#since I've watched the anime and now when I do it just makes me mad aklsdjskja the manga is SOOOOO much better

[shannonsketches]

like why did they change where Vegeta was when Cell announced the cell games in the anime

why did they make this vegeta starting shit with yamcha instead of chillin in the lab with his family? why did they take Bulma out of the lab? Why'd they say she was Out while Dr Brief was repairing 16? Why did they change Bulma working on advanced robotics to running in late with her baby?

it's the same scene except: - Bulma's actively at work being a scientist - Vegeta's not being rude to her (or anyone else!) - Vegeta waits for Trunks instead of leaving the room - Cell interrupted the airwaves, which means Trunks and Vegeta were just hanging out with Bulma and Dr B while they were working

Those are all Great Character Details!! That the anime rails against!!

[godlyrots]

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓.

PAIRING — jason todd x fox!reader.

SYNOPSIS — you can't stay mad at him.

WORD COUNT — 1126.

WARNINGS + CONTENT — pre-established relationship, previous fwb relationship. oral, fem receiving. marking. might be ooc. use of petnames. making out + messy kissing if you squint? got kind of poetic in some places for whatever reason, i'm just vv sleepy. not proof read at all lmao so if you see mistakes ignore them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE — introducing fox!reader. i've only seen the animal!reader thing the OBX fandom but since i haven't seen anyone ( to my knowledge ) do this for DC i wanted to try. i'll have different iterations of readers who'll have different personality types + aesthetics based on different animals/what i come up with for them. but they are people, not hybrids.

. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

"you smell nice." you're whispering into his ear and your voice is rough from hours of rehearsal with your band and jason's hands are nestled on your thighs. he kneads at the pliant flesh, his calluses providing a contrast to the smooth skin in his palms. he lets out a soft hum once your teeth find the spot you know he likes.

he's got that familiar cologne on, filled with woody elements and that beautifully rich, musky scent. it was a gift from you for his birthday last year and he wore it until the bottle was empty and sat on a shelf in his closet and he bought a new one. it wasn't the first time you've been like this, this was your way of apologizing and you knew how to be physically affectionate even if you can't verbalize it. he slightly cranes his neck once your lips work to leave hickies on his skin, the old ones were fading into a light pink hue. you stopped once his phone lit up though and jason's hand reaches for it absentmindedly on the couch beside him.

he types out a response to who you imagine to be one of his friends but he quickly places in back down and focuses on you and his eyes rake over your pouty lips with your lip gloss and lipstick all over him. you can't help but try to remove your berry coloured products off his skin. his thumb works on your bottom lip and wipes off the remaining product. "still mad?" he asks with a low voice, in a tiny mini-skirt you're all the more attractive to him. you fight the warmth that fills your belly as wetness dribbles onto your underwear.

jason secretly loves when you fight despite the fact that he thinks some of your arguments are pointless, but seeing you riled up and angry in your little skirts or a mixture his baggy shirts and shorts or just underwear. he knows that he fucked up, you guys don't keep secrets but by the end of your fights he knows that you'll end up laying on your back with his head between your thighs or you on your knees with his cock in your mouth. either way you didn't complain because you're sure that you loved watching him as much as he loved watching you.

"little bit." you're telling him as he looks at you with that same hardened expression despite him understanding that he did hurt you. his justification didn't really matter, not right now. "i hate lying, you shouldn'a done it." you add on to the few words you'd said and your voice was still hoarse.

"m'sorry, doll"

"m'sorry too, just don't hide things from me."

. ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . . ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * . .   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

you have a fistful of jason's hair in your hands as his tongue laps at your wetness and sucks on your clit like it's the only thing on his mind. the noises from both of you are borderline obscene as he keeps a steady hand on your thigh and your whines are increasing in volume, even with the music to cover up the noise. he's pulling you into him as you squirm and bite back the moans that are climbing up your throat and past your lips. "christ, jay—" you're whimpering now and it almost feels pathetic but your body is one fire, the warmth of his skin of you feels illicit and jason doesn't come up for air.

he pumps his cock with his free-hand in his pants as he listens to you and with the added pent up frustrations of you not speaking for several days and your earlier escapades has got his head spinning. he can't get over listening to you, seeing you, feeling you. it's like he's this fiend and no matter what he does he'll never rid himself of this vice, this addiction and this longing. you don't hear what he says between your thighs as it's muffled by your plush skin but you know it's something absolutely disgusting.

"y'feel too good, baby."

he can't help but moan as he continues to both eat you out and fuck his fist and he can't get enough. jason's almost dedicated to getting you off, each touch is an apology, it might as well be an act of worship 'cause this is the closest he's ever felt to god. i'm sorry, m'sorry, i'm sorry. with each lick, rut of your lips or collection of each drop of your delicious arousal.

you instinctively raise your hips once he works your clit particularly well but he pushes you back down before you can blink properly. jason knows that you're close, he can feel how you clench around his tongue as he works on your puffy cunt, he's a man with a cause, a mission. you were already horny when you decided to mark him up, leave little reminders of you but god, he's so everything.

"right there. s'perfect jay." you tell him, voice filled with lust and genuine adoration. you feel your orgasm creep up on you and he harshly sucks on your little clit and doesn't stop until you're squirming and trying to squeeze your legs together as a way to self-soothe and have the ache subside but it was no use. he doesn't stop until your cum is coating the bottom half of his face and jason's head moves up from between your legs with low eyes that don't peer away from your pussy. it takes a lot in him, everything he has, even to stop himself from eating you out until you're writhing underneath him but you seem pretty spent.

your chest is heaving and you've got these haphazard breaths that stall every few seconds and your skin is warm, covered in a mixture of sweat and your shea butter lotion that's permanently stuck in jason's mind. you kiss him so feverishly that you can taste yourself on his tongue once it enters your mouth and you're moaning into it. he pulls away though, too quickly you think, with swollen, puffy lips and those dazed eyes like he just got some of the best head of his life.

