#not sure why because i didn't/don't have this problem on my main but good lord it's so annoying

[salemwasnteverhere]

How the Hashira men react to your neighbor asking you to be quiet

Characters: Tengen, Sanemi, Rengoku, Obanai, Gyomei, Giyuu,

Additional shit: Swearing, Sanemi fighting said neighbor, Rengoku being blunt, mentions of sex, ooc mot likely :p

Tengen

He couldn't care less

His whole thing is being flashy and loud so he wants you to be loud

Like it's not his fault that dick is magical

After he shoos your neighbor away he makes sure to be as loud as possible that night

He's pounding into your cunt and you swear your gonna break when he whispers "okay now scream exactly how big my dick is. Don't forget the tip color-"

He gets cut off by you hitting him with the pillow

Way to ruin the mood

But that doesn't stop him and instead he goes harder, making sure the bed creaks loud ASF for your neighbor

"Not my fault he doesn't know how to please a woman." Is his main reason for doing so

He really wants you to scream his name so it's imbedded in your neighbors head

"Morning N/N!" Him to your neighbor from the balcony while your trying to get out of bed and failing

"Actually die." Both you and your neighbor to Tengen

Sanemi

Cares alot

Why the fuck is that limp dick biscuit talking to you and him? Who does he think he is?

You were the one who broke the news to him thankfully cause if Sanemi was the one who opened the door then you'd have to see your husband through glass in a prison

Just kidding. The Slayer corp would get him out of trouble if he didn't do it himself.

Anyways

Sanemi made it his goal to piss your neighbor off as much as possible

Your under him, practically creaming on his cock, and he's slamming the wall yelling "This loud enough yet?! Huh!?"

Not kidding I can see him doing that

He quite literally had you against a window where your neighbors could see him destroying you just to make them mad or uncomfortable, hopefully both.

But then he'd get pissed someone else would see you all naked and fucked out so he settled for the wall next to the window

One day your neighbor, finally having enough, bangs on your door yelling and guess who opens it...Sanemi!!

Good Lord was he waiting for this

It took one punch and the guy was out

Kinda what happens when you put a normal dude against a guy who kills demons for a living

Rengoku

He's a good neutral between caring and not caring

Like he doesn't wanna make your neighbors mad but he also loves hearing your screams

So he tries to keep you quiet during sex but fails since he gets to into it to give a fuck

The next days his loud ass voice wakes you up

"IM SORRY FOR MAKING INCREDIBLE LOVE TO MY WIFE!" He's not being sarcastic thats his genuine apology

Your facepalming and you want to die when you see your neighbor and she can't look at you

"PERHAPS SHES MAD BECAUSE HER HUSBAND CANNOT PLEASE HER!" Rengoku says casually and you know she can hear you from outside in her garden

"Inside voices!" You place your hands over his mouth to try and shut him up.

It works for a bit before he's yelling again

You love your husband but holy shit you wish he would speak normally sometimes

He's actually quiet in bed though

So your the problem (real)

Obanai

I'm not an Obanai fan so forgive me for how bad his section will be

Obanai is a quiet mf, and you're not even that loud

It's your neighbor who was the problem

A little old man whose hearing aids apparently had the power of 67 suns

You and Obanai found this out when he was outside training and your neighbor came over

He was so sweet and polite and even chuckled at Obanai's redness

Obanai cared at first but got over it

You? You make sure to not make a PEEP in bed

Okay that pisses Obanai off but he understands your reasons

At least make a gasp or sum cause he's over here like "Wait does this feel good? Can she feel it? Did I forget where the clit is?"

Brother is STRESSING

Then you cum and he's like "ah"

Then he's like "Did you take it?"

You have to keep yourself from murdering him cause how tf would you fake squirting

Gyomei

Babe I'm not gonna lie, you're a screamer

Gyomei is built like a house and your telling me your just gonna whine and whimper?

NO

Your over here crying and screaming into his chest, neck, the pillow, anything.

And Gyomei loves it!

He can't see your reactions so hearing and feeling them let's him know he's doing good

Gyomei isn't loud but he's not quiet

He'll grunt and moan and praise you, but he's not gonna cry out.

Well he'll cry but you can never tell from what

When the pussy so good you start crying 😭🙏

When your neighbor politely asked you to be a tad bit quieter Gyomei actually laughed

Not in a 'nah we'll keep being loud' way but more of a 'sorry we'll be quiet' way. He also found it hilarious how you actually died of embarrassment.

Don't worry he thinks its endearing

Yet it was kinda hard for him since he enjoyed hearing you

But your touches and now quieter moans made that better

And then there's also you literally drawing blood from his back you were scratching so hard

Giyuu

Holy shit you have never seen him so embarrassed

Like you could shade match his Haori to him and get the exact same color

He was the one your neighbor told and he stopped working when 'loud' and 'moaning' left their lips

If a demon doesn't kill him then his own actions will

Giyuu isn't loud, and he loves that he can make you feel so good that your loud for him.

But he didn't want your neighbor back over at your house so he tried to keep you quiet

You were super confused when he held his hand over your mouth in bed and he just pointed to your neighbors house. Then you got it.

So you nod and try to keep quiet.

You know in school when the teacher tells you and a friend to shut up but they look at you funny and you break?

Yeah that was you

You were riding Giyuu one night and you were loud so he was like "holy shit I love you but please- I can't look our neighbor in the eyes anymore."

And you couldn't help but laugh

Like howling

You calmed down obviously but sex was very giggle filled after that

You've never seen Giyuu so panicked

But give him a week and he'll stop caring

[veliseraptor]

April Reading Recap

Now with Storygraph generated visuals!

Finished out my Wheel of Time reread last month with Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light; I still have all the same frustrations with both and with Brandon Sanderson's books more generally but A Memory of Light did make me cry (again) so...I have to give it credit there, if for nothing else. The other 11 books I read, not including the Black Widow trade paperback collections that I reread (mostly because I felt lazy about it):

The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika Wurth. This book confused me - as in, I wasn't totally sure what was going on or why. The plot was happening but I wasn't really following the chain of causality most of the time. I'm still going to read Erika Wurth's other book, because I didn't find the experience of reading itself to be unenjoyable, and maybe it was just me, but...damn, I felt like I was struggling to piece this book's disparate pieces together and figure out what it was saying.

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon. I don't know that I could adequately explain why I picked this one up when I was mildly irritated by A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, except that I guess gender-related studies of the Roman Republic/Empire are catnip to me in a similar way that mythological retellings are (I often don't like them, I read them anyway). I was once again mildly irritated by the chatty, conversational tone of this book, which is really a me problem and not an it problem but I did find it personally grating. The scholarship underlying the text might be strong but the text itself feels like it undermines the scholarship. Or maybe I'm just a snob.

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen. I almost never read YA for a few different reasons, but this one was recommended by a friend so I gave it a go. And it was pretty good! But still did feel very YA to me in a lot of ways. I don't know if I'll pick up the sequel. I might, because it was a very quick read and I found some of the worldbuilding interesting, but I didn't really connect to most of the characters and found the plot fairly predictable.

Metal From Heaven by August Clarke. I've seen this book recommended widely so I had high hopes for it, and I wasn't...disappointed? Exactly? But I don't think it really worked for me. Possibly some of that is that first person narration is something that is really hit-or-miss for me, but honestly I think more of it comes down to the fact that - and I feel like I keep saying this - it ended up feeling like the delivery mechanism for a manifesto rather than a narrative. Which wasn't inevitable, I don't think! There were interesting things going on here, potentially! Though I think they were underexploited in terms of the, I don't know, moral thorniness that was kind of brushed off by the "our thieves are good and moral" thing. Reminded me a little of what happened with the Lords of Fortune in Veilguard, honestly.

I don't know. Maybe if I can come out of a book feeling like I can confidently say what an author's political stance is on a specific issue, I'm just not going to like it. And now I'm talking myself into feeling like maybe I was disappointed after all.

America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee. I've had Erika Lee's other book (on Asian-American history in the United States) on my shelf for a while but got to this one first largely because. You know. I definitely learned about a few new chapters of ignominy in US history that I wasn't previously aware of; I was already in agreement with the main thesis of this book (that xenophobia is a core and recurring piece of United States culture) so that wasn't a revelation to me or anything. This was published pre-2020 but the paperback included a postlude on racism against Asians and Asian-Americans around the outbreak of COVID.

A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr. Speaking of books with a chatty, conversational tone that turns me off! This was supposed to be a fun little interlude, took me a few hours to read, I thought I would enjoy it. It annoyed me. It did, however, provide me with a citation of a more sober history of lesbian women that I probably will enjoy more.

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetuated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean. This one was...fine. It was fun, it was interesting, it was trying a little too hard to have a moral message and not just enjoy the narrative ride of people doing wild (and often terrible) things in the name of science. I was also sort of irritated by the author's constant footnotes basically saying "go check out my podcast for more on this!" but maybe that is unfair of me.

Birds of Prey: Murder & Mystery by Gail Simone, Ed Benes, et. al. I don't remember exactly what inspired me to go back and reread this run (because I have read it before), but something did. The art has not aged well; the writing is still quite good. I am, if anyone was wondering, still bitter about DC "fixing" Babs and effectively deaging her.

A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America by Michael Barkun. I pulled a quote from this one that was very oof to read in our year 2025. It was originally published in 2003; there's a second edition from 2013 with additional material that I'm trying to acquire, but even that is going to be miserably out of date as far as the current state of conspiracy thought in the United States. I'm glad I read it, though; the most potent thing I took out of it was probably the way the author discussed the shift from conspiracies that are either religious or secular in origin to what he called "improvisational," meaning that they are omnivorous and borrow from multiple, unrelated strains of thought/ideology. I also just finished another book about conspiratorial thinking in the US and found myself comparing it unfavorably to this one, despite the other one being newer.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I love mysteries though I sometimes forget how much. I love second-world fantasy (obviously). I also really love Robert Jackson Bennett's work and pretty much have across the board (though I haven't finished the series beginning with Foundryside). This is clearly riffing on Sherlock Holmes but secondary world, but it worked for me and I'm excited to read the sequel.

