#originally he was an adult but I think things will flow a bit better if he's a bit younger

[axewchao]

This pic was originally drawn in the mindset of "Ludwig gets found directly after Junior," but it's mostly scrapped in that regard.

Lud's behavior, on the other hand, is still fair game. After he's found, he refuses to get within ten feet of the humans despite his siblings' insistence that they're harmless. He starts keeping a Star Trek-style log of his time in the squishy bipeds' care, taking note of everyone's actions in case something fishy happens. Which it never does.

He's especially wary of "the purple one," as Dal's the one usually taking care of Junior and therefore the one who could easily harm the kid or otherwise take advantage of Junior's trust.

But at the same time... he can't help but be curious. He's never seen a "hyoo-man" before, and based on how the gang described their homeworld, it sounds like they're deathworlders. Which doesn't make any sense; deathworlders, like their name implies, are said to be much, much more vicious. All the time.

So why are these ones acting so kind...?

[cer-rata]

Fic WIP: "Welcome home(?) Chris Kent!"

Chris sighed. “...So yeah, I don’t really remember being an adult. Just bits and pieces. I remember Thara, and the Nightwing. Um. That’s about it on details.”

B+ nodded and rubbed his chin. Chris was intentionally leaving things out, that’s what his spot analysis of his body-language, mannerisms and tone told him. Perhaps he’d be willing to share more later when they were friends…if B+ didn’t manage to mess it up.  “Fascinating series of events for a twelve-year-old. Disturbing, in many ways.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “I’m not really twelve, I’m actually an adult, I just look like--”

B+ shook his head and looked down at the datapad that was monitoring Chris' vitals. “No. No, I'm pained to inform you that you’ve misunderstood the flow of your life.”

Chris frowned. “...What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, from what I can tell, you didn’t live an accelerated life in that you lived at a normal pace in a pocket of reality that moved faster along the timeline than the one you originated from. Rather, your body aged more quickly than it should have on a purely physical level. Sure, that meant your brain reached a certain stage of development sooner, but you didn’t gain the experience you would have had from living into adulthood naturally, so experientially you didn’t really age at all. Legally, and ethically you were always a child. And that would be true even if you did remember everything. 

“So really I could still say you were six or seven, but with the accumulated experience you lived through and do remember...and though you were incorporeal when you were in the phantom zone the second time, and I have no concrete way of knowing how long you were there for…I do know that Kon-El is also from your timeline and only remembers a year passing between when he was lost and when Impulse found him. That was five or six years ago now, and you were conscious for that period of time. Meaning: I think eleven or twelve is probably fair. I can go with twelve if that makes you feel any better. Luckily, that’s about where your body ended up as well.”

Chris stared at him with wide eyes. Then his lips twisted and he sat back down on the floor of his containment chamber. “...Oh. I…I guess that makes sense.”

B+ nodded without looking up from the data he was reading. “It does, but I still think it’s kind of messed up, actually. The adults sent me to talk to you because they’re all upset and didn’t want you to pick up on it. Subconsciously they seem to think that I don’t process emotion still and as such wouldn’t bother you by being agitated. Bias from experience with my predecessor. I am not hurt by it, but…I do hope to at some point convince them that I am truly a separate being.” His third eye flicked up and over to look at Chris and caught the alarmed recognition in his eyes in the second before he was able to hide it. “...Sorry, I didn’t mean to talk about myself. I was going to say that I am also upset: You shouldn’t have had an adult girlfriend when you were cognitively six or seven. Very weird for both human and Kryptonian standards. Bird gods be damned.”

Chris hugged himself. “I mean…I mean from what I remember, she was nice.”

B+ desperately wanted to break down the reasons why that didn’t matter, but it wasn’t the right moment, and he felt it would be better coming from someone like Ms. Lane. So he smoothed it over. 

...Well, he tried to. “She could have been, I’m not implying that it was…”He paused. “...Well maybe I am implying that it was somewhat predatory, but I doubt she really considered the implications enough for me to judge her as anything more than shortsighted. Perhaps neither of you were completely acting on your own volition even, because again, bird gods. I’m…not trying to make you feel bad, am I making you feel bad?”

Chris looked away. “...A little.”

B+ winced and looked directly at him with all three eyes. He even devoted half of his processes to the conversation, which was dramatic overkill really, but he felt bad.

 “I apologize. Sometimes I talk through thoughts that I should probably process silently. Um…wait, hold on.” He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again. “Okay, the likelihood that they’ll bother us in the next half hour is low, they’re tending to a minor disaster.” 

Chris’ mask dropped and B+ could see how nervous he was.

“...Why…what are you going to do to me?”

B+ had been reaching towards the containment field, but when Chris asked that fearful question, he pulled his hand back like he’d been burned.

“Nothing! I wouldn’t--I don’t…” His lips wobbled as he tried to not get upset. It was frustrating sometimes, being so young and knowing so many things. On the one hand he wanted to be taken seriously, to be seen as competent…but on the other, he was still chronologically two, developmentally nine, and that meant that it was hard to mitigate his feelings sometimes. Conrad had reassured him that it was normal, but he knew that already. Normal or not, it was still embarrassing. He sighed. “...I was just going to sit next to you. I thought…I thought it might make you feel better after I upset you by being callous. I don’t have to, I can just--”

Chris’ expression softened considerably. “Wait, what? Wouldn’t the Phantom Zone energy be bad for you?”

“No, I can handle it fine.” It was a lie, it was going to be incredibly uncomfortable, but not so much that he couldn’t hide it from Chris, so it was acceptable.

Chris stood up. “Well…I mean yeah, then that would be okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak out, just--”

“You’ve been treated as an experiment and tool before…and in a sense I am…Brainiac. That was…that was the kind of thing he did, so it is not inappropriate to be...vigilant.” B+ was thankful at that moment that he’d decided not to install synthetic tear ducts into his current iteration. “Um. Step back just a little? Please?”

Chris pressed lips together in concern, but took a step back. B+ reached out again and touched the containment field, and his skin shifted color just slightly from its bright turquoise to something closer to matching the shade of the barrier, before he walked through said barrier like it wasn’t there. Chris looked him over cautiously. “...You sure you’re okay?”

B+ nodded. “I am sure.” He stretched a bit to try to look casual about the fact that the way the zone energy interfered with his connection to turquoise light made his synthetic muscles burn. It was fine. He wasn’t a baby. He took a seat on the floor, and Chris sat next to him.

“If you would like to ask me questions, you may, I think that’s fair. You aren’t my experiment, friends share information reciprocally, and I’d…I’d like to be…that.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Metron’s countenance, I am awkward.”

Chris giggled. “No, you’re fine. This is all kinda awkward I think. For most people it’d be worse. You use a bunch of words I don’t know, though.”

“Sorry.”

Chris offered him a warm smile and patted him on the shoulder, and B+ had to stop himself from wincing at the pain. This was a good sign, a positive interaction that suggested Chris had not decided to fear him. The discomfort had purpose.

“So,” Chris went on, “How old are you? Cause I dunno what your deal is, but you seem to have a lot going on.”

B+ snorted. “Yes that…yes. Um. Technically I…emotionally I am about nine or ten, experientially…is complicated, because I have the knowledge of…quite a few civilizations stored in my mind, so I know and understand quite a bit. Chronologically my body is roughly…two years old at this point?” B+ knew that he was exactly eighteen months, three-hundred hours, thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds old--but he thought rounding it up sounded better. 

Chris slowly turned to him and smirked. “So I just got a lecture about how my girlfriend was inappropriate from a toddler?”

B+ rolled all three of his eyes. “I’m not a toddler!”

“Awww look at the little guy!” Chris teased and poked B+ in the side.

…Which was not something B+ expected him to do, and so he wasn’t prepared to stop his automatic reaction. It tickled as intended, but it also hurt because at that point everything hurt, and he made a sound that was something between an embarrassed giggle and a pained groan. You could probably call it a whimper. 

Chris pulled his hand back. “Wh--did I hurt you? I thought I didn’t have my powers, I’m sorry--”

“No!” B+ waved him off and then winced at how much that action hurt. “It’s fine, you did nothing wrong, my chassis is strong enough that I wouldn’t be concerned if you did have your powers, it’s just--”

“You lied to me about the zone being fine?”

B+ sighed. Why couldn’t he have been somewhat dense like the other Lor-Zod?

 “...Yes. I thought it wouldn’t be this bad and wanted you to feel better--ahh!”

B+ yelped in surprise (and pain) as Chris gently picked him up and brought him back to the edge of containment. “Out! Go! Before you hurt yourself any more.”

“But--”

“It’s fine! We can hug later or whatever!”

B+’ cheeks warmed, which was confusing for him because he didn’t really have blood, but he stepped back through the barrier like he was told to. Instantly he felt his connection return, and the pain was replaced by the strength he hadn’t realized he’d lost. He turned back to Chris. “Sorry--”

“Please don’t do that again.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on--”

“I mean hurting yourself so I don’t think you’re bad. Don’t do that.”

B+ was somewhat disturbed that Chris had picked up on that. “I…what?”

Chris looked directly into B+’ two primary eyes. His expression read as genuine concern and compassion. It made B+ nervous. “I don’t think you’re Brainiac, and I don’t think you wanna hurt me, okay? We’re good. I like you. You’re kind of funny in like an alien way. Which, as an alien, works for me.”

B+ rolled his eyes and snorted. “...Alright. I appreciate that.”

“Plus, I’m not gonna be scared of a two-year old.” Chris smiled.

“I’m not--” B+ shook his head. He had to claw some of his dignity back somehow. “I’m going to get you out of that tube before the day is out.”

Chris balked. “...What? But...but Kal-El and Batman and Mr. Terrific said it could take--”

“RIP to them, but I’m built different. Literally. Besides, I understand your biology better than any existing being. If I can’t figure this out in the next six hours, I might as well retire and go live on a farm. Ew.”

“Farms are cool!”

“Farms are outdated, just synthesize the food with an atomic reconstructor, they’re not hard to--you know what, I’m actually going to focus all my processes on you, which means I really like you, because I was watching ‘The Great British Bake Off' for most of this conversation. I love that show. But…I still think the British owe this planet more reparations. Anyway, give me seventeen minutes.”

Chris was about to ask another question, but B+’ face went blank and his eyes all started glowing bright turquoise at once, so it was clear that the conversation was over. Or at least…paused.

[chaifootsteps]

small thing but I remember the OG draft of Harvest Moon had better flow, too - specially Blitz's line 'it [bodyguard work] was a one time thing we did, and guess what, we did it badly'

it's more words but idk it had more personality?

Thank you for mentioning this; it's one of those little things that bugs me every time I watch that clip (which I do fairly often, just to remember Brock.) It's very small, but the original line had so much more flow and personality, and even a little more casual familiarity with Stolas.

Other ones that always stand out...

"Never really been, but it seems like a place of inbreds" being replaced with "Inbred chucklefucks." You just know that one was Vivzie.

Stolas pointing out that the festival has games and music. Made the festival sound cozy, and it was cute that that's the part that appealed to Stolas.

Stolas specifically suggesting "you all accompany me to the festival as my special guests!" versus just suggesting they join him. It's that extra little bit of investment in Blitzo's employees and life, and it's something final cut Stolas has never done.

Stolas offering "a fun, work free day of fun." I absolutely loved this line, it was legitimately adorable.

"I go every year, nothing has changed" versus "It's the same every year." I don't know why this one bugs me but it does. Maybe it's the fact that all of these lines together make Brock!Stolas seem a lot more invested in the festival. It's not just a "charming little festival with the locals," you can tell he really enjoys it and looks forward to it every year. I can picture him chowing down on a stick of fried butter or something.

I hate the way they had Bryce say "special occasion," or just didn't correct him. It's so awkward.

Blitz mentioning that he'll run it by the others. I liked this line, it was adult, and I liked that he thinks about the others even when they're not around.

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Hello, me again, I have been enjoying re-blogging and re-reading E.F. Benson posts for the new blog, of which more to come of course. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on David Blaize if you would like to share them!

Sure, I can share my thoughts about it!

I discovered E. F. Benson through David Blaize, which is a bit unusual considering he’s best known for the Mapp & Lucia series nowadays. Much like M&L, David Blaze is the kind of work that plays to Benson’s strengths as a writer: light-hearted stories that are mostly episodic in nature; slice-of-life without a truly conclusive arc. And, of course, David Blaize is quite gay, which is how I found out about it in the first place.

Isabel Quigly argued the original novel “in content and in its treatment of the subject is an adult novel rather than a book for boys; although no doubt many of the young once read it on another level of understanding,” and I agree. Benson created it as a rose-colored, sunny throwback, and the target audience is obviously nostalgic old men who were depressed by the bloody war, just like himself. Despite this, the child characters are surpringlying well-written; their motivations and worldviews are very childish, but Benson never patronizes them, making their reality seem grounded and fun to watch.

If the original is a nice novel, I’d argue David of King’s is a great one. Not only DoK’s characters are now adults — allowing Benson to explore more mature themes in that very subtle way he was used to —, but the sports scenes are reduced to a reasonable level (I admit I had little idea what was going on during the cricket ones), the story's flow is better, and the whole thing is a quite appealing portrait of the Edwardian middle class. David and Frank’s relationship is now established and domestic, and they’re simply a joy to read about.

