend Lee became a monster. But you didn't kill him... because he wasn't a threat. Is that why you didn't kill him?

Clementine: He didn't want me to. He said it would change me forever. But I know he...

AJ: He became a monster. Do you wish you did?

Clementine: Yeah.... Every day.

Or, alternatively:

Clementine: How can you ask me that? What you did is completely different.

AJ: I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make you mad, at all.

Clementine: .....I...I can still hear him. Telling me not to do it.

AJ: I said I'm sorry.

Clementine: ...I still hear it, sometimes.

and yeah, yeah, I know that this isn’t canon for everyone. Reminder that this is my Clementine interpretation and it’ll probably differ from yours, hence why we’re going over these specific choices. 

Looking at these responses, Clementine admits that she wishes she had shot Lee, that even though he told her that it would change her and she shouldn’t have to... she still left him to die alone and change. Maybe she doesn’t even fully understand WHY he asked her to do that... why didn’t he ask her to shoot him? Did he think she couldn’t? Even though he kept telling her that she had it in her to defend herself? Wasn’t he scared of what would happen afterward? What if Lee was so sick and out of it due to the bite that he wasn’t thinking right? 

Again, all these kinds of questions could possibly run through her mind, which in turn affects her choice with AJ. She doesn’t want him to go through what she did, to regret letting her turn into another monster. It’ll change him to shoot her, but it’ll also change him to let her turn.... maybe shooting her is the lesser of two evils. 

The thing about Clementine is that she’s not a perfect teacher, she doesn’t have all the answers, and all of her experiences reflect in the choices she makes with AJ. She’s trying her best. She loves AJ, he’s her family and she wants what’s best for him. She wants him to be strong, to be a better survivor who can take care of himself if something ever happened to her. But, she’s doesn’t know everything, and she forgets that yeah, AJ’s a kid... and so is she. She’s not some thirty something who has all this world experience and can always make logical decisions in every situation, and neither was Lee. 

AJ sees this towards the end of the season when he starts questioning her.

AJ: I always listened to Clem. Always. But...I've been thinking more. I don't know if she's right every time.

So while she truly believes that this is the best thing... she also won’t take AJ himself into account. Well, she does but she fails to ask him what he wants, what he thinks, and when he starts questioning her, she becomes defensive and makes him promise that he’ll shoot her even though he’s saying he doesn’t want to. 

Which leads me to two particular scenes that I think reopen the wounds and reaffirm Clementine’s thoughts and fears. We’ll start with the obvious one: James. 

I know it’s easy to just call James and his dumb walkers crazy, that walkers aren’t people, yada yada. But for fun, let’s indulge him for a moment. James is a fascinating character study with the way he’s come to view walkers, and he eventually shares these beliefs with Clementine when she asks him for help, and when you leave Lee to turn, you get this conversation:

James: They used them as a weapon. I do this...to protect them. I know it sounds strange. But that's why I brought you here. To see them as I do. As people.

Clementine: As...people?

James: Well, not people, exactly. But... Something in between. Part of us is still in there. Deep down. So few of us die anymore. We turn. Not dead, not alive.

Clementine: God, I hope that's not true. That sounds like Hell.

James: To you, maybe. I think it seems...peaceful.

AJ: Do you really think there's people inside of monsters?

James: Somewhere, yes. Think about it this way... Has someone you cared about turned?

Clementine doesn’t respond.

AJ: Clem's friend, Lee. She let him... but wishes she didn’t. 

James: Do you really think...there's nothing left of who he was?

Here’s where my Clementine will remain silent, as you can either agree or disagree with him which doesn’t feel right for her, in this case. Though a little annoying that James takes your silence personally and won’t talk about Charlie later BUT that’s a topic for another ramble. 

Anyway, Clementine doesn’t want to think about this. She’s thought about it enough, let it eat away at her longer than she should’ve, and now James is here asking her if she truly believes there’s nothing left inside the walker Lee became? She doesn’t have time to reflect on this, she has to get James’ help to save her friends. 

However, I believe this conversation stuck with her, and that’s why she gets more defensive when AJ brings up the idea that if Clem gets bit, then she should bite him, too. Like.... No, absolutely not, AJ. That’s not what we agreed on to do if she gets bit. He’ll shoot her. 

