#nothing good happens in a sci-fi year

[licorishh]

This right after the season 2 trailer for Boba Fett I'm jumping off a roof

has it ever been more over

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Multiverse Police

I've seen the idea that GIW is actually SCP foundation somewhere, and lately, I've been thinking a lot about Fenton Happy Ending, so I bring you this. Behold, GIW/SCP, Team Phantom, and Fentons are working all together, and the whole wide multiverse fears them.

So, a giant green Lazarus Pit that looks more like a vortex than an actual Pit randomly opens in, say, Ohio. Because I heard a lot of weird shit happens in Ohio. The world is worried, JL gets sent there, but they are not exactly sure of what to do with it. Nothing comes out of it, and, well, no one is volunteering to just jump inside it - Batman made everyone read his files on Lazarus Waters, and they are reasonably wary.

But then a thing appears literally out of thin air on top of it. It looks like a spaceship, kind of, but more sci-fi than what real spaceships look like. And before anyone says anything, a large green - Lazarus green - dome appears, effectively covering both the ship and the Pit and cutting the heroes off.

The heroes are Confused (tm). And worried. And no one has an idea of what the fuck is going on, for all they know it could be some kind of yet another alien invasion.

Then, two figures on the hoverboards - one read and one teal - come out of the ship, flying over the Pit. They are followed by drones, and they all look like they are... scanning the Pit? A few more people, wearing black visors and shiny white suits that look like they are packed with all kinds of tech, slide down on the ropes straight inside the Pit. It sure looks like they are very familiar with it and have a good idea of what they are doing, working as a team.

One of the figures on the hoverboard, the one in a teal suit, notices the heroes on the other side of the green dome. She - because both of them look feminine enough - slows down and flies down to the ground, landing in front of Superman and taking off her helmet. It reveals a rather young, no older than twenty years old girl with fiery red hair tied in a bun, with eyes the same color as her suit. She smiles at them.

"Hi, you must be the Justice League?" She asks politely, and as Superman gives her a nod just out of surprise at her friendly attitude, she touches her ear, "Mom, this is DC sector universe. Pretty sure it's not a dimension we've been before, though." She turns back to Superman, "You don't recognize any of this, do you?"

Batman intervenes before Supes has the time to answer, "Who are you?"

The girl nods and taps her ear again, "Yeah, they definitely don't know us. So mark it as either an unfamiliar dimension or an unfamiliar timeline." Then she turns to Batman and smiles.

"You can call us interdimensional police. And since all the Batmans we ever encountered never believed us, I'm going to send you a copy of the files your other versions complied all together, so you can read and add more if you feel like it."

She touches her wrist computer, and, a few moments later, Batman's comm comes online with Oracle's voice:

"B, I'm getting a shit ton of files on... Multiverse Law Enforcement?.. out of nowhere. What's going on?"

Now, JL is baffled. Some of them - Flashes and Bats, for example - knew there was a whole wide multiverse going on, but to learn the multiverse has police? That's new.

Meanwhile, the redhead continues:

"The green thing behind me is a natural portal to the Infinite Realms, the dimension between dimensions. Which is really not what is supposed to be happening, so we are in the process of fixing it. It will take from ten minutes to a few hours, depending on what's on the other side, but the portal will be gone soon, and then I'll have to ask you some questions."

"Questions about what?" Asks Flash, and the girl waves her hand in the air.

"Oh, well, about the portals? If one so big is opening up, it means a few smaller ones had to exist in this dimension already. Our tech is not picking them up if they are smaller than a certain size, but you must have seen them before. I believe in the DC sector, you call them Lazarus Pits? We can take care of them later, too."

The second hoverboarder flies closer to them and revs her engine.

"Jazz, talk to them later, Tucker and Agents are done. Fentons are about to get Dannies down, so you need to either come up or leave the shield."

The girl - Jazz - looks surprised.

"Dan, too?"

"Yeah, it's the Toothy Jungle on the other side. They wanted to ask Ember, but, eh, what's her guitar gonna do to plants, even if they are sentient?" The red hoverboarder shrugs, and Jazz tilts her head, looking back to the heroes.

"I think I'll stay with them. You know it gets violent when Dan goes down, so people get antsy about us. I don't want to give the wrong impression."

The other girl huffs, but doesn't argue.

"Okay. Get out of the shield, then, and for Ancients sake, keep your comm open. Danny has an aneurysm every time you turn it off." With that, she flies away, back to the ship, and Jazz taps her hoverboard so it folds down into a hexagon shape no bigger than a backpack. Then, she steps through the shield, joining the JL on the other side of it.

"Are you not scared we might take you hostage?" Asks Wonder Woman just out of curiosity, and Jazz smiles pleasantly at her.

"Don't judge a girl by her looks. I don't want to brag, but I did fist fight Superman once and won."

----------

So basically, after Amity Park got sucked into Infinite Realms, the whole town just kind of collectively decided they like it there. And somehow they reached a happily ever after with both Danny's reveal to his parents and GIW, and then Clockwork showed up and was like, you guys want human food supply, running water and electricity, right? Well, I can do that, and so much more, you can be the ultimate perfect town. And for the price? You gonna go on adventures from time to time and fix the multiverse when shit hits the fan in various dimensions and universes. Doesn't that sound like fun?

And Amity Park, who's seen so much weird stuff over the years that it greatly affected their idea of common sense, goes yeah, that does sound fun! Let's go, people!

So here they are, appearing in different universes and doing damage control. They are, like, the superheroes for superheroes.

I'm probably going to write a part 2 to it, I want to show off Danny and Dan and Dani too. Halfas on the loose, JL is mildly concerned and kind of scared, and Jazz is just like yeah, that's just another regular Tuesday :)

I love Jazz being a badass, yes. Also, if you didn't get it, the other one on the hoverboard is Val, the drones are controlled by Tucker, and the people on the ropes are GIW agents.

| next -> |

[charlietheepicwriter7]

guys, I had a weird idea.

So, Danny and Damian are twins au, right? They used to be identical as children. I say used to, because when Talia smuggled her son out of the League (Ra's was planning a fight to the death, the douche), she got him excessive cosmetic surgery, changing his entire face and lightening his skin closer. (The League has sci-fi technology, just role with it).

Danny ends up living with one of Talia's off-the-books scientists, so she can keep an eye on him, growing up to look different than Damian. Danny finds himself wishing that he still looked like his brother, but there's nothing he can do to change it. Which is all well and good until the portal accident and Danny discovers that his wish to look like his brother again worked, and now Danny and Phantom are physically different, with Phantom looking like Damian with flowy white hair.

A few years pass with no one knowing Danny=Phantom until Dani crashlands, melting and needing help. Danny saves her and she's de-aged to a toddler age, but the Fentons 100% saw him help Dani and maybe see her transform, so they want to experiment on her. Danny bolts with Dani and heads to Gotham, which has enough ambient ecto to keep Dani stable.

(Meanwhile, Talia figures out what really happened to make Danny run and absolutely nukes the Fentons and maybe the GiW. That's her son and granddaughter, you fools.)

Despite Danny trying to go under the radar, but at some point the bats discover Phantom and Dani, maybe Dani escaped in ghost form? she is a toddler after all. Damian immediately recognizes Phantom as his brother, they get confirmation that the two are ghosts. Dani calls Danny daddy and everyone is sad.

And while the bats are trying to figure out a way to approach Phantom, they stumble across Danny and Dani, the later alive and calling this completely different man daddy. The bats put alive Dani and dead Dani together and get human/ghost hybrid, but Danny looks different enough from Phantom that they conclude the two aren't the same.

Which leads to Damian thinking that Danny is some random man who had a child with his dead ghost brother.

[undercurrent-if]

Undercurrent

Undercurrent is a sci-fi, mystery, surfing interactive fiction story that dives into the deepest parts of our minds. The game is rated 17+ for mature content.

Synopsis:

You return to the Cove after six years, older, quieter, and carrying a special kind of grief. Once a competitive surf prodigy, you vanished after the death of someone close to you, someone who died in these waters.

But the ocean hasn’t forgotten you. Neither has the Cove.

Now, in this small town, teetering between real and tech, strange phenomena ripple through the waters. Surfboards pulse with forgotten data. Tides shift too suddenly. Whispers drift through the mist. And your old board—silent for years—begins humming with signals that shouldn’t exist.

As you retrace old steps, you’ll uncover hidden secrets, rekindle, or avoid fractured relationships, and confront the truth of what happened the night everything changed. Someone—or something—knows you’re back. And the waves are calling for you.

Choose how you navigate the past:

Will you pursue the mystery beneath the sea, even if it means unraveling yourself?

Will you ride the tide toward truth, or let it pull you under?

Will you reconnect with the person you once loved—before they became someone else?

Because in the Cove, nothing stays buried forever. Not love. Not guilt. Not the dead.

Features:

Customize your Surfer's gender, sexuality, and more!

Romance one of four characters! Or romance the one that never made it out of the Cove.

Hone your surfing skills! Do you prefer the natural way, or will you let tech help you?

Uncover the mystery that is under the Cove.

Dynamic environment and choices!

Multiple endings!

Characters

Wren - Past friend or something more? F (22)

Wren always seemed a little too aware of things no one else noticed.

You remember Wren barefoot on the cliff’s edge, the salt spray catching in her hair, her eyes blazing with something fierce, something breakable all at once. She turned toward you, grinning like she knew a secret you hadn't earned yet, and said in a jovial voice: "One day, we’ll go so far out the waves can’t find us. Promise me you’ll come too." You never answered. You thought you had forever. "You used to be my anchor. Now you're the mystery pulling me under."

Ash Vega - M/F (29)

Runs a small surf repair and outfitting shop that's struggling to survive under the corporate tech expansions. Ash’s hands were steady even when the world wasn’t. You remember them pressing a hand over yours, guiding you to fix a cracked fin on your first board. "It’s not broken. Just needs someone who won’t give up on it." You didn’t realize until later that they weren't talking about the board at all. "You left. I stayed. Don’t expect it to be easy between us."

Kye Onari - M/F (26)

Kye came to the Cove, riding the strange waves without fear — and might know more about the ocean's changing patterns than they admit. You remember Kye laughing, reckless and wild, as they dove straight into a rip current like they could outrun death itself. "If you’re not scared, it’s not worth it." You stood frozen on the sand that day — and Kye never looked back. "You think you can keep secrets from the ocean? You're adorable."

Imani Reyes - F (30)

A researcher specializing in tech-oceanic anomalies. The first time you saw Imani, she was kneeling on the rocks, studying a tide pool like it was a portal to another world. She didn’t notice you watching until she said, softly: "Everything leaves traces if you know where to look." When your eyes met, you felt like you were the one being studied. "You make me want to believe in things I shouldn't."

Cassian "Cass" Rook - M (31)

Act like nothing matters, but every scar says otherwise. Cass stood alone by the firepit, one foot grinding lazy circles into the sand, a cigarette burning low between two fingers. He stared up at the stars — half the constellations smothered by the haze of the city beyond the cliffs — and let out a hollow laugh. "Doesn’t matter how good it feels out here. Everything good still finds a way to leave." He said it like a joke, but he didn’t smile. Neither did you. "I’m not here to be your hero. I’m barely here to save myself."

DEMO JUNE 1ST

@interact-if

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Now I have to ask- WHY do you hate Pacific Rim?

Okay, fair warning, this is about as bitter and salty and small-minded as day-old caviar. But. My bitter, salty (probably fishy) opinion:

Pacific Rim is only a good movie because it's a well-written story about robots punching monsters.

That's it. That's all there is to the movie.

I started out merely disappointed by Pacific Rim. We went gaga for the preview materials that promised these unique well-rounded character pairs and trios with these idiosyncratic robots from all these different Pacific nations... And then the movie itself is about some bland white American guy who pilots a robot named a racial slur, the second most fleshed-out team is bland white Australian guys, and the Chinese team is there, kind of, in the background, but don't worry they're going to die first. The "character-driven story" turned out to be "various characters take turns punching aliens" but, sure, whatever, I love the MCU so why not.

The day I went from "Pacific Rim is overrated" to "Pacific Rim is the worst thing that has ever happened to human civilization, I'm extremely normal about this" was the day I saw a Tumblr post suggesting we replace the Bechdel test with the Mako Mori test. Because Mako Mori has her own plot and doesn't kiss North Carolina at the end, making her a whole new type of feminist icon.

To which I was like:

We are talking about the same movie here, right? The Pacific Rim that can't even pass the Bechdel test? The Pacific Rim that's all about might-makes-right, the Pacific Rim that has ONE speaking role for ONE female character in its (from IMDB) 50-person cast? The Pacific Rim that repeatedly puts its only female character in danger and has her rescued by first Idris Elba then North Carolina? THAT Pacific Rim?

Is there a different Mako Mori I haven't met? Because the one I've seen a) has a character arc driven by deciding whether to obey her father or follow her heart, which is as inoffensive and stale as an unblessed communion wafer, b) does nothing that Ellen Ripley didn't do 30 years earlier, but with about 5% of the character depth Ripley got, and c) stands there in silence looking sad as two men punch each other over the question of her virtue.

Any post assuming this movie invented the idea of "small Asian woman kicks monster ass" needs to learn its damn history. Especially the ones acting like her being physically small is somehow a feminist bonus. There's something embarrassingly ahistorical about the whole thing.

And look. I get how we got here. I know how easily Tumblr backs you into a rhetorical corner of "calling a story Good can never mean merely 'enjoyable'; calling a story Good must mean 'virtuous'". Until next thing you know you're arguing that actually, shipping Obi-Wan/Darth Vader is a net good for all of society, because gay divorced middle-aged tyrants who use supplemental oxygen and murdered their exes in a custody dispute over the one kid (out of two) they actually care about deserve to see themselves in sci fi too! You only end up in that corner because half the time you're arguing against someone who says that shipping Obi-Wan/Darth Vader is literally the same thing as supporting father-son incest, so your real reasons for shipping them (1. foe yay, 2. old man yaoi) seem wildly insufficient.

Much of what I see about Pacific Rim seems neck-deep in the "it's not allowed to be a Good Movie unless it single-handedly dismantles the patriarchy" fallacy. There's nothing progressive about shipping two dudes best known for chopping off each other's body parts with laser swords. And there's nothing progressive about a movie having its only female character hug the male protagonist at the end instead of kissing him. You're allowed to like a thing just because it's well-made, without acting like a bog-standard normatively-broey action flick somehow invented a new form of feminism. Anyway, "Pacific Rim is a perfectly fine movie" is the hill I will die upon, heretical though it may be.