I find the way Benson handled the story's homosexual themes very interesting. At first glance, he may sound like a hypocrite because of some not-so-positive passages, but I think he was actually quite clever and strategic. He used those homophobic/heteronormative bits to shield himself from criticism, which allowed him to push the romance to the extremes of what would have been considered acceptable at the time (Quigly noted that David Blaize "was published shortly before [Alec Waugh’s] The Loom of Youth but caused no similar shock among adults, though at times it is rather more outspoken"). I can’t think of any other steady and happy male/male couple in the early 20th century’s mainstream literature (really, David Blaize was even popular among WWI soldiers!). That was quite an achievement, and Benson deserves a lot of credit for making the best out of a bad situation.

I wish the books were adapted into a good TV series. I can even think of a suitable theme for it.

[By the way, if anybody else is reading this, @fredbensonenthusiast is @renaultphile’s side blog about E. F. Benson. 😉]

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

also, not quite related to Great Hate but is related to some stuff said therein; I don't think any of the Skarloey/Arlesdale/Culdee Fell books are bad (honestly i rate them all very highly) buuuuuut if there was ever another attempt to adapt the books for television or television-adjacent-media, I would probably just opt to cut the non-North Western Railway stories out entirely. (the railways wouldn't be straight up Not Canon, there just wouldn't be episodes based on the stories about them.) They're a bit of a narrative cul-de-sac in terms of the overarching story of The Books, and while they are all excellent I feel like the opportunity cost of adapting those instead of expanding on the existing North Western stuff would be too high... Insult to injury is that by doing this, you don't really impact the North Western stories at all besides a little bit of Oliver the Western Engine's content and that can be adapted around (as has been done before...)

Ooh. You make a compelling point about how you could have a very good adaptation by cutting out the smaller-railway stuff.

At minimum, if one did not want to take their literary axe that far, the writers should very much take the opportunity to come up with a better way to manage the narrative of the multiple railways. I agree it's a big weakness that the RWS flips back and forth after introducing other railways — it doesn't always feel like all these books are in the same series and the going back and forth can be jarring. It's understandable, since Awdry was constrained by writing them in the order than he created them. But with distance there is a chance to reconceive things in a better way.

TVS Series 4, I think, made a vast improvement by grouping all the narrow-gauge stuff together — showing the Duke rescue before Peter Sam's and Sir Handel's S.R. breaking-in is awkward, of course, but having a whole half-season devoted to the narrow-gauge railways helps the narrative flow immensely. Sadly I think for the rest of the TVS they fall into the same choppy waters Awdry did. Obviously plenty of people do like the narrow-gauge episodes despite all, but they are definitely not set to best advantage when a handful of them feel kinda randomly sprinkled within the other stories. The improvement TVS continues to make however is finding ways for "the big engines" and "the little engines" to interact, as in creating more and more locations with mixed gauges.

Anyway your idea of a fresh television adaptation of the RWS is so enticing. My ideal series would be 30-minute adult-TV-esque episode dramas (hey, we're dreaming). You could have a significant number of episodes that take a birds'-eye view of Sodor rail and, instead of being organized around One Character Gets Put in a Situation, are organized by some new development (a new service, coal shortage, dieselisation, key person retires, labour strike, etc.), then you can have an A and a B plot on two different railways and see the fallout.

(Usually the North Western would be one of the two railways in focus, just coz a lion's share of industrial activity and travel on the island is going through them. But can you imagine how cool and special an episode it would be to have a Depression-era episode where we see the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways trying to pluckily adapt and eke out their survival? And we could see the Skarloey, who seemed to be in the more precarious position at the beginning, still squeaking through at the end with one engine, one engineer, etc., and downer ending! at the very end we see the Mid Sodor is ruined. Cue silent montage of putting up "Closed" signs and boarding up windows and selling off Falcon and Stuart over sad music.)

It would, indeed, necessitate coming up with original plots, especially for the smaller railways (even if, again, the North Western probably will get a big share of screen time), but the fandom has shown that there's plenty to be done there. However, the goal is to cover all the classic RWS stories — just putting them into a larger context and thinking about the island's arc over the course of a season. Fleshing out the dramatic bits of lore.

The openers for most of the episodes would be, like, a little slice-of-life showing miners or dockers or farmers or housewives going about their life for a minute or two until the Pressing Need is shown and a hint of what the railways are gonna do about it appears; a bunch of men in top hats and tails shaking hands over some new venture; new track is being laid; or some piece of news reaches Sodor and then! opening theme song and then we cut to our engines <3

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: What do you think of the Sonic Adventure 2 Songs?

All of them are bops. Sonic's theme takes the original lyrics, bumps them up to fit a faster paced and more upbeat song. Improves upon the original in every way. The original from Sonic Adventure is already a 9 out of 10, but this pushes it up to a 10/10, and the opening whistle sound is iconic, honestly. Tails' theme is, musically, better than the original. The arrangement fits with Tails' character growth as he becomes more capable and confident, even though he botches the main mission at the end and almost gets Sonic killed because, well, he's an 8 year old kid. Or he used to be. Sega seems to be scrubbing up the lore and trying to make his age ambiguous now which I literally just found out about because I couldn't remember whether he was 6 or 8 or 10 and apparently he's been depicted as young as 4 and a half in some materials which is wild. Like, I love the child genius archetype in fiction but dear god 4 is definitely too young. If he wants to be meddling with machines that can crush his little bones in his own house I guess that's fine but running around and destroying Eggman with Sonic at age 4 is insane. Little buddy you should be sipping some juice and making sand castles. Sonic's already too young to be fighting villains like Eggman as a teen (though to be fair I aged wildly out of the target demographic so EVERYONE in that series except maybe Eggman and Shadow are too young to be doing what they're doing! XD) Tails fucking up a grown man at age 4 is just insane to think about. Like yes yes child genius but FFS, 4 is just a baby. And they did it again with Cream and Cheese later. I understand that in a lot of lore it's all the animals against Eggman because he's literally a terrorist and they have no choice but come on, when you can walk around station square and see grown adults who aren't doing jack shit to stop Eggman, it should not fall to fucking prepubescent kids to fight back. AUGH!) Rant aside, Tails' theme also increases the pep as Sonic's new arrangement does, but the flaw is that the lyrics don't flow as well. The chorus absolutely cranks it up to 20/10. That slow and yearning "I want to fly high" is absolutely killer. The first verse absolutely bops too. But when it gets to later verses, the lyrics fall apart and just don't fit the rhythm. Also, they lose out on the absolutely killer bit of "there's things that only I can do, No one's Alone!" from the first arrangement. Now it's just smushed together into some unrecognizeable word salad due to trying to fit the original lyrics in an arrangement where they don't vibe well. I think it would be possible to take the best parts of both arrangements and make a 12/10 song, but as it stands, they're both about equally good at 8/10.

Knuckles' theme improves. The softer voice for the rap fits much better with the lyrical vocals they ported over as a backdrop from the first arrangement, but the sound mixing is poor so that it's difficult to parse the lyrics if you don't already know them. But then again maybe that's just my auditory processing disorder. That said, I do think the contrast of the rougher rap and the softer vocals being kept separate in the original was thematically on-point. If they had kept the rap in the new arrangement distinct from the vocals they took from the original and kept it as a refrain between verses, it would be absolute fire. Still an improvement. The scratching lends a hip-hop quality to it that I definitely jive with. Absolute fire. Original was a decent 7/10, the new version manages an 8.5 out of 10. If the sound mixing was a little better and they kept the original vocals as a refrain, I think it could be a 9.5 out of 10. Shadow's theme is, sadly, the weakest to me. It absolutely fits his character, but the vocal performance is weak. Say what you will about the game "Shadow the Hedgehog" but that had absolutely baller themes for Shadow and the lyrics absolutely added to it. I understand that theoretically Shadow would have actually permanently died at the end of SA2, and they only brought him back because he was insanely popular. So setting him apart with the harsher techno-rock-metal soundtrack where the lyrics aren't the focus sets him up as an intimidating foil to Sonic's more cheerful and upbeat personality and the contrasting themes absolutely reflect that. But I feel like they could have done a little more to reflect Shadow's ultimate conflict of realizing that revenge doesn't change anything and that Maria wouldn't have wanted him to destroy the world for her. Honestly I feel the same about Richter's theme from DotNW but in a different direction. While Richter's theme does try to telegraph his more complicated feelings and motives by setting up that harsh, rhythmic bass line and bringing in the sweeter violin, it sounds too dissonant to me. I think they could have had more synergy. Shadow's theme is a bit of the opposite. I think there could have been more contrast. Honestly the lyrics come in so late and so low that I forget this song even has lyrics. 8/10. I prefer more of the themes from the Shadow the Hedgehog game.

Eggman's theme is absolute fire. No notes. Massive improvement from the first game. This song has everything. The mechanical noises reminding you of who he is, Ivo Robotnik, and how that ties into the grand scheme of things. The self-aggrandizing lyrics. The droning rhythmic synth track that just oozes "factory assembly line" energy. It sounds cool but intimidating, with just an edge of "how fucking goofy, who does this guy think he is?!" While I absolutely adore the toothless joke villain Eggman gets set up to be in a lot of the newer stuff, namely the Sonic Boom series and games, I love this intersection where Eggman has just enough over-the-top zazz to make you raise an eyebrow. It sits right on the precipice of "either this guy really knows what he's doing and is so confident about it, he doesn't care if he looks goofy doing it or he's an ABSOLUTE idiot who just happens to fail upward." And it's right in that sweet spot where he can be the butt of the joke while also being intimidating. Absolute peak of both camp villain and cartoonishly evil while having just enough power and wits to be a genuine threat. The main chorus literally begins with "I am the Eggman" which, in spite of all odds, makes the name that Sonic gave him as an insult out to be a genuinely threatening moniker. As if to proclaim, yes, go ahead, think of me as a joke. Underestimate me. It won't matter in the end. He is not just Eggman. He is THE Eggman. The one and only. And he's going to build his empire over the bulldozed remains of your city whether you put respect on that name or not. And his theme song encapsulates all that while being a genuine bop. 100/10. Genuinely one of the best themes ever written for the Sonic Franchise.

And that leaves us with Rouge. And for a new character BOY OH BOY, did they hit it OUT OF THE PARK with her theme. That soft jazz, the soft, sultry vocals that ramp up into confident high heady notes. Absolute banger. Tells us everything we need to know about Rouge as a character. A spy, a theif, a sneak, and a Woman with the uppercase W. She knows who she is, she knows what she wants, and she will use everything to get it. Overtly sexualized, but in a way I don't necessarily mind, even if it's right on the cusp of being inappropriate for a game meant to be played by kids. She was a lot of young mens' (and young womens') sexual awakening for a reason. While noting in the canon of the game shows her actively using her body in a sexual way to get what she wants, I don't think it's inaccurate to extrapolate from her theme and her way of speaking and walking that she absolutely would if this was a game for Adults. The parallels to Catwoman are not an accident. And her theme song does a masterful job of indicating all that without actually treading into inappropriate territory. Even Wild Canyon's theme explicitly references her as an object of desire and that Knuckles being that shy guy that doesn't know how to deal with pretty women is absolutely affected by her. I think part of the reason it's easy to forgive Rouge being sexualized is because she's an active, intelligent character who is at all times, using the people around her. She is not some sexy lamp that you can upskirt for sick thrills whom the narrative has to repeatedly assure us "don't worry, this isn't skeevy, she definitely likes it, we promise." This is a woman with steel-toed high heels that breaks into bank vaults and could kill the average man with a single kick. She's hot, she knows she's hot, and she uses that to her advantage to wriggle into positions of power and advantage. And she's fine with being that way. Her arc isn't about some condescending narrative about how she shouldn't have to behave that way. If anything her main arc is that she's absolutely stellar being exactly as she is and provides valuable skills to the team to help save the world. She's a stereotype, but not actually one that I mind. Because she's not just a sexy woman who loves money and jewels and has nothing else to her. I would classify her as a witch archetype despite not having supernatural powers other than sensing gems, which is a gimmick Knuckles also has and is never explained as anything other than a game mechanic. She has power and talent in her own right and while she is a direct foil to Knuckles and works alongside Eggman and Shadow, she isn't defined solely by how she relates to the men that surround her. She's an absolute beast and I love her. One of my favorite Sonic Characters of all time. Even with her damsel in distress moments, I never got the sense that she was incapable. Just overconfident. But not in a "LOL, how stupid of a woman to think she can tangle with the big boys." but "She is literally walking among titans, she's bound to trip up a little." The only time it felt forced was in her final confrontation with Knuckles where she falls off a beam. I understand the idea was probably "she's tired from fighting and can't right herself immediately, which is the reason she fell in the first place." so it's ambiguous whether she could have saved herself, despite having wings. But even if all the nitpickers are actually correct and she was never in danger, Knuckles reaching out to save her is more about the kind of person he is than the kind of person Rouge is. That said, yeah, her theme is a fucking banger. Second best track from the character themes, for real. 20/10 at least. No notes. Absolutely accomplishes the goal of distilling who Rouge is into a single song. Absolute queen.

[thinkingaboutbones]

Yellowjackets Characters Ranked from Most to Least Likely to be a Communist

The ghost of Karl Marx possessed me and made me write this.

