#rem is holding the camera actually

[writtenbyan-aries]

Hey could we get a Sam fluff where yn is scared while ghost hunting with them and runs to Sam. He comforts her or something..

I love youuu

I love writing the spookier ones so yes of course!

Warnings: ghost hunting, reader being touched by spirits, spoken to, pushing, shoving, mentions of death, on the spookier side with a touch of fluff

Word count: 3.1K | unedited

——

This investigation was going smooth, or at least it was until it was you, Sam, and Colby.

“Alright guys. So now we’re-“ Colby freezes, snapping his head to look down the hall, “Did you hear that?”

You nod, “The knocking?”

“Where?” Sam asks from behind the camera, “Down there?” He points down the hall and Colby nods, “Yeah it was like two knocks.”

You all stay silent for a few seconds, hoping it happens again, but it doesn’t, so you move on.

“We are currently in the foyer, right off to the side from the front door. It has been said that other investigators, even the owners have seen a woman walking back and fourth from the door to the steps right over there.” Colby points and Sam turns the camera.

You look around, trying to stay as close to Sam as you can without being in the way.

“Isn’t she wearing a white dress too?” You ask and Sam nods, “Yeah, almost like a sleek, but old dress. People have said that it looks torn, so hopefully we can figure it out for ourselves tonight.”

“I have the REM Pod here..” Colby goes into explaining what it does and how it works while you turn, staring down the hall.

You hated that you didn’t know if your mind was playing tricks on you, or if you actually see something, but when you shine your light down the hall, there’s nothing.

“Did you see something?” Sam asks and you shrug, “Couldn’t te-“ As you turn back to look at Sam, you’re pushed towards him.

It wasn’t super hard, but it was enough to make him fumble the camera to make sure you didn’t lose your balance fully.

“You okay? What happened?” Sam asks as he hands the camera to Colby. He turns back to you, “It looked like you were pushed.”

You nod, looking around, “I swear I was. Like a..” you reach up and gently push on Sam’s shoulder, “I think it scared me more than anything.”

Sam rubs your back, taking the camera back from Colby, “Stay close, alright. If that happened, right at the start, we aren’t sure what else can happen.”

“Got it.”

Sam looks over at Colby, “So we’ll just set it right in the middle of the floor between the door and steps and-“

The pod lights up and Sam and Colby both gasp, “No fucking way that happened that quick.” Colby shakes his head, “If that was Lady Zalius, please touch that light for us again.”

You gasp, pressing your chest and forehead against Sam’s back, “Something just touched my hair.”

Sam looks over his shoulder, turning to wrap his arm around you, “You okay?”

You nod, “Yeah. Yeah I’m good.”

The light goes off again and Sam takes a deep breath, “Did you just touch y/n’s hair?”

The light goes off again and you sigh, “It’s going to be a long night.” Sam looks over at you, “We can stop if this gets to be too much for you.”

Colby nods, “Yeah, you said you wanted to do an investigation so it’s up to you on whether or not we keep going.”

You look between them, “We just got started. It too early to quit.”

You can see Sam smirk and nod, “Alright.”

You ask a few more questions and hear some of the same knocking before you move to the first master bedroom on the first floor.

“So this is master bedroom number one. Number two is upstairs on the opposite side of the house.” Sam explains as Colby holds the camera, “This is where Lady Zalius’ brother stayed, and where the deaths started happening.”

You have your back turned towards the door, which was closed after Sam followed you and Colby in, but it’s cracked open.

“Sam.” You keep your eyes on the door and you jump slightly when you feel his hand on your back, “What’s up?”

“The door.” You point and glance over at him, “You closed that fully right?”

“I’m pretty sure I did.” Sam looks at Colby, “Run it back on the camera quick.” Colby walks over and Sam pulls his phone out to record, “Okay. So..”

You all watch the playback of Sam fully closing the door, “Close it again and try to pull it open. Maybe it doesn’t latch?”

Sam walks up, his phone still recording, “Okay, so I’ll just..” he pushes the door closed and since it’s quiet, you can definitely hear the latch click.

“Try and pull it open without twisting the knob.” Colby suggests and as soon as Sam’s had touches the door knock, a loud thud on the door makes him jump back.

He about knocks you over, but you cling to him, “What the fuck was that?”

“I’m sorry, are you okay? I didn’t-“ Sam helps you stand up straight and holds onto you, “That fucking scared the shit out of me.”

“There’s no way that fucking happened. No fucking way.” Colby is shocked, “What the hell.”

“I literally didn’t do anything, I swear that wasn’t me.” Sam is shaking slightly, so you lay your hand on his arm, “Are you good?”

He laughs slightly, “That rattled me a little bit. I felt the vibration of the thump through the knob.”

“I say we bring out the spirit box?” Colby suggests and you and Sam both nod, “Yeah.” You breathe out, “Whatever was out there, wants in.”

You shiver, “Oh fuck, I just got the chills.”

“Is it cold right here. Colby.” Sam looks at him, his arms still around you, “Is it cold where you are?”

Colby shakes his head, “It’s actually kind of warm right here.” Sam pushes you towards Colby, but follows close behind you.

“Is it warm over here.” You look at Colby, “Go walk over there.”

Colby walks over and scoffs, “That’s a major fucking difference, like I wish the people who are going to be watching this could feel this. This is craaaazy, dude. What the hell.”

“Spirit box. I think it’s in.. my backpack?” Sam lets go of you, swinging his bag off his back and grabbing the object, “Alright, let’s get this-“

Sam whips around, “That picture frame just fell.”

“Colby!” You yell and he whips around, “What? What!?”

You point, “there was a shadow like right behind you.”

He looks to Sam and Sam looks from him to you, “I don’t want you-“

You scream, running to Sam and holding onto him, “Something just brushed up against my leg.” You look down, lifting your feet, “Like a dog or something? Did they have a dog?”

“They had a German shepherd, I think is what it was? I could be wrong, but whatever happened in this room, is far too complicated for us to figure out.” Colby shakes his head, “If anything, we can come back, when it’s daylight or something. I don’t know, this room gives me the heebie jeebies.”

“He’s right.” Sam agrees, “Let’s try the other master, the one Lady Zalius occupied.”

As you make your way out of the room, equipment and all, you feel like someone walks past you, “did anyone else feel that?”

“That gust of wind?” Colby asks and you nod, “Yeah like someone walked by?”

“I didn’t but I did hear like a whisper, I don’t know if anything picked that up or not, but it was like, I don’t know, I can’t even make it out to be honest.” Sam takes a deep breath, turning to close the door, “Please don’t bang on it. Please don’t bang on it.”

He quickly pulls the door closed and steps back. It’s quiet for a few seconds then Sam sighs, “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He takes the camera from Colby and follows him. As Sam talks to Colby, his hand naturally finds yours, interlocking his fingers with yours and squeezes.

You squeeze back, smiling to yourself. You have a huge crush on Sam, hence why you really only run to him when you get scared.

“Alright.” Colby turns as you start walking up the steps, “These stairs should be safe, the owners said that, for some reason, these stairs are like a-“ he puts air quotes, “-safe space.”

“Like home base in tags?” Sam jokes and Colby laughs, “Yeah, exactly.”

You must have let your guard down a little too much, because right as you were about to step up onto the second floor, you’re pushed backwards, almost like you lost your balance.

Sam ends up dropping the camera on the floor to catch you, yelling for Colby at the same time, “Whoa, whoa, Colby! Colby!”

Colby gets the camera out from under Sam’s foot and moves around behind you, making sure you both make up your the steps.

“What the fuck?” Colby questions and you look at Colby, “is the camera okay?”

“Don’t worry about that.” They both say in unison. Sam cups your cheek, “Are you okay?”

You nod, “It was almost like someone was pulling me from behind and I couldn’t step up the last step.”

Next thing you know, Colby is getting pushed into you and Sam, and Sam pushes you both away from the steps, “Whatever is in here, wants us to go down the steps the hard way.”

You sigh, “Let’s go find out what Lady Zalius has to say.” You motion towards the bedroom, “My vote is Colby closes this door.”

“I’m with y/n on this one.” Sam laughs slightly, “Whatever is here must not like visitors after a certain time.”

You make your way into the bedroom and Sam takes the camera, setting it down on the dresser to point towards the door. He walks back over, and motions to Colby, “All you brotha.”

Colby sighs, laughing nervously as he tilts his head back, “Jesus fuck, alright. I’m just..” he groans, “I’m just gonna do it.”

Colby closes the door and you brace yourself to jump into Sam’s arms, but to all of your surprise, nothing happens.

“It must either be that room, or they don’t like you.” Colby looks at Sam and Sam hangs his head, “Well.. I guess that’s what we’re here to find out, right?”

Sam looks at the camera and makes a scared, over dramatized face and you laugh, “So the spirit box?”

“Yes.” Sam claps his hands together and you reach out and grab him, “Wait. Do that again.”

“Clap my hands together?” Sam questions and you nod, looking from him to Colby, “Listen.”

Sam claps his hands together and it’s almost like there’s an echo.

“Is something mocking me?” Sam asks, “What the fu-“ he does it again and lo and behold, the sound happens again, “What the fuuuuck.”

“You try it.” Sam motions to Colby and Colby claps his hands once.

Nothing.

You clap your hands together.

Nothing.

Sam does it again, and of course, the sound follows.

“That’s fucking insane.” Sam’s jaw drops, “What the hell.”

Colby gets the spirit box going. Static noise fills the room and before you even open your mouth to ask a question, “…Hello…”

You all look at each other in shock. Colby shakes his head, whispering, “Should we just let it go or do we ask questions?”

Sam shrugs, “I don’t.. maybe we can wait and se-“

“…Evil.. Man…”

“Who’s evil?” Sam asks, “Are we speaking to Lady Z-“

“…Zalius… It’s me…”

“Lady Zalius. Was that you downstairs in the foyer who touched my friend’s hair?” Colby asks, staring at the box as he waits for an answer.

“…soft ha…”

“Soft hair?” Sam reaches up, nodding, “I mean, she’s not wrong.” You smile slightly and look back at the spirit box, “Is there an evil spirit here, Lady Zalius?”

“… was once… my family…”

“Her brother.” Colby snaps, “Her brother was the one who murdered people here.”

“Right, right, yes.” Sam nods, “Can you tell us who was mocking my claps?”

The static noise continues to plays, but no response.

“Were there kids here?” You ask, and you gasp as you feel a hand on your shoulder, “Fuck. Did you just touch me?” You look at Sam and he shakes his head, “No.”

“Are you trying to keep us safe?” You ask, trying to keep yourself from shaking anymore than you already were, “If so, we really appreciate it.”

“…try..ing.. my best…”

“Should we stay out of the master on the first floor?” Colby asks and almost instantly, “…not.. safe..”

You all gasp, your hand coming up to cover your mouth, “Oh my god.”

“So that wasn’t a good spirit who hit the door, or whatever it did. It was hard, too.” Sam sighs, resting his hands on top of his head, “Is there anything you would like to tell us, or even warn us about?”

“…go… out…”

“Are you telling us to leave?” Colby asks for possibly clarification and you feel the color leave your face as she responds, “…now.. now.. go...”

“Alright.” Colby presses his lips together, “I don’t know if she means out of this room, or the house in general, but I don’t think we should stick around and find out.”

“There’s one last place I want to try, at least with the REM Pod.” Sam looks from you to Colby, “The back patio area.”

“Isn’t that where all of the bodies are buried?” Colby asks and Sam nods, “Yep. All sixteen.”

You get a chill down your spine and you suddenly feel dizzy, “Yeah, I think going.. outside is a good idea.”

“You feeling okay?” Colby asks and you reach for Sam, “I just got really dizzy. I thought I was going to pass out.”

Sam holds onto your wrist, not letting go until you look at him, “It’s gone now, but that so quick and weird.” He nods and lets go, “Let’s get you out of here.”

You pack up and open the door, making your way to the steps. You hold onto Sam and the railing as you walk down.

Nothing happens, thankfully, “So much for these steps being a safe ground.” You mumble as you glare at Colby. He shrugs, scratching the back of his neck, “Sorry?”

You laugh, “It’s fine. I’m fine.” You take a deep breath, “Let’s just get outside before anything el-“

“Shh.” Sam holds up his finger, “Do you hear that?”

You and Colby shake your heads and go back to listening. Both of you widen your eyes and look at Sam and the camera. Colby leans in, whispering into it, “There’s heavy, I mean heavy footsteps coming from upstairs.”

“They stopped.” You whisper, your eyes move to look at Sam, “No wait.. there they are again.”

“What the fuck is that?” Sam whispers, “They are heavy. Almost like stomping, you know?”

They stop and that’s when you guys finally make your way to the door. You walk out after Sam and Colby closes the door.

“This way.” Sam nods and you and Colby follow. Every sound that isn’t made by you or one of the guys, makes you jump.

You were clinging to Sam’s shirt, holding onto it like a leash as he led you around the house.

“Okay. If I’m correct..” Colby starts, “Didn’t they say that they buried them off to the right of the back of the house, so if we’re looking at it this way..” he points to the right, “They’re right over there.”

Sam nods, glancing at you, “Still doing okay?”

You nod, “Yeah, I think?” You laugh, “I’m not too sure.”

He nods, “Well go after this.”

“Thank god.” You joke, “I was starting to think we’d never leave.”

He laughs and looks to Colby, “I think if we set down the REM pod right there..” he points, “..We can probably get some good light action, you know?”

Colby nods, setting the pod down where Sam told him to, and as soon as he backs away, the light goes on and off repeatedly.

“Whoa. Whoa. Okay.” Colby walks back over to you and Sam, “That’s frickin insane. I just set it down and it’s doing that?”

“There’s a lot of spirits out here, so I mean.. maybe if we.. fuck. I don’t know.” Sam sighs, “There’s so much here. A lot of darkness and resentment is what I picked up at least.”

“Her brother caused a lot of pain and torture for no reason.” You shake your head, “This place is enough to scare anyone off, really.”

Right as the last word leaves your lips, the light turns off and there’s a bang on the window of the house behind you.

You jump over to Sam, your arms going around each other and he sighs, “Alright. Time to go. Pack it up.”

“A little scared are we?” Colby jokes and right as he bends down to pick up the pod, the light goes off and causes Colby to scream.

“A little scared are we?” Sam mocks Colby and they both laugh at each other. You make your way back to the car and as you give the house one last look, you swear you seen, who they describe as lady Zalius, in the window of her bedroom.

“She’s up there.” You point, “She’s watching us leave. I swear to god.”

“In the bedroom?” Sam asks and right as he asks that, a light, almost like one of those fake candles that people put in their windows, light up.

“Did you see that?” Colby asks in a loud whisper, “We’re definitely coming back to this place.”

Colby walks to the back of the car while you stand at the front with Sam, “I’m sorry for being so clingy towards you tonight.”

Sam smiles, “I’m sorry for almost making you eat the floor when I got scared.”

You laugh, “It’s okay. I’m sure I did that to you a few times.”

“Are you coming with us on another investigation?” Sam asks as he walks around the car and tosses his backpack into the back seat, “Because if so, you can cling to me all you want.”

You walk up to him, tossing your bag onto the floor of the back seat, “As much as wanting to do more of these scare me, I’m glad you say that because you are infact my safe space and th-“

“Will you two just kiss already?” Colby says as he rests his arms on top of the car, “You could cut the tension with a knife.”

“Will you just sh-“

Sam cuts you off with a kiss and leans back with a smile, “There. Happy now?”

“Yes.” You and Colby both answer, which makes everyone laugh.

Colby taps the top of the car with his hand, “Great. Now get in the car.”

——

I hope this was good, I feel like it wasn’t but it is what it is. Love you all! Thank you so much for reading! See you in the next one!

[monkey-overalls]

Here’s some fairly old sprites I did for a hypothetical Yume Nikki fan game I call—hold for suspense—REM Fantasy. I likely won’t ever turn this into an actual game, as I’d never have the time or energy for a project that massive. Besides, I’m bad enough at drawing background as is; I can’t even imagine making full-sized maps.

Regardless, I made a few effect sprites and wrote up a short synopsis of what that game would be about.

Read more below the cut 👇👇👇

You start off the game playing as The Doctor, a middle-aged man residing in a small lab filled with cluttered filing cabinets, various pieces of scientific equipment, and dozens of papers strewn about every surface. In the back-center of the room is a vertical light blue-tinted pod with a young, seemingly comatose girl suspended inside it. This is Shiloh, The Doctor’s eight-year-old daughter. A journal on a table behind you is where you save (formatted as Shiloh’s patient file). To the left of the pod, there is a giant monitor and keyboard. This is where you access the “dream world”—from this point on, you experience all events from Shiloh’s perspective. This is the point of The Doctor’s experiment—create a world inside Shiloh’s mind for her to explore, knowing full well that she, most likely, will never wake up. Occasionally, details of her mysterious illness and the apocalyptic landscape of the outside world creep into these “dreams”, allowing the player to gradually piece together what her and her father’s lives were like before and how they got to where they are now. Once you’ve finished collecting every effect, it is up to you to either let go or continue feeding into The Doctor’s fantasy. Because that’s all it is, really… just a fantasy.

Effects:

🛼 Roller skates (speed)

💉 Needle (weapon)

📷 Camera (saves your place in the map)

🐼 Red panda (attracts NPCs)

🥼 Lab coat (makes you immune to chasers—hospital staff—which are tricked into believing you’re one of them)

🪼 Jellyfish (lights up the surrounding area)

🩰 Ballerina (cosmetic)

🩹 IV (cosmetic)

🌹 Rose (cosmetic)

🎀 Doll (allows you to fit in tiny spaces)

😇 Angel (allows you to fly over gaps)

🌡️ Thermometer (makes it rain or snow)

Hope you enjoy! Comment effect suggestions!

[jeanne-d-arch]

Holy shii- I NEVER TOUGHT I'D ACTUALLY GET A REPOST

Ok, here I am to continue what I started, and I'm quite indecisive about talking about Misa first or about Light's new approach to the notebook and shinigami in general.

Both are relatively long.

Both tap into the territory of plot changes.

So, yeh, hold steady.

Well, about Light and the shinigamis:

As said before, Light is very respectful of both Ryuk and Rem, but I want to expand on that.

Light is not only respectful. She is curious. She submerges Ryuk in questions about everything: she asks in detail about the Shinigami world, about the Mu, about some other rules of the Death Note, and about how Shinigamis have to interact with humans.

For example, when Ryuk tells her that he has to follow her around, she asks how long the radius of his movements is.

He thinks about it and answers: 19 kilometres (and this is canon, I may add).

So now Light has this new info up her sleeve that can be used strategically as she likes.

Then again, she is curious about how Shinigamis know the names of humans beforehand, and eventually, Ryuk tells her about the eyes (another info that she gets early).

There are many times, of course, when Ryuk doesn't know the answer or when he just blatantly tells her to go and find out herself. But even then, she doesn't get mad. This is a god, after all. He has the right to keep secrets from her.

The only time she gets slightly annoyed is when Ryuk tells her that there is no Divine Providence or whatever, and she got the Note by chance.

She responds by saying that just because he doesn't see God or has never heard of him, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

Her cosmic view can be summarised this way: both Shinigamis and Humans are creatures made by a superior God and, as such, are subject to his final judgement and act on his behalf (which is a way for her psyche to distance itself from the thought of actually being just on an ego trip. Again, rationalisation does wonders).

