#ons is to me what the firstborn son who was talented in school then drops out and becomes a druggie is to an asian family

[ruthlesslistener]

I never watched ONS, but I always see you grieving what became of it, so I am interested. Can you tell me what first got you into it, what is it about and why you fell out of it? I don't mind any spoilers because I don't intend to watch, I am just madly curious ^^

[takes a long, deep breath] oh boy where do i even start with this one.

Owari no Seraph is a textbook example of a series with amazing characters and great concepts that then gets completely dicked over by the author's own incompetence with writing. Pair that with blatant queerbait and the guy realizing halfway through that he's lost interest in his own main characters and vastly prefers his mary sue self-insert (Guren) instead, and you've got a recipe for a disaster. Which fucking sucks, because I cannot overstate the fact that the series starts off really strong with really good character and plot concepts, before devolving into an absolute goddamn disaster. Let me try to recount it for you, but keep in mind that it may be inaccurate because I dropped the series in like, 2018 so it's been a Hot Minute(tm)

Alright angry rant incoming. Putting this under a readmore bc it gets long

Basically, the story takes place after a cataclysmic apocalyptic event occurs where almost anyone over the age of 13 drops dead, leaving only a scattered handful of people and a whole fuckload of children behind to survive. After this mysterious event occurs, the vampires that inhabited the world came out of the shadows to round up the survivors and turn them into human livestock to ensure their own survival.

The protagonist of the story is a young orphan boy called Yuuichirou, who- alongside deuteragonist Mikaela and the rest of the orphans in Hyakuya orphanage- are captured and turned into vampire livestock, which the hotblooded and angry young Yuu hates, leading him to swear that he's going to become a vampire hunter and kill them all as revenge. Mika- who at the time was a sort of parental figure to the rest of the younger children and always trying to be sweet to Yuu, who rejected his affections bc both boys were severely abused and traumatized as children- finds a map to escape the underground vampire city that they're trapped in after essentially selling his body to a vampire noble, Ferid. But as it turns out, Ferid was fully aware of their plan to escape, so when them + the rest of the orphans attempt to escape to the outside world, he shows up right before the tunnel to the exit and slaughters them all, leaving Yuu as the only survivor. Yuu runs out, sobbing, and runs facefirst into Guren (the ACTUAL protagonist, apparently, even though he sucks), and a squadron of adult vampire hunters who ~mysteriously~ escaped the apocalypse. As it turns out, these vampire hunters have formed soul-contracts with demons in order to manifest the cursed weaponry required to true-kill a vampire.

(OH AND THERE'S MASSIVE FUCKING MONSTERS THAT MANIFESTED AFTER EVERYONE GOT KILLED RUNNING AROUND RIGHT. THE PEOPLE WITH THE CURSED WEAPONRY HUNT THEM TOO. FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE BECAUSE THEY BECAME BASICALLY IRRELEVANT LATER. YES IM SALTY ABOUT THAT AS WELL)

That's episode one. The rest of the anime series is basically centered around Yuu trying to become a vampire slayer after a 3-year timeskip, him forming a bond with a demon to get his own cursed weapon, and then getting wrangled into a squad with a bunch of other 16-year-olds to go running around learning how to be a team and murder stuff. This works as well as you might expect, because Yuu is an edgy lone wolf who spends his days crying himself to sleep at night because he misses Mika and is horrifically traumatized by what happened. Then, ding ding ding! As it turns out, Mika WASN'T killed in the attack, but got turned by the vampire queen herself, and spent the three years he was turned trying to find Yuu again so that they could run away together and escape the whole disaster. Except Mika refuses to drink human blood, the catalyst to complete his transformation, and so he's on a timer, too- he's been drinking the blood of his progenitor, but it's been less and less effective at satiating him. And this is a fuckin' problem, because as it turns out, vampires turn into demons when they die. So Mika is basically in full suicide mode trying to save Yuu, then when Yuu realizes that Mika is alive and a vampire he does a 180 on how he thinks about them and goes into full 'no, I'm going to save YOU' mode about Mika, and so on and so on.