[heich0e]

rintarou plays with a bit of ribbon left strewn across the floor, twirling it around his long, lithe fingers idly. it's green and velvety, and slips easily between his digits as he winds it slowly between the valleys of his knuckles, humming a little tune to himself.

as you approach him in the living room by the christmas tree, he looks up at you with a soft, content smile on his face.

"here you go," you say, handing him the cup of coffee you've just prepared, steam curling from the surface. it's in a novelty mug he got you last christmas, shaped like a cute little character from a sci-fi franchise you've loved since you were a kid, and he takes it with an appreciative nod—careful not to spill a drop as the cup passes from your hand to his own.

you take a seat at his side with your own cup of coffee once he's taken his first sip.

"mmm," he hums once he's swallowed the mouthful. "it's good."

"i put some cinnamon in the french press," you tell him, leaning a bit against his arm, your cheek resting on his shoulder as the two of you sit tucked together on the living room floor beneath the tree.

"festive," rinatrou says with an approving nod, shifting so you press even closer to his side, his arm snaking back around your waist.

it's been a slow, easy morning in your nagano apartment. you insisted on opening gifts first thing, because that's what your family always did growing up, and even though rintarou wasn't much of a holiday person to begin with he indulged you without question. it wasn't a grand, elaborate ordeal, just a couple of gifts exchanged between the two of you; some new headphones for rin, some perfume for you, little bits of clothes for each of you here and there. your mother had sent each of you a new pair of mittens (though your card had included an unsubtle but endearing note about how it would be a shame to cover up the new ring you've recently started wearing on your left hand) and rin's sister sent you a popular local tea from the town where she's attending university.

"did you have a nice christmas?" you ask rintarou as he takes another sip of coffee. he hums in agreement, looking down at where you're tucked into his side.

"did you?"

you echo his earlier hum.

"we should clean up," you say, looking around the room at the torn gift wrap and boxes on the floor. "i need to clean up from making the coffee, too."

rintarou dips down and presses a kiss to the top of your head. "you do that, i'll take care of this stuff."

you nod, pulling yourself away from the warmth of his side, pushing yourself back up to your feet as rintarou crawls towards the mess at the bottom of the tree.

you're just about to cross the threshold to the kitchen when you hear him say.

"oh, there's another gift under here."

"what?" you ask, turning back to face him. heat suddenly floods your face when you see him kneeling underneath the tree with a familiar gift in his hands. it's not a very large gift—a slim little package only a bit bigger than the size of his hand—so while you're not surprised it went unnoticed at first, you're mortified when you realize what's about to happen.

"it's for me," he says in confusion after reading the tag, glancing over at you.

"um," you stumble a little over your feet as you try to cross the room towards him. "what if you wait to open that until late—!"

rintarou's finger is already under the edge of the wrapping paper, though he hasn't properly ripped into it yet. he's watching you curiously as you approach him, a glint of something in your eyes that's caused you far too many headaches in the four years the two of you have been dating.

"rin, stop," you say to him, and though you make every attempt to sound firm, the demand comes out more pleading than anything.

"what did you get for me?" he asks, a lilt of mischief in his tone as he peels up the corner of the wrapping paper ever so slightly.

"it's nothing important," you insist, falling to your knees beside him and trying to cover up the present with your hands. "you can have it later."

"but it's christmas now," he counters, slipping the gift out from your hands and holding it away from you. "plus all the other presents are opened, it'll be lonely under the tree all by itself."

"rintarou," you groan, tipping yourself face first into his chest to hide your shame. the telltale sound of wrapping paper tearing tells you that as much as he might love to indulge you, he delights in tormenting you even more.

"what is this?"

you refuse to pull yourself away from his chest.

its quiet for a moment. you hear some shuffling, and you can clearly picture rintarou turning the little package over in his hands as he scrutinizes it.

"was this supposed to be for me?" he asks after a moment, clearly confused.

you don't say anything.

you don't even move.

"did you fall asleep?" rintarou teases you, rubbing at your back as you keep your face hidden against his chest.

"no, i died," you answer, but the words are muffled by the material of his hoodie.

"oh no, not on christmas. how tragic," he drawls jokingly, but you don't laugh.

"...baby..."

"...babe."

"why did you buy me a present i don't understand just to get mad at me about it?" he mutters when you don't respond to any of his beckoning.

finally you separate yourself from his sweatshirt to peer up at him resentfully.

"it is for you," you mumble under your breath, answering his earlier question. you snatch the package out from his hands, tucking it against your chest with your arms crossed over top of it. "but i'm the one who's supposed to wear them."

you watch the realization dawn on rintarou's face. if you weren't so hideously embarrassed, you might even find it in yourself to laugh at the almost cartoonish expression of enlightenment.

"oh," he breathes. "oh."

suddenly he's in your face, dipping down to meet you at eye level, his nose brushing yours.

"you got those just for me?" he asks, and you can almost taste the cinnamon on his lips.

"yeah," you answer quietly, and he kisses you to muffle the little groan the slips out of his lips at your answer.

with one hand cradling the back of your head, rintarou lowers you back onto the ground, slotting himself between your thighs as they part to welcome him. his tongue slips between your lips to meet your own, the warmth his hands gliding up over your hips towards your chest.

you don't resist as he slips the little box out from your grasp.

rintarou pulls away, and you look up at him from your position on the floor as your chest heaves. the look in his eyes as he appraises the gift lacks any of the confusion it had a moment prior, replaced now with a heady, palpable lust.

he turns the box around towards you, and you have no choice but to look at the silky sheer tights in their luxurious packaging.

"this is a very thoughtful gift," he says to you quietly, his voice low and a little strained. the bulge in his gray sweatpants, which has only gotten larger since his moment of realization, does not go unnoticed by you.

"it's easy to buy gifts for a pervert," you mumble, hiding your face under your hand.

slowly rintarou lifts your hand from your face, and you watch under heavy lidded eyes as he lifts it to his mouth, kissing your knuckles tenderly—right over the ring he put there a few days prior.

"are you gonna put them on for me?" rintarou speaks into your skin, his lashes fluttering in a way that might seem sweet if the circumstances were different. you take the package from him, slipping your fingertip under the lip of the packaging to pry it open.

you glance up at him again.

rintarou laughs breathily as he meets your gaze, and you catch a glint of teeth biting down into the plush of his lip like he's trying to restrain himself.

there's a sudden thickness in your throat. a knot in your stomach. anticipation thrums just underneath your skin, prickling up to the surface with every gentle touch of his hands.

you tilt the opened package back towards him.

"don't you wanna put them on me yourself?"

he'll be the one tearing them off you in a few minutes anyway, so he may as well enjoy them while they last.

[melpomenelamusa]

Melpómene´s whump stories archive

To celebrate the new year, I've decided to share with you some of my favorite whump stories I read this year as a thank you to all the authors who share a little bit of their world with us 💜✨

My plan is to update this list annually and have it function as a sort of personal archive for me, hehe, but you can use it too if you'd like! 😁

Melpómene's personal favorites:

🩸Shattered (by @oddsconvert): An anti-human-blood-drinking vampire doctor tries to save the life of a human who for years was the bloodbag of a vampire I really hate.

🔪Total $hit$how (by @befuddled-calico-whump): 5 misfits escaping prison for their criminal records are hired by a mysterious organization to stop another mysterious, but more evil, sci-fi organization (Benji, my son).

🩸Blood and tears (by @whumpisgoodwhumpislife): A little half-vampire is suffering too much and a human decides to take care of him and protect him (They are both my babies).

🪄Forsaken (by @inhurtandincomfort): A young wizard, condemned by a pact he made with a misterious entity in the past, is trained and used as a living weapon by a malevolent institution in a fantasy world. Ft. some loser boy mad scientist.

🎣In troubled water (by @whumpisgoodwhumpislife): A little mer anglerfish suffers. That's it. Also known as "my poor fish baby".

Others amazing stories I've read/I'm reading:

📸Smile for the camera! (by @morning-star-whump ): A boy is kidnapped by a psychopath from the deep web. His parents and his little boyfriend try to find him (Andre Vazquez is the best character).

👑Darius & Mianu (by @geode-crystal): A traumatized prince and his faithful knight/boyfriend want to live happily ever after, but something always happens.

👹The Bahkauv (by @deluxewhump): Three friends decide to buy a magical creature to study; but what seemed like nothing more than a monster or an animal may turn out to be a companion.

⚡Overloaded (by @fleur-a-whump): The son of a supervillain wants to join the good guys, but discovers that "heroes" can be just as cruel as villains.

⚓Voyagers (by @sorrowful-hyacinth): A jerk sea captain captures a jerk mermaid prince and they torture each other. They both deserve it because they're such bastards, but you also feel bad for them and it's complicated.

⛓️A taste of your own medicine (by @oddsconvert): Whumper gets kidnapped and torture along with his ex-whumpee by an even evil whumper. Only one person is having fun here.

👨‍👦With me (by @greatgigintheskiess): A bitter guy living in the woods accidentally rescues a little boy who escaped from an evil laboratory. Parental caretaker my beloved.

🪐Humanity Collector (by @rabbit-flaying): A cosmic creature who likes to collect human things decides to add a real human to its collection (A cosmic horror one-shot).

🧵Writemas 2024 (by @tildeathiwillwrite): A woman suffers the mysterious death (or murder?) of her husband. This is the kind of story I would love to read in a printed book and recommend to my entire family.

🦌Whumpcember 2024 (by @kabie-whump): An evil wizard has turned Santa's reindeer into humans, who now have to live with their new bodies. A series of shorts with very interesting and cute characters that I definitely need to keep reading if I could.

🪢My favorite stories by @writinglittlepains: Speedster, Aleksander's Plight and Sweet Fins are my favorites!

⚖️Guilt & Revenge (by @what-if-i-just-did): A traumatized ex-bully is kidnapped by the kids he used to bully as a kid because he couldn't afford therapy and is brutally tortured by those who actually happened to be the ones who needed therapy.

🫂We Are TroubleD (by @whumpty-dumpty-doo): Two best friends are kidnapped by a guy who originally planned to capture one of them for ransom, but now is just torturing them for fun.

⛈️Ventis and friends (by @kabie-whump): A half draconic half air elemental and his varied adventures in a fantasy world *kindly slaps Ventis* This bad boy can fit so much trauma in him.

🛡️Drusus & Keme (by @whumperofworlds): Don´t know why it took me so long to add the whumpable husbands to the list. There´s whump! And fluffy married love! And used as bait!

🪦Curse of Withering (by @sir-fenris): A magical boy with the power to kill everything he touches is imprisoned and used as a living military weapon.

🎀Pretty whumpee (by @string-of-broken-hearts): Pretty whumpe and carewhumper. I really need to know the context, I'm so intrigued.

👿Karma's B*tch (by @whumpthusiast): A pathetic guy kidnaps the wrong woman and now it backfired.

[the-voldsoy]

Alrighty it is almost the end of the year so, in no particular order, here are podcasts I recommend of the ones I've listened to this year! (let me tell you picking favourites for this was So hard) (Unfortunately I can't just do all of them because there are almost 50)

Hello From The Hallowoods: The world ended, but we're still here, and shit's weird. (Has made me cry; even the trees are queer; my comfort show<3)

Camp Here And There: Good morning campers! The time is 7:63AM and Cabin Magpie Moth has spontaneously combusted! Whichever one of you little woodworms can put it out first can come get a puffy sticker from me in the Nurses Cabin! (Is it a horror? Is it a comedy? I don't know, you'd have to check to be sure)

Wooden Overcoats: Funn Funerals used to be the only funeral parlor on the island. It isn't anymore. (Sitcom, the main characters are the most miserable wet cats you ever did see)

Re: Dracula: Maybe this year, they'll be okay. Maybe this year they'll all live. Maybe this year he won't go, and she'll be alright.

Magnus Protocol: TMA's louder, bolder, less serious younger sibling.

The Silt Verses: Oh boy. Let me tell you, you will look at crabs differently after this. (WET horror, genuinely the best pod I've ever heard)

Archive 81: Dan, a newly hired archivist, has to listen to and catalogue a set of old audio tapes. The tapes contain interviews conducted by someone Dan has never heard of. Dan is in an isolated bunker in the middle of the woods. Surely nothing will happen to our dear friend Dan. (What is it with archivists and getting snatched by The Horrors? Ignore the tv show it doesn't exist)

Red Valley: Just a couple of guys with an interest in research station Red Valley, whose focus was cryonics. It's completely defunct now. I wonder what happened. (Ethics? What's that?)

Woe.Begone: Some say it's about time-travel, some say it's about keeping yourself and those close to you alive, some say it's about online safety. All can agree on one point: What the fuck why are there cowboys now

Midnight Burger: Midnight Burger is a time-travelling, dimension-spanning diner. Dunno how it works or where it's going next. We open at six! (The episodes are an hour long minimum but it's worth it. Comedy sci-fi, lighthearted fun :)

Old Gods of Appalachia: The Appalachians are spooky y'all. (The narrator's voice is so comforting in this, it feels like campfire stories)

Dreamboy: Went into this pod being told it was made by the people who made WTNV and absolutely no other information. Let me tell you I did not expect the main character to tell us that he got a hard-on in the first episode. (The most sexually explicit pod I've listened to)

The White Vault: Nice little trip to Svalbard to check on the remote research station, surely nothing will go wrong :) (Holy Fucking Shit What Is That) (Recommend 1st season especially to The Thing (1982) enjoyers)

Camlann: Ever wished that you were apart of Welsh folklore or Arthurian legends? Or perhaps some of the last people left on Earth? No? Ah well, you'll pick it up soon enough. (Three idiots and a dog in Wales, fighting for their lives)

Breaker Whiskey: Imagine. Being the only person on earth. Just you. Just you, and someone on the radio. Just you, the radio, and a woman you absolutely do NOT have sexual tension with. (This one looks really long because it has 260+ episodes, but they're like 4 minutes long each so it's not really)

Ethics Town: Don't worry about it. (Cannot recommend enough, it is a mindfuck)

Tell No Tales: What if ghosts were a thing that could infest a place, like rats or roaches or mold? What if it was your job to exterminate them? And the million-pound question, do ghosts deserve rights? (I am waiting so so patiently for the rest of s2)

Remnants: You wake up in a place you recognise. You have always been there. You have no idea where you are. You see a stranger's life. You recognise them. You knew them once, you think. Discard or reshelve? You don't know what that means. It does not matter. Discard or reshelve, that is the question. (I am going insane over this pod)

Not Quite Dead: Vampires! Alfie is an overworked A&E nurse who does not have time for this shit. Unfortunately, he does not have a choice in this matter. (A really interesting take on vampirism, going into the biology. It is fascinating, and an exciting story)

Travelling Light: Space Quaker! Listen to the Traveller tell you about every new planet and civilisation they visit. Whattttt noooo they don't have a crush on one of their crew members what are you taaaalking abouttttt (Very comforting pod, beauty in the mundane in a way? But not mundane because yk. Aliens)

Someone Just Like You: Brilliant horror, just really well written. I don't even have words for it. So far there are only 6 episodes and the concepts/plots of each seem cheesy, but my GOD the execution.