The Voyage Home by Pat Barker. I read The Women of Troy a while back and don't really remember it, but The Silence of the Girls by the same author remains one of my all-time standouts of Iliad retellings and myth retellings in general so when I saw this one, and read that it was going to cover some Oresteia ground, I tossed it on to-read list fast. I liked this one better than I remember enjoying the second one - I don't think one needs to read either of the others to read this, though there are connections between them. I think what made this book work for me in a way that myth retellings often (generally) don't was the fact that it felt much less like it was self-consciously Retelling a Myth with a point to make than it was taking an existing story and working within it to tell a different story. It felt much more about the characters than about the myth, if that makes sense. I think telling a solid third+ of the novel from an outside point-of-view - not one of the core myth characters - was also a good choice, here.

---

Anyway - I have about 8 books out from the public library right now, so those are taking priority, followed by the two books I have borrowed from a friend. It's about half/half fiction/nonfiction, mostly horror, so I'm going to try to alternate. Right now I am reading Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, which I am excited about; also upcoming is The Museum of Other People and The Reformatory.

also continuing to reread a bunch more comics, apparently.

[sunflowerandstrawberryspice]

CARMEN SANDIEGO? In 2024? It's more likely thank you think! Please excuse the shit quality for some reason I wasn't allowed to upload the normal pdf and I had to upload a fucking screenshot???

So my friend convinced me to watch Carmen Sandiego and since he's watching ALL of Ninjago for me I thought it was the least I could do to watch four season of a show with a pretty decent concept but uh... yeesh, don't get me wrong the show is really fun but lord have mercy does it have problems especially the last two seasons which were just so wildly disappointing to me. It went from a show with an interesting look on morals to pure pro-cop and mostly black and white thinking so quick (that not mentioning the breaking up a found family full of people with abandonment issues) it was honestly just so disappointing so me and the friend who introduced it to me decided to rewrite it! (I will not be animating nor do I plan on doing more than MAYBE a comic or art piece here and there because my chronic pain ridden ass can not handle that much lol)

The main goals are to:

1) Flesh out characters that aren't Carmen and actually give them reactions based on their lived experiences and how they might realistically react instead of what the show needed to move the plot along

2) Having characters other than Carmen be actually relevant to the plot the main one being Chase Devineaux who we're gonna kind of have as a parallel to Carmen (trust me yall) as kind of a "What if Carmen didn't have her friends/family to ground her and fall back on" but for all the Chase fans out there (gods I hope there's some other than me) he will be getting a happy ending but bro is getting put through the RINGER first

3) Have both A.C.M.E (now standing for Administration for Containing and Monitoring Evil) and V.I.L.E be the bad guys. Also just as an extra bit of fun we're making VILE a full blown cult, they were very cult like in the show so we're just gonna make it one. Both are going to be very morally questionable and while it'll take a bit longer for ACME to show it's true colors don't you worry they definitely will ;)

4) We're doing canonical lgbtq+ rep, I know the show teased a lot of relationships and really only gave yall background gays not to say thats bad but we can do better than just a brief shot of a damn taco truck. I mean like come on in a story about a young woman going against the government for the greater good why not put some rep into it ya know!

5) We're making it light sci-fi, not like SUPER high tech but definitely beyond what we've got currently, as shown with Carmen's prosthetic, and don't worry I'm doing my research as a disabled person I know how it feels to be misrepresented or ignored so I want to make sure I'm being realistic

6) PLAYER ISN'T GOING TO BE A CHILD! I don't know if this bothered anybody else but to me it was really weird that this 16 year old's only friends were in their 20s!

Alright I think that's what I'm gonna say for now, I'd love it if yall tuned in for updates if your curious since this is a passion project for me and my friend and we're having a blast writing it!

As always I am still working on stuff for Ninjago cause I could never abandon my one true love, currently there's a Pixal drawing in progress (it's giving me hell T-T) something for Cole and Geo, and something of Sora MAYBE even Euphrasia if I'm feeling up to it.

Having said that I hope yall have a great day/night and PEACE OUT!

[ninii-winchester]

Unveiled Sorrows (Part 4)

Pairing : Dean Winchester X Reader, Sam Winchester x Reader (platonic)

Word count : 3.6k

Warnings : spoilers s1-5, angst, so much angst, violence, language, mentions of pregnancy, unedited.

A/n : This series follows canon plot line but some scenes might happen differently or be completely changed. Check the warnings for each part before continuing.

I DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION TO COPY MY WORK, TRANSLATE IT OR POST IT TO ANY OTHER PLATFORM. REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED.

It had been a few weeks since the boys have been on the road. They called often. But it was mostly Sam. Sometimes to ask for help in research or sometimes just to make sure she's okay. Sam informed Y/n that there might a way to stop the apocalypse, as Gabriel told them, they can throw Lucifer back into his cage. The key to the cage being the rings from the four horsemen. Luckily they already had two of them. They just had to get the other two.

Bobby went out to help them with a witch problem. More like to get help himself. Cas hung around while Bobby was gone.

"How're you doin', Y/n." He asked the girl.

"I'm good honestly." She smiled. "Maybe after Lucifer is back in the cage, we could have a somewhat normal life."

"You're right." Cas replied.

"Cas I'm sorry." Y/n started. "For the times I've been mean to you. I know you were doing what you thought was right."

"It's alright. I understand." Cas said with a smile.

Bobby came back the next morning and he looked solemn. Y/n noticed and she knew something was wrong.

"Alright spill." She said sitting in front of him. The older man just sighed and looked away. "What did they do now?"

"Those idjits are trying to kill me.." He exclaimed. "How did you put up with all that all these years?" He asked.

"You get used to it, Bobby, Cmon tell me what is it now?" Y/n smiled thinking it can't be that bad.

"Sam wants to say yes." Bobby stated.

"What?" Y/n exclaimed standing up from her seat. "Why? I thought we had a plan."

"Yeah but you don't expect Lucifer to jump in out of the goodness of his heart, do you?" Bobby asked rhetorically.

"Yeah so what he's gonna sacrifice himself? What did Dean say about this?" Bobby looked away giving her the answer. "You've got to be shitting me! Dean agreed??" She exclaimed.

"I think this might actually be good idea." Cas spoke for the first time.

"Cas, not a good time buddy, lord so help me i will rip your lungs out." Y/n snapped.

"Technically that's not possible since I'm an angel. Although it would be inconvenient since I'd have to find another vessel." Cas replied his in monotonous voice.

Sometimes she hated the Angel. She left the room without a word. She can't believe Sam would suggest something like but, no wait she can because he's dumb like that. What she can't believe that Dean and Bobby are actually considering it. She slammed her foot on the car infront of her, cursing in frustration.

The boys didn't come back for atleast another week. Y/n heard the Impala pulling up in driveway and she knew they're here. She stood at the bottom of the staircase and watched as the door opened and walked in Dean. She didn't know what she was hoping for but a nod of acknowledgment just wasn't it. Dean made his way to the main room without a word. Sam entered the house few moments later.

"Hey Y/n." He greeted her and her mind went haywire. Her anger flared and all she saw was red. She was angry and upset, Dean's behaviour added fuel to the fire. Before she knew she took a step forward and punched Sam in the face causing him to reel back. He held his nose and hissed.

Dean came rushing to Sam's side and Bobby wheeled to see what the commotion is about.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dean asked angrily.

"Me? What is wrong with you two. All of you?" Y/n screamed. "You're going to say yes to Lucifer? You're gonna let him take you?" She asked incredulously looking at Sam.

"Y/n i know it's a hard pill to swallow but we don't have another choice. You can't just expect to ask him nicely and he'll jump in." Sam understood she's upset. He understands she can't let her best friend go. He put his hand over her shoulder but she shrugged it off and went to the main room. The others followed her behind.

"There has to be another way. Why do you have to sacrifice yourself?" She asked throwing her hands up.

"One life for seven billion lives. I don't think it's a bad bargain." Sam replied softly.

"What about us, what about me and Dean, your family?" She felt her lip quiver. "Why do you think it's your responsibility to be the one saving the world.?"

"You know damn well I started the apocalypse. It is my responsibility." Sam replied feeling himself getting angry.

"And you don't have anything to say about this?" She turned to Dean hoping he'd say something. When he didn't say anything Sam spoke.

"Look, Y/n there is no other way, we have War and Famine's rings, we're gonna get Pestilence's and Death's rings. I say Yes to Lucifer, We open the cage and I jump in."

"And you think he'll let you do that? You think he's not gonna take over your body as soon you say Yes." Y/n countered.

"It's worth a try." Sam replied.

"No it's a stup-"

"ALRIGHT ENOUGH." Dean's loud voice boomed making her flinch a bit. "You need to stop, you hear me? This is our decision to make. We were chosen for this and last I checked the world doesn't revolve around you." Dean said directly looking at Y/n.

"Dean." Sam said trying to calm his brother but the older Winchester didn't waver.

"I suppose the decision has been made. We don't need your input. Either you help or you walk out. The door's that way." Dean said looking into her eyes, pointing towards the door.

"You watch what you're saying, boy."  Bobby spoke for the first time in a while. "Need I remind you this is my house." Dean looked away at Bobby's stern voice.

Y/n didn't speak nor did she breath, how could she. She felt as if her heart has been ripped out of her chest. She didn't cry, everything inside her wanted her to scream and yell. To breakdown and hope that its a terrible nightmare that would be over soon.

"Is this your final decision?" She asked the same question she asked him after everything with Alistair went down. A single teardrop slid down her cheek.

"Yes." Dean replied. Unnerving and firm in his decision. In that moment she knew it was over. Everything was over. At this point who was she even kidding, there was nothing to begin with. At his confirmation all she did was nod her head. And she made her way up to her to room. The main room fell silent as she left.

"Dean what the hell?" Sam exclaimed and Dean left the room without a word.

Y/n didn't come out of the room the whole day. Bobby couldn't go up to check on her and Sam didn't know if she wanted to see him. Dean however remained indifferent. Sam grabbed a beer from the fridge and went outside. He felt like he was going to suffocate inside. He sat on the hood of one of the many cars present at the yard. He heard footsteps and looked to see Y/n coming outside. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed Sam sitting there.

"Sorry I'll just go." She said softly before turning back.