Anyways the true hinging point of the series and the greatest strength is centered around Mika and Yuu's love for each other, because when I say these boys were in-love destined-soulmates, I fucking MEAN it. Like, it's straight-up canon that Mika is in love with Yuu, and Yuu is pretty much outright in love with Mika in return. The problem, however, is that this is a shounen manga, so it's heavily heavily implied that Yuu is actually going to end up with Shinoa (a female character who is actually REALLY FUCKING GOOD SO IT REALLY SUCKS SHE GETS SHAFTED SO HARD LATER), despite him talking to her like. twice. And her only ever sending him longing glances and blushes. And then the aforementioned thing of the author getting more interested in Guren than Mika and Yuu comes into play and that's when I dropped it because Guren is the MOST mary-sue a character can get in terms of him being a sheer boring asshole who fucked the whole world up and has zero redeeming qualities and yet everyone in-story (but mika) loves him and follows him for no fuckin' reason.

As for the rest of the plot- It's later shown that the reason why this event occurred was because of a deal struck with a trapped seraphim, and that Guren was the one who caused the whole fucking thing to happen in the first place because he was sad that his squad died (or something like that) so he sacrificed the entire rest of the world to save like, 5 people that get zero character development. There's a really heavy message about found family through the series that felt really great and poignant in the beginning when it was Mika trying to convince Yuu that he was a family group with the other orphans after their own parents both tried to kill them, but then gets twisted later on to be meaningless because Yuu eventually just starts calling fucking EVERYONE family, and Guren uses it as a means of manipulating him. I dropped the manga after this started to happen because the focus turned almost entirely to Guren and everyone else's characterization went out the fucking window to simply 'trust guren he knows what he's doing' minus Mika, who has come to hate all humans left for Very Good Fucking Reasons. Because, as it turns out, the demon-bound vampire-slaying society have the only adults left who survived because THEY were the ones who trapped the seraphim in the first place, and THEY were running experiments on people with certain genetics/affinities to these seraphs to try to turn them into seraphs and harness their near-godly powers. Yuu and Mika and the rest of the kids in the Hyakuya orphanage, as it turns out, were very strong candidates for this type of experimentation, and the reason why Yuu got snatched up by the humans and Mika got turned by the vampires was because they're the human equivalent of nukes in the human-vampire war. Also, the progenitors of all the vampires was a fallen angel and vampires turn into demons when killed because of it. Which is actually really cool.

So it really fucking sucks that the author started neglecting all the other characters to obsess over his beloved Guren and to excuse all of his shitty selfish actions right when he got to the part explaining the whole seraph project thing. And like, the most frustrating part is that Guren as a complex antagonist works really really well, but the author wants nothing more than for him to be the sad, dark, brooding protagonist everyone loves, so that's the treatment he gives him. It's like he decided midway through the story that he's actually really fucking tired of Mika, meh on Yuu, but loves Guren and wanted him to be protag all along, so that's the point where the story goes down the drain. Luckily, this is after season two of the anime ends, and I haven't heard anything about a potential season 3.

That was only half of my problems though- it also had like, the worst fandom I've ever been in by far, and that's saying something because I was in some pretty fucking bad fandoms in my life. It was just full of the most needlessly hostile shit, with my main issue with it being the fact that it was full of ship wars...over the same damn ship. That being Mikayuu. Or Yuumika. Because, as it turns out, fucking NOBODY seemed to be able to get either Yuu or Mika in-character, they had to slap seme/uke stereotypes onto them and the whole war was raged over whether or not someone was mischaracterizing them because Mika was actually the top, not the bottom, or visa versa (I cannot drive home enough that both sides horrifically mischaracterized them either way. And also that Yuu and Mika were 16- not too young to fuck, but certainly too young to know what the fuck they were doing). There were death threats sent and harassment campaigns over this. You were branded as either being on one side or the other and nobody would accept the fact that both views were wrong. And that's even if you were a shipper in the first place- you also had the Yuu/Shinoa shippers who were overwhelmingly homophobic straight men who thought people were stupid illiterate yaoi fangirls for thinking Mika and Yuu were in love (tbf, most of them were weird yaoi fangirls who were simply another flavor of homophobic), or there were the people who thought that Mika and Yuu were adopted siblings because they took the last name of the orphanage they were in (hyakuya) to abandon their abusive parents/called each other 'family' and that EVERYONE who shipped them was an incest apologist (got hit with this one myself). And even if you weren't interested in shipping either, you weren't safe- I've made some of my best friends in that fandom, despite everything, and one of them didn't ship Yuu and Mika, opting for a QPP/adoptive siblings approach. And they got the MOST rancid shit thrown at them for it by the shippers, despite them not caring that other people shipped them. AND there were Mika haters/lovers who thought he was a 'yandere' for being ''''obsessed'''' with Yuu and running off with him despite the fact that it was shown over and over that Mika was severely traumatized by losing everyone he loved and that Yuu was being psychologically manipulated by the army to be a complacent experiment. Granted, this was all my experience in the 2016-2018 fandom cycle, but still. Nasty nasty nasty.