Young Nat - I mean come on just look at her. Girlie hates the system!! My anarchist queen!! I love her.

Lisa - She's part of Lottie's intentional community, putting in the work to better herself and the community! You could tell me she's canonically a communist and I would not be surprised.

Adult Lottie - Now I don't think Lottie is a full communist. Like she's running an "intentional community," which is like basically a commune, but she also deliberately positions herself as a leader. You can even see it in the clothes she wears. Like put on the heliotrope comrade!!

Adult Van - Idk I know she criticizes Lottie's community but she just has comrade vibes to me. She's a small business owner (a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do under capitalism) keeping physical media alive!

Adult Nat - She's a bit more jaded than her younger self. Originally, she questions Lottie's community. But she does buy in when she sees and experiences the benefits!

Laura Lee - So I originally had Laura Lee pretty low because of the correlation between Christianity and conservative beliefs in our society. But our queen isn't like that!! She learned how to fly the plane for the good of the community! Helped Lottie cope when she ran out of her meds! And you know maybe neither of those things totally worked out but she was doing her best!!!!!

Crystal - If Crystal can get along with MISTY she can get along with anyone. And she was SHOOK when she learned that Misty had destroyed the black box, aka done something literally so selfish/bad for the group. I think she would do very well in a world where everyone worked together and shared resources for the good of the community.

Akilah - Idk man this is a long list they can't all be well thought out. @lottiesacolyte said she seems open to anything, so I'm just kind of putting her here. Sorry to the Akilah stans.

Young Lottie - Initially I had young Lottie super low on the list, since she's kind of a god/idol to the girlies in the woods. But upon further consideration, she doesn't actually Want that. She goes out of her way to try and Avoid becoming their leader. She just wants everyone to work together and survive. AND she said that if she died they shouldn't let her body go to waste.

Young Van - Young Van's vibes are very similar to her adult self's, but she does kind of buy in super hard to Lottie as leader. I think that under different circumstances she would be more of a communist.

Young Taissa - Young Taissa is a tricky one. Because she is soooo against the Lottie as leader stuff that everyone else is buying into. But at the same time, I feel like She wants to be the leader? Which tracks considering her adult life. I think that her and Van could have been happy living as communists together, but that's not the way life panned out for them.

Adult Shauna - Shauna is fed up with her boring suburban life. And you know what would make you happier, queen? Communism!

Randy - Okay this one is a little silly goofy. But he's just sooo down to help Jeff. Help him with blackmail, help him seem like Shauna is cheating on him. He's a real one. I don't think it's likely that Randy would be a communist but like if Jeff was doing it? Maybe!

Jeff - Very similar to Randy, I think that he would just kind of go with the flow with what everyone else is doing. He's pretty traditional, but if Shauna wanted to try communism he'd give it a whirl with her.

Javi - Javi is a child. He's an icon and I choose to believe he would adjust to communism, but let's be real he's gonna just go with the flow.

Sammy - Sammy is also a child, even more of a child than Javi. He'll do what his parents tell him to do.

Gen and Melissa - Okay I put them together because I don't know a single thing about either of them. They're side characters, they'll do whatever everyone else is doing LOL.

Mari - Mari is kind of a hater. And that's so relatable. She's kind of a go with the flow girlie. But also because of her hater energy I feel she would not immediately adjust well to communism.

Jackie - Jackie is a traditional girlie. She's used to being queen bee. She doesn' adjust well to living in the woods, and she wouldn't adjust well to communism. I think that she could if pressed! But she would be resistant, let's be honest.

Young Shauna - While Jackie's alive, Shauna will do whatever Jackie does, regardless of her own thoughts on the matter. After Jackie dies (rest in peace my girlfailure icon queen), Shauna's a little more ambitious. You think a girl who's mad she didn't get to be antler queen would be immediately down with communism? Absolutely not. I think she would adjust, but not easily.

Callie - Callie's in her edgelord, I'm cooler than everyone else era. Perhaps one day when she is older she will embrace the radical joy and love communism can provide, but for now she would Not be happy with a change in the status quo. She has big Jackie queen bee energy, and she doesn't want that to change.

Adult Travis - Travis' response to the trauma of the wilderness was to move to the middle of nowhere, so I don't think communism would quite be his vibe. But I do think that he'd be more open that his younger self, just due to life experience and Hopefully being less misogynistic now. But we don't really see a lot of him so who's to say!

Young Travis - Travis buys into so much heteronormativity and toxic masculinity nonsense that I think it would be really hard to shake it out of him.

Simone - She's married to Taissa, so she's clearly bought into the idea that a liberal government can somehow liberate us.

Adult Taissa - She's literally part of the system. Also she can eat dirt for free under capitalism, so why bother being a communist? She's a deadbeat dad, acting like providing for her family monetarily is the only thing that matters and not Love and Quality Time.

Adam - Adam would tell people he's a communist. He might even think it's true. But when push comes to shove? That man is not going to radically change his life. He's fake woke and I hate him, good riddance.

Adult Misty - She was NOT on board with Lottie's intentional community. She abuses the elderly. She murders people. Misty wants power and control, and communism wouldn't allow her to have that.

Walter - This man is RICH but instead of redistributing his wealth he bought a big fancy house and all he does is go on Reddit and be crusty and lame.

Coach Ben - They're literally stranded in the middle of nowhere and this man keeps trying to act like he's in charge? Like you only have one leg my dude, just let the girlies take care of you. And then instead of talking things out when he disagrees with the collective, he BURNS THE CABIN DOWN. Evil evil man.

Young Misty - I hate her. She's a creep. She broke the black box just because she liked feeling important. She killed Crystal to keep her secret, and doesn't even want anyone to eat Crystal's body even though everyone is starving. Keeping valuable resources from the community is NOT very communist of her.

Kevyn - ACAB!!

Jay - ACAB ACAB HE'S SO CRUSTY I HATE HIM HE'S A CREEP!!!!!!!!

[fountainpenguin]

What's your fav [or one of your favorite] scenes in Frayed Knots and/or Origin of the Pixies?

Thanks for the Ask!

One of my favorite Origin chapters is Chapter 42, "The Unicorn Years." Sanderson is finally an adult and it shows in how he sticks up for himself and calls H.P. out on his procrastination habits. He's no longer the suck-up he used to be, and their duality is great:

I lay across my desk, hands grasping the far side. That's what I was doing when Sanderson pinged in. "How much have you written, sir?" he asked primly. He didn't try to suggest he'd been pushy and overbearing this morning, but the milkshake in his hand was a peace offering. That was obvious enough. "Um…" I looked down. "I have 'Hawkins, I like how you made square motions instead of pretty elf swirls' and 'Wilcox, if eggs didn't suck, you'd be an egg.' Um. It's a first draft." I think he muffled a snort. "And mine, sir?" "Oh… yeah. I forgot you were getting one too. I'll start it later." He shook the vanilla milkshake a bit, and I finally swiped it from his hand. "Compliments aren't my thing, Sanderson. And truthful critiques on Day 1 might shatter them. I'll get into the flow one of these days, but breaking the ice is hard. What did you tell them?" "Boss, I'm going to stop you right there because that would be plagiarism." He hovered behind my shoulder, sipping from his straw… then grabbed the papers from my desk and pinged away. Okay, wow. I flopped back in my chair, kicking up my legs. Knowing him like I did, there wasn't a doubt in my mind he was presenting those to Hawkins and Wilcox right now, articulate or not. Sanderson's a person who gets things done stupid early and then sits on his buns all week waiting for new instructions. I may struggle with procrastination, but at least I do useful stuff during said procrastination time. Who's more successful each day, I ask you. But, I got my preening circle after lunch on Friday. The instant they all left, I pinged to my office and scribbled my reports. It pleased me like nothing else to thrust those into Sanderson's hands when I saw him in the hall. "Here. Shove these in your uptight pouch and do a backflip, punk." "How many words?" he asked, scanning them. "400 apiece." "I wrote 800." He broke a smile when I yanked the reports back and smacked them at his head. Stupid punk kid.

^ This is quintessential Sanderson (to me)...

In "Unicorn Years," Sanderson finally recognizes his role as alpha retinue drone (i.e. that it's a legit high-ranking role in Fae society and his co-workers respect and report to him- it's not a fake title H.P. made up because of his separation anxiety).

That moment H.P. tells Sanderson the reason Hawkins and Wilcox are nervous is because they want to impress Sanderson, not him... That's /chef's kiss.

In the next chapter ("Letters and Numbers"), Sanderson cuts a deal with H.P. that he's willing to give up his alpha drone status as long as he gets to keep his music. I really like how I showed how Sanderson values his job, appreciates the status, and is good at this job all in one chapter before he throws it into the void. Love that for him.

Chapter 34 of Knots is a favorite. I really like the migration arcs, especially the recent one in the mid-30 chapters. I love when Anti-Cosmo mingles with other Anti-Fairies and speaks in Vatajasa. I love him asking his relatives for interspecies love life advice- It's such a contrast to H.P., who was tossed out of his family just for being born with freckles.

I like when he asks his nana about her Fairy ex-husband and she straight-up tells him that if he's into fairy wings, he's better off finding an Anti-Fairy willing to dress in costume. Such a slap in the face and it fuels him with stubborn rage.

I love how Anti-Cosmo flits around migration blatantly explaining to the reader all the convoluted reasons why he's totally not cheating on his betrothed. He's such a mess.

I love Prince Eastkal demanding that his anti-fairy counterpart be brought to meet him and Anti-Cosmo just stands there in shock at how rude and inappropriate it is to show up and expect Anti-Eastkal can drop everything to meet with him. It's not a big moment, but those hints of culture and Anti-Cosmo experiencing things that H.P. wouldn't think about in Origin are my favorites.

I like the conflict between Anti-Cosmo and Jorgen when Anti-Cosmo absolutely refuses to admit that he saved Prince Eastkal's life several chapters ago. I like Jorgen's dawning realization that Anti-Cosmo got arrested for being over the border... Jorgen's starting to put the pieces together.

I appreciate how Anti-Cosmo stands up for his culture and his friends but he's also just blatantly sexist because that's how he was raised in Anti-Fairy World.

The parallel of Anti-Cosmo calling out racial inequality H.P. is oblivious to while H.P. calls out gender inequality that A.C. overlooks really emphasizes that both societies are flawed and you can compare and contrast the cultures... I like the worldbuilding a lot.

[Cnt'd under the cut] -

I really like the scene at the end of Knots Chapter 35 where Anti-Cosmo visits H.P. to get a letter of recommendation for school :)

I like how Sanderson comes to the door all groggy and it's not even because he was sleeping, it's because he was carving soap sculptures.

I like Sanderson pausing before knocking on the wooden door to ask Anti-Cosmo if that will give him a migraine and Anti-Cosmo being surprised that Sanderson thought about that.

In Origin, H.P. regularly diminishes Sanderson's abilities in an attempt to deny connection and/or excuse his own neglect towards Sanderson. Anti-Cosmo gives Sanderson all the dues he's owed (and will continue to do so for the rest of the story).

In the 130 Prompts, Sanderson's relationship with A.C. is very complicated... so I like slipping in these foreshadowing clues so that when everything breaks loose later, you can see these hints of why Sanderson starts to waver in his loyalty and why Anti-Cosmo tolerates him.

I also like Sanderson's comment that if H.P. is "too busy to find out what Sanderson wants, he's too busy to be mad that Sanderson made his own decisions." Even sleepy, Sanderson is better at handling things than he's normally allowed to be- he is the alpha drone in the retinue, after all.

I love how Anti-Cosmo notices that H.P. went out of his way to design hotel rooms for Anti-Fairy visitors even though Anti-Fairies are banned from visiting. It foreshadows H.P.'s upcoming neutrality and we start leaning into the reasons why H.P. and Anti-Cosmo are future allies and friends- because H.P. (for all his horrendous cultural blunders) will still make the effort to cater to others' needs).

I love the entire concept of A.C. asking H.P. for a letter of rec even though they barely know each other. All those side mentions of babysitting from earlier chapters came back to pay off.

I love the breakfast scene, especially H.P. talking about Iris:

"If she was after money, she wouldn't have turned me down when I tried to court her. I'm very desirable. By the way, her toxic trait is that she roots for the Centipedes in saucerbee and their roster totally sucks. Other than that, she's pretty dazzled." "You're interested in courting her?" I asked, pulling back. "Oh. I thought you were a…" The Head Pixie turned to look at me again, stone-faced. "Be very careful in considering how you want to end that sentence, Anti-Cosmo."

H.P.'s choppy cadence (with all his random casual words) is my favorite to write. I also think it's hilarious that he's still pining after Iris but doesn't even ask A.C. to put in a good word for him to her (in return for the letter of rec). Instead, he just wants A.C. to help Iris network. It's the little things... He cares.

I love how A.C. is so smart and yet so oblivious. He spends the story thinkin the Pixie race is dying out. Absolute shock to him when he finds out their population is reproducing exponentially. My dude, how did you screw this one up. No one can be more wrong than you.

H.P. tells him to his face "I don't experience attraction" and A.C. twists that in his mind to mean "He's embarrassed to admit he likes someone." It's one of those little things that Anti-Wanda gets and A.C. doesn't. I love the A.W.-H.P. dynamic so much.

