#rio pov is really fun ha ha

[alicequiteria]

Pov: They find out you're Latina

Hobie Brown:

This guy will go crazy, but inside, he's always been curious to meet a latina, you're lucky he's by your side asking how your country is, this guy will walk you through the streets with his usual position, hands in his pockets , and ask how your family is, the food, Aah… when he heard the typical food you said, he couldn't help but salivate a little hahaha.

When you mention the characteristics of the country you were born in, he is impressed, but he is always silent, sometimes he raises his eyebrows and:

"Really? I like it, your country is curious. I already know the reason for your warm personality..."

He is also curious to know the typical style of music from his country, I think he didn't like it very much haha, but he also asks about the rock bands in his region, when he hears it he smiles. When he sees you with headphones he says:

" Look, she's really enjoying the music… " — Hobie says approaching you with his hands on his hips.

" Do you want to listen with me? " — you ask with a gentle smile, handing him the phone, he takes it and puts it to his ear sitting next to you, the two of you upside down on top of a huge building that you liked to spend time in .

"Wow… this song is good! It's from your country, they're good!" He couldn't help but nod along enjoying the music.

Gwen Stacy:

She widens her eyes hearing the news, man she is so impressed she can't help but smile, she starts babbling asking thousands of things, and you startle in a fun way, when she gets excited she gets really expressive, waving her hands in circles and stumbling over words.

" Wow! What's it like? Like… Your country, it must be amazing! Especially because you're amazing! "

As you speak she has a funny expression lost in her thoughts staring at you for a while, when Gwen returns to the now, she laughs a little when she realizes she was staring at you, embarrassed she speaks calmly that she loved every word about the place you came from.

Miles Morales:

He yelled… yes he was so incredulous he yelled, Miles quickly covers his mouth and chuckles quietly at his own reaction, if you speak Spanish… he starts to pronounce it, you can't help but laugh when he fails a few pronunciations leaving you embarrassed.

He asks you to teach him when he has a test, you teach him and he keeps looking at you every second seeing your beautiful accent, he has that usual smile, that beautiful and sweet smile.

" Your accent… " — he lets out a laugh at the end

"What about him Miles?" - you get curious looking at him, crossing his arms and arching his eyebrow.

" It's beautiful! " — he starts to feel his face get hot and a slight blush appears on both their faces.

When Rio talks to you in Spanish Miles is so happy to see you making friends with his mother, Rio chatty and you too, two talking nonstop and Miles going crazy… but he was loving it.

Pavitr Prabhakar

You are having tea that Pavitr loves so much, he asks about you, he loves making new friends and wants to know more.

" So Pavitr… I'm Latina and… " — you are prevented from talking to him by speaking over and over.

"WHAT? Latina? I knew it! His facial features don't fool me!" — Pavitr puts the cup of tea on the table, he takes your hands and faces you.

"What happened?" — you ask with a shaky smile

" Get ready darling! I'm going to ask a lot of questions! " — he gently squeezes your hands, his warm next to yours.

You talk about everything and he always comments saying "incredible" or "impressive", he invites himself to your country and you are clearly going to take him.

At a moment in their friendly life, you make tea with typical leaves from your region and he obviously tastes it, this boy loves it so much that he wanted to drink the whole jar!

Miguel O’hara

Miguel was on his floating floor working, he talks to Lyla about the new recruit, when she tells him that you are Latin American he arches an eyebrow with his hands on his hips, an almost invisible smile appears on his face always tense from work hard.

You arrive to introduce yourself to Miguel, you were nervous to see him, you knew the reputation he had, an explosive man full of rules, when he comes down from his floating floor along with Lyla chattering in his ear, he dismisses her so he can speak normally with you, he walks around swinging his huge body from side to side and… does he have a smile on his face? You can't believe it, maybe the rumors are just rumors, or did he go for it?

"Nice to meet you Miguel… I'm y/n" — your voice breaks feeling his strong presence, his huge body making a shadow in front of yours.

" Pleasure y/n welcome… " — his voice was soft, despite being an explosive man he wanted to make a good first impression.

You couldn't help but smile, he was trying to be friendly but his still serious face scared you a little and his huge stature made you a little intimidated. When the conversation goes on to get to know you better, he accidentally lets out a low laugh, he rolls his eyes realizing that he has let his guard down, the subject you were talking about was typical foods, how much he loved empanadas, you are his favorite and that one of his relatives prepared so perfectly, the subject rolls over to Latin dances and music.

Man, you may not know it, but he felt right at home when he spoke to you, and if you spoke Spanish… this man would only speak to you in Spanish.

If you guys start dating, he loves to whisper in Spanish randomly in your ear.

"Mierda mi amor te ves tan hermosa hoy” — he had a hoarse voice, and lets out a purr at the end of the sentence. And it makes you go crazy in the head! 🙊

Translation of his sentence:

"Damn, my love, you look so beautiful today"

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(In case something is different, know that I'm Latin! Just letting you know haha)

(Follow me on Instagram! To find out about my Spider Verse Oc!)

Instagram: _captainone

[atenea14]

Tokyo Love: Shinichiro x Reader 2

Part 2

Part 1 Here Masterlist

Summary: You go on your first date with Shin

Warnings: Just fluff

Word count: 4k

It didn't take Shinichiro long to send me a message so we're meeting this weekend and Rio is more excited about it than I am. She's not fooling me, all she wants is a new source of gossip. Anyway here we are, in my room and she's rummaging through my clothes to find a 'worthy' outfit for the occasion. 

- Y/N you've got too many geeky t-shirts. - I'm offended by that. 

- I'm sorry, but there are never enough of them, right? And the geekier the better. - I look at her indignantly and she looks back at me thoughtfully.

- If I didn't tell you anything, how would you dress for the date? - I admit I wasn't expecting the question. 

- Honestly, depending on the mood I'm in on Saturday. 

- Understandable, okay then how about we think of several sets with different styles? 

- Why are you so interested? 

- Because it's fun, of course. 

- I think you need a date more than me. -Rio sighs as she inspects one of my blouses. 

- Don't remind me.

It's the day of the appointment and I'm more nervous than I expected, why do I suddenly care so much? I look at my watch and realise that I'm on a tight schedule and I still have to get ready but I don't know what to wear, even though I have my outfits pre-prepared. I decide to call Rio. 

- Hello? 

- Rio, it's me.

- Y/N? Why are you calling so early on a Saturday? - I hear her yawning, I must have woken her up.

- It's just... today's the date and I don't know why I'm getting more nervous than I should be.

- It's true, today is the date! Of course you're nervous, silly, because you like him. -  I can imagine her smirk.

- That's not true. 

- Of course it's true and that's why you're panicking.

- You know what? Forget I called. I'll wear whatever.

- Duuuh rude, but I'll forgive you when you tell me all about the date. 

I don't know what I expected from Rio but I decide to stop thinking about it and finally get dressed and head for the train station. 

No way... 20 minutes late for the train? I knew I shouldn't have lingered so long at home. Well, I'll call Shin and let him know. 

I start looking for my mobile in my bag but I can't find it. 

Why am I like this? I left my mobile phone on my bed. 

Shin POV: 

It didn't happen again did it? It wouldn't make sense, Y/N was nice, she even gave me her number... I'm sure she's just late, yeah....

I refuse to think that I've been stood up again, but it's been almost an hour, and I've finished my pack of cigarettes faster than usual because of my nerves. Maybe I should go home. 

- Oi - I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn around to see Wakasa and Takeomi.  

- What are you doing here? - They side glance at each other hesitantly and finally it's Wakasa who answers. 

- Well... we were a bit worried, you know... flirting isn't your thing - I didn't really need to hear that.

- Dude, be more careful. - Takeomi doesn't say anything else and gives me a cigarette.

- Did you call her? - Wakasa is sometimes too direct. But the cigarette relaxes me a bit. 

- Yes, but she didn't answer. -

- Well, don't think the worst of it, from what you've told us she seemed like a nice girl, maybe she has an explanation. - Takeomi tries to cheer me up but right now I just want to go home, if it wasn't for it being so early I'd even go and get drunk.

- I rather not to think abou… -

- Shin-kun!- 

My heart skips a beat as I hear someone shouting my name, I move my gaze to look for where it came from and see Y/N waving at me as she comes running. I can't help but smile as I wave back, until my heart skips another beat as I see her somehow lose her balance on a straight, flat path and fall. I hurry to her side.

-Are you all right? - Y/N raises her head and I see that her eyes are a bit watery as she pouts, I can't help but laugh a bit because I find it adorable. 

- Don't laugh at me! -

- I'm sorry, I'm sorry - Y/N narrows her eyes, trying to look intimidating, but she doesn't succeed at all. - Did you hurt yourself? - I ask her as I help her up and see that she has scraped her knee. 

- Truth is, my ankle hurts. -

Y/N POV: 

Great, limp on my first date, I just can’t get it right. 

- Let's go to a bench so you can sit down and I'll go to a pharmacy, okay? - Shin grabs me by the waist to help me walk and my nerves get even more on edge.

- You don't need to bother. - Shin looks at me in indignation.

- Don't be silly, you're bleeding.-  He helps me sit up and looks me straight in the eye smiling at me, he's so handsome and I can't help but blush.

- Thank you.- We stare at each other for a few seconds, and I'm spellbound. Shin is the first to react.

- All right, I'll be right back - I watch as Shin quickly walks away and realise that I still haven't apologised for being late. Luckily it takes him very little time to return.

- Here, I've brought you some water. - He holds out the bottle and starts to take some things out of the bag, kneels down in front of me and starts tending to my wounds. 

- Thank you very much, really. - Shin looks at me smiling, he has a very kind look on his face.

- It's nothing, besides I have practice treating wounds. - 

- For your little brother? - 

- Uh... yeah, sure. - I see him tense up a bit, but I overlook it. 

- By the way, I'm sorry I was late. 

- Don't worry about it. I called you a couple of times but you didn't answer, actually for a moment I thought you had stood me up. -

- Oh no, I'm sorry to have upset you. It's just that I left home late, the train was quite late and I left my mobile phone at home in my haste… - I feel embarrassed so I look away.

- I see, anyway, I'm glad you're here - I think I'm going to be melting with his smiles for the whole date. -

- I'm glad too. - I look down at the band-aids on my knee and the bandage on my ankle, it looks well done.

- No, I'm better now, thank you. - Shinichiro holds out his hand to help me up, I try to walk and it's still hard, so he holds out his arm to support me. I'm very embarrassed about the whole situation but it's better to hold on to him than to fall again. 

- I had thought about going bowling but maybe we should change our plans, how about we go for a coffee.- I smile and nod.