"Y/n-" Sam called out to her. She turned to look at him. "Please stay." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Sam-"

"Please." She nodded and made her way towards him and he helped her up. The two of them sat in silence. Dean saw Y/n and Sam talking, sitting on the hood of a car. He couldn't help but eavesdrop.

It was quiet for moment before Sam spoke, "I'm sorry." She didn't look at him nor did she say anything. "I'm sorry it came down to this. I wish things could've been different." She still didn't speak but looked at him. "I know it's hard for you to accept and i know if i were in your place I'd react the same way hell even worse. But you have to know this is my redemption, for what I did. I set him loose and I have to be the one to send him back."

"I understand Sam." Dean heard her say. "Truth is, I was being selfish, I didn't want to lose my best friend. I didn't want to lose my family, but the real truth is I realised that I never had one." She tucked her knees to her chest. "I found out the hard way but all in good time." She smiled even though she felt her heartstrings were seconds away from snapping.

Dean felt like his whole body was on fire as he heard her say that. He knew what he did, and he knew what he said. But he had to keep her away. He couldn't let her get hurt, so it doesn't matter if she walks away hating him. What matters is she walks away. Alive and Safe.

"That's not true Dean...he just... he didn't mean it. He's angry. He might not show it but the decision is affecting him too. He didn't mean any of it." Sam tried to explain.

"You and I both have been with him long enough to know he meant what he said." Y/n looked into Sam's eyes, her eyebrow raised and lips tugged upwards. Her face screamed are-you-really going-to-argue-you-know-i-am-right. Sam looked away because deep down, he knew Dean meant it. His posture, the way he spoke, it was familiar to him. "I assume this is goodbye?" Tears filled her eyes as she asked.

"I wish it wasn't." Sam replied pulling her into a bone crushing hug. Y/n was thankful that they were sitting so he didn't crush her stomach. However his hands were tightly wrapped around her shoulder and her's around his torso.

"I wish i knew what to say to make you stay." She sobbed in his chest. Sam couldn't help but let a few tears roll down down his cheeks and onto her hair. "Please don't go Sammy." She cried, her body shaking with intensity.

Dean wished he could join them, he wished he could comfort them both, he wished he could tell them that's all gonna be okay. But his feet were glued to ground. The only thing he wanted to do was protect his family. He failed to protect Sam but he knew he had to protect her so he made a decision and he's going to stick to it.

"I have to. But you have to promise me you'll take care of yourself yeah? You won't be reckless." He pulled away to look at her. "As much as I love you I have no desire to meet you on the other side anytime soon. You hear me?" He joked and it made her chuckle through her tears.

"Bold of you to assume I’m going to Hell.” She tried to joke but it only made her cry more. “I promise. I'll be safe." She sniffled as they pulled apart. "I'm leaving." She told him.

"What? Where?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

Dean has never felt so broken before. The two people he loved the most in his life are leaving. And he can't do anything to stop either of them. Life has always been a losing game for him. But being ripped off of his family, all at once it was too much to bear. He didn't know how long he could hold on so he went inside. He couldn't hear it anymore.

A month has passed since Y/n left Bobby's house. Much to the older man's dismay. Last thing she knew before leaving that the boys were searching for Pestilence. She had been living in a motel room that she had booked for a month. She went to see a doctor as well, and found out she was three months along now. She was lost in thought staring at the ultrasound picture when her phone rang. Her heartbeat accelerated as she picked up the phone. It said Cas. She pondered whether to answer or not.

"Hello." Her voice shaky as she answered.

"We have the key." The angel spoke. "We're going to Detroit." He spoke.

"What do you want me to do Cas?" She asked, she hoped Dean had asked him to call her. She knew he was too stubborn to call herself but she hoped.

"I thought you'd want to know."

"Did they tell you to call me?"

"No. It was me." Her hopes were shattered.

"Alright Cas."

"Will you come?"

"No." With that she hung up. She couldn't go. What would she even do? Watch her best friend jump into the hell fire? She'd pass.

As Sam and Dean drove to Detroit, the tension in air was so thick they could cut it with a knife. Dean kept his focus on driving and Sam kept fidgeting with his fingers. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Dean." Sam turned to his brother.

"I'm not doing the goodbye crap." Dean replied without looking at Sam.

"You have to listen to me." Dean raised a brow and urged him to continue. "You have to promise me you won't try to bring me back." Sam said with urgency.

"What? I never agreed on anything like that."

"Dean. No, you have to promise me that you won't bring me back. You get out."

"Out?" Dean questioned.

"Out of Hunting, Dean, you go back Lisa. Live that life you always wanted to live. I just want you to be happy man, I hope by some miracle she takes you back."

"What about y/n?" Dean asked subtly.

"What about her? She left. I hope she's happy wherever she is. But I can't have you trying to find her." Sam said seriously.

"Why not?" Dean side eyed Sam.

"Because then you two will try to bring me back. I need you to get away from this life Dean. I need you to promise, you'll go back to Lisa and you'll live the apple pie life." Sam explained. "Don't try to find Y/n again, I just want you two to be happy. And if you two keep trying to bring me back, you won't get out of this life." Dean looked at his brother and his heart raced a thousand miles per hour. "Promise me Dean."

"I promise."

Y/n paced back and forth in her room. She can't seem to get it all out of her mind. Damn you Cas, she cursed grabbing her stuff and her car keys. She threw her things in the backseat and left for Detroit.

For Dean, it all happened in a blink of eye yet it felt like time had slowed down. They met up with Lucifer after Sam had chugged down all that demon blood. Sam said Yes which allowed Lucifer to get inside Sam's body. Dean threw the key at the wall and said the incantation to open the cage. He saw Sam fighting for power over his body but then Sam said the incantation to close the cage. He took the key off the wall and pocketed it. Lucifer had taken over and Sam was gone. They lost.

The war was going to happen and there’s nothing Dean could do. He had the power to keep it at bay but then the angels had brought in Adam and Micheal had taken over him. The war was now inevitable. Millions of people were going to die. Michael and Lucifer will fight in Sam and Adam's bodies.

Dean called Chuck to ask him if he saw what happened and Chuck said he did. The Winchester asked the latter if he saw the outcome of the war but he denied saying he couldn't see that far. But he told him he knew when and where it'll happen.

"Where Chuck?"

"Tomorrow high noon, at Stull Cemetery." Dean hung up and revved the engine to meet up with Cas and Bobby. He couldn't sit there and wait for a duel to happen between two angels. He had to do something.

Y/n drove as fast as she could to reach Detroit and she saw Cas calling. She answered the phone keeping her eyes on the road.

"Cas?"

"We lost."

"WHAT?" She stomped the brakes. A screeching sound was heard.

"Sam couldn't take over his body. Lucifer closed the cage and took the key. Michael and Lucifer will fight." Cas told her.

"Wait how? Dean said he'd never say yes to Michael.." Cas cut her off.

"They brought in Adam."

"You know your kind is a bunch of assholes?" Y/n growled.

"I know, I wish things..!" Cas stopped talking as he heard Dean calling his name.

"Cas.. Bobby." Dean said approaching the two. Cas didn't hang up just shoved his phone back inside his pocket.

"What's going on Dean?" Bobby asked.

"I'm going to stop this war." She heard Dean say.

"What? You don't even know where or when it will happen" Cas replied.

"I know. Tomorrow noon, stull cemetery."

"But it's not possible. It's Michael and Lucifer. You can't stop them." Cas said solemnly.

"I can't just sit here and wait for destruction. I know I can't stop them, but my brother's in there. I can try." Dean said getting into his car.

Stull cemetery, Noon.

Y/n repeated those words in her head and she stepped on the Gas. She had to be there. She arrived there at before anyone else did and hid behind the bushes. She saw Sam walk in the cemetery but it wasn't her Sam anymore it was Lucifer. She watched as Adam appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't Adam anymore it was Michael.. The two talked for a while their voices getting louder and then she saw The Impala driving in , music blaring from the speakers. Her heart squeezed at the sight of Dean.

"Hey. We need to talk." He said walking towards Sam/Lucifer.

"Dean, even for you, this is a whole mountain of stupid." Lucifer said.

"I'm not talking to you I'm talking to my brother." He replied.

"You're not a vessel anymore." Adam/Micheal said.

"I just need five minutes."

"You have no right to be here. You're no longer a part of this story." Michael walking towards Dean when Cas called out to him.

"Hey, ass-butt." And threw a molotov cocktail at Michael but it was made of holy fire, which made him disappear. This made Lucifer angry.

"Castiel, did you just Molotov my brother with holy fire?" Lucifer snarled at Castiel.

"No?" Cas answered, if it wasn't an apocalyptic situation Y/n would've laughed.

"No one dicks with Michael other than me." Lucifer said before disintegrating Cas to nothing.

Lucifer then moved towards Dean and grabbed him by the neck. Bobby shot at Lucifer to which he just flicked his hand and cracked Bobby's neck. Y/n couldn't just watch anymore. She jumped out from the bushes as Lucifer kept punching Dean. He threw him against the car and bashed his face with his bare hands.

"Dean." Y/n yelled as she ran towards him.

"Oh hello there darling." Lucifer said in a sickening voice. "I knew someone was missing when these two showed up. You were in Carthage weren't you?" He asked.

"Let him go." She said staring down at Lucifer. Dean was brutally beaten. His face was swollen and bloodied. His eyes were barely visible due to all the swelling on his face.

Lucifer threw Dean on the ground and he collided with the Impala. He groaned as he hit the car. He watched as Lucifer walked towards Y/n.

"Sammy don't do this please." She begged hoping he's in there listening.

"Sammy's not home darling." Lucifer snarled as he grabbed her by the neck. Pulling her off the ground. "You know I could've let you two live if you'd just stay away. I care about Sam and I know you two mean a lot to him. But you're so annoying, you two." Y/n gasped trying to get his hands off her.

"Sam please." She cried.

"Sammy." Dean groaned. "Let her go."

He looked at Dean and his gaze fell on the an action figure stuck in the Impala, something flashed in Lucifer's eyes and he let Y/n go. She gasped as she dropped to the ground. Coughing up as she tried to take as much air as she could. Lucifer looked at Dean and Y/n and the two looked back at him. It wasn't Lucifer. It was Sam. He immediately fished out the key from his pocket and threw it on the ground. He said the incantation to open the cage and it appeared on the floor. Sam turned to look back at Dean and Y/n. She was sobbing on the ground while Dean looked at Sam as if he was trying to remember his face. With one last look at his brother. Sam jumped. Michael reappeared trying to stop Sam from jumping in but he pulled him in too.

