#not Everything duh but still a fair amount

[tater-tot-jr]

Why I fucking love Project: Eden’s Garden chapter 1

(Spoilers below… duh)

I think I should start this by explaining exactly why I love Project: Eden’s Garden, but I’ll make it brief. I find every character interesting, even characters I’m less interested in like Jett or Mark still have a level of depth that makes me want to pick at them. I’ll highlight standout characters later, but I’ll be upfront that I don’t think P:EG contains a character that’s less than a 6 out of 10. They’re all at least slightly above average (compared to their competition).

I also like the theming. The religious imagery leaves a lot to pick at and the animal motifs are a classic way to convey information. The game has very strong ideas and aesthetic and that makes it’s more… metaphorical moments easy to follow even for an average player. Like me personally I’m a dumbass but I can usually tell what they’re doing, so that’s a big plus.

And on a more pragmatic side, the production is incredible. This makes a seamless experience to both watch and play. A lot of Fangans are hindered by low production value, as is the nature of these things. I don’t need everything I love to look spotless, but the pure amount of talent and work used on P:EG makes it standout. Also it makes it a rather safe thing to get invested in. Like it or not 95% of fangans fizzle out quickly after they begin. Again, it’s just the nature of these things. This seems like something that is poised to continue long term, but maybe I’ll end up eating my words. Who knows?

Anyway, that’s out of the way.

General thoughts

I’m going to separate my thoughts into sections. Starting with my general opinions on the chapter specifically.

One of my biggest worries going into this chapter is that Damon’s blowout at the end of the prologue would be used as a motivation for other characters to hate him for longer than necessary. We as an audience know he’s right. He was, for however much of a dick he was being, almost entirely correct. I was afraid people would keep bitching at him about it after he was proven soundly correct. Luckily this did not happen, and I was pleasantly surprised by how they handled it. Most characters did not like him at the start, they thought he was an asshat causing trouble (and to be fair he kinda was) but they didn’t want to lock him in a shed about it. It was actually mostly a mellow feeling of dislike and frustration that permeates peoples opinions of him. Obviously some people more than others. I like this because it sidesteps the three chapters of petty bullshit I was afraid would happen. Most people’s concerns about him were logical and reasonable. The cast even made an effort to include him and things and didn’t leave him out to dry. He still has a bad reputation, but the rest of the cast keeping a level head about it was fun. Some fangans have protagonists who are untrusting, rude, ect and they typically miss a lot of bonding time with the cast because of it. The decisions made in reaction to Damon’s words at the end of the prologue both set Damon on a clear arc without hindering our ability to bond with characters, and strengthen our perception of the remaining cast as people who aren’t needlessly petty and selfish.

Side note, one of the things I noticed quickly was that at the beginning of the chapter Damon wouldn’t refer to people by their names in his inner monologue. “Streamer girl” “influencer guy” ect ect. This slowly changing as people talk to him more was a subtly but impactful way to see him slowly becoming a tad bit more thoughtful.

Each character got at least some spotlight. Some more than others but everyone got a chance to do something special. There’s a reason to like every character beyond their general vibes, which is something even the og Danganronpa games struggled with. Every character has a moment in this chapter where they got to be memorable. I appreciate that. Some games have obvious filler characters, and while this game is no exception, they at least give their filler some substance. Everyone has a presence we can appreciate before it’s gone.

I liked how many free time events we got. That’s generous. Some games are too stingy on free time imo. I want to learn about these people. Let me learn about their life, let me learn what gifts that like. Games trying to freak you out and remind you how little time you have by being cheap with free time is annoying. And it has the opposite effect that is desired. Let me care about your characters damnit.

The events we got, all the pharmacy searching, the laundry, sharing a room with Kai, ect. These were all fun. None of them felt boring or stale or anything. There’s not a grander point to be made with this. I just had fun. That’s the number one priority imo.

The comedy hit surprisingly hard. Everyone had a moment to be funny. It didn’t get cringe (in my opinion) it just stayed humorous. I’m glad the game didn’t take an 100% serious tone and gave us a few moments to breathe and laugh.

The trial

I enjoyed this trial. From a storytelling standpoint it was easy to follow and the mystery was complex without ever being too hard to understand. The minigames had a reasonably difficultly to them. I had to pause and think a few times but I never had to resort to trying totally random bullshit. Maybe I made a few guesses, but I never started trying every combination to find the answer. They presented a very complex mystery in a very digestible way.

However, I do have a brief complaint. It’s not a massive issue, but it gave me pause. The whole “we were all playing games it couldn’t have been us rock” solid alibi turning into “it has to have been one of us” was not well disguised. It’s very classic danganronpa. So much that after the blackout my first thought was “okay, which one of you did it”. A few hours into the trial when we got everything about the notes luring people to places at specific times, and I remembered Eva picked the time for the game tournament I pretty quickly zero’d in on her. I very quickly became “I know it’s you. It’s definitely you. I don’t know how to prove it.” Which was fun, i guess. It’s an intro chapter so it’s not big issue, but I hope going forward they don’t make it quite so easy to pinpoint a culprit before the murder is even solved.

This opinion might be my most controversial, but I like the killer and victim choices. I’ve heard a lot of people claim they jumped the shark. They killed the two big characters too early. There’s so much wasted potential, it makes them sick. All that. I disagree. Kinda. Let’s start with the easy one. Eva served her purpose. She was a good character. Lying about being the ultimate liar? Based. But her reveal happened, and honestly I’m shocked they could prolong it for as long as they did. She was not making it past chapter one with that under wraps. Turns out she didn’t make it past chapter one at all, but the point remains. We learn her deal, and the game pushes you to spend free time on her, so we learn a good chunk of her past. I don’t think she would’ve served as much besides an interesting assistant if she was kept alive. We don’t need a Kyoko, Damon is competent enough on his own. The game made her close to us, and took her away when she ran out of anything besides being liked. It’s a good emotional moment. We liked her, and then she betrayed us. Betrayed us in many ways. My favorite moment in the trial was her snitching on us about the motives. I like it when killers don’t go gracefully, I like it when they have impact like that. And that execution, that’s gonna stick with me. I heard people say it was underwhelming, I disagree. As someone who loves all things angst, whump, and gore the sheer desperation makes to hard to watch. Reaching up for the hand when she was so close, she could’ve just kept crawling, and for the hand to be a trap is wonderfully poetic. You know she was falling down thinking that she could’ve just kept going.

As for the victim. Wolfgang was a character I found interesting, so I was sad to see him go. I won’t even lie, it’s thrown the game on its head. We all made the assumption this game would be a power struggle between ugly truths and pleasant lies. We got the rug pulled out from under us. Wolfgang also had a brutal death. Electrocution isn’t fun, and his final moments were surrounded by what was probably terrifying hallucinations. It’s just fucking awful. Seeing him lose his composure before death hurt like that, and I assume he’ll have some impact with the whole parents situation. He was supposed to be a stable force and we’re all reeling because he got taken away by our other stable force.

I’d also like to mention Diana, as she was closely involved. Watching someone die like that is traumatic, being locked in the room with their corpse during a blackout is even more so. Everything involving her is the reason I don’t feel much sympathy for Eva, only pity. It was a totally ruthless and cruel act for Eva to set her up like that, and it wasn’t necessary. She wanted someone easy to frame, Diana didn’t actually need to be there for the plan to work. And if Diana wasn’t there it would’ve been less complicated for her as well. It’s a bloodthirsty. I pity Eva because I can see why she came to the conclusions she did and felt the way she did, but her actions were horrible. Point blank. Cruel and awful. She wasn’t forced to take Tozu’s deal, I admit Tozu certainly both made it with her in mind and approached her at her lowest point, but it was still her choice. She’s accountable for her actions and I really don’t feel much sympathy. Also, Eva being tempted by Tozu’s deal. Eve being tempted by Satan’s forbidden fruit. Haha. Neat.

My favorite characters

Damon - I have something I must confess. I’m a bit of a debate bro. I know, I know, shame on me. I just really like to fight on the internet, okay? I’m pretty sure Damon was designed in a lab to appeal to me specifically. He’s a master debater, he’s a little fruity, he hates all yall. He’s just like me fr. I think he’s a good protagonist, he’s got an interesting complex about feeling better than everyone and then immediately getting that stomped on, he’s so certain he’s correct that he has trouble making himself sound super likable. Even when he’s right. As he’s chilled out he’s gotten better at this, and frankly I’m excited to see where his arc goes. A protagonist like him is always fun, he’s easy to anger sometimes, prone to disregarding the feelings of others, and quite pessimistic. He’s very proactive, testing the rules and talking to Tozu really made me appreciate how much he actually tries to do. It seems so obvious that Tozu would love to yap about his motive, I can’t believe i never even considered the possibility of someone just asking him. His internal monologue is pure comedy. Him falling asleep thinking about that “stupid lawyer” made me put down the game to laugh. And he really stepped up in the trial. He’s my son, he’s neat. Him clearly loving his mom and dad is also a nice humanizing touch.

Wenona - …I have another confession to make. I’m weak for a woman who’s only morally bankrupt. She didn’t have very many crazy standout moments, but every time she said anything you know I was cheering. Favorite character, hope she doesn’t die soon. Everyone wigging out over the student profiles while she’s just like reading them in the corner was so damn funny. Girl, do you have no chill?

Tozu - I love Tozu, I think he’s an excellent mastermind. He went to college for a villainy major and took a minor in theatre while he was there. Bro is the spectacle. He is the moment. He’s serving cunt whenever he’s on screen. I also like that he’s clearly a person, mentally as well as physically. He plays favorites, he’s sadistic, he’s methodical, he’s terrifying. He’s having the best time, and it’s a welcome change of pace. I was getting a little sick of robot mastermind. Yes yes sue me, but it’s fun to have a mastermind not running on ai and actually interacts with the cast in a human way.

And that’s kinda all I have (for now) knowing me I’ll probably be back.

[lanawinterscigarettes]

Can I request Nsfw Alphabet with Monica Geller?

Thanks in advance

I got multiple requests for a nsfw alphabet with Monica so naturally I'm just gonna combined them lol. this is gender neutral and not strictly with a fem reader btw because whenever I write for smth like the nsfw alphabet I prefer to have it where anyone can read/enjoy it. that being said, I hope it was worth the wait!

Monica Geller nsfw alphabet

Warnings: smut (duh), gender neutral reader

Aftercare (what they're like after sex)

Almost as soon as you're completely done with having sex, she has you get up so she can change the sheets (kidding....for the most part). She'll wait to do that if you're both exhausted, but in general she has a pretty strict aftercare routine that she follows. Both of you get wiped down with a damp rag, and you both drink water/have a light snack to help regain your energy even if you plan on taking a nap directly after.

Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner's)

I don't think she has just one favorite body part. You've gotta remember, she's an ex fat girl who still can't help but obsess over how she looks. I'd say she's awfully proud of her physique/body in general due to how slim she is now versus when she was still in high school (I'm not saying that mindset is a healthy one, it's just the one she has in my opinion).

On you? She loves your stomach and thighs, especially if you're chubby there. Part of her yearns to be confident enough to be okay with gaining some of the weight back, but for now she prefers to just dote and fawn over you instead. She loves it if you have belly rolls, and any stretch marks get extra love whenever she presses playful kisses to your body during foreplay.

Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Cum? On her sheets? No thank you. If there's one thing she hates, it's the idea of making a mess. Sometimes you may be able to get her to forget about it if the sex is passionate enough, but the clean freak in her still can't help but worry about the stain your mixed body fluids will leave. On the other hand, the idea of being so caught up in each other that you two completely wreck the bed turns her on to no end. It lets her live a little, and the joy of getting to use her new detergent to wash the sheets afterwards just makes it all the more better.

Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

She kind of has a thing for people older than her (that one's not a massive secret, as she did date Richard at one point). Also, messy kitchen sex? I know it sounds kind of weird, but imagine you're having a playful fight where she's trying to make a cake and you put icing on her nose, so she playfully tosses flour at you, etc. It's not super dirty, but given her reputation for hating messes of any kind she'd rather die than let people know she thinks a food fight resulting in sex is pretty hot.

Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they're doing?)

I'd say she has a fair amount of experience. I think it's canon that she didn't lose her virginity until after high school, but that doesn't mean she hasn't had her share of boyfriends (and girlfriends, as I'm a bisexual Monica truther), not to mentions hook-ups or one-night stands. I wouldn't say she's tried everything there is to try, but she's not inexperienced, that's for sure.

Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Any position where she can see your face to gauge your reactions and has access to kiss you. It doesn't matter whether the sex you're having is quick and rough or slow and gentle, she likes to pepper your face and neck with kisses regardless.

Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

She's not very goofy herself, but I think she'll put up with a reasonable amount of it from her partner (you've gotta remember who she ended up marrying in the show, because I just know Chandler was cracking jokes on the occasion while they did the deed). If the type of sex you're having is more light hearted and playful then you may be able to get a funny quip or two out of her, but that's about it. She will, however, giggle like crazy if you do the same thing.

Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Oh yeah, she definitely keeps things tidy down there. I wouldn't say she'd go so far as to wax (not sure if anyone remembers the episode with the "painless" wax strips or not) but she at the very least keeps everything trimmed back. It's more of a personal preference than it is for her partner, so I'm not sure how willing she'd be to let it grow out. Assuming you guys have been together for a while, she may skip shaving in the shower, but she won't let it grow out too much. Her pubes are the same dark color as her hair is, if not slightly darker.

Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

She can be pretty romantic when she wants to be, especially when she's set the mood beforehand. Anniversarys, birthdays, any sort of special occaison like that will have her finding the perfect lingerie set to wear for later that night when you finally get home and have the place to yourselves.

Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

She can and will always make time to masturbate if she really needs to. One thing about her is you do not want to get on her bad side when she's sexually frustrated with no way to let it out. If she has to kick everybody out of her apartment long enough for her to get some relief, then she will, and no one bothers to protest because an angry Monica is a scary Monica.