I really like the bit where Anti-Cosmo asks H.P. for interspecies romantic advice and H.P. turns a circle, clearly looking for something, leaves, then comes back with nothing. Just... dipped.

Literally everything about the A.C.-H.P. dynamic is comedy gold to me. There are a few specific instances where Anti-Cosmo gets to take shots at H.P. and embarrass him, but it's usually H.P. being snarky towards A.C. and it cracks me up. Look at them:

"Show affection someplace nice and she'll want to keep coming back. Don't be weird and kiss at the grocery store or in an old shed or you'll be stuck circling back around to it. And if you want something long-term to come out of this, then you'd better build a yidreamu. Traditionally it's the partner with the smaller lift who builds it, so…" He stopped then, surveying my crown. "… Yikes. Start clipping coupons, maybe." I reached up to graze my black crown with my fingertips, my face flushing dark with cold. I did have a pathetic lift, barely two finger widths above my head, but did he really have to say it? "Th-thank you for the advice… That's all I need to know, really."

I like how we had that previous chapter where Anti-Lance called H.P. out for being "a creep" towards the much younger Anti-Cosmo- which is very justified! But also, they just hang out like this:

"Back in the Spring of the Silver Silk, I placed a curse on you that prevents flowers from lasting more than one night under your roof. I believe we confirmed said curse was still active this past migration. Did you find the counter-spell?" "No. I just started keeping commelinas in my house because they die in like, one day anyway, so it's not a waste. I'm giving them a home." "Why do you bother replacing them?" The older pixie looked at me, caught off guard despite his practised pixie patience. I could tell. "Because it means I win. Here." He took one of the blue flowers from the vase and handed it to me. "For you." [...] "Your attention to detail is impeccable," I remarked, twirling the commelina in my hand. "Thanks. I'm imprisoned by obsessive compulsions, severe hyperfixations, and crippling executive dysfunction."

H.P. is so stubborn. He's so shocked that Anti-Cosmo would even ask him why he bothered. He's so blinded to his own quirks. It's great.

I like how H.P. straps Anti-Cosmo in a bungee cord harness and lets him steer his cloudship, but in the far future, Anti-Cosmo never lets Foop drive his cloudship. It's just a fun, dynamic chapter all around.

My writing style has improved a lot since I started this 'fic, but I still like Chapter 2. I really like how it opens with Anti-Cosmo being dragged down the hall by his foot and forced to commit emergency marsupial pouch-slicing rescue procedures.

I love starting longfics off with that reminder that you're in for something weird, so if you can't tolerate this splash of weirdness upfront, the rest of the 'fic won't be to your tastes either. Frayed Knots really throws you in and I like it for that.

[ponreviews]

Super Mario Bros Movie - Letsa Go!!

Categories: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:

Mario and Luigi are just your average plumbers starting their own business in Brooklyn. The brothers find themselves investigating some strange happenings within the sewers beneath the city. The next thing they knew they were warped into a strange universe. Separated, Mario desperately does all he can to get his brother back, teaming up with a princess and a.... mushroom?? to do it all while protecting the Mushroom Kingdom in the process.

Review:

For the first time, I'm going to make this review spoiler free! I think this is a perfect opportunity to get you to watch the movie if you haven't already. I'm still going to attach stills throughout the review like I normally do, but in this case, the stills shouldn't be huge spoilers (especially if you have seen the trailer).

I'll start a bit negative because let's face it, this movie is an obvious cash grab. It primarily feeds off of the nostalgia of older generations while also appealing to younger generations who enjoy Super Mario games. Because of this, there's not a lot of substance to the movie. Unlike other critics, however, I don't believe that makes this movie bad. I went into the theater with little expectations other than "the references should be there."

I was pleasantly surprised by the flow of the movie. Not one part felt like it was slowing down. I liked how animated and exaggerated the movements were. It's very fast paced and for Super Mario, that's perfect. I was surprised to find out how deep the references went. Like that rival plumber (Foreman Spike) does actually exist in the Super Mario lore. It was fun to learn a little bit about the references I didn't know about. I do wish they gave Charles Martinet a bigger role than just a cameo.

I had my concerns about Chris Pratt being cast as Mario, and I hate to admit it, but he was right when he said no one is gonna care about the accent. It's explained pretty well early on in the movie too. An exaggerated Italian accent for a commercial for their plumbing brand? Makes sense. I still don't like Chris Pratt as Mario, but that's just because I don't like him in general. I will note that my bias against him does not affect the rating would've been docked a whole point if it did. He plays the role well, but it's forgettable compared to the rest of the star-studded cast.

Jack Black as Bowser was PERFECT!! His personality fit the character they were trying to go for with Bowser. Same with Charlie Day as Luigi. We all know that meme. The conspiracy theorist Charlie Day meme. Need I say more? Also Seth Rogan?? As Donkey Kong??? That laugh solidified the casting for me. Anya Taylor Joy works as Peach. It would be wrong for me to say it was the perfect casting, but she does make it work. Overall, great performances by the actors.

Illumination should be proud of the animation. They were able to maintain integrity of the games' original designs while sticking to their signature style. It's hard to pull that off and have overwhelming praise. I particularly liked how bouncy (for the lack of a better word) everything was. It really was enjoyable. Going back to the "cash grab" complaint I had, I do respect them for it. It's smart to market the movie for kids while building on the nostalgia of the adults who grew up on the games. I see you Nintendo and Illumination marketing teams. Geniuses all of you. The best part about it is that it wasn't that weird mesh of animation and live action. It was all animated and all wonderful.

Overall, I definitely think this movie is worth the hype it's getting. You could tell everyone involved was just having fun, and that's where you find the best projects. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and it's even more amazing when the cast has fun in that project (and the premieres - shoutout Anya Taylor Joy and Jack Black for those wonderful outfits). All in all, if you haven't watched it yet, go! Watch with friends, family, or even alone! If you have watched it already, watch again if/when the movie hits streaming sites with others. I feel like it's a nice comfort movie, and we haven't had one like this in ages.

[0skyheaven0]

Heeey! Just finished reading the new chapter! I love how you used Kurama to represent Naruto’s schizophrenia. It fits him so well and it’s a very smart usage of the inner demon trope.

Sasuke is so fuckign sweet and understanding I would move mountains for this boy. The way he handled the situation was better then his surrounding adults. It was honest and empathetic and I love how sensible you are while writing him.

The little hints of having more than one voice speaking to Naruto is greatly appreciated. There so much about your fic I still want to know. I’m also a bit anxious about what will make things go south after these chapters. I know it’s coming. I can feel you setting up the stage.

Also, extra kudos for the way you portray Iruka. He’s one of my favorites that usually get slept on in comparison to Kakashi. So seeing him being just as much as emotionally reliable as he is in the original it’s like a good hug.

Do you have any idea how many chapters you planned for this one? Maybe I’m just trying to prepare myself to when shit hits the fan.

Thank you so much! It does fit, doesn't it? It was quite an easy thing to think of when I thought up the concept of the fic. And thank you for noticing the multiple voices, that's something we'll come back to and explore a bit more.

I honestly didn't plan to use Iruka that much, but he just naturally flowed. Since I decided to have Kakashi be responsible for Sasuke I needed someone for Naruto and it couldn't be Jiraiya (he'll be mentioned later) so Iruka was the clear choice. I have another draft of the latest chapter but I liked this version more and Iruka just happened to play a bigger part. Not that I mind, I've never written him before so it's fun to play with.

Oh it's hard to say about how many chapters...more than 10, less than 20. So if I say 15~ish I won't be too far off in any direction.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter! :D

[lori133]

GOT II - The Bran Saga

Second day of reading seventy pages from Catelyn (2) till Catelyn (3). A lot happens but also, not a lot that's not Bran centric happens. I got too lazy to do the chapter per chapter thing, so I'll just write down my thoughts while reading.

Catelyn (2)

First we start with Cat and Ned being intimate when she gets the secret message from her sister.

While reading her wishes to give Ned another child, I kept wondering... what for? I mean, I know that before the more children you had, the better. But Cat is a sensible woman, she must have known that at some point a son of hers would be sent to the Wall as was Stark tradition, right? The only reason I can think of her wanting another child is the coveted youngest daughter; Sansa is bound to marry a high lord and Arya is not the kind to stay at home with her eldery parents.

Going back to the plot, Ned was totally right to try to nope out of the drama of being hand of the king. He was also super on point on comaring himself to his father who went south and never come back. Foreshadowing is mad strong for Ned.

I loled at Cat being surprised she and Robb were staying north. What did she think? That they'll let a steward in charge? I mean, they do exactly that one book from now, but still, it makes sense to leave and adult and the heir in charge.

Lastly, Cat was totally right to tell Ned Jon was his and not hers. He should have taken Jon to the south with him, or sent him as a ward to another northern house if he was afraid because of Jon's hypothetical Targ blood. This will be an unpopular opinion but Cat's bad relationship with Jon is all on Ned, he should have made up a story about Jon's origin (he already told Robert there was a Wylla, why not repeat the story) and assuage Cat's fears of ursurpation.

Arya (1)

Ah the glorious war of sisterly rivarly. To be fair to Sansa, it was Arya who butt in her gossiping, Arya who yelled, attrating the Septa's attention, and Arya who was not paying attention to her stitches. It isn't Sansa's fault she is more suited to the role society expects of her.

I remember reading this as a tomboy girl and thinking Sansa was vapid (she is) and mean (maybe, but not here), but it was just nother consequence of the conditioning that other girls are the enemy; a little like what happens here.

Bran (2)

I adore Bran and I think GRRM does as well. The prose always flows somewhat better on his chapters, as do the descriptions of the places. I feel that it is through his pov that the most worldbuilding gets done. Through his eyes, Winterfell seems like a magical place, full of adventure and wonder; contrasting to everyone else describing it as a dump.

The tower scene is still so good, just like Bran, we the readers have no context of what is being plotted and by whom. And just like him, we think everyhting will be alright until bam! Anyways, great intro to Cersei's paranoia and Jaime absolutely lack of care.

Tyrion (1)

Again Jaime dgaf, I imagine it must be very frustrating being his sibling and seeing all the privilege he gets and how unserious he takes everything.

While I did say I haven't watched the show, I must have seen the slap scene at least twenty times via reels and I have to say that while Joffrey reads nearly he same as the actor, both the Dog and Tyrion have much more flair and charisma on screen than on paper. Kudos to the actors for adding a bit of charisma to the otherwise stilled scene.

Jon (2) -> I wrote nothing on this and two hours after have literally forgotten what happened.

Daenerys (2)

And I keep on being reminded why I skimmed through Dany's chapters. Not a fan of all the coupling that's going on and how it is described basically as men coupling with interchangeable women who have no say on it. All of it was quite terrible to read, and I would never understand why couldn't Dany (and the rest of them) be a couple of years older. It is just the same shock if she were fifteen than thirteen, only Drogo wouldn't be bedding a literal child. :/

Moving on, why was Viserys so entitled??? You would think that being absolutely destitute and having no followers other than you seven years younger sister would teach him some humilty, but it didn't? He is on Illiryo's charity but still acts like his boss? It is his sister's wedding to the most powerful guy in the continent and he expects to be served first? This feels seriously like a YA mean girl.

Ned (2)

Yeah, Bobby B is a shitty king and Ned is not even in KL and his frustration is already through the roofs. I feel for him and the inevitability of his failure. That comparision with Jon Arryn... Ned can you please stop narratively dooming yourself for a second?

Note to myself: Who even put the dragon skulls in the throne room? Aerys for max Targaryen rep? Tywin in a gothic allegory of the Targaryen fall?

Tyrion (2)

Benjen/Tyrion Highschool AU anyone? Both youngest sons, both dutiful counterparts to their more celebrated brothers and controversial sisters? I'm grasping at straws I know, I just really liked their one (1) interaction. It was just the right amount of petty.

Another character with lots of foreshadowing. Being obssessed with dragons and draming of having is a very Targaryen trait. So I'm starting a count of characters who dream/want to have a dragon; so far it is just Tyrion (and Aemond and Rhaena from Hotd).

Lol the dragon skulls was Aerys. I haven't read Fire and Blood and now I wonder wether it was always like that or was it just Aerys drama? Did Viserys I have Balerion over there? Did Aegon I put Meraxes on display? Somehow I don't think so.

It is also interesting that despite Vhaghar surviving Meraxes, Meraxes skull was noted by Tyrion to be bigger than Vhaghar's. It would be interesting if Vhaghar was Visenya's craddle egg and they did the conquest so late because they were waiting for Vhaghar to grow.

Note to myself: Meraxes skull was in Dragonstone in Hotd, but for some reason it is in the Red Keep afterwards.

Catelyn (3)

The Targaryens: passing Aegon's dagger along with it's prophesy from ruler to heir. Joffrey: Giving it to the first hobo he finds for him to use as the least inconspicious muder weapon to kill a comatose boy. LMAO.

[lu-twilights-pup]

the chain’s reaction to a Reader who loves to sing? can be platonic or romantic (:

ok so i have an reader x warriors thing for this somewhere else so thank you for compelling me to finish it!!!

Here we are! I’ve linked a Song where it comes in! I linked the original and deepr sounding one as well! This can be read as platonic or romantic!