As soon as he jumped Cas came back to life. He pressed his two fingers to Bobby's head and brought him back to life. Castiel then walked to where Dean was and healed him completely.

"Cas, are you God?" Dean asked.

"That's a nice compliment but no." Cas replied. "But I believe he brought me back."

Dean nodded and looked around and saw Y/n still on the ground, sobbing. He turned back around and got into the Impala. He did what no one of them had expected. He drove off.

Tags:

@spnfamily-j2 @galway-girlatwork @queensilber

[dapper-lil-arts]

TobbyMLP made a video about scrapped ideas of FIM and these are the things thar interest me the most:

1. Sunset Shinmer was originnaly going to show up in the Last Problem, in the future where she tells some info about the human world to Princess Twilight and in the past, she becomes the president of Canterlot high and makes a council (presumably with the human counterparts of the Mane 6) which inspired Pony Twi to maje the council of friendship. She was cut because the writers thought it was too much lore for one episode.

2. Fluttershy and Discord were goong to kiss and be a confirmed couple in the future, but was removed due to confirming many ships was way too much (CheesePie, LyraBon and matbe AppleDash since it was implied)

3. Cozy Glow was supposed to be a male, was going to work with Chrysalis instead of Tirek, and was going to be an abyssian, which is why this version of Cozy was evil, he never felt the loving embrace of our lord and saviour friendship. My guess to why it was changed was because Hasbro thought making Cozy a pony child would be marketable???

4. Celestia, Luna and Discord were going to feel their "ascension", but Discord didn't want to ascebd, which was originally why he brought back the most evil villains in Equestria.

5. The legion of doom were going to have the elements of disharmony created by Grogar aka Discord:

Grogar - Fear

Chrysalis - Betrayal

Tirek - Greed

Cozy Glow - Deceit

Sombra - Cruelty

Evil Twilight - Anti-Magic

The evil Twi in particular was goibg to be corrupted by Grogar/Discord and was going to become Midnight Sparkle as well before being turn back good and Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow were still going to be the final bosses. The reason why they cut the evil Twil subplot (alobgside the idea of the elements of disharmony) was because they thought turning the main protag evil would be wild for a final season, and I guess they didn't use the Mean Twi clone vecause since she was just a one off villain in a random s8 episode, she would stick out from the other season premiere/finale villains (and I guess they were banned to use Storm King or something due to his voice actor being expensive). Also, apparently the Mane 6 were going to realized in the final battle that they are the literal gems of the elements of harmony given form, don't know how that would work, but that sure was going to be something.

I ain't fact checking any of that. Glad that evil twilght was smth that others had ideas over too. it woulda been fitting!

[idkwhatimdoinghere1655]

Australian GP 2024!

Mads' Race Recap!

Oh my jesus lord christ alive this was a goddamn good day. OK, I'll try to remain calm, but that is VERY difficult under the circumstances of my 3 best boys getting the podiums. But, I shall do this in order of constructors. Also, thanks to @lipringlrh for edging me through the entire bloody race cause she knew what happened, I swore I was going to be sick.

Red Bull - Nice qualis from Max, and I can't say I wasn't happy with Checo's three place penalty, just because I definitely think it helped the main race. Everything was all honky dory, then Carlos overtook and I was just like 'OK Carlitos, sure'. Then Max was slowing down... Then Lando and Charles passed, and the everyone else. The brakes were smoking, I was screaming out of pure joy. Now, don't take this the wrong way, I love Max. BUT, this provided my boys some very good opportunities. I reckon if Checo hadn't gotten the penalty, he could've tried to pip in front, but I won't dwell on what didn't happen.

Ferrari - WE GOT A FUCKING FERRARI 1-2 BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHEN I TELL YOU I LOST MY GODDAMN MIND IT IS UNPARALLELED! Anyway, I'll be constructive, for a moment, at least. Charles and Carlos had some mental quali pace, so how they didn't get pole is a little crazy to me. Alas, none of that matters now. The second I saw Max go, I was like 'oh fuck we've got it'. Carlos DOTD and race winner, barely 2 weeks after having his appendix out and he doesn't have a seat?! Absolutely diabolical. It was sweet how he went back to singing Smooth Operator, I was waiting for it. When I heard the commentators saying that they may swap the positions so that Charles could lead the WDC, I was shitting it. Yes, I wanted Charles to win, but I didn't want it to be because of something stupid like team orders. Charles can win without needing it handing to him, and it would've been so damn disrespectful to Carlos. Every year that a team has finished 1-2 in Melbourne, they've gone on to win both championships... It's our year, I'm telling you.

So happy to see them back at the top, both of them did incredibly, Charles was pulling pace out of God knows where for that fastest lap. And the strategy was good???? Like, bringing Charles in when he said he needed to? Listening??? Nice stuff. Hearing the Spanish and Italian anthems was absolutely amazing. Also, I feel like this really highlights how special Ferrari is. The team were screaming that Italian anthem like there was nothing more important to them, and they were all hugging and having a whale of a time. It was just so fucking nice to see Charlandos up there, so fucking good. So so so so so happy, Forza Ferrari. Everyone is a Ferrari fan.

McLaren - OK, so, quali wise, Lando kinda came out of nowhere. I feel like Oscar was just... There? We were racing, it was the 'rarri 1-2 with Oscar in P3 at his home race, it was lovely stuff. Then they swapped the positions. Can someone please tell me why they swapped the positions? Pretty sure it was something to do with either less pace or more recent pitting or something, but I'm not 100% sure. As much as I love Lando, I wanted him to stay down in P3 just for that Ferrari 1-2. I needed it. The last few laps, I was looking at the delta between Charles and Lando, and I was relieved to see that it wasn't changing. Super happy for Lando, Oscar did loads better at his home race, nice one for all.

Mercedes - What the hell is going on here? Like, Lewis' qualis weren't good, George's were fine, nothing bad but nothing spectacular. Now the race was something else. I can't really blame Lewis for his problem, since it was a mechanical issue obviously as opposed to driver error. From what I saw of George, he didn't even do anything that bad. One minute he was fine, the next he was turned on his side. I may not want Merc to get points, but I don't want a crash to be the reason why. He's OK, so that's all that really matters. But, as for the car in general, there's something wrong with it. It's not just a one week thing where it's a bit off, this has been consistent. Yes, George had a nice P3 in qualis the other week, but the pace just wasn't there at all in the race. I just don't know what's going on with them at the minute, and the fact that they're so behind the Ferraris and McLarens is concerning.

Aston Martin - Pretty mediocre all together, I've seen varied opinions on Fernando's 20 second pen. Some said he was kinda to blame for George's crash, from what I saw, he was just avoiding George after the fact. I don't really know, so I won't comment until I watch another replay. But yeah, nothing too special, but they do need to up their game.

VCARB/RB/REDBULLSHITTYEDITION - Yuki Tsunoda. Well bloody done babe. Got extra points thanks to the Fernando penalty, even if I didn't really see him during the race like... at all. But, he must've done a pretty damn good job to end up all the way in eighth before the end of the race. Now, Daniel. What is this man doing? 12th is not bad, but when your teammate with less experience in the same car is doing that much better than you in your home race, you know something's up. I love Danny Ric, but Carlos is more likely to get that Red Bull seat than he is at this rate. Slightly disappointed, I won't lie.

Haas - Both drivers getting points? OK, OK. I actually think Kevin could've gotten higher in qualis if Checo hadn't impeded, but I'm glad Checo was put down on the grid. Overall though, nice drive from both, nice to see them get points.

Williams - Right, realistically, what harm would it have done to let Logan drive? It wasn't his fault, Alex has fucked it at that circuit so many times at the same place, and Alex didn't even get points. It wasn't fair, and he took it like an absolute champ. #justiceforlogiebear #cancelwilliams

Kick Sauber - These guys need to fix their pitstops I swear to God. How many times are they going to get that wheel nut stuck on? They did 1 good one for Valtteri, but they screwed up all the others. Zhou's pitlane start was unfortunate after it looked like his front wing just... fell off. Someone said the car reminds them of a wheelie bin, I completely agree and can't see it any differently.

Alpine - Pierre 's fault for getting the 5 second penalty, but other than that, they were shit as usual. Pierre was running pretty high for a little while, then just kind of... fell back. I can't help but laugh at them, I know it's mean, I just find it so bloody comical. I think FC Versailles is just a distraction, but he has just invested in a Tier 3 league, unheard of French football team... Nice one, I guess.

[apocalypticavolition]

1,000 Greatest Films: Körkarlen

Literally "The Wagoner", but better known to English speakers as "Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!" but better known to American audiences as "The Stroke of Midnight" but only in the 1920s. Nowadays we just call it "The Phantom Carriage". So that's a lot.

This movie is yet another novel adaptation, based on a book by Selma Lagerlöf, a Swedish author who was also the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was quite happy to have her books adapted to the screen and was clearly something of a boon to the local industry, with her works adapted dozens of times even into the modern era.

Victor Sjöström had, like so many in this era, gotten started in the theater but was excited to transition to the new medium. He directed some forty-two films in Sweden, many of which are now lost, and acted in many more. Naturally he did plenty with Lagerlöf, impressively he had produced films that she approved of! It was probably this more than anything that made her willing to let him attempt to adapt Körkarlen, a much more occult sort of story. Sjöström was probably drawn to it for the difficulties of this adaptation; certainly drawn to its urban, gritty feel and thus inspired wrote up a screenplay in just eight days then presented it to her in person.

She refused, and the story ends here, this film was never made.

Wait, then why am I writing about it?

*double checks my notes*

She accepted and the film was made! They worked on it for the rest of 1920 and got it out the door on New Year's Day, which is quite thematic. This was probably quite difficult at the time - the story is about ghosts and the only way to make ghosts in those days was to pull off double exposure using the camera directly. Optical printing wasn't invented yet! Oh and the cameras were still hand-cranked and apparently how fast you cranked affected the recording so if they didn't do it exactly right it still wouldn't look right. Good lord.