Speaking of the Death Note, she experiments a lot with it. Even before coming to the conclusion that simply killing isn't enough and that she has to take a different approach, she pushes the Note to its limits, or at least tries to.

She experiments with criminals on death row, usually making them die in ways that can not be related to the other deaths that are being investigated on the Kira case (this way, she can do as many experiments as she likes without anyone suspecting shit).

She also decentralizes her actions so that it's not obvious that these deaths are related. Having access to the Internet, she experiments on criminals from different countries (those where news travels freely).

Her experiments focus on what she thinks is the most powerful aspect of the Death Note: control.

It is clear to her that the real broken ability of the notebook is that it can control people's actions before they die.

That is the ability she wants to use to transform the world.

She focuses on branching options and complexity:

If I say that X will do A or B, what will the notebook choose?

If I give Y Task C and then specify that, if impossible, he will do either D or E. What will happen?

If I give Z a task that is not physically impossible, but psychologically, will they try to do it, or will they simply die?

What are the bounds of "impossibility" that are set in the note?

How detailed can I be when I control someone? How many pages can I use on a single person? (The answer is 6, fanon, just because the series really likes the number 6)

Can I write conditionals? As in that the person will die either way, but the control thing triggers only if they meet certain conditions?

To clarify: she doesn't start experimenting out of curiosity alone, but to explain the thought process, I have to go in detail on what happens during the "Big L is watching you" Arc.

A few things change even before the arc, like Rey Penbar's death (thanks, Misa), but the result is quite the same: cameras in Light's home.

Now, before the whole cameras thing, Light had already arranged things with her friend Yuri so that they could study together at Light's home in preparation for finals.

In the meantime, Light's mother announces that she will have to stay away from home for a few days to go help a relative doing things. She trusts Light and Sayu to take good care of the house and be welcoming to their guest.

When Light is sure that the Note is hidden beyond any reasonable doubt, she welcomes Yuri and the two study and arrange so that Yuri can stay the night.

Eventually, they end up watching the news and come across a program about Kira.

(Light would've had to eventually watch the news anyway, mostly because that is how she spends quality time with her dad)

The Kira topic is brought up, and, to Light's shock, Yuri doesn't seem too opposed to it.

The girl justifies herself by bringing up the fact that since Kira started killing, crimes dropped, and not only that. The police officers are more efficient, and people feel safer.

She even admits that she has visited the Kira website, tho she has never posted anything.

She compares Kira to a sort of dark antihero that has good intentions but no choice but to act the way he does.

Light does not agree, but she is not judgemental of Yuri's positions. She then calmly tries to explain to her friend that Kira is not helpful at all and that his victims are, statistically, mostly poor people who have no other choice but to resort to crime, while the rich and depraved stay safe in anonymity.

The only way Kira is useful, she concedes, is by indirectly exposing the flaws of current society so that in the future, such flaws can be mended.

(She is, of course, only referring to the second Kira, since she doesn't consider herself a Kira at all, and is genuinely convinced that she is trying her best to be an objective judge)

While continuing the discussion, however, she comes to internally realise that she can no longer defend her own way of thinking because she, too, until now, has only resorted to killing (even if she was more, ahem, "picky" with her victims) and killing alone does not solve the problem's root.

To truly reshape society, you can not just get rid of the bad weeds: you have to push people in the right direction.

To a certain extent, to control their actions.

Going back to her experiments on controlling actions: she chooses a group of inmates from different countries and concedes them the full length of their lifespan, but conditions them to act in a more gentle and friendly way towards others.

The majority of them effectively change, and these people become contributing members of their small special societies.

A number of them, however, simply dies.

Remember that question about psychological impossibility?

Apparently, if a person is rigid enough, or if a certain way of thinking and acting is too hardwired inside their brain, they will be resistant to change: the control will be deemed impossible and the person will simply die of heart attack.

(This is, of course, fanon. But i thought it was an interesting take to explore)

With this strategy, she targets convicted and released criminals, small politicians who are deemed corrupt, low ranking officers who are accused of unjust behaviour and corruption.

All with proper background checks when possible, of course.

Conceding them the full length of their lives, she slightly conditions them into being better people.

And again, many actually change.

Many die, and these deaths get investigated by L and the Task Force.

This ties again to the whole idea of Salvation. When confronted by Ryuk about it, Light states that the fervour of a prayer and the goodness of an action have nothing to do with what has caused it. And if the Note made it possible, then it means that the person could've been pious all along. What Light is doing is simply... giving these people a "gentle push," so to speak.

On a less serious note: the thought of Light hiding pieces of the Death Note in her pad is both grossing and incredibly hilarious. Like, I can totally see her do it.

And while I can see her accidentally making origami out of the Death Note, she only does it when absorbed in deep thought and is sure to burn the pages afterwards. I can, however, totally picture Light making origami in a way that lets her hide small pieces of the Note inside them. Like, that would be incredible.

Adding to the origami thing: Light and Sayu have developed an origami language that they used to communicate secretly as children.

Light, for example, decorated her shelves in a way that, if read right, composed a poem, while Sayu used to put together song lyrics or something.

After she finds the notebook, however, she changes some core meanings so that she can keep reminders without Sayu deciphering them.

So go ahead and imagine a confused little sister wondering why Light has suddenly devolved into composing meaningless buzzwords.

Also I can totally picture Yotsuba Arc Light finding herself in a dire situation and temporarily regaining memories, just to lose them soon after and being creeped out when she finds origami that she doesn't remember doing but that are clearly made by her.

Then she deciphers them, and the message is: "Act like you remember."

Now, speaking of the elephant sized Male!Misa in the room.

(Thought about calling him Shirou. Shirou Amane. Sounds quite good to me)

Anyway.

This Misa is dark. Like, as a person.

We are talking about someone who masks himself as a somewhat gentle and caring individual who is a bit of a dummy, when in reality, he is an obsessive and jealous man.

His backstory is more or less the same as canon: Light executed the man who murdered his parents.

Timeline speaking, it happened when Light first got triggered about Sayu.

Then, his gentle and likeable persona catches the attention of Jealous, who promptly proceeds to commit autokill to expand Misa's lifespan.

Rem gets Jealous Death Note and yadda yadda.

When he obtains the Death Note, he barely hesitates. Most of his very early kills go off radar, mostly because he murders people who might be a threat to his career but that are in no way directly related to him.

While he is obsessed with Kira, he also has his own agenda: on the Kira side, he kills criminals by giving them heart attacks, making the extremely recognizable.

Since only the cause of death is reported, however, he doesn't know about the prayer gimmick, which makes it extremely easy for L to figure out that there are at least two Kiras.

Then he also kills people who he thinks might be a threat to his acting career, and he's always very discreet in these murders, making it look like the person died in a way that was completely justifiable and not related neither to him or Kira.

He prediliges overdose due to heavy drug usage. What a horrible way to go.

And suicide, of course. An old classic, usually after the victim has written a letter about unrequited love or something similar.

Rem is not exactly thrilled about this human, but now she's stuck with him, and she surely has no intention to go back to the Shinigami realm.

When L does the Lind decoy, Misa is outraged about it and immediately kills the man on TV, completely ignoring Rem's warnings.

Then, when L declares war on Kira, Misa states that he will be Kira's protector and kill anyone who dares to cause him harm.

He then asks Rem to make the eye exchange so that he can better protect Kira.

Again, he doesn't listen to Rem's objection about Kira already being untraceable and perfectly safe, and takes the Shinigami eyes.

He finds Light almost by chance, during her "date" with Yuri.

Light is using the date to figure out Rey Penbar's name, just as in canon, and everything goes as planned.

When videos of the accident are published online, however, Misa spots Light within the people that are exiting the bus.

He sees her name, but not her lifespan.

And his heart skips a beat.

Soon after, he starts stalking her from a distance, and he starts gathering info on her. Her favourite food, her address, her interests, her academic career. Everything he can get a hold on.

When he finds out that she's the daughter of the police chief, he sighs thinking about how the poor girl must feel, knowing that her father is out there doing such a dangerous job.

At the same time, he thinks about how cruel the universe is for forcing such a beautiful and gentle girl to dirty her hands with the blood of human scum, and makes up is mind: when they'll be together as lovers, she will never have to face such a burden, because he will kill for both of them.

(And she will stay in the kitchen like a good wife)

Yeah, no.

You talked about Misa praising Light for her intelligence?

Forget it.

Not gonna happen.

No, wait.

It might happen.

But only if it helps him seduce her.

Sorry not sorry this man is a scum.

Anyway.

Misa starts stalking Light, and he decides that anyone who is even remotely bad to "his girl" will face severe consequences.

You were bad to Light yesterday? Too bad, get this really strong flu and die.

Eventually, Light catches up on the coincidences and clues, and she understands that the second Kira has his eyes on her and is killing people around her.

And she is so on edge. Like, she is experiencing a psychological horror movie in real life. She starts to wonder why he's doing it. Does he want to kill her? Or even worse: does he want her?

Eventually, Misa decides to go and introduce himself to "his future fiancee".

He sends Rem beforehand to prepare the ground, so to speak, and so Light gets the opportunity to speak to the Shinigami alone.

This also means that the other Kira is in a 19km radius. So Light sends Ryuk to go after him without making his presence known.

Now alone with Rem, Light starts having polite conversation, always trying to get info about the other Kira without giving out too much about herself.

She, however, expresses disdain for Misa, expecially after the fact that he has basically isolated her.

(She is furious, actually, and perfectly ready to kill the man with her own bare hands)

After reuniting with Rem, Misa decides to stay in the shadows and keep his own agenda, as well as the criminal killing. He doesn't make his presence completely known to Light, but he uses Rem as a mailman to exchange info with her.

She hates this but has to stay compliant and maintain her public persona.

This is an unstable individual that knows her face and name and that demands to be her boyfriend.

He could turn on her any instant.

This is when she comes to the conclusion that to catch this monster, she needs the help of a specialist.

So, when L presents themself to her, she thinks that this might be God coming to her aid, finally.

Now.

You remember the thing where Misa loved Light and Rem loved Misa?

I plan to make Rem fall in love.

Just, not with Misa.

Hope you enjoyed it. See ya.

If you actually think about it, if Light was the only genderbent character in deathnote, the show would take very dark turn and would communicate a different message.

K:- " If Light was the only genderbent character in death note, the show would communicate a diffrent message, yes, primarly because the show was written in the early 2000s with 90s values, and its creator was not good at nuanced portrayal of women, to put it mildly. Look at how Death Note treats Misa. Shes treated as a legit threat until she joins up with Light where she becomes more of a joke. Yes the sexism and being talked down to for being a girl would drive Light nuts, but its nothing she didnt already deal with growing up. Would it be harder for them to take her seriously? Yes-"

E :- "Which is obvious considering the early 90's 00's Japanese work culture. Even now it's still a breakthrough.

But they may or may not be trying to say Fem Light would suffer under male hands or something of that issue.

Would the Task Force hurt fem Light? Doubt it. Most of them are respectful men, the worst I can say is they can get hot headed with each other as men.

Laying hands on Fem Light? No.

They never did that to Misa not counting the time with Soichiro as that was with Light under the impression they were suspects."

K:- "Misa being under arrest and filmed was pretty yikes. And Solitary confinement was already a pretty dark and messed up angle to go. But Light here is the chief of police's daughter. She has the power of Neoptisim and a prior connection with most of them on her side. "

E:- " True true. He already had a bond with them. Misa's arrest was more hostile. Maybe that is what they were referring too?"

K:-"Misa was both treated like a threat and not.

Later on in the prisonorship she had police escort shopping privlages, but at first that image is pretty wack.

And why? What are we supposted to infer from this?"

E :-"I know right? She's a threat enough to keep around surveillance but not enough to stop her from swapping places with friends.

She can show she is capable of fooling people but it's not enough to treat her as a genuine threat. I doubt Misa minds it. It gives her so much leniency to get away with things.

But for fem Light it's infuriating.

But here I wonder if L would see her as a threat?

My canon L doesn't give a fuck about your gender. Only if you can actually play the game. Violence is not restricted by gender. Anyone is capable."

K:- " Are we supposted to infer something about L from Misas outfit while being filmed? I guess its interpritive, but I see it more as L breaking social boundries to make her unconfortable and push her closer to hopefully breaking. Same with the handcuffs really."

E:- " L does that with everyone. She ain't special in that which makes it oddly open minded.L does that to me by getting his damn feet on things."

K:- " I don't think L cares about Gender. But the steryotypes at the time imposed preformances of gender upon most of the players"

E:- "Right right. Such as expected reactions"

K:- "And I admit, I AU for fun. I'm not intrested in exploring the darker timeline where the taskforce is a skeevy to female Light.

And we acknowledged that the world would treat them diffrently by gender from where the concept was first incepted with female L.

Its always been part of the considerations, the Sexisim present in Japan at the time at which Death note was written. Hell, I'm probably missing nuances from it, from not being Japanese nor Not being an adult in the 90s"

E:- "We can only gather what we know and work with it. And once again this is for fun."

: )

[chiquilines]

Misa!!

[werewolfbansheelove]

The Sallie House Pt 3

Chapter Summary: You and the Spooky boys start the Sallie House investigation. 

Warnings: Demon (I'm counting that as a warning) and Language

Words: 1, 686

Part 1 Part 2

The boys and you were ready to start the investigation but you felt something more different like dark and sinister but you kept it quiet. "Time to go upstairs to start the investigation." Sam said as they head upstairs and went in Sallie's room. But you were last one and stood behind Nate. You unexpectedly heard a growl from behind, you turned and saw nothing but something felt off.

Seth picked up the 8 ball and asked. "Are we gonna find a demon?" He shook it and it answer. "Very doubtful." 

"That’s good, that’s a good thing." Colby said. You stood out of the room. 

"But will we contact Sallie?" Sam asked. 

"It’s decidedly so." Seth said reading the ball. The boys went through the equipment but you still heard a growl and a dark voice in your ear. “Come and Play.” Y/N looked at the stairs and saw something that was very dark and it started to come up the stairs. 

"Whoa." You say and step into the room standing in between Colby and Sam  holding your throat where their heart was beating fast.

"What’s wrong, baby?" Colby asked looking at his girlfriend completely freaked out. 

"I don’t want to scare you but this feels different now."  They said. 

"How different?" Sam asked. 

"Like bad different, it feels dark and very  oppressive. Like when I came into this house the first time, it felt light and when I walk in the 2nd time it feels dark and right now it feels like I’m seeing something that isn’t human like my heart is beating really fast. I just saw something by the stairs and coming up." You explains and the boys looked shocked and scared. 

Colby being the good boyfriend that he is, held your hand that you covered your neck with. "If you don’t comfortable, just tell us and we’re leave, okay?" Colby says, caressing your hand a bit.

"Okay." You relax a bit. Sam turned on the rem-pod and it went off crazy. 

"It’s been doing that." Sam reset it again but went off again. You saw a girl touching the rem-pod but It’s wasn't Sallie. Sam reset it again but the girl wasn’t there anymore.  

"You can hear walking." Nate said and the boys stood by the door but Y/N stood still. 

The boys went in the hallway and they start the music box. You stayed by the door of Sallie's room. The box went off again. "If there's actually someone standing right there could you step away from me real quick?" Sam asked and the box slow down and played again. 

The boys were discussing of the box calibrating or not. You stood beside Nate and watched the box. "If we hear it go off again." The box did just that. 

"That one I believe way more." Sam said. "Could you step in front of that again just to show your here?" Sam asked the box went off again and you went back to Sallie's room. 

The boys came back to the room as Seth stood by the bed, Sam and Nate stood by the windows, Colby stood at the end of the bed and Y/N was sitting on the bed which she was brave for. 

"Y/N what do you have in your hand?" Colby asked. 

"I have my own personal EVP recorder." You said, holding and showing the camera her EVP recorder. "It stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, it's used in all ghost investigation shows but I keep one on me since my first investigation at The Shanley Hotel." You explains and looked at the camera who their boyfriend was holding.

The rem-pod was going off in a circle of all of Sallie's toys as the next thing you wear with your naked ear was a distant laughing. 

"Did you guys hear that?" Colby asked. 

"A little girl laugh." Sam answered. 

"I heard it." Y/N said. The toy beside you went off as Sallie was now touching her toy and smiling at you.

The boys were freaking out as you kept calm. Y/N looked at the boys and quickly stated. "I didn’t touch it at all." You were entirely calm as the boys freaked out and when they were by the stairs, Colby called for you. "What’s wrong?" 

"Did you see the 8 ball go out the room?" Colby asked. 

"No, I was looking at Sallie the whole time when I was sat on her bed." You said. 

"That means she was in the room and she pushed it down the stairs." Sam said. 

"Because we heard that thing,  maybe she was on the bed before Y/N sat down, she got up and ran out the room." Colby said. 

"She got up by the one toy after she laughed and then kicked it down the stairs." Sam said. 

"Sam, that wasn’t Sallie that kicked the toy though, she was in the room with us. What you guys heard probably wasn’t done by Sallie." You said, scaring the boys really bad. 

They reacting the ball going down the stairs. "Dude that would be so louder." Colby sighed. 

"I literally just tapped it,  it could have been pushed hard enough that it hit once, then twice and hit the floor." Nate said kneeling at the top of the stairs with you beside him. 

"We didn’t bring this down here." Seth softly replied. 

"Either way if it was knocks or something down there that’s paranormal. That’s what I’m saying." Sam said. 

"Yeah, this ball shouldn't be down here." Seth said. 

"That ball was in Sallie's room the whole time and I saw Seth setting it on the flat side." You said. 

"We have never seen something move like that." Sam said with his arms crossed.

"This is almost like the soccer ball back at the Shanley, it happened without us knowing." Seth said and you cringed remembering that incident. 

Nate sighed and sat on the stairs realizing something and you went down the stairs standing on the same step as Nate. "Also this isn’t uncharacteristic for the Sallie house,  don’t you remember in what we were in, one of the previous owners had a maternal draw to Sallie. Even going so far to give her a birthday gift and when she did so, she left it in the room, left the house and came back later that day and the gift was outside of the box without the box being touched. So whatever's here historically has the power to translate things." Nate explains. 

"In a weirdly non-physical explanation." 

"We’re just talking about asking Sallie questions and this is at the bottom of the steps." Nate said and they were all stunned by Nate's statement. 

"We need to talk to Sallie." Seth said. 

"What if we do the else method and that at the same time?" Sam said. 

"People are going to say this is bullshit. But what if this works?"  Seth asked. 

"Keep in mind, it’s either Sallie or whatever is in the basement trying to talk to us." Nate said. 

"Oh Nate don’t say that." You groaned as they shook their head. 

(.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.)

Later on, Sam and Colby fans were stalking the boys but Sam and Nate were arguing but now it was time to do the essence method. 

"If there’s something in this house did you transfer the eight ball downstairs?" Nate shook the ball and it said. 'Ask later' and Sam didn’t answer. 

"Is Sallie the one who moved the ball down the stairs?" Seth shook the ball and it said. 'Yes' and Sam didn’t answer. 

"Is there multiple spirits here talking to us?" Colby shook the ball. "'They’re separate." Sam said. "It says it is certain." 

"Maybe that means it's multiple spirits." Nate said and had the ball. "I'd the spirits separate is one of turn a malevolent mother spirit?" Nate shook it. "It says very doubtful."