DISCLAIMERS

Fluff, fluff, fluff

To say you were estactic would be an understatement—you were practically vibrating on the spot.

You can’t help it, the chain had landed in you’re home Hyrule during a festival in you’re hometown. A festival you had already missed twice due to your quest. You had told the boys about it a dozen times over, Sky and Time had humored you when you mentioned it was a festival of music and played their respective instruments a bit more often. You were a rather reserved person, not morbidly so, but enough to be a bit endearing. You often cut yourself off when talking animatedly about your home’s festival, and it saddened the others to see it. They were just as happy as you to be here and be able to experience first hand what made you so happy.

As the sunset, the streets of the small town became littered with lanterns and colored lights. The smell of food filtered through the air from dozens of stalls lining the town. Groups sat around the square of varying musicians, all playing different songs that some how still managed to come together into one fluid melody. Dozens of children ran around here and there holding sticks with paper animals attached to them flowing in the breeze of their strides. The rest of the town was plastered around the way, eating, laughing, and rejoicing within the festival.

The boys had gone along their own ways once they entered and you had been dragged off by several of the festival workers. hey had been alarmed at first, but further inspection showed you were all smiles and hugs with these old friends of yours, thus they were off.

It wasn’t until a bit later that they all had reconvened towards the center of town, a sort of stage had begun to be set up in front of the town small central fountain, an array of musicians started to set up on it. Hyrule and Legend had been off observing some of the lights that had been set up in various shaped towers around the plaza. Wind and Four had joined in some of the games the younger kids were playing, much to Fours unadmitted chargin Sky, Time, and Wild had gone about looking at the food stalls littered about, enjoying some of the cuisines that were similar to their own homes. Meanwhile Warriors and Twilight had gone off and messed with some of the more adult leveled festivities, the later breaking some ‘test-your-strengthen game the aforementioned had sworn was rigged.

You had also made you’re way back to the center of town.

“Whoa! Nice makeup (Name)!” Wild smiled once you came into view, the rest of them turned to you. You, in fact, did have nice makeup. An assortment of lines and colored you’re face, winding from you’re forehead to you’re ears and down you’re neck, the colors suited you well.

“And here I thought I’d never see anyone with more makeup than you captain!” Legend laughed, leaning on Hyrule who giggled a bit as well.

“Oh, har-dee-har, pinkie!” Warriors rolled his eyes as he walked over. “I think you look great!” He nodded approvingly as he looked over your makeup.

“Does it have a cultural significance?” Sky asked, studious as ever when it came to the other lands. “Well-“

“Nah! It’s just for the performers to look better!” A woman had chirped up form behind you. “Don’t they look so wonderful!” She gushed, pinching the part of you’re face that didn’t have makeup on it. Everyone let out sounds of acknowledgement and agreement. The woman stood just under you’re height, holding her conviviality high witching her full frame. He short hair framed her face, colored with similar makeup to yours, but less so in its intensity.

“And you would be..?” Sky grinned kindly at the stranger.

“Oh I’m Tarin Maluis! But everyone calls me Mrs. T! I help run the festivities!”

“Wait performers?” Warriors cocked and eyebrow, standing on the other side of you, glad to voice everyone else’s questions.

“Yessir! Little (Name) here is out best vocalist! Was a shame we didn’t have them the last few festivals!” She feigned woe, holding her face in her hands and swaying a bit. You stood a bit taller at the compliment, you enjoyed singing more than anything, though you didn’t do it much as it made you homesick on the road.

“Really now?” Time had given you a sly smile as you swaggered in your walk as Mrs. T pushed you off towards the stage.

“Off we go now! Must begin the shows!” She called over her shoulder as you two disappeared.

———

Once everything was set up you had made you’re way on to the stage with the help of some of the musicians. The boys had never see you look so excited, hardly able to stand still while people settled around the stage. Soon a melody flowed through the streets.

(Original / Deeper)

“Look how the lights of the town, the lights of the town are shining now,” You began, you’re voice pouring over the crowd like velvet wave. Lapping at their ears like the oceans tides throughout the night.

“Tonight I’ll be dancing around, I’m off on the road to Galway now!” A few people joined in you’re singing, but it was you’re voice and you’re voice along that caught and kept the boys attention. Your energy seemed to flow into each of them and warm them beyond the fires lighting the lanterns around them. There was something about the way you sang, the way you could hear your heart with in the words, your entire being within the song, was so utterly you.

“Wow.” Four had breathed. the others had some how heard him, nodding along, none wishing to voice their agreement and distract from your song, not that anything could really pull their attention off of you.

“Off with a spring in my step, the sailors are searching Galway for a young xxxx such as myself, for reels and jigs and maybe more!” You had looked over at them upon this line, smiling and winking obviously. Half of them flustered at this, though they would never let anyone, not even you, know which half.

Music made you into a different person, but in no way was it a bad thing. You were more confident, more playful, more open to those around you. You were somehow sweeter than you already were. You voice fit you perfectly.

Maybe they would play music a bit more often on the road.

[neonponders]

This isn’t what @memes-saved-me had in mind for this post but lol (read their tags, they’re delightful) 

Thinking about a younger Billy and an older Steve today ✨

✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨

Billy scratched at the hair on his nape. He wanted to grow it out; really had always wanted long hair. And now, as he peered at the other sophomores trying to fluff themselves bigger to match the juniors and seniors, he just might.

Long hair was in. Mullets, rock star manes, extensions - even the opposite. Women with buzz cuts and pixie faux hawks. Pleasant little surprises in Hawkins, Indiana, and Billy might finally indulge in that.

Plenty in this town was backwards as all hell. Girls wearing white stockings like it was the fifties. Boys and girls alike clearly letting having learned hair styling from their out-of-date parents. Two girls with beehives sat in his English class.

But it was fine, because there was plenty of present-day styling, and Billy wouldn’t get any shit at home for matching his peers.

Cherry Lane. The most backwards spot in Indiana.

But that’s okay, too, because small town people need occupations. Parties.

A cool senior with teased, black hair walked right up to him and handed him a neon orange sheet of paper. He saw others holding similar invitations all day. 

Party on Friday night. Address, dress code, and everything.

Caught him by surprise, that a dress code would be needed for one of these things, but the invitation just said ~casual attire~ and someone in his Advanced Biology class told him that Tina hosts the best shin digs, often with costume themes.

So he went. The late summer evening was still humid as all hell, making the party split between the massive house and the matching yard a convenient way to start a weekend.

He’d had alcohol before. Enough to know he preferred tequila drinks over vodka and gin, but the safest way to wake up the next day was to just stick to beer. No matter how bitter or sharply carbonated some of it was made.

Maybe that’s why he heard people hollering about King Steve.

Keg stands weren’t original to Hawkins, but Billy preferred them next to a bonfire on a beach. But people were really yelling for this king to do the damn thing - 

“Steve, why are you even here? You graduated in May,” Tina’s voice cut through the din.

“I live down the street! You really think you’re making this much noise without me noticing? And all of you shut the hell up! I’ll do a keg stand the day one of you dip shits can actually beat my record.”

Another surprise:

Steve Harrington.

Billy’s dumb luck had him three years behind, so he couldn’t look at that face in the hallways. Sit behind that head of glossy, bouncy hair in European History. He still lived in town, apparently. Right down the street. Billy asked around and discovered he worked at the mall and attended the community college -

“Heard you been asking about me.”

Billy stared wide-eyed over his beer. He recovered quickly, but not before Steve bounced on the balls of his feet, smug. That hair was really distracting.

These people really gossip about everything.

“I didn’t think anybody actually went by a title like that.”

“I didn’t put it on my resume, that’s for sure.” Steve’s smirk grew into a smile. Christ, the guy really had that Indiana, home town handsome thing to his face.

That was dangerous. Billy’s gut told him so, the way it bruised like someone had poked it. And wanted to be poked again.

“Let’s do this properly. Steve.” He held his hand out.

It wasn’t queer to accept a handshake. “Billy,” he replied.

“Hargrove?”

“Jesus,” he scoffed involuntarily, releasing Steve’s large hand. His weight shifted over his feet. “Everybody knows everything here.”

“Not everything,” Steve said. His voice sounded...reassuring? But the way his eyes blinked...and a darkness slipped behind his eyes like a curtain. Adults liked to call it maturity. Wisdom beyond years. Billy called it ghosts. Everyone had ghosts behind their eyes. But...he had a hard time imagining what ghosts this pretty senior in suburban America would already have.

Then again, Billy knew better.

Except, as the party progressed and the weekend flowed into a new week, Billy really couldn’t imagine what made Steve slouch a little, and what made his eyes fade out of a conversation. Billy probably should have put more attention into how much he’d begun seeking the guy out.

He worked in the ice cream parlor at the mall. The uniform was equal measures ridiculous and hilarious, but his coworker was cool as hell. Robin. Not Steve’s girlfriend, even though they carpooled to work and community college.

Steve’s house proved just as luxurious as Tina’s, with a pool to boot. A house which supposedly stayed empty more often than it hosted its own family. Steve notoriously didn’t host parties, which....seemed uniquely odd.

Apart from Billy visiting the ice cream shop, it seemed Steve’s only other visitors were high school freshman. Which was weird. That’s weird, right? Then again, Billy was ball and chained to eight hours a day, five days a week to high school. There was plenty of time for Steve to be with friends his own age.

Except he showed up at the next party on Halloween.

Tina’s house boasted a surprising number of Hawkins graduated seniors, forcing the party all the way out onto the street.

Just like before, Steve manifested beside Billy, announcing himself with fingertips brushing his slowly growing, weak little mullet. “Growing that out?”

Steve’s already heavy eyelids were heavier with alcohol. Billy had his customary cup of beer, but his cheeks flushed for a different reason. He had to rub the back of his neck to make the tickle stop.

“Yeah. Maybe it’ll touch my shoulders next year.”

“Have you trimmed it?”

Billy frowned at him. He’d heard some things come out of Steve’s mouth that were endearing in a ‘bless his heart’ kind of way, and this was among them. “No, that defeats the point of making it longer.”

Steve shook his head and waved for him to follow. “Come here. I’ll trim it.”

“You’re not cutting my hair,” Billy scoffed. And followed.

Upstairs.

Billy did his best not to look around the living room; to see any eyes apart from the ones he imagined on his backside. He followed at a leisurely pace. Not eager to be with King Harrington anywhere...

The guy walked right into the closed master bedroom. Billy stood outside of it, stunned at his audacity and the fact that no one was inside it already - 

“You coming?”

Billy’s not a coward -

Actually he is. But he’s an overeager sophomore with a dangerous crush even more.

Steve dug through the master bathroom’s drawers until he found a pair of scissors in their own case. “Sit on the tub.”

By tub, he meant jacuzzi edge. Billy perched. Steve gripped his shoulder to step into the tub with a comb that smelled of foreign hair product and aftershave. Billy’s nose wrinkled. “Wash that first.”

Then he jumped at the tub faucet turning on right beside his ass. Steve laughed. “Chill out. I’m washing it.”

Billy settled with a disgruntled shake of his head. “My hair is curly. You’re not supposed to brush it at all.”

“You’re in the hands of The Hair Harrington, sweetheart. Just relax.”

His shoulders sagged right underneath the weight of sweetheart.

I’m so screwed - 

Of all people to show up in the doorway, Robin from Scoops showed up with an energy that insinuated more sobriety than the guy wielding scissors.

Her mouth hung open like she had come with something to say, but then she sputtered through laughter. “Oh shit. Are you consenting to this?”

Billy rolled his eyes. “If he cuts my ear, I’m beating his ass.”

“I’d appreciate more faith from you, Buckley. I cut your bangs for you.”

Billy chirped, “Really?” admittedly feeling a bit better.

Steve intercepted with the order, “Are you gonna play music or what? I’m so tired of Tina’s music.”

That’s how Billy wound up in a bathroom with college freshmen trimming his ends and styling his hair while Steve and Robin shout-sang to Whitney Houston.

It was great.

Steve curled the top of his hair so he had ringlets falling over his bold brows. Steve, who had his hands all over Billy’s head until he washed the hair down the drain and filled the tub for a bubble bath. Billy scrutinized himself with a handheld mirror until Steve wrapped his arms around him and they tumbled backward into the wet landing.

Tina was hardly pleased to find the three of them making a mess of the jacuzzi, but she sassed a quick thank you for warding off people trying to fuck in her parents’ bed. Billy didn’t have words; only laughter at Robin putting her hair into a wet mohawk and Steve piling bubbles onto his head.

Steve insisted they go back to his house afterward. “It’s November and we’re soaked. Your car will be fine. I can come back and park it in my driveway if you’re that worried.”

That wasn’t the problem.

“It’s fine that your parents are never home, but mine will only recently lifted my curfew for good behavior.”

Somehow, he convinced Steve and Robin to drive him back to his house, at the expense of letting them change at Steve’s first. Billy had his eyes on a beautiful Camaro and was just a few more months of allowance and part time jobs away from having her.

It was his first time in Steve’s house. He had to admit, he preferred Tina’s layout and decor, but he got to wander around. He saw Robin use one of the guest rooms. He saw Steve’s....incredibly boring room. And said as much.

“A prison cell has more personality.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. Are you ready to go?”