Kink (one or more of their kinks)

I'm a firm believer that she has some sort of a praise kink from the way she was overlooked by her parents and treated in high school. She always has to be the best at everything she does, and to hear validation from you that she's making you feel good and doing well at whatever it is that she's doing boosts her confidence (and her sex drive).

Location (favorite places to do the do)

The bedroom is obviously the most ideal place to have sex, but I really don't think she'd be against having sex in a more revealing place. As we've seen from the show, she's not above slipping into an empty room in a public setting for a quickie if need be. The thrill of getting caught outweighs most of the risks, in her opinion.

Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Honestly? When you clean or organize something and do a good job at it. There's nothing worse to her than a messy apartment, so if you ever do her the favor of managing to clean in the way she likes it's such a massive turn-on for her. Another one is praising, like I said earlier. If you ever compliment her on a dish that she's made really well or the way she's cleaned you're basically giving her an invitation for sex. You'll see her pupils dilate before she pulls you in for a passionate kiss.

No (something they won't do, turn offs)

Degradation, from you or her. It goes back to her insecurities about never being good enough, and it makes her question her worth to have someone call her names, even in a scene. This goes for her degrading you too, by the way. She just can't bring herself to be mean to you in that way during sex, even if you've given her the go ahead and established a safe word.

Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

This is another one of those things that she stresses about and practices until she's the best at it. And by the best, I mean the absolute best. Regardless of whatever you have going on in your pants or down betwen your legs, she's going to be really good at pleasing you with her mouth and tongue. In terms of whether she prefers giving or receiving, she actually doesn't have much of a preference. It all depends on the situation for her, and who made the first move.

Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

She could be either depending on the mood set. If it's a more romantic night or you're celebrating something, she's much slower, choosing to take her time. However, if you've sneaked away for a quickie obviously she's going to be faster and maybe a little rough. One thing that's certain is that she always makes sure to check that you're comfortable with the pace before continuing.

Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

As a professional chef, she already has a lot of stuff on her plate, so it's safe to say quickies don't bother her and are actually one of her preferred methods of getting off. Long and slow sessions don't typically happen unless one or both of you planned for it ahead of time, so it's not uncommon for you to have a quickie whenever you get the chance.

Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

She takes a reasonable amount of risks. She doesn't have any qualms about having sex in a semi-public location, and she's open to trying new things if you're up for it.

Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

If it's a quickie or if she's had to wait a while for relief, she probably won't last very long, but she'll most likely be up for another round soon after. In fact, she has pretty good stamina in general, usually able to go for several rounds before stopping. You're more likely to tap out before her.

Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

She owns a few different toys. A regular sized vibrator, a bullet vibrator for whenever she needs something small for out of town, and maybe a risque pair of handcuffs hidden away somewhere. Depending on your personal preference, she'll use them on either you or her, and if you ever want to try something specific then she'd be more than happy to (discreetly) order it for you.

Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Not a whole lot, but sometimes she'll wear a dress that's more revealing when you guys go out to eat dinner and the like. She doesn't like to tease you as much as you'd think because she doesn't like the feeling of having a ton of pent-up sexual energy with nothing to do with it.

Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Oh, she can be loud. She'll restrain herself if you absolutely need to be quiet, but if not then she's not bothering to hold anything back. Pants, moans, groans- with her, you always know whether you're doing well or not, because her sounds will dictate it.

Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Honestly? I could see her being into feederism, which is basically when you get off on feeding other people/being fed by another person. She most likely wouldn't have a preference on who does which, whether it's her feeding you or you feeding her. In fact, she might even want the two of you to feed each other at the same time. It's almost a way for her to pay homage to her old self while comfortably entertaining the idea of her healthily gaining a few extra pounds and keeping them.

X-ray (let's see what's going on under those clothes)

She definitely has stretch marks (yeah I said it). There's several all along her body, including her boobs, thighs, and stomach. Most of them are pretty faded due to how old they are and how long it's been since she's lost weight, but if you ever compliment them or gently trace your fingers along them when you're laying in bed together she'll melt and propose to you on the spot. She's joking, don't worry (for the most part, anyway).

Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

It's not extremely high, but I could see her wanting to have sex at least once or twice a week, maybe more if the two of you aren't busy for once. Again, she doesn't like having to wait for too long if she's in the mood. That's not to say she'd ever pressure you into having sex, because she wouldn't, it just means if you're unavailable for sex or just don't want to have it she has to get some time for herself to take care of the issue, otherwise she's going to explode.

Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

It takes her a little bit, especially if she has the nagging urge to immediately get up and change the sheets. Pillow talk is one of her favorite times to have deep, intimate conversations, so she'd love to do that with you if you're up for it, but she understands if you're too tired.

End notes: it's kind of embarrassing just how quickly I wrote this

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[pilot-boi]

For the tans winter maiden jaune au, think we can get a snippet of him meeting with Nora? Does he start using she/her pronouns by then or is he still mostly repressing everything and using he/him?

First of all, it’s not a repression thing. I cannot stress enough that Jaune’s pronouns are he/him. Being a woman doesn’t change that. Like I said before, it took this long for his egg to crack because he feels no discomfort in using he/him to refer to himself. He is a bisexual girl who uses he/him

That being said, I’ll do my best :]

Fair warning, I got VERY carried away

Jaune’s been acting weird since he got back.

Well duh Nora, of course he’s been weird. He’s been trapped in another dimension for gods know how long with nobody to talk to. And he’s apparently a fairy tale character, from a book popular enough that even HER mom had time to read it as a bedtime story before abandoning her.

Good times.

He’s the Winter Maiden.

She’s the Winter Maiden. He? She? They? Do the rules of that even apply anymore now that even Ozpin doesn’t know what’s going on and her family met the mother of the gods?

And how did it even happen? All she knows is her leader is back with flames from blue eyes and Jaune refuses to talk about it. So does the rest of RWBY. Well, to an extent.

The death of the Winter Maiden was something that got brought up immediately, especially since no Penny came through the portal and Winter showed up with Qrow and the Ace Ops. Everyone assumed that Penny was dead, but nobody knew who got the powers.

And then RWBY returns from the dead with a flame-eyed Jaune and an impossible story. They all dance around the question in meetings. It was Cinder’s fault, they all say, and Nora believes them. But they also all glance at Jaune whose hand is tight on the hilt of Crocea Mors.

Nora is many things, but she’s not oblivious. A ditz, sure, over-exuberant, definitely. But unobservant she is not. Jaune was involved in Penny’s death. How, she doesn’t know, but she recognizes the haunted look in those eyes from dark nights in Mistral. No amount of years could dull that.

Ren has taken his turn looking through their leader, and apparently Jaune is fine. Or at least as fine as can be expected. And Nora trusts him. She trusts him more than he trusts herself these days.

But there’s still something. Something in Jaune’s eyes when they land on her, a flicker of something she can’t recognize. Or wishes she couldn’t.

Blame. Guilt. Pain. Emotions that have never been directed towards her from Jaune. Flames from blue eyes, twenty years alone, a trauma she knows nothing about.

She doesn’t know who Jaune is anymore.

And it’s that realization that pushes her to find Jaune and talk in person.

“Jaune? Can I come in?” Nora knocks on the door. The Nora-Of-Before would’ve just barged in without thinking. There’s a lot of things Nora-Of-Before wouldn’t have bothered to think about.

“‘Course, door’s open.” Jaune is sitting on the bed that’s shared with Oscar, adjusting the straps on the shoulders of the armor. “Hey, Nora. Did you need something?”

“What do I call you now?” Wow, great going, Nora. Just blurt it out.

Jaune blinks and looks up at her, visibly confused. “Um… Jaune?” Blue eyes glance over her face. “Unless something changed that I don’t know about?”

Something did change, she wants to scream. You changed. You changed and you can’t even see it because it happened when nobody was around to point it out. You were alone and vulnerable and it’s all my fault.

“Can I sit down?” she asks instead. Jaune slides over immediately, shoving the armor onto the pillow to make room for her. “Jaune, we need to talk.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“I need to get something out of the way first of all.” She looks her leader straight in the eyes. “What do I call you now?”

“Jaune. Nora I don’t-“

“No no not that,” she waves away. “Not your name, I know your name.”

Jaune chuckles. “You’d be the first.” Short, sweet, ladies love it. The whole world knows them now. Not as much as Ruby, but still. Nora can’t fathom how Jaune deals with the world knowing the fairytale title more than the name from the broadcast.

“It’s just… So much has happened, and you don’t have to tell me all of it or any of it-” The words are tumbling out of her before she knows it, before she can stop them. “-but clearly so much has happened and you’re like family to me, and I’m sorry about what happened, I’m so sorry, but-”

“Woah woah woah, slow down.” Jaune grabs her hands. Dammit, she was rambling. This is about Jaune being hurt, and here she is rambling. “C’mere.” Jaune slides her over and plops a head of white streaked curls down on her head. She can feel Jaune’s voice rumble. “You can talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“I just… I don’t think I know you anymore.” And dammit why is her voice so small. She’s supposed to be the strong one. Gods, how does Jaune do this?!

Jaune doesn’t answer for the longest time, and for her it’s like having her worst fears confirmed. You’re right, you don’t know me, her leader’s silence seems to say.

“I don’t think I know myself anymore,” Jaune says eventually. “I was the Burning Knight. I still am, I guess.” There’s a pause, and Nora leans into the ratty sweatshirt Neptune lent. “I don’t really know who I am without the fairytale. It’s hard to explain.”

I don’t actually know who I am without Ren. “No… I think I get it,” Nora says. “Ren and I have been spending time apart since you…” Died. Since you died, and we buried you, and I couldn’t bring back help. But Jaune isn’t dead, she can feel the tickle of blonde curls on her forehead and the warmth through the hoodie. “I wanted to figure out who I am. I’m still working on that, but I think I get it.”

Jaune hmms.

“I’m the Winter Maiden.” It’s so matter of fact that Nora had to remind herself that Jaune’s had decades to get used to the idea. “but I still feel like Jaune Arc. I think… I think I’m a girl, but I still feel like a man.” And Nora has to admit, she’s shocked by how quickly Jaune admitted that. Other dimension therapy must be bonkers.

“So who are you?”

Another chuckle, this one failing to hide the hurt. “If you only knew how many times I failed to answer that question.”

More silence. Less stifling.

“I think… I think I’m still me.” And Nora can hear the relief. How long has her leader been dealing with identity and self all alone? Did it start in fairytale land, or did she just miss the signs? “I’m the Maiden, and I’m a girl, but I still feel like a guy.”

“Oh yeah?” Nora shifts so she can look at Jaune’s face. Blonde hair streaked with white over blue eyes. The eyes are still the same. “So you’re a woman? Like May?”

Jaune grimaces, thumps back down on her shoulder. “Girl feels right, woman doesn’t. I don’t feel… grown enough for woman.” Nora nods. Young, then old, then young again. Enough time has been stolen, it makes sense that Jaune’s had enough of being grown.

“So you’re my sister now, not my brother?” Nora asks.

She feels Jaune curl around her, long arms holding her like a teddy bear. “I don’t think I know who I am if I’m not your brother. Or Ren’s. Or Ruby, or Oscar’s.”

Who is Nora Valkyrie if she isn’t part of Ren and Nora? “It’s just a part of you,” she murmurs. How many Winter Maidens is she going to lead down this path before she reaches the end herself? “Don’t forget about the rest.”

“The rest of me feels like a guy,” Jaune replies immediately. “Not a man, not a hero just… just a guy. Or a girl. ” She can almost hear the smile behind the words. “A friend.”

“So, what do I call you now?”

“What do I call you?” Jaune shoots the question back at her. “Who are you?” And that’s not fair, ‘cause she hasn’t had two decades to work on this, she’s only had two months. And most of that time was filled up with grieving.

Although, with the white-streaks in blonde hair and the haunted look in blue eyes, Jaune probably spent the two decades similarly.

“I don’t think I know,” Nora admits.

“Me neither,” Jaune sighs. “I should probably talk to May about this. She’s the expert.”

“Probably.”

“Who do you want to be?” And the way Jaune says it, the question clearly means something. Something locked up in fairytale land and the lost years spent there.

But it’s an interesting question.

“I want to be someone who’s there for her friends,” she says. A golden portal and knuckles and throat bleeding under the force of desperation. “Someone whose friends know that she’ll fight the battles they can’t, and laugh and cry with them afterwards.”

“Sounds like you want to be Nora.”

It does, doesn’t it? “Who do you want to be?”

“I want to be someone who can help people,” Jaune says. A gleaming shield and a shattered blade, glowing hands meant to comfort and heal. “The kind of guy who can say “Everything’s gonna be alright, I’m here to help,” and people believe him.”

“Sounds like you want to be Jaune,” Nora quips back at her leader, and receives a weak laugh in response.

Him. Jaune said him.

“Do you still want to be a him? You’re a girl who feels like a guy.” She leans back against Jaune’s chest, snuggling into the warmth there. “Whatever you say, I’ll still love you.”

Silence. Nora feels Jaune shift awkwardly, sees calloused fingers pull at borrowed hoodie sleeves in front of her. “Is that like… allowed?” Theres a shocking amount of vulnerability in her leader’s voice. Like her answer will decide the rest of the future.

Oh Jaune.

There’s an immortal witch trying to kill us, time travel is apparently real, and you’re a fairy tale character. Who cares what’s allowed? It’s what she wants to say. It’s what she’s thinking. But cradling Jaune’s bleeding heart in her hands, and knowing better than she knows her name how important the opinion of her leader’s friends are, she stays quiet.

Nora looks up. Blue eyes, full of shadow and doubt. But still Jaune’s. “It’s very allowed.”

And his smile is like the sun.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

Hiii

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️

Hi!

54 for ⚡️:

---

Eddie sighs. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Buck just gives him a look like duh. He knows it’s fair. They could have been figuring this out months ago. 

“I thought…” Eddie sighs. “I just, I thought maybe I could make it go away. I know how you are about change and the team and…”

“And you thought that us working together would be more important to me than you being happy?” Buck asks. “Really?” 