Sam said nothing, til. "You already know." 

"You wanna try?" Nate asked looking at you with her arms crossed and you shrugged hit shoulder and took it. 

"God, I'm gonna regret this." They mumbled to themselves. "Is there any evil spirits in the house?" They shook the ball. "As I see it, yes." You read the ball. 

"Well, yeah..." Sam says and your mood got more scared. "Fuck!" You exclaims softly but scared. You don’t deal with any demons at all, you’re more terrified of them. 

"Is there a spirit in the basement that is dangerous?" Nate asked and had the eight ball. "It  is decidedly so." Sam said Yes at the same time which you heard. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" You ran your hands through your (H/C) hair and made a small mess. 

"Was the medium we brought to the house right, is there multiple evil spirits?" Seth shook it and Sam said. "Nooo." But Seth's answer was yes. 

"Do you want to harm or hurt us tonight?" Colby asked, shaking the ball. Nate had the camera this time. 

"I hope not." Seth said. 

"7." Sam said. 

"My answer says no, but this says..." Colby quickly changed his question. "Or do you want to hurt us tonight?" 

"Probably." 

You stopped listening to them as now you had to deal with a demon now. Demonology isn’t anyway near your experience with spirits. But someone tapped your shoulder and you were shook of your mind. "Babe, what’s wrong?" Colby asked, looking concerned. 

"I wanna go home." You whimper with putting their lips. The boys chuckled and Colby hugged you. 

Taglist: @kindaslightlyacidic @localsimpppp @mary-jinx @kenzi-woycehoski @evilunicorns4minions

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* °*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧°✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*°*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧♡✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*°*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

[reidyoulikeabook]

15, 17 and 26 all from fluff!!! <3333333333

you asked and you shall RECEIVE my sweet avery! of course you pick out the very best combination of prompts, i'd expect no less <3

Ship: GN! Reader x Spencer Reid

Word count: .9k

Warnings: Kissing, general goofiness and cheesiness.

Prompts: #15 "Wow, you're photogenic."

#17 "Quick, kiss me!"

#26 "My lip gloss is all over your lips.”

A/N: I haven’t posted in an AGE and I won’t lie when I say this might not be my best work, but I was feeling writing for once so I tried! I’m going through a pretty rough mental time at the moment and I’m finding it hard to do much, but I wrote this! It’s technically part of the A-Z series, but works as a stand-alone :)

You've both worked up quite the sweat from your, admittedly too enthusiastic, dancing by the time you tumble your way into the photobooth. You'd been meaning to make a stop there all night but between the children (Aaron could probably wallpaper his entire house with pictures of the inside of Jack's nose, pressed right up against the camera), and the far reaching branches of Derek's family tree that yanked him outside for new mantelpiece photos at every opportunity, you just hadn't had the chance. Until now.

Giggling, you pull back the curtain. Almost tripping inside the booth, your interlocked fingers meaning Spencer is yanked in right along with you. He's laughing too. His nose scrunched, glasses comically far up, his face tinged pink with laughter, his hair damp and especially springy against his forehead.

"Sit down!" You chastise.

"Hold on!" He protests, trying to get himself comfortable in his seat. He pulls an odd face, one that involves contorting his mouth into a shape you’re not sure you’ve seen outside of the dentist office, flaring his nostrils, and frowning simultaneously.

And then, amongst the hububub, the camera flashes. Followed by the instant sound of whirring. Spencer frowns, reaching forward, but you lurch. Grabbing the picture and bringing it up to your line of sight, grinning, “Wow, you’re photogenic.”

“Give me that!”

You shake your head, tucking your arm behind your back, “Nope.”

“Please?” He pleads, pushing out his lower lip.

“Nope.”

He braces himself, his legs tensing under you.

He’s up to something.

You bring your right hand back to his chest, steadying yourself, “It’s going to go off again.”

He shakes his head, “The wait between the flashes is actually longer than you’d think because it accommodates for people leaving and getting readjusted in the booth, if it went off that fast there’d be a whole load of film that was just wasted-”

Flash.

His face tenses, startled, and you burst into another peel of laughter. Your thumb tracing along the line of his jaw, “Is that so Doctor Reid?”

“It’s usually longer!” He defends, his voice pitching upwards, “Morgan must have gotten a subpar photobooth.”

“Or maybe you just don’t know about photobooths.”

His eyebrows raise for a brief second, then dip back down to their original position, a conciliatory smile on his face, “I don’t actually know about photobooths. I was just making it up so you’d kiss me.”

“You want a picture of us kissing?”

His teeth worry at his bottom lip, and he takes pause. You take the opportunity to smile brightly at him, your eyes widening as you take in the entirety of his much too adorable, much too appealing, face staring up at you. A mixture of wonder and amazement in his eyes that almost makes you dizzy.

Spencer Reid, wanting photobooth kissing pictures.

“Well then quick, Spencer, you’d better kiss me.”

His face lights up: a smile reserved only for you, instinctively tilting his head up to be closer to you. You squeeze his chin affectionately between your thumb and forefinger, closing the gap between you that was filled only with warm air and quiet desire. His hand comes to the small of your back, on instinct, pressing you against him as his lips brush against yours. Lightly, at first, just testing out the water. Gentle and affectionate, and then harder. Chasing his mouth as he slumps into the seat, pulling you further into his lap.

Flash.

It knocks you off kilter, surprising you. A laugh reverberates through his throat and into your mouth, eliciting a very similar reaction from you. His face is scrunched up with joy as he pulls back, laughing, “That’s kind of a mood killer.”

“There’s a reason you don’t put strobe lights in the bedroom.”

“I think I might have to concede you know more about photobooths than me,” He smiles, his arms looped around your waist, his head pressing into your neck.

“My lip gloss is all over your lips,” You chastise half-heartedly, “I’ll be covered in it.”

He presses a series of delicate kisses along the line of your collarbone, coming to the hollow of your throat. You feel him speak as much as you hear it, “I think it looks good anywhere on you.”

“You would,” You tease, running your fingers lightly through his hair, which has been carefully gelled for the occasion.

He sighs, contentedly. It’s nice, really, to have the time to yourself. Penelope and Derek’s special day has been in the making for a month, and as much as it’s a glorious occasion the lead-up (including the 6am start to the day) has been a whirlwind. It’s nice to take pause.

It’s especially nice to imagine Spencer at your own wedding. He looks gorgeous in a proper suit, even letting you pick out a tie that matched your outfit.

Wonder if he’ll look this beautiful at our wedding.

Don’t be silly. Even more so.

You smile to yourself, tightening your arms around him.

Flash.

Despite the work that went into acquiring the kiss, the photo that ends up on your mantelpiece in a frame is the last one. The biggest smile on Spencer’s face, accompanied by a look of pure peace. His arms securing you to him, and your own looped around to hold him close. The look in your eyes, the softness of the features of your face, as you look at him in that picture? It makes him feel more sure of your love for him than anything in this world. And maybe, just maybe, he gets Penelope to make a copy for his wallet.

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A-Z tagslist: @ssareidbby @gingertea6460 @thosecriminalminds @disasterwriter @s5spencerreid

If you’re on the old tagslist it would be great if you could fill out THIS google form to be added to the new tagslist! I’m trying to create SOME semblance of order <3

Old tagslist:

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[xplrvibes]

So, Hell Week is upon us once again.

Before I get into this, I want to be completely honest with you all- I had zero expectations going into this. ZERO. I wasn't overly excited, I didn't think it was gonna blow my mind- in fact, after the underwhelming mess that the Trilogy wound up being (sorry to any Trilogy fans out there, please read the "opinion" dieclaimer at the front door), I was a bit concerned about how this was going to go.

So, imagine my surprise when I actually came out of this kind of...really enjoying it? It reminded me of some of the better parts of the so-called season 2, at any rate.

I'll put the rambly stuff behind a cut, but in short- solid start.

Remember my disclaimer: Any thoughts, criticisms, or reviews expressed in this post are my own opinions. The definition of opinion is: “A view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.”

This place has a very heavy story- so heavy, in fact, that snc did have to stop multiple times to issue trigger warnings and disclaimers. I do want to say that I think that is pretty nice that they issued those warnings, and that they used discretion in how they were providing the ugly story being told.

That being said- snc clearly seemed surprised by the fact that a hospital run by nuns and priests could be so evil and have such terrible back stories, and that naivety was kind of sweet, but also caused a little bit of confusion for them throughout the video. Trust an old lapsed Catholic who was taught by nuns and priests when I say that this place having bad vibes and being the site of a lot of cover ups and corruption didn't exactly make my jaw unhinge and roll across my kitchen floor in shock.

As far as the paranormal activity that they caught was concerned- I found a few things interesting:

Absolute power, after all, corrupts absolutely.

I had to laugh when the rem pod thing was going off in the beginning and Nate said, "Why don't you move the bag full of equipment, see if that helps?" They moved the bag of equipment, the rem pod stopped going off, and they immediately developed short term amnesia and were like, "Whoa, wonder why this suddenly stopped going off?!"

I'm not always a fan of the robot voice box thing, but I did think it was extremely interesting how many religious/Catholic words came up in this particular place. Random how things like "contrition," "rapture," "thurifer," "oremace," etc. The fact that they've never heard those words before, to my knowledge, until they were in a Catholic place was kind of compelling.

Thought it was interesting that Colby said earlier in the episode that he felt "wobbly" in the nun room, but when he went up there later, nothing happened. He was even saying that he felt like it was residual energy up there, which sidenote- why does he always casually drop little pieces of knowledge like that out there and then never expand on his thought? How did he know it was residual energy? Explain, please.

The voices they were hearing were kind of cool. And robot voice thing going "Yeeessssssss" when they said they heard a voice was creepy as shit lol.

The fog on the camera was kinda cool, but Nate could've just adjusted his hold on it and just breathed directly onto the lens? Idk.

The double Estes Method. I'll admit, I didn't understand why in the hell they would even attempt this at first. Seems pointless and counterproductive. But once it got going up in the chapel, it was actually interesting. Everytime their answers not only synced up to the questions, but to each other- gotta admit, that was cool. It was also cool that occasionally, one would hear something that the other wouldn't, but that it would still match the question being asked. So yeah, I liked that.

I need them to stop with that drawing planchette thing immediately. It's silly. Stop doing it, stop forcing the scribbles to mean something, stop all of it.

As you all know, I'm not a big fan of some of the more...easily debunkable equipment, such as the rem pod and the whacky flashlight tricks. However, I was just thinking about the flashlights in particular, and I wonder if maybe some of what happens with those flashlights is more of their intuitive nature coming out, than these ghosts just sitting around and flicking the on/off button every couple of seconds. Like, maybe they can already sense the right questions to ask, to line up with the flashlights flickering on and off (cause when you set those twisty flashlights up the way they set them up, they can pretty much flicker off and on at will). Maybe we're looking at the power of the flashlights from the wrong end. Maybe it's the questions, and not the answers, that are paranormal in nature.

Or maybe I'm an idiot who ate too much shrimp today. Idk. Could go either way. I'll consult the flashlights about it.

A few more miscellaneous thing I just wanted to call out:

I was a little confused and suspicious of the tourguide right off the bat (even though we never saw him). They couldn't film the tour because you won't show up in camera? Are you fucking Bela Lugosi? What kind of shit is that??

Everyone already pointed out that the hospital is apparently "invested" with snakes, so I won't pile on and point it out again. Even though I really would like to make a terrible joke about an abandoned hospital investing their life savings with a bunch of snakes...I will refrain.

Nate: "lays down in an old grimey dirty coffin" also Nate: "WTF HOW DID I GET FLEAS?! 😱"

They really backloaded the first half of this video with random clips and jumpscares, like chill out fellas.

Colby Brock, Career Ghost Hunter: "I just shut the camera off cause I got scared."

Colby Brock, Family Man: "The only things that really freak me out are nuns, grandparents, and little kids."

They are so polite to these nun ghosts. Lots of pleases and thank yous.

I've been on the internet way too long- when they were joking about them having babies, all I could think was "mpreg is always possible" lol.

The ending was very...abrupt. And not having a preview for the next video was strange to me.

As i said earlier, this was a solid start. I love their chemistry with Nate and Seth, I enjoyed the editing and the pacing and the solid storytelling, and none of the evidence (besides the planchette) pissed me off, so that's always a plus lol. They didn't get too much, but what they did got was kind of cool, kind of creepy, and surprisingly cohesive. Overall, I'd give it a solid 8/10.

Excited for the rest! Let me know what you thought!

[normally-alexis]

Dreamin' | 1 |

| 1 | Sleep - Calls

" .. "

" I can't sleep .. "

You turned on your side, looking in the direction of the window. The moonlight reflection breaks through and reflexes on your bedsheets. It's still late and you'd have to go over to your friend's house and help them with setting up.

It's really stupid trying to stay up so late..

it's not purposely though, something's keeping you up...

That sounds so fucking cringe when you think back to it, 'Buzzz..' the ringing sound buzzes within your room making you turn over to your original position. Honestly, that's probably what's keeping you up.

Grabbing your phone and unplugging it and then turning it on,

" Who the fuck would call.. at.. 3 am.. "

'Dream'

It's very tempting to just hang up or just not answer but you don't want to leave him worrying even at 3 am.

You swipe your thumb to pick up the call and then bring the phone to your ear.

...

" Hello "

" Why the fuck are you awake and why'd you call me at 3 am. "

" I can't sleep.."

There's a silence between the two of you until you finally respond.

" Shit, well I can.. "

You joked a bit and then got scolded by Dream for a while.

" Sorry, I was kidding, what do you want.."

You hear the sheets ruffle from the other side of the call seeming like he's sitting up now. " I can't sleep dumbass.. "

Moving your hand around you turn the lamp on that was beside your bed on the desk. " Any reasons why you can't sleep in particular."

He huffs and lets out a bit of a sigh, " There's no particular reason but I really can't sleep .. "

It's still early and you haven't gotten your regular hours of sleep so driving over to his house would be troublesome. You groan while throwing your head back.. The tension between the two of you became silent. " I can't drive over to your house but we can have a sleep call if you're really sleep-deprived.."

" Please, I can't properly sleep."

You remove the phone from your ear and then turn on your camera, you prop your phone on the lamp and then your face is in the camera frame. Dream turns his camera on but his room is dark and a very dim light breaks through the window making it barely visible to see him.

Obviously, you've seen his face before but the sleep call was different, as a group you, George,sapnap, and dream have all done sleep calls but in private, not so much..

You turn the other way facing the window, since your body was still psychically tired it was easy to fall asleep. Not to mention you'd have to drive over to his house in the morning..

" You're a fuckin' idiot I hope you know that "

He scuffs and then ruffles to the side and seemingly falls asleep after the call..

---------------------

' knock..'

'knock knock...'

You groan listening to the annoying knocks that keep following after each other. The sounds of the door cracking follow after each other and a huge amount of light pierces through.

" Wake up!" The sound of a phone drops causing your body to go into shock and react as if your phone dropped.  Turning on the side your phone was facing you quickly open your eyes, your phone was perfectly fine but when you look at the screen the video seems to be blocked by something.

On the other side of the phone, there's a lot of fighting going on between dream and his roommate. " What the fu-" the phone cuts out as you sit up, your hair was sticking out even though you had something covering it.

" Fuckin bonnets always being fucking useless."

You move a little closer towards the end of the bed then remove your legs from underneath the covers. Planting your legs on the floor you whine from the coldness, " fuck " you mummer underneath your breathe.

It takes a while to adjust to being awake and standing, when you take the first step your legs feel like they just snapped back. 'ehh... this shit sucks'

you 'limp' around the room until you go into the bathroom and look in the mirror, having your hair just fluffed out.. you stick your hands through it, it's not very thick.. thank god..

moving one of your hands along the side of the counter you grab the spray bottle and spray your hair with it letting it so soak in..

one of your hands lands itself on the brush and the jell beside it, you unscrew the top and then drag the brush along the rem of the inside while still collecting it and then brush your hair down.

You kept brushing it until it was flattened at the top but the bottom still had its natural curls, it'd probably puff up if you didn't add any clips so you added a black hair clip to the side pressing it down.

Glancing at yourself you didn't see anything wrong and nothing properly bother you so grabbed some eyeliner and tried drawing it perfectly.. it's kinda a struggle looking at it with the bigger mirror instead of a smaller mirror but it wasn't that hard.

You exit the bathroom and make it towards your dresser, opening it you grab a shirt, fishnets, and some shorts. It's a killua shirt that Sapnap got you so the both of you could match.. may as well wear it if you're going over to his house.

You start stripping your night clothes off and letting them fall along the floor just to replace them with better clothing. Once you slide the shorts over the fishnets you were almost set to go you'd just need to do a few things and you'd be on the way.

Moving to the other side of the room you grab your shoes that matched the outfit, sliding it on with ease..Once you finished putting your shoes on you make your way towards your nightstand and grabbed your phone..

" Dream, once you stop arguing I'll be at your house give me 30 minutes. "

They keep arguing over the phone but hopefully, they've gotten the message, you hung up the phone and grabbed your bag making your way to the door exiting the room.

Holding onto the rail you walk down the stairs and keep walking until you reach the bottom, you make your way to the door and grab your keys off of the hook unlocking the door then exiting.

Placing the key into the slot you lock the door and then walk down the stairs to your car.. you open the door and get in sitting in the car for a second before actually starting it. You typed the GPS in and it estimated a good 30-minute drive but if there was traffic it would be 40 minutes.

" This might take a while..and for some 21-year old that pisses his bed. "

[stereopticons]

hey

Opening Credits: Factory Girls - Flogging Molly

Waking Up: Los Angeles is Burning - Bad Religion (lol ok)

First Day At School: A Very Nice Prince/First Midnight - Into the Woods

Falling In Love: Why - Raul Esparza from tick tick boom (wow ok I have questions)

Fight Song: Two Handed Handshake - The Hold Steady

Breaking Up: Doors I Painted Shut - The Wonder Years

Life’s OK: Out of the Woods - Taylor Swiftf

Getting Back Together: Runnin’ Scared - Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties (hmmmm)

Wedding: The One I Love - REM

Birth of Child: Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys) - Rina Sawayama (your child is a badass)

Final Battle: Wake Me - Bleachers (weird choice but hey)

Death Scene: Razzle Dazzle Rose - Camera Obscura

Funeral Song: Cut Here - The Cure (oh, that’s sad actually)

End Credits: VICES - MOTHICA

Send me a “hey” and I’ll make up your life story based on my shuffled music!

[remmushound]

Rise boys = Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Bay boys = Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Leo.

This is a fic to lead into a Bayverse/Riseverse crossover! This is also an opening to make any requests for the bay/Rise interactions! I’m also accepting bay requests separate from the crossover! @brightlotusmoon

Link to second part: https://remmushound.tumblr.com/post/645470221504839680/brightlotusmoon-part-2-of-the-bayrise

The alarms sounded in the lair in the early morning, while Donnie was still in REM sleep and Mikey still wrapped himself snuggly in his blankets. When Raph still hugged the bear he always denied he owned and while even Leo still hadn’t woke to take advantage of the day. The only occupant of the lair that was awake was an old rat in the dojo, taking advantage of his son’s absence to meditate on current issues that worried his mind.