We ended up in a nice quiet coffee shop. Talking to Shin is very easy so I had a good time and by the time I realised it we had been talking for hours. 

- Oh dear, it's getting pretty late. - Shin looks at the time on his watch.

- That's right, do you want to go somewhere else or shall I walk you home? - I think about it for a moment, I don't want to go home but I don't know what we could do now either.

- I have a free day tomorrow, so we can do something if that's fine with you, do you have any ideas? - Shin smiles at me.

- Yes, let’s go. - He got up quickly and came over to me to help me. - Do the blows still hurt?

- How thoughtful Shin-kun, they bother me a little but I'm much better. - Shin blushes a little and offers me his arm to use as a support.

- I'm glad to hear that. How about a ride on my bike? -

- Oh, uhm... I've never actually ridden one - I don't know why but I'm embarrassed to confess it, maybe it's because of Shin's fascination with them. He quickly changes his expression to a smirk.

- Are you nervous about your first time? Don't worry, I'll be gentle. - I can't help but be startled by his clumsy joke and punch him in the arm. 

- Shin, don't be an idiot. - He starts to laugh so I push him a little with my body in complaint as I pout at him.

- I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. Besides, I know you've never done it before, you told me last time. Now seriously, do you want to go for a ride on the bike? If you don't want to do something else. -

- Oh... my memories of that day are a bit fuzzy... But I do want to, I want to get on one, but you only have one helmet, right? - Shin seems to hesitate a bit until his eyes get fixed on something. 

- I thought so, but it seems that some pixies have done us a favour. - I'm really shocked after hearing this.

- What? - Shin blushes.

- I'm sorry, I promise I'm not weird. It's just that some friends were here earlier and they left another helmet on my bike. That's the one over there, see? - I nod-  You mean the guys you were with when I arrived? -

- The same. - He's clearly more relaxed now than he was at the beginning of the date although he's still a bit socially awkward, it's cute. But I'm not one to talk about social skills, that's for sure. I get so caught up in my thoughts that I don't notice that we've arrived by the bike or the fact that I haven't let go of his arm yet. When I look up, I see that Shin is looking at me.

- Is everything OK? -

- Yes. Which one is my helmet? - Shin takes one and gives it to me.  

- Do you want me to help you put it on? -

- I think I can do it myself. -

- Alright. - While I struggle with the helmet Shin puts his on with no problem and stares at me as I try to adjust it to my size.

- Here, let me help. - I give up when Shin approaches me smiling. - That's it, is it tight? - I shake my head and make a gesture to get on the bike. - Wait, the ride pillion gets in second. 

- What kind of rule is that? - Shin laughs.

- It's the kind of rule that keeps you from falling off the bike by sitting in the back first - it makes sense, will I stop embarrassing myself? I feel my cheeks flush and hear Shin laugh as he climbs on. - It's all right, get on. Lean on my shoulders if you need to. - I realise as I grab his shoulder that he's more muscular than he looks. I manage to pull myself up after a couple of attempts, Shin turns his head to look at me for a moment. - You can either hold on to my shoulders or my torso. - I don't think twice and hug him from behind, Shin gives my hands a little squeeze before he speaks again. - Ready? -

- Yes! - He starts the bike and we start riding through the traffic. I realise I haven't asked him where we're going but I feel safe with him so I don't think too much about it and enjoy the ride. At a traffic light Shin turns his head slightly and takes the opportunity to talk to me.

- Are you doing well? -

- Yes! Where are we going? -

- That's a surprise! In a little while we'll get a bit further away from the traffic so I'll be able to run more, don't panic. -

- Okay! - True to his word, as soon as he can, he accelerates, despite his warning my heart starts to race and I hold on to him tighter. He drives for a while longer, I'm enjoying the ride so I don't know how much time has passed but as we come out of a sharp curve I see that we're coming to the coast. It's been a while since I've been to the beach. A little later Shin parks the bike and we get off. 

- I hope you like the beach. - 

- I'm not a big fan of being in the sun but the sea is beautiful. It's been a long time since I've been here. -

- Do you want to walk a bit along the promenade? Or does your ankle still hurt? -

- It's okay, I’d like to go for a walk. - Shin smiles and offers me his arm again for support so I link our arms and we start walking. I think I'll be able to hold on well with my ankle, I think. As in the café the conversation comes easily but my knee and ankle are starting to hurt again so I ask him if he wants to sit on the sand for a while. We sit in silence for a while looking at the sea until Shin speaks.

- I'm having a great time today, would you like to meet up again? - I turn to face Shin and see that he's already looking at me. 

- Yes, I would like to meet other times, I'm having a good time too. - Shin smiles a huge smile.

- Good. - We stare at each other for a few seconds and Shin slowly approaches me. Seeing that I'm leaning towards him too, he puts his hand on the back of my neck holding my head and we stare at each other. I can't handle the tension so I close the small distance between us and kiss him. Shin tightens his grip a little more and takes control of the kiss, when I gasp for air and pull away a little he pulls me back into him. I could melt in his hands right now, I'm so nervous my heart is going to burst. When we finally pull apart, Shin frowns and makes a worried face, much to my surprise. 

- Are you alright? - I tilt my head, I don't understand why he's asking. 

- Yes, why...? -

- You're shaking. - I didn't notice until he mentioned it.

- Oh... I hadn't noticed, I'm just so nervous… - I blush even more than I already was, if that's possible, and I smile shyly, avoiding Shin's gaze. 

- You're adorable. - Before I can react Shin pulls me to him and kisses me again, this time more softly, then rests his forehead against mine and smiles. I collapse a little from nervousness and I don't know where to put myself so I hug him so I can hide my face in his neck. He hugs me back and it's one of those hugs that feels good, where the person squeezes you without hurting you. Shin pulls away from me and I feel cold, it's getting a little late and the sea breeze is cold. Shin notices. 

- You're adorable. - Before I can react Shin pulls me to him and kisses me again, this time more softly, then rests his forehead against mine and smiles. I collapse a little from nervousness and I don't know where to put myself so I hug him so I can hide my face in his neck. He hugs me back and it's one of those hugs that feels good, where the person squeezes you without hurting you. Shin pulls away from me and I feel cold, it's getting a little late and the sea breeze is cold. Shin notices. 

- Maybe we should go back home, it's late. -

- Yes, it's starting to get cooler - Shin stands up and holds out his hand to me, when I stand up my ankle fails me, it's gotten cold and it hurts a lot so he has to grab my waist so I don't fall down.

- Your injuries? -

- Yes, it's just that my ankle hurts a lot again. - Once I'm stabilised Shin lets go of me and I see him crouch down with his back to me. 

- Hope on, I'll carry you. -

- It's not necessary! I'm quite heavy, and we've had a long walk before. - 

- Don't worry about that, I can carry you without any problems, besides it will be worse if you force your foot. -

I accept his offer and hop on, Shin grabs my legs while I put my arms around his neck so I don't fall off. Quietly and talking about stupid things we get back on the bike. The ride back is quiet, but I still hold on to Shin tightly as I rest my head on his back. Before I know it, we've reached my house. Shin parks the bike and gets off it too. 

- The day has flown by.

- To me too Shin-kun. - He smiles at me and takes a step towards me leaving very little space between us. I didn't notice before because we were sitting but he's so tall, he’s easily one head taller from me so I have to look up. Shin bends down a little and kisses me again, this time it's a goodbye kiss. 

- I'll call you. - He takes my hand for a moment and squeezes it gently. 

- I'll wait for your call then. - I smile at him before turning and walking into the house.

When I get home I run to my room and like a teenager I throw myself on the bed and put my head against my pillow and let out a little scream of excitement. When I finally calm down I decide to call Rio, I need to tell someone about this. 

- Really? That's great! The date sounds like something out of a TV drama. Oh... I wish I… - I can't help but giggle at Rio's comments. - So when are you going to introduce me to him? - 

- No, I won't. I've only just met him, I'm not going to introduce him to you so quickly. -

- Ooh. You're bad. - 

- Oh, come on! You wouldn't introduce me to him after a first date either. -

- I don't know what to tell you Y/N, I don't think any of my first dates have ever gone that well. - Listening to her I have an idea. 

- I'm sure you're dramatising. Anyway, if things go well with Shin, we could go out with his friends later on and who knows, maybe there'll be a decent one. - 

- Oooh. I like that idea, at least I'll get to take you out partying at last. - I don't like this so much anymore. 

- I didn't say it's a party meeting. -

- But it's the easiest thing to do! Especially if the groups don't know each other - 

- Good point, I guess. I can't wait to meet up again. - Rio laughs a little.  

- Understandable. We'll discuss all this at lunchtime at work on Monday if you like. -

- Sounds good! -

Talking to Rio was a good way to let off some of my pent up anger and after a good shower and dinner I start to feel a little tired after a long day out so it doesn’t take me a while to get into bed.

Shin’s POV:

- I can't believe that guy still has it in for you even though it's been a while since you disbanded Black Dragons. Doesn't he have anything better to do? - I look at Wakasa, his worried words don't really match his relaxed tone and posture, but hey, it's Wakasa. 

- Yea, he could get over the fact that his gang lost to ours once and for all. He's gone from funny to be a pain - This time it's Takeomi. 

- Forget about that punk's message. Shin-kun still hasn't told us how his day went. - This directly catches Wakasa's attention and he looks straight at me. However, Takeomi looks confused. 

- And why is that interesting. - Takeomi asks.

- Oh, Shin-kun had a date today. - Wakasa gives me a smirk as the three of them wait for my answer.

- Oh that. - I don't know why I got so nervous all of a sudden, I cleared my throat a bit before speaking again while avoiding their gaze. - That went well. 

- You just turned as red as a tomato, man, you look like a schoolgirl. -

- Thanks Takeomi. -That's all I can manage to say to him while Wakasa continues with his stupid smirk. 

- Ha! And you were worried that she was going to stand you up. I'm happy for you. - I smile sincerely to Benkei, surprisingly he seems to be the nicest one tonight. 

- Will you meet again? - This time it's Wakasa who asks. 

- Yes, I have to call her to decide on the day but yes. -

- What are you waiting for? Call her now. -

- Wait, wait, wait, Benkei, he can't go that fast, he'll look desperate. - Wakasa tries to dissuade me from Benkei's advice. 

- But Shin-kun is desperate. -

- Takeomi! You know perfectly well that I'm not, as if she was the first girl I've ever dated. -

- Yeah? What about the streak of asking all the girls in class? -

- That was when we were in high school! I was a kid so it doesn't count. - I hear Waka laugh. 

- I don't know... It does count for me. -

- I'd better go. - Benkei bursts out laughing. 

- No need Shin-kun, we'll stop now. How about we go get some beers?