Eddie blinks. “No. No, that’s not it.”

“It feels like it,” Buck says. 

“I’m sorry,” Eddie says. “You’re right. I just… This is weird for me, okay? I’ve always loved that job. And I didn’t know what to think about not enjoying it as much anymore. And… And, yeah, I guess I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“You choosing being happy over what you think you should do would never disappoint me, Eddie!”

“Then I want to take the job!” Eddie exclaims, clearly exasperated.

“Good!” Buck fires back. “I want you to take the job! I want you to be happy!”

“Well, I don’t want you to be sad!” Eddie rebuts. Buck isn’t sure why they’re arguing anymore.

“I can grow the hell up!” Buck snaps, realizing, as he says it, that it’s true. Eddie married him. Bobby agreed to be his child’s grandfather. No one is fucking leaving him. It’s okay if things change. They had to change, for them to have Brooke. And that’s changing other things now. 

Brooke. Right. 

Buck remembers all of a sudden that he’s holding his infant daughter. Shit. He looks down at her. She has a disconcerted little look on her face. 

“Sorry, baby,” he says gently. He kisses her head. “We won’t… We’ll stop…”

“Sorry,” Eddie mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry.”

---

54 🌲:

---

Sophia throws her hands up. “Okay, fine. Have your beefy bodyguard escort me out, then. God.”

“Beefy?” Buck echoes. 

Buck is so clearly out of his element. He and Maddie are not normal siblings. 

“Can you go?” Eddie asks him. “Just for a minute?”

Buck nods. He looks at Sophia. “Let’s go.”

They leave, Buck with a worried look on his face and Sophia with an annoyed expression. And then it’s just Eddie and Adriana. 

“Show me,” Eddie demands.

“It’s horrible,” she warns.

“I think I already know.”

Adriana takes a deep breath. She takes off her hoodie. Underneath, she’s just wearing a sports bra. She turns around, hesitantly, to show Eddie her back. The racerback of her bra covers a good amount of her back but it’s not enough to miss it. The very thing that’s been plaguing his nightmares for years. For his whole life. 

His sister’s back has taken the form of a rotting, hollowed out tree trunk. Her back is still her back. It’s the same shape. But the more he looks towards the center, the more he sees the trunk of a tree. The bark. The decay. 

Eddie inhales sharply and takes a step back from her. 

“Oh my god,” he says, almost a cry.

“Told you it’s horrible,” she says. 

“How are you alive?” He asks her. 

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Everything works the same. I guess, uh… Magic?”

“Can I…” He asks. 

“Go for it.”

Eddie steps forward again and reaches a tentative hand to touch the edge of the hollow. It’s cold. Cold despite the warmth of the room and the fact that she’d been wearing a sweater. It feels just like tree bark. Tree bark with no integrity. Like if he gripped a little harder it would crumble. 

Eddie retracts his hand. 

“Adriana, I’m so sorry,” he says. “I… I can’t believe this is real. I had nightmares about it my whole life. But, on me.”

---

54 for ⚖️:

---

“Whoa, uh…” Buck stammers. 

“Hello, Buck,” she says. “Nice morning?”

Buck gapes at her. “Are you making small talk with me? Really?”

She sighs. “Alright, human. Forget it. I tried to be polite.”

“That sounds less concerning,” Buck agrees. 

She rolls her eyes. Maybe Buck should work on not annoying a primordial being. 

“I’m here with a warning,” she says. 

“A warning?” Buck asks. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Not technically,” she says. “But, still. I fear for you. I don’t want you to end up like our boiled outlaw friend.”

Buck stills. “Why… Why would I?”

“You’re using it all a little personally, don’t you think?” 

“You mean… You mean yesterday?” Buck says. “Because, hopefully that’s just a one time thing.”

“Not just that,” she says. “Your brother-in-law.”

“You’re really keeping tabs on me, huh?” 

“I can’t exactly help but notice,” she says. “And I worry this will impact you adversely. Which is not what I want, having already put time and effort into you.”

“Gee, thanks,” Buck mutters.

“Stop making this about your life,” she says. “Make it about strangers. Separate yourself.”

“Why?” Buck says. “Why do that, when I can help the people I love? It’s not like I’m not doing what you told me to. I am.”

“This isn’t a scolding,” she says. “I’m simply trying to warn you. It won’t end well.” 

“Why?” Buck demands. 

She shrugs. 

“I don’t pretend to understand your little brains. All I know is too much involvement in the futures of your loved ones, too much personal investment? It compromises the integrity of your mind.”

[phoebepheebsphibs]

I will never actually write this because it was too sad (even for me and my angsty skills...)

A while ago, I came up with the idea to write a really sad fic about the turtles. Duh.

A goal with all my fics is to have a moment where I make the audience cry, or at the very least get emotional. And this was no exception. It’s a personal challenge for me, to see if I can get my audience truly invested. But, I also need my fics to have a PURPOSE. So, if I was gonna write a sad and angsty fic, I needed a way to bring it to a moral or happy ending, to show a reason why the characters went through what they did, rather than just have a story for story's sake. So, I went about coming up with a synopsis for a story that showed how to deal with grief and guilt and hopelessness. But after several months of writing and ideas, I realized that it simply wasn't working out. The story wasn't just sad or angsty, it was utterly depressing. The message of hope even after death wasn't pulling through... and in addition, I got worried that the massive amounts of despair in the story were going to be detrimental to my mental health, if not also for the readers. Thusly, I scrapped the plot.

So fair warning, the stuff you're about to read is very emotional and kinda dark...

Naw I ain’t playing, turn back now while you have the chance.

CW: LOTS. OF. DEATH. Major illness, disintegration, intrusive thoughts, suicidal thoughts, even a suicide attempt.

I was even in the process of making cover art for it (which I do for all my fics lol)

The fic literally starts out with a note from April (the narrator), explaining that she documented everything and warns the reader that this story does not have a happy ending. It takes place about a week after the invasion, and the family was having a rough time. Mikey's hands were absolutely scorched, Donnie's immune system was shot and he seemed to be getting ill, Raph was having constant panic attacks, and Leo wasn't getting better from his injuries. To top it all off, a new government branch was setting up camp in NYC and interrogating people about the events of the Krang attack. April had narrowly escaped but figured the Earth Protection Force would come back for her. Meanwhile, Leo’s injuries weren’t healing like they should have and he was getting worse… Eventually the family caved and asked for help from Agent Bishop and the EPF, but after some doctors and scientists took a look at Leo… they realized there was nothing anyone could do. They’d waited too long. Leo was not going to make it, and all they could do was make him comfortable for a few hours before he... yeah. So everyone said their goodbyes, and I actually have some snippets of dialogue written down and it makes me cry every time. Donnie had the worst reaction, upset by Leo's peace with the situation and devastated by his loss, believing that he never showed his appreciation and love for his twin as much as he should have. Leo attempts to comfort Donnie, but eventually tells him to "get over it". A few hours later, Leo dies in his sleep, and the room erupts into grief and panic and chaos until Donnie, in his pure anger, punches a hole through the heart monitor and leaves. Leo is given a viking send-off in the Hidden City, and afterwards, April asks what they are supposed to do now. Donnie angrily repeats Leo's last insight: get over it. April goes home, and after her parents ask her how her day was… she bursts into tears.

Several weeks later, Mikey tries to get Donnie and Raph to talk about their feelings, but they both refuse. Mikey himself is having issues, his hands not healing quickly and he wonders if he will ever be able to make a work of art again. He manages to get Donnie to admit his guilt of not being there for Leo and still holding anger and resentment towards his twin for sacrificing himself and dying. Mikey suggests that he speak with Raph, but Donatello refuses. Later, during an attack, Raph was knocked out and Donnie collapsed from his illness, which he had been hiding. Mikey realizes that it's left to him and uses his mystic powers to portal his brothers to safety, at the cost of his own life. Mikey comes to terms with this, believing that what he did was his mangum opus, and he feels no pain as he vanishes, greeted by Leo in the afterlife.

Donatello and Raphael mourn the loss of two brothers, and Donnie finally talks with Raph about his grief over Leo’s death (in honour of Dr. Feelings’ memory). However, his declining health is brought to light and Donnie is placed in quarantine. Casey Jr. identifies his illness as a common Krang disease, one his mother died of, and the group work overtime to create the cure. Raph stays with his last sibling and keeps him company. Donnie gets more and more sick, and one night while April and Casey are working with Agent Bishop to finalize the antidote, Donnie's fever worsens and he sleepwalks, hallucinating Mikey and Leo's return and them comforting Donnie and telling him that the others will be alright in his absence. Donnie senses that his time is almost up. Raph finds him but doesn't understand what Donnie is seeing or who he is talking to, and takes him back to bed. April and Casey finally finish the cure and rush home, hoping to make it back in time, but find Raph asleep by Donnie's bedside… Donnie having just succumbed to his illness a few hours prior.

Raph is left as the last one alive, dealing with extreme survivors' guilt for outliving his brothers and blames himself for their deaths. April tries to comfort him, Splinter, and Casey. (Casey notes that history seems to be repeating itself in reverse order— that while in the alternate timeline Raph died first and Leo last, the opposite has been happening here, and Casey fears that Raph might actually die somehow very soon.) Meanwhile, Raphael tries to atone for his guilt by overdoing the vigilante work on his own. Eventually he decides that it isn't enough, he can never atone, and he misses his brothers too much… so he writes a note to April and emails it to her, then goes to the Hidden City to pick a fight with Heinous Green... and let him win. April receives the email and she and the others rush to save Raph, who at this point has already found Heinous Green and is letting him beat the ever-loving life out of him. Halfway through, however, he realizes what he is doing and that his brothers would not want this for him, but it's too late... April and Casey find Raph near death and attempt to save him, but he goes unconscious from his injuries.

While April, Casey, Splinter and Draxum work to heal Raph's wounds and revive him, Raphael dreams of the afterlife, meeting up with his brothers and apologizing for everything. They comfort him, yet also explain that he has to wake up soon; and how April, Casey, and Splinter still need him. Raphael asks if he can stay, to which they promise that he will be okay without them and someday they will see each other again; that they aren’t mad at him for their deaths, but that he cannot speed up their meeting. Raph agrees to go home, to which they all say how proud they are of him. Raphael wakes up with his family around him, relieved that he survived. Later that night, he and April have a discussion where she scolds and berates him for trying to leave them, saying that she had no one left. He admits his actions and apologizes and promises to get better.

In an epilogue, April explains that it has been a full year since Raph’s injuries, and he is doing much better. The Hidden City made a memorial for the three lost brothers in honour of their sacrifices. Casey Jones Jr. has been doing better as well, though he will often have nights of panic and moments of grief that only Raph can get him through. Agent Bishop works with Raphael and Casey to keep the city safe from mutant attacks, and they work to create a new team, hinting to characters like Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo/Frida Kahlo, Leatherhead, and other characters from the comic series. April ends by stating that at the beginning, she said the story did not have a happy ending. She stands by this, stating that the story has not ended and will continue for as long as they live, and that she does her best to remember her friends and keep going on, not for their sake, but for her own. And that one day, she will see them again.

And as if THAT wasn't heart-wrenching enough, I also planned a short after-story of how something like 80 years later, The Hamato ghosts get ready to welcome Raph into the afterlife, showing Leo preparing a house for him and Mikey decorating and Donnie gardening.

So yeah this is the most depressing and heartbreaking thing I've ever written, and I ACTUALLY SPARED YOU FROM THE DIALOGUE I HAD WRITTEN TOO

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Transmission Transition

Yeah buddy, I'd want some time alone too after that full-blown verbal holy war Kendrick Lamar dragged your ass with. Kinda shit that makes you need to stop and reflect on your life choices. Drake is back and he is straight-up pulling a Crane Wife hot on the heels of Stussy putting words to some interesting concepts we've seen.

It's been a while, so for a refresher I care a lot about X Drake coming back around because we dangled his report on Wano as a Chekov's Gun way back at the start of Egghead. If he's the one to open up a reinterpretation of Wano...Drake's scenes overlap with Kiku/Izo's a fair amount. So once again, hot on the heels of Stussy speaking that potential baggage aloud here's Drake playing very nice as a followup. Drake, Stussy, Marco. That was the trio I was looking for in this pseudo-anthology's third side story. Speaking of...

It's been a while. Always had nascent ideas about the idea Zoro busts out an attack called Rashomon with Kuma way back when. Of course I've made plenty of mentions of the film reference. Even if you haven't seen it you've seen the story structure. Three POVs on the same event, the real magic is in stitching the truth together out of three unreliable narrators. Marco's perfect to spell it all out as the sorta "framing device" between Wano & Egghead.

It's hard to tell week-to-week what we'll do with this one, but I think we can see what our trio is for Egghead:

First we step away to see a collection of side stories, end on filing in the truth of Sabo/Vivi in Reverie. This though obscured what happened in the lab.

Next we give Bonney a whirl through her backstory with Kuma, where he'll both be a bit of an unreliable narrator and also rewrite some events we've seen prior through giving his POV. When we return we reiterate last night was a gap and add the mystery pile of food for Luffy.

Vegapunk's Broadcast, duh. It was more of a distraction while we saw some relation to the main plot but it still fits the bill. We've done Stussy, we're getting Drake, if you do loop Marco in than it's a way to complete the ASL theme with an Ace connection too. And don't sleep on the York focus here either.

Of course, we'll need to see the next few chapters to really evaluate that. Each one have had their content that raises questions, unreliable narrators and oddball tropes like that. But let's get back to this chapter, there was a cool running line in there I liked:

I could riff on Koby, Grus, & Kujaku getting a bit meta here but I'll save that until I know the next few steps. Kujaku gets to shine a lil more in this SWORD segment as the one checking on Drake but her line here gets a lot more interesting when Bluegrass & Doll have a similar mindset attacking the giants. Bluegrass especially encouraging the young ones to step up and become a star. Makes me think a lot about our OP for the anime adaptation The end of the dream, the end of the sea...but first we have to make a shining legend of ourselves.