So: the film itself! Is it a horror story? Is it a fable? Maybe it's more a ghost story than a horror? Distributors weren't quite sure (hence the many translations), but I am fully confident in saying that its genre is the exact average of The Seventh Seal and The Shining. I will leave determining what that is to the readers but I basically spent this whole movie going "Oh, so that's where [Bergman/Kubrick] got the idea".

Naturally, that again leaves me in the awkward point of having to say that Seinfeld is unfunny because its successors did it better. Körkarlen's Death does have a bit more mystique on account of being the unseen master of the titular wagoners, and the bit where David Holm tries to axe his way to his wife and kids has a more realistic horror to it than "Here's Johnny!", but both of the later works focus on their themes to much more success than Körkarlen manages.

The main problem is that Körkarlen itself feels like an imitation of that well-loved Dickens novel A Christmas Carol. Sure, it's set on a (slightly) different holiday. Of course it's more economical with a single ghostly figure mostly showing off the past instead of all three tenses. But the point is the same: it's all a spooky dream wherein the dreamer realizes that his life has proceeded to a terrible point but that it's not quite too late to redeem himself. Melodrama gets us from point A to point B.

But let's focus on some positives. First, I strongly approve of the social messaging that the film provides on how and why to avoid the spread of tuberculosis. Recent events have made it clear to me that most people don't care about epidemiology and even more recent events give me reason to believe that TB could be about to be back in style. Coughing spreads death! Avoid coughing on people and avoid things that people have coughed on!

Far more importantly though, this film does a flashback-in-a-flashback and dammit people it knows what it's doing! Though the events of the film technically all happen over a single night, we get the full examination of David Holm's descent into wickedness over the course of many years, all alcohol's fault of course. This could be rather tiresome or confusing at a lesser movie, but this film does avoid that rather well. The recursion itself is a rather simple one, with Holm telling fellow drunks about Georges' tale of the myth of dying on New Year's Eve and having to drive Death's carriage for the year. I think the simplicity is why it works so well: the film isn't one of those that confuses confusion with tension, a rather distressing development in cinema.

Still though, as much as Bergman himself liked it (apparently he watched it once a year!), I myself don't think this is a particularly exceptional movie. A good thing to watch once, I think, with effects that still hold up pretty well to the friendly eye. As always with this project, until we get to the awkwardness of copyright law, these movies can be found for free on places like YouTube so if any do sound interesting, check them out!

[mintyimperiatrix]

just finished reading the Infinity Doctors and i'm now going to make it everybody else's problem, so welcome to what is probably going to be the opposite of a concise review by someone who knows utterly fuck all about any of the 90s books, yeehaw (spoilers)

~~

so in all honestly i literally only read this because it's the only other time that i'm aware of that Patience appears and after reading Cold Fusion i wanted to find out more about her. imagine my feelings when i find out that this entire book is set in a different universe :D

for real though it took me a good while to figure out wtf was going on. i didn't know if it was pre-Hartnell or a Doctor from the future or what but i think it's the latter because there's one line about how he doesn't wear a velvet coat anymore, implying he's after Eight and i know it was written wayy before Nine was cast but his description fits Eccleston's so well which to me points to him being yet another alternate Ninth Doctor so ig Nine just gets to vibe on Gallifrey in this timeline instead of facing The Horrors(tm)

speaking of timeline stuff it kinda just felt like a compressed version of the Doctor's life from the main universe. he remembers Patience here so clearly married her as Hartnell rather than before. Hedin's around so i figure he just didn't die, which makes sense if the Omega shennanigans in the Three Doctors and Arc of Infinity also didn't happen which i have to assume is the case judging by the entire plot of the book. there were also references to something that'll off the Time Lords later on which tracks with the Time War but again this was pre revival so i'm guessing it's some Faction Paradox stuff since that was also referenced. it follows the concept that the Doctor's half Human and his parents are Penelope and Ulysses which is not something i'm a fan of normally but knowing this is an alternate universe i think it has potential. he called the TARDIS a family heirloom at one point which is bizarre but in that context somewhat works

and the Magistrate is the Master right? surely that's gotta be a unanimous opinion, right?? i loved him though, probably my fav character in the book. exactly what you'd expect a Gallifrey-bound incarnation of the Master to be like. i was sad when he was killed/vanished/whatever, i wish there was some sort of follow up on that or even just a reaction from the other characters at all. there was one line though where Larna notes that it's obvious that he's in love with the Doctor and vice versa and that made my thoschei shipping brain squee with delight.

loved Larna too! we all had that one hot teacher she's just the only one lucky enough to actually snog them. i loved her dynamic with the Doctor and the Magistrate and i like to think she exists in the main universe, probably re-engineering Gallifrey's staircases and turning down constant offers to join the High Council

i would like to have strong words with Lance Parkin regarding his repeated de-shoeing of female characters though and of the random mentions of curves and figure that never occurs with male characters. i wouldn't mind the emphasis as much if the same had been done for the male characters, and it's not like there wasn't opportunity for it however in the scenes where the Doctor is naked briefly or the Magistrate is wearing tight fitting clothing not once is it given the same depth of description as the scenes with Patience or Larna. the introduction of systemic sexism on Gallifrey was also so incredibly unnecessary and i have no clue why anyone would feel the need to specify that "of the thousands of Time Lords on Gallifrey only around a dozen were female" like huh???

speaking of Gallifrey i did enjoy (for the most part) the depiciton of Time Lord day to day. i'm not fond of the distinction between Gallifreyans and Time Lords, in my mind all Gallifreyans are Time Lords some just don't live in the Citadel, but the stuff about Infinity Chambers, the way they decorate their rooms, the random tech like Z-Caps and Force Knives, the obsession with protocol and proceedure, it's all gorgeous. the use of TARDIS/Time Lord dynamics was stunning (there's a soft moment between the Doctor and the TARDIS at the end and i love it), also the use of different pronouns for different TARDISes was a welcome treat

onto Patience though, the reason i read the book. it referenced her fate from Cold Fusion but because of the everything about this book i assume it's a different version of Patience which honestly i'm glad about because i'm not sure how i feel about the idea of the Doctor marrying the woman who was at his birth and proceeded to raise him. also don't like her being Omega's wife, that's really weird??? i enjoy the idea that she's older than she initially appeared in Cold Fusion though, past regenerations for her would be cool but i doubt she stretches back as far as the Doctor does in the main universe. it was so fun to see her again though albeit a different her

on the whole i'd say a very good book but with enough iffy bits that i wouldn't rate it too high. bit of a slow burn but in a good way! i love Sontarans and i didn't know going in that they were there so that was incredibly welcome. i really like the Infinity Doctor and i wouldn't say no to more content with him, even just an unbound comic strip or something because i really like this take on the character

[louellaby]

W I T H M E

A Self-Insert Story: Solomon × Loue

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

W A R N I N G

oc × canon, self-insert, angst, hurt/comfort (?)

Loue's Note: I've been going through an emotional rollercoaster these past few days, and I don’t even know why. I've been feeling less motivated to do the stuff I love doing, even when I'm in the mood to do them. Like when I'm in the mood to draw, but the moment I pick my tablet up, I suddenly lose interest, or I'll think, "Nope, this would cost too much energy. I don't want to do it."

And so here we are; with me having written a self-indulgent story with my comfort character Solomon and my main and original character Loue. I felt like I needed to do this while I still had the energy to write. This may or may not make sense in the end, but I'm not emotionally stable enough to write something that does.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

If you don't like self-insert stories, feel free to ignore this.

It's dark outside. All I could see from looking out my bedroom window was my own reflection, lit up by the bright lights burning in my room.

The Devildom has always been a dark place, but on days like this, it always feels like it can get much darker; much colder, much stranger, and much, much more dangerous. On days like this... It makes me want to succumb to the darkness and let it swallow me whole.

It has been a while since I landed in the past. I felt like I was going to lose control over my own sanity when my demons didn't recognise me, and the realisation finally seeped it. Everyone says I'm good at adapting to situations quickly, but in all honesty, I'm not. I just try to, to keep up with the expectations.

I've been working my hardest for the longest time. It almost never felt like it was appreciated.

I've solved problems, given advice that may or may not have helped, comforted others, fixed broken connections, and I'm sure there's much, much more. But it's never enough. Nothing will ever be enough for them.

I'm not one to complain about my troubles to others, at least not whenever I have the possibility to. I'm one to bottle up my feelings until I explode. And by "exploding," I mean bursting into tears in the safety of my own bedroom. No one can see me like this. I refuse to let them see me like this.

My D.D.D. beeped, receiving a message from the one and only Solomon.

"I've gotten a message from Luke saying he and Barbatos made cakes and cookies together. He asked us if we were willing to be taste-testers."

Desserts made by Luke and Barbatos. I've always loved them; here in the past and in the future. Not only are they delicious, probably the best in all three realms, but they also give me this joyful feeling.

I want to feel that again.

I need to feel that again.

"Luke said that the brothers are with them in the Demon Lord's Castle, and we should hurry before Beelzebub eats every single thing."

...

I should want to go. Right? Because they're there. I'm obligated to see them, right? Because they're my...

No. They're not my family. Not those versions of them. I'm just their attendant. That's my job. They don't know me as well as the others back in the future. I don't belong with them. I want to go back. I want to leave this place. I can't take any more of this.

"I want to go home."

My D.D.D. keyboard beeped as I clicked send. Not long after that, I heard footsteps in the distance. They were growing louder and louder. And then they stopped. Right in front of my bedroom door.

"Loue? May I come in?"

While I still had the energy to, I got up from my bed and walked towards the door. I opened it to find Solomon, standing there with a concerned look on his face.

Now that I think about it, he's always been there for me. He's never forced me into difficult situations. He'd always take the heat himself whenever I get in trouble. He would always use his own body to shield me from harm while offering sweet words to calm me down.

And here he is again, holding me close to his chest while patting my head with a gentle touch.

"We don't have to go anywhere. We can just stay indoors and do whatever you want."

"But... I have to go. Don't I...?"

"No. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. At least not when you're with me, I won't allow it."

Solomon picks me up and walks down the hall after closing the door to my room using magic.

"Where are we going?"

"To my room. I have a feeling we will have visitors soon and the first place they'll check is your room, so it's best if you stay in mine until they leave."