"forgive me?"

you nod once your breathing calms down and your eyes catch the lipstick and hickies all over his neck that scream you're mine.

"guessin' that means you want your dick sucked?"

there's a slight beat of silence before he agrees with you. "fuckin' blue-balled myself f'you. it's only fair."

you roll your eyes before moving from the couch to the carpeted floors infrontt of you and you're on your knees. jason's hand pulls down his pants until they're down to his ankles and he's holdin' up your cute little boho braids up with his hand.

"whatever."

[bedoballoons]

Ok I'm back since I'm no longer busy and was wondering if you could do a lyney,scaramouche,Xiao, kazuha and maybe tighnari with a giyuu or like a reader with a cryo vision that allows her to create life forms similar to alsa I guess and maybe where she has a pet that has like pyro abilities

Welcome back!!! Sorry it took me so long to get to this request done but I absolutely loved writing it and I hope you enjoy!!!

─⊰⁠⊹ฺ✿𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕤⊰⁠⊹ฺ✿─

{༻~Cryo vision~༺}

CW: Fluffy!

(Includes: Lyney, Tighnari, Xiao, Kazuha, and Scaramouche!)

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

𑁍༄Lyney:

"No no no! Wait!" You called out to your little pet, hurrying after the fire ball as it rolled along the beach of Fontaine, unbothered by your shouting and flailing. Just as you started to run out of breath, about to use your vision as a last resort, your pet jumped into Lyneys arms, licking his face all over while the magician laughed happily, "Well now, look who it is. Causing trouble for my beautiful partner again are we,...ah but alas you're to adorable to stay mad at." Lyney scratched under your pets chin, earning a happy little noise of approval.

You caught your breath, watching the whole scene unfold and holding back the urge to go, awwwwe. After their cute little moment your fire ball ran back to you, followed by Lyney who immediately pulled you in for a kiss, placing his hat atop your head while you giggled happily.

𑁍༄Tighnari:

Tighnari watched the bird in front of him with amazement...it's entire body pale blue in colour and resembling that of a ice statue...yet it could move like a real bird...he'd never seen anything like it before. That is until you'd used your vision in combat, animals of a frozen nature springing forth into battle while he stood there in complete shock, slightly awestruck by the entire situation.

"And you've been able to do this ever since you received your vision?" His ears quirked in your direction, making you smile for no particular reason, "Yep...ever since I could use the powers of cryo I've been able to make animals of all shapes and sizes, and they stay until I say otherwise too." Tighnari nodded, very gently petting the bird while it chirped away in content, "Incredible..."

𑁍༄Xiao:

If you had told Xiao a couple hours ago that he'd be using a large ice bear as a ride because of a injury he had sustained during a fight over your pet fire ball...he would have turned away from you and acted like you were insane, but now here he was, laying back against the freezing pale blue exterior of bear while you held your traumatized pet in your arms like a poor little baby. The entire two hours before this feeling like something out of a strange storybook.

"You know...when you said you were good with animals...I thought you'd meant animals of natural origin, not ones created by your vision." Xiao turned his head in your direction, his dark teal green hair sweeping over his face and his yellow eyes almost looking a bit dazed as he stared up at you. You looked away shyly, a light blush coating your cheeks as you watched the sunset, "I'm still good with animals, I just prefer the ones that are a bit cold...they usually have the warmest hearts."

𑁍༄Kazuha:

You weren't sure how long you'd been laying in bed, listening to the soft sounds of Kazuha laughing while he played with your pet and made waffles for breakfast. Even though you were hungry and very awake by now, you just couldn't bring yourself to interrupt such a sweet sound, afterall it wasn't often there were mornings as perfect as this...and you just wanted to enjoy it for as long as it would let you.

Of course it couldn't last forever, before long you heard Kazuhas footsteps walking towards you and you quickly shut your eyes and pretended to be asleep, excitement suddenly coursing through your veins when you felt his weight on the bed. It took everything in you to keep your blush at bay when he placed a sweet kiss on your forehead and cupped your cheek in his hand, "Good morning angel"

𑁍༄Scaramouche:

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Give it back you pathetic worm!" Scaramouches blood was boiling, more threats spilling from his lips than you had ever heard,...but you just couldn't stop laughing, your stomach sore from over use and your eyes watering with happy tears. You had used your vision to create cryo birds, who you then instructed to steal his hat and hold it just above his reach, torturing him with his own shortness while you enjoyed the entire show.

"That's it!" He stopped his failing attempts to retrieve his hat and walked over to you, his purple eyes narrowed with rage, but you for some reason weren't scared in the slightest. "Scaramouche calm down-" You tried but he caught you off, pulling you close to him and kissing you so deeply that when he pulled away you were at a loss for words, staring at his smirk...

"Now who looks like a idiot."

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚Have a nice day*⁠.⁠✧

[simplepotatofarmer]

Sixteenth Day Event Prompt:

Alienation & Spite

tuesday morning, 8:47 a.m.

characters: technoblade, dream word count: 1,541

I've been in this room before.

The last time, ages ago, it was brief. Techno had practically rushed me out after ringing the bell a few times. That felt like something that had to be done, some stupid ritual that you signed up for the moment you stepped into the cabin. He had come back, a little later, and made sure I wasn't watching as he opened the secret chest in the back of the room.

I knew where it was. I could go over right now and open the chest and take whatever the hell I wanted and Techno wouldn't stop me. It wasn't a secret anymore and that felt...

It felt shitty for no reason. Of course he didn't bother hiding those things anymore. I've been living in his house for months, what was there to hide? But fuck man. He could at least pretend things were normal.

Ugh.

Rolling over, I shoved one of the pillows into my face and resisted the urge to scream. If I did, Techno would hear. He would climb up the ladder and ask if everything was alright and I would lie. I should feel bad for lying; I know he's trying to help but I don't want help, I want to be left alone.