It's just funny to me one could interpret the lyrics to "Us" as a threat this arc maybe will break the direction I've long hoped it would is all I'm saying. Let's bring this all home with the main highlight of the chapter though.

It's not just the stinger, the Gorosei seemed a little shocked their first hits on Robonosuke stopped everything. York is relieved but recall last time we talked about her theory that's where the antenna snail was hiding was just that, a theory.

Type of thing that could go either way and either option could have a lot of ways of unfolding. That said...this is a perfect ending if some unknown force is about to take advantage of these gaps to justify being in prime position to hijack the broadcast. Kinda feels like it'd be a cop out to have Robonosuke hanging around this whole time just to get smacked around a little. Still very, very excited for this next stint.

[dipplin-daycare]

Blog Info...

Hello and welcome to our age(d)re + pet(d)re blog. Take a good look and feel free get comfortable 'cause we're all about comfy things! Though this blog is still new we're looking forward to posting original content and interacting with the community. One day we might even open requests, who knows... And, of course, feel free to shoot us an ask! Our ask box is always open

Tagging System...

#🍎-❝by leaf❞🍃 ...for leaf's posts #🍎-❝by blu❞🌧️ ... for blu' posts #🍎-❝by rosa❞🌸 ... for rosa's posts #🍎-❝text❞💬 ... for text based posts #🍎-❝edits❞📸 ... for icons and edits #🍎-❝boards❞✏️ ... for agere moodboards #🍎-❝reblogs❞🔁 ... for reblogs

Do not interact...

Kink or NSFW accounts, ageplay and variants, pedo/zoos + supporters, any kind of bigot (incl. TERFs and transmeds), discourse and/or politic centric blogs, anti-recovery (incl. pro-ana pro-sh), anti-agere/petre, anti-therian !Interacting includes linking and reblogging posts!

.... about us under the cut!

About us...

Starting with the basics... We're three brazilian young adults and we all love pokemon We're also a T4T polycule and been together for around a year at this point(and we're not looking for romantic relationships here), we all have some background with the agere community and agree that we prefer to not be a part of any specific community and just treat regression as an individual thing (non-community)

I'm Leaf! I'm 21 and go by they/them. I'm a caregiver and care for both my partners whom I love very much <3. That aside, I'm a leafeon therian and sometimes I pet regress to a fox or cat Even though I'm not an age regressor I still deal with a fair amount of anxiety, OCD, dissociation and I'm neurodivergent Currently majoring pedadogy and I dream of working as a educator or school counselor, I have a fair amount of knowledge on sociology and neuropsychology as well. I'm also a pokemon fanatic, shiny hunter, and I love everything nintendo (Splatoon and Kirby are my other favorite franchises), roguelike and metroidvania games and TTRPGs. I enjoy collecting stuff and I'm very fond of lizards (snakes included!) My favorite pokemon is leafeon (and hydrapple) and I'd be a grass type trainer/gym leader

I'm Rosabella, Rosa for short! I'm 20 and my pronouns are she/they/fae I'm a flip, that is, sometimes I'm my partner Blu's caregiver and sometimes my other partner Leaf is my caregiver! My little age is around 4-8, I started regressing recently and so far I love the idea of getting to live the ideal childhood I've never had. I'm a puppy regressor too, a pomski to be more specific I'm a DID system and switch between using we/us and I/me, I'm also autistic+ADHD and HoH. Because of that I'm very invested in disabled and Deaf/HoH rights activism I love pokémon (duh) Scarlet/Violet have been my favorite games so far! I also like Animal Crossing, nostalgic toys, The Owl House, Amphibia, Adventure Time, OTGW, and similar cartoons. And I love anything magical girls!! My favorite pokémon is the hatenna evolution line and I'd be a psychic type gym leader!

I'm Blu, I'm 20 years old and go by he/they and occasionally it/its I'm a regressor and my two primaries act as my caregivers. My regressed age fluctuates from a little toddler to an edgy teen. I also heavily relate to birds, am a bird regressor and a swablu therian(that's where my name came from lol) I have OSDD1a, though I strictly refer to myself as singular person (I/me), I'm also autistic and physically disabled Majoring geography and specializing in meteorology, loooove storm spotting and retro videogames (my partners might disagree on that but I think the best pokemon games are the early ones + spin offs). Be sure that I know and have played the most obscure nintendo and sonic spin-offs My favorite pokemon is obviously swablu/altaria (murkrow is a close second) and I'd be a flying type trainer. That's it.

dipplin sprite by RetroNC

[hyog-blog]

Wonderland of Love

Today the dash reminded me of one of the steamiest and hottest historical war cdramas that is pure fun, delicious flirting, and two main leads exploding into sparky fireworks of mutual attraction the minute they see each other. It's one of my favorite performances by Xu Kai (apart from Arsenal Military Academy which is still THE BEST one). The man is a very good actor and is perfect for the romantic genre, but this whole cdrama just let him have so much fun with this youthful, daring, and dashing character who is very capable and too smart for his own good (but doesn't want to get into the whole shitty palace power-play, and I get you boy, no one ever wants that stuff, just go play warrior with your boys and a pretty girl). He has quite a bit of character development and the plot is fast-paced with lots of cool fighting scenes. There is literally not a single boring thing about this drama!

For me, this was The Double of 2023 in terms of steamy-hot romance and amazing on-screen performances, although this drama does focus on romance much more. It's that rare case when the actors just click both on screen and in real life, looking like a perfect match in every regard. On-screen couples, they either have it or they don't, that X Factor or whatever you call it. Well, this couple was definitely one of the best ones in regards to love/relationship development, which was the opposite of a slow-burner, or at least, the plot was so action-packed that they got to see each other often and the ML would never miss an opportunity to woo his girl or sneak into her bedroom at night (hehe). Flirty and straightforward.

The girl (Cui Lin, played by the mesmerizing Jing Tian) was also amazing in this one - a powerful fighter, a brilliant strategist, the daughter of a famous general, and a cunning little fox who most of the time was a few steps ahead of the ML, but was rarely left behind. And unlike him, who stubbornly resisted being dragged into the royal shenanigans, she understood that it was quite unavoidable, plus - she wanted him to get all that power because he was one of the good guys, who could actually make a difference, make everything better somehow.

But being a good AND a smart guy, he didn't want to have anything to do with it unless he really really had to. The couple had quite a bit of drama around him taking the responsibility and becoming the Crown Prince (which also meant they both would be locked inside the palace they kind of hated if they did get married). It was twisted, it was fun to watch, and they did manage to work around that in the end (the finale was also incredibly satisfying, with no open endings and that kind of stuff).

There's also a slightly weird obsessive-possesive love scenario with the FL's not-actually-brother who goes off rails to have her no matter what, up to the point that he betrays his whole country (because, duh, she's smart AND pretty), to keep things fresh between the two leads so that they don't get too lovey-dovey with each other, heh))

I just wanted to mention this sweet historic cdrama here as well - it's perfect for everyone who loves good fighting scenes, smart characters, plotting, loads of flirting, good acting, pretty leads, and a fair amount of steaminess. 100% rewatchable. Do watch it if you haven't already!

[springfallendeer]

Vampire AU - Lore

I went ahead and wrote up all of the lore I could think of for my Vampire AU. Just a fair warning, its a LONG read. 6k+ words. Under a read more because duh.

There is technically some NSFW content in this as it describes a few things like Vampire genitals, murder, miscarriage, and sexual things in some amount.

VAMPIRE AU

Background: This is a world in which Gods exist. Born alongside the very fabric of reality, these entities were tasks with the unfathomable burdens of maintaining the balance of everything. Every concept or tangible aspect of life can be tied back to the work of some form of God. Some of them docile. Some of them hostile. Some of them well known and established. Others known only in theory due to their reclusive nature. They are timeless by human comparison. Insanely powerful and incredibly important. Their very existence requires in order to assure the survival of reality as it is known.

They are immortal, but they are not deathless. They are powerful, but not without means of being defeated. Their status capable of being stripped away from them and granted to others, either willingly or through the use of force.

The origin of the Celestial brothers stems from the destruction of a God and the subsequent need to replace it.

The previous God of the Cosmos was a great and powerful entity, but it was a wrathful and violent one. It would go from world to world, bringing with it all manner of chaos and destruction. The purpose of this Deity was to maintain the countless untold balances of space and time. The rise and fall of life on every inhabitable planet, the creation of new planets, the destruction of old planets, the births and the deaths of stars, and so much more were all under its direction, but not under its absolute control. The old God was meant to act as a powerful guide that would dictate the flow of calm and chaos through all of space and time.

Whether this job eventually drove it mad or not, the entity was as malicious as it was powerful. When it arrived at Earth, it may as well have brought with it an extinction event. Its massive frame towered over even the tallest of trees and its body a construct not easily comprehended by the inhabitants of the world.

Balls of molten rock rained from the sky. The sky burned red as the Deity willed the protective ozone layer of the world to be eaten away. The lava beneath the crust of the Earth bubbled and boiled with enthusiasm. The arrival of the Cosmic God brought with it the promise of annihilation. Not just for humanity, but for all of life on Earth as it was known.

The desperation for survival brought with it a dire need to eliminate the threat. Genuinely, it is not known how any one man succeeded at striking down the malicious Deity. Be it a stroke of luck or sheer unwillingness to die despite any horrific injuries endured, it does not matter. All that matters is the fact that that God fell.

The Cosmic God was slaughtered. Brutally murdered by one desperate man in hopes of bringing salvation to his people. But in his desperate desire to save, he unwittingly brought the promise of greater destruction. With no God to rule the Cosmos, the apocalypse of all life would prove inevitable. When the destruction did not immediately stop but instead grew worse from the aimless chaos of a reality without guidance, a new act of desperation was taken.

That lone man took up the burden of the Cosmic God. He hastily consumed of its flesh and blood, devouring its power. While the corpse proved more than any mortal body could stomach, he still succeeded in taking what needed to be attained. He shouldered the burden of a God and all of the horrors that came with it, but was further cursed by the spite of the dead Deity to punish him for his actions.

His humanity was stripped from him. His body warped and changed into something corrupted by the basis of the power that he had stolen. To condemn him for his actions; selfish in the eyes of the executed God; he was made to bear a curse that would end only with his own destruction. The humans which he sought to protect were doomed to become his source of sustenance. Cursed to forever crave the blood and flesh of humanity as retribution for having dared to consume the blood and flesh of a God.

In his madness, he shared his curse with two others. Two brothers, by blood or by virtue, forced to also partake cursed of blood and flesh. Made into Celestial Deities doomed to crave the blood and flesh of humanity. Gods made Vampire out of spite as life faded from the corpse of the fallen Deity.

There followed centuries of horror as this trio of freshly created Deities struggled to satiate their horrible desires. Countless human lives were lost. How humanity evaded extinction is unknown. These new Gods established themselves as something just as vile and evil as the Deity that had been destroyed in order to create them. This was damage to their reputations that could never be genuinely undone without isolation and the passage of time.

When the madness faded, the trio of Deities retreated. Bearing equal parts the burden of the Cosmos, the three secluded themselves far beyond the reach of human settlement. To hide from the shame of the horrific things that they had done. To wait for the passage of time to ideally erase them from history. Only ever leaving to tend to deal to the other problems born of the destruction of the old God.

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Celestial Vampires: A trio of Deities created to replace the previous Cosmic God. These Deities share the unfathomable burden of overseeing the balance of the Cosmos, each bearing an equal portion of the crippling weight of the responsibility.

These Deities bear the curse of Vampirism as punishment for the slaughter of the previous God. This curse instills into them a desire to consume mortal flesh and drink human blood. As they were once human, the blood and flesh they crave the most is human. The true purpose of the curse is to make them suffer for choices that were made. A God was killed and devoured by people, for the sake of protecting people. There is no punishment more fitting than a punishment that would make the new Deities harm the very same creatures that they sought to protect. Such was the curse created from the seething rage of the previous Cosmic God as it fell before the hands of humanity.

Though they cannot die if they fail to do so, the Deities will become afflicted by a horrible madness that will drive them to satisfy these cravings. In these fits of madness, they will haphazardly mutilate, kill, and even torture the people that wind up being used to satisfy themselves. They will become as cruel and unfeeling as the very being that was destroyed in order to create them. Previous failures to properly satiate their cravings has resulted in multiple incidents of humans being callously slaughtered, which further adds to the guilt of the Deities.

These new Cosmic Gods are heavily feared and despised. They are worshiped only because that is what humans are expected to do. They are given offerings not out of respect, but out of fear. The Deities in turn go out of their way to maintain distance from humanity. They have taken residence in an isolated space that is not easy to access, to discourage visitors. There they remain. Immortal and isolated. Venturing out only to tend to duties pertaining to governing their subjects or satisfying their accursed cravings.

Like the lesser Vampires born as a side effect of the previous God’s death, their bodies have been warped and twisted by untold forces. Their human appearances are all but gone, replaced is traits that make them better resemble entities of the Cosmos. Their skin is bitter cold while their insides burn with the heat of stars. Their blood glows. Their eyes mirror the celestial bodies which orbit the Earth. However, this change in appearance is not believed to be an additional side effect of the Vampiric Curse, but a side effect of having absorbed the powers of a Cosmic God.

Strangely, many of their sexual or biological defining traits have changed. They lack nipples. Their genitals have been tucked away inside of an orifice that could be compared to a mock cloaca. This gives them a seemingly doll like appearance when stripped of clothing, further stripping them of their previous human forms.

Additionally, their genitals have taken on an appearance quite different from humans. No longer a basic human penis, but a long phallus that would better resemble the arm of an octopus, minus the suction cups. This peculiar phallus is even prehensile, and can be freely moved about. The lack any sort of noticeable testicles, inside or out. If there is an explanation behind these bizarre changes, then the Deities have not provided it. Namely because such details are rather private.

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Vampires: Creatures cursed to crave the blood and flesh of mortals, most specifically humans. They have their origins in humanity, but have been stripped of many basic human traits. The Cosmic Gods are the original bearers of this curse, but it has spread to afflict those uninvolved in the murder of the former God.