His ears jerked to attention as the nirvana of his mind was jarred with Donnie’s warning alarm. He was to his feet in an instant, and soon from their rooms came his sons one by one. Leo first, like always, closely followed by Donnie, and then Raph, and last Mikey.

“Dude, who turned on the screaming?”

“Talk to me Don.”

“Working on it!” Donnie was already at his desk, working a mile a minute to pull up the camera from where the alarm originated. “Got it— wait, that’s not right.”

“What is it?” As usually, Leo was hovering over Donnie’s shoulder and looking at the screen.

“Just looks like black to me.” Raph grunted from where he stood, a more respectable distance away.

“Yeah— it is— somethings up with the cameras.”

“What, they broke?”

“No, someone turned them off— and the only way they could do that is to hack into the camera’s systems—.”

“Which obviously didn't happen.” Leo said, “Could someone be covering the screen a different way?”

“Well, I mean, I guess, but—”

“Alright, then lets move out— try to get a better idea of what we’re dealing with here.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice.”

Leo held out his arm to stop Raph from running off immediately. “Careful, Raph. This could just be a sewer worker in over his head.”

“Yeah. Or it could be the Shredder.” Raph growled.

“Exactly. So be ready, but quiet. No use exposing ourselves if we don’t need to.”

Leo made the motion and Raph took point and was the first down the slide that took them out of the lair. Mikey was after him quickly. “Don’t worry, I’m a professional!” Mikey waved jazz hands.

“So am I.” Leo shoved Mikey down the slide after Raph. “Don, you next.”

“Arlight, but Leo I really think—”

Leo shoved Donnie into the tube the moment he got within sliding distance, and then gave it a few seconds before jumping in after him. The slide was a steep one, more like a straight drop than anything else, and eventually curving into a slope and then a tunnel. For a moment during the decent, Leo felt his shell leave the wall, and he braced himself for the jostling that came when he hit the curve straight on. He could see all three brothers in front of him in varying stages of the slide, Mikey making every attempt to loop around the length of the tunnel as many times as possible, which kindled his speed enough that he was dangerously close to colliding with Raph. He did another loop, narrowly avoiding the older turtle as he took the lead

“SNOOZE YOU LOSE, RAPH!”

“Mikey! Stop breaking formation!”

“Woah—“

Raph had to put on a quick break as he almost ran into Mikey’s shell, and the momentum made him spin around and slow. Before he could right himself, Donnie started to panic and tried to avoid raph by sliding over the walls as Mikey had, but it wasn’t fast enough and collided into Raph’s plastron.

“WATCH IT DONNIE!”

“THIS WASN’T MY INTENTION!”

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Leo just barely escaped another collision by doing the same move as Mikey, dodging the backup of his brothers as he sped after Mikey.

It took another half a minute for Raph and Donnie to detangle from each other, still sliding all the while.

“Move your arm!”

“Ow, that’s my leg—“

“I don’t care what it is, I’m gonna break it!”

“I’m trying— oh, my glasses—“

“Get offa me Don!”

“I’m struggling just as much as you are!”