It's easier. No one gets that. No one understands that everything still hurts or that I feel wrong without a potion or that food makes me want to vomit or that I don't want to leave the cabin. I don't even want to leave the room.

Techno calls it wallowing. Maybe he's right. Maybe I don't care.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the sunlight reflecting off the bell and block of emerald. Something about that makes me angry. I've been angry a lot, I guess. It knots in my chest and I want to tear it out. I want to punch something. I want to punch myself. I settle for dragging my nails against my skin until its red and stings. It doesn't calm the anger that's making my eyes water. Without thinking, I throw the pillow across the room, at the bell.

It makes a low chiming sound and I groan.

As expected, a few moments later, Techno pokes his head up, arms resting on the floor. He's worried. I tug my sleeves down over my arms, hiding the scratches. Not that Techno would be mad. That's the problem. He'd understand. He'd say it's okay and it's not.

"Hey, Dream. You rang?"

It was funny and I have to fight the smile.

"No. That—That was an accident."

His eyes slide towards the bell and sees the pillow on the ground.

"Ah."

I don't say anything.

"How about you come downstairs, man? I'll make you some breakfast."

I still don't say anything. I stare at the ceiling.

"C'mon on man."

He talks so softly, the same way he does to his animals and it's another thing I want to be pissed about except I've heard him use the same tone with Phil, with Ranboo or Niki.

So stupid.

I want things to be normal but it is and I'm still mad.

"I'm not hungry," I lie. I'm starving. I want a potion.

"Alright." Techno reaches out and tugs the blanket up over me. He's stretching precariously. "How about we make a deal? I'll leave you alone for a bit but you've gotta promise to come down for dinner."

His words hang in the air a bit and I roll my eyes.

"Or what?"

Techno laughs.

"Or I'll carry your scrawny behind downstairs my dang self," he says.

I believe him.

"God. Fine, Techno."

He laughs again.

“See ya later, Dream.”

His head disappears back downstairs. Already I regret agreeing to his stupid deal. He won’t actually drag me downstairs if I change my mind, I know that. I roll over the other way, facing the ladder. On the bedside table is a bottle of water and Techno’s communicator. Mine is gone and has been since Sam took it. I reach over and grab Techno’s. It’s only 8:47 a.m. Dinner is a long way off.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I’m worried.

It’s kinda hard not to be worried when you have a man in your bedroom who’ll barely move and barely eat. I don’t mind. Well, I do, just not in the way Dream thinks I do. He thinks I want him out, gone out of my life. I had to fight against his idiotic plan to fake a parting of ways while we were in prison. The only thing I want is—

It’s lame, chat, I know.

I want him to be okay. The first few weeks, he hardly moved because he couldn’t. He wasn’t in any kind of shape. The thought of what happened to him in that cell after I left haunts me. How can you make up for that?

I pull the raw beef out of the ice chest. A good steak is a start. I wouldn’t have made something that required so much chewing a couple months ago but Dream’s jaw had healed. And I know he’s a steak man when he’s not relying on potions or golden apples. I’ve caught him sneaking both after days of refusing food.

Fighting the urge to keep walking over to stand at the bottom of the ladder is the hardest part. I want to go back up and check on him again. He had been quick at pulling his sleeves down but I saw the marks on his arms. If I had said something, it might have made him withdraw even more.

I’ll make him a cake.

I have no idea if he’ll eat it but he might. It’s something to occupy my time and something to do to show him I care. He knows, he’s gotta know by this point but sometimes he lays there like he doesn’t know anything anymore. I don’t blame him. He has that lost look in his eyes every so often and I know he’s pulling away because it’s easier.

I know, I’ve been there. This cabin was built to get away from everything. It took some time to realize I was being a fool. Dream will get there, I’ve got faith in him. He’s been through a lot and he still smiles sometimes.

I’m on autopilot baking. Niki’s recipe is well-worn by this point and I don’t need to have it sitting out but that’s habit, too. It’s a nice reminder. By the time the cake is in the oven, the sun is midpoint in the sky. The beef’s been marinating for awhile. I glance towards the living room and sigh.

Just a quick check, I won’t even go up the ladder.

Standing at the base, I can’t hear anything. That’s probably a good sign. Hopefully, he’s sleeping. Sleep hasn’t been easy for him which means it’s not been great for me, either, and I can sleep through a lot. Except the person next to me lashing out or screaming. It hurts. Not the times he’s hit me on accident but hearing a friend say ‘no’ and ‘please’ and ‘stop’ over and over.

I’ve gotta stop thinking about it. I know Dream’s picked up on my worry and I know sometimes it makes him feel weird. I get it, I do.

By the time the cake is cooled and has a nice layer of green frosting on it, the steaks are also done and the sun is lower in the sky. I pat my pockets, looking for my communicator to check the time, but I must’ve misplaced it again. I make another mental reminder to put a clock somewhere and head over to the ladder.

Dream is pretending to sleep, I can tell.

“Dinner time.”

He opens one eye. I smile. He opens the other and sighs as he props himself up.

“I’m—I’m not hungry.”

It’s the same thing as earlier and it’s still a lie, I know it. I raise an eyebrow and look at him silently. After a moment, a slight tinge of pink is on his cheeks.

Got ‘em.

“Ugh, fine,” he says as he swings his legs out of bed. “You’re so annoying.”

“I know, Dream, I know.” I slide down the ladder and wait for him. When he climbs down, I put my hand out, hovering near his back, just in case. “I’ve made you a real special dinner.”

“What? Why?”

I stop in front of the kitchen table. Some of the icing on the cake has melted a bit but the steaks look good. Dream is next to me. He looks confused. He looks sad. I put my arm around his shoulders. They still feel awfully boney.

“Because it’s your four month anniversary of stayin’ here, man. We’ve gotta celebrate.”