The Bright Sessions: People with powers get therapy! Thank God, they need it so bad. (I love one particular antagonist so much, I need to put him in a microwave)

Poe: Evermore: It wasn't until I started this that I realised that Edgar Allen Poe would have had a Boston-ish accent. Reallyyy interesting story of his life, and I keep getting jumpscared by VAs I recognise. Faulkner Silt Verses what are you doing here.

Witherburn After School News: Your school radio host getting WAY more involved in the news than they should. Really hope they're still breathing. Love the folklore section though!

Before The Tone: Voicemails from someone who just got a job they probably shouldn't have. (Brilliant idea for the format, and great execution)

I Am In Eskew: What if you were trapped? What if you had a home, a wife and a child? What if they aren't real? Are you sure? Go and check. What if your city tried to kill you? What if it loved you very much, more than anyone else? (Horror but the narrator is the saddest wettest man you've ever heard)

Sherlock & Co: Modern day Sherlock Holmes, and John Watson is a true crime podcaster. Dear God I did not think it would be as compelling as it is.

[l3monlem0n]

Some Murder Drones Episode 7 screenshots I thought were interesting and my thoughts on them :>

SPOILER WARNING!!!! is spoilering

Nori, despite being a middle aged woman with a child, appears to be an Otaku or otherwise likes "edgy" and "scene" stuff, as well as listening to nightcore, very much like her daughter. Good for her tbh you're never too old to have fun

She also has a photo of Khan and what I can only assume is baby Uzi, though it appears to have blue eyes, but maybe it's just the lighting. Still very cute she has a pic of her husband

As well as all the previously mentioned Otaku stuff, she also drew herself as an anime character. She has a skinsona. Phenomenal (pos)

Nothing much here, just Uzi coughing up blood. Girl got the goop (gore) inside of her already

Lab Space. Apparently the Church was just down there and not even the humans know why. The canonicity of this is questionable; it could just be a joke

OT, as per google, stands for "Occupational Therapy". Makes sense for the context, and makes the bottom text funnier

"Fun Time To Universe Big Crunch: 87". The Big Crunch is a hypothetical way the Universe could end, where the universe folds on itself and shrinks into a single point. 87 "what" I don't know. If it's months, that 7 years and 3 months

Honestly the Murder Drones lore is super confusing. I think what this is trying to say is that every other Zombie Drone is doing poorly, (Except for Yeva), they are trying to reactivate 002 (Nori) via the USB. I'm not sure what this means. Maybe they only got the results they wanted from the two of them, and are trying again with Nori since she was the only other one that worked (also why they got Yeva when she failed; this may all be referring to how the episode opened up) Also, the date says SER. As revealed in the episode Cabin Fever, Copper-9 has months that Earth does not. SER most likely stands for Seramorris, the month revealed in that episode

Looks like the "bad event" wasn't the first one. Certainly was the last one though lol

Just a good pic of ghost/hologram V with the scary stuff. Might use this as a wallpaper

You can literally see the hole in his neck where N bit him in...

...And it's to the point his HEAD FALLS OFF. (including because I didn't notice the first time around)

Yup, the idea that Uzi became the Admin for N and V is completely true. I wonder what would've happened if she didn't, since Cyn didn't react whatsoever

friggin bug (very pos)

You would not believe how difficult it was to get a good pic of this (I'm using snipping tool lmao). Always a pleasure to see Uzi's doodles. Things her gun can do (upper right):

NOT judge her

Forced prom date (?)

Allows her to say she had friends before she frickin murdered them with sci-fi machinery

The cut off text at the bottom: Plan B: Normal gun + Shoot really fast

This is while Tessa is looking for something in the lockers. Claws, chains, magnets, Wings, and scribbled "HELP". Looks like the lockers were all specifically to hold the infected worker drones. Oof

We are in the future now baby. We have rererererereCAPTCHA. Funnily enough, it still couldn't stop a robot

There is a message board where someone who doesn't like robots is talking. They also are scared. Also no one else is using this system, which is unsurprising. "Ur aight ;)" Wait is the winky face intentional foreshadowing? Or unintentional?

We get the names of a bunch of other Worker Drones. Unfortunately for all 029 fans, her name was not visible. (also can someone tell me what "JWEB" could be short for?) And Yeva is said to have a patch. That may be the crucible thing idk

Cyn (which I will be calling this version Skyn [Skin + Cyn]) apparently took of the space suit just to give Doll the Withered Foxy jumpscare. Honestly really terrifying. If this photo was teased before release I think the fandom would've exploded

Just N being a good boy :3

The MDs, Cyn's pets. Nori refers to them as "Nerfed" so the "Entity" can ensure control, and says they were made to destroy other hosts. I don't know why Cyn would want them dead, but I'm not the loremaster here. YouTube line is there because I couldn't be bothered after the Railgun image

Probably already confirmed, but doubly confirmed that a symptom of the Solver is giving Drones organic insides. A Worker Drone body with a rib cage and guts. I wonder what would happen if the infection continued uninterrupted (also R.I.P. Doll I loved you :frown:)

I'm sure everyone noticed, but when Uzi tried to manipulate Tessa, the ERROR noticed appeared. Already hinting Tessa is not all she says she is

Apparently the Solver can create Black Hole Saws. Interesting development (Blackhole Blitz)

I know most people (I think) see this as a joke and N just being a bit of goofball. But honestly, I think he did it intentionally to shock Cynuzi and give Nori a chance. In the Pilot, he licked V's sword to surprise her too, which means he isn't unfamiliar with doing something weird and surprising for the advantage

Skyn eating Doll's core. R.I.P. Doll again. Seriously, was that Doll in Core Form like Nori was? Or was Nori a fringe case because she was "Exorcised" and this is just a regular core? Questions, questions. Also yeah the Solver also gives you a Core. Fun

This tag makes me think that this body is Cyn's actual body. Not longer a hologram, but her actual body from the mansion. The reason Tessa gave N, J, and V their names was because that was the first letter of their Serial Designation (she's very uncreative). However, Cyn's tag was slightly faded, which meant her SD couldn't be seen, so Tessa gave her the name "Cyn" after her P/N, even though the other 3 already have the same P/N as Cyn (Tessa, again, is very uncreative)...

...and for some reason, Cyn or the Solver, which ever theory you subscribe to, decided to wear Tessa as a skin suit for some twisted reason. It did help her with the Captcha. Also scary because this doesn't have the right proportions for an adult (unless Cyn really forced that skin on), which leads me to believe that this is a Younger Tessa, and she faked having an older voice. Maybe I shouldn't call her my wife... I'm sure Eldritch J is still available :^)

(Seriously, the eyes are burnt out, leaving two eye holes over the visor, so she gives herself two X eyes so it looks better. Also yeah we found out what that thing on the "It Came From Copper-9" poster came from. It really was Cyn or Skyn)

Just a frame of the final...frame... for coolness. I'm probably also going to use this for a background. Also, this is definitely Copper-9. You can see the ring and ringless moon together on the right. Uzi somehow got sent to orbit after falling in the meat hole

Well that was all for now. This series has consumed me entirely, body and soul, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Goodbye and goodnight

[bittersweet-jack-of-no-trades]

Bill was gone, but he took something with him

It seemed, at first, that Stan was just the same: the same fun grunkle, the same shifty salesman, the same brother. Whatever happened inside his brain, however the memory gun worked, it had spared Stan the worst of it. Ford was suspicious; even as Fiddleford's memories came back, too, and the others stricken by the Society of the Blind Eye began to recall what had been taken from them, Ford observed his brother closely, concerned.

It started with pancakes. Stan made excellent pancakes, and he made a smiley face with marshmallows, chocolate chips, and edible glitter for Mabel just like she liked. Dipper's had an amount of butter and syrup that could not be good for his young arteries, and Ford's were plain, with just a light coating of butter, syrup on the side for dipping--- how they each preferred. Stan's, though, was the same as Ford's. There was nothing wrong with that--- except for the fact that Stan hated plain pancakes. He liked his absolutely drowning in flavored syrup, like Dipper. Ford convinced himself Stan was just trying something new, or maybe was finally growing up and acting like an adult.

But the trend continued- they went clothes shopping, because many of their possessions were destroyed when they turned the Mystery Shack into a Mystery Mech; Stan hovered over the cargo shorts, jeans, and Hawaiian shirts, but turned eventually to a sweater and straight-leg pants, the same kind Ford wore. When they watched a movie together, he always let Ford choose, at first; when Ford insisted Stan make a decision, he chose an old sci-fi movie, or a documentary, instead of the rom-coms, mysteries, and action thrillers Ford knew Stan preferred.

Ford shook the bad feeling off, at first: they'd hadn't seen each other in thirty years, and before that, had been separated for nearly a decade and a half. Surely, Stan's tastes had just changed--- matured, evolved, whatever. But it just didn't seem right; Stan's choices seemed at odds with the personality he still displayed. It made for a disjointed view of his character; he seemed conflicted whenever he had to make a decision, no matter how big or small.

It was a year after Bill's defeat, eight months after construction of the Stan o' War II was completed and they set sail around the world, that everything came to a head. All Ford wanted was for Stan to pick the restaurant after they had docked up in a marina somewhere on the east coast of Florida. And Stan--- well, he was picking restaurants, sure, but they were all ones that Ford would choose. And Ford kept pressing Stan to no, pick one Stan would like, and Stan would pick another that just felt uncharacteristic, and they went in circles about this for a while, until it jumbled into an argument. And just like any pair of siblings, they shouted about a lot of things, shit from last week and last month and fifty years ago, just for the hell of it, and finally Ford had snapped and cried---

"I don't think I even know who you are, anymore!"

And Stan, faced screwed up in anger, had shouted back, "and you think I do?"

And that just shut that argument down, didn't it? Cause Ford felt, in an instant, no anger, just grief.

Because, really, they both realized at that moment, when had Stan been allowed to be, well, Stan? For thirty years, habits of grifting maintained or not, Stanley was dead and it was Stanford doing the grifting. And before that, it was a host of fake identities, each further removed from the truth than the last, as Stan desperately fled across the country, running from himself. And before that, his teenage years were filled with just trying to be half as good as Ford, and so when was there ever time for Stan to be, wholeheartedly and without judgement, himself? What did he like? What did he want? Who was he? And it was just the cherry on top, he had to admit, when not even Bill, evil genius extraordinaire, couldn't tell his beautiful Artist apart from his failure of a twin brother.

His only worth, as far as he was concerned, was defeating Bill. That was done, and then what was supposed to be his ultimate sacrifice, that thing that would set him apart from his brother, ending up being, well, pretty OK in the end, if one didn't count how hard Mabel and Dipper cried.

So with Bill's defeat any idea of his identity also dissolved, that damned triangle cracking open a flood of insecurity. Bill had cackled, those final moments of breaking into a million atoms of forgotten nothingness, and Stan hadn't realized at first why he would be so happy. But while Bill couldn't grasp anything physical in his evil little paws, he was a trickster of the mind until the end.

Bill whispered it, as he died: what do you have left to do? And he was right: Ford was back, the kids were safe, Soos was running the Mystery Shack, and that left Stan to---

Well, he didn't quite know.

[moonchild9350]

Lavender Fields-Chapter Ten: Home

summary: you and hyunjin have escaped the lab and all that's left is to live your lives together at peace.

pairing: Hyunjin x humanoid!gn!reader

genre: sci fi au, romance au, fluff, smut-18+ MDNI

word count: 4.0k

warnings: lots of tears (but in a good way lol), unprotected sex (don't), creampies, multiple rounds, clit play

notes: this is it, the last chapter! thank you to all who have joined me on this journey for the last 10 weeks. i appreciate every reblog, comment and like from you guys♡. if you'd like to be apart of my general taglist now that the series is done, let me know! (age must be in bio to be added)

if you enjoyed, please like, comment, and reblog ♡

series summary: you, a humanoid from a different planet, was born within a lab here on earth in the near future, your days filled with servitude and testing within the labs to learn more about your kind as your kind are not able to feel emotion. you had nothing to look forward to until you met Hyunjin, a technician assigned to you. you learn much at his hands and invaluable lessons, enlightening your once purposeless life.

please do not copy, translate, use, or modify, or repost this work elsewhere without my permission. ©️moonchild9350 (2025)

Series Masterlist | General Masterlist

Prev

Hyunjin drove through the night, his mind set on the destination of the safe house. The roads were quiet and empty, everyone in their homes sleeping. He could feel the adrenaline slowly dissipate and the reality of what just occurred ran through his mind.

You both were shot at and somehow missed a rain of bullets. What are the odds that would occur? Someone in the cosmos was looking out for you two that’s for sure. Or maybe you both were meant to be together, tied by fate that even the prospect of death couldn’t tear apart.

Hyunjin peaked over at you, curled up in the passenger seat, your eyes closed as you slumber. You feel asleep about an hour into the drive, but even then you fought the heavy pull on your eyes, wanting to watch the scenery as it passed by. He was able to convince you to sleep, that you’d be able to explore from now on. That seemed to placate you as you gave him a gentle smile and curled in within yourself as you closed your eyes.

You looked beautiful in the moonlight, the rays radiating down onto your sleeping face, highlighting the occasional flutter of your eyelashes as you dreamed. The steady rise and fall of your chest soothed him, so much so he had to remind himself he was driving and to focus on the road so as to not cause an accident.

Hyunjin looked at the clock, noticing he had another hour behind the wheel. He thought of his career and how it was basically nonexistent, as the lab would never take him back after this stunt…not that he wanted to work there anymore.

At one time or another, they had their priorities straight, wanting to expand relations with neighboring planets, but that has gone out the window and been replaced with policies and procedures that were dehumanizing and immoral.

He’d have to find something else to fill his time so he could care for you as he didn’t want you to lift a finger, unless you decided you wanted to of course. He’s happy his parents aren’t around to witness his bold escapade as his father would be thoroughly disappointed and his mother too who went along with whatever his father said and did.

Hyunjin does not regret his actions however, as it’s led to good and he’s met the love of his life. He wouldn’t trade the last year for anything in the world.

You began to stir, tossing and turning your head as you frowned, your lower lip trembling. Hyunjin gently placed a hand on your thigh, rubbing soft circles to soothe you. You slowly opened your eyes and looked around confused as you took in your surroundings.

As you came to your senses, you looked down at Hyunjin’s hand and then at his face. You let out a breath and smiled. You remembered what happened now. You are free and now with Hyunjin on your way to his safe house.