The rest of the night is filled with laugh while we remember old times. At some point I finally get home and fall asleep with a dumb smile on my face remembering all that's happened today.

Next part

[for-a-longlongtime]

Songs and musings in the Key of Peña-Rockford

(Those gun holsters have me all fucked up. Seriously.)

I warned y'all about how obsessive my hyperfocus can get, right? Damn ADHD. The choke hold (all the puns intended) that this fic idea has on me is unreal, haha. But all of your comments and encouragements about this Rockford Pena WIP are making me so happy and relieving some of the stress I feel about writing it - thank you! I don't have another snippet to share just yet (so I hope this post isn't too much of a cock tease), but since I always love to read about character thots and writing processes (e.g. the extra posts by @mysterious-moonstruck-musings about her Destiny & Deliverance series, and @gracieispunk with her White Lotus posts), I figured I'd post a little update with some musings and songs I'm associating with this fic.

My Spotify currently is curated by @sin-djarin, who somehow knew just the right songs that relate to this WIP. Particularly these three tracks are on constant repeat. Going back and forth with her about little things that come up, or question ‘why this and not’ has been so much fun really. It makes me giddy because it turns the fic into something collaborative rather than just something from the inside of my brain, you know?

Whisper - Morphine

I included this track the other day already with the WIP snippet; it’s sexy and slow and that bass line really gets to me, then the saxophone ups it even more. @sin-djarin sent me several Morphine songs (I have to admit that somehow I wasn’t familiar with them) but this one stands out. The push and pull that’s happening in the lyrics is also delicious, and a lot of it feels like it’s coming from Rockford’s POV about Javi - that’s all I’ll say about it for now.

A Perfect Twist - Mike Patton

This song has an exuberant, rather bombastic vibe to it that I would’ve never associated with anything related to Peña. Although, those lyrics... they are definitely about brat taming.

I'll bend you over my knee Let's see what you can take You're never gonna break

And I'll squeeze that noose a little tighter Breathing like a snake How much can you take? You're never gonna break

And I'll turn those screws a little tighter You can hardly wait You're never gonna break

Just one more twist of the pliers Got you on the brink How much can you take? You're never gonna break

There’s something about the dizzying tune and pace that somehow evokes the noir-like Rockford vibes in the Merge Mansion clips, laced with liquor and cigarette smoke and things spinning kinda out of control.

Wait who said Masquerade Mansion? 🎭

In relation to these two?

Shhhh let’s pretend you didn’t see that. Keep your eyes wide shut. 🎭

Broad Daylight - Gabriel Rios

This is the only song that suddenly came to me re: this fic, and I was all… the fuck is this. I like the song, it's catchy, but it just didn’t make any sense to me with regard to Javi and Tim. The only thing I could think of in relation to the track was maybe a vague reference of Peña getting caught up with Los Pepes, things that were done in the dark and shouldn't come out in the daylight:

Back in the old days, tight like a fight Used to hang with the devil in the broad daylight

But still, it puzzled me. I think something in one of the Morphine songs musically led me to Broad Daylight, weird as that may sound. After way too many replays of that song (and @sin-djarin joking about 'what are those Polaroids Tim has on Javi?', since the song mentions polaroids), the relevance of the song finally clicked with me;

Look at you shaking you can't find his plight Got you scared of ghosts in the dead of night While you're making up stories trying to make it ok He'll be bringing them in to let them out and play In the broad daylight

We'll see how it goes from there.

At some point, there's also going to be a bit of Marcus Pike in the fic (pancakes!). I have to be honest - I don’t really read a lot of Marcus!fic, so I’ve been trying to figure out how he fits in and some of his character traits etc. But the wonderful @secretelephanttattoo was very quick to offer me some insights about Marcus that I needed! Go read it here.

TBH, I had absolutely not planned to write anything about Peña any time soon, because why I love him in canon and in the many fics I've read, I didn't exactly feel like I had a good enough handle on writing something about him that has some plot rather than just fucking. But then this fic idea popped up. If there's anyone who knows him really well, it's @goodwithcheese (you'd better be reading her incredible new story Paranoid Heart about Javi!). So I dropped some questions and fortunately she was totally up for some character chat right here, which is really helping me figure out some things. Thank you babe, and I hope more people will contribute thots to your 1K Celebration Confessional about their sins!

Also, I've been trying to put a time and place to the fic, but I've decided to not get too hung up about that because it's really not literature but Fic/Porn With Plot. It doesn't all have to make sense. But in case you're curious, I'm leaning towards this taking place in the US in recent enough times that smartphones are a thing.

Age wise, I'm seeing Tim Rockford as being 48/50 years old probably. Javier is about 40, 41 years old - just to give you an idea of 'which Javi' I'm looking at, I've got a sense of him as he is in Narcos S2 around episode 4-9, after Carillo is murdered, and Berna takes him to see Judy Moncada.

Reader insert (I know, I haven't spoken a lot about her yet!) is probably about 40 years old too. And finally, Marcus Pike is give r take about 37 years old, which corresponds with his Mentalist appearance.

BTW, I came across an edit that had all of the Tim Rockford bits from the ads without the additional stuff. A whopping total of 48 seconds. Man, I hope that Pedro is aware of how fucked up he has us about Rockford with less than a minute of his acting. Even my wife said 'I would totally watch a show or movie based on this character' when I played the Merge Mansion ads for her.

Finally, here's a video of Pedro talking about "real fantasy fullfillment in terms of getting to immerse yourself in an experience" and how he "loves being a detective, that's fantasy fullfilment for me" re: the Merge Mansion event day.

*hits replay*

Say 'fantasy fullfillment' one more time? Respectfully.

Like I said, I hope he knows how fucked up he has us all about Rockford. I sure am glad he did these ads and whatever he got paid, it sure wasn't enough.

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Updated tag list (comment if you want to be added, or if I added you by accident!) based on folks who commented/reblogged on the prev posts:

@sin-djarin @legendary-pink-dot @imalrightllama @secretelephanttattoo @rhoorl @mysterious-moonstruck-musings @trulybetty @goodwithcheese @linzels-blog @rifflovesjoey @maggiemayhemnj @magpiepills @youandmeand5bucks @morallyinept @5oh5 @missredherring @avastrasposts @anavatazes @imaswellkid @pedrit0-pascalit0 @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @survivingandenduring @boliv-jenta @prolix-yuy @sheepdogchick3 @inept-the-magnificent @northernwindd @alltheglitterandtheroar @readingiskeepingmegoing @txlady37 @rebel-held @alwaysmicado @heareball @clawdee @covetyou @bellsbluebrd @alltheglitterandtheroar @axshadows @casa-boiardi @bastardmandennis @stealyourblorbos @chronically-ghosted @katw474 @beabliss @nerdieforpedro

I don't know why some usernames don't seem to link when I try to tag them, btw. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

[nightghoul381]

I have a little prompt for Silvio fluff 👀👉👈

Emma/MC begs Silvio to adopt a pet, and Silvio is trying to talk her out of it with the millions of reasons why a pet in a palace is impractical… but she has the power of persuasion.

Thank you anon and @happy-pup so much for the requests! I decided to combine them because the idea of doing a cute fluffy Silvio fic in his POV about the struggle of trying to convince his lover that pets don't belong in the palace was too good to leave separate.

No Pets

Silvio Ricci (POV) x Reader Genre: Fluff WC: ~ 1k

I can’t believe you’re on this again… How many times am I gonna have to tell ya, the palace is no place for a pet. But here you are, tryin’ to convince me yet again that you’d be less lonely. What do you mean you’d be less lonely? Are the rotten mutt and I not good enough company for you?

Thoughts spiral through my mind as I stalk through the halls on my way to my last meeting. It seems like you’ve been even more eager to get me to agree to letting you get a pet recently, coming up with the most random reasons.

“It’ll give me something fun to do while you’re working.  I could take it out to the beach and let it run in the sand!”

“I want to be able to try out this new recipe that was developed specially for dogs.”

“They’re just so cute!”

My entire meeting went by in a blur as I recalled time after time that you had mentioned wanting to get a dog, a cat, a rabbit, any sort of little furry companion.

Recently it really seemed like you were interested in getting a dog. Every point, every question, every… everything.

I’m really not sure why you’re so desperate for an animal. The thought of you spoiling it with your affection honestly had my heart twisting just a bit with jealousy.

I threw open the door to our room and was greeted with a startled scream and a flurry of thumping sounds as you leap to your feet, running toward me and blocking my view of the room.

“You’re acting suspicious,” I state, fixing you with a questioning stare.

“What are you talking about? I always come and greet you at the door.”

The look on your face tells me everything I need to know.

“Is someone else in there?”

“Just me,” Valerio’s voice called from the far end of the room.

My eyes flick back to you, and I can’t stop the fear and panic from flaring up.

“What the hell?! Why is that damned dog in here with you?”

“Silvio please calm down! It’s not what you’re thinking! I promise!” You sputter, taking a few steps backward and glancing nervously at Valerio.

“It sure as hell looks like what I’m thinking.” I’m having a really difficult time holding the red rage inside. Valerio leaps to his feet, stalking around the side of the bed.

“Will you calm down already? She was just too nervous to tell you about the surprise!” He growled, fixing his sky-blue gaze challengingly at me, as if daring me to keep talkin’.

“Rio!” You shout, an indignant scowl crossing your features.

And then the room is filled with a flurry of loud yapping and scrambling noises.

“No, no, no! Luca, sit!” you squeak, twirling around and darting over to the side of the bed.

You don’t seem to notice that I’m right behind you, peering over your shoulder. You little sneak. You went and got a dog.

I look down at the little bundle of white and black bouncing at your feet, tongue lolling as he excitedly tries to grab at one of the toys you had picked up. Another bout of excited yaps spill from the puppy as he notices me looking down at him, his tail wagging furiously as he runs around your legs to come see me.

“Silvio! I’m really sorry I was going to come and talk to you but he followed me home from the market and I tried to find his owner for several days! Rio was keeping him in his room but the maids insisted that they clean his chambers today and didn’t want the little guy running around and leaving pawprints all over the freshly mopped floor.”

I kneel down, reaching out a hand to the dog who eagerly sniffs at the rings on my fingers before licking at them. Normally, I’d be repulsed by the drooling creature getting my hands all dirty like this, but there’s something so innocent about his eyes and the cute way the spots on his face are laid out makes him look endlessly happy. Dammit. Leave it to you to manage to find a damned puppy that I’ll never be able to say no to.

“You would,” I sigh, shaking my head.

“Silvio, please. I really did try to find his owner.” Your tone is so melancholy and I can’t help but chuckle. You’re so dense sometimes.