Dream’s voice rises in pitch.

“What?”

I know that tone. He’s struggling not to smile and rolling his eyes. I nudge my nose against the side of his head and pull him a little closer. He doesn’t pull away.

“We’re celebratin’, Dream. I even made you a cake.”

“This is so stupid,” he says but he’s leaning against me and I wrap my arms around him and hug him.

“Let’s eat.”

@sixteenth-day-event

[hogwartslegacyreactions2]

Welcome back!!! :) We all missed you

Could you please write one in which MC is an animagus and the characters react to them transforming?

Thank you so much and take it easy 😁

HLC REACT TO MC BEING AN ANIMAGUS

A/N: since no animal was specified, we're going with the classic kitty cat :3

MC finally did it! After months of prep, and some good luck, they completed the animagus ritual....only to become a silver tabby. Not as epic as they would have hoped, but still cool. They needed to show their friends IMMEDIATELY.

~~~

SEBASTIAN SALLOW: "Well aren't you adorable." He chuckles as he kneels down to pet MC. "I'm not surprised you became an animagus. I'm just disappointed you didn't ask me to become one with you." He picks up MC and carries them off. "Now I have a perfectly valid excuse to call you Kitten."

OMINIS GAUNT: "You know, I don't find it funny when you tell me you want to SHOW me something. My wand has its limits." He huffs and waits for MC to do whatever they were so eager to do. His eyebrows rise in shock. One moment he detects a person, the next, a small animal. "What in Merlin's name? You're an animagus??" He hears MC meow and rub against his leg, just like the castle cats. He smiles a little and reaches down to pet MC. "Whatever will we do with you?"

ANNE SALLOW: "Oh, not fair! I was going to go through with the ritual myself but the blasted mandrake leaf wouldn't stay put. Even so..." She picks up MC and cradles then in her arms. "Since you're here. You can be my lap warmer while I study transfiguration."

IMELDA REYES: "You're as mad as I thought. You risked your life to become an animagus, only to become a cat? I'd get my money back if I were you." She watches MC flop over and make some air biscuits with the biggest eyes. "...I see your point."

NATSAI ONAI: She has stars in her eyes and immediately changes in her gazelle form. She and MC dance around each other happily and run down the corridors to cause some havoc. It was entirely worth the detention.

GARRETH WEASLEY: "Brilliant!" He watches in awe as MC transforms and starts purring against him. He picks them up and puts them on his shoulder. "Let's go raid Professor Sharp's storage room. He'll never suspect a cat." He now has a new mantra: Gain kitty, do crime.

LEANDER PREWETT: He looks around to see if anyone saw what MC just did. He leans down and harshly whispers to them. "You do realize that ritual is against the rules here right!? It's so dangerous! You could have died! Let alone the fact that you aren't registered. You could get in serious trouble if you're caught." MC flattens their ears and growls, he puts his hands up defensively. "I won't tell, but be more careful. I'm serious."

AMIT THAKKAR: "By the stars, that's incredible! Was the ritual as hard as it sounds? How many times did you attempt it? Was it difficult to actually keep a mandrake leaf in your mouth for 30 days? These are questions I must know that answers to." MC just meows at him. "Oh...right."

EVERETT CLOPTON: "Whoa! That's amazing! Could you always do that?" He kneels down to scratch MC under the chin. "Hey, I need a favor." He grins devilishly and points at a distant group of students. "See the tall one? I need you to scratch the hell out of his legs. No questions. I'll pay."

POPPY SWEETING: She nearly screams from how cute MC's cat form is. She immediately scoops up MC and cuddles them close to her chest. "Please, for the love of Merlin and all magic, let me put little hats on you. My grandma knits all sorts of little hats and sweaters for her cats and I just KNOW they would look adorable on you." MC is locked in her arms. There is no escape.

ELAZAR FIG: "Extraordinary!" He was sitting at his desk when MC came in to show him their new trick. MC jumped onto his desk as a cat and slowly blinks at him. He reaches forward and gently pets their head. "I've always known you were capable of strong magic, and I'm glad you trust me enough to show me this, but do be cautious. Being an unregistered animagus is a big deal to some in the Ministry. Tread carefully. For now, you're welcome to nap on my desk."

[snowgsf]

Wednesday Addams

Warning: I don't think it's anything important

Summary: You want your girlfriend to take a Christmas photo of you, there is only one way, you can convince her, she just didn't know that you made this proposal because you were going away.

English is not my first language 👍👍

- LEAVES.

Wednesday Addams screams when his extremely colorful girlfriend tries to put a Christmas hat on his head.

She wanted to strangle the girl he called his girlfriend, but she wouldn't, why? Regardless, she didn't dislike that extremely colorful girl like her sister.

— Little sister, better give up. — Enid says as she finishes placing a small, extremely bright red hat on top of Thing.

— Never, come Wednesday, our first Christmas together, and I'll never ask you for anything. — Wednesday looks at his girlfriend with a raised eyebrow. — Okay, I'll ask for one or two things. — Addams continues with her serious look with an expressionless face. — Okay, maybe five or seven.

—Five or seven? — You feel someone look at the ground.

— Okay, I've already asked you for several things, but just this once, just for the Christmas photo. — Without caring, Wednesday turns her back on you and heads towards part of her room. — Go, I promise it will be the only thing I ask for, Il mio demone. — Without being convinced, the girl with dark circles begins to write her novel.

Slowly you walk towards your girlfriend, her mouth closes to your ear.

— Desist S/a. — You would never give up.

You still remember Enid telling you to give up on your great mission to win over the Crow girl.

— Sweetie, I promise I'll do whatever you want. — She wasn't convinced. — I don't bother you for two hours straight. — Wednesday's fingers begin to press quickly on his typewriter, when you look at the sheet, the word NO, was very explicit there. - 1 day. - Silence. - two? - Silence. — 4 and we don't talk about it anymore. — 1 week of peace in your life, without my happy vibe around you.

Wednesday quickly takes the hat and puts it on his head.

— Let's take this photo soon. — You open your mouth in surprise.

— Aaaa, but now I'm the one who won't take this photo, whoever has seen each other, wants to stay away from me for a week? Start with today.

You were going to leave, but Wednesday pulls your arm towards that Christmas tree that she considered horrible, there were no dead animals there, that was strange.