“Hey,” Hyunjin said softly.

“Hi,” you responded equally as gently as you twittled your thumbs. “How much longer do we have?”

Hyunjin pondered your question as he looked at the clock, “less than an hour, we’ll be there in no time.”

You nodded and turned to look out the window, noticing the thick trees that lined the edge of the road. It seemed dark and ominous, and you tried not to think of the creatures that resided there. You wondered what the safe house looked like. Was it big, small, cozy?

You didn’t have to wonder for long as Hyunjin turned into a drive, the trees making way for a tiny cottage nestled to the forest, the trees looming high above the house. There was a little porch with a set of table and chairs but other than that it was empty.

Hyunjin parked and turned off the car and sat for a moment before turning to you.

“Here we are,” he said as he gave you a smile.

He got out of the car and made his way to your side, opening your door and helping you out. You thanked him and followed behind as he walked to the front door. He produced a small key from his pocket and placed it in the lock, turning his wrist until there was a click signaling the door was unlocked.

You both stepped into the home, darkness expanding in front of you, with a slither of moonlight filtering through a gap in the curtains. Hyunjin closed the door and locked it before flipping on the light. You blinked as your eyes adjusted, the light bright and blinding after being in the dark for so long.

Hyunjin walked further into the space, setting both of your bags down and disturbing a small of dust, the particles floating in the air before making their way back down to the ground.

“Sorry, I um…I haven’t been here in a minute,” Hyunjin sheepishly said.

You could tell he was nervous, his eyes searching your expression to see how you were taking your surroundings. The cottage truly was straight out of a fairy tale, the living room small and cozy, the couch packed with many pillows and throws. The kitchen wasn’t far behind, the appliances seeming forgotten and lonely after not being used for so long.

A charming fireplace was build into the wall and you imagined the warm, cozy fires that would burn, spreading warmth throughout the small space. There was a makeshift bedroom as well in the open concept of a house, the bed not too big, but a perfect size for you and Hyunjin to snuggle together.

“I love it,” you said with an encouraging smile.

Hyunjin chuckled as he walked over to you and wrapped his arms around your waist. “I’m so glad,” he whispered as he leaned down to press a kiss to your lips.

Soft and sweet and gentle as ever, his lips moved against yours as he pulled you closer. You felt all of your fears and reservations fade away, the thought of evil experiments and people left behind to make way for loving moments with Hyunjin. You couldn’t believe you were here and safe, far from harms way and it is all thanks to your lover.

You let out a whimper and wrapped your arms around his neck, deepening the kiss as need took over, your body aching for his soft caresses, gruff moans, and warm hands on your body. As if he could read your mind, or maybe he just needed you too, he pulled you closer and walked you back, slowly, step by step until your legs came in contact with the bed.

Hyunjin gently pushed you down, his lips glued to yours as he fumbled with your pants, shucking them down in a hurry. You could hear the sound of the zipper on his pants as he pulled it down and let out a grunt as he gripped his cock, ever hard and leaking just for you.

Hyunjin needed you, his body reacting instantly to your touch, the sounds you make, the way your body feels soft and warm beneath his finger tips. He’s hard, painfully so that when he feels the warmth from his hand he hisses at the sensitivity.

He needs you like he needs air to breathe, to feel your wet pussy engulfs him nice and snug, fitting perfectly in your little body as if you were made just for him. Because of this need, he pushes your panties to the side, feeling how wet they are from your arousal. It seems you need him just as bad.

You let out a loud moan as Hyunjin pushes in, invading your walls slowly until he reaches the hilt. He gives you no reprieve but instead begins to thrust within you, setting a fast pace, but angling his hips so he can reach deep and massage your walls just how you like it.

Your a mess, whimpering against his lips and tears falling down your face as he takes you, the pleasure so overwhelming that you don’t know what to think, what to do, so you just lay there, holding tight to the man you love while he makes love to you. You feel something wet fall onto your cheeks and realize Hyunjin is crying too, lost in the feeling of you warm walls that wrap around and hug his cock so deliciously, lost in you.

And as both of your highs build, you clutch tighter to each other, Hyunjin finding your hands and lacing his fingers with yours, your legs wrapping around his hips to pull him ever closer to you, allowing his cock to hit even deeper. The coil builds, your breath heightens, and as he squeezes your hands, you let go, your release gushing out of you as he continues to thrust into you until he finds his release too.

Hyunjin lets out a moan, one that vibrates deep within his chest, his eyes closed tight, his lips pressed tightly to yours as his cum paints your walls, filling you up with his love. He gives you everything he has until there’s nothing left and then slowly withdraws, his eyes glued to your face as you sigh at the feel of him.

He slowly drags his eyes to your pussy, glistening with your slick, your clit puffy and red, accented with his cum seeping slowly out of your entrance. He grins satisfied before getting up to grab something to wipe you down with.

“All clean,” he cooed as he finished up and lifted you gently in his arms, cradling you to his chest as he pulled back the blankets and set you down between them.

You snuggled in and waited for him to get in with you, immediately scooting to him once he was settled. You let out a content sigh as you clutched onto Hyunjin, allowing yourself to be soothed as he drifted his fingertips up and down your spine until you succumbed to sleep, exhausted from the days events. — — The next day, you awoke refreshed, having not had a good sleep like this in a while. Your nose twitched at the smell of something baking, your lips twitching as your belly growled in hunger. Opening your eyes, you were met with the sight of Hyunjin pulling out a tray of cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

You sat up, stretched and got out of bed, padding over to where Hyunjin stood, icing the treats.

“Morning love,” he said as he finished up and grabbed a plate to plate one for you.

You took the yummy treat and sat down at the table, Hyunjin joining you soon after. Taking a bite, you closed your eyes and moaned, savoring the fluffy texture of the pastry and flavor of cinnamon as it melted on your tongue.

“I take it you like them?” Hyunjin chuckled as he watched you devour the treat.

You enthusiastically nodded your head and took another bite, quickly finishing off the treat in no time. Hyunjin cleared off the table and reached a hand out to you.

“I was thinking we could stay here for a few days, let things calm down. I have the most perfect spot for us to live in,” Hyunjin said as he guided you towards the back door, “but first how about a walk?”

A walk sounded perfect, but you weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion. Your eyes traveled down your attire, taking in Hyunjin’s shirt that he slipped over your head at some point during the night and your bare legs, as you wore nothing underneath except your panties.

Hyunjin noticed your hesitation and blushed, his cheeks turning a deep red that made him look even cuter.

“Ahem, yes, you may need some pants.”

He walked over to your bags and rummaged around until he pulled out some pants, handing them to you. “Sorry, this was the smallest I had.”

You nodded and took the pants, slipping them onto your legs one by one. They weren’t too large, the waist being a little baggy yes, but otherwise fitting you okay. Hyunjin smiled and offered his hand once more, grasping your tiny hand in his and guided you to the backdoor.

Upon opening the door, a rush of fresh air hit your face, the scent of pine needles, hitting your nose. You closed your eyes briefly and inhaled the scent, reveling in how fresh the air seemed. You both walked outside, the warm sun beating down on your skin, causing you to smile.

You were reminded of the first time you experienced the sun, sitting down with Hyunjin back at the lab. However, nothing could compare to how it felt in real life, the beams heating up your skin, the rays shining down on the grass, the flowers. The birds were flying to and from, the trees fluttering as they took flight.

Hyunjin was slow in his pace, allowing you to take in your surroundings. He took you along the outskirts of the trees, your feet landing lightly over the plush grass, the feeling of the earth allowing you to feel even more connected to the occasion.

You felt at peace as Hyunjin softly hummed, his hand in yours the whole time. You really couldn’t believe you were here, free, away from all you have known and with the man who saved you from it all. You tried to banish all thoughts of your past, wanting to look ahead to your future with Hyunjin as it was just the two of you against the world. — — You stayed at the cottage for two days, trusting Hyunjin to get what he calls your forever home ready. He wouldn’t tell you anything about it, wanting it to be a surprise. All he would say is that he knew you would love it, the location perfect.

When he wasn’t out, he would spend time with you, taking you on walks, and allowing you to help him cook meals as you wanted to learn these little skills that seemed basic for living. You helped him tidy up the cottage as well, watching and then trying out what he taught you. You caught on quick as you were eager to learn, wanting to help out after all he has done for you.

At night Hyunjin would make a drink called hot chocolate and make a fire, the warmth filling in the whole house as the nights would get chilly. You loved the chocolatey drink, the rich but sweet flavor going down easy as you took sip after sip. Hyunjin would tell you stories of his childhood and how he began to work in the lab as you wanted to know more about him.

Your heart ached as you heard how strict his family was, his father never present due to his work and how his mother would ignore him, just going along with whatever her husband said. Despite his upbringing, it was curious how he wanted to work in the same place that took away the attention of his parents.

However, he went on to explain he thought he could make a difference for those who lived in the lab, learn more about your people and thoroughly help your peers assimilate into life here on earth. You watch as he weeps at what he thinks is failure, not feeling like he made a difference at all.

You become angry at his statement, reaching out to wipe his tears away before holding his head in your hands so he could look into your eyes.

“Don’t say that,” you chastised, holding his gaze as more tears developed in his eyes. “You did make a difference, you helped me learn so much, allowed me to feel like I actually mattered in what was a miserable life. You saved me. You gave me a chance. So don’t for a second think your time spent there was a waste.”

Hyunjin sat silently as he regarded your words, more tears escaping and sliding down his cheeks. He loves you so much. He loves your kind heart, your eagerness and willing to learn. He loves how you pick him up when he’s not at his best, even though it should be the opposite. Hyunjin feels his heart rate increase, as his face transitions to a look of love.

You are the reason he woke up each morning and went to work in that miserable place. The reason why he took such risks to get to this point. He doesn’t regret it all, knowing he would do it again and again.

“I love you,” he whispered as you continued to gently hold his face, your thumb brushing gently against his cheek.

“And I love you,” you responded, smiling gently as you leaned forward to kiss him, your lips melting into his.

Hyunjin groaned before pushing you down, making quick work of both of your clothes. He was inside you within seconds, rocking his hips into yours as you both let out breathy moans. There was nothing slow about his movements as he fucked you deep but fast, wanting to get you both to your highs as fast as possible.

He needed you, always needing you, his eyes roaming your face, your breasts, his eyes closing as you clenched around him. He leaned back, his focus glued to his cock sliding in and out of your pussy, your slick coating his length aiding in the glide. He slipped his finger to your clit, rubbing sloppy circles on the bud, his cock twitching as he listened to your whines as he pleasured you.

He increased the speed of his thrusts while pressing harder against your bundle of nerves, watching the expressions you made as your orgasm built, harder, faster until the band snapped and you arched your back, releasing all over him, moving your hips in tune with his strokes to ride out your high.

“Ahh…that’s it love, let go all over me,” Hyunjin breathed as he gave you a few more thrusts before sliding into the hilt and stilling, connecting his lips to yours as he released within you.

“Hyunjin!” You whimpered as you wiggled beneath him, the feel of his cum inside you so nice.

“Yes love?” Hyunjin cooed as he lazily rocked his hips into yours, riding out the last of his high.

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” you chanted as he pressed kiss after kiss to your lips, your cheeks, your forehead, the tears slowly falling down your face.

“I love you so much,” he responded equally as affected, as he gently rested his body on top of yours.

— — The day finally came when Hyunjin said it’s time to go, to go to the forever home that he picked out for you two. He packed up the little belongings you both had and loaded them into the car. You followed behind him, grinning at the enthusiasm that was leaking out of him.

“Come on love!” He shouted as he opened the passenger door, beckoning you forward.

You slid in and he shut the door and round the car. Once you both were settled, he drove away, the cottage getting smaller in the back window. You’d miss the little hideaway, how secluded it was and relaxing. You’re sure Hyunjin would take you back here one day if you asked.

Your eyes were glued out of the window as the scenery slowly changed from thick, dense forest to more sparse trees littering the side of the road. The forest turned into the country side, white picket fences littering both sides of the road with various farm animals behind them.

You were curious as to where you were going, where he decided for you two to settle, but your answer was soon answered as a little house came into view. It was painted in white, with little brown doors and windows and a large wrap around porch perfect for spending many a mornings.

Hyunjin pulled off into the drive, the car making its way over the gravel road. As he pulled up to the front of the house, he stopped the car and got out, quickly walking to your side and opening the door.

“Welcome home,” Hyunjin murmured as he helped you to the house.

You loved it. Loved how open it was, nature all around, the fresh air that you breathed into your lungs with each breath.

As you walked into the house, you were taken away by its beauty and simplicity, soft hues of beige and baby blue outfitting the rooms. The windows were open, the curtains blowing in the wind as fresh air filtered the space.

“It’s perfect!” You gushed as you walked around the home, peering into the simple bedroom, the kitchen, and even the little office space Hyunjin had put in.

You gasped as you took in the built in bookshelves, with hundreds of books placed neatly on the shelves, waiting to be picked up and opened to take you to another world. You were smiling from ear to ear as you rushed over to run your fingertips over the spines, taking in various titles that were sure to be interesting.

“Just a little something for you love. But there’s one more surprise.”

You turned to look at Hyunjin in curiosity. “A surprise?”

“Mmhmm,” he said as he reached out for your hand. “Close your eyes.”

Your eyes fluttered shut and you found yourself being guided carefully throughout the house until you must have reached the door. You could hear the door click and a brush of air hit your face. Hyunjin continued to guide you outdoors, making sure to let you know when to carefully step down, or what was ahead in general.

Finally, you stopped moving, and Hyunjin positioned you slightly.

“Okay love, open your eyes.”

Your eyes snapped open and you squinted briefly as they adjusted to the bright light, but as you took in what was in front of you, you let out a gasp, your hands flying to cover your mouth in shock.

Rows and rows of beautiful purple flowers swayed in the wind, the soft scent it let off was comforting. You felt your eyes tear up at the gesture, realizing why Hyunjin thought this house was perfect for you. You stared out at the lavender, mesmerized as they gently moved to and fro under the warm sunlight.

“I told you I’d take you one day to see them, and what better way then to have a lavender field in your backyard,” Hyunjin said as he squeezed your hand in his.

You were speechless, not sure what to say or do as you gazed at the flowers that you spent so many hours painting and dreaming of. The flowers that offered you a moment of peace and serenity in your unfair life that you lived since you could remember. The moment was even better though because Hyunjin is by your side, experiencing this beautiful moment with you.

“Hyun, I love it!” You cried as you wrapped your arms around him, hugging him close to your body. “Thank you so much for this,” you whispered as you buried your face in his chest.