Clementine: AJ, we've talked about this. A lot. If I get bit, you know what has to happen.

AJ: I don't want to talk about this anymore.

Clementine: But you brought it up, so we're going to.

AJ: It does something weird to my stomach. Like I'm gonna get the dookies.

Clementine: AJ, I need to know you remember what we talked about. What you're supposed to do if it happens. Listen to me. If I get bit, you'll...?

AJ doesn’t respond.

Clementine: Shoot--

AJ: No! No, I'm not gonna do that.

Clementine: AJ, you promised.

AJ: I don't care. I'm not gonna shoot you! If you get bit, I'd want you to bite me, too.

Clementine: What? You don't mean that.

AJ: I don't want to be alone. Please don't be mad. I can't live with you not with me, Clem. I know we've talked about it. So much. But don't make me.

And like.... here’s an interesting thing if Clementine doubles down on this:

Clementine: Alvin Junior, if you have a gun, you shoot me. If you don't, you use your knife. No knife, a rock to the head. As many times as you have to.

AJ: I said I don't wanna!

Clementine: I don't care what you said. You will do it.

AJ: I don't care what you say!

Clementine: Goddamn it, AJ! You can't break promises.

Like jesus. She is once again so blinded by what she believes is right and what is the best option for AJ that she’s not even thinking about the fact that she’s telling him that yeah, if you have no other options, bash my face in with a rock! Holy shit, Clementine! She isn’t understanding a big thing here, the thing that factored into why Lee told her to leave him. 

Of course, there are less harsh responses but I find that one particularly interesting.

Now, lemme explore the other scene: Abel. 

So, the beginning of ep3 has Clementine and AJ talking to a tied up Abel about where the raiders took our friends. But it doesn’t take long before Abel starts spitting up blood and panicking that something’s wrong. 

Abel: Shit... I never wanted things to end like this. Everything...it all got out of hand. Now look at me. I'm a fucking mess.

AJ: Will he turn?

Abel: No! ...My...my whole life, everything I ever got, I got with my own two hands and...and my will. For my body to turn on me...to take control... I'll tell you where to find Lilly. Just promise you won't let me turn. I'm begging you.

Look, I hate Abel, he sucks..... but I also really like him as an antagonistic character and what they did with him here. 

So, we have Abel here begging for them to make sure he doesn’t turn... because Abel believes that letting some turn is cruel, he’ll even admit that he believes there are people inside of walkers and that’s why you put a bullet in them, no one deserves to be a walker. 

Abel: You wouldn't do it...you wouldn't let me become...one of those things.  What if they...what if they can feel it...when they turn?!

And after he gives you the info-

Abel: You got what you wanted. Please, don't let me become one of those things. Please... I don't want to turn...

Do keep in mind that this happens before the James scene, too. Clementine’s already got this on her mind when she meets up with him and the barn scene plays out.... but this whole thing with Abel is a lot. You can be cruel and torture him or you can play nice, or you can do a bit of both. 

And by the way, if you let him turn, it reeeally fucks with AJ. So that’s fun. 

Now not only is Clementine trying to work out a plan to get her friends back and trying to protect AJ and all that, but she’s also dealing with these thoughts and ideas presented by Abel and James..... and like, yeah I know the Lee dream sequence was intended for fanservice and to make us cry.... but I dunno, kinda funny timing that she would have a dream about Lee that night after going through both of those events in the same day as well as doing prep to infiltrate the boat. 

While I love the dream sequence and this interpretation I’m talking about probably wasn’t all that intentional given that this would've been the perfect moment to explore or even hint at it but they don’t.... but it’s fine, it’s perfectly logical that she’s more worried about her friends who are still alive rather than if she did the right thing with Lee. 

I think it’s time I move onto the actual bitten Clementine stuff before this turns into a novel sooo.... Clementine gets bit after she and AJ get separated from Louis/Violet/Tenn. She’s bitten on her wounded leg, and after all the chaos of getting away from walkers and climbing up to safety... Clementine just lies there for a bit.