Finally, Donnie got himself separated and held his position by digging his staff into the stone to defy the rushing water. He waited until Raphael had turned the corner before he let himself go once more to rush after him.

~~~~~

“Get back here.” Leo growled and grabbed Mikey the moment he caught up, turning the smaller turtle to face him.

“Ah— mercy—!”

“What’s up with breaking formation?”

Raph arrived, flying out of the slide and into the lower section of sewer, landing hard behind them.

“I coulda crushed you!” Raph gave Mikey a harsh shove.

“Hey hey hey, chillax, my dudes!” Mikey tried, holding his hands up in defeat. “I didn't mean to!”

“That’s not an excuse!”

Leo heard Donnie fly out and breathed a sigh. That was all of them.

“Guys, Quit fighting!” Donnie tried to get between them and Mikey. “We’re not alone here, remember?”

“Right.” Leo huffed, and made a motion for the brothers to follow him. “Remember— stick to the shadows and if we do find something, wait for my command before you do anything. Think you can handle that, Mikey?”

“What? I could do that in my sleep, bruh! I’m a shadow! You’re think I’m over here— hwa ha!” He fliped around Leo waving his nunchaku, “—but I’m really—over here!”

Leo prodded the handle of his sword into Mikey’s stomach to quiet him before he took the lead in climbing up the tube that led to the higher section of sewer. The walls were slick and lined with a thick layer of sludge, so getting a grip was difficult, but not impossible. Every so often he’d look down to make sure his brothers were following after him— Mikey, Donnie, and Raph in that order. If they were to fall, each brother would be able to catch the ones on top of him— Mikey could hold Leo, but if he fell then Donnie could catch both Mikey and Leo, and if all three fell, then Raph was at the bottom as backup.

Leo stopped as he reached the surface, just barely peeking his nose up over the edge. All he saw was dark sewer, and after a minute of searching every shadow and potential hiding space, he felt a sharp prod.

“Ow!”

“Move it!” Mikey insisted impatiently, “I don’t wanna look at your butt all day!”

Leo growled and retaliated with a careful kick to Mikey’s shoulder before pulling himselfup finally through the tunnel. He took another look around before turning to give his brothers the signal to follow, but Mikey was already through and Donnie was halfway out.

Leo made a ‘really guys?” motion and sighed, just letting the misdemeanor pass as his three brothers joined him in the dark tunnel.

“See anything Don?”

Donnie hummed and pulled his goggles down over his face to get a better view in the dark.

“Hm. Not picking up any heat signatures besides ours, but there’s splash marks on the walls higher than the current should be able to reach.”

“Meaning?”

“Something’s been splashing around here recently— the amount of residue is too big to be a rat. It could be a dog maybe, but that wouldn’t explain the camera…”

“Dude, it’s like, totally an aligator.”

“No it’s not.” Raph nudged his baby brother.

“No, dude, it totally is! I read about it once!”

“There are no gators in the sewer Mike.”

“Actually, there’s reports of gators living in the tunnels as far back as the nineteen twenties. The story goes that people would buy baby gators when they were small and cute and abandon them when they got too big to be kept in an apartment. The fascinating part is that the city actually rescues up to a hundred alligators a year from exotic breeders or incompetant owners with no liscence.”

“Donnie—“

“Though theoretically they could survive in the sewers for a short time, long-term survival would be highly improbable given cold tempatures and the bacteria in human feces. The only reason we can survive down here is because—“

“DONNIE.” Leo said, this time louder, “The alarm?”

“Oh. Right.” Donnie cleared his throat, looking away sadly as his rant went unfinished. “I… am detecting trace amounts of mutagen, but that could just be cross-contamination from one of us or Splinter. I’m sure someone would have told us if Bebop or Rocksteady escaped.”

There came a noise. A loud, jarring noise like the snap of metal. Each brother had their weapons ready before the sound even stopped echoing, dropping into their respective defense stances as they stared down the side of the tunnel that the noise came from. Nothing happened. A minute passed. Nothing.

“Think they left—?” Mikey was shushed thrice.

Leo gave the motion for his team to follow him as he lead the way down the tunnel.

“It could be an ambush.” Donnie whispered to Leo as they approached.

“If it is, we’ll be prepared—“

Leo held out his hand to stop his brothers as the sound started up again. It took a second, but eventually Leo took notice that it wasn’t the same sound. This time it wasn’t metal snapping, it was more like groaning. Like someone had taken two metal pipes and twisted them together. And there were footsteps— heavy, slow footsteps in uneven intervals.

“What in the world…?”

Leo squinted when a figure made itself known. It looked amost like a spider, with a massive, spiked body and five and a half legs. It seemed to have two heads each moving separately of the other, and the noises it made sounded like something under great strain or in pain. It swayed unsteadly before them and tried to take a step forward.

“Stop right there!” Leo commanded to the beast, holding his katana in its direction.

The monster seemed to understand., and it stopped.

“Leo, that’s—“

Leo shushed Donnie.

“But it’s—“

The figure tried to move toward them again and Leo flashed his sword in another threat. “I said stay back!”

“LEO!” Donnie didn't give Leo the chance to say anything, pulling up his goggles and flicking a flashlight on the creature. “Look…”

The creature— or more like creatures— flinched at the light shined in their faces. Of the six legs Leo had thought he’d seen, only two of them proved to be real, and the one creature turned out to be two. The smaller one was on the bottom, supporting a second, larger creature on his back. Leo, Raph, and Mikey all gasped and withdrew in their shock, but Donnie held steadfast and kept the light trained on the enemy.

The smaller creature was a dark green with stripes of purple streaking across him, purple armor torn and some lost all together. He only had one kneepad and both of his sock peices were soaked dark and torn. His elbow pads remained mostly untouched, and his hands were bare. Technology littered his body— goggles on his head and a tablet on his arm and a belt and shoulder straps that supported a massive shield over his back— over his shell. From the armor came four metal arms, one of them broken and the rest straining to support the immense weight on top of him.

The larger was big enough to cover his carrier almost like a blanket, hiding a majority of the small turtle beneath his massive plastron and bulking arms. He might have been a lighter shade of green— it was hard to tell in the lighting, and even then it hardly mattered. The only evidence the great beast was still living was the fact that he was moving his head around, just slightly. Thick streams of crimson bubbled forth from a gaping wound in his carapace, bleeding out and covering him in streams of shiny red that dripped down his arms and side and onto his companion. He gave the slightest groan at the light shining on him and tried to open his eyes.

“What the fuuuuu…?” Leo gaped.

The purple-clad mutant looked weakly to the four with tired, terrified eyes. “Help…”

He collapsed into the sewage.

[5thmarauderwrites]

Apps, Texts & Wizardry — The Marauders x Reader | Request.

Requests are: OPEN.

Requested by Anonymous: “Helooo💛 could you write a modern au where the reader is teaching the marauders how to use tech? Have a nice day :)“.

Pairing: The Marauders x Fem!Reader [platonic].

Word Count: 2,4K

Warnings: None, it’s basically all fun and teasing and friends being friends.

A/N: Hope you like this! I had to refrain myself from the dialogues a bit because i had lots of fun remarks and teasing moments in my head as i imagined how the teaching process would be, so it would end up being very, very long if i hand’t stopped myself. Also the title SUCKS because i literally couldn’t think about anything good.

“L/N!” James yelled your last name in the middle of the library, shaking a brand new smartphone clutched in his hand; Sirius and Peter on his trail. Remus walked a little further, an apologetic frown on his features as he looked at you.

“Potter!” Madam Pince shrieked. “Out! Now!”

“But I’ve just got here!” The boy with unruly black hair protested.

“I do not care! Screams and loud tones of voice are strictly forbidden in my library! Go on – out! Out before I hex you!” The witch brandished her feather duster at the boy as she gesticulated for him to leave.

James grimaced, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose, “I just need to talk to my friend, please! She’s right there!” He pointed to you, who watched the unfolding scene with a look of pure terror, in fear that Madam Pince would banish you from the library for good after James’ antics.

Madame Pince sent you a death glare before turning back to the Marauders with a fulminant look on her face, “out, all of you! NOW!”

“We haven’t even done anything!” Sirius shrugged with a frown, trying to defend himself.

The older witch gave them a last warning glare and, getting the message; Remus mumbled an apology and dragged the other three boys out of the room. Madam Pince waited until they were completely off the library’s limits to walk angrily to the table you were sharing with Lily, Marlene and Alice in the quieter corner of the study room.

“L/N!” She spat as she approached your table. “You know you’re one of the few students that I actually tolerate in this school, but this better not happen again because next time you’ll be kicked out with them!”

You widened your eyes in horror and nodded vigorously, afraid to make any noise and irritate the librarian even more. Madam Pince huffed satisfied at your acknowledgement of her threat before turning on her heels and leaving you with a dumbfounded look on your face.

“I don’t know how you and Remus can be friends with those twats,” Lily said in a belittled tone of voice whilst rolling her eyes.

“They’re not that bad once-“ you started to defend the Marauders but trailed off as you looked in the direction of the closed window by the side of the door and saw James and Sirius with their faces glued to the glass, waving for you to come to them.

“You were saying?” Marlene frowned disgustedly at their behaviour.

“Come on, they’re nice people, girls!” Alice chuckled, defending the boys as the sweet and kind person she was.

“They are! Thank you, Ali!” You wrapped your arm around the girl’s shoulders in a gesture of appreciation.

“Sure,” Lily teased with a frown as she studied the boys, whom were now making silly faces at your group from behind the glass window. “I’m sure if you google stupid twats their names won’t come up as soon as you hit the search button.”

Marlene high-fived Lily at her remark and you couldn’t help but smile, even though you rolled your eyes at your redhead friend, “you know you and James have a lot in common, don’t you?” You teased, getting up and grabbing your phone and laptop.

“Where are you going?” She asked amidst a blush, purposely ignoring what you had just said.

“To see what they bloody want before Madam Pince spots them and forbids me to step a foot into the library for good of course,” you shrugged with a lopsided grin and walked away from your lady friends, heading to the boys in the corridor.

 -

 “Y/N, I’m so sorry! I told these idiots that you were studying and they should not bother you!” Remus said as soon as he saw your moving figure approaching the door, his arms up in an apologetic gesture.

“That’s okay, Rem. I know their stupidity is uncontrollable,” you chuckled, squeezing the taller boy’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, offended, as he ran a hand through his thick dark locks.

“She’s not lying,” Remus said with a light shrug of his shoulders, pressing his lips together to contain a smile.

“What do you bloody want from me anyway to barge in the library like that?” You winged your brows, specifically scolding James.

“Sorry about that, little one. Madam Pince really needs to learn how to relax,” he frowned, recalling her unpleasant screams. “Anyway, we got ourselves brand new phones and this muggle box you call a laptop and we were wondering if you could help us out with those… things.”

You lifted a brow as you crossed your arms across your chest, “you got phones? And laptops?” You repeated his sentence with a surprised tone of voice.

“That’s what I just said, yes,” James frowned.

“I reckon you saying something like,” you started, raising your hands in the air and mimicking quotes as you tried your best to impersonate James, “’I will never trade my owl and parchments for these bloody muggle things with these annoying noises.’”

“I’ll admit I may have spoken too soon,” he shrugged with a grimace. “Blimey, it’s hard not to surrender to those things when the entire school and even the Professors are using it!”

You gazed at James with an amused look on your face.

“So, will you help us out, love?” Sirius steadied himself on you as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and stared at you with puppy eyes.

“I could use the help of these things to improve my studying method and have easier access to books,” Remus said shyly, putting his hands into his pockets.

“I want to try those games the lads have been playing, they’re even talking about doing championships and starting clubs,” Peter’s eyes twinkled as he nodded excitedly.

You heaved a sigh as you looked to the pleading faces of the four Marauders. “Fine, I’ll help you idiots out.”

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 You had been helping the Marauders with the muggle technology for a few days now and it wasn’t getting any easier. As wizards born and raised into wizarding families, the boys never had any sort of familiarity with technology nor muggle devices before, which hampered the task in hand considerably. Even Remus, who was unquestionably the cleverest among them, was struggling to learn how to properly use a phone.

Beginning with the smartphone was your idea, because you thought that after they mastered this complex device, learning how to use a laptop would be a piece of cake. You just didn’t imagine that it would be so bloody difficult.

“Wait, wait, and wait!” Sirius interrupted your explanation about the Face ID for the third time with a confused frown as he threw his head back heavily into the back pillow of the Gryffindor Common Room sofa. “How am I supposed to make my face unlock this thing? Will I have to hex it?”

“No, you daft dimbo!” You huffed, annoyed. “I’ll get there if you just stop interrupting me!”

“Sorry, love,” he smirked satisfied at your apparent annoyance, resting his elbows on Remus’ and James’ shoulders. “I’ll admit I have a liking to piss you off; and apparently I accomplish that even when I’m not trying to.”

“You sure do!” You smiled wryly at him, curling your legs on the seat of the stuffed armchair you were occupying, leaning yourself a little in the boys direction. “Anyway, you’ll access your phone settings right… here,” you said, showing them with your phone where to tap. “To register your face, you’ll need to hold your device between 10 and 20 inches away from you. With your face centered in the circle, you’ll move your head around until the scan is complete.”

The boys quickly followed your instructions and registered their faces, finally completing the basic configurations of their phones as they did so, allowing you to start teaching them how to use its apps and download other ones.

“There’s a camera in this? Cool!” Sirius exclaimed excitedly once he unlocked his phone screen. “What?” He added with a smile when you chuckled at his reaction.

“I’ve always thought that if you were a muggle, you’d sort of be an edgy photographer,” you answered with a lopsided grin.

“I could be one to,” James shrugged uninterested. “I’d definitely be edgy.”

“You, James? Come on!” You rolled your eyes, laughing wholeheartedly. “You’d be an annoying influencer jock.”

“A what?” He asked, utterly confused as if you were speaking in another language.

“You’d definitely be an overachiever high school athlete who were not only famous at school but also on the internet,” you winged your brows at him, resting your chin of your fist.

“You’d definitely be like that, mate!” Remus laughed, pointing his index finger at James.

“Yeah? And how would all-mighty Moony be?” James teased, crossing his arms across his chest and bending his head a little so he could playfully stare at his brown-haired friend.

“Rem would be a total hipster!” You shouted excitedly, clapping your hands. “He’d definitely be an outsider to the cultural mainstream, he’d have an online blog where he’d review books and would definitely be vocal about structural issues in the muggle society.”

“Why would he be the coolest among us?” James frowned, a little annoyed.

“Because he already is,” you shrugged, winging your brows.

“I can totally see muggle Moony being like that too,” Peter nodded vaguely from his seat on the arm of the sofa, picturing what you had just said inside his head.

“Can we focus on the tech again?” James said, swinging his phone in the air.

“Yes, we can, you pampered berk,” you answered, the ends of your lips curling up into an amused smirk as you got up of the armchair and motioned to the sofa, squeezing yourself between James and Sirius.

Slowly, you started to explain to them how to use the iMessage service and how to text someone and read the texts you receive. The boys seemed awestruck by the fact that you could get in touch with someone so easily and get an instant response back.

“Wicked! Now I can ask Lily out without putting myself in danger!” James exclaimed excitedly, the blaze that crackled in the fireplace lighting up his features. “Can’t I?”

“Well, she can always block your number, you know…” you frowned mockingly at him, earning amused laughs from Remus, Sirius and Peter.

The four of you teased James for a while before you and the boys got back to the teaching process. An hour or so later, you had already covered all the phone basic apps and they were already familiar with their functions and how to properly use them.

“Now, to the fun stuff!” You announced excitedly. “Let’s introduce you lads to the wonderful world of the trending apps.”

“Are there more?” Sirius widened his eyes as he rested his head on your shoulder.

“Indeed, my dear Black!” You quirked your brows satisfied, tilting your head so you could look him in the eyes. “There are tons of apps you can download to improve your experience, apps that match your likings such as, in your case, dating apps.”

“Dating apps? Can’t you just charm the ladies through texts?” He asked confusedly.

“You sure can, but these apps are basically made for people who want to engage on… knowing someone a little bit better, if you know what I mean,” you chuckled. “With the dating apps you don’t have to ask yourself if the other person is somehow romantically interested in you, because when they swipe right and the match is made, it means the interest is mutual.”

“And how would you know all this?” He asked, lifting his head and smirking mockingly at you. “Y/N L/N, do you use dating apps?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” you retorted, blushing furiously. Sirius’ smirk grew wider.

A sudden silence fell among the five of you as you and Sirius stared at each other with narrowed eyes; he holding a teasing look whilst you held a deadly one. James and Remus watched the scene with delighted expressions whilst Peter monotonously scrolled through his phone screen.

“Ahem,” Remus cleared his throat with an amused smile, dragging you and Sirius back to reality. “Are there any good apps to download books and to read them?”

You slowly tilted your head in Remus’ direction and, nodding, started to show him the apps you had on your phone for reading purposes and which ones you thought would fit his needs better. Remus avidly listened to your tips whilst downloading each and every app you had mentioned on his own phone.

The day quickly faded into night as you and the Marauders went on and on about the technologies and its functions and soon, the five of you were the only ones in the now silent Common Room, the light coming from the fireplace and the displays of your phones being the only things shining in the almost complete darkness.

“And done!” James exclaimed, getting up from the sofa and stretching himself. “TikTok is already downloaded and ready to be used! Tomorrow we’ll pull the ‘Dance Like a Hippogriff’ prank and Y/N here will film everything so we can upload the edited video on our TikTok account later.”

“Excuse you?” You frowned, crossing your arms across your chest.

“It’ll be fun, I promise!” He joined his hands pleadingly. “Come on! Please?” He added at the grimace you made.

“Fine!” You rolled your eyes with a smile after a few seconds. “Now I’m going to bed before another brilliant idea pops up into that twat mind of yours."

Saying goodbye to the Marauders, you walked to the stairs that led to the girls’ dormitory and took a quick look over your shoulder. Before you climbed up the stairs, a smile formed on your lips as you saw the four boys talking excitedly and laughing whilst scrolling through their phones.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 08 second part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Malarkey )

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Flower Town, Continued

The boys continue their ramble down main street. When they see an interesting crowd of people, Lan Wangji wants to hang back, actually verbalizing that it’s too crowded for him. He’s made a lot of communication progress since first meeting Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian reassures him, and hits him with a series of irresistibly fuckable coaxing expressions...

...and then grabs and drags him.

However, WWX only drags LWJ nearer to the crowd, not into it, letting go before he and Nie Huaisang step over to the group. Being taken out of his comfort zone is part of why Lan Wangji signed onto this Wei Wuxian ride, and as they grow closer WWX is learning LWJ’s particular parameters so he doesn’t cause a kernel panic total system crash.

Nie Huaisang recites some relevant poetry and Wei Wuxian praises him for being so cultured. I continue to love how sweet these two are with each other.

(more after the cut!)

Flower Boys

Lan Wangji gets rewarded for his bravery with a flower shower, and he blisses out, gazing at the pretty.

Nie Huaisang blisses out, gazing at Lan Wangji

Wei Wuxian valiantly tries to pretend he’s not totally heart eyes for Lan Wangji.

He fails.

Collecting the Yin Iron

Wen Chao is taking his own road trip, collecting Yin Iron and making trouble for our gang. This Yin Iron chunk is at the Flower Lady’s house.

Is...this a good way to store Yin Iron? It seems kinda precarious and, uh, stupid.

Next he goes to hassle the dancing rock lady, who, like OP, is a hystersister, but unlike OP, isn’t delighted about it.  Having her female essence Yin removed some years ago made her hot all the time and now she eats souls if she gets a chance. Mood. Rock Lady needs better vitamins. 

Anyway, Wen Chao is actually pretty effective at this Yin Iron getting thing, until he tries to catch Lan Wangji in a roadrunner trap anyway, and I don’t mind saying his dad should have more faith in him. 

In between Yin Iron stops, Wen Chao takes a moment to menace Wen Ching, blah blah Wen blah blah Yin, oh my god this storyline is the dullest. But we do get to see her beautiful scabbard up close.

Before Wen Chao frees the rock lady from her bonds, she has a magic circle on the ground, like the one Wei Wuxian broke in Episode 1 by stepping on it. Seems secure.  She is also bound in these chains. What are these chains (highlighted with white in the picture) supposed to accomplish, exactly?

Since they leave her front hand totally free, they are definitely not going to stop her from grabbing any of the dumbasses who consistently come and put offerings on the altar directly in front of her, is what I’m saying.

Wen Chao blasts the protection charm on the floor with some fire, and all of the chains fall off, so now Rock Lady is free to get her grouchy on. 

Let’s review the master plan for hiding the Yin Iron, shall we? Of 4 pieces of Yin Iron, Xue Yang hid one up his ass somewhere that’s never revealed. The other three were hidden in 1. a well-warded secret ice cave, 2. A public-access temple 3. A flower.  This is what happens when you don’t have a project manager.

Compatibility Score=Hard Nope

Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng sit down in a tavern for the world’s most antagonistic first date. 

As it turns out, Wen Qing is being helpful. Aggressively helpful. Also, we discover that even when he’s got googly eyes for a girl, future Clan Leader Jiang takes no shit when it comes to confrontations. This is a heartening development, considering his parents’ terrible dynamic. 

After Wen Qing delivers her message she tells her team to chill, and gets ready to sneak up the mountain to cause more trouble for her boss. 

Flower Lady House

The boys continue to be a few steps behind Wen Chao, getting to the flower lady’s house and finding nothing but a feather. 

Whenever we have an overhead shot of roofs I wonder where all the guards went. Possibly I have spent too much of my life playing Assassin’s Creed.

1. Nie Huaisang is very smart and observant 2. Nie Huaisang has super cool braids. There are even tiny side braids snaking up from his ears to his topknot.

Hey babe, how about some eye contact? Okay babe, but make it quick.

Dafan Mountain Town

Meet Granny, who is actually very nice and a good babysitter later in the story, but right now is baked out of her gourd.

Wei Wuxian tucks his sword in between his legs so he can make hand gestures while Nie Huaisang admires his hilt. 

We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind Because your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance they’re no friends of mine

The gang wanders through the deserted town, which seemed pretty creepy back when I was young and idealistic and hadn’t seen goddamn Yi City yet.

Now it seems quaint and well-maintained. Also the town isn’t really deserted; the inhabitants are in the makeup tent getting their zombie cracks painted on.

Rock Lady Temple

Baked Granny and Vaguely Hostile Temple Tender Guy are like “sure, you kids can sleep in the haunted house, have a nice time with that” and our gang just fucking goes to sleep all at the same time like they’ve never seen a monster movie before. 

Which is hotter: this fire, or this man asleep in this outfit with red laces on his vambraces and his red robe splayed all over the place and his knee up in the air and...ok, really there’s no need to even ask this question.

[too soon, OP, too soon. #FatalJourney]

Nie Huaisang wakes up all scared and startled, and Wei Wuxian subtly indicates his lack of concern.

Rock Lady Fight