You couldn’t believe the turn of events, how you went from being a lab experiment, just another number in the system, taken from your home planet to loved and cared for by the love of your life. You were free and that was a word you could never think or say enough.

You let go of Hyunjin, grasped his hand in yours once more, and turned to face the field of lavender. Yes, this was perfect, your life was good.

You were free.

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[brucebocchi]

Summer 2024 anime roundup: ALL IN ONE

hey! i also post these reviews on my ko-fi. this is a labor of love so if you like the stuff i write, i'd really appreciate it if you'd throw a few bucks my way. thanks!

Well, I'm much busier now than I was in the first half of the year, so that means less time for anime and less time for writing about it. I managed to watch only (ONLY?) nine shows this season, so might as well put it all in one post.

As always, each show's OP is linked in the title.

Let's jump in.

Returning anime

NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a, part 2

After a COVID-plagued production delayed the last few episodes of its first half last year, A-1 Pictures’ adaptation of Yoko Taro’s landmark action-RPG returns to deliver the real meat of the story. And as with the game, the first half of NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a was something I’d classify as “pretty good!,” while the remainder is what makes the entire endeavor worthwhile.

I’m happy to report that not only did the studio not lose a step, but they improved on the presentation of Ver. 1.1a immensely. The action sequences are superb and expressive throughout, and the CGI integration is actually, y’know, integrated this time out. The score, both original and borrowed from Keiichi Okabe’s contributions to the NieR duology, remains as evocative as ever. They also ramped up the cheesecake more than a little bit, and let’s be real, that was the draw for a lot of people in the first place.

If there’s any one thing Ver. 1.1a can claim as an advantage over the game’s narrative, it’s that the former does a lot more work in building on A2 as a character. There’s just enough to chew on in the game, but having more of her backstory from the YoRHa stage play and manga adaptation integrated into the narrative makes for more of a meal. Having A2’s history and real personality pinned up as a backdrop as she struggles to suppress both really fleshes out her journey and eventual resolve as shit continues to hit the fan. She’s also just a big ol’ tsundere sometimes. And not for nothing, but they gave her an absolute DUMPY for no reason, but I can’t really pin that as a negative.

9S’ whole thing happens too. I really don’t have much to add to that.

When I reviewed this show’s first half at the end of 2023, I mentioned that the initial concern with the anime’s very existence is that it’s adapting a narrative that is functionally being told through the very fact that it’s a video game. The delivery of the game’s true ending, especially, is so innately A Video Game that it’s functionally impossible to adapt directly into a television show. I’m happy to say that although that function is lost, Ver. 1.1a’s ending is still plenty satisfying (and I’m told especially so for Drakengard fans, without giving too much away). Something is still very much lost in the transition, though. In his review of the penultimate episode, Anime News Network’s James Beckett wrote:

What the anime of NieR:Automata has not been able to capture in these critical final moments is the way that the game makes its players complicit in the tragedy in a way that they could never be if they simply sat down and passively watched these events unfold from behind the safe veil of the fourth wall. It would be like if we were each individually guided on stage to place our hands on Hamlet's shoulder and push him gently onwards to his final destination. It doesn't change anything about what happens in the story, but it changes everything about what it means to us.

These acts of “ludonarrative culpability,” as Beckett called it, are the reason why Yoko Taro is considered an auteur in the gaming sphere. Both NieR games are tragedies writ large, and Yoko’s genius lies in making you, the player, carry out the tragedy, often well before you realize what you’ve wrought. And to Beckett’s point from his review, NieR: Automata is a perfectly fine sci-fi story in its own right, but the game puts the blood squarely on the player’s hands and inserts them into the narrative in a way that simply watching cannot. The connection I felt to the story was only there because I’d already played the game myself; I can only imagine how it would feel if this was your introduction to NieR.

So to return to a question I suggested at the end of last year: Do I recommend this to people who haven’t played the game? Eh, not particularly. It’s a well-made show, to be sure, but there’s enough missing from what makes Automata such an exceptional game that I’m not sure I can recommend it wholeheartedly if you’re not already familiar. Then again, I wouldn’t really know how it reads from the other side. To those who know and love the game, Ver. 1.1a isn’t quite the “Rebuild of NieR” some were hoping it to be, but it’s an interesting companion piece that takes surprising strides to tie it even closer to the preceding franchise. If you’re a newcomer? YMMV. Either way, play the game.

Oshi no Ko, season 2

I spent far more time than was necessary in the Discourse Mines following Oshi no Ko’s thunderous debut last year and a controversial (but fortunately inconsequential) turn of events in the manga shortly after the season finale. Though I remain one of the series’ foremost glazers, I’ve had my moments where I worried that maybe I overrated it a bit in my head, that I carried too much water for writer Aka Akasaka, and that I’m still riding the high of the series’ premiere.

Oshi no Ko’s second season completely erased any lingering worry almost immediately and reminded me and the world that yes, it Really Is That Good. The “It’s So Over” switch flipped to “We Are So Back” as soon as best girl Kana Arima and co-lead Taiki Himekawa dazzled their co-stars and one another with literally colorful displays of their acting prowesses. My expectations continued to rise as an active reader of the source material, and studio Doga Kobo continued to surpass them. This adaptation is just that good.

Aqua’s quest for revenge and Akasaka’s continuing examination of Japan’s entertainment industry both lead us into the world of stage acting, specifically 2.5D adaptations of famous manga and anime. Aqua is cast alongside Kana and his sham girlfriend and former reality show co-star Akane in an adaptation of the fictional smash hit shonen manga Tokyo Blade, along with several members of a theater company to which Ai once belonged. While Aqua is more concerned with getting dirt on Ai’s background than he is with acting, Kana and Akane have much more personal stakes as they try to show one another up and still put on the best play they can. Kana can’t stand Akane’s absolutist, matter-of-fact approach to acting (nor the fact that she’s fake-dating the guy for whom Kana’s down abysmal), while Akane, who idolized Kana as a child and is disappointed to see her take a step back as an actress, is trying her damnedest to rekindle the spark that convinced her to pick up acting in the first place. On the fringes, rookie actor Melt Narushima is trying to make up for a heinous performance in the first season that earned him the scorn of his more experienced castmates as well as a mangaka’s permanent ire.

A good amount of this arc does feel like Akasaka was still sorting through his feelings about the Kaguya-sama live adaptation when he wrote it, but he also gave himself some room for reflection on his own side of the equation as a mangaka. Tokyo Blade’s creator, Abiko Samejima, holds her creation very dear and is not impressed with the script. Her friend and former boss, Yoriko Kichijouji, is entirely too familiar with how badly the process can go; her own manga, Sweet Today, was horribly botched in this show’s first season, and she wants to help Abiko-sensei keep a level head. Kichijouji-sensei is the voice of reason this time out as she points out all of the concessions creators may need to take in order to get their work adapted and the unimpeachable truth that mangaka are basically crazy people (and you can practically hear Akasaka screaming through her lines; four months after Kichijouji said this in the manga, Kaguya-sama published its final chapter, marking Akasaka’s retirement from illustrating serialized manga). At her urging, in addition to an all-nighter helping Abiko-sensei make a deadline, the play goes off without any more hitches.

I didn’t much care for the Tokyo Blade arc in the manga but I knew full well that it would translate well to anime just as well as the acting sequences in the first season had. Akasaka’s decision to have the actors treat the stage as a battleground felt a little silly on the page, but experiencing everything again in sound and motion reminded me that this was the same genre of psychological competition that made Kaguya-sama one of my all-time favorites. Doga Kobo is just stupidly good at adapting manga. God, the animation is incredible. Character animation is as deliberate and mesmerizing as always, and emotional moments are punctuated by interpretive splashes of watercolors. Melt’s breakout on stage was a standout moment in the manga, but the abstract, expressionistic depiction of his redemption was so perfectly conceived on screen that life imitated art: Kichijouji-sensei cried in the anime, and manga artist Mengo Yokoyari cried in real life.

I could go on and on and on, but if you’re already this deep into Oshi no Ko I really don’t need to tell you anything else. This season, for all its gorgeous visuals and onstage glory, does not hesitate to remind you at the worst possible moments that this is still ultimately a revenge story and pulls the rug from you just as gleefully as it dazzles. The first season was already exceptional, but the second cements Oshi no Ko as an all-time great adaptation. As a fan of the manga, this is as good of an anime as I could ask for, and then some.

Mixed Bags

My Deer Friend Nokotan

I’m just exhausted.

I’ll admit, I bit a little too hard on the marketing. The preview trailers promised madcap, nonsensical fun on the level of Nichijou or Asobi Asobase, the cast was exceptional, and the OP’s refrain was a total earworm (Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan! Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan! Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan!). It even has the cast jumping in the air! And we all know the Ryo Yamada rule! This was going to set the bar for gag anime!

Oh, how little I knew. Y’know how sometimes you see a trailer for a middling comedy movie and you can tell they already gave away all of the movie’s best jokes? Turns out My Deer Friend Nokotan did just that. I did temper my expectations; it’s not like I thought this was going to be the second coming of Nichijou or anything, but I guess I was still expecting something, I dunno, funnier?

The premise seemed to lend itself to a good comedy either way: Torako Koshi, a former delinquent, has successfully expunged her prior reputation and worked her way up to becoming her school’s student council president. All of that is nearly thrown away when a bizarre new student, Noko Shikanoko, immediately clocks her and almost spills the beans. Also, Shikanoko (who prefers to be addressed as Nokotan) has antlers and can commune with deer. She may even be a deer herself. She hoodwinks Koshi into starting a Deer Club at school, where they recruit Koshi’s upsetting younger sister Anko and the languid, rice-obsessed Bashame. Allegedly, shenanigans ensue.

Take this with a grain of salt, as humor is very subjective, but this show just plain isn’t very funny. Nokotan’s gags miss at least as often as they hit, and a lot of them just feel unforgivably dull. One bad segment can feel like an entire episode. The only reliable gags are gross-out humor, outsized slow-motion violence, or Nausicaä references. Everything else is just Koshi barging into the lower third of the screen to shout about how wacky the joke was just then.

Look, I know that humor doesn’t always translate across cultures. The things I don’t understand about Japanese humor could fill several libraries. I do, at the very least, get the basics of the boke/tsukkomi dynamic (fool and straight-man, basically) and how the reaction to a silly thing is usually the real punchline. I’ve absorbed enough Japanese media to adapt to that momentum. That nearly goes out the window here, because Koshi’s role as the tsukkomi is a straight-up momentum killer. It’s rarely just a “wait, what?!” or a “yeah, that’s rich coming from you;” it’s usually more like “wait, that is so ridiculous! You couldn’t possibly have pulled that off! And what’s that you’re wearing all of a sudden?” The rhythm is just gone. Comic timing? Don’t know her. Even if I thought the joke was funny at first, you could probably see any semblance of a smirk fading off my face by the time she was done. And hey, maybe some of this stuff doesn’t translate. Maybe it’s not that funny in Japan either.

The other characters outside of our main two really don’t help. Anko’s whole “yandere siscon” act isn’t very funny to start with, and she brings nothing to the table otherwise. Bashame is such a nothing character that even Koshi was sick of her by the end of the season. And while I feel like a good narrator can add a good level of je ne sais quoi to a comedy anime (see: Kaguya-sama), an overly intrusive one can actively take away from the humor (see: the Kaguya-sama dub). Nokotan’s narrator comes at it with a sort of winking, nudging “HEY, WE’RE A GAG ANIME” energy that gets too grating, too quickly. What doesn’t help is that he eventually affects a fake-desperate “please watch this show and tell your friends!” bent that called to mind Ron Howard’s narration in Arrested Development’s third season as it was approaching cancellation. Meta humor, as in the latter, can absolutely elevate the level of comedy; 100 Girlfriends in particular wielded it like a machete. In Nokotan, on the other hand, it betrays a clear lack of confidence in the writing, and there’s nothing less funny than comedy that doesn’t even believe in itself.

It’s not all awful, I swear. There are genuinely some very good gags; Nokotan’s cat-and-mouse game with an anachronistic matagi was a blast from beginning to end, and the skin-suit gag got a bigger laugh out of me than almost anything else I saw this season. Any good anime, especially a comedy, lives and dies by its voice cast, and Megumi Han’s performance as the titular Nokotan is this show’s whirring, beeping life support. She makes the absolute most of her considerable range as the jokes call for it, while somehow never stepping on her own toes by dipping into her Kana Arima voice from Oshi no Ko. Koshi shares a VA with Hatsune goddamn Miku. Bashame is pretty much only tolerable thanks to the languid performance of relative newcomer Fuuka Izumi, whom I’m very glad to hear in something that isn’t Gushing Over Magical Girls.

And aside from the music (the OP, to be fair, is infectious), that’s about all there is to like about the production. Did Studio WIT really make this? It looks like it could’ve been made by anybody, and that’s not a compliment. The uncanny CGI deer were the only real visual standout, and even those lost their shine before long. Something attempting to be this audacious needs to have a look to match, and Nokotan falls flat. Again, maybe that’s on me for trying to hold it to the standard Nichijou set.

I’d honestly be surprised if this gets picked up for another season. I’d be hard-pressed to come back for more.

No Longer Allowed in Another World

(CONTENT WARNING for discussion of suicide)

Osamu Dazai was one of the most complex and fascinating figures in Japan’s modern literary canon, right up there with his ideological opposite and real-life rival, Yukio Mishima. Dazai was, frankly, a disaster. He was a serial womanizer, terrible with money, repeatedly disowned by his family, unemployable, a deadbeat dad, and hopelessly addicted to drugs and booze. His magnum opus, Ningen Shikkaku, or No Longer Human, is a stark semi-autobiography, just barely fictionalizing his repeated failures of dignity and self-preservation, including his several failed attempts at double-suicide with his many illicit lovers. The same year it was published, however, Dazai was successful in his final attempt, drowning himself alongside his mistress in 1948.

But like, what if he got hit by the isekai truck instead?

Isekai Shikkaku, or No Longer Allowed in Another World, fully Goes There. The series begins with the legally distinct, unnamed Sensei and his lover Sacchan blindsided by an anachronistic truck along the riverbed. Sensei comes to, alone, in a monastery inspired by the JRPGs from well after his time. He doesn’t know what’s going on and he doesn’t care. All that matters is that he’s still alive, and that sucks for him. Sensei is greeted by Annette, an elf priestess in a virgin killer sweater, who is shocked to discover that not only has he not gained a single stat boost by coming to this world, but he’d also rather kill himself than take her up on the standard offer of an OP cheat skill (and he’d also just rather kill himself in general). So he bounces to go find Sacchan. His refreshing outlook on the new world, as opposed to the other excitable losers who got isekai’d before him, completely melts Annette’s brain to the point of falling in love with him on the spot, so she dons her sluttiest Persona 3 battle armor to chase after him.