And you can feel it, y’know? She and AJ knew what happened, but Clementine still has to confirm it... and when she pulls away part of her boot to reveal the bite... she lets out a deep breath and says she got bit..... but they gotta keep moving forward. No time, gotta get up, gotta keep moving, gotta get AJ to safety. Nothing else matters. 

So they walk. They walk until it’s morning and Clementine starts to look awful... and I think most of us took this opportunity to tell AJ she loves him. 

Then all hell breaks loose, they’re surrounded by walkers and have to hide out in James’ walker barn, but Clementine’s too weak to fight. This is when the game starts to have us take control of AJ, switching us between the two as Clementine shoots walkers and AJ shuts the doors. 

Until Clementine runs out of ammo. 

The walkers are locked out, they’re catching their breath... and now they have a whole new problem to deal with. Clementine’s bitten, and AJ, similar to how little Clementine was, tells Clementine she needs to try to get up and leave with him. 

Clementine: Good job, AJ. You did it.

AJ: Now what?

Clementine: You need to find a way out of here.

AJ: We can climb up there. The monsters can't reach us up there. Let's go. Easy climb. C'mon. Please...try. You can't give up! You can't give up! I need you! I need you...

She can’t get up. 

Clementine: I'm so sorry, kiddo. This is just what happens sometimes.

AJ: But...but it wasn't supposed to happen to you!

Sigh.... now here it is. This is another big moment in Clementine’s character that changes everything. It’s that moment at McCarroll Ranch again- it all hits her at once. 

Clementine: I need to make sure you remember.

AJ: Remember what?

Clementine: The rules. What's number one?

AJ: Never...never go alone. So...so I can't leave. Not without you.

Clementine: AJ...

AJ: It's your rule!

Clementine: You won't be alone. Not for long. Get back to the school.

AJ: I don't know how.

Clementine: Sure you do. One of the first things I ever taught you. You need to make sure they can't smell you. So... grab that axe.

She’s dying, she’s going to die and leave AJ behind.

Clementine: Next rule: what do we do when the monsters come?

AJ: Clem...

Clementine: AJ...

AJ: Shoot them in the head.

Clementine: Got any more ammo?

AJ: There isn't any more.

Clementine: Okay, then. Fuck. And...the last rule?

AJ: I want to stay. With you. I know what will happen. And...and I don't care. I don't want to go. I just want to sit next to you and...and stay. Like that monster couple, from the train station. No one would hurt us. Just...sitting. Forever.

Clementine: I don't want you to leave, either.

AJ: Then don't make me!

Clementine: But it's not about what I want. It's about what you need. And you need to go.

AJ: Okay, Clem. Okay.

Clementine: Last rule.

AJ: No...

Clementine: What do we do if I get bit? ....Are you gonna make me say it? 

And this is Clementine truly realizes, understands for the first time why Lee made the choice he did... why he asked her to leave him.

Clementine: Just leave.

AJ: I can't let you turn into a monster.

Clementine: You have to.

AJ: But before, you said...

Clementine: I know. But now that we're here... My heart is saying something else.

She finally gets it. 

When Lee said she’s in his shoes now...? She IS in his shoes finally understanding a part of their situation years ago that she never could. For years, she questioned how he could ask her to leave him, WHY he did. She questioned if she did the right thing, regretted listening to him.... but now that they’re here and she’s presented with the same choice Lee was... she understands why her reasons for asking AJ to shoot her if she gets bitten were skewed, that what she thought was preventively protecting him from more hurt was only doing more damage. He’s already taken a life, and just like Lee said, he’s losing a part of himself every time he does it, and if she told him to shoot Lilly, too? and if he shot Tenn? 

What is killing Clementine with an axe going to do to AJ?

What is leaving Clementine to become a walker going to do to him?

What is the right thing to do?

Well, for Clementine, her answer is to ask him to leave. She knows she told him differently, but that was when this scenario was merely a “what if?” Now it’s happening and she sees the errors in her thinking, and no matter what happens now, she’s going to die. Maybe she’ll feel it, like Abel said. Maybe James is right and she’ll spend the rest of her undead life alone in this barn. Maybe nothing will happen. It doesn’t matter. 

But... we all know, AJ has another solution up his sleeve that Clementine never considered. 

He turns to leave her... and then turns back around and disobeys her wishes... and chops off her bitten leg. 