Looking up at you I see your hands fisted in your skirts and you’re nervously chewing on your lip staring at me with such a deep look of guilt.

“You would manage to find an animal that, without a doubt, belongs here.”

You’re stunned, I can tell. It’s so damn adorable, I scoop the puppy up from the ground, his tail never slowing down as he leans up to lick my face.

“Hey! Hey, stop it little guy! Ya said his name’s Luca right?” I ask, petting between his ears and earning and excited bark as he leans into my hand.

“Um… yeah that’s what I’ve been calling him. He just makes me so happy and it means ‘bringer of light’ so I thought it suited him.”

Damn. Damn. Damn. I don’t get it… you’ve already got me hooked on ya and then you go and do this shit. I lean in to steal your lips in a kiss but it seems our new little companion wanted in on the fun as he begins licking at our faces.

We both start laughing furiously. Looks like he’s gonna need a lot of attention, but I’m starting to think it might not be too bad to give him the attention.

“We can count on Uncle Valerio to puppysit sometimes too, right?” I joke, flashing my brother a smile.

“Really! You’d let me watch him!” Valerio exclaims, his eyes welling with tears of joy.

This is absolutely not what I had expected when you had started asking so many questions. I can’t say I’m surprised; you’ve always been able to come up with some sort of harebrained scheme and it all works out for you. And damn if I don’t fall even more in love with you for it.

Taglist: @candied-boys @aquagirl1978 @itsjudesfault @xbalayage @themiscarnival

Please feel free to message me if you'd like to be added to the tag list!

[trillscienceofficer]

A long time ago @nebulouscoffee asked me to write the DVD commentary of “Best Left” (which is a Raffi/Seven/B'Elanna fic set between Picard S1 and 2) and now I'm finally doing that.

This is inevitably going to get long because the fic itself is much longer than anything else I've ever posted, and I still have so many feelings for a story I put a lot of effort and heart into! But first things first, here's chapter one.

Cris, I know you’re really busy these days on the Stargazer, so I’ll keep this short.

As I was coming up with ideas for “Best Left”, my main goal was to have Raffi (which I knew would be the POV character) in a very different place than where we see her first on Star Trek: Picard. I wanted her, by this point established, long-distance relationship with Seven be a part of the network in which Raffi is now deeply enmeshed (ie La Sirena's crew). That said though, both canon events (by this time Rios has been made captain) and my plot ideas were not very accommodating of having literally everyone on board the ship. It would've been too unwieldy for a project that was already shaping up to be very ambitious for my standards. But while Jurati and Picard's absence is, I think, not that big of a deal, I still very much wanted to underline Raffi and Cris' friendship, which I think is essential in order to understand Raffi and one of the few relationships she's had that didn't go sour on her. I obviated to his physical absence with both real and imaginary correspondence, from which Raffi could draw strength in difficult moments. The fic both begins and closes with Raffi writing a message to him.

Raffi hits send on the message and looks up only to find Elnor at her side, looking just as morose as he’d been a few days earlier, when she’d told him first about the road trip idea. She sighs internally; the queue to transporter hub number four advances. It’s a busy day on the new Betazed spacedock, but luckily no one among the crowd seems the wiser to a Romulan young adult carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He holds the straps of his bag and his staff with a white-knuckle grip. Raffi hooks her left arm into the crook of Elnor’s right. “What’s the matter?”

Rereading this I remembered how fun it was to write Raffi and Elnor interact. My intention here (and throughout the fic) was to have Raffi obviously care for him while also not losing her somewhat world-weary attitude because of her affection. Raffi is still a woman who analyzes everything around her, and acts accordingly—not to mention all the unacknowledged guilt she carries wrt her son Gabe. I didn't want to have Raffi be straightforwardly ‘maternal’, it didn't feel right and I think older women in fiction should be allowed to have mixed feelings about this role more often. Plus, like Raffi herself realizes later in the fic, Elnor has already had plenty of other women bossing him around all his life, he doesn't need one more.

Soji is at the navigation console, smiling and waving a little awkwardly. And finally, Seven watching them from the captain’s chair, which she occupies with ease, leaning on one armrest. The very image of the roguish pirate captain; Cris wishes he could pull it off this well. “Welcome aboard,” Seven says, the hint of a smirk on her lips, as if she’d just heard every single one of Raffi’s thoughts.

I honestly think Raffi is constantly roasting Cris in her head. Also when rereading I was surprised about this reprise of the idea of mind-reading from the previous dialogue between Raffi and Elnor, that was cool and I can't remember if I even wrote it entirely on purpose. In any case, I wanted to have both Soji and Elnor along for this story because (1) they could offer an interesting outsider perspective on the older women drama about to unfold and (2) I wanted to have them interact with each other and have an adventure that had nothing to do with their specific backstories. Writing Soji in this story was so much fun! It was a nice challenge to balance her characterization between the right amounts of deadpan honesty and genuine care, and making it obvious that she's still figuring out how she wants to live her life.

“I don’t think Cris would forgive me if I tried to take La Sirena into another Borg transwarp conduit,” Soji says. “And honestly I’m not sure the ship can take it.” “It wasn’t particularly pleasant on a Borg cube either,” Seven adds. “As I’m sure Elnor remembers.” “Crashing on the surface was worse,” he replies, and some of the gloom lifts from his face. The effect Seven has on people sometimes—but Raffi should be the last to judge, shouldn’t she? It’s not as if seeing Seven again, sitting on that chair so lazily and yet still projecting intent, isn’t reminding Raffi of the few weeks they’d spent on board La Sirena before. But it’s probably best if she revisits that particular recap reel in private.

I based this little Seven-Elnor interaction from my own feelings about my Cool Aunt, which I think are fitting lmao (ie especially as kid, if she was speaking to me I would immediately feel better no matter what)

Also while rereading I was like, damn I made this first half of the chapter so horny... but I've been in a ldr myself and this is pretty true to my own experience. Reuniting always means a mixture of attraction and awkwardness, and it's what I wanted to convey about Raffi and Seven here, especially since they both have a hard time trusting in people or believing that they're capable of being around people without fucking it up. The following misunderstanding about room assignments is part of this pattern.

She’s re-learning restraint, in the hardest way possible, in other facets of her life.

So here comes the part of this fic I agonized over the most... Raffi's history of substance abuse and her current commitment to sobriety. I thought the latter is what fit better with Raffi's actions on the second half of S1 (ie locking herself out of the replicator) and some scenes of S2—imho those are clues that she (wants to) simply quit. Now, a commitment to complete sobriety (including weed snakeleaf, like in a 12-step program) is not necessarily an effective way to treat addiction long term—actually quite the opposite, from what I could learn from the research I did, even if still the most popular recommended form of treatment today. I'm not entirely sure it would be at all recommended in the 24th century. So how to reconcile this with the hints about Raffi quitting cold-turkey? Is it even something I would want to depict in a good light? What I eventually tried to do is treat the matter strictly from a character perspective. I hinted that Raffi is seeing a counselor, and now feeling part of a network of people, and is now restored to her place in society via Starfleet (from her perspective). Sobriety is something she thinks she should do and can do now, so that's what Raffi did; it's all part of her wider commitment to live a different life. If this also has a whiff of self-punishment... I don't think you'd be entirely wrong. I tried to hint that Raffi has her own thoughts on her addiction but I don't necessarily share them myself (see the disclaimer on top of chapter 4), and those thoughts might be another way in which she's denying herself (because no one else grants it to her either) the compassion I think she deserves. It's a really complex topic and I don't know if I did it justice here. I welcome feedback if you have any.

She’d thought she’d lost any interest in making out, over the years—she was surprised to find out how much Seven enjoys it, and how much of that enjoyment is infectious.

I have this headcanon that Seven really enjoys making out (it's appeared in other fic of mine too, eg “Doing the Unstuck”) and her partners never expect this of her. I think I like the idea that Seven's approach to sex and intimacy is still about the sudden thrill of closeness she displayed when she twirled Chakotay around in order to kiss him lol. I especially like the idea it's one of the things about Seven that's not changed despite all that happened to her since said kiss, and that she could bring Raffi to enjoy making out again as well.

It’s still the same suitcase-shaped contraption that she cobbled together months earlier with Borg parts from the Artifact, as far as Raffi can tell. Some other parts Seven had replicated on La Sirena, and then had proceeded to build the device with surprising ease. She’d explained that it was a modular design she and other friends had come up with over the years. It hadn’t been the first time she’d found herself needing a regenerator without having one handy. Raffi had admired her resourcefulness then, and still does now.

I ranted a lot about Seven's regeneration last summer, and all my thoughts and headcanons ended up in this fic. Regeneration for Seven is now a bit different than what it used to be on Voyager; still a necessity but quicker, and something that doesn't tie her down to bulky machinery any longer. Something that ultimately Seven has more control over. However, it's also a necessity that now needs to be articulated explicitly to the people she's close to, and that other people have to learn to take into account about her. I also wanted Seven to determine clear boundaries around regeneration—eg, here she doesn't want other people around when she regenerates—but boundaries that she is still constantly renegotiating, as it happens in chapter two when she invites Raffi to stay. Seven isn't used to be around people much anymore, so she's still adapting to new realities (like her relationship with Raffi) and rethinking what is comfortable for her.

“I hope your other stops were less frustrating than Trill,” Raffi offers, making her presence known. Soji looks up at her, and her face breaks into a smile. “Oh hey, I didn’t realize you were here, Raffi. But yes, I can honestly say it was the worst one so far. I think, and Agnes agrees, that their academic institutions really opposed the lifting of the synth ban for some reason.”

This little piece of Trill worldbuilding came to be because in “Second Self” Una McCormack wrote that Raffi has taken part in the zhian'tara of a colleague. Which is absolutely bonkers to me!! I couldn't help myself and expand on it a bit, all the while maintaining my stance on Trill being very conservative when it comes to decide on people's personhood. I know it's maybe controversial but I really don't think Trill institutions are that enlightened on the topic. They might think they are, but in presence of someone like Soji the appearance would crumble immediately. I honestly loved revisiting my Trill feelings through Raffi and Soji, I haven't written Dax fic in a very long time, so this was a nice way for me to scratch that itch.

Raffi crosses her legs, raises an eyebrow. She’s reminded all too well of when Soji had first come aboard, the confusion of a young woman whose entire life as she knew it had been a deception. She can recall how Soji described her relationship with Narek, and how Raffi had been the one to name his behavior for what it was. Maybe some pointing out of the obvious is needed here too.

This is one of the things that caught my attention the most when I rewatched S1—Raffi has been looking out for Soji practically from the start, calling out Narek's presence for what it was (abusive). I wanted to let Raffi speak her mind here as well, about the kind of interactions Soji has had while on tour.