Vampires are most well known for their frozen skin and burning insides, as well as their cravings for human flesh and blood. Most satisfy these urges on blood alone, with the initial bite into the flesh satisfying the urge to consume it. What is lesser known are the varied traits found among the Vampires.

Vampires have branched out into three distinct factions as a result of their diverse traits. These three distinct branches each specifically follow the leadership of one of the three Celestial Deities. Eclipse, Sun, and Moon. Those who fall into a specific faction will generally best resemble the Deity associated with that faction. The curse expresses itself differently throughout humanity, just as it has expressed itself differently among the Gods.

In terms of reproduction, Vampires do have struggles. The basis of their curse means that the addition of an extra life growing in a female body leads to increase in thirst for blood. Complications are less common in Vampire x Vampire pairings and grow more severe in the event of Vampire x Human pairings. The exact reason behind hybrid partnerships resulting in so many issues has yet to be discovered and is chalked up to some additional byproduct of the curse.

Strangely, Vampirism cannot effect non-human animals. Animals which might have been afflicted by the curse are instead driven to cannibalism, but suffer no additional effects such as immortality or heightened strength.

The Vampires of these world are not deterred by sunlight and cannot be poisoned through use of Garlic or Silver. Christianity does not exist in this world (Yahweh

/Jehovah is not an entity that exists, or if he does, it’s definitely not in the same way as in our world), but there are other religions that focus on other Gods. Association with some of these religions does bring with it some level of protection against Vampires.

Even the weaknesses most commonly associated with Vampires are not entirely guaranteed. The three distinct factions of Vampires each have unique traits that grant them different levels of weakness. Some Vampires are weak to Flame. Some are weak to Ice. Others cannot be harmed by either. To puncture the heart with wood, steel, or stone is unlikely to be lethal and all manner of physical injury can heal if the injury is not immediately fatal. The one surefire way to kill a Vampire is to remove its head. Puncturing the heart with a weapon made of human bone can also prove lethal, but is not guaranteed. Either option proves difficult, as their frozen skin does not cut as easily as human flesh and their bones are not easy to crack.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Originals) The first generation of Vampires, cursed directly by the previous God. These Vampires acquired their curse by consuming water polluted by the blood of that God, and by consuming produce grown on land polluted by its rotting flesh, or by consuming animals that were fed that produce. These Vampires most strongly resemble the Trio of Cosmic Deities, and have near identical anatomy as a result. The only difference being that their height will rarely exceed 7 feet, and their blood does not glow. Still, their flesh is frozen and their blood will burn anyone it touches.

The males lack nipples and have their genitals tucked away in the false cloaca, with the same tentacle like phallus that the Deities bear. Females have retained their nipples for the sake of providing for their young. Additionally, their vaginal areas no longer have the external defining features. All of these features have been moved to the interior of their genital cloaca.

The Original Vampires (Also referred to as True Vampires) are the only among the Vampire species to be able to create Thralls, as the curse is strongest with them.

As the lands polluted by the old God are still able to afflict humans with the curse, new Originals are still born from time to time. Often on purpose to assure a specific number of True Vampires exist. These lands are sealed off to prevent humans from being able to access them, hence it being near impossible for a human to accidentally become an Original Vampire by consuming of the cursed ground.

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Dull Bloods) The offspring of Vampires who bear a slightly weaker version of the curse. These are descendants of True Vampires that have not had any human blood mixed in. They are an important distinction only because of their ability to look slightly more human. A distinction that was only made due to growing confusion of humans that might interact with them in an intimate manner. Questions are inevitably asks when Vampires have such a wide range of biological appearance.

In terms of power and ability, they are identical to True Vampires. Their skin is frozen and their blood hot. They visually resemble the Celestial Deities, except for where the most bizarre changes are concerned. That meaning that as generations pass, Dull Bloods begin to look more biologically human. As descendants have had descendants and have had descendants, the changes have gradually appeared. To the point that now, some Dull Bloods have genitals that almost perfectly match the genitals on humans.

All manner of genital appearance in between have come to exist. From everything tucked neatly away inside of a cloaca, to a peculiar halfway point, to everything exposed and vulnerable. These Vampires are still 100% Vampire with no human blood mixed in genetically to dilute or change the curse, but for some reason the defining genital changes are just less exaggerated.

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Mixed Bloods) Hybrid offspring of humans and Vampires. Mixed Bloods are very rare. Not as a result of an unwillingness to breed, but as a result of the curse not properly cooperating when it comes to creating offspring.

Pregnancies where hybrid offspring are concerned are dangerous and difficult.

If the mother is human, it is incredibly likely that she will die without being able to carry the fetus to term. Her human flesh and blood will be consumed by her own body in order to satiate the cravings of the curse. A human woman who is not given thorough and care while pregnant with a Vampire’s child will waste away to nothing and die. One who is given consistent care is still highly likely to suffer near crippling health risks. Even with this high level of care, it is still incredibly likely that that the fetus will expire before it has grown enough to be reasonably born. This in turn leads to additional complications from the miscarriage, which might render the mother sterile.

If the mother is a Vampire, then the pregnancy will be easier, but the odds of success as still low. A Vampire mother is better suited to satisfy the cravings of the curse by consuming human blood, but her cravings will be more intense and she will be at risk of going mad. Many would be Vampire Mothers of Hybrid children die not as a result of getting weak, but as a result of being executed for the good of the public. An inability to satisfy their thirst will lead to madness. That madness will lead to violence. That violence will lead to death. Often times these madness driven slaughters will only end with the destruction of the mother or the loss of the pregnancy.

Additionally, Vampire mothers do not have better odds of delivering a live child in the event that they manage to keep themselves sane. Miscarriages are pathetically common. The one upside being that a female Vampire is unlikely to be rendered sterile as a result of the complications brought on by a halfblood miscarriage.

Mixed Bloods are distinct in the sense that they can either look more human or more Vampire depending on which parent was the mother. However, regardless of their appearance, a Half Blood will always have some specific defining traits. Half Bloods do not have frozen skin, their blood is not nearly as hot, and their fits of madness are less extreme. They grow quickly then will abruptly stop aging after reaching a specific stage of growth, at which point they are equally as immortal as their Vampire ancestors. Going without blood for too long will result in madness, but their madness can be quickly cured with a single drink of blood.

Additionally, a Half Blood will begin to waste away and can eventually die if they do not consume enough blood. The blood that they drink does not have to be human at all.A Half Blood can survive entirely on animal blood if they so decide, with some even finding animal blood more appealing to their sense of taste. Their visual biology will either more closely resemble human or Vampire in terms of the peculiar status of their genitals.

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Thralls) Vampires who were born through an unnatural means as a result of consuming the blood and flesh of an Original (or True) Vampire are referred to as Thralls. These Vampires retain almost all of their human traits, making them easy to identify among their peers. Visually, the only real difference between a Thrall and a human is their teeth, as Thralls have the typical sharp teeth associated with Vampires.

A Thrall has frozen skin but cold blood, and the curse is so laughably weak in them that they never come to properly resemble the True Vampires or the Dull Bloods. It would take constant and consistent feedings of Vampire blood and flesh in order to cause any sort of additional changes in appearance, but the process is long and tedious and ultimately would only serve for vanity purposes. The only real reason to feed a Thrall Vampire blood and flesh is order to create and maintain them.

Thralls are most commonly created for sake of reproduction, because Vampire and Human relations come with a wide range of complications. Because Thralls are technically Vampires, they are able to safely reproduce with other Vampires without any of the risks associated with Vampire and Human pairings.

One important distinction that must be made when it comes to Thralls, is that they are not genuinely immortal. A Thrall will continue to age due to how weak the Vampire curse is within them, but they are aging so slowly that they often get mistaken for immortal. It takes centuries for visible changes in age to be made, and these changes can be reversed by consumption of more Vampire blood and flesh. A Thrall that never consumes the blood and flesh of a Vampire past the moment of creation will slowly but inevitably grow into old age and eventually succumb to all of the issues associated with it.

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Faction of Eclipse) A group of Vampires that primarily worship and serve Eclipse, though they remain subservient to the other two. These Vampires most closely resemble Eclipse in appearance, and so are believed to be most tied to him. The most common defining traits are extra arms, above average height, dark skin with fiery markings, eyes which resemble a solar eclipse, and a halo of solar rays which resemble a dying flame. Any combination of these traits will result in a Vampire falling into this faction of worship, but all traits are not guaranteed to be present in any one individual. Individuals of this faction cannot be harmed by flame or by ice. Faction of Sun) A group of Vampires that primarily worship and serve Sun, though they remain subservient to the other two. These Vampires most closely resemble Sun in appearance, and so are believed to be most tied to him. The most common defining traits are pale skin with golden/yellow/orange markings, eyes which resemble the sun at mid-day, “Overly hot” blood, and a halo of solar rays which burn vibrantly. Any combination of these traits will result in a Vampire falling into this faction of worship, but all traits are not guaranteed to be present in any one individual. Individuals of this faction cannot be harmed by flame, but can be weakened by ice. Faction of Moon) A group of Vampires that primarily worship and serve Moon, though they remain subservient to the other two. These Vampires most closely resemble Moon in appearance, and so are believed to be most tied to him. The most common defining traits are pale blue skin with white/silver/icy markings, eyes which resemble the moon at any phase, and trail of cosmic dust which will follow their heads, and “cold” blood. Any combination of these traits will result in a Vampire falling into this faction of worship, but all traits are not guaranteed to be present in any one individual. Individuals of this faction are weak to the flame, but cannot be harmed by ice.

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The Cosmic Vampire Deities And the Celestial Pact

Eclipse: The first of the three brothers to ascend to the status of Godhood, and the one most afflicted from the Vampire curse. The scars of his former life as a human remain on him even now as a permanent reminded of what he has done and what he has lost. His human name has been lost or abandoned to time.

Eclipse is the one to have slaughtered the old God and to have first partaken of its blood and flesh. His body has been twisted, making him unrecognizable to his old self. His skin is black as night and his body marked with patches that resemble flame. He lacks hair and instead wears a halo of glowing light that protrudes directly from his skin. This halo shines with the light of a dying flame. As part of his transformation, he grew taller and gained an extra set of arms. His skin is freezing and his body is hot, but not as hot Sun’s. He is most compared to a dying star.

He has taken up the name “Eclipse” in reference to the peculiar appearance of his eyes, which resemble a solar eclipse in a dark sky.

Having regained his sanity following the madness of his transformation, he can no longer bear the taste of human blood. As such he has taken to drinking the blood of animals to fend off the cravings. When those cravings lose ability to be satisfied by animal blood, he will drink the blood of one of his brothers after they have consumed human blood.

He is isolated by his own choice, even in his own home. This has rendered Eclipse as someone that could be described as socially awkward. He is blunt when addressing people and honest with his words, to the point of it being unnerving. This has resulted in him being mistaken for a cold and callous creature, as he struggles to form emotional connections with those that he might interact with. Even his brothers would appear to be treated more as servants than as family.

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Sun: The last of the three brothers to ascend to the status of Godhood. Forced to take up the role in order to avoid being left to the passage of time while his siblings were cursed to an eternity of suffering. The Vampire curse does not bother him as much as it does Eclipse, but it bothers him more than it does Moon.

As a result of his curse and having become a God, his body has been twisted, making him unrecognizable to his old self. His skin is pale and his body marked with patches that resemble resemble gold. These golden markings will shimmer and glow with a light that mirrors the radiance of the sun. He lacks hair and instead wears a halo of glowing light that protrudes directly from his skin. This halo, like his markings, shines with the radiance of the sun. As part of his transformation, he grew taller. His skin is freezing and his body is hot. In fact, his blood burns the hottest of his siblings. He is most compared to a thriving star.

He has taken up the name “Sun” in reference to the peculiar appearance of his eyes, which resemble the sun high in the sky at mid-day..

Having regained his sanity following the madness of his transformation, he has chosen to isolate himself with his brothers. Despite having lost access to his humanity, he still craves those many human things that he once loved. As such he has taken up a multitude of hobbies for the sake of feeling closer to his former human self. Those hobbies including cooking, eating, and drinking human food. These actions do nothing but bring him comfort and help him maintain his sanity.

Despite not being as badly tormented by the curse as Eclipse, he is the one most prone to snapping and injuring the humans that he feeds on. This has resulted in him being the most known to kill people; a fact which torments him to no end. He struggles to maintain any sort of a happy sibling relationship with an Eclipse as a result of this guilt, as he cannot help but blame his brother for the hardships that they now face. Still, there is no denying that he cares deeply for his brothers. Enough so that he is willing to use himself as a means of feeding Eclipse.

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Moon: The second of the three brothers to ascend to the status of Godhood, but the first to be forced to do so by Eclipse. Moon had actually been severely wounded by the assault of the former God and was doomed to perish. His life was secured by his ascension, but he was stripped of his connection to humanity as a result. He is the least effected by the torment of the curse, possibly as a result of having been genuinely forced to partake of the blood and flesh used to transform him.

As a result of his curse and having become a God, his body has been twisted, making him unrecognizable to his old self. His skin is pale and his body marked with patches that resemble silver or snow. Unlike with Sun, these markings are not a direct result of his transformation. These markings are the scars of his former human body, made beautiful by his transformation. These silver markings will shimmer and glow with a light that mirrors the pale glow of moonlight. He lacks hair and instead wears a “night cap” made of cosmic dust. This dust shimmers and glitters as he moves and it follows him wherever he goes. Fingers can be moved through it as though it were hair. There even appears to be a miniature planet trailing at the end of this “cap” of space dust. He has been known to joke that this miniature planet houses life.

As part of his transformation, he grew taller. His skin is freezing and his body is cold, compared to his brothers. In fact, his blood is hardly any warmer than that of a human. A reality chalked up to a belief that, after having nearly been burned to death as a human, he cannot bear to carry the heat of the stars within him. He is most commonly compared to a frozen comet. A false star made not of flame, but of ice.