(oh and also Ferid, aka the guy who murdered everyone in the orphanage but Yuu and -partially- Mika, was heavily implied to be vampirically raping Mika bc he was straight-up a pedophile who only drank blood from people under 16 and getting your blood sucked was apparently orgasmically pleasurable/a sex metaphor, was treated as the 'fabulous gay uncle and best mika/yuu shipper supporter' by most of the fandom because after Mika was turned, he continued to emotionally and psychologically abuse him via his love for Yuu. Nasty!)

((Oh and yes, when Yuu finally gets Mika to bite him and drink his blood, that was used as 'proof' that Mika tops and is actually a smirking hardcore seme dom for blushy subby Yuu. Despite the fact that Mika was dying, sobbing hysterically and yelling at Yuu for making him survive as something he despised, and Yuu was stubbornly yelling back about how he'd love him and accept him no matter what and how he'd find a way to save him and thrusting a bleeding arm in his face to try to force him to drink. Nuance and appreciation for characterization was lost on this fandom.))

Anyways. It really really sucks, because the anime is actually very good. I genuinely would reccomend watching it- the animation is amazing and beautiful, the soundtrack gives you chills, and it covers the story right up until the next story beat and it starts swerving down the gutter, so you can feasibly watch it and then stop right there, mentally tallying it as an open/ambiguous ending. But I wouldn't suggest anything other than that, because ohhhhh boy it. it just isn't worth it. believe me. Everything else is worth it for Yuu and Mika and the Shinoa Squad, but that's where it ends

(ofc i could be wrong and the whole thing is looking up by now but i have zero faith thats the case.)

[rosevanhelsing]

FANFIC. LORD OF CHRISTMASLAND

Chapter 2

By the time Charlie turned seventeen, he was already a tall, handsome young man and he told Abe.

- Abe,  my friend, I want to get out of the Parnassus. I need to see a little of the world.

- All right. Do what you want. I've heard of a driver's school not far from here. You could sign up, they are looking for young people to learn to drive cars and act as drivers for rich people. It's a good job and I've heard it's booming.

Charlie thought  about it and said:

- I'll try it.

Charlie went to school, hoping he didn't have to pay a lot to sign up. The director of this said:

- Let's see if you have what it takes to be a driver. I know right away if someone is good or bad for this. If you are not worth it, I recommend that you do not waste your time.

He took Charlie to a battered Ford T, teach  him the basics to drive a car and watched to see what happened. Most of the students would lock or add a new dent to the car, but the principal dropped his cigarette from his mouth when he saw young Manx drive the car as if he had driven it all his life.

- Jesus Christ!  Boy, you have a natural talent for this. I have no doubt that you will be our best student.

Charlie smiled, at last some talent was recognized and he had found his calling. Charlie spent a few months in the driver’s school and he became the best student.

However, during the months that Charlie spent there, he was only cordial with his companions but did not establish a true friendship with any of them, despite the fact that some like Fabrizio Renaldo tried. His companions invited him from time to time to have a drink and he went with them with great pleasure but he always refused to go to whorehouses  even though others saw him as strange

One day the school principal gathered his students together and said:

- Guys, tomorrow may be a great opportunity for you. A lot of rich men will come looking for young meat to drive their luxury cars. Prove our worth and they will hire you. So tomorrow I want you clean and firm first thing in the morning.

When most of them left, Charlie stayed and said:

- Mr…

- What's wrong, Manx?