Sensei hates this shit. Contemporary western fantasy hadn’t made its way to Japan yet in his time, so he has zero point of reference in this world, and he sure as shit has no clue what a JRPG is. The level-up jingles give him migraines. He has no self-preservation instincts and the only solace he has in this strange new world is a jar of toxic sleeping pills that he munches like M&Ms. He has no interest in or aptitude for fighting, so when he encounters a big-tiddy catgirl being squeezed half to death by a walking tree’s branches, Sensei sees the perfect opportunity to get himself killed. Unfortunately, his blood has become so toxic from said pills that piercing his skin instantly kills the tree, saving the young lady he incorrectly names Tama. Much to Annette’s consternation, she joins the party, and they set out on Sensei’s quest to find his lover and finally die in peace.

As you can guess, that’s not what happens. For some time, we see Sensei throwing himself in harm’s way, floridly imploring various fantasy monsters to kill him in one shot with their big bats, to the point where they get creeped out. His vaguely-threatening exhortations for death make for a fine formula, but one that can wear thin quickly. Before it gets that chance, though, the seed planted in Annette’s introduction bears fruit: The visitors to this world from our own aren’t here in isolation, and they have succeeded in completing the usual isekai goal of overthrowing the demon king. There’s now a massive power vacuum, and nature abhors that shit, so a cabal of erstwhile isekai protags dub themselves the Fallen Angels and decide to take over.

This turn was, to put it bluntly, the main thing that kept me watching. There’s a fine bit of commentary inherent to this framing that the type of wet-noodle, borderline faceless self-insert isekai protags tend to appeal to antisocial losers who would rather give into their basest impulses than see an opportunity to actually better themselves. This is not at all lost on Sensei; his keen eye for the human condition leads him to interrogate the Fallen Angels his party encounters so that he can write about their own failures as humans, as well as the gaping voids in their previous lives that led to them acting like petty tyrants as soon as they gained a bit of power and treating a brand new world like their own personal playground. Sensei’s writings reveal that he did indeed gain a power when he came over to this world; if he sees fit, a finished book will surround its subject and reanimate them back in their original world and afford them a second chance to right their wrongs or, in one particularly moving case, start over on the right foot.

For as audacious as No Longer Allowed’s premise is and as impeccable its comic timing and voice cast (you will find some absolute heaters completely buried on the call list), I just didn’t find it all that compelling. Isekai as a genre is so oversaturated that it was old hat to call it oversaturated even five years ago, so while I do try to pan for gold, sometimes I just come up with a neat-looking river stone. Hell, I can’t even say this one’s all that neat-looking; there’s nothing that looks all that great about it to begin with. The character designs and backdrops are pretty standard JRPG-style stuff that you’re just as likely to find in the likes of Helck, with lackluster animation to match. Didn’t care too much for most of the characters either. Even for its commentary on the isekai genre and the type of person it caters to, No Longer Allowed just ends up shaking out like another isekai series. 

There’s clearly more at play here, and I might just go ahead and read the manga because I didn’t really find myself looking forward to watching the anime. Maybe it just didn’t translate well. No Longer Allowed in Another World does clearly have something to say under its silly premise, but its method of getting that message across is, ironically, buried underneath the usual trappings of the genre it’s trying to say something about. 

Wistoria: Wand and Sword

I’m gonna preface this by saying that Wistoria is probably the best anime I watched this year that I’ve classified as a “Mixed Bag,” save for Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night. I’m generally of the mind that excellent production can make up for a middling story (my enjoyment of the likes of Solo Leveling and Wind Breaker this year was pretty emblematic of that), and that is the case here for the most part. Wistoria, story-wise, is nothing special; it’s your standard power fantasy set in a magical school, but the entire presentation is just almost fascinating enough to overcome that hurdle.

Hell, it’s almost not even worth going over the plot. Unassuming boy named Will goes to a magic academy, he doesn’t have any magical aptitude, so he makes up for it by honing his hand-to-hand combat prowess in the school’s designated dungeon. It’s Mashle meets Solo Leveling. Will gets picked on (like, a LOT), but he doesn’t care, because he made a promise long ago to reach the pinnacle of magical society to reach his childhood friend, who happens to be a genius mage. There are duels, there’s a tournament, there’s monsters, you know how this goes.

Will has allies in the school, namely a female friend who’s madly in love with him as well as a professor who covers for his shortcomings in magic-related subjects, but remember that this is a self-insert fantasy: There are also increasingly menacing bullies for him to put in their place. Will is challenged by a Snape-like instructor, a classmate who just hates him so much for not having magic aptitude, and a top performer at the school who’s just flat-out evil (and racist to boot!). And of course the latter two also have goon squads of snickering hangers-on. Will always succeeds, of course, because despite his shortcomings, he’s the strongest and most specialest boy. It’s almost like an isekai without the isekai. Too bad we find out that Will is hilariously shredded, which kinda blows a hole in the self-insert aspect.

Goofy shonen-isms aside, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Varying types of magic, artifacts, and fantasy races abound, and lore is sprinkled throughout the show in character biographies in the commercial break eyecatches. The story does get gradually less stupid as the season goes on and characters are better fleshed out. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with watching a really strong dude beat the shit out of monsters and assholes.

The only thing that really kept me coming back to Wistoria was that, plainly, it looks and sounds fucking awesome. It’s not the best-looking anime I watched this season (that would either be Oshi no Ko or one of the next two anime on this list), but Wistoria takes such a surprisingly cinematic approach to such an uninspiring story that I couldn’t help but keep watching. The lighting effects are lush, combat animation is bonkers in its best moments, and the score is pretty darn good too. It definitely takes some big swings at simulating camera movements and perspective shots that don’t always accomplish what they set out to do, but I can appreciate the ambition bleeding through. I can see the vision, and that’s what counts.

The actual content is pretty paint-by-numbers, but Wistoria is well-made enough that it’s worth a shaky recommendation. Maybe just turn your brain off until the action picks up. I've heard the manga gets pretty good from here on out, so I'll probably stick it out for another season.

The Gems

The Elusive Samurai

If you’re not already familiar with this series, do me a favor and watch the OP linked right above. Pretty good character animation, right? Expressive, weighty, plenty of personality. The colors pop like crazy too! A lot of the time, an anime series will heavily stylize its OP to attract eyeballs and YouTube metrics, oftentimes bringing in outside animators and directors for a unique feel. In the case of The Elusive Samurai, I cannot stress enough that all that animation is the standard.

Yes, this show looks exceptional. Even putting aside the fact that it’s historical fiction, this show has a truly timeless look to it that I still struggle to put into words. The Elusive Samurai is clearly a modern production but bears all of the hallmarks of what great animation has always looked like when a studio is willing to invest in it: Colors are so bold and saturated that I want to take a damn bite out of them, backgrounds are painstakingly hand-painted even for brief cuts, and there even seems to be a film grain overlay to really sell the classic feel. It’s not perfect (I’ll get into that later), but holy shit is it a feast for the eyes.

Adapted from the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, The Elusive Samurai is a heavily fictionalized retelling of the fallout of the Siege of Kamakura in the 14th Century. Tokiyuki Hojo, left without a family in a bloody coup of the shogunate, is prevented from committing suicide by enigmatic priest Yorishige Suwa and then thrown right back into the fire of the battlefield. Yorishige, who has prophetic visions of the future, foresaw Tokiyuki’s ascent to leadership and wants to see how he fares in battle. Tokiyuki didn’t bother with his training as a young master, instead playing elaborate games of hide-and-seek with the Hojo clan’s advisors, so in the face of certain danger, he’s left with no choice but to do what he does best and run the fuck away. And as with evading his training, Tokiyuki realizes that it’s way more fun than actual combat, and the future is suddenly even more clear to Yorishige: Evasion, not bloodthirst, will guide Tokiyuki’s path to revenge.

At Yorishige’s increasingly unnerving behest, Tokiyuki goes into hiding at Suwa Shrine and begins building a squad to take down the usurper, Takauji Ashikaga. Along with Yorishige’s daughter, Shizuku, he teams up with young warriors Kojiro and Ayako, and in their travels pick up the crass, kitsune-masked thief Genba and the food-obsessed swordsboy Fubuki. It’s fine as extended casts go, though we don’t get much from a few of them past their introductory arcs. Tokiyuki is an absolute delight, though. He’s a sweet and joyful kid despite his circumstances; real shonen protag material. And most importantly, he’s completely over Yorishige’s shit.

I’m a sucker for magical realism, and The Elusive Samurai delivers. Yorishige really does appear to be a prophet, to the point where he can even predict Dragon Ball Z (yes, really), and he and Shizuku are capable of pulling off acts that any actual person would consider a literal miracle. Mythical beasts roam the land and those that were slain appear to reside on a different realm accessible to the Suwas. All of Takauji’s top soldiers have senses and abilities far beyond anything human or animal, and Takauji himself seems to have borrowed some of his prowess from the devil himself. With this show’s commitment to top-tier visuals and animation, the sky's the limit for what we can see, and it kept me glued to my TV every episode. It almost made me want to watch Demon Slayer. Almost.

The cast has some solid performances from familiar names and voices: Yuichi Nakamura is his usual blusteringly silly self as Yorishige, Aoi Yuuki is a riot as Genba, and Katsuyuki Konishi (Kamina himself!) infuses Takauji with appropriate menace. There’s some Chainsaw Man and Bocchi sprinkled into Tokiyuki’s clan of rookie warriors as well. Good stuff, but what really caught my attention was a surprisingly familiar voice giving life to the bug-eyed villain Sadamune Ogasawara: None other than Yutaka Aoyama, the narrator of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Nobody could have more perfectly infused Sadamune with the appropriate level of self-serious goofiness than the guy who narrated Kaguya-sama’s balloon game like it was an NFL Film. Perfect casting.

As incredible as this show looks most of the time, the remainder does have a critical issue: CloverWorks didn’t seem too invested in hand-animating horses or any of the show’s characters riding them, so it opted instead for CGI. Very poorly-implemented CGI. I really try to take stuff like this as it comes, but the modeling looks way too video-gamey for the style the rest of the show is going for, to the point where I’m taken out of it. There’s really no excuse for something this uncanny with the high bar The Elusive Samurai set for itself early on (and yes, Uzumaki is airing as I write this, and I’ll talk about the similar problem that show has at the end of the year).

I know I just said this about Wind Breaker last season, but this may be CloverWorks’ other Big Shonen Hit. It certainly has the juice, between the wacky gags and shockingly brutal violence, and CGI issues aside, the studio has clearly invested in it. A second season is already on the way, and I’d say it’s paid off. If the studio can iron out the kinks, this could end up becoming an all-timer.

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

If I haven’t made it clear enough, my anime journey has turned me into a bit of a romcom guy. Couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it’s because Tenchi Muyo was a formative anime for me, or maybe it’s because I got on Kaguya-sama relatively early in my return-to-weebdom trek and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. I could go on and on about the ones I’ve watched and which particularly stood out, but we’d be here all day. At the same time, though, a burgeoning market for the genre, particularly among the shonen demographic, means that there’s gonna be some real slop out there. Plenty of anime, manga, and especially light novels are targeted at the “lonely boy who wishes cute girls would attach themselves to him just because he’s A Nice Guy” type, and while there are some genuinely excellent series that cater plenty to that kind, there’s a well-defined line between the good and the trash.

Makeine is well aware of that line and elects to skip rope with it. Genre subversion is at its best when the work in question shows a genuine care for the milieu it’s satirizing, and Too Many Losing Heroines is to trashy light novel romcoms what The Eminence in Shadow is to edgy isekai and Bang Brave Bang Bravern is to vaguely homoerotic mech warfare. It’ll slap you in the face with every dumb threadbare cliche you’ve come to expect from the genre, and it’ll do so with a smile.

These stories are usually fronted by a total wet noodle and Kazuhiko Nukumizu is the soggiest soba you’ve ever seen. His main interests are water fountains and hey, wouldn’t you know it, light novel romcoms. As far as he’s concerned, he’s a background character with the personality to match. He’s thrust to the forefront, though, when he’s caught staring at his classmate, Anna Yanami, embarrassingly picking up the pieces from being brutally rejected at a cafe. She forces herself into Nukumizu’s booth and helps herself to several courses’ worth of stress-eating on his dime, which he never agreed to. As recompense, Anna decides to cook him lunch until her debt is more or less repaid, and would you look at that, Nukumizu just made a friend!

As the title would suggest, Anna’s not the only lovelorn maiden finding her way into Nukumizu’s school life. He’s exhorted into joining the school’s literature club, where he meets the track runner, Lemon Yakishio, and the lit club’s stammering stalwart, Chika Komari. He also has to bear witness to each of their own crushes backfiring and deal with the fallout. And amidst this chaos, there’s plenty of botched confessions, getting locked in storage closets, boob faceplants, and all the other nonsense you’d expect from the genre. And it’s terrific! And in the midst of all this, even as Nukumizu seems to be a passenger in this journey, you see him ever-so-slowly realize that he has some agency and grow closer to these girls. Makeine is plenty silly and more than a little stupid, but there’s plenty of heart in here as well.

The offbeat character dynamics and clever dialogue are what really make this. Everyone is just refreshingly weird in their own ways. Anna is a complete menace and totally convinced she’s the protagonist of life, and she may not even be wrong. I almost don’t care whether she and Nukumizu get together or not; they’re such a fun “serious guy/goblin mode girl” pairing that I’m not that interested in their dynamic changing. Komari and the lit club VP Koto are a dynamic fujoshi duo, ensuring that the club’s shenanigans aren’t too shonen-centric (and funny enough, Koto has her own idea for an Osamu Dazai isekai). Everyone in the student council has something demonstrably Wrong With Them, the homeroom teacher is a disaster, and the school nurse probably belongs in prison. I love every single one of them. I could’ve done without Nukumizu’s offputtingly-clingy little sister (and learning about her analogue in this season’s other romcom LN adaptation, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, was enough to put me off of watching it), but it looks like one of her own female classmates is in love with her, so that could be gold in later seasons.

A-1 Pictures, to borrow an industry term, put its entire pussy into this production. As with last year’s Heavenly Delusion, there was so much love put into the lighting effects, background art, and character animation that I felt like I was watching a Makoto Shinkai film at times. All of those elements working in tandem massaged my brain in such a way that when every episode ended, I was left confused because hey, where the hell is the rest of the movie? Makeine is also loaded with killer visual gags, and I give A-1 a ton of credit for letting those jokes land without calling too much attention to them, unlike a certain other show I watched this season. The opening and endings were real treats, with three different EDs as the season progressed, each depicting one of the titular heroines’ personal journeys (and performed by each respective girl’s VA, no less). This is some real investment on the studio’s part and it absolutely paid off.