A scratchy, stuttering audio signal starts playing from La Sirena’s bridge speakers. ‘—damage. Propulsion systems offline. Atmospheric controls—’ More digital artifacting of the signal. ‘—predict where the subspace eddies will take the ship. I don’t know how long I still have—’ The audio signal cuts off, then the message repeats once again. ‘—damage. Propulsion systems offline. Atmospheric controls—’ “I think that’s all of it,” Soji says, soberly. “Damn,” Raffi says, at a loss. “She’s dying, if not already dead,” Elnor says, voicing what everyone is thinking. He turns to Raffi. “What do we do?”

When she read this chapter, my partner asked me about the use of pronouns for the yet unknown person in distress—here Elnor assumes it's a she, while Raffi and Soji don't. It was actually on purpose, I wanted to hint at the fact that Elnor's default assumption is that the people that do stuff out there in space are women because the Qowat Milat usually speaks in these terms as well. Maybe it's silly, I don't know, but I wrote it in anyway as a subtle wordlbuilding detail. Maybe too subtle if it leads to pronoun confusion.

“I’m not sure I could live with myself if we didn’t try to save the crew of that ship. There’s a chance they might still be alive.” “Then let’s do it,” Raffi says with a curt nod. “You’re in command of La Sirena now.”

In the rescue scene I tried very hard to let Raffi do tactical evaluation in a way that didn't come off as callous as it sometimes does for Worf on TNG or Tuvok on Voyager—she's honestly trying to give Soji, now in command, a good overview of the situation.

Raffi takes a long look at Elnor, and to his credit he looks genuinely curious, hands folded together, leaning with his elbows on his knees. She knows better than to doubt his intentions, but—when he wants, he knows exactly when and how to ask one of his blunt questions for maximum effect, doesn’t he? In this case, distraction. She idly wonders if this is a skill that everyone in the Qowat Milat picks up, along with the assassin training. Using the truth as a finely honed blade, rather than the cudgel it’s always reminded her of.

That the absolute candor tenet of the Qowat Milat may be used in more than one way and for more than one goal is something I already written about before (ie in “Policy of Truth”). I think Raffi has her own different ideas about telling the truth because she's trained in intelligence gathering and also because pursuing the truth has always been painful for her—see her quest to find out who was behind the Mars attack. So here she's surprised to find out that Elnor's honesty is not at all a weakness, which she's assumed so far, but rather a very well-honed skill.

“It is the ship we’re looking for,” Soji confirms, going through the readings with, once again, an ease that belies her actual experiences. “It is still transmitting the distress call, though it’s extremely garbled. The hull is pressurized, somehow, at least partially. Life signs—one, I think. Humanoid. Very faint” She looks at Raffi, eyes wide, and Raffi braces herself. “We have to beam them over. The subspace tug might breach the hull at any time. I know that we have no idea who we’ll find, but they’re dying.” Goddammit. They really should’ve woken Seven up before getting here. Then again, at this point it’s probably best to ask for forgiveness than permission. If they’re all still alive to do so. But they will; a boy assassin, an android with super strength, and Raffi. Risk assessment used to be her job in Starfleet, long ago.

I still really like Raffi thinking 'oh well, too late to go back now, but at least I have backup'. I thought about her characterization a lot while writing this fic, and tried to convey her dry humor at best I can. She's really funny in canon! I really enjoyed writing her constant quips, even if they're just in her head.

Down the stairs, she hears Emil grumble. “I can’t deliver proper emergency care if you rush me.” “You’ll replicate what you need, as you need it,” Soji retorts impatiently. “Just initiate the transport.”

All EMHs are the same.

She’s older now, and out of uniform, looking much worse for wear after what she just went through. But there’d been a time more than twenty years prior when her face had been on every Federation newsfeed, along with the rest of the crew of the USS Voyager. “You know her?” Raffi turns to Soji, frozen in bemusement beside Emil. “I’ve never met her but yes, I know who she is,” Raffi says. “You two stay here and keep an eye on things. Seven needs to see this.”

I really like the way this chapter ends (so much so that it's the quote I chose for the fic summary on AO3). I thought about the idea of generational difference a lot when coming up with this fic, and how Raffi has witnessed so many momentous events, like the return of Voyager, that Elnor and even Soji really have no context for. It's an interesting aspect of having older characters that weren't around in previous shows, and an opportunity for a different perspective that unfortunately I think Star Trek: Picard squandered completely (Una McCormack was more attentive in her novels, luckily). Regardless, Raffi's experience turns out to be an asset more than once in this fic—no one aboard La Sirena at this point is as intimately aware of the events of the Dominion War as she is.

[justworthlessreblogs]

scattered thoughts on kirapika

this has taken me way longer than it should've tbh, i have 4 different essay drafts in my docs but none of them felt satisfactory. in the end it's probably better to make a list anyways, because there isn't really an overarching through line to any of these

putting this under a read more because it's Long. there's going to be a (much shorter, hopefully) part 2 because i hit the character limit oops

fair warning that there's going to be a lot of complaining about ciel (i don't hate her i swear i just have beef with how her character's framed in the show)

i think the most frustrating thing about their arc is the wasted potential. like they're both really great characters, there's some really great setup, and the series initially takes the angle that the conflict isn't completely black and white. and then 23 happens and rio gets kicked out of the narrative and the writers decide that actually no, ciel can't do anything wrong in her life ever because she's their precious golden child

i've said it before and i'll say it again: the coma was literally the worst decision the show could've made, because it robbed rio of basically all of his character development and it left ciel floundering around without anything to do. like genuinely when watching her episodes during the coma era i was sometimes like "...what is her arc here supposed to be again? because it really just kinda feels like she's fucking around" and it doesn't help that the writers were still on their Ciel is Morally Right in All Situations kick so any conflicts she got into were kinda boring, tbh? this usually isn't an issue for me in precure except this is a season where characters *do* fuck up (aoi, himari, yukari all had episodes where they fucked up/weren't totally in the right/did some morally gray [for precure] things in this same stretch!) so it makes ciel stick out like a sore thumb (i am still salty about 34 robbing me of an actual disagreement between ciel and yukari)

i think i mentioned it in wv 7's author's notes but episode 41 is kind of a disappointment for me. i thought the premise sounded fun (rio gets framed because of an evil clone! there's so much fun you can have with that!) but the actual execution kinda flops. we barely get any evil clone shenanigans, first of all, but my bigger issue is with the kirapika dynamic and conflict in the episode. i think it drags both of their characters down.

in 41, ciel suddenly regresses and starts being kind of an ass to her brother again, but the problem is that... she doesn't really start doing this until *after* the emotional conflict is supposedly resolved? at some point she goes "and i nearly messed it all up again" and i was like Girl. What Have You Done Up To This Point. like she's literally done *nothing*, hasn't said anything hurtful - the "worst" she's done is telling her brother that she'll go with him if he leaves, and then backtracking in private (the backtracking does feed into another issue i have, but in isolation there's nothing wrong with it! i do think it's perfectly reasonable to not want to uproot your entire life!). the actual regression comes when they're on the bridge, when ciel tells rio that they both made cure parfait

the cure parfait line is genuinely cruel. pov you are rio kuroki, you just got out of a 4 month coma 3 days ago, you got cool powers for 15 minutes but then got beat up super badly and lost them almost immediately after *and* were told you'd never be a precure (a dream that you've tried and tried to achieve but nothing ever seems to work) and then here's your sister on the bridge telling you that you both made *her* a precure and it was a super cool and awesome event when all you got out of it was that four month coma. if i was rio i would've lost my shit then and there

the line just feels so ooc for ciel to be saying at the EMOTIONAL CLIMAX??? THIS IS THE EMOTIONAL CRUX OF THE EPISODE. if it was a line that had happened early on and caused the conflict i'd be more forgiving but it *isn't* and that's why it fails! at this point she's supposed to have learned that disregarding others' feelings and thinking only about what's good for herself hurts others!

also rio once again takes the blame for everything, just like he did in 23. why is rio constantly always the bad guy in the conflict (even though the show pushed a "they both did things wrong" angle at the start) it makes their relationship feel really lopsided

their relationship just feels really lopsided overall, tbh. i think part of the problem is that we never really get any positive interactions between them in the series - we get the flashback with the waffles, and then there's that brief moment when rio comes back in 40, and ciel complimenting rio in the christmas episode but that's barely enough to go on when most of their major interactions in the present timeline are them fighting with one another. the show wants me to think that kirapika are the Best Siblings Ever but doesn't really do the work to actually *show* it, which makes it feel hollow. where are the sibling shenanigans, toei. where are the moments where they share a single brain cell. i just want kirapika sibling fluff, dammit!

part of this lopsided feeling also comes from how it feels like rio would move heaven and earth for ciel (he outright sacrifices his life. if it wasn't for luimere he'd be dead, and he had no way of knowing lumiere would intervene) but i don't get that same vibe from ciel even though the show tries acting like she would. shit happens and she's like "oh no! anyways". even a large part of her angstfest in 23 is more about her thinking that she's thrown away her chance of being a precure (it's literally one of the first things she says after julio's purified. not really a great look tbh).

lopsided 3: ciel's feelings are always seen as more valid over rio's. it's especially frustrating when rio actually does have a point (see 22-23)

honestly overall it just feels like the writers had something against rio. genuinely what the fuck did he do to them to make them toss him around like that

ciel's angstfest in 23 is really funny to me it's literally the equivalent of when you slightly mess up so you turn your discord pfp and banner all black and change your username to "gone" and claim you're never going to log on again but you're back 2 days later. i would love it if she was the one who actually broke herself out of it instead of rio and ichika having to do all the emotional labor

just... let ciel have flaws! we're shown a ciel with flaws in her introductory arc! and it's amazing! but then after 23 they all disappear and on the rare occasions where they come back they're never treated as something for her to work on, they're just there, or they're unintentional on the part of the writers. and a character without flaws obviously isn't unheard of for precure but in a season that takes great pains to remind you that its main cures are all very flawed people it feels a little jarring to have ciel never learning anything because she was in the right all along

i don't think rio becoming ciel's satellite post-coma would've annoyed me as much if we hadn't been given a taste of rio as an actual defined character during the julio arc. like once he comes back he only exists around ciel and it's a bummer because i really liked his dynamics with ichika, yukari, bibury, etc and i wanted to see more (we do get that one riobib scene in 41 but it's like 30 seconds). pretty much all of his dreams and aspirations evaporate, too, most notably The Precure One

rio's dream to become a precure never being brought up after 23 (except to be mocked by grave) is so, so jarring when it was originally a huge part of his character. 41 tries to act like he only became julio because he wasn't as good at sweets as ciel and it's like... no? wanting to become a precure was a big part of that too? sometimes i feel like 41 is an episode from some alternate universe where rio's precure dream was never part of the plot and it somehow wormed its way into ours. it'd make the cure parfait line a lot less worse if that was the case tbh

see you all in part 2 i guess

[haliespages]