"... Can I stay even after they leave?"

The man looked down to meet my eyes, and with a wide smile, he answered, "Of course. You can stay for as long as you want."

Just as Solomon said, the doorbell rang and echoed through the halls of the mansion. He told me to stay while he went out to deal with the problem we both knew was coming. I insisted on going with him to try and calm them down myself, but he refused and left the room after making sure I was comfortable in his bed.

I stayed quiet.

Listening for any hints of arguing and fighting, but there came none. Well, I heard loud voices through the halls for a moment, but it soon died down. It was much quicker than I anticipated. I was expecting loud sets of footsteps rushing their way to me, but nothing like that happened.

I heard a faint sound of the front door open and another faint sound of it closing after twenty minutes. Then, Solomon came back to his room, a tray with milk coffee and sweets in hand.

"Luke was here with Simeon and the brothers. They delivered the sweets to us, and they all wished you a quick recovery."

He must have told them I wasn't feeling well. They probably assumed I caught a cold, instead of me being emotionally and physically exhausted. Lucifer must have been the one to convince everyone to give me space.

Solomon served me the sweets he got from Luke and sat down on a chair he placed next to his bed. He assured me that no one would bother us for as long as I wanted.

He read me one of the books we bought together at the book market. He told me stories about himself when I asked him to; all the adventures he went on, all the twists, surprises, disappointments, and success. He told me that even when he was alone on his adventures, it doesn't mean I'm alone on mine.

Because no matter how difficult the road ahead will be, he'll always be there right next to me.

[felikatze]

Do you feel Awakening's plot was let down by the need to be a male power fantasy, IE: kill lots of ugly people without remorse, get praised by everyone, all the woman want the avatar, ETC?

hmmmmm. good question. I don't think it's a power fantasy, per se - FE heavily ascribes to the design philosophy of "only beautiful people can be good", which is horrible for a lot of reasons, but I feel in this aspect it's plot structure is more hampered by the fact that it is a video game, and every chapter needs a Battle.

That's how you get basically every single generic brigand. There's a lull in the action, as characters talk, get to know each other, travel to the next relevant location. But you can't put any important battles inbetween, because those moments need to be slow - thus, an enemy who could just as easily be removed from the story without changing it.

In another game I like, Lord of Heroes, it's almost a running gag - the protagonist sees someone important, and wonders when they'll have to fight the next new guy, cuz We Need Boss Battles, even when the characters have no real need to fight each other. This is how you get comical misunderstandings only resolved after trashing each other, or your typical "I need to test your strength first" shtick.

These characters are engineered to be unimportant, for their deaths to mean nothing except some extra exp. It's just a problem baked into every FE game's chapter structure.

To compare to another SRPG, Triangle Strategy - you don't have plot unimportant combat in the story, ever. It's all optinal. Like yeah, there's bandits now and again, but the bandits are actually reoccuring characters, one of whom you can recruit, so they are made to be enjoyed as characters and sympathized with. The bandit characters even make good points sometimes! There's a part in the game where the main characters are involved in a black market smuggling deal, and bandits catch them transporting illegal goods. So, the bandit questions, what makes you rightous in this situation? Why is it right when you're doing it, but wrong when she does? What, because your goal is noble? What does it matter when you've sunk to the rock bottom of morality already?

However, Tristrat has an entirely different plot structure to FE. It also has a chapter system, but not every chapter includes combat. Some chapters only feature cutscenes, or exploration segments.

The game is just set up differently in a way that lets the plot breathe without forcing conflict. Combat gameplay isn't the main draw or a necessity. I'd fucking adore Tristrat if it had no combat whatsoever - It's the opposite of FE. Plot doesn't exist because combat needs to happen, no, combat only exists because the plot occasionally necessitates it.

Okay, this has been my triade on the disposable enemy archetype of Generic Brigand. To the next point - well, is Awakening a male power fantasy?

From the main plot? Not really. Like, yeah, sure, the avatar is the only person who can marry whoever. That's to give the player the opportunity to romance their favorite, I won't deny it. But the main plot itself doesn't have anyone fawn over Robin (besides Chrom). Hell, you could even go without finding out about Tharja's devotion to them if you benched her and never read her supports. Since her whole thing with Robin isn't included in her recruitment chapter at all. That utterly blindsided me when I played, cuz all I knew about her was "Robin simp." and then she didn't even simp robin in her first appearance.

If we're talking "recruiting lots of girls to your army constitutes a harem" then like, every FE game would be a harem. They're not. The game even forces you to be monogamous. I'd argue Fates is worse in this, because characters start falling in love and blushing profusely by A-support, even when they're already married, so everyone is Schrödinger's Cheating. In Awakening support chains, there's never really any romance outside of the sudden S support marriage proposal. I'll admit S-supports are well put together in recontextualizing the previous supports as falling in love, but all of them can also be left at A for a perfectly fine platonic dynamic between all characters.

Robin themself doesn't emphasize their own strength and intellect much, even if it is impressive in the world of the game. It's all about their bonds with others, how others give them strength and hope and all that good stuff. Robin is a well-developed character with positives and negatives. They're not just a blank slate. Hell, man, there's a whopping three choices you can make in the plot, and only one of them actually changes anything, and the first one is actually a choice for Chrom instead. Robin has their own thoughts and feelings and a great arc and if you ignore that in favor of "they're just me fr" then that's a you problem tbh.

You can argue till the cows come home about beauty standards and colorism in FE enemy design, fuck knows that I can freely admit a lot of Awakening enemy designs are racist as all hell, but that's sadly not unique to Awakening. Generic Brigands are ugly to signal that they're unimportant and morally corrupt and it's fine to kill them because only pretty people have morals. The only black people in Awakening are the shadowy desert cultists and the leaders of the "barbaric meathead" nation, so go figure what the game was trying to signal on that front. It's just shit design.

Awakening's finale actually makes me think of your typical fairytale hero story, and it's a great subversion of "the knight in shining armor kills the evil dragon to save the land." In that way, it's also a great subversion of other FE stories, since that summary is a lot of them in a nutshell.

Binding Blade did the subversion first though. Grima is just Idunn 2 (actual bastard edition) and I adore them for it (that much is obvious).

So like TLDR no, I don't think Awakening is a male power fantasy, because the main plot itself doesn't focus on romance or how awesome the main character is whatsoever. Less power fantasy, more "power of friendship" fantasy.

[sara-likes-things]

I'm gonna preface this by saying I have no problem with representation. I love queer stories, especially when they're organic and natural. I'm bi, and I've had fulfilling relationships with women as well as men. Honestly, I would love a spin-off on Brimsley and Reynolds. It didn't feel.....forced. the characters were new and their story grew organically. Michaela? No. I'm trying to articulate how I feel without sounding like I hate the queer community because I genuinely don't. I appreciated Benedict's story line even if it was a little jarring. He's exploring, experimenting and that's fine. It still doesn't take away from his story. But the introduction of Michaela felt like a guy punch. It felt wrong. I've never particularly like gender swapping in stories based on an original IP, because it changes a lot of dynamics. It changes a lot of story lines. And yes, it's fiction, but I'm sorry I cannot get over it, especially when it's such a blatant case of pandering. It makes me feel as if I'm wrong to question this change and I've somehow internalised homophobia. If so, then why wouldn't I hate other queer characters or be similarly uncomfortable?

Okay I think I can make my argument clear with an example. If anyone has seen the movie Love Lies Bleeding, I think they'll get it. The sexual orientation of the characters didn't matter. It felt right. And it was not important to the story. It was just an established dynamic and we could enjoy the plot easily. It wouldn't have mattered if it was a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple, the story is largely unchanged. If Michael becomes Michaela, here's the issues I see. Who inherits Kilmartin. We've already established an estate will go to the next male heir if the current owner dies. A major part of Michael's story was his guilt over his inheritance and his imposter syndrome. His story arc taking his place in parliament. It's all gone. I mean, I know the show isn't interested in the plots other than the main character pairing but this felt so wrong. If they wanted a lesbian lead, the just make another show with original characters why force this? I'm not looking forward to Francescas season at all. I'm sure a lot of people will like it and that's their prerogative but for me, personally, the only thing keeping the story moving forward is Benedict. Maybe Eloise. But I feel like the story of the show has lost its charm and has dug itself into a hole like Disney or marvel

I can see why you feel that way, for me its kinda like that but more so how they went about it.

I dont mind the gender swap but hate the way they went about it, diminishing the relationship francesca has with lord killmartin when they spent all season saying to violet and us how love stories are different but that doesnt mean theyre not as good but then go and do exactly the opposite??? I think if instead of francesca michaela reacted the way fran did then it would be less jarring because at the end of it its the same dynamic, but making fran react like that after just getting married means she doesnt really love lord killmartin as much as she told her mom and thats a problem.

Also i think the problem with the gender swap its that it doesnt really work with the overall story of francesca haha like if they wanted to gender swap one character there was sophie or maybe try that change with eloises story, you know, stories were someone getting pregnant isnt necessary.

I do believe bridgerton has lost some of the aspects that made it so good, the production feels cheaper and the writing too modern and simple, it feels like another show but even if im not that excited as before i know im gonna keep watching so 😐

[akuaya-eng]

(Main story) Chapter 2 - Episode 2

- BEHIND THE SMILE -

Fiori

This is definitely necessary. And this... Ah, I think we didn't have that either... Hm-hm. Making a note of it... Is this everything?

----------

Fiori

Good morning! It's another beautiful morning.

Dia

... It's already noon.

Espada

Is it just you or is your room's clock broken as well?

Fiori

Wait, why do you assume I'm the one who's broken? Both I and my clock are perfectly fine. And for the record, I didn't oversleep. A princess has a lot of morning routines, you know.

Espada

Routines...?

Fiori

Curious? If you're that interested, I can tell you.

Espada

No--

Fiori

When I wake up at 7 AM, I start by drinking warm water. Then I do a light stretch and skincare routine. After skincare, I do my makeup based on the mood of the day. Today I went for a matte look! By the way, yesterday was glitter. Did you notice? After makeup, I water and check the health of my plants. Then I choose my dress--

Dia

Espada, this is your fault. Why did you react to the word "routine"?

Espada

My apologies, Lord Dia. I responded reflexively...