With a sulky pout you stood next to your girlfriend, Enid still a little surprised by Wednesday with the hat and in position to take a photo she runs putting her cell phone there to take the photo, positioning herself next to her sister she opens a smile.

Thing presses the button to take the photo and "runs" over to Wednesday and jumps on his shoulder, the timer starts counting, you quickly smile and strike a pose even though you're not even a little upset about your girlfriend agreeing to stay away for a week from you.

The photo is taken, with Wednesday with a frown. When you realize you took the photo you turn away from Wednesday.

Your girlfriend looks at you, she watches her steps taking off her hat and then her Christmas sweater and leaving the room, Enid makes a face.

— She's mad at you.

Without caring Wednesday goes to her room. Thing leaves her shoulder and goes to Enid who was looking at the photo that the 4 of you took.

— I give S/her 3 days to complain that she misses Wednesday. — Totally ignoring your roommate Enid starts to bet with Thing that you would come back in 3 days, missing your girlfriend.

It had been exactly 4 days since you simply disappeared from Wednesday's sight, she was disturbed, not in a good way.

She needed peace to write her novel, but she knew that the peace you promised her would leave her disturbed.

"Go after her"

Thing gestures, but Wednesday just ignores it.

— I'm fine without her disturbance. — Thing gestures mockingly.

"If you were well you wouldn't write her name like a mantra and wouldn't even agree to date her"

It was pure truth, Wednesday wrote her name on her pages so many times that she had finished, it was like a gesture for you to come back soon.

— Are you on her side?

"You wanted 1 week of peace, it seems like you're having 4 days of misfortune, not in a nice way like you like."

Another truth, you were the colorful part of Wednesday's life, even though she didn't admit it, she liked your colorful vibe that spread throughout her room.

Looking at her trash full of crumpled paper, Wednesday observes all the papers she wrote her name on without realizing it, whenever she started writing her novel, her mind was dominated by you, the worry that you would just disappear, made her wonder so many things. about how you were that she started writing your name without realizing it.

— If she wants, she'll come after, and you know, Y/n can't go another day without attention.

You didn't come back, you didn't come back for 2 days, it was exactly 1 week, 2 days, 33 minutes, and 30 seconds, now 31, now 32, now 33, now 34.

Yes, Wednesday was counting the seconds that you didn't talk to her again, again Addams buried her own head in her pillow again, the door to her room opens, totally ignoring the presence of her roommate Wednesday lets out a grunt irritated.

“Enid, if you're thinking of a way to piss me off, I swear I'll rip her face and her teeth out, one by one. — Her threat caused a laugh to appear in the room.

A laugh she knew very well.

With an abnormal speed that Wednesday gets up to see a corpse, she gets up and looks at the door, seeing you there, with your skin slightly whiter and your lips purple from the cold.

— Hey, I see that even with me away Enid was irritating you. — The girl observed you closely, thinking it was an illusion. — Hi my lilith.

You take light steps towards Wednesday's bedroom, throwing your own backpack on the wooden floor, a loud noise was heard when the backpack hit the floor.

Without caring, you throw yourself on your girlfriend's bed.

— Is this how you welcome your girlfriend after 1 week and 2 days away?

— 2 days, 34 minutes and 29 seconds. — A beautiful smile appeared on her lips.

— Did you count the seconds? — You mock.

Wednesday realized that it wasn't an illusion, you were just loose enough to throw yourself on her bed and still lie down with shoes on.

Turning her back to you, Wednesday didn't look at her face, without caring about how tired she was, you closed your eyes.

— Tomorrow I'll put an end to your drama, now I'm very sleepy, it's not easy to walk in the snow. — Wednesday's eyebrows came together in a surprised expression.

— Snow?

— Snow. Enid didn't tell you? — Without the strength to get up, you pull your girlfriend's pillow to hug her and smell what she smells. — Mom and Dad traveled, they wanted someone to take care of my brothers for 5 days, the journey from here to there is 2 days. — You mumble as you feel your eyes close. — Let's do it like this, you'll be mad at me tomorrow, for now I just want my girlfriend to hug me for a quick 2 seconds.

With no response you close your eyes, realizing that Wednesday wouldn't give in you sit on her bed.

— I brought you a gift, it’s in my backpack. — It was Christmas Eve. Without hearing a response from your girlfriend, you were getting up from her bed, but her arms wrapped around her neck, and her small body forced you to lie down.

—Tomorrow I will be angry with you.

A smile appeared on his lips. Wednesday wouldn't admit it, but he was almost killing himself missing his daily disturbances.

— I'll miss you too, my love, I almost came running on the third day. — His voice is low.

Playing Wednesday next to her head rests on her girlfriend's shoulder. Her eyes get heavier.

— I will kill you tomorrow.

Wednesday utters, but you just nod as you fall asleep with your girlfriend's body beneath yours.

[artist-issues]

Hi! I've seen you comment a bit here and there about Pocahontas. This movie has had this quite messy reputation attached to it since it came out and hasn't been able to escape from it since then. Personally, I've always liked Pocahontas, but I do acknowledge that it has its glaring issues, especially when it comes to the context of what actually went down and Pocahontas's true story. I'm interested in reading your thoughts on the movie and what Disney could have done better regarding the whole "diversity" and historical accuracy thing. I genuinely believe Disney had the best of intentions when it came to the themes, message and depiction of Native American culture, but the execution unfortunately did not seem the most appropriate at times. What do you think?

I don’t know. I don’t have a settled opinion on Pocahontas. I will say I really enjoy it, and I think maybe the aesthetics of the movie are what appeal to me the most because it’s the one I want to have on in the background most often.

When you say “what Disney could’ve done better regarding the whole ‘diversity’ and historical accuracy thing” and “did not seem the most appropriate at times,” I don’t know if I understand what you mean. I don’t know if I understand what anyone means when they say that.