I promise that every time I compare a romcom to Kaguya-sama, it comes at a great inner struggle to prevent myself from doing so, but if that anime is truly over and this is where A-1 is focusing its resources, Makeine may very well be a worthy successor. I really can’t say for sure whether this or The Elusive Samurai was the best new anime of the summer season, and it doesn’t help that they aired on the same day and I’d always watch them back-to-back. Just know that they’re easily two of the better anime I’ve seen this year.

Mayonaka Punch

If “mega-cancelled YouTuber starts up a new channel with a bunch of disaster lesbian vampires” isn’t enough of a hook for you, I really don’t know what else to tell you.

Masaki got kicked off her popular NewTube channel after punching one of her co-hosts, and the internet is letting her hear it. Maybe barging in on the “we’re firing Masaki” live stream and tackling one of them didn’t help either. Rather than film the bog-standard apology video, she figures she can just wing it and start up a solo channel. Masaki decides to start by playing the hits and drunkenly recreate her first channel’s breakout video in a spooky abandoned hospital, and finds more than she bargained for in a vampire named Live (pronounced like it’d be short for Olivia) who really, really wants to drink her blood in particular. Masaki nearly falls to her death in a panic, only for Live to save her and reveal that she has the very filmable ability to fly, so Masaki cuts a deal: If Live can help her get a new channel off the ground, Masaki will let her drink her blood.

This is tremendous content, so Masaki moves in with Live at Banpai Manor along with her vampire roomies to produce a new channel, co-starring the eternal 10-year-old day trader (night trader?) Ichiko, the soft-spoken fujoshi musician Fu, and the heavy-vaping gambling addict Tokage. They name the channel Mayonaka Punch (because mayonaka means “midnight” and because Masaki punched the shit out of her former co-host) and quickly get to work trying to beat Masaki’s former channel to their goal of a million subscribers (and a delicious lunch for Live). Even though they try to pass off their vampire shenanigans as Very Good CGI, they run afoul of a vampiric authority figure for exposing their identities, so they have to get internet famous the old fashioned way: Cute Girls Doing Cute Things.

I can’t quite put into words what a blast this show is. Mayonaka Punch frequently barrels along at a madcap pace, often punctuated by an electro-swing score, as its cast of loud idiots (and Fu) carom off of one another to chaotic effect. The voice cast really sells it, too: Ikumi Hasegawa (Kita in Bocchi the Rock!, Vladilena in 86, Übel in Frieren) owns every ounce of Masaki’s mounting exasperation as she deals with all the vampire nonsense while continuing to avoid the consequences of her own actions. Fairouz Ai continues her MVP-caliber resume for 2024 in style as Live, infusing her with a kind of desperate manic energy as she scratches and claws for Masaki’s approval. This was easily my favorite of her many roles so far this year, and two years removed from Chainsaw Man’s debut, it’s been a treat to hear her once again voicing a feral, bloodsucking loser.

As silly as Mayonaka Punch gets, though, it delivers some serious emotional blows when you least expect them. The fourth episode, centering on Fu’s history, is one of the best of any anime I watched this season. There’s also some very interesting history between Live and the head vampire’s go-between, Yuki, that was told through (though partially buried by) a series of video game facsimiles, and I hope there’s more there someday. And, of course, there’s Masaki’s evolving relationship with Live, with romantic undertones so tantalizing they might as well be overtones. I really thought there wasn’t enough time left in the season to reach a satisfying conclusion, and though it might not have fully reeled in the yuri bait, I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything tied together.

Mayonaka Punch’s ending is open enough that I can only hope it gets a second season, but I’m not about to hold my breath. That’s a tall order for original anime that don’t set the world on fire, but this one has all the right pieces for a future cult classic. Liked and subscribed. 

Suicide Squad Isekai

When this was announced, the only reaction it really got out of me was “Sure dude, why not.” As far as what this show is, it does what it says on the tin. It’s an isekai featuring a motley crew of anti-heroes plucked directly from the David Ayers and James Gunn Suicide Squad films. You already know what you’re in for.

Sure enough, this is a straight up Suicide Squad story from the jump: Harley Quinn and the Joker (the latter sporting yet another heinous makeover) try to pull off a heist, it goes sideways, Harley gets arrested and forced into Amanda Waller’s scheme to mine rare resources in another world alongside Deadshot, Clayface, Peacemaker, and King Shark. It’s your standard JRPG-style isekai fantasy world, except the previous Suicide Squad of Enchantress, the Thinker, Ratcatcher, and Killer Croc seem to have run roughshod over tensions between races and kingdoms, leaving Rick Flag alone to pick up the pieces.

And what ensues is pretty much what you’d expect. Everyone looks appropriately anime; Psycho-Pass character designer Akira Amano did especially good work with Harley, to the point where I’m shocked that a billion-yen idea like “anime Harley Quinn” was slept on for so long. All of this makes it even funnier that Peacemaker is still very much just John Cena. Character designs aside, Suicide Squad Isekai only seems to look good when it wants to; most of the moment-to-moment stuff looks a bit muted but absolutely pops off when business picks up. There’s even a flashback sequence of Deadshot and Ratcatcher that has a sort of loose, crumbly Masaaki Yuasa look to it. Despite the genericism of the setting and inconsistency of the aesthetic, though, Suicide Squad Isekai still carries plenty of style with it. The intro and outro are both blasts; I didn’t realize until the season ended that the “Tank!”-style OP was by Tomoyasu Hotei, the composer of the most iconic piece of music from Kill Bill. The ED (content warning: Mori Calliope) heavily features Amanda Waller getting down in ways I can only hope to one day see Viola Davis recreate. 

The fusion of American and Japanese styles is definitely awkward at times; the occasional references to other Warner Bros properties like Lord of the Rings and Tom and Jerry feel particularly shoehorned in considering this is a Japanese production, but the voice cast makes up for a lot of faults. Anna Nagase captures Harley’s freewheeling energy perfectly, and her penchant for nicknames is extra cute in Japanese when she’s calling the Joker “Purin-chan” or King Shark “Nana-chan.” Jun Fukuyama is a real standout as Clayface, channeling the flashy spirit of Joker (not this one, the Persona 5 one) to animate Basil Karlo’s irritating showmanship. Takehito Koyasu as Peacemaker doesn’t quite have the self-serious goofy energy we’ve come to expect from the live action version, but it’s such funny casting on its face that I don’t really mind. Can this tradeoff go both ways? I want John Cena as DIO yesterday.

For a Studio WIT production and a story by Re:Zero’s writers, Suicide Squad Isekai may occasionally feel like less than the sum of its parts (par for the course for the property’s recent adaptations, unfortunately, save for the Gunn film), but if you don’t come at it expecting too much you’ll have a good time. Far from my favorite this year, but it’s a crowd pleaser, and those, I like.

[specialagentartemis]

speaking of Rowland, what changed your mind on grimdark stories? You used to post about how much you hated them lol

Hopepunk started to annoy me more lol.

It's been several things. Partially, it's just been years; I've gotten older, read more books, found authors I really really loved writing really bleak really sad really upsetting and really fascinating books.

Partially it's that I don't really believe in the definitions people use about grimdark anymore; the more I read, the more I feel it's a strawman stereotype that barely exists moreso than it's an actual social force in literature.

Partially I do stand by my irritation with a lot of dark and gritty remakes/reboots of mostly A/V media; Star Trek does not need to be a dark and gritty war story, LOTR doesn't need to be sexy, etc. They feel lazy and trend-chasing more than they feel like a genuine creative endeavor. Too often, they can feel like they're jettisoning the aspects that made me like them in an attempt to be more Mature by adding Violence and Swearing and Sex. I stand by that Star Trek Discovery wasn't good, and the fact that it felt like it was embarrassed that it had to be Star Trek when it really wanted to be Game of Thrones in Space was a big part of why.

But honestly that seems to primarily be happening in TV/movies, and it's stopped being nearly the inescapable social force it was 6-10 years ago. The zeitgeist moves on and new trends annoy me. In sci-fi/fantasy books, the movement seems to be in the other direction: hopepunk and cozy. And they have just. been bad books. So many of them have been bad in new and frustrating ways. In the same time period that hopepunk and cozy were on the rise in the sff zeitgeist, I also read books like The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez... heavy and sad and serious and unhappy and with brilliant artistry that feels like it actually has something to say and isn't ignoring how humans actually act by saying "well it wouldn't be a problem if everyone was just nice :)" I read the bleakest, most upsetting, most depressing sci-fi book I've ever encountered, Harmony by Project Itoh, which he wrote while he was in and out of hospitals dying of cancer and it shows. It's unsettling and unnerving and upsetting and different, and you can tell it comes from the heart. Is it grimdark? Maybe, yeah. And it has value as literature, and I got a lot more out of it than I did from a lot of things touting how important they are for being Hopeful and Cozy and Conflict-Free.

Honestly, part of it is my natural plain contrarianism. When making fun, hopeful, funny, campy, or adventure-y things Dark and Gritty and Violent was held up as better and more inherently mature writing, it annoyed me and made me dislike it; now that violence and selfishness and cruelty and pain in stories seems to be considered immature and unnecessary, and rather hope, softness, gentleness, happiness, cheerfulness, conflict-aversion, and harmony are the Morally Correct and Mature ways to write stories, I resent that too. It ends up feeling trend-chasing and reductive, and when bland nothing books are held up as The Most Ethically Correct And Best Writing Because They Are Hopeful, it makes me just as annoyed as when dark and gritty TV is held up as The Most Mature And Serious Prestige Television.

Also, honestly, the world kept getting worse and sometimes I want media that acknowledges that I feel afraid and hurt and angry, and that things aren't all sweet and good and nice actually. It often makes me feel better, more seen, more understood, than media that goes actually everyone is nice and and problems are easy to solve and the world is basically just and people can be trusted to all be mature and good and reasonable. (And if you're ever impatient, or selfish, or snappish, or mean, or insufficiently hopeful... then you don't belong in our utopia. As someone who *gestures above* can be impatient, snappish, and mean... that doesn't make me feel all that hopeful.)

[drdemonprince]

i read in the comments to my last ask about "ordinary unhappiness" the idea of depression as a lack of agency and i feel like that is true? when i feel miserable and in pain, it's not because something is sad but because something is either unachievable or impossible (or at least there is the perception of it). and like i think that's what you were getting at too? this thing that drives you to keep going, this lack of satisfaction. i simply don't have anything i can give into such that i would ever even feel a lack of satisfaction. i've never had anything to give myself into and feel frustrated and perhaps sometimes successful in but instead i just envy the people who do have those things. nothing i've ever done has felt maintained a sense of emotional connectiveness in that way (positive or negative). i guess to wrap this back around to another potential talking point, i'm curious how you find that in your life? is it weird for me that nothing has ever felt worth putting myself whole ass into? idk, i find it envious you've got both writing and gay hypno fetish stuff you're able to just throw yourself into so wholly and utterly

Passion isn't inherent, it can be a choice too. I only look like I care a ton about writing and gay hypno stuff because I have deliberately chosen to pursue those passions, for many years, and cultivated a deep interest in them, anon.

When I was in my early twenties, I felt completely empty. I was a void. If you've read the first chapter of Unmasking Autism, this is the period I'm talking about in that book. I went away to graduate school (because I was good at academics, and I had some illusions about what a career in that field would do for me), but I had absolutely zero zest for the subject of psychology at that point. I had no research ideas. I read psychology books and publications purely out of obligation. I did what was required of me, but nothing additional beyond that, and I spent the rest of my time sitting at home, sometimes literally staring at the wall and crying. I had no friends or hobbies, aside from taking long, long depression walks listening to podcasts in order to fill the silence.

This was when I was at my most depressed, and my most suicidal. Just existing was a pain. I'd sob in bed at night and cry out begging for God to kill me, and I didn't even believe in God. The only thing that distracted me from my pain was a guy I was seeing, who was beautiful and very cruel and inconsistent, and I clung to him through all kinds of lies and abuse because it felt as though my happiness was located inside of him.

I had a friend that I wrote to about how miserable I was, and all the twists and turns that my horrible romance was taking. Her name was Heather. (Unlearning Shame is dedicated to her). She told me hey, you're a really good writer, did you know that? I really enjoy reading your emails, even when you're speaking about the most pitiful anguished shit, you really put it poetically and have a ton of insight. You should write more.

For a while, I ignored her. I didn't care about writing. I just wanted to get my pain out on the page because I had nobody to talk to, and oodles of time to waste. I had nothing otherwise that I felt I HAD to say. I had no PASSION. I did not feel like I was put on this earth to do anything. Other people seemed to have these drives, and I had nothing.

But then one day in a fit of depression I stopped by a bookstore right near my apartment, The Armadillo's Pillow, just to get outside of the house. I happened upon a book I had loved in high school, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. I took it home. I read it. It transported me for a few hours away from my pain. I went back to the book store and picked up some sci-fi. A John Varley collection, I think. I was also swept away from my suffering, even when the stories had flaws that I noticed. I was interested in the actual craft of storytelling: what worked and what didn't. And there was finally some beauty in my head instead of the usual dreariness and self-hatred and emptiness.

And so. I made the choice to write. I could have taken it or left it at that point. I didn't care about anything. Caring is a muscle that you have to flex. And when you're depressed, it can be very hard. I needed a lot of nudges from the external world and other people, to realize that I had some things I did gravitate toward, even if I didn't realize it.

All that time of course I WAS driven to write. I was churning out 5k word letters to Heather every day practically. I was reading stupid shit online. And when it was put in front of me, and I had no reason to feel guilt about not working hard enough on other things, I reached for books. But I didn't feel passion strongly under the heavy blankets of my depression. Or usually at all, really. I am a quite internally muted person whose emotions are suppressed. But they're there. Speaking to me softly. And to overcome my depression, I had to decide to listen to them instead of ignoring them all of the time, and give them kindling, and then fan them into a flame.

I started blogging regularly while I was in graduate school (right here, hello, you can check my archive dating back to 2011), and finding a reason to live. When I was writing, I felt like the world was interesting, and beautiful. It gave me new things to do. I attended literary readings and book launches all over town. I submitted work to magazines. I bought old copies of magazines and read them. I inhaled books. I listened to fiction podcasts. I joined writing groups. At first, it felt like a slog, like anything else. Doing these things, I was not "happy". But I was interested. I liked learning about the world of publishing, critiquing people's stories in my head, and commisserating with other Tumblr writers about the stuff that got featured on the Prose tag that sucked.

After YEARS of doing this, of choosing to fan my passions, it became a genuine motivation in my life. But even then? I lose track of it sometimes. I get busy, or there's no place comfy to sit and read in my apartment, and I forget that I like writing and reading for months at a time. And then I have to choose it again. It takes effort to care about something, every time.