Fiori

Hey, are you listening? I'm busy too, you know. So, what were you two talking about? You both had serious expressions.

Espada

It's none of your business.

Fiori

Hmm? Planning something evil, perhaps? But I get it. There are things you devils can only talk about with each other. Being left out because I'm human is lonely~

Espada

Then why don't you return to your country right now? This is not where you belong in the first place.

Fiori

Oh, right! That’s exactly what I wanted to talk about. Hey, Prince. Can I go to Galantia?

Dia

Galantia... your homeland?

Fiori

Yes.

Dia

What do you intend to do there?

Fiori

You saw Tuner's room, right? It's too bare, so I want to find something for it. Shouldn't you check in on them at least once? It’s sad to be alone in an empty room, you know? I understand because I felt the same way when I first came to this castle. So I want to help them, even if just a little.

Espada

Is that really the only reason?

Fiori

That's really all.

Espada

Hey, you just looked away.

Fiori

I’m definitely not thinking about shopping for myself or resting at a newly opened café.

Espada

I don't trust you.

Fiori

But it's true that I want to help Tuner. Here's a list as proof... See?

Espada

Curtains, bedding, rug, tablecloth, room shoes... clothes, houseplants, and Nivalis room fragrance...

Dia

There’s more on the back.

Espada

Wha...! You don't need to buy this much! At most, just the essentials. And that room fragrance is clearly for you.

Fiori

It's not just any room fragrance, it's from Nivalis. Do you know it? It's a very popular cosmetic brand in Galantia. I get most of my skincare and cosmetics there. I need to check out their new eyeshadows. I'm excited~... 🎵 So, can I go home? Ideally, Tuner should come to choose, but if anything happened, it’d be a problem. So I'll go alone.

Espada

... Lord Dia, I don’t think it’s wise to let her go alone. She’s definitely planning something. May I accompany her to supervise?

Dia

Sure, I don't mind.

Espada

Thank you. Leave it to me. Be happy. Lord Dia has granted permission. But there’s a condition.

Fiori

Espada will go with me, right? I heard you. Really, I'm not trusted at all.

Espada

Of course. Reflect on your usual behavior.

Fiori

Hmm. Which behavior, I wonder? Ah, I don't mind if you come with me , but you’ll carry the luggage!

Espada

No way. Listen. You have permission, but no unauthorized actions.

Fiori

Okay!! Got it. Prince. You might be lonely without us, but we’ll be back soon.

Espada

Watch your tone.

Fiori

Yes, yes. We’re leaving now~. Espada, can you create a teleportation magic circle?

Espada

Of course.

Fiori

Thanks! So, a quick trip to Galantia. And, of course, take us back too!

Espada

What a demanding person... Lord Dia, we’ll be going. If anything happens, I’ll return immediately.

Dia

Alright, take care. Don’t worry about me.

Fiori

(thinking) Alright...! It worked… I guess?

Dia

..........

Fiori

..........

(Fiori and Espada teleports away)

[immagrosscandy]

Hi!

Do you prefer HPHM or HPMA? Which is better in terms of storyline, animation, and characters in your opinion?

-Sincerely, from a dumb anon that is me 💋😷

at this point i really prefer hpma over hphm for a lot of reasons and most of them are how hphm fails in everything you just mentioned

the story gets messy super messy as the years go by, they stretch the chapters like gum making em tedious and boring

the animation is sometimes nasty like some 3d models look bad very bad, as if they just wanted to get the job done instead of making sure said job is good

the characters are... meh. i like some of them but the main story focuses on some of the ones that get worse as the story progresses: like the stupidity that is jacob's sibling, the pain in my ass that is merula snyde, jacob "i am found and never seen again for some reason", the supposed-to-be big bad of the story who's VERY important as he's RELATED to the main characters and is never mentioned until the last year of school. why.

also. another problem that annoys me. the less focus the have on the story and more on adding things that don't really matter. like the amount of sidequests and how much of them they do, and how emphasis they put in them on social media. the perfect example is the big elephant in the room, the romance. like most people only care about the romance because jc stopped caring about the story and it shows, and its seems like they have some sort of dateline to make a new romantic sidequests so that the players keep in touch with the game (at least that's how it feels for me)

as you can see hphm was good, even great. i loved the story and the characters. i liked the mystery behind the vaults and our brother, the mc wasn't stupid, i even liked merula because she was a not-annoying bad bitch that knew more of the mystery than us, there was rowan khanna, they created talbott winger thanks you lord, the story was captivating and it didn't need to be like 60 chapters long i'm looking at you year 6 even the romantic subplot was okay for me, the celestial ball and the first date are peak tlsq and tulip and ismelda was dateable i mean c'mon

but they fucked up

so bad

and i'm hoping the same doesnt happen to hpma. i've finished the main storyline and i kind of like ivy and lottie's stories, they're super cute. the artstyle is GORGEOUS it blows my tiny mind, and the animation is great. i really like it! all the things you can do in the castle such as going to class, dueling, dancing or exploring the forbidden forest are really cool and they keep me interested. its just like being at hogwarts. also the characters here are great and they all have a different story to be told (i'm seeing you daniel)

also i never got to play hogwarts legacy or any of the hp games in the ps2, so this is like my first experience of an open-world hogwarts and... it's cool!

i really dont want to glorify this game, there are some things i dont like about it, but until now i'm really enjoying it!

so i feel like hpma might be better than hphm in terms of animation and storytelling, obviously. and i like the characters in both games, but in hphm they downgrade in quality and writing... so i guess hpma wins

dont get me wrong i still love hphm, but what i hate is what they've done to it

i hope this wasn't too long. if you have anything to say about what i've said feel free to do so. my opinion is just an opinion after all

[2ndbat]

/// Rant: Just a post detailing the things I didn't like in the Beyond comics that I remember or have seen since setting this blog up. I'll probably sandwich some things I did like in here too so it's not all negative. These are all just my opinions. If you like something from this list, cool. You do you, I'll do me.

Okay so starting with things that I read completely through a few years ago. Dick Grayson clones. Not sure why Amanda made these. But the only real thing I personally liked from Hush Beyond was the introduction of a new Catwoman. I also liked that she broke the trope of Catwoman/Batman, making her much more unique to herself. As much as I like Selina/Bruce (and I do), a new generation of something doesn't and shouldn't have to be a carbon copy of the original. Which I think is why I like the cartoon so much. They played with a lot of the same tropes, but they tackled them in different ways. Because Terry isn't Bruce and these villains and problems aren't the same. (except for Viktor)

Next, JLB... Well I have it in my rules and about... but, Zod/Superboy had a great initial backstory. He was the son of Jax-ur and was born in the Phantom zone. Superman and the gang rescue him and Supes adopts him. Would have been great to leave it there. However, they ruined it, the idea of what the Justice Lords actually are, and Wonder Woman all in one fell swoop. Before this arc, these comics were actually going pretty good imo. Please read them and stop as soon as you see Wonder Woman or "Lord" Superman. But then every other comic at the time suddenly was doing something with Earth 3... so I guess maybe they were pressured to as well? Either way this arc sucked. They decided to treat the Justice Lords like Earth 3 characters. Which doesn't work if you actually watched those episodes. Even if you ignore the fact that Luthor's device took their powers AWAY in their episode... The Justice Lords aren't """evil""" versions of the JL. They're versions that go to the extreme to keep people safe. There's a very big difference here in characterization. To add them into the plot and just have them be like --- generic evil superman??? doesn't work. You haven't comprehended anything if that's what you got from the Justice Lord's cartoon plotline.

And they set this up with Wonder Woman from the DCAU having decided to go back to the Justice Lord's universe to help fix things. She's apparently been there the WHOLE time. It's very in Wonder Woman's character to help those in need so I'm okay with her hopping over to set things straight. But she also feels responsibility to her own world, there's no way she'd stay that long EVEN with the romance sub-plot they gave her and Justice Lord's Batman. And any look around my blog should tell you WonderBat is my jam. I go for that in a plotline. Well it helps me hate that plotline more actually, because they had "Lord" Superman kill "Lord" Batman. To stop the fighting "Lord" Superman and Wonder Woman agree to have a baby. That's Zod apparently. Which was squirreled away to the Phantom Zone with Jax-Ur. None of that makes any sense at all ever. It made so little sense it actually makes me really angry. lol. Wonder Woman would never agree to something like that AND "Lord" Superman has never ever indicated that he wanted something like that. Nor do I think he would have killed "Lord" Batman. Considering, the reason they're all the way they are is because they failed to save Wally. HHHH Anyway. Later comic plots I remember hating. Terry is missing and for some reason past/current timeline Tim has the Beyond suit. NGL, if you put anyone besides Terry ( MAYBE Bruce) in the suit, you've lost the plot. You don't get it. Just leave please. I will not see it. Even worse, they made Terry the main villain of that plot line. Brainwashed, but still. :') Not a fan at all of any of this.

Oh there was also a little comic that took place in the past where Barbara revealed to Bruce that she was pregnant with his baby. And Bruce urged her to get an abortion that she didn't want. First off-- I never liked the Bruce/Babs stuff in the cartoon to start with. Second-- Bruce would never. He is so dad coded. :/

And now for things I've seen in passing.

Just getting this out of the way rn--- I assume they've killed Mary McGinnis off due to the boys living with Bruce now and the way Terry talks about her. I don't typically like when series fridge their female characters but, I feel kinda indifferent kinda "Well of course they did, why am I not surprised?" about it. We really didn't get much for Mary in the cartoon besides the fact that she's a normal, caring, single mother. There's not much there. Barely got any time on screen with Terry and most of it was just lecturing him or telling him about whatever chores he needed to do. So maybe that's why it doesn't quite bother me as much as other women's deaths in comics. I still don't particularly like the move, but there are worse things I've seen so far that make me more upset. Probably would have been fine to just have Mary living there with the boys and Bruce instead tbh.

Also weird, it FEELS like everyone and their mother knows Bruce is Batman, the way everyone talks to him. Which is also just weird to me.