🍂~ mini reviews

wisteria by adalyn grace- 4.5✨️

one of my favorite series of all time! this one from blythes pov was interesting, i just think the emotional payoff and investment was less than as we have two books focusing solely on signa. i did enjoy the authors choice to make the main pov blythe but it just wasn't as good as signas. still loved the vibes and the more fairytale feel of this installment

thrum by meg smitherman - 4✨️

a weird and haunting novella, thrum wasn't what i expected but i definitely enjoyed the sci-fi horror and overall creepiness this gave off. a fun and quick read that's perfect if you love weird sci-fi, horror and twists.

don't let the forest in by c.g. drews - 4✨️

another perfect fall book, this was written like a rotten fairytale. i loved the prose and the unique storytelling, but the characters were my favorite part. thrust into standard fairytale stereotypes we watch them grow and develop behind this, twisting the story in a direction i didn't expect...

brewed with love by shelley page - 3.5✨️

this was a cute and cozy fall romance, but it was just that. i enjoyed the plot and it was intriguing, but it was still more of a fluffy ya read that's a good quick and fun read. loved the witches and magic system as well.

mistress of lies by k.m. enright - 3.5✨️

really wanted to love this but i found it repetitive and also the world building really wasn't explained. i don't expect to be spoon fed but i felt that the author wasn't even positive what the world was. we saw so many fleeting concepts just ignored and discarded to rehash politics again. i was interested in the plot and characters were fine, but i won't be continuing the series.

graveyard shift by m.l. rio - 4.5✨️

i loved loved this especially as someone obsessed with fungi. i wanted 400 more pages but at the same time felt the slim novella format worked wonders for this story. it has a very open ending which i wasn't pleased about cause i want more and to know what happens next but it also fit the story so so well. yall need to get this for fall asap.

[sothischickshe]

When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Ahhhhh, with a lot of complaints & whining?? 🤪

No but to be more srs (and also hi! And ty! ❤️❤️❤️), i'm not sure i can say a huge amount on complex narratives (my preferences tend to run shorter and less plotty, even if ive somehow ended up with a 140k draft bleugh) but here's some stuff ive gleaned, maybe some of this is more aspirational tho lol

so for outlines, i think the key point is to sUmMaRiSe -- and i don't think it really matters HOW you do it, there's lots of different methods, whatever works for you. i think the first summary i did for Shattering mightve been entirely in emojis for a tumblr ask game? which was fun and sparked pretty much everything when i came back to it, ymmv tho lol. i tend to be a list of scenes on paper guy, with a summary of what's happening in each. i'd now say, instead of half spacing that, maybe leave some gaps so you can easily insert scenes if you want, ha. depending on the story, ive also more ~mindmapped the progress instead of scene listing, so for example if it relies a lot on contrasting parallels, a bunch of arrows covering progress or whatever iconography works might be helpful. i'd also now say, figure out your shorthand early ha: ive dutifully written out notes, then looked over them and been like uh youve used 'R' here to refer to rio rhea AND ruby you realise.... or 'park scene' to refer to 3 different scenes...whoops! i personally tend to write and plot and whatnot in chronological order, so keeping track of outlines isn't nec too difficult (unless you decide to go adding a bunch of stuff in bleugh) for characters, well you tend to get those for free in fanfiction woop. at least for the major characters, you then probs don't need to keep too much track of them/create character sheets or whatever? for more minor canon characters, if they're a pov or just majorish character in my fic, ive tended to rewatch and make notes, to try and figure out how to tie their disparate bits of (often pragmatic-to-the-plot) characterisation together, and make them feel realistic. with original characters in fic, i think it depends how big a part they play. i think in a first draft more is more if you want -- get a load of details down abt these randos if you want, and you can always scrape it off the page later if it doesn't fit, if that's your way of figuring them out. or you can do it more intentionally as a separate exercise e.g., write your original character a monologue where they explain themself. but i think the most important thing re any characters is to Make Decisions abt them, even if that stuff is never directly on the page, it will make them feel consistent (espec if they're not a/the pov char) -- WHY are they doing whatever they're doing, WHAT are they like, DO they know xyz or not (or when do they find out) etc etc etc, otherwise characters can just feel like they're wandering in and out as if in a dream to do random shit, and thus like props.

Development... well i guess this is taking the summarised outline(s) and untangling them into real story? idk how to describe a lot of this process tbh cos so much of this is mental, but scribbling on a few pages with lots of arrows is likely to help i feel! and a lot of scribblings in the margins for ever and ever! then maybe some [bracketed commands] in an eventual typed draft, and some paper notes to take back to it.

re timelines, again if you write/plan in chronological order, this might be easier. and i think it's very contextual, if you're writing something with a v tight timeline of say a couple of days, it might be very important to make sure everything fits and it's clear when stuff is happening, whereas with something longer maybe you can be loser. this isn't something i'd nec make a huge amount of notes abt otherwise, but i do think it's important to consider -- it's probs something i'd find more in the first draft and expand in the edits. for example, Shattering starts in summer so there's a lot abt it being warm and sunny, and eventually the weather gets colder/trees get starker blah blah blah. i def think this is a good thing to pay attention to in the edit, is it clear that things are happening on different days, or are days seeming to go on for a billion hours etc. it's funny when you go back and watch tv shows or films sometimes and that stuff doesn't quite seem to make sense! of course this can be done well, to imply something off with the pov character/their sense of time disintegrating but i think it has to be done with intent.

all of that said, i don't think there's a 'right' or 'best' way to keep track of such stuff, whatever works! and that all sounds rather plan-y, which i tend to prefer espec for longer/complexer stuff, but that doesn't mean p(l)antsing approaches won't work, if you're willing stuff can alllllways be sorted in the edit.

Ficus pun!

[dear-mrs-otome]

Silvio Ricci - Main Story - Chp 08 - His POV: 2nd Run

Standard Disclaimer: I do this for fun. I don’t, and never would, claim to be proficient at JP. There will be mistakes herein. There will be dialogue I choose to smooth out or change, because it feels choppy just straight translating. There will be the occasional snarky aside and irreverence and just plain summarizing. If you’re looking for 100% pure accuracy, without commentary or localizing, this is not for you. If you don’t mind that…then proceed, and I hope you enjoy! And please, support your local localizer (they make this stuff look easy) and Cybird by playing the games and routes when they come to English.

(NOTE: This POV is from Silvio’s 2nd playthrough - it may contain spoilers or spoiler-adjacent themes concerning the arc of his route and Rio's route, so reader be aware. This particular one doesn't have much but later ones might)

~~~~~~~~

If Valerio had a woman he truly loved, I wanted to take her away from him.

~~~~~~~~

“Dad! Mom! The teacher gave me a compliment today!”

“Ah, how wonderful! You’re really brilliant, Valerio!”

“I’m sure that one day, you’ll be an even better king than I am.”

“Really? Hehehe…”

~~~~~~~~

“...Mother, I -”

“I know you can do this. You’re bound to be the next king, you’ve come a long way towards being the next king with this level of achievement. My son can do it - isn’t that right, Silvio?”

~~~~~~~~

 Just imagining such a scene where the prince who, unlike me, is loved by everyone can’t get the woman he really wants? …It gives me a thrill. It would be a lot of fun to take a woman from him for real. 

However…the person Valerio fell for was a difficult woman who’s not interested in money. In fact, she repeatedly harasses foreign princes and makes feeble attempts at getting them to hate her. She’s truly an utterly uncharming woman, and he has no idea what it is about her that made Valerio fall in love with her. But, well …it doesn’t matter.

From behind her, he slides her collar aside and presses his lips over her pulse. He can practically see that damned dog barking as he draws on her skin to leave a prominent mark. “Maybe it would have been better if I’d just done this from the start, rather than the collar,” he muses. “You can’t take it off, and you can’t hide it from everyone.”

She only says his name, and he starts to point out that that’s a pretty weak reaction out of her - when she wordlessly turns around and grabs his hand in an ambush, startling him.

He tries to leap back at the horrible sensation, but her strength was so great he couldn’t believe she was some foppish noblewoman. 

 “What do you think you’re doing, you scumbag prince!!” she fumes, and he demands she lets go of him immediately. “Not until you apologize, and mean it!”

Don’t you dare bark at me, damned woman! He wants nothing more than to shake her off, but he doesn’t know how much strength a woman’s delicate hands can handle, so he’s stuck doing nothing. 

She accuses him of never intending to take the collar off, and he counters that he was taking the lock off but never said he’d take the collar off. “Any day you’re not wearing it, I’ll put a mark on you.”

“I see. Well, if that’s your plan, I have an idea of my own.” Her eyes are steadfast, and he has only a moment to wonder what she means, with a foreboding feeling - before she puts his fingers in her mouth.

“You!!”

Does she normally bite princes?! It seems like she’d held back just shy of causing real pain, but the sensation is still vivid nonetheless and he leaps away from the woman. Ah shit…I can still feel it on my hand.

It’s not the bite that bothers him. Rather, it’s the feel of her warm lips and the soft tip of her tongue on his skin that is the issue. Sassy - no, she’s a shameless hussy. Eugh…what a horrible feeling.

It’s only his imagination that his face is hot. It’s definitely not because he’s not used to something like this. 

She tells him that it’ll go both ways - every time he marks her, she’ll bite him as hard as she can. And he admits he’s gotta hand it to her for having the guts to bite a prince, but she best not get carried away. 

“I don’t care if you’re some prince from another country. I won’t tolerate any scummy behavior -” she starts to rail.

“What do you mean, ‘scummy act’, Emma?” 

Of all the moments, he has to show up now? The figure of that damned dog pops up behind her, having snuck up without him noticing. The woman stammers out an attempt to wave it off, slapping her hand over her neck to hide in in a gesture he finds irritating for some strange reason.

He apologizes for showing up late and she assures him it’s fine - if he hadn’t come, Silvio’s hands might be in tatters by now.

Silvio finally speaks up. “Ha! Who’d let you bite them a second or third time?”

“That’s true…it might have been hard to with you running away scared,” she counters.

“You wanna turn this into a diplomatic issue, woman?” Silvio threatens.

What are you so upset about? he scolds himself. It’s no different than being bitten by an actual dog…It’s just that it’s not exactly commonplace for a woman to bite me. 