- I only have two changes of clothes and none decent for tomorrow.

The school principal looked at him briefly and smiled:

- Come. I will find something for you. I will not allow my best student not to get a job because he has no clothes.

The director took him to his office and gave him a chauffeur's uniform. It was a long black double-breasted jacket, white shirt, dark pants, and a cap. Charlie came back in the suit and the director smiled:

- You looks good. Keep the suit. I had bought this uniform for my son but he was not fit  for this job and dedicated himself to something else.

- But sir ...

- I insist.

Charlie nodded and thanked her profusely for the gift. The next day, several businessmen showed up. Two of them went to the school principal asking for the best students. The director asked them to accompany them and said:

- All the boys of the last class are excellent drivers, if they want I will tell them to accompany them somewhere to check it out. But these two, he said, placing his hands on Charlie and Fabrizio's shoulders are the best.

One of the visitors, who was Italian and rumors indicated that he was part of the Italian Camorra, addressed Fabrizio and said:

- Son, how about your Italian?

-Il mio italiano è perfetto signore *

- And how about your discretion?

- Your affairs do not concern me and will not leave my mouth.

The man smiled and said:

- I'll take this boy for a ride.

- You won't be disappointed.

Fabrizio went with the man to a white vehicle, Charlie did not recognize the Brand of the car but he assumed it was a European model, probably Italian, while Mr. Haber gazed directly at Charlie, he lowered his  look although Haber was shorter than him .

The director said:

- Meanwhile Mr. Haber, who had watched Charlie for a while, looked directly at him and Charlie lowered his gaze shyly even though Mr. Haber was shorter than him.

 - Will he be able to drive my new model car?

- Charlie has a natural gift for driving, you'll see.

Charlie followed Mr. Haber to his vehicle, a beautiful maroon-colored Packard. Next to the car were two girls and a boy a little older than Charlie.

- These are my daughters. Beatrice, my firstborn, and my little Cassandra. This is Robert, Beatrice's fiancé.

Cassandra smiled at Charlie, he blushed and looked down , causing Cassie to laugh softly.

"He's handsome," Cassie whispered to her sister.

[thetwojamies]

Seven is the Lucky Charm

A birthday present for our friend Victoria, actually based on her own family.

Jamie sat as comfortable as he could on the hard chairs of the waiting room. The old school nuns who ruled the hispital still had a rule against fathers going into the labour rooms but, as much as he’d love been beside Claire on that magical moment, he’ll comply with the rules. After all it was the same team who had basically saved the lifes of his wife and firstborn daughter after a complcated birth, he would never argue with them after that.

There were only other father-to-be with him on the room, a young lad pacing nervously the length of the room.

‘Ye are goin’ to drill a hole through the floor.’ Jamie said, trying to calm the man.

'Aye, I ken, but I canna keep still.’ The man answered, 'Why they dinna let us in, 'tis bloody 2018.’

'I ken, right?’ Jamie said, gesturing for the man to sit on the next chair. 'Mother Hildegard still thinks birth is a women’s only affair. First bairn?’

'Aye, we didna plan it so soon.’ Said the man 'We were fool on our honeymoon.’

'Mine is the seventh.’ Jamie said proudly, the eyes of the lad growing three sizes bigger.

'Seventh? I still canna imagine myself being father of one bairn, let alone seven. Ally would probably kill me if I told her about have more than three.’

'Well, Claire and I didna plan it either.’ Jamie said, taking his phone put of his jacket and looking for his family photos. 'We just decided to let God give us all the bairns he felt convenient. Here you have my bairns.’

'All of them are lasses?’ The man asked at seeing the photo of six girls, three brown haired, three red haired, expanding from teen to toddlerhood.

'Och, aye. We’re good at making them for what it looks.’ Jamie proudly answered him.

Faith was fifteen, in the photo, clutching Adso, the family’s cat. The spit of her mother in both looks and temperament. She already had expressed her desires of follow Claire’s steps on the medical field and dotted on her sisters with a sense of responsability and nurture Jamie wished he had had at her age, even when it could look a bit bossy sometimes with her sisters, or that is what they thought.