It's the same way with hypno. I did have a fetish for this stuff all my life long. But it's a passion that people always thought was weird and gross, and that I thought was bad. I didn't tell anyone about it until my late 20's. I felt ashamed masturbating to it or looking up hypno content online. For years I snuffed out that flame of passion until I could barely feel it anymore. It wasn't until I was super depressed AGAIN in my later 20's that I took a bunch of weird off-label anti-depressant drugs under the table and had a weird dreamy headspace overtake me and make me insanely horny that I remembered how much I loved hypno, and because I was in search of an escape from my tormented brain, I sought hypnotists out.

And I had the time of my life. But I also had boring, awkward encounters, bad hook-ups, and had to do a ton of work.

My passions have drawn me out of depression because I needed them to. I had to find them, listen to them, and then give them lots of food. And it's one of the few things that a person does often have agency over, no matter how dispiriting their circumstances. You can make choices about where to put what attention you do have, in what free moments you do have. When you're on the bus or in line at the grocery store and you're thinking about how much you hate yourself, you can try to think about a story you read or a sexual fantasy you had, instead. It's a lot of work. But it's better work than the work of hating yourself, which takes a whole lot of energy and attention itself.

I hope you can find something like this for you. It doesn't really matter what it is. It can be some hobby you've always wanted to try, or something "childish" you've suppressed. Having a passion isn't like being chosen by the universe to care about something. It's not like love at first sight. Nothing fucking works like that in life. It's always work. It's always a choice you have to make, because no one else will give it to you. But there can be hints that you can follow, sometimes.

[golden-loona]

found you | chapter two

summary: jungkook finds a pink diary in his drawer that connects him to another timeline. where will it take him?

pairing: jungkook x oc

tags: slight college au, sci-fi(ish), fluff

words: 2026

no warnings needed / this is not fully proofread

this is not to be copied or translated. thank you!

the diary plagues jungkook's mind throughout his classes the next day. his professor talks but the words are muffled, the noise in his head disturbing everything else. scattered, mindless notes typed onto a word document on his open laptop, completely out of focus.

whats worse? today is september 1st. his birthday. what did he do to deserve this mess on his birthday? of ALL days. he can’t even think straight, any plan he had in mind is void. the only light on in his brain being that pink fucking diary. 

the one question that invades his mind the most, is how is this possible? how is he able to communicate through a diary? how is he seeing entries when the diary never leaves his room? it feels like the universe is playing a joke on him, if thats the case then jungkook wants out.

still, he can't help but be curious about the diary's owner. from what he's read of the other entries, she loves dawson's creek and listens to a lot of early 00's music. her most recent song on repeat apparently being "so yesterday" by hillary duff. it confuses him.

when jungkook thinks about it, but not too deeply, his mind wanders to that one marvel movie. doctor strange the multiverse of madness. because that's exactly what its feeling like. a multiverse. the concept is fun, sure. if jungkook saw all this in a movie he would eat it up, but in real life? the idea of being able to talk to someone from a different timeframe frightens him.

is the diary owner from his current time? or the past? the future? is he supposed to keep quiet about things happening in his time? what can he tell her? what can’t he? is there a chance him and this girl can meet? every question races through his mind, over and over like an anxious knocking.

the idea of a rip in time and space, that rip being a pink diary? out of everything on earth, it terrifies him and excites him at the same time. there's the potential for him to have an insight to whatever year this girl is currently living in, he just has to convince himself whether its a good idea or not.

the students around jungkook in the hall all stand up, pulling him out of his deep thought. he naturally stands with them, closing his laptop and shoving his things into his backpack without care. throwing it over his shoulder, jungkook steps to leave the lecture hall. his mind still stuck in a daydream, the endless possibilities and theories of his current situation. 

when jungkook gets home, he notices the “birthday boy” banner taped to his door. a small smile spreading on his lips, he mentally thanks his roommates and steps into his room. he can almost feel the drawer of his desk staring at him. jungkook lazily drops his bag onto his bed, trying to ignore the desk drawer. he swears its glowing in the corner of his eye but thats impossible.

he also used to think multiverses were impossible until now, so he guesses maybe anything is possible. jungkook gives in, slowly opening the drawer with a defeated exhale and of course. the diary is still there.

he knew it would be and yet he kind of hoped it wouldn’t, this just confirms everything he’s been overthinking about today. the mess of science and make-believe thats ran through his mind like its running in circles. 

opening the diary, there sits a new entry. scribbled gently in dark pink gel ink, neat and clear. nothing compared to jungkook’s rushed handwriting at all. honestly, this girl’s pen-game makes his handwriting look absolutely appalling. 

september 1st

first of all, that kiss was a dare. this is a judgement free zone, diary stealer. and i have a name, idiot. my name is yn and i’m 19, i live in itaewon with my mom and my brother. 

can you stop reading my diary now? 

jungkook can’t help but crack a smile at the sassiness written in the ink, he can almost hear it in his head. that attitude, that tone. 

this is what’s pulling him in.

this sassy, funny, mysterious stranger is who’s pulling him into all this. the one who’s magnetic. the one that’s been sitting in the back of his mind all day. 

she lives in itaewon and she’s 19, surely jungkook knows her? surely she goes to the same university as him? maybe they’ve bumped into each other? all these questions fill jungkook’s mind as he begins to daydream. 

jungkook sits comfortably on his desk chair, the wheels squeaking as he shuffles closer to the desk. he holds the diary open, grabbing a black bic pen and popping the cap open to scribble his own entry. 

september 1st 

it’s my birthday, yn. be nice! i’m jungkook, 28 (today) and i also live in itaewon. can i ask you what year it is for you? 

jungkook sighs and leaves it at that, closing the diary and placing it back into the desk drawer. an exhausted sigh leaves his lips and he spins gently on the chair. 

the concept of speaking to someone in a different timeline scares him, either he’ll be the one keeping secrets of the future or he’ll be speaking to someone who knows something he doesn’t. it sends shivers across his body.

“happy birthday to you,” jungkook’s thoughts are interrupted as his roommates step through the door, cake with lit candles in hand. they sing, out of tune of course, but it makes jungkook smile like an idiot. 

“you guys didn’t have to-” jungkook begins but his roommate, taehyung, shakes his head. he sets the cake on jungkook’s desk as their other roommate, hoseok, takes a seat on jungkook’s bed. 

“here, we got you this” hoseok says brightly, a shining smile on his face as he hands jungkook a carefully wrapped gift. jungkook opens the present with hesitancy but he can’t help but chuckle like a kid once he sees them. 

socks with his friends faces on them.

jungkook breaks into laughter, holding the socks with their faces on it. “seriously, guys?”

jungkook wakes up to a buzzing sound, its 4am and he is not in the mood. he sleepily sits up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he searches around the room for whatever is buzzing. following the sound, he’s lead to the desk drawer. an old, small clock he used to use for alarms is buzzing away. one without batteries. what the fuck.

jungkook smacks the side of the digital clock, hoping it shuts up and it does. his eyes glance for a second at the diary and he feels that pull again, his heart naturally racing. a gentle sigh leaves his lips and he grabs the pink diary. 

jungkook shuffles to his bed, clicking his bedside lamp on as he opens the diary. he flicks through the pages as he finds the last page he wrote on and of course, there is a new entry.

september 1st

happy birthday diary stealer! i hope you did something fun for your birthday, there is lots to do around here so i hope you enjoyed it. we went to the skating rink for mine! they played lots of backstreet boys and nsync songs, it was a whole party. 

its september 1st 2003! goodnight xo

jungkook feels his chest tighten and he swallows harshly. 2003? this is a fucking joke. surely it is. 

he rubs his forehead, feeling even more stressed about the situation. jungkook gets out of bed, the diary in hand as he steps out of his room and out to the hall. barging into taehyung’s room, he turns the light on and throws the pink diary onto the bed.

“enough, taehyung” jungkook says frustratedly, his exhuastion present in his tone. a sleepy taehyung stirs and covers his eyes. “i didn’t mess with the toilet, i promise” taehyung responds with a tired whine.

“no, this! this! its a sick joke, taehyung!” jungkook argues loudly, picking up the diary and holding it. he again throws it onto taehyung’s bed. “i know you love your pranks, tae” jungkook begins, rubbing his eyes, “but this is sick.”

“i’ve never seen this diary in my life,” taehyung murmurs, inspecting the diary tiredly. jungkook’s eyebrows furrow, confusion contorting his face. “who’s is it then? hobi’s?” he questions, taehyung shakes his head. 

“you really think hobi would own a pink y2k ass diary?” taehyung remarks, chuckling lowly. jungkook can feel himself going slightly more insane, his mind twisting and his chest burning. even more frustrated, he grabs the diary back and stomps back to his room. “well goodnight to you too, kook,” taehyung says dryly.

jungkook closes his bedroom door a little too hard, the walls shaking gently. tossing the diary onto his desk, he sits on the edge of his bed and clenches his fists. the irritation of having zero answers to his own questions sends surges of annoyance through his veins, an exasperated sigh coming from his chest.

then, he thinks back to the girl in the pages. the girl who loves dawson’s creek and listens to britney spears on her cd player. the innocent girl who also has no idea whats going on, the only one who currently understands him. a hint of guilt sits in his chest, its not her fault. she didn’t do anything wrong.

acting on his guilt, jungkook gets up and sits at his desk. he fumbles the pages of the diary and grabs a pen, tapping it back and forth against the page as he prepares to write a response. finally formulating the words in his brain, he rushedly writes a new entry.

september 2nd

2003? i’m in 2025. this feels surreal and my head is all over the place, diary girl. how are you feeling? are you a mess like i am? are you struggling to comprehend this too? 

from, jk. 

jungkook closes the diary, stuffing it back into his desk drawer and popping the cap back onto his pen. he exhales heavily and slumps back into bed, getting comfortable under the covers. maybe tomorrow, the diary will be gone.

it's not gone. it's not gone. jungkook feels defeated, the universe is supposed to send you signs isn't it? maybe this is meant for him. maybe this journey is meant for him. jungkook holds the diary in his hands, sitting on his bed with a sullen look.

the only person he has to talk to about this is yn herself, she's the only one who won't truly think he's crazy or going insane. jungkook gently turns the pages, one after one. he gets to last night's entry and finds a brand new one.

september 2nd

i told you i have a name, dummy. use it! you HAVE to tell me about 2025!!! are there flying cars? can we download our dreams onto cd's like movies yet? YOU NEED TO TELL ME! and yes. i am freaking out, it makes no sense. there's no science about this and i hate geeky things like that. do you have any theories?

lighten up, diary stealer. yn xo

this entry makes his heart warm, a toothy grin appearing on his face. the excitement in her written words, it makes him feel something that he can't quite name. diary stealer. jungkook kind of loves this nickname.

jungkook grabs a pen from the metal holder on his desk, clicking it and holding the diary steady. for the first time, the words come to him with ease. his hand moving as the pen moves naturally against the page. a small smile curving on his lips as he writes.

september 2nd

but i prefer your nickname, yn. 2025 isn't as futuristic as you may picture, we have ai if that counts? we have robots but they don't exactly do much. we do not have flying cars and no we cannot download our dreams. i also hate geeky science stuff, so i guess we're both screwed. the only theory i have is that the multiverse does indeed exist.

i'm lighter now, diary girl. jk.

a/n: i'm hoping that each chapter i will write more words hahaha. hope you enjoyed it!

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golden-loona 2025

[ultfreakme]

Secret Six is putting Jon in a position where he is forced to form what his ideology of Superman is, fast.

With great power comes great responsibility. The person with power needs to define what their responsibilities are based on a steadfast ideals. Jon has never had to do this because he's a legacy hero of Superman. Clark has been very clear, but also rather succinct about what his ideals are. Be kind, be good, don't cause harm, protect. Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

None of this is going to work for Jon because he is his own person, his life experiences are different, and by being a bisexual man deeply involved with the queer community with queer and POC friends & lover, he needs to understand that this kind of blanket non-violence is never going to work.

Clark's Superman obviously defends the marginalized, but it's been acknowledged that a good chunk of his influence comes from being the "all-American" cishet white man. We don't see what it's like to be a hero who isn't these things through Clark's Superman. Typically, the Steels were who showed us the systematic discrimination, & how many more obstacles there are to upholding The Superman Way when you're marginalized.

(JHI had to watch his nephews be exploited, paralyzed, he had to watch as Nat tried to cope with all of this happening to her siblings, their entire family was threatened when she was barely a teenager. The trauma of going through all this as a child. Now I don't like the 90s Steel run because it is racist as hell but even the white author knew JH had to deal with the violent racism of the US on top of the sci-fi bombastic threats)

Point being, Jon being queer immediately brings up obstacles which makes the regular Superman motto inadequate. On top of this, the events of Absolute Power reaffirmed his fears of losing control of his powers & has pulled him away from the defiance he showed in SOKE. The safety of following Clark, verbatim, gives a sense of comfort that Jon has been searching for for 7-8 years. He's tired, he's done, so he'll go to a comforting lie if it gives him some reprieve.

Sucks for him because he's dating a guy named The Truth.

Jon loves Jay. Loving Jay means acknowledging that the superhero system, the American Government, and practically the entire world has let him down. The things he seeks safety in are used to torment Jay and his people.

Jon is trying to make Jay a part of the superfam and pull him into the comfort of this vague blanket ideology of "do good, be nice" thinking it'll help but Jay is well aware that it will not. He's been trying this since as early as SOKE #4. Take him to his family, getting Dick and Lois involved, trying to shut him away in the fortress of solitude for the final battle. But Jay has showed him time and time again that dating him means defiance, risk, rebellion.

There is nothing pretty or non-violent about dismantling a dictatorship. The definition of the "right thing" changes depending on circumstance. Secret Six as a group have always been outcasts who were exploited. Some of them want to do good, some are bad but only because their situations gave them little other choices, others are straight up evil but trying to reform. This is where moralities and lines blur.

Should Jon consider Lori a villain because she killed her parents due to a loss of power? Is Nia good or bad for accidentally using her powers which she barely understands to save him but also mess with his brain? Is Floyd terrible for wanting to protect a woman who colonized Gamorra or good for wanting to keep her alive? Is Thomas deserving of a chance to be a hero after his past as a villain?

Is Jay right or wrong for wanting revenge for his mother?

There is no correct answer in any of these cases when you learn the entire context. Jon needs to realize that a LOT of underprivileged, marginalized people are forced into violent systems, and that preaching non-violence can amount to complicity. What is Jon holding up by preaching the Superman Way? The aesthetic of righteousness, or true goodness? Who defines what the "correct" way to liberate is?