She expresses her anger genuinely, without trying to butter him up. Something definitely different from any of the women he’s known. 

It’s a strange feeling.

“...Emma, let’s go back to the castle.” Valerio takes the woman’s hand, and starts walking. 

“Hey, who said you could take her?” He doesn’t hesitate to grab her other hand and stop her, brushing off Valerio’s protests that she doesn’t want to be there. Silvio scoffs at the concept of her ever being charming with an attitude like that, and she fires back that it’s only in front of Silvio she’s like this - if she doesn’t act like this, he’ll take advantage of her. 

“You’re getting too sassy,” he warns. “Ah, but…”

She flusters as he lifts her hand and presses his lips to the back of it. It’s an acceptable greeting amongst polite social circles, but clearly not to a commoner woman…and the sight of the sassy woman’s face turning pink is enough to make him finally feel better.  “Doing this might make you a little prettier?”

“Not that it’s any concern of yours!” she exclaims.

Valerio protests over how sly he’s being, and tries to wheedle a date out of her, which has Silvio reminding him he’s merely a butler and doesn’t deserve such concessions. But that only has Valerio rounding on him and accusing him of taking liberties with a single lady. 

“It’s fine, I’m royalty, right?” Silvio replies. 

“You think that means you can just do whatever you want?” Valerio retorts, and they glare at each other in angry silence. 

He has no intention of letting go, either. And Silvio grins to himself. Bring it on.

~~~~~~~~

“Give it back…give it back!”

“Who’s going to give it back, stupid? I hate you. Keep crying like that.”

~~~~~~~~

“For the moment, both of you please let go of me,” she asks.

He hears her voice, but ignores it. 

Choose me, woman. 