Brianna, Bree, was next, at barely thirteen she was almost as tall as her elder sister and the living image of her late grandmother, also inheriting her artistic skills. She was stubborn as only a Fraser could be but also fiercely loyal to her family and friends. As it showed the photo of her, supporting her best friend Roger, on his first day as the captain of the school’s football team.

Number three was Morag, 10 years old at the moment and another stubborn ginger Scot since the day she was born, crying louder than any of their sister ever had done. She was the tomboy of the family, prefering short hair and sport clothes to her sisters’ dresses. The photo showed her after one of competitions, gold medal hanging on her neck, she had a talent for Athletics and her trainer was even sure she could make into profesionalism one day.

After the boisterous Faith, Bree and Morag, Julia, almost eight-years-old, was the shyest and more quiet, always nose deep a book, as the photo showed, embracing her favourite Harry Potter book while dressed as Hermione for a Halloween party past year, her mother’s brown curls on full swing.

Elizabeth’s special talent and love seemed to be music. Barely six-years-old, her birthday had been just the week before, was already receiving piano classes. Claire suspected the talent came from her mother, who had passed away when she was barely Lizzie’s, the family nickname, age but of whom she got a photo of her playing the piano just like the girl was doing on Jamie’s picture of her.

The youngest, up to this day, was Iona, just two and half years old. The ginger apple on her godfather’s eye, being born even on the same day Murtagh had been, was all giggles and smiles and loving nothing else as get tickles, her stuffed animals and being read by her parents, sisters or Murtagh. Jamie loved specially the photo he had of her smearing cake all over Murtagh’s face on their shared birthday.

'They look lovely, mate, ye’re a lucky man.’ The man said to him.

'Aye, thank ye.’

'I dinna ken how yon wife and ye still have energy to try for more. People must make ye a lot of 'go for the boy’ jokes.’

'Ye canna imagine the amount of jokes, aye.’ Jamie said with a laugh. 'Ten years worth of them.’

Of course Jamie would’ve loved to have a son, he thought on that sometimes, above all watching his brother-in-law with his sons, but at the same time, he would never change his lasses for all the riches in the World. They, and Claire, were his life, and the new lass would provide even more love to the family.

'Jamie!’ Sister Marta, a young nun from a sister convent on Nicaragua who was living and studying at the Glasgow hospital. The man thought it weird she had used his first name, before remember he had done this six times already and he must be known in the place. 'Claire sends me for you.’

'The bairn has finally been born.’ Jamie said standing up and going to join the sister. 'The lass took her time this time. Morag and Lizzie basically dropped down after less than an hour.

'Yes, Claire wants to see you now.’ Sister Marta answered him with a cheeky smile.

'Congratulations are in order then man.’ The man said to him, shaking his hand.

'To ye too, I hope yon bairn is born soon.’

Jamie followed Sister Marta to one of the rooms where Claire and the bairn had been installed after the birth.

'A Dhia’ Jamie gasped after see Claire with not one but two small bundles at her arms, each one of them with a tuft of red hair showing through their baby caps.

'We were commenting now about our little surprise here.’ Sister Hildegard said to him.

'One of the boys decided to play hide and seek using his brother.’ Claire said, smiling widely at the babies on her arms.

The information seemed to be sinking slowly into Jamie’s mind 'Did ye just say…?

'Yes, Jamie, we finally did it.’ Claire said to him 'Come here to meet your sons.’

Second part tomorrow

[official-nahl-blog]

The Making of Sophie Fournier: 1

A Snapshot of Sophie’s Childhood

Growing up in Montreal, hockey was a way of life. Trading cards served as currency in grade school, trick shots were a way to move up the popularity ladder, and being able to recite the Mammoths’ roster was a necessity.

On Sundays, if there was an early afternoon game, Pierre was allowed to wear his jersey to church, and his maman would fill a crock pot and bring it with them to plug in while Pierre had to sit on an uncomfortable pew. But after the sermon, everyone piled into the basement to eat and watch the game.

It was the only time anyone was allowed to swear in church.

Pierre played hockey, because everyone played. He wasn’t particularly talented, though. His maman told him elite athletes need two things; talent and drive. He had plenty of the latter but not enough of the former.