And she fucking survives. 

Clementine survives her walker bite. 

AJ did what little Clementine back in s1 couldn’t do... he didn’t listen to her, and this time, it worked in their favor. 

Clementine: When we were in the barn, you didn't listen to me. And if you had...I'd be dead. You'll have to be strong for the both of us.

AJ: You made it so I can. So...thank you. For everything.

Clementine: You're welcome. For everything.

Clementine still has a lot of things to work though, especially now that she only has one leg. She can’t move around the way she could before, she has to completely relearn how to walk on crutches, possibly a peg leg. She gets to sit down and breathe, rely on others and do some reflection on who she is and come to terms with all the pain she suffered, and grow from there. 

Now that she understands why Lee did what he did, she can take a step in the right direction of forgiving herself, to atone for all the mistakes she’s made and the people she’s hurt. 

She has a boyfriend/girlfriend/friends there at her side to listen and love her, she has AJ, she has her lovable pupper Rosie, and she has a home... for the first time since she was little, she has a home and she can find herself again. Keep movin’ forward. 

This is my favorite line of choices, my favorite way to interpret the connection between Lee and Clementine’s scenes, and how I view Clementine’s growth and understanding as a character in TFS. There are so many ways for it all to play out, no Clementine is the same between players, and I dunno I just... I find the whole thing so compelling. 

Clementine is such a fun character to discuss, to compare interpretations of, and I’m sorry for such a long post but this is another thing I’ve wanted to throw out there for a while. Now that I’m done, I’m gonna go make some tea and chill out. 

[briarvayne]

Hyperactive (With slight homicide)

This is my first post on Tumblr (not my first post overall as I have Wattpad, but I'll post my username here when I've added my Klarion one-shots on there unless people want it lmao

You grabbed his interest when you were hanging out with your friends near the old cinema.

He seemed intrigued at first when even Teekl became slightly amused by your hyper personality.

Klarion may or may not have stalked you for a bit because of that

Eventually, Klarion did admit you seemed fun to Teekl, and wanted to get to you know you better in person.

Both of you finally met each other when you were walking around the harbour, taking photos of the sea and the horizon even if you knew you would delete them later.

Teekl thought this would be a great time for Klarion to introduce himself to you.

She half prayed that Klarion wouldn't freak you out, and the other half wanting you to not make Klarion too annoyed.

Somehow, it went really well.... A bit too well, as you two then talked as if you had known each other for years

Lets just say, you're both extremely hyper. I mean, it's Klarion.

You being a hyperactive person and him having chaos magic while also wanting mischief? It's a perfect yet dangerous match.

Teekl rethinks her choice about you two being together, as she now has to deal with two children and not one.

This also means that the Light have to deal with another 'kid' as well, since Klarion will definitely bring you to at least one meeting.

They're a bit cautious about you on first impression, not too sure if you're using Klarion to get information about the Light

But after a while, they see how much you deal with when you're with Klarion, and figure out that no one can put up a façade for that long

Yeah, even the Light know that you're one hyper son-of-a-b*tch

I wouldn't say you're obnoxiously loud, it's just being in a Light meeting no one is really talking except you, so it's dead quiet other than that. Nevertheless, you can be extremely deafening without realising it

Klarion's magical powers gives you a lot more freedom when being with him. Like, a lot more freedom, he's a lord of Chaos, you basically have no limits.

You can now do all the crazy sh*t you've ever wanted to do with Klarion by your side, and he's more than willing to join you in whatever ideas you have

A couple of times Teekl has to warn him that you're still a mortal, so he does lay off a bit from time to time to avoid getting you seriously injured

If you do get hurt, Klarion is gunna freak tf out, trying to play it off cool but failing

All adventures go out the window if you get hurt. And if you try to get up saying "I'm fine", he'll magically trap you in your bed to rest.

Don't test him, he will do it

A lot of things may break, and it's whether or not Klarion will fix it with his powers or not after... Probably not, it's not like either of you really care

If the Young Justice team do meet you, it's because you were in a forest with Klarion, messing around while climbing from branch to branch in the trees while Klarion floated next to you

The two of you were ambushed by the team, as Zatanna had sensed Klarion's power in that area while the team were nearby

They would have saved you, but you're surprisingly very good at climbing trees for any of them to grab hold of you, something that actually made them impressed

Klarion was very unhappy, so unhappy that you had to mention about going back home to hang out there to calm him down

Couple of times you'd wander off too far that Klarion isn't able to find you and would have to teleport you to him in order to know where you are, the only big thing that does get him slightly annoyed.