Me…rather than that damned dog.

~~~~~~~~

<< Chp 08 | Chp 09 >>

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Do you think if Beth actually got pregnant from rio she would’ve kept the baby? In a canon context but without the factor of her being pregnant being the reason rio isn’t killing her. If that makes sense

Hi Anon! I keep meaning to answer this with a link to the fic I’ve had in progress for like a month, and it’s wishful thinking that I can have it done any time soon. I might post ch 1 tomorrow just to get the idea of it out.

I do think if Rio accidentally got Beth pregnant she would keep the baby. Not without a lot of conflict and heartache, but I think Beth’s moral compass is different when it comes to her offspring. I would imagine she’d have a lot of trouble going through with an abortion. Mostly because of what her fertility and pregnancies and motherhood has been throughout canon and how I view her as a mother. She has continued to procreate with Dean despite her own personal unhappiness, and seems to really define herself by her ability to sacrifice for her children. It probably all goes back to her fear of abandonment and having to be parentified at such a young age. She has an unhealthy fixation on her role as a mother and that would extend to a baby she conceived by Rio.

I think her process would be the normal stages of grief. She would deny and project her anger onto Rio. Blame him, push him, take her anger and fear out on him. She would bargain and try to terminate the pregnancy, wouldn’t be able to go through with it and would just hope she would miscarry naturally. When a natural miscarriage didn’t happen, she would probably feel very hopeless. She likely wouldn’t care for this pregnancy as enthusiastically as her others. Like for example, she would skip the recommended genetic screenings and ignore her own body as it inevitably struggles against a progressing pregnancy. Ultimately, she would accept that she’s keeping this baby. Not happily – and I think she would feel a lot of guilt about this. She would try to assuage this guilt through projection onto Rio. She’d pick fights, try to hurt him, not allow him access to the baby after it’s born…

Soooo, that’s basically the plot of the fic I’m working on. 😅 Maybe I shouldn’t have just summarized it all and made it a ✨mystery✨ so it’s more fun to read. But I think this is fine. The fic is all Rio POV and the paragraph above may give a much-needed glimpse into Beth’s perspective that may not be fully clear as Rio experiences this pregnancy with her.

I appreciate the ask! ❤️ It’s a nice push to get this fic rolling with more fervor than I’ve given it.

[riosnecktattoo]

What world was more enjoyable or difficult to create jawbreaker or What Spring Does to the Cherry Trees? What is the most difficult part to write when writing from Beth and Rios' perspectives?

hey! 🥰 ooo what a fun question

I'd say the Jawbreaker world was the most enjoyable but also difficult to create. It's much more about basketball and MSU and the HOURS i spent researching MSU and the dorms and in Google maps was crazy. I know I didn't need to do it but every street and place is real, Rio's dorm is real and I picked it because they were opposite the Breslin Centre and so on. I learned so much about basketball and it was fun including that (and I hope to use more of that for the future one shots)

It is was so fun building that out from what is actually real and there. All my targeted ads thought I wanted to enroll at a Michigan University lmao.

Also it was total lucky fluke that the Spartans/MSU colours are green! I didn't know that til I was writing part 2 and picked the college and googled and was like OHO YES Rio's fave colour! 😂

So yes while Cherry Trees has been so fun to build and a big struggle at times more so in amount, Jawbreaker was the task.

And perspectives! I literally love writing from Rio's perspective and I realise I haven't in over a year! Need to fix that

Goddd I honestly don't know I find them both difficult. Obviously I'm not a man and I'm not from the same racial or cultural background as Rio which is the main thing with him i always worry (and know) I'm not doing him full justice.

I do find Rio very fun to write though because he just naturally comes out as more of a chatty bouncy pov?

With Beth it's funny cause I think I relate a lot to how she represses emotions like I Am She™ but in most other ways I think I'm very different so I think that's why that's the thing I zero in on in her pov for fics. Like maybe I pick out a trait from both that I can really chew on in their internal monologues?

I'm not sure I'm rambling now 😂

Thanks for the ask anon! 💜💚

[justworthlessreblogs]

if your concern is being annoying you should just make a pseudonym (aka give us synopses of your other ideas pretty please?)

rubbing my hands like a little gremlin buckle up. they're all ciel & rio centric because the possibilities are absolutely endless with those two

a full-on ciel and rio role reversal, where ciel is the one who joins noir in paris (and rio doesn't as a result). ends in cure parfait and cure waffle, obviously. what i really like about this one is that it gives me the chance to explore a rio who never went through the julio stuff, because it's implied in canon that he used to be a pretty happy kid before the paris incident went down. i actually half-wrote this back in june but never finished it. i'd like to someday

this one is mostly a joke au based on a discussion my beta reader and i had back in october: au where julio gets a shitty otome isekai protagonist moment by hitting his head at the start of the series and receives a vision of his "death" in 23. he obviously doesn't know that he'll survive in the end so he sets out to change his fate. this is another one that i actually half-wrote out and plan on finishing at some point, so i don't want to spoil too much sdfhj

modern, human au where lumiere and noir are a divorced couple. each of them got one kid in the divorce. lumiere got ciel and noir got rio. somehow rio ends up with lumiere and ciel (haven't figured the reason out yet because this one is still pretty new) and gets to unlearn all the shitty stuff that he internalized from noir because noir is the opposite of world's #1 dad. this one is mostly for fun because this type of plot is one of my guilty pleasures in fanfic

kirakira botw au!!! i might actually post this on its own someday, but basically ciel & rio are link & zelda. there's a prophecy that noir (who takes ganon's place) is going to awaken soon. lumiere is hylia. ciel awakens as one of the precure of legend needed to defeat ganon (i.e. link with the sword) and everyone expects rio to be the other but no matter what he does he can't seem to activate it (i.e. zelda). the original 5 precure are the divine beast pilots. rio finally transforms in this au's version of the zelda's awakening memory. after this it gets a little more fuzzy, because i can't decide who i want to go into the shrine of resurrection. while it would make sense for ciel to go into the shrine since she's the link analogue in this au (and i love writing ciel's pov) it'd also make sense for rio because he has a magical healing coma in canon just like link. also i just really enjoy botw aus where zelda/the zelda analogue is the one in the shrine. i also haven't figured out who all the npcs will be, because while kirakira's main cast is huge its supporting cast is pretty small. might have to pull cures from other seasons. elisio is master kohga btw (but a lot more threatening)

[wildwood-reader]

OCTOBER 2022 BOOK WRAP-UP

I finished a total of 3 novels, 1 novella (+ a shorter novelette in the same book) and 1 graphic novel this month. 👻 Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful reading month, despite my struggles with trying to find something good in my ebook library. I did read some pretty good books. 💪🏻

The books will be in the order that I finished them. My favorite book¹ of the month will be marked with a 🌟.

The Spiritglass Charade by Colleen Gleason

◇ Book 2 in the Stoker & Holmes series

◇ Finished on October 15

◇ First Read

◇ Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

◆ What I disliked: I enjoy a good rivalry like any other girl, just not the "not like other girls" type. Yes, Mina and Evaline are pretty much polar opposites and have different interests and strengths, but that should be cause for celebration in their line of work, not disdain for the other. Mina especially gets a bit on my nerves sometimes with her superiority complex over Evaline, though Evaline's POV can be a bit frustrating to read sometimes, too. They both bring useful skills to the table and I really hope they start to realize that in the next book. That plot twist in the end certainly added an interesting new puzzle piece.

I also still find the whole Dylan-from-the-future thing a bit odd, but I assume the connection of his circumstances and the red thread throughout the series will make sense by the fifth and last book at the latest, so for now I'm just going to be patient.

◆ What I liked: The setting is really fun. I really like that this version of the late 19th century has a lot of cool technology and I look forward to finding out who had it developed. Something tells me it might have something to do with how Dylan ended up here.

Despite my qualms with Mina's and Evaline's rivalry and better-than-you behavior, I do think they're both interesting characters. Evaline's connection to my favorite series of Colleen Gleason's, The Gardella Vampire Chronicles, is fun and I really hope she gets to meet Sebastian at some point. Her relation to Bram Stoker as his sister is also fun, but doesn't feel very relevant aside from its existence. I kind of wish we could see them interact a bit, to really get a feeling for what they're like as siblings.

Same thing with Mina and her family. We have seen her interact with her uncle Sherlock a couple of times, but I kind of wish we saw more of her relationship with Mycroft, her father. As for her progressively romantic relationship with Dylan, it's fine, but I actually prefer them as friends. Inspector Grayling feels a bit of a more fitting partner for her, but as of yet I don't really feel a whole lot of chemistry, either, but that might change in the future.

The case in this book was alright, nothing mindblowing, but I enjoyed it.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

🌟 If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

◇ Standalone

◇ Finished on October 21

◇ First Read

◇ Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

◆ What I disliked: It took me a long while (over 50 pages) to really get a feeling for who the individual main characters are; at first they were just one mixed mesh of names I couldn't really distinguish between. Due to that, it also took me a while to really get into the story.

◆ What I liked: I absolutely loved the atmosphere of the book and the slow unraveling of what happened when the characters were in college. The sequences of them rehearsing and performing their Shakespeare plays was also really fun and less dry than I would have thought, so yay.

Once I had a feeling for who the characters are, I practically flew through the book because I wanted to know the whole story. Dark Academia is still a rather new genre for me to read, but I can totally see why If We Were Villains is considered one of the staples of it, it really fits the vibe and criteria perfectly.

One of the things I ended up very surprised at enjoying was the tragedy between two of the characters, and the sad but also somehow bittersweet end of it. It fits in well with the other themes in the book, and while I would have wished them a happy end together, it did make sense for it to end the way it did.

Fall isn't over yet, guys, so there's still time to pick it up and give it a read if you're intrigued. 😉 Since I read it as an ebook, I'm probably going to pick up a physical copy of it at some point, because I'd really like to have it on my shelf.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

◇ Volume 2

◇ Finished on October 25

◇ First Read

◇ Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

◆ What I disliked: I felt like this one was a bit slower and harder to get through than Volume 1. I originally started reading it back in August, but not far from the end found myself a bit unmotivated to finish it, so I put it down for a few months until I finally finished it in October.

◆ What I liked: The characters are still the most enjoyable part of the story, especially Shen Qingqiu's commentary about everything. The System is also often very hilarious, especially in moments where Shen Qingqiu could really use a helping hand. Now that Shen Qingiu knows how Luo Binghe feels about him, I look forward to watching their relationship develop over the last two volumes (though I still very much have a softer spot for Shen Qingiu x Liu Qingge 😋).

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

◇ Standalone; edition also included the story The Bottle Imp

◇ Finished on October 27

◇ First Read

◇ Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑

◆ What I disliked: I think the story could have had great potential to be a longer novel and I'm a little disappointed that it was so short.

As for The Bottle Imp, it felt to me like a very white-centric view of wealth. I am not indigenous to Hawai'i, so I can not speak to how well the representation of the indigenous characters was handled, but some of Keawe's decisions, especially in the beginning, felt a bit odd to me.

◆ What I liked: Robert Louis Stevenson's writing is really pleasant to read, I really enjoyed it.

What I also liked was that we only got a perspective of the title characters through other people's eyes in the beginning before we got Dr Jekyll's perspective of the whole events at the end.

I was only familiar with various film versions of Mr Hyde before, so it was a surprise to me how differently he is actually described in the book. If there's ever another film iteration of the character in the future I'd love to see a more accurate portrayal of him. He definitely is a very fascinating character.

Despite my sadness over the shortness of the story, I liked the fast pace which allowed for a very quick and breezy read-through.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks

◇ Standalone

◇ Finished on October 31

◇ Re-Read

◇ Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

◆ What I disliked: Honestly? Nothing really.

◆ What I liked: This is one of my most favorite fall reads. 🍂🎃 It's so cute and beautifully illustrated and just the perfect cozy story for an autumn day, especially Halloween. I love the characters, I love the adventure and I wish I could go to the pumpkin patch in the story. I recently went to a farm with a similar theme, which was very fun, but the one in this book just seems even more magical, and much larger.

And there you have it, these are all the books I read this month! 👻

What are your favorite fall reads? Let me know if you'd like! 🍂

¹ Only first reads are eligible for this, re-reads don't count

[sothischickshe]

talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

👋💖😊

Oh gosh, I feel like one or both happens practically every time! Beth & rio are both so like unequivocally lame that however I try to write them they end up fundamentally less cool. And, I know I've complained abt it a lot already but, I thought Shattering was gonna be relatively short (when did I start thinking of like 30k as shortish?! 🤯) and mostly smut but then the narrative spiralled and it's like 140k and there's (ew) kinda plot (???) bc i. they're not cool enough to just get to it but also ii. I'm blaming the source material for giving me so much I wanted to fix n heal bleugh

But OK a notable time... Idk if it's quite an example of what the question is asking, maybe more like the narrative of my life intervening but fun fact so let's allow it?

I was gonna take a chunk of the ~needy rio pov of Shattering (mm, maybe chapter 2 or 3, idk yet) out bc i was finding it tooo ott, but then I was at a comedy show and jamali maddix got on stage (don't think he was on the bill, and he did seem to genuinely be having a really bad day) & basically did that bit almost word for word (just less American & thus more like how I'd express it out of voice, if that's in any way a term) so I was like OK, this can stay!

writey asks

[pynkhues]

Every single time I write a Playing House prompt fill, I genuinely have a moment where I’m like: how awful would Beth and Rio individually be to date? And the answer is always The Most. The Most Awful, and then inevitably that is what I end up writing, haha. 

[bethsuglywigs]

top 5 tropes

1. Canon Divergence 

Cross Your Fingers, Be It Fahrenheit or Centigrade, and Warm in the Fire of Us by @pynkhues

I don’t think I need to sell anyone on Sophie’s work because it’s well established that she provides high quality content. fortunately for me, she also likes the same tropes as me so i stay well fed. 

CYF: a post-s2 fic dripping with angst and criminal activity. the scene where rio interrupts beth’s date lives rent free in my head. 

BIFOC: set during s2, rio is sick 😷 and beth plays nurse 👩‍⚕️ ... god tier scenario 

WITFOU: set during s3 (aka brio’s angst era) lets just say... clean like him changed me on a spiritual level  (inspired the forbid blow job 👀)

a song inside the halls of the dark by @mego42

this fic as everything: a road trip, beth committing murder, crafts, several near death experiences, brio sexily not communicating, find my friends, AND pta moms interacting with brio... like what more could you ask for in a sprawling post-s2 fic? a must read imo 

Good Sport by fireinsideforfun

i know you’re all ARC stans so I don’t need to tell you that fiff is a good writer. but what I am hear to say is that Good Sport is a slept on fic (pun intended). brio bed sharing and not communicating my beloved. 

for a moment we were strangers by openhearts

this is fic is iconic for fully embracing beth and rio’s age gap (41 v. 29)... openhearts said cougar rights. but also this fic is a fun little brio playing house fic and i just can’t get enough of it 

I Put A Spell On You (and now you're mine) by @sdktrs12

um hellooooooooooo halloween 🎃 prompts my beloved. 

2. Hate Sex

your monster looks like mine by mego42

this fic is about having hate sex on drugs..... das it baby 🥵

satisfied through the weekend by @septiembrre

the show gave us brio having sex while beth is on a date with her husband (iconic, revolutionary, etc), but Gaby one-upped them and gave use up brio having sex while beth is on a date with the hitman she hired to murder rio... i have to stan 

As Good As This by @riosnecktattoo

wire sex - i simply love betrayal 

Two Shoes by pynkhues

all you need to know about this fic is that brio do a job together that requires them to dance and then hide in a closet together (sexily)... the animosity and sexual tension is off the charts

I Will Collect You and Capture You by @foxmagpie

oKaY..... these clowns 🤡 are really at their worst in this fic. like please have a conversation im begging you (jk keep hate fucking and being angsty). rio fr thinks he can fuck beth out of his system, but all he can do is think about her when he’s with other women. literally down so bad in this one. 

3. Outsider POV/Interactions

Three Drops (an intermission) and If It Wasn't for All the Lights by pynkhues

these two fics inspired my own outsider pov fic... thats how influential they are. other people should NOT be forced to interact with beth and rio and yet... its so incredibly funny when they do. i would sell my soul for some more outsider pov fic i s2g. 

Choose Your Own Adventure by sdktrs12

if you’ve followed me for longer than 30 seconds then you know im a cyoa stan. the concept of beth and rio having to spend time with normal parents makes me insane. and they’re just so horny for each other, but in the woods and thats just so special to me.

listening through the air shaft by mego42

another iconic outsider pov fic. truly the dean pov chapter is incredible. like it was so incredibly big brained of meg to make Dean witness brio coming out of the  bathroom break bathroom together. transcendent really. 

AITA for wanting to stop paying my wife’s “business partner” and yelling at her? by @lemoncupcake

spoiler alert: he is the asshole 

PTA Vibes by greyish 

again i’m OBSESSED with the idea of normal people interacting with brio and being subjected to their insanity. and brio being on the pta together is inherently hysterical. 

4. School AU

delinquents, stunner, and I'll Fall If You Do by foxmagpie

queen of high school aus it has to be said. the high school teacher just JUMPS out and im obsessed. 

delinquents... my beloved... where to even begin? a must read for sure. i love this fic so much it inspired my entire fanfic fanart series. 

stunner: blockt for this one; intentional infliction of emotional distress law suit still pending 

IFIYD: i love two dummies with a requited crush on each other playing spin the bottle   

Both Sides of the Law by @joeyjoeylee

if you’re ever been to law school then you’d know that joey captured it perfectly. its the perfect au setting for brio because only insane people go to law school. thats just facts. this fic made me cry (real actual tears from my eyes) several times. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

QuikGrove University by sdktrs12

a staple in the brio college au category. just two college students having sex and committing crimes like god intended. 

watermelon sugar and Seven Minutes in Heaven by @querenaxx

ws: rio spends this entire fic with his tongue 👅 inside beth and i love that journey for him

smih: the title really says it all. and what im saying is that it needs a sequal as asap as possible.

Jawbreaker by riosnecktattoo

tay does simp rio like no one else... its the longing for me... (also rio sexily plays basketball)

Pre Season by @wakeupflawless

if you follow my main blog then you know im obsessed with soccer so of course a brio soccer au is going to be my bread and butter. they literally want to fuck each other so bad, but also, they want to beat each other on the field and that just feels so right.

Sliding Into Third by @fairhairedkings

baseball rio... das it baby... that’s all i need to say i think

A Special Kind of Business by CaptainCabinets

beth x rio x high school x drug dealing = incredible 

5. Very Brio Specific Sex (i.e. pool table, hot tub, desk etc.)    

Invitation to a Beheading by riosnecktattoo

they literally have sex next to a dead body (🥴)

Say It by riosnecktattoo 

desk sex with a twist bc its at boland bubbles instead of boland motors (cucking is cucking babes)

trade my heart for honey and now use both hands by mego42

tmhfh: antagonistic pool playing leads to fucking on the pool table 

nusbh: desk sex but they make it other peoples problem lmao

Lining Up the Shot  and Part of the Equation by brokensatellites

luts: he bends her over the pool table just like in canon, but its actually sexy

pote: hot tub sex like literally fucking in the hot bubbly water 

Show Me How To Get Offended by FakePlastikTrees 

hot tub sex, sex in the hot tub - its what we deserved but never got

your tongue told me every lie by carrythesky 

desk sex on THE boland motors desk... 😌

Salty Sweet by foxmagpie

desk sex but beth is sucking him off under the desk while hes conducting business