He has taken up the name “Moon” in reference to the peculiar appearance of his eyes, which track the various phases of the moon in the night sky.

Having regained his sanity following the madness of his transformation, he has chosen to isolate himself with his brothers. Despite having lost access to his humanity, he still craves those many human things that he once loved. As such he has taken up a multitude of hobbies for the sake of feeling closer to his former human self. Those hobbies including gardening, medicine making, and reading. These actions do nothing but bring him comfort and help him maintain his sanity. He often sneaks the medicines he crafts to distant human towns as a means of providing for those in need.

Moon is the least prone to bouts of madness, but when he snaps, he snaps hard. This has resulted in him doing the most damage to people during a feeding, meaning that every time he does snap, he kills someone. A fact which torments him to no end, as he wants for nothing more than to help people. He struggles to maintain any sort of a happy sibling relationship with an Eclipse as a result of this guilt and anger, as the choice to become a God was never given. He was forced to become what he now is. Still, there is no denying that he cares deeply for his brothers. Enough so that he is willing to use himself as a means of feeding Eclipse, if only reluctantly.

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The “Celestial Pact”: The “Celestial Pact” is a sort of verbal arrangement created by the Celestial Deities following a series of dramatic events. The terms of the pact are admittedly inconsistent, prone to being changed over time and altered from time to time in order to maintain the safety and the happiness of everyone involved.

The overall basis of the pact is simple. A human who agrees to the terms will be allowed to live in the home of the Deities. They will be cared for in any way they desire; food, water, clothing, and shelter are guaranteed to be provided. Any additional wants or needs can be tended to at request, but nothing is guaranteed.

Some of the lasting rules of the pact that cannot or will not be changed, are as follows.1. The pact is set in stone once the human provides their name. If the human later reveals that the name they gave was a fake one, then the pact is considered void and they will be expected to leave.2. The human will not be forced to spend all of their time in the Gods home, but they are expected to live there. If the human in question leaves with intention of no longer living with the trio, then the pact is considered broken and they will never be allowed to return.3. The phrase “A drink for a drink, a meal for a meal” is used in reference to the human being expected to satisfy the hunger for blood and flesh that the Deities suffer with in exchange for the Deities assuring that the human is given all the food and drink that they need to thrive.4. There is a lesser discussed addition to the previous phrase, known as “A touch for a touch”, which is used to voice consent in acts of physical intimacy. This intimacy does not have to be sexual, but depending on which Deity this is being expressed with, there will be demands of it being equal. That meaning do not touch where you are not willing to be touched, and do not expect to be shown skin that you would not be willing to show yourself. Because the Deities struggle to connect with people, it is unlikely that “A touch for a touch” will be uttered at all, or that it will be uttered a second time if there has ever been a case of rejection.

5.Another lesser known addition to the first part of the phrase is “Health for Health”. By providing blood for the Deities, the human in question is assuring the well being of their sanity, aka their mental health. In turn, the Deities will go out of their way to assure that the physical and mental health of a pact holder is tended too. Hence there are going to be a lot of social interactions outside of the actual feeding for the sake of assessing the physical and mental well being of the pact holder.

6. Someone bound by the pact is under the protection of the Deities. Thus meaning that by all accounts, Vampires are forbidden from touching them or feeding on them. To hold a pact with the Gods is more or less to become their exclusive meal. A Vampire which makes the mistake of feeding off of the pact holder is likely to be punished, but often times the pact holder is the one to settle on the punishment.

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The “Bleeders Orgasm”: A sort of nifty trick used by the Deities and by non-divine Vampires in order to assure that humans don’t put up much of a fuss during feedings. It is something consciously arranged for by the Vampire as a sort of marker for when enough blood has been drawn.

The act of feeding is an act of drawing life from the human whose blood is being consumed. No two humans are likely to respond the same way to that life being drained. No two humans are guaranteed to survive from the same amount of blood being drawn during a feeding.

Why do humans experience an orgasm when having their blood sucked? To provide an obvious physical reaction when the Vampire’s draw too close to crossing the line and doing lethal damage to the person they’re feeding off of. Not all Vampires utilize this particular trick, but there are variants of it.

There also exists the “Bleeders Sleep” is one such example, where a human will abruptly lose consciousness once enough blood has been drawn. This is not uncommon but it is not as favored, as the abrupt collapse can unwittingly mask the fact that potentially lethal damage has been done, preventing emergency care from being given.

Alternatively, some Vampires go the other route and make the feeding more painful as blood is drawn. They’ll judge when to remove their teeth based upon how violently the humans that they feed on will thrash in their grip. This trick is less favorable as it leads to additional injuries to the human in question, while also providing excuse to label Vampires as creatures that must be feared.

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Extra: Unspoken Rules for Vampires 1. No targeting children (You will be personally struck down by the Gods) 2. No targeting pregnant women (You will be punished) 3. No targeting the sick (You will be ostracized. Also the sick have bad blood) 4. Do not kill your target (You will be ostracized)

Extra: The Vampire Towns There exist towns predominantly made to be inhabited by Vampires. Over the years, these towns have become places where Vampires and Humans comfortably coexist. These are the towns most commonly visited by the Deities, as they are less likely to be met with fear upon arrival.

There are churches dedicated to the Vampire Deities in these towns, and most other religions are not practiced there. Especially the religions with practices that actively harm Vampires.

The whole concept of feeding is treated as a game, to make the children in these towns more comfortable. The game comes with rules on both sides, which everyone is expected to follow. This game is where myths pertaining to Vampires not being able to enter a home uninvited and not being able to cross water come from. The later of which being an aspect of the game which has been drastically changed by word of mouth outside of these towns. The real rule is to not go after a man or a woman who are in the bath.

The myth claiming that Vampires cannot enter a home uninvited comes from the rule explicitly stating that you must ask permission to feed off of a person. Permission is given when you are invited into the home “for a drink”.

The game does change from town to town and even from household to household. Particularly in homes where unmarried people without children might live. Vampires and humans alike are bound to seek the pleasures of the flesh, and when there is a trick used that can make someone experience an orgasm during a feeding, it is inevitable that the game has erotic variants. There are even erotic variants of the game that involve “predator and prey” style behaviors, or other questionable forms of roleplay. (Don’t kinkshame a Vampire and they won’t kinkshame you).

[takemetoutah]

2, 3, 13 for the bookish asks 😎

hello, anon 😌

2. did you reread anything?

yes! I've had a weird complex before about rereading books I liked—what if I don't like them as much on reread? what if it's boring because I remember everything? isn't this just wasting time, since there are so many other books I could be reading for the first time instead?—but in 2024, I simply got over it lol. I reread gideon the ninth and started rereading harrow the ninth (both by tamsyn muir) in preparation for reading nona the ninth with my friends, and I had a great time. I took notes partially for fun, partially for thinking more deeply about the ~themes~, and partially because, as it turns out, I do not remember everything. in 2025 we are not shying away from rereads.

3. what were your top five books of the year?

despite bringing a few library books with me for the holidays at home, and because I'm still rereading harrow, I probably won't read anything new between now and the new year, so I'm pretty confident with this list (not ordered):

down with the system by serj tankian, narrated by the author: by far the best memoir I've ever read. serj challenges my assumption that just because you are a skilled songwriter doesn’t mean you’ll be a skilled prose writer. very well written and engaging, even when discussing fraught topics like the armenian gen-0-side. and he chronicles his music career in a fresh, interesting way that doesn’t always prioritize his own ego. 5/5.

the wall by marlen haushofer: a little monotonous at times but otherwise a brilliant feminist work. 4.25/5.

enter ghost by isabella hammad: a brilliantly crafted character story concerned with apartheid, violence, grief, and the enduring power of shakespeare in our modern era. 4.5/5.

love, theoretically by ali hazelwood: my first of hers but certainly not my last. rich characterization, engaging plot, and although lies are, I guess, a form of miscommunication, the conflict between elsie and jack was fair/logical, wasn't stupid, and didn't make me want to rip my hair out. it really did just feel like witnessing two adults try to get better at asking for what they need and owning their mistakes. and we love that!!! 5/5.

the essential june jordan: essential, duh. groundbreaking and powerful. 5/5. recommend me more poetry like this?

13. what were your least favorite books of the year?

despite not reading as much as I have in previous years, a majority of the books I did read were pretty good. my least favorites of the year are ranked higher, relative to books I've hated in the past:

the book of form and emptiness by ruth ozeki. man, was I hyped about this one. I loved ozeki's a tale for the time being and had high hopes here, but the writing, cheesiness, and dialogue bugged me a lot. gave it a 2.75/5.

a novel love story by ashley poston. another one where I loved the author's previous work but was extremely let down. the repetitive writing, the underdeveloped mc, the rushed ending, and the amount of page space dedicated to the backstory and side characters made this a real drag. another 2.75/5.

yellowface by r.f. kuang. this was marketed as a literary thriller, but it didn't feel very literary to me, and the pacing felt off in multiple places. I also agree with other reviewers—this book didn't speak, imo, to the realities of publishing a book as much as it did to the realities of being on Book Twitter. a huge miss, and another 2.75/5.

we had to remove this post by hanna bervoets. reading this in 2024 I wasn't as shocked as I expected to be. social media has gotten soooo much worse, especially given the gen-0-side we've been witnessing for over a year. every book I've read that is either about or heavily features social media feels like it's already aged (see: no one is talking about this). and maybe I shouldn't fault this book for that, but it certainly doesn't feel like a book that'll stand the test of time. one more 2.75/5 for the road.

and finally, the lowest-ranked read of the year: a people's future of the united states, edited by victor lavalle and john joseph adams. I enjoyed quite a few stories, which were all placed toward the end of the collection, but a majority of them I found to have good ideas but lacking execution. 2.5/5.

thanks for asking and happy holidays <3

[officeobject]

About Manifique Gerald from the Xanderverse, what he was inspired by, identity, and amounting to something

Well I don't KNOW if *Person Manifique Gerald is based on* would be pro-choice and anti-Trump and all, but I ASSUME it, as it's like a "DUH!" thing for me - in fact, it's such a "DUH!" thing from the people around me, that even in a place where they're not allowed to impose politics or nudge people in directions or whatever, they'll criticize Trump without hesitance as if he's bad for a fact (WHICH HE IS, so like, yeah, fair enough).

I'm not uncomfortable by what MG is inspired by, as yes, he's inspired by a pro-life Trump-supporter, but that was from whatever traits I could scrap together from my memory after spending a long time trying to forget that person and the fandom, and the memories that DID get restored and all, were just based on the knowledge BACK THEN, and the process of a much younger me who even identified as straight around that time. MG also is based on several fictional characters plus added tropes that make him more personal, and I'm also not gonna feel bad that he was based on good traits and memories.

I think the fans just responding with "he's a good man allowed to make his own choices and he made great games that inspired", are shitty comments that insensitively downplay everything and ignore the actual issues addressed and imply that those who feel hurt are being dramatic and don't know what they're talking about and all wanna doxx him, and as if they never had a day of joy just because of him - I was platonically in love with this guy and made detailed plans on how to end up working with him, living with him, becoming his friend - I even planned responses to hypothetical interviews, and made plans I didn't realize had creepy actions needed due to me being so young - him and his games helped me self-reflect, and might've influenced my taste in names or platonic love or something, and so much more, but being a fan was so bad for me mentally because everyone seemed more talented and creative than I, and my main desire was to get his attention and be his friend, and he had a fecking WIFE and a loved fanbase and kids, and I had promised myself I'd amount to something, so when he started working on something new, with a character who just reminded of what I could've been if I was "competent", I left the fandom, but still loved him and all, and it's not until years later when I could go back to what inspired MG, that I could be critical of those things and even dislike them, and it doesn't compromise my love of MG, because he isn't THEM.

Note to readers: I DID end up amounting to something, even if it was basically me throwing away all the plans and set-ups and expectations I had when I was younger (and to be honest, I had bad plans, most of which actively excluded space from the person and life I had today), and what I did, was leave an imprint on ONE person's life, and sure, it's not the person planned, but I don't like the same people as I did back then (I have higher standards), and it's still someone amazing, and yeah, all I do is make them happier, but I make them significantly happier, and they're an amazing person who I doubt will ever forget me LOL, and I might even then be impacting their work-performance positively and all, so yeah, I DID amount to something and I DID get my friend, feck whatever past me and HER "friend" thinks.

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 10th May

Something in the water with this week's songs. Not least because the title for both songs sound like pulp action thrillers, or vintage spy films. Will they live up to the expectations this has created in my head? Only one way to find out...

Mack the Knife - Louis Armstrong (peaked at Number 8)

Well, if you've been attentive, you know already that I really like this song. It's got a sort of dark comedy to it, a fun jazziness, a catchy but simple melody and links to a play I actually kind of know. What isn't there to love?

Louis Armstrong, on the other hand, is a prospect that I'm not wholly sold on. I don't dislike him, by any means, but I've yet to find a Louis Armstrong song that I properly love. Something in the gravelly voice doesn't quite work for me - though if there's any song that could turn me round on that, it's probably this one.

I love the little Dig man, there goes Mack the Knife spoken intro at the start, and to be fair, the muted trumpet that starts the whole thing off is also very cool, especially with the jazzy piano scatting underneath. It's a classy vintage start to a song, just laid-back enough to put you at ease.

Then Louis comes in, and actually, his voice does work for the song really well. I always think of Macheath as quite a smooth, debonair character, but Louis brings in a slightly rougher, more "knife you in a back alley" energy that makes Macheath into a slightly different type of criminal archetype. It's very menacing.

The instrumentation thoughout is spot-on, from the tinkling piano that comes in and out, to the clarinet that periodically rears its head. None of them are particularly obtrusive, but they keep the song moving along nicely, and stop it feeling like it's getting repetitive.

And then a brief spoken Take it away, Satch launches us via a fabulous key change into an instrumental ending. I like it, it's like all this pent up, nervous energy just got released. After a song about a murder skulking round, the instruments just let rip, and it's a great way to end.