Anyway, Damian... Damian.... Where do I start. This one feels like the Justice Lords problem. There's already a set up in the cartoon that would contradict what they did. They had Damian running the LOA from what I can tell. He still had Goliath. Which was nice I'll admit. But 1) Damian wouldn't WANT to run the LOA. 2) I highly doubt Damian would have been okay with what his grandpapa did to his mother. 3) They played it off like Bruce knew about Damian from what I saw. Bruce would never allow Damian to be raised by the LOA if he knew abt him. As I said earlier, Bruce is dad coded.

Then there's Matt. Well I like Robin Matt as a concept. I like the circumstances of it being an emergency as to why he took up the mantle, I like that Bruce recognized that if they didn't train Matt, Matt would try to do the hero stuff on his own. What I didn't like? JOKERS BACK AGAIN BABY, HERE TO BRAINWASH THE NEW ROBIN!!! Seriously, how are you gonna rehash a plotline that was already done LEAGUES better. Please let the clown stay dead!!!!!!!!! That's all I got in me to rant about today. On a nicer note, I still don't know how I feel abt Batwoman, but I like that her design is very Kate Kane but with Nightwing's color palette.

[nyxthejinx-rantsaboutlads]

oh no, i totally get that. like i said, the main story is often like… the VA’s trial almost. because they haven’t fully connected with the character.

i don’t pay attention to the “iconic” lines as much because they’re definitely constructed a certain way and they lack the… gravitas of english voice acting because they’re definitely constructed scene is made for asian dubbing. and english dubbing is often just a little bit different.

when it comes to caleb, i think he’ll get there eventually. i think he mostly practiced the boy next door meme lord delivery (which is honestly… chef’s kiss. he’s so real and it’s so fun to listen to him talk casually). for the psychotic break in the maze scene… he needed to employ something akin of… willem dafoe let’s say. but i think he hasn’t unlocked that in him yet. that takes time. i’m sure he’ll get there. or actually it may just be that they chose to have him not be too intense bc english dub caleb skews more towards “sweet childhood friend” and isn’t very yandere at all if you really look at it. he’s just… depressed.

sylus however… god he’s great. it’s unfortunate you haven’t been able to fully get on board yet. hopefully you do! i think there’s a stark difference between shin and sylus, even as characters. to appreciate sylus, you have to really… see sylus for what he is. even MC is not the same entirely. i think ordinary traces and grasslands would really help broaden your outlook a bit.

sylus is also the only one out of all his counterparts who actually plays into the tone deafness. so when he starts practicing singing, you can really tell he’s getting better. the VA does so much to add dynamics to his portrayal. to appreciate sylus is to understand why he speaks the way he does.

i’d also recommend his abyssal chaos final farewell story too. it’s unvoiced but his story really breaks down who sylus truly is as a person and you understand more and more why he speaks the way he does. he talks in a calm and controlled cadence because he’s trying to have people feel comfortable around him, to sound more human. but it’s deep and characteristic because he’s not fully human, he’s a dragon. if you look at his performance from that lens, especially through the conventions of the english language and how dragons are portrayed in english… you’ll see how good his VA’s performance is.

i find it helps to not compare the dubs because the characters themselves are very different across the dubs, even though it’s the same story essentially. it’s like… andrew garfield and tobey maguire both play the same character within a similar origin story, but their portrayal isn’t the same. but there’s something to appreciate about either.

hopefully you enjoy my recommendations! i tend to choose voice lines that amuse me and scratch my brain, so they’re mostly playful deliveries that makes you feel like you’re talking to a close friend.

Coming here after listening to your Sylus recommendations. I enjoyed some lines but the overall experience wasn't too satisfying for me, I'm afraid my brain isn't just wired for it :(

Disclaimer!! Everything I say down here is just my perception of the voice acting. It's a "me problem" because I'm used to certain ways to speak and my ear picks up the differences very easily, hence I cringe even if I don't want to (there's nothing to cringe about)

Unfortunately, even if they tried to tone down Caleb's feelings, I didn't really perceive him as depressed. That's the thing I think, I don't pick up the character's feelings at all. I'm someone who believes firmly in free interpretation and details that are for the reader/viewer/listener to notice, but there's a difference between hiding something between the lines and not putting it there at all.

It hurts to say this but some lines are delivered in a way that reminds me of those listening exercises we used to do in school, where they had us listen to native speakers reading out texts: it was clear they were reading and their rhythmic cadence followed a pattern in order to make it understandable without many problems.

I noticed a pattern in Sylus' speech too, his voice always goes down the same exact way at the end of each sentence, even questions. That didn't sit too well with me, just like I don't enjoy he's always speaking in a whisper or a murmur. The explanation you tried to give makes sense, but there are ways to make your voice softer around the edges without choking it and taking away all the strength when speaking.

Even knowing Sylus as a character, even keeping in mind that he's a dragon, I feel like much of his depth isn't brought forward. Just like with Caleb (though Sylus' VA is more expressive) the emotions and nuances don't seep through enough. I'm not saying I want them served on a silver platter, I just want them somewhere. But again, this is me being used to very expressive and dramatic languages, I recognise it's just a me problem if it feels flatter in comparison.

(I'm not trying to actively compare the voice acting with my native language or anything, it's just that my ear is very used to hearing certain things and it automatically detects differences as I said)

All that said, as much as it's true that things will be lost in translation and some are impossible to translate perfectly from a language to another, I don't really agree with the idea that characters are totally different because of their voice acting.

Tobey's Spider-Man and Andrew's Spider-Man are totally different people. Andrew's Spider-Man isn't a remake of Tobey's with just some changes, they're not voicing the same character in different languages, they're two different people entirely even though they're both Spider-Man (literally the "same character, different actor" discourse falls apart if we take into account the Spiderverse movies/comics)

Sylus, however, is Sylus. Some things are necessarily going to be different between the English one and the Japanese one, but the character should stay the same. Because it is the same character. Watching something with a different dub from the original means losing something from the og and gaining something from the dub, but not completely changing the interpretation of a character.

I expect to experience the same product in the end, voice acting is at its core a way to make content accessible to people who speak different languages after all. Only lately it's considered as the luxury to choose between one instead of another just because we feel like it.

Take Disney for example, or old Disney at least, I don't know if they still do it now. All their castings were made with a goal in mind: every voice actor in every language had to sound like the original, because the dubbing was a tool to spread content across the world so that everyone could understand and enjoy the experience, despite the necessary changes that had to go through.

Anyways!

Sorry for the long ass post, I hope I didn't come off as aggressive I was just very invested in answering with my exact thoughts 😭 I'll watch your Caleb suggestions when I have time because I think he'll shine fr in the role of goofy ass meme lord. Only once I'm done I can say for sure whether I like it or not.

I honestly found myself appreciating sylus if inserted in those themed playlists you can find on YouTube. Some of them are chef kiss. That's somewhat of a win ig, considering I didn't like it at all to begin with. Hope you'll always enjoy the game and have luck with the pulls!!

[novemquadragintillion]

I finished the Black Prism by Brent Weeks and I want to write my thoughts. Sorry to anyone who likes this book - I criticize it a bit.

[⚠️ major spoilers ahead ⚠️ ]

What I liked:

The parallels between how Dazen awoke his red drafting abilities and how Kip awoke his red drafting abilities. OUGH. Especially when we see many drafters using red for destruction in the story. The contrast..

So many misunderstadings and pain due to Gavin's secret about his identity (Liv please I promise, your dad isn't being blackmailed!!) (Kip, please talk to Gavin about the knife 😭)

Gavin's escape from the blue prison was the funniest thing ever holy crap. I was so seriously stressed about it throughout the entire book and then the author BAMBOOZLED me. I love Dazen lmao

I laughed when one of the characters called Lord Omnichrome "Lord Rainbow". amazing 😂 The guy wants such an oh so cool name, listing a few, but someone out there is calling him Rainbow because who tf cares about that guy and his silly self-proclaimed lord titles

I love when a main character has to keep their identity a secret and they feel deep isolation due to living that constant lie! Thank you author. I am a sucker for it

I like that there were adult as well as fat main characters (so rare in action fantasy, from my experience), who I ended up liking and cheering for

Love the title Black Prism!! I instantly think of that one Pink Floyd album cover with the prism and the rainbow of light, which is cool. I wish the story showed me why it is called that though. I learned what a Prism was, but what is a Black Prism? Someone who could draft in complete darkness or something?

Ok now I'm a bit negative here:

Why did all the main female characters have to be love interests or a part of some boring romance, and were constantly thinking about guys or how she looked? Stop it

Yet another fantasy story I've picked up in the past few years that have a war and a wall within the plot. I'm so tired of a wall that MUST be protected at all costs and wars!! I'm not looking for stories like this. Why do I keep picking them up by accident? >_< (I'm looking at you, A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy, The Shadow of What Was Lost, and Fourth Wing) (btw I did not finish Fourth Wing, and I barely finished The Shadow of What Was Lost. Both I didn't really like). Maybe this is why I don't read american fantasy novels very often anymore 🤔

I didn't like that a lot of the chapters were dedicated to the POVs of other characters, besides the main character. Because, at least one of those other character's POVs I ended up disliking reading. I had a similar problem when reading The Shadow of What Was Lost and the Stormlight Archive series (I really liked the Stormlight Archive though). At least the chapters were short, so I didn't get bored too much

"And Karris had abandoned him. Damn it. What kind of woman abandons a child?" (page 582) You mean, what kind of ADULT abandons a child. The sexism throughout the story didn't have to be there

I picked up this book because I went on google, looking for recommendations on books with unique magic systems. I love creative thinking and loopholes within the boundaries of a rigid magic system, like Lord of the Mysteries, World Trigger, and Witch Hat Atelier's. I found a recc that was for the Black Prism, where I ended up reading. Although it does have an interesting magic system, it wasn't really what I was looking for I guess? So I was a little disappointed tbh 😂 I would've loved to see more characters playing and doing more with the system. Gavin's inventions was a good example, but I wanted to see more

I wish the magic, luxien?, was described a little more. Like when Brightwater Wall was built (freaking walls), what color yellow was it? (maybe I did read that but I forgot?). Since I wasn't sure about the descriptions of the colors drafted, I kept imagining the colors as straight-out-of-the-paint-tube, saturated, colors. Which made me really not like the images I was having in my head tbh 😂

I guess in general, the book was entertaining enough for me to finish, but I won't be reading the whole series. By not reading any more though, I won't find out all of Gavin's goals, which I was super curious about.