There are almost zero cold hard facts about the historical Pocahontas that EXPERTS agree on. Almost zero. So when people say “oh no, it wasn’t historically accurate,” it’s like, “no, of course it’s not. It’s a fairy tale based on a historical person that we know very little about to begin with.” Seems like what they’re mainly mad about is that Historical John Smith’s version of Historical Pocahontas saving him is the framework for the animated film, and we all generally agree that his version was fake. And people are mad about that?

But…why? If it’s already supposed to be a fairy tale loosely inspired by a historical person we know very little about…I mean, nobody is furious with the Robin Hood stories and going “how dare you misrepresent Robin of Lockersley, 1160, and King Richard I!!” Because we all know that they’re stories loosely based on—anyway. You get my point. Why would you have beef about a fairy tale being based loosely? Moving on.

You can say “because now generations of kids are growing up thinking that’s the real story of Pocahontas!! What an outrage!”

…All right, well, then you’re doing a terrible job teaching your kids discernment as a parent. When kids I’m responsible for watch a movie, I tell them “it’s a movie. It’s not real.” If it’s a movie about historical events, I tell them, “If you want to know more about the real story, let’s learn about the real story.” It’s not on Disney to teach your kids that a fairy tale is a fairy tale, it’s on you.

Anyway, you get it. Moving on.

Thing is, the Pocahontas movie’s message is “Love tries to understand, not to possess.” Great message. Especially good when applied to the problem of prejudice.

So then, they just shift the events, the character motivations, and the depictions around as needed, like they would any fairy tale in order to send that message in the best way. And because it is a fairy tale, not a documentary, great. Do it.

If Historical John Smith’s fake story makes that message more compelling, great. Use pieces of it. Why not? After all, they never claimed that this was the true, accurate history of colonization, the Anglo-Powhatan war, or John Smith’s interactions with Pocahontas. If they had made that claim, sure, let’s talk about historical accuracy. But they didn’t, so let’s not.

That’s all I had to say about the “historical inaccuracies” thing. Now let’s talk about “representation.”

What is it that people have an issue with here? Did they really want Disney to animate hundreds of Powhatan’s people dying of disease? Did they want Disney to animate heads getting chopped off and women getting raped? What’s the argument? That Disney should’ve made the colonists the clear and undeniable villains, the monsters of history, and the Native Americans 100% pure and innocent, wronged victims?

They’re not mad that Disney did a bad job representing Native Americans in a movie that was supposed to be a fairy tale. They’re mad that Disney didn’t represent Native Americans the way they would’ve.

Far as my eyes can see, people who call Pocahontas racist or misrepresentative just don’t want the story to be “Love tries to understand, not to possess.” They want the story to be “White colonists were unredeemable racist monsters and sub-human tyrants who deserved to rot in hell, while the Native American people were entirely innocent victims who did nothing wrong.’

The problem is that’s just not a true, or even helpful message for any movie to have. Sorry. The statement I just typed out up there in bold is not a true or helpful statement. And thank God the Pocahontas movie didn’t make it.

There’s nothing racist being said in the Pocahontas movie. There are depictions of the sin of racism in the Pocahontas movie. There is a difference. Characters in the Pocahontas movie talk and sing about each other as if the other people group is sub-human. That is a depiction of racism. But the message of the movie, and the way it treats Native Americans, is to treat them like human beings. Therefore, the message is not racist.

In terms of who is good and who is bad, who is right and who is wrong, the movie very clearly shows that the Native American characters did not start the violence. The Native American characters did not want war. The Native American characters were willing to be friendly and willing to defend their land and each other. The Native American characters were the first to try and make peace with the colonist characters. And they were all (Kocoum included) entirely human characters. They were even the good-guy-coded characters, in the movie’s conflict. All of the Native American side characters are noticeably smarter, kinder, drawn more carefully, and are more heroic than the white characters. (When Thomas is thrown overboard the other white side characters leave him behind. In contrast, when Namonteck is shot the other Native American side characters rescue him immediately and fall back.) And, not a caricature among them. Meanwhile, Wiggins, Ben, and Lion are all drawn with exaggerated characteristics. The heroine is Pocahontas the Character, not John Smith the Character. So what is the issue you have?

What people think is racist is the “idealization” of a Native American woman falling in love—or, as they like to say now—“committing herself to a white colonist.” But that’s like…a gross oversimplification of the movie. John Smith (the character) committed himself right back to her, nobody wants to talk about that? Also, they low key didn’t commit themselves to each other at all costs—he tries to, at the end of the movie, stay with her or have her come with him, and she won’t leave her home and her people?? So what’s the argument?

Not to mention, why is anyone even upset that the character Pocahontas falls in love with a white colonist character? Are you saying that this sort of thing would never happen? That a young woman who’s people are embattled with and mistreated by invaders would never find one invader who comes to an understanding with her, and then they fall in love? You’re mad because that would never happen? Incorrect. It happened all the time in history. It happens all the time in other stories you love, like West Side Story.

Who the heck cares if it didn’t happen exactly that way (even though maybe it did) with the historical Pocahontas? We already established that this wasn’t supposed to be a historically accurate retelling, it was supposed to be a loosely-based fairy tale. And the message “Love tries to understand, not to possess,” works perfectly with a fairy tale where the girl from one side of a racially-charged hate war understands and falls in love with a guy from the other side.

I mean people who talk about Pocahontas, the historical figure, with reverence and respect, all usually agree on one thing: she did help maintain some kind of peace between colonists and Native Americans. Whether or not you think the colonists should’ve even been there in the first place is beside the point—sorry, but it is; they were there, now let’s deal with the reality.