I also should give Louis some credit here, as apparently he's the reason this is charting, with the other contemporary versions - like Dick Hyman's, a few weeks back - being copies. It was Louis that went to see an off-Broadway performance of the Threepenny Opera, and insisted on doing a version of Mack the Knife. Louis is also apparently the source of the little lyrical nod to Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's wife, and an actress in many of Brecht's plays. Which is a little nerdy nod that I've always appreciated. So yeah, respect, Louis.

Man With the Golden Arm - Billy Mays (9)

I went into this certain that this was going to be a James Bond song, but it turns out that that's the Man With the Golden Gun. Instead, the Man With the Golden Arm is from a 1955 film by the same name, scored by none other than Elmer Bernstein.

Everything about this film screams cool, from the poster - done in a very mid-century collage style with this weird arm - to the star-studded cast - Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, anyone? - to the controversy it caused on release, as a film about drug addiction, which was still apparently a taboo topic to show so frankly on screen in 1956?

Honestly, I'd normally look more at the summary for a film like this, but even the brief look I took convinces me that I maybe ought to actually watch this film, so I don't want to spoil myself. Sorry!

Anyway, all that to say, it looks like a cool film, and trumpeter and bandleader Billy May's version of the main theme doesn't in any way disappoint. It's got this iconic "duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH" opening that I swear I've heard before, and the whole rest of it is just a little shy of 3 minutes' worth of big band awesomeness, with this insistently pounding horn line, escalating amounts of trumpet, and a driving drum beat to get your pulse racing - except for when it gets replaced by a cowbell. And it makes the cowbell work!

The whole song has swagger, style and swing. It's not a James Bond song, but somehow, if you'd told me it was, I don't think I'd even be surprised. It's got the right attitude and the right brand of jazzy confidence. I want it to play as I enter a room, you know?

Oh, man, both those songs were awesome. I don't think I've described so many things as "cool" in one single entry before, and I don't even regret it. I was prepared to crown Mack the Knife, because, let me repeat, I really love Mack the Knife. And then Billy May, completely out of left field, ladies and gentlemen!

Favourite song of the bunch: Man With the Golden Arm

[kiera-raelyn]

I'm both, I guess? Definitely more on the Plotter side. Frankly, I think it's not an either/or question, anyway. It's a spectrum. Most people probably fall in the middle.

Now, I've only completed one story, so maybe I'm not terribly qualified to answer this. But, I found that what worked for me for that story was the Snowflake method. Or is it the Skeleton method? I think it might've been a hybrid, honestly. Anyway. You start out by summing up your story in a sentence. Then you expand that out into a paragraph. Then, each sentence of that paragraph becomes its own paragraph. Then you expand each of those paragraphs into a page. I'm not sure if the method keeps going after that. It's been awhile. But you're in a pretty decent place at that point. You can identify scenes, plot points, etc. You may not have all the details, but you know where the story's going and mostly how you're getting there.

Before I talk about the next step, I need to take a moment to talk about the tool I used to write my story. It's called Scrivener. It does cost money. It was about $50 when I bought it back in 2017. Not sure what it's up to now. At the time, you buy it once and you have it for life. I felt like it was a fair price, given that. Now, why I bought it is because of all the features it comes with. Honestly, I've only barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. And I'm not trying to run an ad for them, so I'm not going to get too deep into it. What was relevant for that project, and this post, are these: 1) you make projects. These projects can be made up of an indefinite amount of files/sections, all accessible and viewable in one place. So, all of my research, my character sheets/inspirations, outlining, the story itself (broken up unto scenes/chapters), everything in one place that I can freely jump around in. 2) They've got different templates for different kinds of projects (screenwriting, story, etc). In the story one, there's a section for the story itself (duh). This section has different views. One of them is notecards. There's a description section for it, which is displayed on the card itself. Clicking the card opens up its "file," i.e. the chapter or scene you've written for it. These notecards can be moved around in the notecard view.

The latter functionality is central to what my next step was. I took my pages of story and broke them down into scenes, each one on a notecard. Prior to this project, I had a very linear process. You start at the beginning, and you write each progressive scene in the order in which it occurs. But that can lead to getting stuck. The notecard thing allowed me to break up my story into pieces, which allowed me to work on them somewhat independently. So, if I had inspiration for a particular scene, I would go write that scene and it didn't matter if it was in the middle or end of the story. This is the Pantsing element in my process. Sometimes, when I was working on a scene further in the story, I was surprised by what happened (for instance, I did not expect my fmc to hijack the mmc's proposal!).

I think something that people can get hung up on in this debate is the idea that if you Plot out your story, that outline is set in stone and you can't deviate from it. But that's not true. Even if you come up with an extremely detailed outline, you can still change it at any point. If that change comes later on in the story, that might mean you have to make a lot of changes to earlier points to make it work. And yeah, that can be frustrating. But how is that different from the plot holes or writing yourself into corners that comes with Pantsing?

I find that the more time I spend writing a character, the more I understand them in the context of the story I'm writing them in (because I write fanfiction, not original stories, so Ginny Weasley is Ginny Weaskey, but she's different from story to story in big and/or small ways). This means I may find that what I had planned may run into objections from the character. Which inevitably means changing the story. Because it doesn't matter how good the outline is, if you try to make a character do something out of character for them, your readers will notice. Do not get married to the outline. It can, and even possibly should, change throughout your writing process. Think of it as a living document, one you will refer to many times throughout the process to see not only if your story is progressing as it should, but if the outline itself needs to change to reflect the story being created.

An outline is a tool meant to help you tell the story you want to tell. It's not a legally binding contract. Don't be afraid to change it. Or afraid to use one at all.

Plotting vs. Pantsing: I Found My Writing Style

Every writer, at some point, faces The Great Question.

“Should I make my main character suffer more?”

(the answer is always yes, by the way).

I’m talking about: Are you a Plotter or a Pantser? And let me tell you—I’ve been on both sides of this chaotic, caffeine-soaked battlefield. "I found my style, but it wasn’t without trial, error, and a couple of existential crises along the way."

Let me explain to you- step by step.

I Started with Plotting

When I first started writing, I thought plotting was The Way. I had color-coded spreadsheets, a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown, and enough sticky notes to wallpaper a small room- thinking and writing as a Plotter.................

Chapter 7: Sarah finds the amulet.

Chapter 8: A mysterious storm begins.

Chapter 9: Emotional confrontation with the villain.

“Wait, why is Sarah suddenly flirting with the villain?

THAT WAS NOT IN THE PLAN.”

But, In simple words, Plotting gave me structure, clarity, and a false sense of control (spoiler: the characters always win).

I Shifted to Pantsing: My Wild West Era

At one point, I threw my outline out the window (metaphorically… mostly) and declared, “Let chaos reign!”

Suddenly, I was free.

No outlines, no bullet points—just me, my keyboard, and a vague idea of where things might end up- thinking and writing as a Pantser:

Sarah picked up the amulet. Cool. Now what?

Maybe it’s cursed. Maybe it sings Broadway show tunes. Let’s find out!”

“Oh no. I’m 40,000 words in, and I have no idea what happens next.”

Pantsing felt like an adventure. I was uncovering the story as I went along, and sometimes I wrote scenes so unexpected, I had to sit back and say, “Did I just… did I just make that up? Whoa.”

Then I Choose "The Hybrid Approach"

I realized I’m neither a hardcore Plotter nor a full-on Pantser. I’m somewhere in between—a Plantser if you will.

Now, I start with a loose outline:

“Sarah finds an amulet. The villain wants it. Big showdown at the end.”

But I leave the middle parts open for discovery.

If Sarah decides she wants to flirt with the villain in Chapter 9… well, who am I to stop her?

Now, the real magic happened and I was too satisfied!

Key plot points? Mapped out.

Character arcs? Clear.

Everything else? Chaos, baby.

So, What’s Your Style?

Finding your writing style isn’t about picking a side and sticking to it forever. It’s about experimenting, adjusting, and figuring out what feels right for you.

If outlines make your soul happy—Plot away.

If you thrive on chaos—Embrace the Pantsing life.

If you’re like me and want both structure and spontaneity—Welcome to the Hybrid Club.

At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to write like someone else—it’s to find your rhythm, your style, and tell your story.

So tell me, friend: Are you a Plotter, a Pantser, or somewhere in between?

Drop your chaotic (or highly organized) thoughts below—I promise we’re all friends here.

[simptasia]

Hey! You've probably already made a post for this and if so I'm really sorry, but do you have any LOST post-finale headcannons?

Don’t be sorry! And, yes... yes I do. Including but not limited to:

kate/claire & miles/richard are Things now, my post-finale otps. like, friends to lovers. both pairings eventually married with kids

kate and sawyer stay as friends, I like ‘em better than way

okay All of these friendships and relationships are great and i love them but i have extra delight for miles being besties with kate and claire

i give kate n claire about a year of living together before they get together (time for claire’s recovery, all of kate’s pregnancy (more on that next), an for claire to realise she’s into women, specifically kate. she just had to be exposed to kate’s Bi Aura a while before she got it. and no way was kate gonna make the first move, so claire gotta get the ball rolling with an adorably nervous confession and a tippy toe kiss

ya know that bit when kate and jack bang before they got on the ajira flight? i hc that kate got pregnant from that (the time between that event and the finale is like 2 weeks) and thus kate has jack’s (rip) baby and it’s a boy named david (basically i got that theory that david shephard in limbo was david austen in living life) and kate n claire raise two boys together

claire is also gonna need a lot of therapy/recovery time, she’s not okay

desmond and penny have a daughter and name her danielle in honour of daniel

before miles got on the boat he put a buncha stuff in storage so even with his old place rented out, he’s got something to work with. richard is kinda disorientated by his new life and miles sees that and in a fit of Character Growth induced kindness, offers that he stay with him. hotel rooms at first but its a start. (ken said miles would “take care” of richard post-finale)

i give miles and richard about 3 months of living together before they Smash and also feelings. takes a while for miles to deal with that because he’s not into romantic relationships and love so This Is New For Him. and also richard has his own angst about being in a relationship again AND it’s a guy AND the age difference (150 years). miles legit doesn’t care about that (finds it kinda freaky but is meh) but richard feels weird for some time

i dunno what sawyer and frank are doing (besides being friends to everybody else) but i support them [pops the southern US lads in the corner] y’all be good now ya hear?

oh i mentioned more kids for the next gen, 10 years post finale richard and miles decide to have kids together. claire very kindly offers to be surrogate and they have twin girls, izzie (isabella) and lara alpert-straume

i like to picture kate and miles, post the birth of the twins, having a little bonding moment over how they bother never thought *they’d* become parents. like, miles found the idea of him becoming a dad to be absurd. and kate never thought she’d be a mom. but it happened. fyi all the parents that the post finale entails are great parents because Break The Cycle!!! good parents in lost? it’s more likely than you think!

claire becomes close friends with liam and his family and in turn he considers claire and aaron to be members of the pace family

oh, claire finally listens to driveshaft and she feels really guilty that she thinks their music is awful. but is still fond of it out of love, ya know

claire makes a point of never mentioning thomas. aaron is raised to believe that charlie pace is his biological fatherbecause fuck you thomas nobody likes you. it helps that aaron just looks like claire but a boy (short, blue eyes, blonde) so outsiders wouldn’t be any the wiser. (side note: charlie had asked claire to never tell anybody he’s trans and she’ll keep that promise forever, so outsiders dunno it’s not bio possible). to claire, charlie is aaron’s real dad in spirit due to Love and that’s that

aaron also has a hero worship thing going on with charlie, and david does so with jack too to a lesser degree. this is a result of kate and claire doing a Don’t Speak Ill Of The Dead thing that is common and thus the boys only hear about how great and brave their dads were and never the flaws

hurley, ben, walt and vincent live on the island together but also hurley gives richard powers to ben (by accident, he JUST got his powers) and vincent (on purpose, walt deserves time with his dog)

walt is gonna be the protector after hurley is done

hurley decides he’s done with this once all of his friends have died. he long ago created a mural for All Those We Have Lost and has been adding more and more to it over the years. hurley and ben went to all their funerals too

ji yeon is raised by her grandmother but she’s practically like a daughter to kate and claire

all the kiddos are friends and have known about the crazy magical world they live in all their lives so they’re pretty casual about it

“remember sweethearts, we don’t tell anybody at school about how papa is almost 200 and daddy can talk to ghosts” - richard (later miles and richard have to visit the principal's office because Guess Why)

claire becomes an illustrator for children’s books

penny funds the creation of a scientific education... place called The Daniel Faraday Institute. penny never met her little brother but he saved desmond’s life twice over and was part of bringing her and desmond together so she feels his life deserves honouring (that and i imagine kate and/or miles mentioned That Shit That Went Down with daniel)

eloise visits the opening of this place and needless to say, our squad really doesn’t like her being there. ranging from anger, seething and aching disappointment (last one’s from richard) and miles even tells her to drop dead in his own special way: “i hope i hear from you soon”

i imagine post-finale at lots of points but i like to default to 15 years later (2022) at a party kate n claire decided to throw for the anniversary. hurley, ben, walt and vincent visit (claire drops her plates when she sees that van out front) and it’s like :D :O ???!!!!! and also all the ghosts appear to hurley because now that he’s off island, they wanna see everybody!

fyi i imagine that ghost thing never stopped being a thing for hurley 

before hurley finally does die, the last thing he sees is his death bed surrounded by *everybody who has died*. michael thanks him for taking care of walt. libby kisses him on the cheek. i imagine some other words of encouragement, like jack asking hurley to let go (heh). its all very sweet and sad and most the couples of holding hands (also i imagine this and every time i think i have everybody, i remember even more people!). and then, holding walt’s hand, with vincent beside him, hurley dies

(ending Ghost Time and kickstarting Limbo Time. maybe? i dunno)

[katelynthecrazy]

Bass Beats

       This couldn't be real.

       Kirishima couldn't be this lucky.