It wasn’t until Billy lay in his own bed that those words tumbled through his brain. His fingertips moved through his still-styled hair. It felt better with those dead ends gone. Steve did a good job. Steve liked Whitney Houston and Blondie and a little of everything, really. Steve cared about his appearance enough to be a self-taught stylist.

Steve didn’t have a lot of furniture in his room. Clutter on the dresser and desk, sure, but all of it monochrome or neutral colors. Steve who had an old BMW, house, and surely a bank account to match, but didn’t buy anything in excess. Like he wasn’t allowed to, or something. Billy indulged every scent he got on things he wanted, but Steve didn’t.

Steve had a nailed bat in his trunk. Billy heard it rolling around on their way back to his house, and finally bent over to look under the seats and saw it.

Steve was a walking contradiction. A contradiction who smelled good but didn’t say much when Billy and Robin talked about history. Who started giving Billy free ice cream but never asked about Billy’s stepsister. Who gave Billy rides and gave him the hookup to the high-paying neighbors of Loch Nora for mowed lawns and dogs walked.

Steve helped him get his car sooner than he would’ve otherwise but didn’t ask for anything in return.

Steve, who was always available for a good time, but looked sad when left with his thoughts.

Billy didn’t take well to not being the center of attention. He’d grown up with an interrogation lamp over his head, and sought positive interaction everywhere else. He got so much of it from Steve, that the occasions where Steve bumped against him...refused him, or ignored him, or reminded Billy that he was a rinky dink sophomore lit a match in his belly. And he’d swallowed gasoline for too much of his life.

“That’s something a virgin says.”

Billy couldn’t even remember what he’d just said. He was already, instantly, seeing the glow of embers on the fringe of his vision. “Excuse me?”

Steve shrugged as he got up from his couch. “It’s whatever. It’s fine. Just showing your hand, is all.”

Billy couldn’t believe it. Steve was either the biggest idiot in Hawkins - which he knew wasn’t true considering there was a real cesspool that smoked underneath the bleachers - or he was so far in denial that Billy had a whole new reason to be pissed.

An involuntary sound left Steve when Billy came up behind him and pushed him against the wall underneath the stairs.

“You don’t know anything about me.”

Billy wasn’t some cute sophomore. He stood toe to toe with Steve, barely an inch shorter. If this is what it took for Steve to realize that, fine.

To realize that Billy wasn’t some teenager scared shitless of a girls’ bra -

Steve regained his footing, and closed the distance between their mouths. It was small, soft, and brief. Rationality should have made Billy step away. Punch him, maybe. But Billy wasn’t rational. His shock held him statuesque, barely breathing while Steve moved a hand to cradle the side of his head and neck -

A sound left Billy this time, as Steve angled his mouth over Billy’s. Where he learned Billy was scared, so scared of Steve. His body dashed rationality against the wall and kissed him back tentatively, and then earnestly, just trying to keep up until Steve’s other hand framed him in. As Steve pushed against him until Billy walked backwards to have himself pressed against the wall.

He felt drunk as his hands let go of Steve’s shirt to hold onto the curvature of his ribs. He panted while Steve kissed his throat and washed Billy’s senses with his warm, sweet fragrance; his hair brushing Billy’s face and inspiring him to turn his face into Steve’s scalp. Inhale him into his lungs.

Billy didn’t know what game they were playing. But Steve outplayed him.

[band--psycho]

Chibs x Reader-Jealousy

Prompt 4 for Anon-��What I do know is that you need to get through your head, that I am a grown woman and that I am not a damsel in distress that needs protecting // With Chibs Telford (Prompt in bold)

1.3k Writing Celebration Masterlist / Sons Of Anarchy Masterlist

(Credit to the gif owner)

I had been looking forward to this night for months now. It was the annual Sons of Anarchy reunion, which only meant one thing. New men were on the scene and I couldn’t be happier about that. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the guys in the Charming charter and a few of them were quite good looking, especially Chibs. I’d always had a little crush on scotsman, not that he knew it of course, so we were just good friends and I was happy with that. Bur right now, I was furious with him. I couldn’t believe what he’d just done. I was quite happily flirting with one of the good looking guys from the other charter, he was a little bit older than me and quite easy on the eye, we were getting on great...and then Chibs decided to walk over to the guy and basically threaten him. He didn’t raise his voice when he told the guy to leave me alone, but the anger that was raging in his eyes was clear to see. I was so angry at him, but I knew better than to make a huge scene infront of the club, so I just grabbed him by his arm and led him outside, everyone else was busy enjoying the party so I knew we wouldn’t be missed too much.

As soon as we were outside I let go of his arm and closed the door quickly behind me before asking “What the hell was that?”  I could tell Chibs’ was surprised by the harsh tone in my voice. It was rare I ever raised my voice at anyone, let alone Chibs but this was different. 

“I don’t know what ye’re so mad about, I was only trying to look out for ye,” Chibs said, his eyes narrowing slightly in confusion as he ran his gloved hand through this hair, before continuing to say “You don’t even know him….anything could’ve happened.” The confusion in his eyes quickly changing into worry.  I understood where he was coming from but at the same time, I was an adult...and I was allowed to make my own choices. 

“I appreciate the concern but-” I began only to be cut off by Chibs’ voice.

“He could’ve done anything to ye…” His words trailed off towards the end as he shook his head slightly, probably thinking of the worst possible outcome. I knew why he was protective of me, we’d been friends for so long he was bound to be, maybe I should've expected this outcome, I just thought it wouldn't bother him like this.

“It’s a party Chibs, how many one night stands have you had again?” I said with a little chuckle in my voice attempting to diffuse the tension and calm myself down slightly but he just scoffed at my response, shaking his head once again. 

“That’s not the point and ye know it lass,” He snapped, the venom in his voice almost as harsh as the look in his eyes and I don’t know why, but that look and the tone of his voice made something inside me snap. Making the anger that I originally felt only grow. 

“I don’t know what would’ve happened,” I began, walking closer to him, so I could look him directly in the eyes as I said the following words, “But what I do know is that you need to get through your head, that I am a grown woman and that I am not a damsel in distress that needs protecting, I can handle myself.” Granted, everyone in the club was protective of me and I understood why, but I was done. I was done not being treated like an adult just because I was younger than all of them. It didn't give the right to treat like a child. 

“I know ye can handle yerself, lass, I don’t doubt that,” his words caught me off guard slightly, I wasn’t expecting him to say that but it just left me confused as to why he made such a big deal about me talking to a guy. 

“Then what the fuck is your problem Chibs?” I sighed, running a hand my hair in frustration. 

“That it wasn’t me!” He practically growled, clenching his hands into fists. The low tone of his voice made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge as my mind tried to work out what he’d just said.  

“What?” 

“It doesn’t matter, forget I said ‘anythin’,” He said, making his way past me, brushing off the admission he’d just made like it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing. That comment wasn’t something that I could forget about.

“Chibs-” I started, quickly turning around and grabbing his arm, pulling lightly on his jacket forcing him to turn round and face me “Chibs, talk to me,” I pleaded, desperately wanting an explanation to what he’d just said. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life wondering what he meant. That’s not a game I wanted to play...I wanted to know the truth. My eyes were locked onto his, but his were just fixed on the ground. 

A few moments of awkward silence passed before Chibs let out a small sigh,his eyes locking onto mine as he breathed the words“I like ye lass and I hated the fact that you were flirting with someone…” the words of his admission made my heart swell and my head spin

“You were...you were jealous?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper but as soon I said those words, Chibs closed his eyes, sighing again. 

“Aye, just forget I said anything, lass, I know you don’t feel the same,” As he said those words he pulled his arm out of my grip. I didn’t know what to say….but I knew I needed to say something and before I could stop it the words “What if I do…” flowed out of my mouth, my voice was quiet but loud enough to catch Chibs’ attention. 

“Lass-” He began facing away from me almost as though he was frozen on the spot.

“Chibs, I like you, I have done for a while..” I continued, moving infront of him slowly, raising my hand to his face, caressing his cheek lightly, the prickly feeling of his stubble tickling the palm of my hand slightly. 

“Why didn’t ye ever say anything?”

“Why didn’t you?” I challenged back, with a small smile gracing my lips. 

“Because I’m old enough to be ye Da..and...I thought...I thought you liked me as a friend and that was it,”

“Well,” I began, closing the distance between us as I quickly pressed my lips to his in a gentle kiss, “It’s a good thing I like older guys then isn’t it?” I smirked against his lips, a small chuckle falling from them as I did so. A few seconds passed and this time it was Chibs that closed the distance between us, kissing me more passionately than anyone ever had done, as we were kissing his hands made their way down to my waist, pulling me closer than I ever thought possible. My head was spinning in pure bliss, completely overwhelmed by what was happening but happier than I ever had been.

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[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

Kaoru Ongaku to Hito Interview  May 2021

DIR EN GREY  Endless originality. Don't shake, don't move, don't give up. As the leader and main composer of DIR EN GREY,  he made me realize in this interview that even if the band is in a situation in which they can't move forward, they are still striving toward their own determination without losing sight of their desire to create music. The new single "Oboro" is a ballad with a simple sound envision that insists on the melody and lyrics. In this single, which was made with the intention of being widely listened, you can feel a different stance on the sounds and the arrangements. I think his obsession with music and the pursuit of originality are changing because of his age and career. On the other hand, the latest promotional photos are still grotesque and chaotic. The future this band is heading for it’s held by his unchanging desire for music. Here there is a dialogue with him which makes you believe so.

Notes before reading: This is Kaoru’s interview featured in Ongaku to hito music magazine May 2021.

You can get this magazine at cdJapan (totally worth it!) Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts. Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :) -----------

Text by Higuchi Yasuyuki Photographs by Amita Mari Hair & make-up by Yamaguchi Atsushi_ EKYQ

“I’m not in the mood to say ‘let’s do this now’ but recently,  making astounding/ crazy songs might be difficult”

(While turning over the latest issue ...)  Kaoru: Did M-AGE make a come back? 

*M-AGE is a Japanese electronic pop/rock band active during the early 90s. They were feature in the previous issue of Ongaku to hito, April 2021* -Are you affected by that band? (laughs). Kaoru: I was surprised (laughs). -A band that disbanded more than 20 years ago did a comeback, there are another band that the drummer who has been a member for 20 years has left, there have been various things happening (in the music industry) in the past year, but DIR EN GREY has not lost to Corona. K: When it comes to losing, there is nothing you can do about it. - What do you think is the reason why these five people are continuing, without stopping, as a band? K: Isn't it because every one of us think we can’t go beyond this band? If someone gives up, we are not confident we can do something better than what we are doing now. It’s like, we can't get away from each other. It's easier to express your opinion if you keep a certain distance in that sense, and you don't have to accumulate stress about it. -By the way, throughout this year you noticed things and had some thoughts about the band. K:  That’s right….well, since the creation process was originally done remotely, I rarely had the opportunity to meet with the members other than the tour, but in reality it was important to have casual conversations with the members during the tour. There was a moment when the ideas changed depending on the words I exchanged with the members on the spot like “we should try to make this kind of song”… But it was a year when I was making songs without this input, so  it’s like there was  a part of me that felt gloomy. -You felt the importance of talking with the members. K: Even if we communicate remotely, we can just communicate by voice or text but, the mood/situation, the temperature, facial expressions etc…that can only be perceived directly so I thought those things are important after all. -In that situation, did the band make a song that only can be made now or tried to aim for something in your work?