So when Disney makes a movie where the goal is to tell the message “Love tries to understand, not to possess,” and they have to be true to the universally-agreed-upon “Pocahontas probably helped bring some peace…” in their fairy tale…why on earth do you have a problem with Pocahontas the Character falling in love as a reason for bringing about that peace?

It’s because you don’t find “falling in love” to be anything other than demeaning for a woman. And it’s because you don’t want John Smith, or any white colonist character, to be depicted as human. You want them all to be unredeemable racist monsters.

The goal is no longer to have movies that say what Pocahontas said. We don’t want movies where there’s messy racism, but then it ends with attempts at peace and understanding. We want movies where there’s entirely one-sided racism, and then revenge for that racism. That’s what we want. We want endless apologies and zero forgiveness.

And for better or worse, Pocahontas is not a movie about endless apologies and zero forgiveness.

IN CONCLUSION: 1. None of the “you” statements were directed at you, idiosyncraticrednebula. 🫡

2. Anyone who wants to teach me where I’m wrong is welcome to, but you have to show your work, and you have to be consistent, you can’t just say “lol imagine thinking Pocahontas isn’t racist. You are the problem.” and then block me. 🙄 all right, well, you can, but all you’ll get out of it is an echo chamber.

3. If you want me to talk about the art, the storytelling, the quality of the movie outside of all this (and it should be outside of all this, because this was a fairy tale, not a historically accurate documentary) it’ll have to be in a different ask, and I’m happy to.

4. Should Disney have made it more clear that this was a fairy tale, a stylized story based only loosely on historical events? …Yeah. Definitely should’ve done a Prince of Egypt-style title card or something. But they didn’t—so now show me why it’s racist or misrepresentative.

[marzgurl]

OH, MAN! WHO WANTS AN UPDATE TO THE VIC MIGNOGNA MURDER PLOT LONGPOST?

I'll also be tacking a chunk of this onto the end of that reblog, if you happen to see that floating around, but I'll be cross-linking ASAP. But basically, Vic more directly addressed the Farah situation on his Twitch livestream today! Boy, Farah's not gonna like this one. Especially because we have proof that things did not go the way he said they went. He does not address the murder plot itself, but addresses the fact that, yes, he did in fact have this relationship and he's just mad at how Farah is handling learning about who Vic really is.

Watch the video above, but also, I'm putting a transcript of what he says here. I'm putting the transcript behind a cut, followed by personal commentary on how he's trying to dodge responsibility, lie, and gaslight despite the fact that we have information contrary to what he's saying.

Before that, though, I want to make it clear that before this specific block of video/transcript, he spent about 10 to 15 minutes saying that he is the way he is because his dad walked out on his family when he was like nine years old, and so he started getting really desperate to overachieve to gain everybody's attention and affections, got himself into a marriage with a wife and two of her kids at the age of 35, then she divorced him, and that's why he pursued anime and conventions as hard as he did because he just wanted to feel like people liked him (it's a really weird way he excuses a lot of his shitty behavior). Like I said, it goes on like that for, like, 10 to 15 minutes. And THEN he talks about his interactions with Farah. And boy, is it wild. Transcript and elaboration below:

"There's been someone online  and I'm not going to say their name, who's been making a lot of noise  and trying to cause a lot of trouble.  Not just for me, but even for people that care about me,  even friends of mine, which is just crazy.  And what's really nonsensical  is it's all private personal interaction. 

The simple truth here is  that I met this person a little over a year ago  and we both agreed when we met  that we were not interested in some kind of relationship  or some kind of long-term, deep, romantic thing. We both said that.  And so I felt like, okay,  we were honest from the very beginning  and we set the ground rules and fine. Just meant to be kind of fine and casual.  But several months in,  this person started expressing deeper feelings. And I was like, whoa, whoa, that's not what we talked about.  We said that we weren't gonna do that.  And there was someone in my life that I loved  and wanted to--I wanted to express--I wanted to focus more attention on that relationship. 

And so I told this person, the one that I was just casually, occasionally connecting with,  that I needed to break that off,  that I needed to stop that  because I wanted to focus on this relationship. Well, they didn't take it very well.  I started to back away.  I told them that I wanted to focus on this  and that I felt like the right thing to do  was to end the connection with them. And they did not take it well  and since then have been doing any damage they could to me or anyone connected to me. 

Now, this person claimed to love me and care about me. And I don't know about you,  but flaming somebody,  illegally recording conversations,  releasing private messages,  those are not the actions of somebody you care about. You know what I mean?  That's not what you do  to someone that you care about.  I mean, and by the way, that's a crime. Can I just point that out, everybody?  It's illegal.  I haven't committed any crimes.  I mean, I've definitely made some bad mistakes. I've hurt people, I've made bad choices that I regret,  but recording someone's phone conversation  without their knowledge or their permission  is against the law, much less releasing it. 

And I don't know about you,  but I could never do those kind of things  to somebody that I genuinely cared about. And you know what's interesting, you guys?  It's easy to love someone who loves you back, right?  Right?  It's so easy to love someone who loves you back. That doesn't take much work.  The real test of true love  is loving somebody who may not feel the same way  or loving someone even when things don't go  the way you wanted them to. That is the test of true love.  Caring about somebody enough  that you don't react badly, you don't seek vengeance or try to hurt them  because things didn't go the way you wanted them to.  That is not love.  And the real test of love is caring about somebody  and demonstrating compassion and grace and mercy  and understanding and kindness  even when things didn't go the way you wanted them to. If you are Christians and I--and I--I am and I want to be better at it, you can't treat people that way. 

God loves us and extends grace and forgiveness to us  that we do not deserve.  And we are called to do the same thing. We are to forgive because we've been forgiven.  We are to extend grace because grace has been extended to us.  We are to be compassionate in the face of anger or hatred  or whatever because it was extended to us by God.