Actually, of course, Nie Huaisang’s perceptions are right on the money, and the statue very sloooowly comes to life and attaaaaaaacks them.  Spinning ensues.

Wei Wuxian deploys his bondage talisman, this time in yellowish-white. He probably picked blue before to remind him of Lan Wangji’s headband.

[note: for more spin-fighting be sure to check out my fanvid!]

The actors are really good at all this mime work. The CGI doesn’t always live up to their efforts, but they manage to sell it, most of the time.

Lan Wangji is a great fighter, let’s see what cool moves he will use to get out of this “hand lightly resting on my sword hilt” situation.

Lan Wangji, are you fucking kidding me?

Eventually the fight choreographer comes back from his lunch break and lets Lan Wangji put his arms down. They finish their scuffle with the rock lady, sticking her back on her pedestal. Lan Wangji uses a magic flint-and-steel maneuver...

...and Wei Wuxian deploys some extra-fabulous talismans.

This effectively keeps the rock lady confined for the next several years, so--go go battle buds!

Zombie Attack

Once Rock Lady is taken care of, the undead zombies living puppets attack. 

Battle couple are on the same page throughout all of this, and decide to let go of the windows and doors they are holding closed in favor of putting a talisman on the center door only. Which, in the way of all zombie deterrents, works awesomely for about 2 minutes of screen time and then totally fails. 

Duhn-duhn-duhn! We end on a cliffhanger. What will happen? Will our intrepid gang survive? Is Jiang Cheng going to help, since he’s lurking just off camera? Nope 

Next rewatch is coming soon!

Soundtrack: 1. Safety Dance, Men Without Hats 2. Stand, REM

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 208

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 10 - “It’s Here! The Power of the Blue Rose!" Date watched: 16 April 2021 Original air date: 6 April 2008 Screenshots Transformation Gallery Project info and master list of posts

~mysterious~

Scorp knows his days at Eternal are numbered if he doesn’t get his act together, so he and Bunbee conspire on their most devious plan yet, pushing the Precures to exhaustion. But at the eleventh hour, a savior appears.... let’s dig in!

The Plot

The girls are hanging around at Natts House on a day off, goofing around, when suddenly the Rose Pact starts to glow intensely. The group assumes it’s King Donuts at first, but he’s already standing beside it. Instead, Flora emerges, and the opening credits play.

After the intro, she warns them that darkness is gathering its strength to tear apart the Red Rose, and they’ll need to bring together the power of the Red and Blue Roses. Somehow, her message manages to be both literal and cryptic at the same time. As quickly as she appeared, she disappears back into the Rose Pact, leaving everyone to stew on her words.

Meanwhile, at the Eternal Mansion, Scorp comes to deliver his report to Anacondy and finds Bunbee eavesdropping outside of her office. Bunbee mentions he heard her say something about an underground storehouse, which scares Scorp. After handing over his report, he talks privately with Bunbee and explains that Eternal is unforgiving to employees who fail to perform, condemning them to an underground labyrinth for all eternity. Bunbee freaks out hilariously, but Scorp tells him that he has a plan to save both of them.

We rejoin the girls at school, tending to the lawn with the rest of the student body (cultural note: Japanese students are usually responsible for the upkeep and general maintenance of their schools). They discuss Flora’s prophecy, somehow having a conversation despite all being a considerable distance from each other and facing different directions.

They recognize that the Red Rose being torn apart refers to them, but they still don’t know much about the Blue Rose. Nozomi assures everyone that everything will be fine, because they always pull through. She gathers her friends to hold hands in a circle, hearkening back to when she rescued them from the Kowaiina masks in the previous season.

Syrup and Coco show up to further discuss the warning. Syrup is very cynical but Coco, who knows firsthand the kind of trials the girls have overcome before, reassures him, and they agree to walk home together with the girls after school. The wind blows, scattering some rose petals, which leads to a transition to Natts House where Nuts picks up some rose petals of his own. He flashes back to an earlier conversation between the fairies about Flora’s prophecy, where King Donuts warned them that her predictions were absolute and the Precures should be extra cautious. Although not directly confirmed, this is probably why Coco and Syrup were so concerned. Nuts stares at the darkening sky in concern.

After school, the girls wait for their escorts home, but Scorp appears first, sarcastically offering to take them himself. They transform into Precure, but instead of fighting them, Scorp teleports to a short distance away. The team gives chase, and Scorp teleports again as it begins to rain. He continues to teleport, leading the team further and further away from the meeting point. The farther they chase him, the more intense the rain gets. Meanwhile, Coco, Nuts, and Syrup appear at the meeting spot, confused about where the girls are. Suddenly, Bunbee appears before the human fairies, saying that his business is with them as he transforms in an intimidating manner.

Scorp ultimately leads the Precures to an open field, where he finally stops and declares this should be far enough. The girls barely have enough time to ask him what he means before Bunbee teleports beside him, holding Coco, Nuts, and Syrup in their fairy forms, all looking a bit worse for wear. Scorp remarks that they are a part of the collection after all, just not very high on the list, and the two villains laugh. The Cures are all aghast at what’s unfolding, but Dream is the first to snap and charge at the villains, ready to kick their asses and retrieve her friends. However, when she tries to punch Scorp, he teleports out of the way, causing her to lose her balance and fall on the wet ground. Rouge and the other girls rush in to save her and get the fairies back, but they all slip and slide on the wet grass. Scorp and Bunbee just block and repel their attacks and throw them about. It’s a pretty brutal throwdown. At one point Mint charges Bunbee, demanding he give the fairies back, so he maliciously complies by swinging them directly into her trajectory, forcing her to stop her momentum. He takes advantage of this to punch her away. After a thorough trouncing, the girls are in shambles. Scorp remarks that he doesn’t understand their cause at all, because the fairies are too weak to even protect themselves. Naturally the heroines rebut this, saying he wouldn’t understand their bond and the way they support each other, regardless of their physical limitations. Their words fall on deaf ears though, and Bunbee tells Scorp he’s going to go ahead and return to Eternal HQ with his captives (probably should have done that to begin with). Dream and co attempt to give chase, but Bunbee bombards them with his stinger missiles, and the girls are unable to withstand the barrage. Feeling too weak to move, all they can do is stare hopelessly as their old enemy flees with their precious comrades.

Suddenly, the sky clears and a gentle breeze blows, carrying blue rose petals. The source is quickly revealed to be a mysterious girl standing on the peak of a nearby rooftop. The camera slowly pans up, allowing the audience to absorb every detail of her costume before revealing her face. It’s an outfit vaguely reminiscent of the Cures, similar enough to signify that she’s not just an ordinary person. She has long purple hair and if there was any lingering doubt about her identity, she wears a blue rose right in the middle of her chest, as well as smaller ones on her forehead and the backs of her gloves. Her entrance is backed by celebratory triumphant music, making it clear that she’s on the good side.

She orders Bunbee to release Coco, Nuts, and Syrup. When he doesn’t, she jumps over and kicks him hard enough to make him let go. She grabs the fairies in midair and safely returns them to the Precures, who are still taken aback by her sudden appearance. Their mysterious savior doesn’t mince words though, scowling at Dream and telling her she isn’t good enough. Before she can continue her lecture, Bunbee tries to divebomb her, but she turns around and stops him with one hand without batting an eye. She then performs a kick, a block, and an elbow thrust that knocks him backwards into Scorp.

There is a tremendous amount of power in her strikes, even by Precure standards. With the villains indisposed for a moment, the girl in purple returns her attention to the Precures. She sternly reminds them that the most precious treasures are easily lost, and they need to work extra hard to protect them. There’s a sense that she has an attachment to the fairies but it’s not dwelled upon here. As Scorp and Bunbee recover themselves, Dream and the other Cures launch a final attack as well. Lemonade separates the two generals from each other with her Prism Chain, and then Mint and Aqua use their special attacks on them as well. Bunbee teleports out of the way and tries to attack the mysterious girl from behind, but she grabs his arm and yeets him across the field. As Scorp swoops in for another pass, the purple heroine prepares to retaliate, but Dream leaps over her and performs Shooting Star instead. He resists being crushed, but he’s barely able to hold her back. Bunbee urges him to retreat and they reluctantly disappear, leaving Dream to crash head over heels on the ground.

“I’m okay!”

Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, and Aqua rush to her side along with Coco, Nuts, and Syrup. She says she’s fine. The mysterious girl glares from afar, before turning her back and walking away. Dream notices that she’s gone, and everyone is silently questioning who she was. Some blue rose petals blow past again, and Nozomi ponders whether this girl was the Blue Rose. The scene fades to black and the ending theme plays.

The Analysis

At long last, the payoff to the Blue Rose arc! It’s far from over, but for now, the warrior with the power of the Blue Rose has debuted and that’s what counts. I have a lot to say about our new heroine, but much like the episode, I’ll build up to that.

The pacing in this episode is excellent, it almost feels longer than what it actually is. The suspense builds up throughout the first few scenes as we’re told that the Precures are going to be split, and then separately that Scorp and Bunbee may be condemned to a fate worse than death if they don’t shape up. There’s uncertainty on both sides of the fight, and we soon see the girls ruminating over it in the garden scene. However, after a healthy conversation and considering all the obstacles they’ve overcome so far, they choose not to let it bother them. The team’s unshakeable confidence is enough to reassure Coco, though Syrup is less certain. This is consistent with their differing history with the team. Coco has seen firsthand what the girls are capable of, from overcoming the depths of despair to defeating Despariah by appealing to her humanity, and rescuing the lost citizens of Palmier Kingdom. Meanwhile, Syrup has only more recently gotten involved with the girls’ activities and isn’t aware of everything that they accomplished before he met them when they battled Nightmare, only some of their fights against Eternal, and he’s not sure they can fight back forever. Nonetheless, the callback to the pinnacle moment of the previous season is wonderful and a great reminder of everything the girls have overcome before now, including previous attempts to separate them. They’re stronger than that.

history shows that yes, you will be okay

With the tension being assuaged by the girls’ moment of solidarity, it is quickly reinjected by the following scene, where King Donuts cautions about Flora’s prophecies to the other fairies, and then we are shown Nuts being concerned about everyone, emphasized with some looming clouds. This cues to the audience that it’s not going to be just another battle, so it brings all the fear and concern right back to the forefront, and from there it’s all high stakes. The non-fight with Scorp as he leads the girls away from the school makes it clear that something unusual is afoot, and the next thing we know the fairies are being kidnapped. All of this tension culminates in the intense fight scene in the rain.

However...I found the actual battle to be a bit lacking and underwhelming. Obviously, the writers had to give Eternal the upper hand to allow for the Mysterious Girl to save the day with a badass entrance, that’s just the rules of the genre. Even so, all the Precures made at best one strike each and then fell to the combined force of the villains, when we know from numerous instances of them fighting MOTWs and generals alike that they can tank more than that. Is this the same team that burned the incarnation of despair herself with their power of hope? The same group of girls who defeated the strongest executives of Nightmare? The same Nozomi who befriended her evil clone? (okay that’s technically not canon but I am not letting Dark Dream be forgotten.) Those same legendary heroines, now succumbing to two punches from a mid-level manager? It doesn’t sit well with me. Bunbee’s strategy of using the captive fairies as a shield, knowing the girls wouldn’t want to hit them, was clever. I can understand Mint getting flustered at that moment, but the other Cures I’m less forgiving of.

The wet, slippery ground was a cool idea but the writers/animators didn’t do enough with it for my liking. And not to poke too many holes in Precure villain plots, but if Bunbee had just teleported back to Eternal with the fairies to begin with, they would have had a stronger bargaining chip to get the girls to hand over the Rose Pact. Things do turn around fast when the Mysterious Girl shows up, but even then she also only gets a few good hits in and spends half her screentime lecturing the Cures. Effectively, this is more of a tease of her abilities, her proper debut is in the next episode. I would rather this entire battle, from start to finish, had been a bit more desperate so as to not undersell the main heroines, even when introducing a requisite powerhouse of a new character.

Conversely, from a villain standpoint, Scorp and Bunbee going at it so desperately plays very well. They’ve had an interesting dynamic throughout the show so far, but despite his irritation with Nightmare’s former lackey, Scorp knows both of their jobs are at stake and he explains this to him plainly. After a great comedic overreaction, the next time that we see them when they hatch their plot to kidnap the fairies, they’re all business. You get the sense they’re giving their all for this fight in a way they haven’t before, and that could contribute to the Precures having such a hard time (though they should still be able to do more than they did). The next episode will show that Scorp still has a trump card to play, but he’s trying very hard here to avoid doing so. It’s a refreshing level of intensity for the duo, which in turn makes it incredible when the Mysterious Girl still tosses them around like ragdolls.

One plot point that was a bit unclear to me was Flora’s prophecy about evil attempting to scatter the Red Rose, because that’s not really what happened in this episode. I skimmed summaries through to the mid-season climax and didn’t see anything specific, so it may be more of a general warning that Eternal will try to break them apart, and that they should work with the Mysterious Girl for assistance, as she is the inheritor of the power of the Blue Rose.

Let’s talk some more about the Mysterious Girl. She fights HARD. She single handedly sends Bunbee flying across the field twice in about 4 minutes, and the weight of her blows is tangible. They make sure you know she stands apart from the Cures. She can hold off the recurring general with relative ease after he laid out the entire team, and this isn’t just a case of wanting to show how cool the new character is, although that is part of it. She’s going to remain strong and powerful throughout the show, and even in future crossovers. I dare say she’s unrivaled in Precure canon, inasmuch as power levels mean anything (they don’t). I’d also like to note for the record that the reason I only call Milky Rose the “Mysterious Girl” in this review is because that’s how she’s credited.

That’s her credit on the bottom: 謎の少女 (Nazo no Shoujo), literally “mysterious girl”, and her actress is anonymous, which immediately suggests that there’s something to hide. Watch this space over the next few episodes. (I mean, yes, I know who she is, and you probably do as well, but for the time being I’m going to limit this to in-universe knowledge.) Related to the mystery of her identity is her connection to the fairies and the Precures. She seems to be familiar with them at least, as she offers a kind, knowing smile when she rescues Coco, Nuts, and Syrup, then turns around and lectures Cure Dream about protecting him. Maybe I’m reading too much into the subtext, but I picked up a hint of implicit “You’re always like this”. For some reason she’s always glaring at the Cures, especially Dream, which conjures to mind another less than ideal relationship Nozomi has. When combined with the preceding episodes, there’s just enough evidence to suggest who the Mysterious Girl is without making it completely obvious, and when you do know, you can identify more key patterns, and her fight against Bunbee becomes much more personal.

Her outfit bears similarities to the Precure uniforms, but is also distinct enough from them to carve her out as a unique entity.

She wears a white two piece dress with magenta trim on the skirt and shoulder straps, as well as some lacing down the front in lieu of the jacket of the team’s uniform. I already mentioned the number of blue roses on her dress, but if you think that’s on the nose, wait until next time. She is not subtle. The separation between the top and skirt forms a V shape that exposes her navel, a la Cure Black and Cure Dream from their first seasons. She shares the color-coded shorts under skirt design sensibility of the main five, also inherited from their predecessors Cure Black and Cure Bloom. She has three-tiered shoulder pads that again are more reminiscent of those worn by the various Futari Wa Cures than the style of the current team. Her arm guards are two pieces, with the portion from her palms to forearms being the same style as the Precures’, but she also has a  white sleeve underneath it that extends all the way up to her bicep, and again has magenta trim. Most uniquely, she wears a thin, wire-like tiara that extends to the sides and back of her head, which along with some ribbons splits her hair off into two side sections that augment the main portion. It still all flows downward, but the side sections have a visible divide at their point of origin and give her a unique silhouette, somewhat like a set of ears, before the hair recombines down her back. She also wears pearly teardrop (or perhaps flower petal) shaped earrings, in contrast to the butterfly earrings worn by the main five. As usual, her eye color matches her theme color, in this case magenta eyes that are a shade lighter than the accents on her dress. All put together it’s a striking look and as a big fan of the color purple, I admire the outfit.

In the art and animation department, this episode is fairly good. There’s a few really standout shots, such as the one below, while most of the episode falls into average territory, and there’s a small number of sequences that are really lacking. Unfortunately, the fight in the rain is among these. However, some visual gems make up for it. The entire garden sequence is pure delight. It’s well-lit and places the girls in a welcoming environment, which helps to offset the doom and gloom of the rest of the episode.

This arc shot is a wonderful piece of animation. That’s not easy to do. Famously even The Lion King struggled with a similar shot, so while Precure doesn’t pull it off amazingly, there’s still effort. They change the angles on the characters slightly rather than just doing a lateral tracking shot with a loop, which is something they have been known to do before. Last episode in fact. However, there’s one aspect that stretches the imagination, in this show about middle school girls transforming into superheroes in frilly dresses to fight an evil corporation of monster people. And that aspect is that they are way too far apart from each other in the garden scene to be able to effectively communicate. They’re all facing different directions and are easily several feet (or meters) apart, their conversations would either be lost in the wind, or they’d have to call out loudly enough for everyone around them to know what they’re talking about.

Okay yes this is a stretch but it was funny to me.

Put everything together and you’ve got a tense, moody episode with an upbeat middle section that technically ends positively, but finishes with a hollow ending. This is an effective tool that leaves you wanting more without being an abject cliffhanger. It starts strong and ends well but has a subpar climax, being unable to fully deliver on its own promises. Nonetheless I like it, it’s a dramatic turn from the laid back last few episodes and a transition into the meat of the series. It’s not Precure at its best, but it’s quite solid.

Next time, it’s Scorp’s final stand and the Mysterious Girl’s first true fight. You won’t want to miss it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 kettei!

And now at long last, after 620 days since I started writing about YPC5 on the blog, and 244 days since my first Go Go review, I can finally uncover Milky Rose on my banner! Rejoice!

hopefully I can get to Fresh by 2022

[icecreamkink]

watched all of the untamed / cql in two weeks after my friend 1 told me abt mdzs a hundred years ago and my friends 2 and 3 tried to get me into cql for like two whole years and there are.

feelings.

very first scene is a very dramatic death in the middle of nightmare battle on sith planet land . i will forget abt it in the next tenish episodes and then will be very surprised when it becomes Extremely Painful

anyway magic flying gays and possession and human sacrifice! we are off to a great start

in retrospect, chaos goblin wei wuxian must have had a blast pretending to be so cRaZy and be as disruptive as he could as mo xuanyu lbr

listen. why is fire always evil coded. cant a magic clan wear red, black and orange and have flame motif while being wholesome?

For Legal Reasons These Are Not Zombies

i wish the politics of the sect were a bit clearer, especially at the beggining when the wen clan had sm power, was wen ruohan the chief cultivator? is that why they were so slow in responding to the attacks? im v confused by the pre yiling patriarch politics

fighting in the roof by the moonlight as way of flirtiiiiiiing. as i understand this is a wuxia/xianxia trope and honestly...... thank u for ur service

slight bullying and being a nuisance in general, as a way of flirting we love to see it

wwx: if i drink on the rooftop, thats not inside the cloud recesses! hmmm check and mate :D lwj: i will fuck u up so help me god   wwx: :0

i lov them

through hell or high water (quite literally) wei wuxian rem ains a trashfire gremlin till the end and i love him with my whole heart

in the pt subs wei wuxian calls jiang cheng a stubborn duck and i dearly wish that had come back

my opinions on almost every character goes from love to hate u - Hmm Me Like U - BABY. ILY. and i am Very Pleased w that. its been a while since i loved such a complete cast so much i think

no really. i WONT go into a detailed rant abt what i love about each of these characters and each of their relationships to each other. but i COULD. 

some lan disciples in the loudest whisper ever: YEAH THATS THE JIN BASTARD MENG YAO HEARD THE GOT SUPER HUMILIATED BY HIS DAD LOL SURE HOPE HE DOESNT TAKE SLIGHTS TO HIS CHARACTER TO HEART

lan xichen, immediately: i must Love him 

being into problematic ppl is in the Lan genetics, we come to realize

wen qing deserves so many awards for so many things but not snapping and just stabbing wen chao is at the top 

that scene at lan qirens class where wwx talks about using resentful energy to fight a violent spirit. exquisite.

 It establishes Good Student lan wangji, wei wuxian as curious and questioning and not afraid of taboo,  lwj sees that wwx is not, in fact, a dumb ass hes just a Dumbass,  shows us the audience (esp. a western audience) how shocking the idea of disrupting the dead/dying and controlling resentful energy actually is,  the theoretical foreshadow arguing, everyone else like ‘shUT UP’,  “and how could you ensure that the resentful energy would obey you and not hurt other?” “well i havent thought that far” and of course, lan qiren just straight up lobbing a hard object at wwx head,. chefs kiss

fellas is it gay to bother the hot rule obessessed nerd from ur school and make drawings of him with flowers in his hair and then hide gay porn in his book to antagonize him and ask him to hold ur hand and be ur friend and talk to him all the time and get him drunk and give him bunnies bc you know he likes them and give him a lantern and always want his attention and dedicate yourself to getting him to smile-

and after all of that wwx rly said oh i Admire him, aksd like yeah we all were there in high school buddy

i have Learned. caves = gay.

 accidental marriage +beint physically tied together with the sacred married ribbon+ gay panic+foreshadowing+bunnies! in the cave (1)

the story abt lan yi and baoshan sanren tho. i would like to see it

early days wen bros pull my heart strings like a guqin 

EVERYTHING about the lantern scene; disaster hets jiang yanli and jin zixuan; how wwx made lwj a bunny lantern. how soft and touched lwj was. wwx gleefully pointing out he was smiling and lwj IMMEDIATELY PULLING HIW SWORD ON HIM LMAO. tragically foreshadowy promises to do right by pepople, living without regrets. lwjs 'oh no do i love him??' face. just. all of it. 

i have it on good acc that in the novel lwj is explicitly Repressed Gay Panicked Big Horny which is delightful and rly Adds to the performance

 baby lwj is really just conceal dont feel dont let them know u have EMOTIONS (derogatory)

jiang cheng rly went "why dont.u go play with HIM if u like him so much"

jc and wwx have big BIG annoying sibling energy dont think too hard abt it or youll cry

lotus pier is soo pretty :((((((((((((((((

up until episode 13 you could think this could be a magical ancient chinese gays pride n prejudice w swords and shenanigans ................youre just not prepared for the game of thrones of it all

seriously ha ha ha i cried so much w this show my eyes genuinely swelled up . like. physically. fun timez fun timez