K: That’s not case. It was as usual. We are not in the mood to do something like that now. However, it has nothing to do with this situation but we talked about how recently  it’s becoming harder to make crazy songs. -A crazy song? K:  When the band tries to create a song, naturally it turns out quite relaxed/calm. It feels like it’s what our bodies want. -Why do you want that kind of thing? K: I think that kind of songs makes you feel good, isn’t it? If we want to make a song like “Gya!” (fierce), we can make it but if we do it naturally, there will be more calm/relaxed songs. In other words, our previous single (digital single ‘Ochita koto no aru Sora) was a song we made with the intention of creating something fierce. -Intentionally, you made a fierce song. K: So, there was a talk about what kind adjustments should be done. We did it this time as well, but for now we are not thinking too much about it. Originally, ‘ARCHE’ (album released in 2014) was an album that was closer to that feeling. I just tried to do things I liked. There were a lot of slow and calm songs, but maybe it's easier to come up with such songs these days. -That’s why you can’t let yourself go with your natural flow… K: That’s right. So, the next album ('The Insulated World') was shaken off in the opposite direction. Of course, there are still intense/fierce songs coming out from the members. However, the songs everyone selects and remains in the top ranks are generally calm/relaxed. - 'Oboro' is a song that was born in such a situation. K: There was a talk about this single like ‘let’s make it easy for people who listen to DIR EN GREY for the first time, having an easy-to-understand melody”, so this song became a single. -Why did you decide to go in that direction? K: Somehow, we thought there are quite a lot of people who only know the name DIR EN GREY these days, but don't know what kind of music we are playing. Then, we feel like trying to make it easy for such people to get into us. So, I think it's quite challenging for us. -You are not really a band that “goes outside”. But also this song,  it’s a song that can be classified as a ballad in DIR EN GREY. K: It’s the kind of song we usually would keep for the album. It’s also interesting to dare to release it as a single. -It’s certainly a relaxing song and the variety of sounds is small, so it seems easy to approach but the latest promotional photos….(laughs) I was like “what’s your intention?”. K: Fufufufu (laughs) -But it looks like because of those photos the door is going to be closed before they listened to your music (laughs). K: That's why it's not that simple, like the sound or the tone of the song is intense or not. The song is like this, but this band is actually called ‘fierce’. -You mentioned earlier it  may be a matter of age, but the taste of music changes just as the taste of food changes when you get older. K: That's right. -So, recently, I feel this band doesn't try to resist such changes so much, or like you have started to project a realistic/true-to-life self into music. K: By all means, it looks like we became adults, right? -That’s why I’m familiar with it because we are from the same generation, it just fits. You can listen to it and enjoy a song with faint sounds instead of roaring ones. K: That's right. Simply, this kind of song is the one that roots in me. For example, the synthesizer-like sound that comes out first. -The intro with a synthesizer-like sound? K: That's right. That's my roots, originally I liked  the New Wave and listened to it, so I tried to create  what I was waiting for. *New wave is a broad music genre that included numerous pop and rock styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s* -But I think DIR EN GREY was the kind of band in which the roots of each member weren't projected in that way. K: After all, if five people do it, chemical changes will occur and the result will be completely different. But lately, the things I created haven't changed much, and sometimes they reach the end point. Of course, it's arranged in detail, but for this song, it's pretty much the same shape than at the beginning. -So, I got the impression it was a song that was unlikely to be done by DIR EN GREY until now. K: Maybe if we tried to keep it for the album, the arrangement would have been different. Because it’s a single, maybe I tried to listen to the melody. -In other words, it doesn’t feel like DIR EN GREY. K: Yes, if you listen to it with your existing values/sense of values, you might think it's not like DIR EN GREY. But this time we wanted to do that. That’s why when the president of our label listened to the demo first, said something like ‘This, isn’t it a bit insufficient/unsatisfactory?’ the reply was ‘No, that’s not the case’ (laughs) -Ahahahaha K: So, I think it's a new type of song. But just because this song seems to happen once in a while, the other songs are going to change steadily due to chemical changes going on. "This new song isn't fierce or shocking. Certainly, you can listen to it smoothly but actually….” -Then, I have a question for you Kaoru, not for the band, but do you think your personality has changed a lot from 10 years ago? K: How is that in reality? - Specifically, "DUM SPIRO SPERO" that came out 10 years ago is your commitment and obsession/attachment. In other words, I think it's an album that is full of personality. So, this time 'Oboro' comes from your roots,In other words, it's a song that is full of personality. However, if you compare these two works, the contrast is so huge that you can't think they were made by the same person. K: That's not true. -Oh really? (laughs). K: That's not true (laughs). For me, both are the same me. -But as a listener, I get the impression that the music is exactly the opposite, or that it's completely different. K: Certainly it’s the exact opposite when you  are referring to a band called DIR EN GREY, but it’s not that different for me, rather, it’s connected. -What kind of connection do you have? K: The sound may be different, but the points we are focused are the same. Especially this time, it feels like we've created each sound in detail, so it's more like I'm playing with the precision of a machine inside rather than the outward appearance of the music. -I see. K: Anyway, the most particular thing about this song is the sound of the synthesizer at the intro  I mentioned earlier. I thought the sound at the beginning would determine everything in this song. - Since that kind of determination/passion has disappeared, I was wondering if it would be a song that would allow me to listen to the melody simply. K: That's not true. Is it natural to stick to that? For example, I bought a synthesizer,  and it makes interesting sounds so I tried to create something. But the preset sounds you got when you bought the synthesizer (Note: it's set in advance) don’t work for me. -Why not? K: You have to create your own original ones. Even if I think the preset sounds are are catchy the way they are, I dare to stick to my original ones. Otherwise I can't be satisfied. - I wondered if you had finally abandoned that kind of troublesome pickiness(laughs). K: I’m really picky about that (laughs). But I think that’s normal when you make music. Even commercial pop music can be really picky about it. -You're right. You're right. K: Because it was created with that detail,I think people who listen to it will say "Oh!".If it wasn’t created in that way, it won't convey anything, and if it's as simple as this song, it won't be interesting unless you are committed to it. That is why it is the same as "DUM ". -Surely, but what if you could make it smoothly without being so committed/picky about it? K: Sometimes it’s easy to create, still, it would be nice if it makes you feel something. -I agree. K: This new song isn’t intense or shocking when it comes to the music, so you can listen to it  smoothly, that’s why there is  something for sure that makes you go like  “this song!”. But in reality, there are several sounds, I’m just not trying to hear them properly. It sounds like something that makes you feel it, you can’t hear it clearly, but it’s there. It’s not something new, to stick to that kind that sound, but in that sense it might feel like different or new. -At first, I had the impression that it was new or something different from what I heard before , but that may be the result of your commitment, to the point  that you couldn't hear it. K: I don't know if the word "new" is correct, but now I want to create  in a way that makes easy to project ourselves, while blending  it with something that makes our guts/intestines stick out. If we can do that, I think it will be something different and interesting, like "DIR EN GREY is doing something interesting again". I feel like I'm exploring that aspect now. -We talked about age before but, Isn't this age the time to imagine something like the time remaining? Like taking it easy at this point…..that kind of idea. K: Rather the opposite. I don't know how long I'll be able to create something I'm compromised with, and whether if I will keep having this  energy or physical strength. I want to keep doing it as long as I can. I can only make music with what I have, so I'm not overdoing it in that sense, but I'm overdoing it in a different sense (laughs). You can't create it without straining yourself. -I see, you are not lying to yourself. K: Of course. However, if you rely only on yourself, it won’t beat your expectations. I don’t think that this will change, no matter how many things happen. Still, at last I started to think that our music has some power of persuasion. Do you think we can keep competing with just our music? -It's been like that for a long time. But this band is like asking for something impossible, it’s a band that won’t disappear. K: But isn’t it about creating things? -I agree. Is it still fun to create things? K: It's fun (laughs) -Immediate answer (laughs) K: If we can do it forever, I want to do it forever. There are a lot of difficult moments, but I really like it. -As long as these five people are able to share that feeling, this band will continue. K: I think so. It's okay as long as  I believe in myself and the members. -I see……your speech was  much worse than reading a bad self-help book (laughs). K: hahahaha

[beigehearts]

Yandere adult trio: college AU These are drabbles for when they lose their mind and kill the people around you... and kidnaps you

These are going to be a little longer than usual but I hope y'all enjoy it as much as I did when writing it (also im trying out the beta version of the new posting system so lemme know if anything is weird)

Sorry this took me forever bro

CW: murder, blood, physical abuse, alcohol

Hisoka

It's getting quite annoying to be completely honest. He just won't leave you alone, constantly flirting and making passes at you. And yet at the same time he makes fun of you and is actually very mean. It wasn't so bad in the beginning but this is just getting out of hand. You made sure he was aware of this. ---- He's looming over you as he corners you against the wall. You refuse to look up at him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.

While you aren't looking at him, you can feel him looking at you. You already know he has that annoying grin on his face that makes you want to punch him square in the nose.

He brushes his long fingers against your face, making a quiet humming noise. "Are you ready to give up my pet?"

You ignore his words and slap his hand away from your face. "I need to get to class, move Hisoka."

He frowns though you aren't looking at his face. He opens his mouth to say something when someone from behind him calls out to you. "Hey y/n! Are you okay?"

She walks towards you but before she can get involved you shove the man away and huff. What a nuisance. You turn towards him once you're standing next to your friend and glare at him.

"Leave me alone. It's annoying and it's scaring people. Got it?" Before he can respond you turn on your heels and drag your friend down the hall by her wrist just hoping to put distance between the two of you. ---- You're pretty sure you made it clear that you don't want him near you anymore. But by now you know he doesn't give up so easily. One can only hope that he gets bored of you and finds someone else to bother.

You and your friends went out for brunch earlier, and all was well until Chelsea handed you something. She said that she found it in her bag but it was addressed to you, so you put it in your own bag.

You pour yourself a rum and coke and make yourself comfortable on the couch of your shared apartment. All of your roommates went out for drinks but you were too tired to go out.

After taking a sip of the sweet liquid in your glass, you examine the letter you were given earlier. It's a typical white envelope with your name written in pen. There's no address on it or return address so you assume it was just supposed to be handed to you.

You rip open the letter with your finger and pull out the singular loose leaf paper. It's folded in three sections so you pull it open. The handwriting is messy but in an aesthetic sort of way.

Dear y/n, I strongly suggest that you go to class 406B in the technical building tonight. Don't be late or you'll miss the whole party. 10:45 pm - see you then. I almost forgot, if you don't come I have some revealing pictures of you that I can share with anyone I wish to. XOXO

This is the strangest letter you've ever received. It's probably a prank by one of your roommates or friends. You've never sent nudes to anyone so obviously they're bluffing.

Though perhaps you should entertain your friends and go. Who knows, maybe there will be drinks. But you are tired... Maybe you'll just go to bed. You peek over to the time on your phone, it's 9:12 pm. Yeah, you'll just go to bed after you finish your drink.

'bzz' 'bzzz'

Who is texting you so late at night? You sit up and realize you fell asleep on the couch. You wipe the drool off of your face and grab your phone with distain for whoever woke you up.

It's a blocked number.

ur late

Late? Late for what? Your phone displays the time, 11:27 pm. Are your friends really this committed to their prank? They must be trying to get Tik Tok famous or some shit. Well you're awake now, you might as well head over there.

----

The moment you step into the building something seems off. If all of the lights including the emergency lights wasn't enough, the ground seems sticky. Though you can't bring yourself to use your phone flash light to see what it is.

Eventually you find the room 406B in the darkness. The door is closed and no lights are on in the room. It seems as if no one is inside. As you reach for the handle of the door, you notice something on the window of the door. You can barely make it out, but there's what looks like a hand print. You chuckle, this must be a prank.

Now feeling a little better, you open the door and step inside. It's too dark to see anything but you can make out some figures in the dark. It must be your friends thinking they're being sneaky.

You roll your eyes and look for the light switch, finding it and switching it on. You squint at the sudden light, and your eyes begin to focus. Which you wish they never did.

There is blood everywhere, on the ceiling, the windows, the floor, the tables... But that's not the most jarring part. Your friends are sitting in chairs, one of them sitting on the ground against the wall.

There is your friend Chelsea, sitting in a chair with her head tipped down. You can't even tell what color her clothes originally were, they're covered in red, a dark dark red. Next to her is Derick, he's sitting the same way except his head is tipped backwards. His eyes are wide and his face is left in permanent horror- expressing the brutality of his end. You can't bare to look anymore, you drop to your knees and cover your face with your hands.

You scream and scream until your voice is hoarse and throat is raw. You're left coughing while you are drowned by your own tears.

"Are you ready to give up yet?" A deep voice asks from in front of you.

You can't stop the flow of tears as you look up at this monster. He's also covered in blood, and some is splattered on his face. He wipes a thumb across his face in the blood, and brings it to his lips. Sobs rack your body, you can't even make sense of this.

Hisoka squats down so you're face to face and grips your jaw bone tightly in his hand. You can feel the now cold substance being rubbed against your jaw by his fingers and it makes you want to puke.

"I got tired of waiting for you." His grin is nauseating, forcing you to stop yourself from puking.

His nails dig into your skin, mixing your own blood with that of your friend's. He brings his face close to yours and in a gentle but menacing tone he croaks, "Let's stop this childish game, alright y/n?"

Illumi

It's easy to miss things when you're caught up with the rush of classes and friends and love. All of the parties and hangovers are enough to satisfy your needs for entertainment and drama in this boring life. If you didn't fill up your daily life with these acts, you would probably sleep every day away until you fell into a coma.

To put it short, you're a busy body. And busy bodies don't have time to stop and look around at what is happening. For example, how were you to notice the key under your doormat was missing, or how your dresser drawers were left slightly open when you know you closed them before leaving. Noticing these small things are definitely not on your agenda.

It's 10 am, Saturday, and you don't have any classes or work today. You're sitting at the kitchen bar, drinking coffee and chatting with your roommate. It isn't often that you have a free day, and sometimes it is nice to have even if you want to get moving. The sun is peeking through the curtains and the aroma of espresso beans is a delight. It's a bit chilly so you have a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. What a peaceful morn-

'BANG BANG'

Your roommate eyes you when someone bangs on the front door, already knowing the events that are about to take place. She rolls her eyes and stomps up the stairs to her room, not wanting to get involved. You always feel bad that your roommates have to listen to this but you're really not sure how to end it.

You take your last peaceful sip of coffee and call out, "Come in!"

Before you can even finish your sentence, he storms inside and slams the door behind him. Your boyfriend of course is mad about something you've done. He trudges towards you and moves the stool next to you out of the way, and leans towards you so his face is next to yours.

"Are you kidding me y/n?!" He yells in your ear, but you don't flinch because you're used to this.

He rips his phone from his pocket and shoves it in your face after pulling up a screenshot. It's a conversation between you and his friend.

"Can't you learn to shut your damn mouth? This is our business and you have no right to tell anyone about it!" He's practically seething with rage.

You take a last sip of coffee and set your mug down on the counter. You continue facing forward and not facing him. "It's not our business, it's yours. And I asked him if it was true that you were cheating on me." You turn your head towards him while grimacing and mutter, "Again."