Colby, his firstborn, shows promise as a goalie, but he doesn’t have the drive to take his talent to the next level. Pierre blames himself for it, and he’s determined not to make the same mistake with Sophie. While Colby shows flashes of greatness, Sophie’s a natural from the first time she puts skates on. But her path is going to be a tough one, and she’ll need thick skin and an indomitable will to make it.

Sophie’s grows up watching the Montreal Mammoths’ dominant Cup run on the thick rug of her grandparents’ living room. Her first word was, “Cup” spoken as the Maple Cup was lifted high, lights from the arena flashing off the metal.

Pierre knew then his daughter was going to be a great hockey player.

Sophie still doesn’t understand what it would mean for her to play in the NAHL, but she knows she wants to lift the Cup the way Bobby Brindle did, year after year. Pierre knows how difficult it will be for Sophie to play in the NAHL which isn’t co-ed yet like many of its European counterparts. He knows there’s a possibility she could be the first girl to play in the NAHL, and he knows it’s up to him to prepare her.

Given the choice, Sophie wouldn’t do anything besides skate and sleep, and he can use that.

Pierre stands on the front step, hands tucked into his pockets as Colby and Sophie play in the driveway.  Colby’s in partial gear as he guards the net, and Sophie’s focused as she attacks, drawing Colby away from his goal then going around him and tapping the ball in, easy as anything.

She’s even better on the ice, but this is good practice.

“Score on the next one,” Pierre says.

Colby tosses Sophie the bright orange ball and Sophie carries it back to the end of their driveway. She comes at the net from the side, but when she gets close, the ball rolls off the curve of her stick. She gathers it back, but her shot’s shaky, and Colby stops it with ease.

“Time to come in,” Pierre says.

Sophie turns her head, mouth falling open in outrage. “But we just got outside!”

“You should’ve scored.”

Sophie’s eyes, big and blue like her mother’s, fill with tears. It’s something they’re going to have to work on, the way she cries so easily. “But hockey,” she says, longing.

Pierre drops down to one knee and beckons Sophie to him. She drags her feet on the ground and her stick behind her, but she stops in front of her dad, cheeks flushed from the sun. “If you’re not the best then you don’t get to play. Do you understand?”

Sophie nods, serious, but Pierre knows she doesn’t understand yet. She will though, he’ll make sure of it.

Pierre pats her head, and says, “You can do stick drills inside or you can work with the reflex ball, but no more street hockey until tomorrow.”

“But--”

“What did I just tell you?”

“If I’m not the best then I don’t get to play,” she dutifully repeats back. “If I work hard in the basement, maybe I’ll score that one tomorrow?”

“I want you to be the best you can be.”

“Okay.”

Sophie waves to her brother then goes inside the house.

“Who am I going to play with now?” Colby asks.

“Let me get my stick,” Pierre answers.

They only play for half an hour, Colby’s eyebrows pulling together with each shot Pierre takes until there’s a permanent frown on his face. He gets sloppy with his glove, but Colby’s always been harder to motivate than Sophie.

When Pierre says, “Alright, pack it in,” Colby goes without complaint. He looks relieved be be sent inside.

Inside, Ellen clasps her son’s head between her hands and drops a kiss to his forehead before she tells him, “Dinner’s on the table. I was about to get you.”

“Yes, Mom.” Colby wriggles out of her hands and slips into the kitchen.

And then Ellen turns to her husband, hands planted on her hips. “You want to tell me why our daughter said she couldn’t come up to dinner until she was ‘the best’?”

“She’s practicing,” Pierre says.

“You sent her inside for missing a goal?” Ellen keeps her voice down, but she’s angry all the same. “She was playing with her brother. The game is about fun.”

“She needs to learn now if she’s not good enough she won’t get to play.”

“She’s six!”

“Do you want her to learn when she’s thirteen and it’s too late? When she’s fifteen? When she’s pinned her dreams on the NAHL, and they don’t invite her to the draft? She has to be the best, Ellen, and I think she can be.”

Ellen’s eyes narrow. “Her dreams, Pierre? Or yours?”

Ellen overcooks his chicken, but the extra chewiness is worth it when, tomorrow, Sophie scores on all three of her make it or come inside shots.