that being said, its hilarious that wen xu goes to cloud recesses like 'come out or ill kill all these hostages' and then DOESNT WAIT FOR AN ASWER AND KILLS THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY. do u know how blackmail works sir

 would like to make it recorded that from day one i was like 'CALL A GODDAMN CULTIVATION G20 THIS ASSHOLE SECT IS LITERALLY MASSACRING YALL!!' and it took them like 3 or 4 massacres to do anything and they STILL sent their heirs into their territory  LIKE

when wwx cites the gusu lan rules to wen chao tho. that rebel/attention whore/cutie pie 'look lan zhan i DID memorize the rules after all' ‘also a big fuck you to the wen sect :D :D’ sweet spot that scene achieves . delicious

all the cultivator young masters being petty af even though they are practically prisoners at the cave is hilarious and i love them

hurt and comfort + gay mistunderstandings + watsonian gay declaration music + accidental evil acquisition! at the cave (2)

its like where do i start? the fact theyre both trapped and kind of heavily injured inside an isolated cave with a murder turtle? wwx gay panicking lwj into coughing up bad blood? lwj being jealous as wwx babbles abt mianmian? telling him he shouldnt play with people and wwx saying he never played him? wwx going Oh. I See what is happening. YOU like mianmian, and lwj absolute done face ??? (iconic) wwx touching the sacred married ribbon Again? the telepathic communication? the sword? WEI WUXIAN ASKING LAN WANGJI TO SING TO HIM AS HE IS PASSING OUT AND LWJ SINGING HIM. THE SONG. HE WROTE. FOR WWX. AND THAT HE CALLED. THEIR SHIP NAME????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

they are SO insufferable pleeeeease

in the words of my friend 1 : “CQL is so gay we were all amazed how it got past the censors Ofc unfortunately it can't be novel level gay But they did their best And we love them for it”

in the theme of songs THIS OST. WUJI HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY MIND RENT FREE SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT the whole ost is so so sO beautiful.

 the costuming in this is also soooo exquisite. the embroidery? the fabrics? the details? how every sect and clan has a distinct style and architecture? (also ik they based each off of dif periods in chinese history which is REALLY fucking cool) just chefs kiss

the direction too!. i enjoy the unusual camera movements and i think they give it that Vibe, also their composition is PARTICULARLY good when it comes to telling the subtext through position of camera/position of character (like nhs off to the side in scenes he at first glance doesnt need to be/ how lwj is often centered when hes Jealous Yearning at wwx being affectionate w other ppl, wwx return from burial mounds etc)

ik madam yu is like Badass Milf Check and shes not getting any mom of the year awards but im delighted at how messy she is. IMAGINE that woman on tiktok

you better have enjoyed gay cave (2) bc its Just Pain from here on out! 

jiang fengmian and madame yu win the Most Dramatic Way to show they do care about each other, actually ..... ever :)

i thought jiang yanli jiang cheng and wei wuxian forcing themselves to escape yunmeng barely holding on after their parents are killed was going to be the height of pain in this show. ha. 

the family dynamics in general on this showwwww, both blood/ adopted/ found families, brotherly bonds and lifelong friendships just. rly. truly. fucked me up. theyre all so important and complicated and well rounded and beautiful and tragic

and beyond being a Win For the Gays im so glad the relationships w wwx and jiang yanli/ wen qing were NOT changed from platonic bc they are so much better like that imo. like maybe if we didnt Live In A Society it wouldnt be so, but the fact wwx and others can love and value them so much and theres nothing romantic or sexual abt it is like. so refreshing. especially @ jyl, with the way he and jc are overprotective of her and shes such a nurturing/care taker figure for them, it would just not vibe as well if they made it romantic

i love that this is a story abt Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch aka Actual Satan/Boogey Man/Village With/Public Enemy Number One , my dude is literally a necromancer who only dresses in black and has evil smokey black tendrils wafting out of him, but the really edgy one is still jiang cheng, pastel purple fashion icon

and speaking of best/worst siblings wei wuxian and jiang cheng *immediately starts crying* 

The Golden Core Transfer i just. no thots only tears 

wen qing and wen ning putting themselves in so much danger just.... to help them. wn saving jc from wen chao. wq finding a way to get wwx to transfer his core. like thinking about the monumental work these two did to help wwx and jyl and jc... jyl trying so fucking hard to be strong and keep on moving and giver her little brothers comfort after losing everything... jiang cheng. losing his parents and his home and his ability to do anything abt it and his complete desperation and lack of self worth and turning on them with agression  when he didnt realize all that they did for him ... hhhhhhhhhhhhh

me, pointing at the whole cast “i just LOVE them mom!!!”

its sad tho, that BARELY ANY of the women have like.... actual important conversations let alone relationships with each other at all in the story. and like wq and jyl have stayed at the same place for extended periods of time, where wq actively took care of her TWICE,  and still! not one measly convo, nothing! ................ .𝓌ₕᵧ

everyone in this show need a good sip of Self Worth and Stop Sacrificing Yourself juice 

ngl the sword flying looks very dumb 

“a-cheng, please bring a-xian back.” “i will, i promise.” ;-;

the whole calling each other by the More Intimate Version of the name, first as teasing and later as true intimacy. mmmhmmm yes

untamed where everythings the same but wwx evil flute song is eoeo

related that scene when wwx comes back from the burial mounds for the first time w demonic cultivation and he acts all formal and calls lwj hanguang-jun and keeps being evasive and distant and mean and soooooo................. facetious 

and how hes kind of desperately trying to keep intense lwj at bay (A FIRST) and avoiding actually talking to either of them and its all tension ughhh and then he MOCKS his and lwjs relationship, he jokes w him in this like... mean echo of their usual ~banter~ oof 

 and like!!! uncertain but so relieved jc who just HUGS him w no reservations for once and its not like he isnt just as worried as lwj abt wwx and what hes doing, but he chooses in that moment to enjoy getting him back first and mmhmMMMmMm yes (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show? MAYBE SO. ) 

highkey hurt me but also. i might be into mean wwx. i will take no criticism.

lan zhans sad eyes tho :((((((((( 

on one hand i wish we could have seen what happened at the burial mounds but on the other the timeskip adds so much flair to his return so im hnnn

also i love that hes been missing for 3 months reappears kinda melancholic and bloodthirsty and knowing malign tricks and jc is like 'so. are u sad bc of lan wangji'

when ur bae survived the war but he thinks ur evil/ might be evil so you cant kiss :///

hmmm talking at the rooftop under the moonlight not mentioning everything that stands between usssss

they are the two jades of lan and we’ll be the two heroes of yunmeng is the type of line u dont even need to know whats gonna happen to know thats gonna be sad

when they fight wen ruoshan at the nightless city i thought that was the battle we see at the first ep and its not and its so easy and theyre all like ‘yayy we won go wwx!’ i was just. SCREAMS WHAT is gonna HAPPEN

so like. post burial mounds/sunshot campaign pre yiling patriarch wwx is like. ultra arrogant, ultra mocking, peak lil shit and it gave me e v e r y t h i n g i wanted

even tho having the wen prisoners at the targets at phoenix mountain and still having wwx and jzx shooting the arrows was???? so.... tone deaf 

wwx: fucking w demonic energy   jyl: he has never done anything wrong in his life, ever <3 <3 (mood)

the parallels between meng yao/wei wuxian (and even xue yang a bit?) are Seen and they are Valid

wwx post burial mounds: can yall SHUT UP abt the goddamn sword (suibian left the chat)

LIKE truly, we talk abt the angst and yearning with wangxian. but what abt wwx and suibian. xianbian / xianqing angst and comfort 100k

take a shot everytime someone coughs up blood

zidian is simply the coolest spiritual weapon rip to suibian and chenqing and bichen and sendou and baixa........ but tis the truth 

cons: everyones families died in a nightmare war! everyones homes burned to the ground! everyone is traumatized! pros: everyone gets cooler clothes and weapons!!

wen ning and a-yuan and yanli bestest babes squad dont touch me rn

everyone: brooding and fighting                                                                wq and jyl: why dont you try some acupunture/drinking some soup and calm down huh? how abt that bitch?? 

showing the battle/massacre at the nightless city first was genius actually bc then everytime we have a cute scene w yunmeng bros and theyre like 'we'll be together forever! uwu' youre like oh. oh no. oh no no no. 

justice vs lawfulness vs means and ends 👁

jc: stay in the right path and practice the art of the sword                        wx: yeah thats not gonna happen chief

my reaction to wwx renouncing to the sect politics to help the wens was just that elmo burning gif in succession

the dramatic rain. wen qing desperately calling out to wen ning. the ghosts/puppets killing the guards. how terrifying wn actually was while wwx was controlling him :( lwj goeing after him to try and stop him and then he just; he Sees him and understands him even if he cant actually do anything about it other than let them go. 

“there must be somewhere in this earth we can go to :(((((((((”

"IF I HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, I'D RATHER IT BE YOU. DYING BY YOUR HANDS WOULD AT LEAST BE WORTH IT." oh my god oh my god oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddd

also lwjs umbrella is white w black smoke.. .  . nice

yiling patriarch / demonic farming burial mounds settlement is like one of my favorite concepts. they an "EVIL" FARMING COMMUNITY LED BY THE VILLAGE WITCH COME ON

they planted TURNIPS and LOTUS FLOWERS and ONE (1) baby and made lanterns and a common hall :(((((((

wen qing and wei wuxian, baddest bitches and genius science best friends i absolutely LOVED to see it. they rly went ‘is anyone gonna sibling/project partner that’ and didnt wait for an answer

both wwx and jyl getting lotus ponds at the burial mounds and in lanling bc they miss lotus pier ;;;;;;;w

;;;;; wish jyl had actually gone into the burial mounds. we were robbed of jyl and wq meeting again and jyl meeting a-yuan and seeing the settlement and the homes and all ;w; at least jc did go, stab wounds and broken arms and all

wwx like... having thrown his whole life away to help the wens (yeah the sect leaders and jin guangshan in particular wanting his stygian tiger amulet was an Element but still) and not.... necessarily regretting it, but grappling with all of the consequences of it... becoming moody and drepressed at times, missing his family and lotus pier and his friends and probably simply missing being around people and causing trouble, extrovert that he is, lashing out at the wens and at a-yuan, just in general the whole messiness of that experience

the way the resentful energy does affect his temperament is rly nice bc its not too in your face,(i mean outside of the Shaky Hands of Rage) but like he clearly has a much lesser control on his anger and impulsivity (tall order) than both before bm and after hes ressurected

on that note A-YUAN BABIEST BABY BOY BEST BOY

lan zhan being like oh hey there wei ying fancy meeting u and our son here. just passing by u know how it is hmmmmMm and then PLOT TWIST having defied orders to go see him and being punished for it. oof;;

 they habent seen each other in like? a year? and now theyre tgt 10 seconds and are already parenting a child together

also lwj rly kneels down in the snow way too much to be healthy

wwx: calm down guyssss i wont lose control of demonic cultivation omgggg  .   spoiler alert: he loses control of demonic cultivation

did u enjoy cute children? good bc now the Real Pain Begins

jiang yanli and jin zixuan rly out there APROPRIATING both disaster gays AND bury ur gays huh ;w;

i KNEW jin lings birthday was gonna fuck something up but the GASP that left my body when wwx lost control of wn and killed jin zixuan .. . . 

im sorry and thank you aaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAA 

when wen ning and wen qing were telling wwx their plan i was saying NO NO NO NO NO NO out loud in despair 

also can we talk abt how wq is definetely talking about only the both of them surrending themselves but then? everyone else just surrenders w them? IT MAKES NO SENSE LIKE WHY WOULD THEY what would be the Point

 sometimes there are some pretty gaping jumps in logic and continuity that are just like                     ?          ?

wwx: oh so when you try to murder me its justified but when i survive through dark magic and murder all of you its a "war crime"

unsurprisingly, his most feral, most spiraling moment talking to the sect leaders on the roof and attacking them and even fighting lan zhan is among my favorite scenes... its like, so painful to watch but also   so       thrilling   (and maybe my wen bbs dying arose some resentful energy in me what can i say) 

and its JUST, all they ever wanted was to do good but then... war. and trauma. and hubris. 

jiang cheng on the ground clearly thorn between what to do and feel is a Mood, lets just say

i was already crying when jyl showed up, but if i wasnt-

 i suffered SO MUCH through this series trying to figure out WHY jc would kill wwx. and when i understood. its somehow not as bad as i thought and also MUCH MUCH WORSE

a look into my group chat during the last flashback episodes:

SO ANYWAY. after the BLOOD BATH and RIPPING YOUR HEART OUT and FEEDING IT TO YOU  the untamed goes ‘ayy back to the present!! tu du dud ud du’ 

literally it ends a quarter into an episode and then KEEPS GOING i had to pause and stare blankly at the ceiling for an hour

babie cultivators and detective soulmates . i do need some cute after All of That 

(not that the pain is over LOL)

lwj is significantly less emotionally repressed in the present and its delightful. hes just ALL IN with wwx. and not just in the ‘i would and have killed various men and risked my reputation for you’ but also ‘ur tired here have a drink i brought it up cause i know u like it and it want you to be happy, always’

“when everyone praised me and wanted my power, you were the only one that challenged me. now that everyone hates me and wants me dead, youre the only one that stands by my side.” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 

and just filling in the blanks how lan zhan searched for him. for all of those 16 years he searched for him and was punished for it and raised a-yuan, the only survivor of the burial mounds settlement, as his own in gusu......

and jiang cheng.  being the tough love uncle . having raised the yunmeng jiang clan from the rubble all alone, his whole family dead, some of it on the blame of his own brother, his siblings, his closest friends gone.......and only jin ling there needing his guidance. 

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN JIN LING BEING A LIFELINE FOR JIANG CHENG AND A-YUAN FOR LAN WANGJI AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE NIGHTLESS CITY  

great now i made myself sad

and like . the fact! that lwj and jc dislike each other!!. jc projects blame onto him for wwx both “leaving” him and indirectly causing their families deaths and when hes so consumed by it he makes wwx an enemy, lwj is there now? trying to protect him?? and lwj, who can never understand the pain that wwx , indirectly or not put jc through, but who was right there when jc tried to kill him and will never allow him to hurt wwx again. and how they like. in a way project blame of their tragedies onto each other while dealing with some type of survivor guilt and in their own way still loving wwx through it all???  amd in way its kind of fundamentally selfish but also tragically understandable? and like when u put it against the fact that after he disappears during the sunshot campaign they were looking for him together and fought together??

JUST. THE CHARACTERS. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS. MAN. UGH. GOD. 

and like i think thats what makes it so good? its such a sad and painful and violent story, edgy even, but its compelling bc at the center of it there are all of these relationships and different types of love and hope and. :( i love it

enough crying lets talk abt wwx sleeping at the jingshi with lwj and wearing his under garment for a minute 🙏

 jin ling just has that Was Raised by JC energy tho lmao i love him

babie cultivator squad is the perfect ammount of cute and comedic relief while still bearing the weight? of the narrative in a way, both from sizhui and jin lings existences, and also. like. how do i put this. they feel hopeful? they were born after a war, they came of age at a time of relative peace, they dont hold on so closely to the resentments of their parents/father figures, they are specifically shown as more accepting and open minded. and its like.... Hope for the future  

one of the ?? things  i love the most is the fact that the main cast are often in situations where theyre hunted/running but they like. never wear disguises... just going around in their gorgeous expensive clan clothes and hair ornaments and distinctive spiritual weapons.... maybe w a straw hat on, just for kicks

wwx teacher 🥺🥺🥺

so this is why its called Yi City Misery huh

a-qing is such. an icon. im so sad. my girl even knew to leave xys dumb self rotting by the road but no one listens to her thats why theyre all dead or sad 

her and xue yang measuring each other up was so entertaining lmao

 its the funniest thing when hes like. HERES MY SAD STORY. FOR WHY IM A SADISTIC MURDERER. I BROKE MY HAND ONCE. 

like ok someone broke his hand in a horrible way, and like Poverty, i get it but also like.......... that lost the brunt of a proper sob story like, 50 sadistic murders ago bby

and i love that xingchen does not entertain that for a second hes like ‘not ?????? good enough???’ and the best thing is he wasnt even like 'u hadto be the bigger person' or sth but ' well then break that dudes hand back, rip his arm off for i care, what do the rest of us have to do w anything???” 

anjo sensato :(

xue yang is like..... the sexy sadistic evil version of a himbo..... a meanbo...

the fucked upness of xy’s feelings for xxc/ xxc and sl feelings for each other... like my dude literally gave his bf HIS EYES. and xy getting so attached to xxc .... the fucked up fake domesticity.... having him hurt sl..... then desperately trying to bring him back ...................... oof

song lan........... literally had his eyes AND tongue removed, his bfs eyes put in place, was almost killed, turned into a puppet by his bf unknowingly, manipulated by xy, sees his bf killing himself in despair.... and STILL finds the strenght to get up from there, and keep on traveling and helping people and attempting to fix xxcs soul.......... like, my man. damn. 

wangxian looking at songxiao and seeing an Actually more painful parallel for themselves. ft. that Color Coding. 

THE A-YUAN/SIZHUI REVEAL PUNCHED ME IN THE HEART but in a good way for a change

should have know that he would be the Best Boy the cute one w all the braincells

the butterfly AND the bunny lantern. i see how it is

u know is very convenient that no one can see the stark black veins on wen nings neck, ever 

BAT WEN NING 

wns face when lwj comes into wwx room like ‘:0 omg did u two finally get your shit together? good for you master wei good for u’ 

(they didnt) (yet)

DISASTER DRUNK LWJ. JUST. THRUST SOME CHICKENS TO SHOW UR RESSURECTED BAE THAT U LOVE THEM.

i have absolutely no idea WHY they gave lwj the same punishment for fighting his own sect/allies to protect the burial mounds as when they got drunk on cloud recess class days.... like? its such a ... emotional continuity error again

also is lwj gonna get an actual friend besides wwx , ever

mianmian marrying and having a family and a cute life after saying FUCK U AND UR SYSTEM TOO in a much less unhinged and dramatic way than wwx......... fills me w joy

also lol the idea that like. her husband not knowing that shes friends w satan/the boogey man/the village witch is hilarious

i love nie mingjue bc hes the resident Though Guy but also the most dramatic bitch in this show and thats Saying Something

jin ling cant have one uneventful relative can he

the fact that everyone present already knew “mo xuanyu” was wwx at the stairs is so funny, their faces are like ‘oh............ wow. that. sure is a development. shock” 

in the tradition of extremely loud whispers wwx tells lwj with twelve guards standing like one meter away from them: HEY PSH LAN ZHAN PRETEND IM FORCING YOU TO STAY W ME DO IT

oh my god oh my god

the absolute Yearning on his face when he leaves wwx and a-yuan at the burial mounds and refuses to stay for dinner was already Enough but the fact?? they brought it back?? to this declaration of love?? their expressions??????? strike me dead right now just go ahead

lFor Legal Reasons We Cant Kiss but we will have a very sappy declaration of love and trust and look at each other in way that is the actualization of 💞💘💗💖💓💘💞💗💖💘💗💖💕💞

also icb all the sect leaders and guards are standing there watching them say they like like each other with a dozen swords pointing at their neck

i enjoyed the depiction of the fickle public perception and how easily it can be used to scapegoat people. when the sect leaders turn on jgy and wwx knows thats its more for convenience than anything else...

poor lxc is literally like 'oh so when YOUR problematic boyfriend gets called evil its a misunderstanding but when its MY problematic bf-'

ok like i cant get over nmj let jgy play a song that messed with his temperament at all, like maN u KNEW he might be shady wth

wwx: “hey dont say anything bad abt lan zhan hes not an arrogant dick, thats just his face. 

ME ON THE OTHER HAND"

the cultivators as wwx is poking holes in their narrative is literally *nazaré meme*

"wei wuxian-!" "what did i break your leg, too?" not to be problematic but i laughed so hard

not as hard as "you dont have the rank to talk to me " tho

i Enjoy that, over the course of story, wwx sees that... theres nothing truly to Do, but move on. he saw how his arrogance and his mistakes hurt others, and hes trying to fix what he can, but he already did die for his mistakes and there are things he cant fix and that's. just how it is. even towards jgy, the narrative doesn't go gleefully and completely with "lets make THEM pay bc theyre the big bad" bc its not that simple, and it wouldn't lead anywhere but more pain...

re him and jiang cheng and the wens and kinda. isnt that what nhs did? scheming to displace jgy out of revenge more than any justice and doing so in the most painful way?

idk if that actually makes sense im truly just babbling

i thought the scene at the lotus pond would be CUTE but the context was PAIN again

jiang cheng finding out about his golden core and his conflict with wwx at the guanyin temple .... destroyed me but in a nice way kinda.... same way it destroys him look at his face oh god

and. the fact??? he sacrificed himself for wwx?? first?? and he'll probably never tell anyone much less wwx???? keeps me up at night

i havent decided if the neckbreak transition between jgy does sth super Evil or does he he does OR Does He yes he does O R does heeeee is sth i dislike or not

jin guangyao and wei wuxians most interesting parallel is that... theyve both seen 'hmm hey this system is fucked up' and wwx went 'so fuck it all i will renounce it and challenge it' and jgy went 'so fuck it i will use all of it to my advantage and manipulate it to my goals and whims'

the fact jgys mom was actually great and he loved her and his whole issue w it was more than simply being ashamed of being a bastard kinda got me ngl

never trust a dude with a fan.

nhs and jgy: the first rule to a convoluted and decades spanning violent revenge plot is to have fun and be yourself! 

when a-yuan finally FINALLY remembers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; wen ning has someone in his family back and a-yuan has someone to talk abt his wen family and wwx has him back bc he survived and lwj raised him anD HES THEIR SON. THEYRE MARRIED AND HAVE A SON. UGH.

and theyre allowed to heal. everyone is allowed to try and recover and be happy

netflix put all of the 3 endings on top of each other and it looks kinda weird actually BUT I DONT EVEN MIND :’’’’’’’’’)

the gasp that left me when lwj says ‘wei ying’ and wwx turns.........

there was also a screen with ‘thank you mxtx for creating these characters, we hope their wishes come true’ and i might. have cried then too. maybe. 

that was . a ride. as is proven by this behemot of a ramble clearly i just really needed and Outlet. i am currently trying to convince dumb monkey brain to not consume the other medias of mdzs immediately bc i REALLY need to like. live. a life. and take care of real responsibilities.  *longest oh boi ever*

[lovelylogans]

honey, you’re familiar (like my mirror)

prologue: (re)birth

see next chapters, notes, and warnings here!

“We all experience many births and deaths in a life.” —Jonas Maliki, Sense8 

EMILE

Emile Picani has always loved children, but, as a cis man, he had generally contented himself with the fact that a woman would eventually bear them (as he pieced together the whole oops, all gay! thing in his mid-to-late teens, he mentally altered that to through surrogacy) or that he would adopt children with a loving partner someday.

He had really been very, very content with the idea of never giving birth. He had been perfectly fine with the idea of never giving birth. He would really, really love it if he were not giving birth right now. But as it is—

“Does psychic birth count as birth?” Linda asks, tilting her head; she’d chopped off her hair in her kitchen a month ago, so now it swishes along her jaw. The loss of a foot of hair doesn’t mean her hair is any more tamed than it was when it was waist-length, back when they’d first seen each other face-to-face.

Emile moans in pain, rolling face-down onto the couch to press his face into the cushions, blocking out all light; the pressure and ache behind his eyes that’s been mounting for days is almost as bad as it had been when he’d been born. Reborn. 

Sensate birth is so confusing.

The weight of another member of his cluster dips the couch cushion near his feet.

“I would be this close to leaving if the call to visit wasn’t so strong,” Andy groans, and then the sound of someone hitting him; Missy, he’s sure.

“He is having our weird psychic niblings,” she scolds from where she sits beside Andy. “We need to be here and support him while he’s in the birthing bed, as moral support!”