^ If you can make Klarion take responsibility (other than over Teekl) and act like a parent, my respect goes to you

You two don't have any rules apart from when you're injured, although there is one thing that bugs you both

2 hyper devils + "Calm down"= Death stare with Klarion hexing whoever said that

No one is allowed to tell you guys to calm down

Klarion x homicidal hyper reader ⚠️Mentions death⚠️

You met each other like the first one, except that you seemed more wanting to go into danger and edge your friends into doing bad things than actually have fun

This time, Klarion was intrigued before Teekl

He noticed your cold yet intense gaze on everyone that was near you

Something about you was odd. Klarion knew that but he didn't know what was making you seem so odd

It's not until you become best friends that he finally realises your love for murder

While you got along with Klarion before him knowing this, wow he's ecstatic that he finally knows what seemed off with you

He tempts you into murder as well, seeing that you showed to be very refrained from not doing anything about your homicidal thoughts

Catches on very quickly how manipulative you can be with your friends, friends that Klarion now wants to be your first kills

Unsurprisingly, it doesn't take that much convincing from Klarion to make you agree to killing your soon-to-be-dead mates

He helps of course, trapping them all and giving you all sorts of weapons to use on them

It's like a holiday for both of you

You even asked Klarion at one point to make their screams quieter since they were annoying you

And after you had finishing butchering your friends, Klarion realised that he like-liked you and confessed right there

Yep, Klarion did just admit to liking you while standing in the middle of dead bodies scattered around at your feet

Soon after that, you both start doing more destruction together

Limits? F*ck no

Hell, if you asked for half of the moon to be destroyed, Klarion would snap his fingers and bam, moon gone.

One time you asked Klarion to give you powers like superman, just so you could fly and mess around in the city

It started off as just throwing cars as far as you could, not exactly caring if people were inside or not

Which then turned into full blown 'lemme jump/crash into one sky scrapper to another', looking like a monkey swinging from vines in a jungle

While the heroes didn't enjoy your hyper and destructive personality nor Klarion, the news loved you. The amount of reports you and Klarion got in the news just boosted both of your ego's

"Double trouble strikes again!" "Witch boy causes havoc with anonymous villain" "League fail to stop villains, have they met their match?" "Criminals cause devastating downfall on the city" "61 lives lost in under an hour" You felt prideful in the last one, a new record in your books

If you two ever go out to have dates, it'll 100% always end with something, mostly a building, being completely destroyed

Whenever the 'kiddie' team as Klarion calls them, or the Justice League come; they're always too late to stop you two

Even if Batman claims they were so close to stopping you, he's wrong. The heroes don't even manage to get you two to notice them arriving, already going off to have some fun somewhere else

You've mentioned about wanting to kill at least one of the heroes out of spite and because you felt like it on multiple occasions

Klarion would love to snap his fingers to have every hero there for you to choose from, yet he couldn't do that because of Vandal wanting some of them alive. Especially Lex with Superboy.

You get along nicely with the Light, as they trust you enough to know that you can calm Klarion down and that you're classed as a criminal

Occasionally, you have unnerved them with the gory deaths about some of your kills, Klarion kissing your cheek out of pure happiness from hearing the defined details

Teekl doesn't really care about it as long as you get the blood off her fur if you get any on her later.

A lot of lives are lost when you two are together... Which is all the time

(Secretly, the young justice team have envied how much freedom you get when with Klarion-> This is after they have to tidy up the mess you two make)

Sorry if this isn't very good, literally made this and posted it the same day. I've loved Klarion's character for quite a long time now and saw that, although the fanfics are good, there isn't a lot of them. I'm down for requests, but right now I don't think I can do many. You can send me stuff and I'll write it down, just don't be upset if I don't post it in the next week or two. If this isn't up to your standards then srry aha, I realise I don't add much fluff and focus more on the storyline, but there's always room for improvement tho✌️