       According to the poster proudly hanging from Mina's hand, his favorite band was not only in his province, but they were looking for a new bassist. Everyone had since heard about the scandal in which their last one had quit, so it was only a matter of time.

       And she'd just broken into his garage. Where he was sat next to his amp and microphone. Playing his bass.

       "You're kidding me," he gasped, carefully setting his instrument next to his stool and reaching for the paper. "You're kidding!"

       Mina rolled her eyes and tried to hold it out of his reach. "You can keep saying that, but it's not going to make it suddenly true."

       Considering she was a good five inches shorter than him, even her best attempts were futile, and he snatched the paper from her, beaming at the colorful advertisement. It featured a familiar sight: the drummer and the lead singer going at each other's throats, the other band members playing in the background, and the details for the audition tucked into the corner. "No way! Mina, this is so awesome!"

       "Uh, duh," she grinned. "Why else do you think I brought it to you?"

       "Ah, these will be so cool to watch! I can't wait to see who gets pick--"

      "Woah there tiger," Mina growled. "Who said anything about watching?"

       He blinked. "Huh? What else am I gonna--"

       "Audition, you big dummy!" She whacked him over the head. "I present you with the opportunity of a lifetime, and you say 'cool, I'll pass?' What the hell?"

       Kirishima winced, his heart sinking under her expectation. "Mina, it's not like I'll get picked. What's the--"

       "Try, you moronic, hair-brained, oaf!" She snapped, stomping forward. She picked up his bass and packed it into his case with practiced ease, snapping it closed and hauling it onto her tiny shoulders by the strap. "Try, so that someday you can say to your kids, 'yeah, I met Midoriya Izuku and the Groundbreakers. Auditioned for the band and everything. I got pretty damn close, and even left with the band's autograph and a shitload of good memories!'

       Despite her passionate speech, Kirishima's mouth became a hard line. "I'm not going to cuss at my kids," he argued.

       Her eye twitched. "Take. The motherfucking. Guitar."

       "It's not a--"

       She slammed the instrument into his arms and jumped to grab him by the ear, yanking him painfully out the door. "Don't care, let's go, loverboy. I already signed you up."

       Kirishima wished he'd kept his mouth shut. As if incurring the wrath of Mina Ashido wasn't enough, she dragged him all the way through town to the audition. By his ear. And no amount of whimpering or pleading could convince her the let go until they were standing in front of the local performance hall. In front of them stretched a long line of waiting, anxious performers.

       It wasn't until she let go of his ear that he was able to think of a retort to her jab. "I'm am not a loverboy."

       It wasn't a very good retort.

       "Ri~ght," she grinned, fussing with the spikes in his hair. "And Bakugo Katsuki isn't the hottest drummer in Groundbreakers."

       Kirishima blushed faintly. That wasn't fair, and she knew it. It wasn't his fault the man had an Adonis body and the grace of a god. "He's the only drummer in Groundbreakers."

       "Your point? That still doesn't explain why there are posters of him all over your room."

       "Mina, I have posters of all of them in my room."

       "Yeah, but you don't have all the photoshoot covers of the others off their Instagram."

       "Hey!"

       "And his twitter. And the cut outs from magazines. And screenshots from the music videos."

       He had to move into her face as someone behind him tripped over the curve and nearly stumbled into him. He pushed out a mumbled apology as the hooded figure flipped him off in retaliation, before turning back to Mina. "Stop it, right now, or I'm leaving."

       He knew that was a mistake when she snagged him by the ear again and yanked him down to her level. "You wouldn't. You can't."

       "Lemme' go," he whined, his nerves getting the best of him. "I can't do this, I don't wanna!"

       "Yes you do, you're just being a baby about it."

       The bickering continued. In a way, it was helpful. It kept Kirishima distracted--

       Distracted until they were clearly at the front of the line. Some of the band hopefuls had since come out of the performance hall looking like some combination of depressed and terrified. A few minutes later, when Mina pushed him onto the stage of the makeshift audition hall, Kirishima saw why.

       Because in front of the stage, amidst three other people, reclined the one and only Bakugo Katsuki. His boots propped up on the table, a clipboard rested balanced on his crossed knee, and Bakugo glared at it with folded arms and the same scowl that leered back from every poster.

       To his left sat the band's keyboardist and their manager, Jiro Kyoka and Yaoyorozu Momo, looking put-out but professional. On his left sat Midoriya Izuku, the band's lead singer and co-founder, popping his knuckles like he really wanted to hit something. Their day didn't look like it had gone very well.

       Oh, this is gonna be bad...

       "H-hi--" Kirishima squeaked into the microphone, wincing with the others when it screamed at him. "S-sorry!"

       Midoriya's smile was strained, but he leaned forward and holy shit, Kirishima was actually in the same room as his favorite band. They may have been the same age, but these guys had struck it big before they'd even left high school, and now three years later, they were superstars and he was just... average. "Hi there. Can I have your name?"

       Kirishima jolted, though the direct question should have been expected. "Ah! Kirishima Eijiro." He tried to cover his nerves by slipping his case off his back as he kept talking at the usual rapid pace. "My friend signed me up and convinced me to come to the audition--dragged me here even. I get nervous. Still nervous. Probably shouldn't admit that."

       A heavy bang sounded in front of him and his gaze snapped to find that Bakugo had just slammed his head into the table with a groan, startling his bandmates. Midoriya stammered at him. "K-Kacchan, are you oka--"

       Bakugo's muffled voice reverberated through Kirishima when he growled. "If he rambles as much as you do, I'm leaving. This day has been shit--I'm ready to go home."

       "You took a break like two hours ago, chill out." Midoriya's concern suddenly became cold, and he turned back to Kirishima. "Ignore him, he's being an ass. You'll have to get used to it, if you're any good."

       Bakugo made a noise of disagreement.

       Kirishima chuckled nervously rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "I-it's no problem, really. I've been following the band since your debut, I think he's really manly. You're all really manly--" he watched Jiro mark something down on her sheet and wondered if he had offended her.

       Bakugo growled again, obviously in a worse mood than usual. "Start playing or get out."

       Playing. Right. He could do that. Playing was the easy part. He could smile as he floated away to his happy place, and pretend he was back in his garage. And because Mina hadn't given him any time to prepare he defaulted to one of his favorites, realizing halfway through (and far too late) that he was playing one of Groundbreaker's songs.

       And if he fucked it up he'd be going home, especially since Bakugo seemed dead set in glaring an angry hole through his bass. The blonde drummer grumbled something at Jiro, who elbowed him sharply in the side.

       Midoriya smiled kindly at him again when he'd finished, and he found himself returning the grin enthusiastically. "That was good, Kirishima. Thank you for--"

       "Where'd you get the sheet to learn that from?" Bakugo interrupted harshly.

       Kirishima flushed. "I didn't. I learned it by ear."

       Midoriya and Jiro both stiffened in surprise, but Bakugo scoffed. "By ear? The bass part? And you could hear that shit?" He turned back to Midoriya. "Do we even need a bassist?"

       "It's your fault we lost Monoma, you jerk!" Without turning, Midoriya smacked the blonde on the head with his clipboard, making Kirishima wince as he tried to stammer out a response. "I don't care if you only smashed a replica, you damn near gave him a heart attack and if I didn't have to suffer with you I'd say it serves you right!"

       "I-I have a friend!" Kirishima squeaked through the tension. "He's real into soundboards and audio editing and stuff, and he likes to pick apart songs and find the different instruments. He'll do all sorts of funny things with the tempo and notes, a-and he let me listen. A few... dozen times..."

       Bakugo only met him with the usual glare, holding his own clipboard up to Midoriya with a subtle middle finger. Midoriya ignored him entirely. "So Kirishima, what are your plans currently? Do you happen to know any of our other songs?"

       "Oh?" They wouldn't ask unless they wanted to know, right? Maybe he really had a chance. "Well, right now I'm kind of between years in college. Thinking of maybe changing my majors, but having a crisis about it. The usual attempting-adult stuff. Oh, and only... all of them..." he admitted.

       Midoriya laughed, which he took as a good sign. "So you'd be open to do a lot of travelling? Not a lot of weights taking your time?"

       "Dude, yeah."

       Holy shit.

       Holy shit.

       Was this happening? Was this real?

       For the first time since entering the performance hall, Kirishima's usual earth-shattering smile broke out onto his face. He saw Momo blink at him and Jiro cover a smirk as Bakugo suddenly choked.

       Midoriya grinned back with his usual expression. "Well, we've got a few more candidates to meet with today, but it was very nice meeting you, Kirishima. Actually, If you could maybe leave your phone number with Yaomomo there?"

       "Yeah!" Kirishima beamed, slipping his base back into his case and hoisting the strap over his shoulder. He hopped down the front of the stage and stopped himself from skipping over to Yaoyorozu. "Yeah, totally!"

       She supplied him with a pen and the back page of her notebook, where two other names and phone numbers were written. Competition, sure, but they'd auditioned at least a hundred people by now, and Kirishima had made a list of three. He had a chance, a real chance!

       He tucked a fallen spike shyly behind his ear as he handed her notebook back, and she smiled at him. Though Jiro elbowed her, and she sighed. "One more thing, Kirishima."

       He perked to attention like a puppy. "Yes."

       Yaoyorozu covered her suddenly sly smile with her notebook. "It's just a suggestion, but maybe you should redecorate your playing space. Before Bakugo breaks his nose tripping over another curb."

       What?

      Oh.

      Oh, no.

       Kirishima squeaked, sure his face had gone a deep shade of firetruck red. He wasn't alone, as Bakugo also looked a bit flushed, but that didn't stop him from stammering another thank you, turning on his heel, and booking it from the room. He snagged Mina's arm on the way out. "I hate you," he declared once they were out in the blinding sunlight.

       She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad."

       "No, you weren't there, you didn't hear what she said to me."

       "Nope. Hey, how'd you do?"

       Kirishima paused. Took a deep breath. Allowed himself to hope. "I'm in the top three."

       "What?! Kiri, that's amazing!"

       "Oh, and they heard your jabs about my posters."

       "Oh--ooohhh..." She trailed off. "That's... not amazing."

       "I have decided to die of embarrassment."

       "I'm sorry?"

       "You should be. This is your fault."

       And it was. It was all Mina's fault.

       Because the next morning Kirishima woke up to a phone call, from Bakugo Katsuki himself, asking him (somewhat begrudgingly, though it may have been bashful) to join their band and demanding he show up for practice within the next hour.

       And coffee. The angry blonde asked him to go get coffee. Just the two of them. Next to the studio. The real studio. Alone. With a hot drummer.

       God, he really needed to get Mina backstage passes for life at this point, didn't he?

~Might continue?~

[baiwu-jinji]

hi! sorry to bother you, but i'm always interested in your opinions, i was thinking lately about the (deliberate) parallel between xie lian's suporting the celestial pagoda and jun wu's maintaining the heaven crossing bridge while their spiritual power is fluctuating and depleting itself, both failing in their endeavours. i was wondering if one could read into the differences. the pagoda is like xianle, the reign of xie lian's father and the status quo, that we know is tyrannical -duh- (1/4)

and especially unfair to the people outside the capital; even if the crisis is artificial (and we don't know to what extent), it reveals the injustices of the system. jun wu's bridge is meant to unite heaven and earth, it's really a revolutionary idea that the heavenly officials hated and ended up sabotaging to cannibalize his kingdom. here the crisis highlights heaven's injustices. BUT, after everything, jun wu's heavenly reign is not that different from its predecessor, (2/4) it's still a terribly corrupted heaven and common people still suffer miserably. i haven't read the extras and i don't remember if there's any evidence in the text that xie lian's heaven is any less corrupted -except for jun wu's own demise-, and godhood can be still achieved by terrible means. (3/4) idk, maybe those falling buildings mirror the things that collpase in them: in xie lian's case, home, his (over)confidence, his gilded innocence, in jun wu's his revolutionary attitude, his idealism, his love for the common people. mmm do you have any thoughts on this? (4/4)

 Hi! First of all fun fact: the director of tgcf donghua said that Xie Lian struggling to hold up the pagoda is his favourite part in the book. You made some great points about the symbolic meanings of the collapse of the pagoda and the bridge, and the last line is very well-put (so I emboldened it for you haha). Although I don’t know why you think Xie Lian’s father is tyrannical…The people of Yong’an accused him of incompetence, not of tyranny (and tbh I don’t think he’s especially incompetent either as kings and emperors go).

It is ruthless to shut the people of Yong’an out of the capital, but it’s also a practical move to prioritize the capital because the capital is the political and economic centre, if you mess up the capital you mess up the kingdom. The moral of the story is no one can bring justice and parity to everywhere and no one can save everyone; this not only goes for Xie Lian but for Xie Lian’s father too.

I agree that the system is unjust and you’re right about that, but I was just thinking whether it’s possible to have a system that’s perfectly fair and just. In Xianle there’s great economic disparity and social inequality (as was the case throughout ancient Chinese history), but a more equal distribution of wealth and resources, which sounds nice in theory, is rarely so rosy in reality. China during last century did try to implement a system of absolute equality among the people where living is collectivist and there’s no economic or social disparity (and this was precisely to uproot the “feudal” system that exists in Xianle and which lingered on in 20th century China), but the new system turned out to be terribly inefficient and huge amount of resources was wasted, and the result is that everyone was equally poor and equally unproductive, and then there was a three-year famine (1959-1961) where the economy collapsed and millions of people starved to death equally. All this rambling is not to say that the situation in Xianle was handled brilliantly in any way, but that sometimes it’s impossible to find the perfect solution.

The heaven, as you said, is also unjust. The heavenly realm in Chinese myths is often a reflection of real-life politics in the Chinese imperial court, therefore it won’t be any less corrupt than the human realm. Now that you mentioned it, I do wonder what the new order in heavenly court is like post-Jun Wu. They’re still rebuilding the heavenly capital in the extra chapters I think, so it didn’t say. Jun Wu didn’t die btw, he was restrained under Tonglu Mountain.