“Not actual birth,” Emile groans into his couch cushion.

“Hey, Emi,” she continues, ignoring him, “you can’t tell if one of them is in Greece yet, can you? Try and aim for one in Heraklion, I never get to go to Crete and I want to go sightseeing!”

“Or Manila!” Linda calls. “But that’s more for my convenience than a vacation.”

“I’m pretty sure you can’t pick where you’ve got your psycellium-connection children, but if you do, aim for Brazil for me so I can meet one,” Nate says, with a hand still awkwardly on Emile’s back in an attempt to comfort him, and Emile is so grateful to him for being with him through the whole of this psychic labor he could cry.

Well. He’s pretty sure he’s already crying from the pain, but.

“Do they count as children?” Andy says, then, “well, I guess you don’t know how old they are yet, do you. It could be a super early activation, so you could end up with a bunch of kids. Or, wait, hey, how funny would it be if you ended up just plucking late activations from retirement homes?”

Emile reaches blindly for the nearest cushion to block his ears. He can tell through feeling that it’s the Mickey Mouse one, but even as he places it over his head the texture skitters under his fingers—a pen, a soft blanket, thick paper, a cold glass sweating with condensation, back to a cushion—and he goes about blocking out Linda and Missy’s chattering about hoping one of them is in their respective countries, so they can be the weird psychic aunties they’d always been meant to be.

Another voice that manages to actually startles him this time, and blurrily, barely comprehensible beyond the pain, he thinks that should probably be how he knows the birth is close: ever since they’d all gained some form of equilibrium, after their own birth nearly ten years ago now, he’s never, ever been startled by the appearance of one of his cluster, ever.

“Ditto on telling me if you end up getting a Canadian,” Brian says, and Emile manages to peek out from his cushion to see Brian crouched on the floor in front of him, beside Nate, smiling at him as if nothing’s wrong, even though he can feel Brian’s nerves roiling alongside his own. “B'ezras Hashem, they won’t end up with only Missy as an auntie, eh?”

He lets out a laugh that sounds more like a sob and he has to squeeze his eyes shut against the pain, then, the pressure behind his eyes unbearable, like all the water of a dam pressing unerringly against the littlest crack, waiting for it to burst.

“Where the hell are you, Remy,” he can hear Toby snarl—when did Toby get here?—and Nate’s hand rubs soothingly up and down his back, shushing Toby.

“Of all the days to take a blocker off-schedule,” Andy tsks. “You should all listen to me, we knew that could be a worst-case scenario—”

“Not his fault,” Emile chokes out—if this could be equitable to normal, human baby birth, Emile might think that the stress of Remy catching sight of someone entering his café and immediately blocking them all out before anyone else could notice might have been what triggered this labor to come on so sudden and so strong.

“No, ‘course not,” Linda says in a soft, soothing voice, nearly drowned out by the sound of fabric smacking against skin; he’s pretty sure that Missy’s hit Andy upside the head with one of his couch cushions, and that’s confirmed when he hears Missy hiss “that is his boyfriend what is wrong with you for bringing that up right now” “well he did!” “oh my God, Emile is literally giving birth right now, this is not the time—”

A particularly strong surge of pressure and Emile clenches his teeth against a scream of pain—sunlight in his eyes flowers in his nose rocks scraping his hands—and his bickering cluster falls immediately silent, and still, and scared, a moment of silence before their thoughts come rushing in—what if this goes why didn’t harley tell us it could be like where is he it’s his damn boyfriend need to help them is he going how is this going to work harley where are you

“It’s okay it’s okay it’s okay,” Nate chants, rubbing a hand up down his back, and Emile actually sobs, this time, because it hurts, it hurts so much, he feels like his brain is exploding.

There are so many flickers of sensation, all the time, flickering from his own couch to the floor of Nate’s office to Linda’s kitchen table to a fancy apartment to Andy’s balcony to a dark silent bed to a grassy field to sprinting along the sidewalk past a patisserie to ears popping on an airplane on wait go back go back that was Remy Remy—

But it’s snatched away on a brisk wind on a blast of air conditioning on a cocoon of warmth under blankets on on on on on

it’s okay it’s okay it’s okay, his cluster says as one, it’s okay it’s okayit’sokayit’sokay—

Nate squeezes his shoulder, and Emile sucks in a desperate breath of air, distantly aware of his own body, the fact he’s writing on his back, now, the heels of his hands digging into his eyes, his throat aching like he’s been screaming, Nate’s hand on his shoulder Missy’s fingers twining with his Linda touching his wrist Andy holding his ankle Brian’s hand on his knee. And he feels anchored.

And then Remy bursts into the apartment, and Emile bawls at the sight of him, the force of it making all of the cluster reach for Remy as one.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Remy pants, skidding to a stop at his couch, “fuck, I’m so sorry, baby—”

“Hurts,” is all Emile can say, and suddenly his body and the entire cluster has shifted—Remy lying behind him, his arms wrapped around Emile’s chest to keep him upright, his cluster touching his arms, his legs, his chest.

“I’m here,” Remy whispers, carding back Emile’s sweaty hair. “I’m right here, babe, I’m so sorry, I’m here now. I’m here.”

“It hurts,” Emile whimpers. “Rem, it hurts so much.”

“I know, I know, I can feel it,” Remy whispers into his ear, rocking him back and forth. “Em, you’re so close, baby, you’re almost done, you’re amazing.”

Emile, blindly, reaches out to clutch his hand and Remy is always, always there to take it, letting Emile crush his hand.

There’s a pull, now. He can feel it, a full-body pull, and—

“You got this,” Remy whispers. “Emile, honey, you’ve got this. We’re right here with you.”

You’re right here with me, Emile thinks, dizzy with the relief of it, finally, all of them, EmileRemyLinnyBrianTobyNateMissyAndy, you’re right here with me, and he lets himself be pulled.

And his brain expands.

“Remy, I see them,” he whispers. “I see them…”

The lights are off here, the only lighting from the moon, illuminated the massive apartment furnished in sleek black lines and bright golds, a man tossing and turning, facing Emile.

The man glances at him, rolls away, pauses, then rolls back abruptly; in the low light, Emile can see the scar slashed across his cheek, bisecting a birthmark. 

“Oh,” Emile whispers, his throat clogged suddenly at the sight of this man—he already knows that his name is Janus, and he is brilliant and cut-throat and lonely and dangerous and Emile loves him already. “Oh, they’re beautiful. You’re beautiful, my dear. My darling.”

Emile reaches for him, and Janus opens his mouth, brow furrowed, about to ask, but Emile is pulled away before he can.

He is suddenly drenched with sweat under hot lights, a conglomeration of cameras in the distance, and he squints to where the boom microphones are held directly aloft—this is Roman, who has his head tilted toward a man in a baseball cap, deep in conversation. Emile glances back over his shoulder and sees a city skyline—old, and beautiful, and familiar because Emile’s been here. Or one of his cluster had been, anyway.

For all that Roman looks so involved in the conversation, Emile can feel the exhaustion of a long day’s shoot, the weight on his shoulders, the constant itch to reach for his phone, to scan the news. Roman’s brow furrows and he looks up, directly meeting Emile’s eyes.

“Are you lost?” Roman says uncertainly, and Emile smiles at him.

“No,” he says. “I was looking for you.”

“Who are you talking to?” The man in the cap asks, and Emile is pulled away.

He’s on a plane and his ears are refusing to pop. Emile grimaces in sympathy, even as he’s glancing over to the man sitting beside him on the plane. Well, slumped, to be more accurate, trying to get some sleep and failing miserably. Emile’s eyes ache with commiseration.

“Sorry,” Emile says sympathetically, remembering his own sleepless days after rebirth.

The man squints out at him, tugging off his purple headphones. “‘Scuse me?” He says, his voice accented—African?

“You’re probably not going to be able to sleep for a few days. Or, um. Not sleep well, I should say.”

“...I’ve had jet lag before,” Virgil says, and yes, he has, hasn’t he?

“Congratulations,” Emile says hastily, already feeling the pull. “A doctorate’s a very big achievement, you should be proud of yourself.”

Virgil’s eyes go wide, and he shrinks back a little in his seat.

“How did you—?”

And Emile is not trapped in a plane anymore, but he almost wishes he was.

“Jiminy crickets, it’s cold,” Emile says aloud, wrapping his arms around himself, because jeez louise it is cold!

Logan freezes from where he is examining a telescope to ensure it’s in working order. 

“The supply ship isn’t due until next week,” he says. His voice is very even and measured. “That is the only opportunity for strangers to get onto the island.”

“Supply…” Emile repeats, before he learns—remembers? “Oh. My goodness, you’re researching in Antarctica?!”

He is! He is researching in Antarctica! He’s a space researcher who is so good at what he does he got to go to Antarctica to study even more in-depth! Gosh, Emile has birthed a smart cluster, there are at least two doctors here! 

“...Am I hallucinating?” Logan asks himself very quietly.

“No!” Emile says hastily. “No no no no, goodness, no!”

Logan’s eyes narrow. “That is… precisely what one would think an induced hallucination would say.”

Emile’s about to explain, but he’s pulled before he can; he has a feeling that Logan’s going to need the most in-depth scientific explanation the Archipelago has accrued over the years.

And he is in a brightly decorated room, with soft toys and lots of colors and the letters of the alphabet winding around the room; a big, tall man is kneeling on the ground, carefully easing a backpack onto a child who couldn’t be more than five.

“All right, Livvy-Lou, we got it all figured out now, don’t we?” the man says brightly—his name is Patton, and he is soft and loving and beautiful and so very sad. 

A grin bursts out on the child’s face. “Thank you, Mr. T!”

Patton smiles, flicking one of her braided pigtails into place so that it doesn’t get tugged by her backpack straps, and gently nudges her along her way before he glances up.

“Hello!” Patton says to Emile brightly. “Are you a—?”

And then he falters.

“...you’re not a parent,” Patton says slowly. “Are you?”

“Well,” Emile says. “I suppose it depends on how you define ‘parent,’ and also, whose parent you think I am.”

Patton’s eyes crinkle with a smile. “What an odd way to answer that question.”

“You’re about to have a lot of odd days ahead of you,” Emile says, “I mean, a lot,” and—

A man sitting hunched under a tree is cussing to himself, even as he eats food he’s gotten from the trash, and his eyes widen at the sight of Emile, already rising to a half-crouch, ready to run.

“Oh,” Emile says. “Oh, goodness. You’ve gotten yourself into quite a situation, haven’t you?”

Remus snarls at him wordlessly. 

Emile frowns a little, his heart aching with terrible concern, not all of it his own. “Is that all you have to eat?”

“Fuck off,” Remus spits, and—

Emile gasps, back in Remy’s arms, back in his apartment, his cluster all staring at him, wide-eyed.

“So?” Missy urges. “Greeks? Tell me you got a Greek.”

He looks at her, and he thinks of the cluster he has just brought into the world, and he feels such a surge of overwhelming joy that he can do nothing but laugh.

His cluster laughs with him, and Remy lets out a huffing breath, hugging him close and kissing his temple, and Emile sighs, closing his eyes, exhausted but still smiling, smiling, smiling.

In London, in Mexico City, in the air between Baltimore and Pretoria, in Antarctica, in Monterrey—

He hopes they all hear it.

Welcome to being sensate, my loves.

[gretavanbitch]

Tangled up in blue- 5

Warnings- swearing, drugs (the usual)

After the first night, the adrenaline rush of the tour slowed to a constant drawl in Penny's mind. Her heart constantly at a slightly hazy pace compared to its resting pace. She blinked slowly, rubbing sleep out of her eyes as the dull light of the morning flooded into the stuffy bus. The only sounds to be heard was the steady breathing of the band and rain pattering softly against the windows. Her hair was spread across Josh’s bare chest and rose and fell with every breath he took. She got up as carefully and slowly as possible, being careful not to wake anyone. She flinched slightly when the bathroom door opened with a creak. Her eyes were slightly sunken and smudged and her lips were still swollen from the abundance of love that was present last night. She reached to her neck and lightly caressed the marks still present from Josh’s kisses, remembering the feeling of his lips on her neck. 

Brushing her teeth and hair, Penny exited the bathroom and made a large pot of coffee for the boys, the mornings were never easy for them and alcohol made them even worse. Knowing it would take some time for everyone to get up, she made herself comfortable on one of the couches on the back of the bus, separate from the bunk area. She sipped her coffee, reading a book Jake had recommended to her. Surprisingly, Jake had very good taste in books, better than Josh in fact. Josh was a very visual person, he could sit through a four hour movie, but never read a book for four hours. The pages breezed by her eyes, in what seemed like minutes she was halfway done with the book. It was a thrilling tale of two lovers, a classic trope of a peasant and a prince. She was a sucker for cliches. 

Through the curtain she soon heard the sounds of the boys stirring from their sleep, one by one waking up. She pushed the fabric of the curtain open softly, leaning against the frame. Jake was pouring three cups of coffee, rubbing his eyes harshly. Sam was in the bathroom, probably releasing the demons of last night from his stomach. Danny sat on the edge of his bunk, stretching his long arms and waking up. Josh on the other hand was now lying face down on the bed, soft snores coming from his frame. His hair was a curly mess and he only had on his boxers. She chuckled to herself, of course he was the last one to get up. 

“Mornin’ everyone,” she muttered softly, pattering over to Josh. Sluggish responses followed her. She sat on the edge of Josh’s bunk, running her hands softly down his back. She admired the way his lips parted slightly in his sleep, eyes fluttering in REM. She leaned over his frame, kissing his cheek softly, causing his eyes to blink open softly. He smiled out of his sleep, turning over onto his back and pulling Penny down onto his chest. 

“Good morning mama,” he rasped, burying his nose in the crook of her neck. 

“Good morning handsome, want some coffee?” He groaned a yes in response, still holding Penny tight. She felt the steady thump of his heart on her chest, not wanting to move in a million years. He felt so warm and alive, hands wrapped around her frame and legs wrapped around each other. She sighed, knowing there were actual things needed to be done with the day, and removing herself from Josh reluctantly. 

“What's the plan for today?” she asked Jake as she poured a cup of coffee for Josh. 

“We are stuck on the bus for the majority of the day, heading to Washington for the show in two days,” he responded from his seat across from her, looking up from his phone. “Emily and the other girls are going to meet us there too, so you won’t be stuck with all us boys anymore.” He noted, referring to the other girlfriends joining them on tour. She nodded happily, she got along well with all of them, and texted them pretty consistently. Although she was closest with Carly, Sam’s girlfriend, Emily and Dana were both her friends as well. 

Once Josh had coffee in his system, the bus slowly stirred to life. Sam was nursing his hangover, Jake was texting with Emily, and Danny was playing guitar softly in the corner. Their manager had come in as well, delivering bagels for everyone and announced that they would hit the road in 20 minutes. 

Penny dressed herself in something comfortable, knowing her limbs would become sore from sitting on the bus for hours. She was now clad in a long sleeved linen dress that had buttons down the front and a seam in the middle. Her hair was loose down her shoulders, and birkenstocks on her feet. The rest of the boys were in their usual attire, Josh in a grey hoodie and tan pants (of course). 

The bus was now officially on the road after a sluggish morning. The state of California soon passing by Penny’s eyes in a haze. She was sat on a couch at the back of the bus with Josh directly to her left and Danny to her right. Josh had one earbud in his ear, sharing the other with Penny, and a bagel in his hand. His head nodded along to the song as he chewed. Penny smiled, leaning her back into his frame and putting her legs on Danny. Neil Diamond filled her ears as she closed her eyes, inhaling Josh’s sent. He always smelled the same, like patchouli and cinnamon. It was almost hypnotizing. 

“We should go for a hike when we get there,” Sam announced, breaking the comfortable silence of the bus ride. 

“I want to go thrifting too,” Josh added with his eyes closed, head swaying to the music. Everyone silently agreed and went back to whatever they were doing. 

Northern California passed by with images of tall looming trees and thickening forests. Josh’s playlist ranged from The Fleet Foxes to Phoebe Bridgers, just because he knew Penny had a soft spot for her. When Scott Street came on shuffle, her eyes lit up and she craned her neck, looking up at him smiling. He laughed, kissing the top of her head. Penny had never felt so at home. The comforting smell of Sam’s incense wafted through the backroom of the bus, and Josh’s warmth made her head dizzy with love. She hummed as she softly toyed with his fingers mindlessly. 

After a few hours, the bus stopped in the middle of Oregon. Everyone was grateful for the opportunity to get snacks and stretch their legs. Penny stepped out into the midday breeze, breathing the fresh air in deeply. The group then entered the small gas station, Josh holding the door for her like the gentleman he is. 

“fuck I need another coffee,” she sighed, making her way to the coffee station and pouring herself a hot coffee. Josh bought himself a water and some granola bar. Sam, Jake, and Danny got themselves an assortment of junk food, dumping it in front of the cashier with a smile. Once everyone payed, they sat on a curb by the bus for a few minutes, not wanting to get back on the road quite yet. Penny was grateful that she grabbed her camera, because the cloudy light and light breeze was picturesque. She took her bottom lip between her teeth and scurried in front of the boys quickly, kneeling on the ground to get the shot. They all looked dramatically off into the distance while the shutter clicked. 

“alright now smile for me boys,” she laughed. They obliged, looking at the camera now and smiling brightly. 

“beautiful.” She sighed, returning to her spot next to Josh. 

“I don’t know how you do that,” Josh said, looking off into the distance as he spoke. 

“do what?” Penny answered, sipping her coffee. 

“Just see the world around you and turn it into something so beautiful.” Her heart jumped, it always did when Josh talked about her photography. 

“It’s easy when I’m around the most beautiful person in the world.” 

He laughed, meeting her eyes. She shook her head, still relishing in the compliments. 

“alright time to go boys...and girl,” their manager announced, sticking his head out the bus door. Penny huffed a laugh as she took Josh’s hand and once again entered the bus. 

The rest of the trip came in a dreary haze of naps and Josh’s playlist filling Penny’s ears. He never played a bad song. The bus had now parked outside the venue, Penny silently thanking the universe that they wouldn’t be sleeping in the bus for the next two nights. The boys had agreed to rent and house in the suburbs of Seattle so they could have some privacy and not be confined to a hotel. They also rented a jeep, stuffing their bags in it hastily so they could have some fun with the afternoon. Since the group got such an early start, they still had the remainder of the day to explore and shop. 

Sam entered the driver’s seat of Jeep, Jake shotgun, and the rest of them stuffed in the back. The drive was relatively short and rowdy. Jake playing Steven Stills on aux, while arguing with Sam over which album was better. Danny and Josh were talking about the set list for the tour, still tinkering on which songs to include and which to leave out. 

“Yeah, but I think we should do Stardust Chords after Black smoke it will be a good lead up,” Danny suggested calmly. 

“Ooh yeah, and we should do light my love after that,” Josh agreed. Penny sat silently, relishing in the banter surrounding her. They soon reached the house, it was a small bungalow on the edge of a hill. 

Josh opened the trunk and took out his and Penny’s bag, carrying them both up to the door and unlocking it with a key he found in the mailbox. The interior was just as lovely as the outside. A small living room and kitchen were on the left with a five person dining room table on the right and the stairs in the middle. Josh then jogged upstairs with the bags in hand, wanting first pick at rooms. He chose the one closest to the backyard with a view of the woods. 

“Mmm good choice babe,” Penny sighed flopping down onto the bed with a thud. He smiled, placing the bags down on the floor and laying down on his back beside her. 

She turned on her side to face him, he did the same. The room smelled of wood and clean linen. Her eyes drifted to Josh, he was smiling at her stupidly with his hands tucked under his chin. 

“what?” she laughed, poking his shoulder. 

“nothin’ I just love you baby,” he spoke softly, blinking his eyes. 

“I love you too Josh,” she said, loving the sound of saying it. 

Then he kissed her, softly capturing her lips with his own. She sighed into the kiss, running her hand down his jawline. Before the kiss could become too heated she pulled away with a stupid grin on her face. 

“lets go get something to eat then we can go shopping,” she said, pulling him up off the bed with two hands. 

“whatever you say mama.” 

The streets of Seattle were damp with the constant flow of soft showers. Josh’s hair was slightly less curly due to the climate, and it made him look even more 70′s, it was beautiful. The group got lunch at a nice sandwich spot on the wharf then split off into groups to do some shopping, planning to meet up at the house for a late hike. 

Josh and Penny were on the hunt for a thrift shop, hand in hand wandering the streets. After about thirty minutes with no luck, Penny spotted a bright neon sign a few feet ahead of them reading “vintage”. 

“fucking finally,” she said, tugging Josh’s hand hurredly into the store. Good thing they kept walking because this place was a gem. Josh’s eyes lit up as he scanned the rows of clothing and records. They then began searching through the rows, looking through every piece of clothing incase they found anything good. 

“Ooh babe you would look stunning in this,” Josh said excitedly as he held up a dress. It was a dusty red with a deep v-neck and ruffles down the chest and sleeves. 

“holy shit,” she smiled “I need it.” 

After about an hour, Penny had a substantial haul piled in her hand and Josh had found a few good pieces as well. He had a few necklaces that he loved and a vintage woodstock t-shirt. Now they were running late, of course and had to rush back to meet the boys. 

They were greeted with unamused expressions when they returned to the house, rushing up to the room to change quickly. Josh changed into a white t-shirt and black windbreaker, Penny wearing his grey hoodie and leggings. 

“let’s go mama,” he smiled, pecking her on the lips and leading her down stairs. 

“fucking finally,” Sam got up from the couch, Danny following suit. Jake then entered from the kitchen, trail map in hand. 

“Ok well we don’t have that much time before it gets dark so we should bring headlamps,” he suggested as his eyes scanned the map. Penny nodded, stuffing some water bottles into her bag as Josh wrestled Sam on the carpet. 

“Hey dickheads, the owner said there’s a trail through the backyard to a waterfall lets go,” Jake said loudly, shoving Sam and Josh as he spoke. The group made their way through the backyard, following the clear trail into the woods. The trees were some of the biggest that Penny had ever seen, they towered over them, making the light a faded blue. Jake led the group, confidently stepping over branches and rocks as he walked. Penny and Josh were at the back of the group, taking their time to admire the scenery, walking hand in hand. 

“It’s so pretty here,” Penny said, looking up into the treeline that was illuminated by the dusk light. 

“yeah it’s beautiful,” Josh said, only he wasn’t looking at the scenery, his gaze was fixed on the blonde next to him. A familiar smoky scent soon wafted into their noses from in front of them. 

“Sam, I know you aren’t lighting up right now,” Penny laughed. 

“what? I want to take in the nature,” he spoke through a hit, coughing slightly. 

“well share the wealth,” She reached out her hand as he passed the J behind his back. She took a few hits, before handing it off to Josh. She watched has he held it between his fingers, bringing it to his lips and inhaling deeply. The rest of the hike was peacefully silent, the light slowly fading into the sunset. They reached the waterfall after thirty minutes of walking, finding some rocks to rest on by the water. 

“Josh, stay still for a sec,” Penny asked, taking out her camera quickly. He nodded, not moving from his seat on the rock on the edge of the water. His head was turned towards the sky, knees facing the water. As always, he looked beautiful. The waterfall itself was also beautiful, the water cascaded off of a cliff into the pool below, misting the group slightly. 

“guys i’m hungry wanna head back?” Josh spoke up after a few minutes of silence. Everyone responded with ‘yeas’ gathering up their belongings slowly. The walk back was quiet, relishing in the earthy smell of the woods and fading light of the day. The backyard appeared quickly, and the grouped collectively plopped down on the couch. 

“lets order pizza, Sam and Danny go get alcohol,” Josh suggested as he lay his head on Penny’s lap. She toyed with his hair, nodding along to his suggestion. Sam and Danny agreed, grabbing the keys to the Jeep and heading out, Jake ordered the pizza. 

“alright mama, lets go make a big ass bonfire,” Josh said, reaching for her hand to lead her outside. 

“alright loverboy,” She laughed. 

~

Hey babes! this chapter felt so long, maybe because it took me so long to write lol.