Ah but you've just lighted a bomb with your words.

His face has gone red and he looks like he's about to explode. You begin wondering why you were ever attracted to him.

"Maybe if you weren't such a prude! I can't even kiss my girlfriend whenever I want, it's ridiculous. You know full well that you're so... so... Ugh! You know what? Fuck you!"

As quickly as he came, he runs out of the house, slamming the door once again.

You whisper to yourself, "Fuck you too."

God he's such a child, you don't even want to be with him anymore. But every time you decide to break up with him he suddenly becomes Mr.Perfect. "I'm so sorry." "I love you." "Let me make it up to you." And then he does make it up to you only to tear down all of his hard work.

----

It's been a few days since your big fight with your boyfriend. He hasn't talked to you at all but this isn't uncommon for him. You promised your roommates that you would break up with him, not just for yourself but for the sake of their peace and quiet.

You texted him a few times while you were at work but he left you on read. He's so petty. So you text him one last time.

Come 2 my place at 8 tonight, We need to talk

He answers immediately which surprises you.

Can't, flat tire Come to my place

It doesn't make a difference to you where it is so that's fine. You wonder if maybe he's come to terms with the fact this needs to end. Hopefully so. If there's one thing you want him to be mature about, it's this.

Your shift ends at 6:30pm. You drive home, shower, get dressed, eat something and get ready to leave.

You send one last text,

OMW

It's read immediately but there's no response. Well, it's not like you expected much from him anyway. You drive to his house at 7:45 pm, and arrive around 7:58 pm. All of the lights in his town house are on. He's a few years older than you so he has his own house due to somehow being able to hold down a job. With his anger issues it's hard to believe that he can hold onto anything. Damn, he really is an unattractive person isn't he?

You step out of your car and lock it. Now that you're out of the car you realize that it's very quiet. This is unusual for when you go to his house, normally you can hear music or the sound affects of a shitty video game. But it's silent. Maybe he's waiting for you? He must be taking this well.

You step up the creaky stairs of the house, and knock on the equally as creaky door. No response. Maybe he's sleeping? You peek into the mail box and take out the extra key for the house from it. But when you go to unlock the door, it's already unlocked. This is becoming very strange.

You push open the door and peer into the dark living room. It's not too dark that you can't make out the furniture in the darkness. You step inside and shut the door behind you, it's still quiet. Not quiet, absolutely and undeniably silent. You flick the light on and look around again, nothing seems out of place. It's messy, with empty beer cans and bottles on the ground per usual. The stains on his carpet remain untouched, including the vomit stain in the corner.

"Jay?" You call out into the still atmosphere. Nothing. Is he not home? That can't be, his car is in the driveway.

The sound of his old floor boards being stepped on echoes through the house. What the hell is he trying to pull? You look up the stairs, but it's only darker up there than it was down here. He must be drunk.

Each step you take up the stairs, your heart begins to pound faster. Something feels off, this doesn't feel right. This isn't like your boyfriend, he's simple, he wouldn't try scaring you like this. On the top step, you feel your shoe touch something soft. You lean down and pick it up, and raise it up to your face. A pair of thongs that definitely aren't yours. So that's what's happening. He couldn't even pull himself together for one night.

Your pounding heart is no longer caused by fear but anger. He's cheated too many times to count on your hands, but this time makes you angrier than you've ever been. He's never been in bed with another woman knowing that you were coming over. This is fucking ridiculous.

You stomp towards his room and kick the door open. It's dark but you can tell that there are two people in bed. Your vision has gone red, you've never been this angry in your life.

You don't bother turning the lights on, you storm over to his side of the bed and rip the covers off. Just barely you can make out a woman sleeping next to him. You grab his shoulder tightly and shake him violently to wake him up.

"Get the fuck up Jay! Get! Up!" He doesn't respond, you lean down and yell in his ear like he always does to you. "You're such a childish piece of shit!"

He still doesn't move or speak, for fuck's sake. You stomp back to the entrance of the room and flick on the light. You turn around and begin walking back towards the bed, when you're stopped in your tracks.

Everything is red, but it's not your vision anymore. The bed has been dyed red, and his naked body is covered in it. Your mouths falls open but no screams come out. The woman next to him is splayed out on the bed, naked as well. Covered in red. You look down at the hands that touched your boyfriend, they're also red.

You rush over to the bed and shake your boyfriend again.

"Jay? Jay! Can you hear me?" You put your ear to his chest but you don't hear anything. You put your finger under his nose but don't feel anything.

"Hey! Hey! Wake up! This isn't funny!" Tears stream down your face as you pull him to your chest, cradling him.

Your sobs make it hard to speak and your chest begins to hurt. "J-... Jay... This- isn't-" You gasp between each word, "Funny..."

It's only when you hear a noise coming from behind you that you stop to think about what's going on. It doesn't matter to you though, they could kill you too if they wished.

"People are strange." You turn your head to see where the voice is coming from.

It's someone you don't recognize, he's tall, pale, has long hair, and hypnotizing eyes. Your sobs cease for a moment and you hug your boyfriend tighter to you.

"All of that fighting... You were even coming here to break up with him and yet... You're sad that he's gone?" He makes his way towards you slowly, "I've done you a favor, haven't I?"

He looms over you but all you can do is stand there, frozen by fear.

The man grabs the back of your shirt and pulls you violently from Jay. You try to run back to him, but the man pulls you to him, hugging you tightly. No matter how much you flail in his grasp you can't get away from him. You're left sobbing into his shirt, your body limp in his arms.

"Why?" You manage to whisper.

He holds you to him with one arm and pets your hair with his other hand. "You were miserable. He was making you miserable."

He sighs and kisses the top of your head. What is going on?

"Come on, don't waste your energy on human garbage. I'm here, so it's fine." He states it so 'matter of fact'.

"Who?" Is all you can ask, unable to finish your question.

"I guess I haven't introduced myself yet. Illumi is my name." With ease, he grabs you by your shoulders and lifts your face up to his. "Your future husband."

Chrollo

What more could you ask for? You already have easy college classes, fun parties, a good part time job, great friends, and an amazing best friend. Tonight you're going to hang out with a bunch of friends and have drinks at one of their apartments. It's a pretty normal Thursday night, nothing odd about it.

You're waiting for your best friend to pick you up, he's always there to pick you up on the dot. If he doesn't come early that is. You shove all the essentials into your bag and hear a honk outside. Must be him.

But of course you're always tardy. You lace up your shoes and run out of the dorm room, tripping out of the building. He's watching as you stumble towards the car since one of your shoes is already unlaced. When you finally flop down in the passenger seat he shakes his head with a knowing smile.

"Oh y/n, will you ever be organized?" He asks with amusement.

You click your tongue and straighten out your clothes, "Don't ask such stupid questions."

He turns his body towards you as much as possible and pats his lap. You instinctively know what that means. You hike your foot up above the console and put your foot on his lap. He begins tying your shoe, his smile is unmoving. He's always smiling.

"Chrollo, you don't need to baby me." You roll your eyes and groan.

He laughs and pats your leg, signaling that he's done. "If not me then who?"

You swing your leg back over to your side and buckle up. The two of you hang out a lot. Since you're both going to the hangout tonight, you decided to car pool. But first you're going to go get the alcohol. Everyone has to bring something for everyone, that way you guys can get wasted with no qualms.

You plug your phone into the aux and play your shared playlist. The first song that comes on is "The Cult of Dionysus" by The Orion Experience. Something that he added.

Finally you feel like you can relax, it always feels that way around Chrollo. His presence is just, comforting, in every way. You feel like you can do anything, say anything, ask for anything. He's always there for you with no exceptions and honestly you think you may have feelings for him. But it's a question of are you confusing comfort and friendly affection for romanticism. It's just that he's so perfect, he doesn't have a single flaw. Not one that you've ever seen at least. You probably never will see one of his flaws.

You sink into the seat and sigh.

He looks at you out of the corner of his eye, but quickly looks back at the road. "What's the matter?"

"Oh nothing... Just, everything is good."

He knows you better than anyone, so it's an obvious lie when you say this. "But what?"

Anytime he calls you out, you surrender and tell him everything. "Everything is so great you know." He nods with your statement. "I go to a good school, have good friends, have a good job." This has been on your mind for quite some time.

"Something is missing, you know? The excitement, the... the..." You chuckle and turn towards him and put up jazz hands, "The pizzazz!"

He doesn't turn to look at you but you know he saw you when his smile widens. "I get that. Maybe you just need to step outside of your comfort zone. Do something different."

Do something different? Yeah, maybe that is what you need.

----

All eleven of you are sitting in a circle on the ground, drinking and playing never have I ever. You take a long drink of your Mike's hard lemonade, which is just something to get the night going.

Dina wipes hair from her face and smiles, "Okay okay my turn. So never have I ever.... Uhh." She pops up when she thinks of something, "Never have I ever jumped out of a window."

DJ leans forward and raises an eyebrow, "Okay what kind of window we talking? High up? First floor?"

Dina answers, "Any kind, any kind of window." The majority of you put a finger down which makes the group burst out in laughter.

Your friend Zoey finishes off her bottle and slams it down on the floor. "Let's play something else."

"Like what?" One of your friends ask.

Zoey thinks for a moment, "Like... Truth or dare, spin the bottle. Or maybe eleven minutes in heaven."

Dj interjects, "I think it's seven minutes in heaven, not eleven."

"Oh whatever DJ, they rhyme." Zoey spits back.

Lex answers, "Let's play seven minutes in heaven!"

Of course DJ huffs and rolls his eyes, "What are we? Middle schoolers?"

Guac (which is his nickname) speaks up, "Oh come on, are you shy DJ?"

Finally the quiet Chrollo sitting next to you says something, "I'm not really interested. Right y/n?" He looks at you to back him up.

The group coos at the two of you and someone says, "We get it, you got something going on. The game is just for fun, don't be so serious Chrollo."

Chrollo opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off, "Hey, you told me to do something different. Maybe this is the first step."

His face shows betrayal and you feel a squeeze in your heart.

He stands up and glares at the group, "Whatever." He storms out of the apartment, and everyone mumbles to each other. Chrollo has never acted like this so this is quite a shock to everyone.

In order not to kill the mood you speak up, "Alright, let's pull names out of a hat!"

All of you write down your names on a small piece of paper and put it in a baseball cap. Dina pulls two names out of the hat and of course makes it a dramatic event.

"Alright so first we have the most lovely of people..." She looks at the group like a teacher waiting for an answer from her class. "Gracie!" Everyone claps and she stands up in front of all of you, taking a bow.

Dina pats her thighs rapidly, "Drum roll please!" Everyone obeys her, "The next hot piece of ass is y/n!"

You stand up and curtsey, taking Gracie's hand and leading her to the closet. Dina stands in front of the closet once both of you are inside and grins, "Timer starts now kids." She shuts the door on you two and all of your friends cheer from outside.

Here comes the awkward part. It's too dark to see her expression but you already know she's blushing.

You lean towards her and in a low voice so no one else can hear say, "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

She shakes her head, and you brush a hand through her dark coils. The both of you giggle when your finger gets stuck in her hair. She leans in for a kiss, but before your lips meet you're interrupted.

The front door is opened and slammed shut, you hear the lock click as well.

"Hey Chrollo, you feeling better?" "What are you doing?" "Holy shit, please, what are you doing?!" "Are you fucking crazy? This isn't funny!"

Something slams against the closet door and Gracie yelps.

"Whoa whoa, we can work something out." They sound desperate "Back up!" You hear a loud thump and then screams. "Grab him guys!" It sounds like people are running around, but soon the screams become not those of only fear but of pain. There are gargled pleas and pathetic whimpers for mercy.

You and Gracie hold each other, gripping onto one another for dear life.

Soon the screams, pleas, thuds, gurgling, all of it ends. The apartment goes quiet and you try to silence your heavy breathing.

There's a loud thud right in front of the closet and then the doors are opened abruptly. There Chrollo is, covered in blood, and you can see the bodies of your friends behind him. Before you can react, he pulls Gracie away from you, slams the doors closed and there's another thud.

Gracie's screams are blood curdling, screeches and cries for help. You try to open the doors but something is blocking it, keeping them closed. As her screams get louder you throw yourself against the doors, trying to push whatever is there out of the way.

Before you can even imagine of getting out, the screams fade out into whimpers, and into nothing.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit.

You're given no time to think when the doors fly open and you're face to face with Chrollo. He's blocking out the light and his usually neat clothes are crumpled and bloody. You look down to his hands, a sledge hammer hangs from his fingers, dripping with your friend's blood.

"Ch-Chrollo... Please don't." You whisper.

The sledge hammer drops to the ground and he wraps his arms around you gently. "Oh y/n. I would never hurt you."

He's so gentle with you, so gentle. It almost makes you forget what just happened, because he feels like home. "Why? Why did you do this?"

He steps back and grabs your shoulders, he leans down so he's eye to eye with you. "They crossed a line, a line that should not be crossed."

You begin to speak but he grabs your cheeks with one hand and dawns his usual smile, "You don't need them. You have me." He kisses your squished lips as if it were normal. "Right y/n?"

Slowly you nod, you don't need them. If Chrollo says it, it must be true.

"Good girl."