Nothing was ever meant out of malice or vindictiveness  or deceit in my mind.  I have just struggled for a long time as I told you  because of my own past and my own upbringing  and things that have happened in my life  that have made me struggle very, very hard  to feel that I was worthy of love, that I was worth anyone's time or attention or love.  And I suspect that a lot of you do as well. 

So that's the only thing I'm going to say.  I would like to encourage you guys once again, do not engage, do not engage and fight or argue  or post or reply to this stuff  because you know what the overarching umbrella  over everything that I just said is? It's nobody's business.  Your private life, your private interactions with somebody  are yours and theirs business, nobody else's. And just by virtue of the fact  that a lot of people may know who I am,  makes it very inviting for someone to make a big stink  and make a lot of noise on social media. Why? Not because it's gonna change anything,  but just to get attention or to somehow seek revenge  because you're hurt or things didn't go the way  you wanted them to. Don't engage with these people online, okay?  Can I ask you that?  Please, please don't, for yourself as well,  for your own sanity. 

The, these people are so desperate to feel important. They want so badly to feel noticed.  In fact, think about this, you guys.  They probably don't think very highly of themselves. Do you see the connection?  Do you see the similarity between me  and my childhood and my upbringing? Do you see it?  Not feeling worthy.  Not feeling like you're a very much value.  A lot of people feel that, and the only difference is how they deal with it.  How does it come out?  Some people will do just about anything  and say just about anything online or in person  to get some attention because that attention  makes them feel valuable. It makes them feel noticed.  Do you see it?  Do you see it? 

I remember a psychology class when I was in college.  And I remember them saying that,  I remember the professor one day saying  that children or people in general  would prefer negative attention to no attention at all. Think about that for a minute.  They would rather be known for something bad  than not to be known at all. They would rather be noticed for creating a scene  or destroying somebody's career  or trashing someone who they don't like  rather than not be known at all or noticed at all.

And the problem with social media,  I'm sorry, but this is important.  I'm sorry that I'm talking about this,  but the problem with social media guys is  you don't have to prove anything. You can get online and you can say anything you want.  You can make any claims you want.  And nobody really knows whether it's true or not. And I'll tell you something else.  If any of you have ever worked with Photoshop  or editing programs, you can edit text messages, you can edit emails, you can edit photos.  You can make something appear to be a certain way.  And I happen to know for a fact  that there have been an awful lot of lies, flat out lies that have been propagated, that are not true.  But there's nothing you can do  because people have the right to say whatever they want. Social media has given everybody a voice  to hurt someone from thousands of miles away  with no accountability, no proof of anything, nothing."

MAN, this guy lies like he breathes. For one, he does everything in his power to dodge saying he had a sexual relationship with the person he was describing. Just incredible.

For another thing, even if he and Farah started off as casual partners, Farah was absolutely not cool playing the part of a homewrecker. She has stated this herself multiple times, including here on TikTok.

Vic deliberately leaves out the actual timeline of events. Why? Because it's SUPER messy, because he's a super messy dude. Okay! Wanna know what that timeline looks like? You're not ready for this.

Vic dated/was engaged to Michele Specht between the years of 2006 to 2018. That's a long-ass amount of time! During that time, Vic cheated on Michele REPEATEDLY, with prostitutes, other fans at anime conventions, even people on his Star Trek Continues fan film (that Michele ALSO stars in, so that's super fuckin' shitty). But a very SPECIFIC super fuckin' shitty relationship that cropped up during that time was with Haileigh Todd (maybe you recognize that name from the previous longpost!). Haileigh and Vic met somewhere around 2016. By 2017, Vic was the ADR director of the one and only Funimation anime he'd ever get to direct, Juni Taisen. And guess what! Haileigh Todd got to be in it. Also, another one of his side chicks, Chelsea Beard, ALSO got to be in it! Fuckin' gross, goin' around behind at least three different women's backs! How do we know it was even just those three?

Anyway, a bunch of shit happens, and by 2018 Michele finally left Vic. All the shit about his behavior hit the fan in 2019, and you guys know how that went. He's had some more girlfriends since then. And guess what! At least one of those girlfriends was Haileigh Todd! AGAIN! And this time, Haileigh is a little more permanent, and a little more public with her relationship with Vic. She starts posting about him on Instagram in late 2021, and by early 2022 she's saying they're the real deal now. Aww, how cute and sweet!

But then Bak-Anime 2022 happens, in Bakersfield, California, May 21-22, 2022. This is where Farah meets Vic! And they apparently hit it off and become an item! A SEXUAL item!

But, oh no! Vic had never broken up with Haileigh! Haileigh's still posting about her relationship with Vic at Anime Matsuri, which was at the end of July, 2022! UH-OH!

So then Farah has her little Discord chat in December 2022 that got leaked to me later. Farah is saying that Vic has been telling her that he needs to "go back to his ex, to give her closure, because she's been hounding him because she could tell he was talking to another woman". But is it REALLY his ex when he never broke up with her to begin with? But also, he wanted to leave her as an open option, and didn't want their break-up to be permanent???

From what Farah says online later, she and Vic didn't talk for a few weeks while he "gave Haileigh closure", and then there they go, going right back to being in a relationship again! WITHOUT ever breaking up with Haileigh! AGAIN! And this happens up until May, through her harassing me on his behalf, potentially planning my murder (very maybe yes), until I dropped these Discord screenshots. And then SHE decided not to forgive him, and their relationship ended.

So, hey, Vic! Way to leave out the part where your "casual little friend" you had there was a sexual relationship you were having behind your monogamous partner's back, that you told neither Haileigh NOR Farah about before engaging in! Very cool, 60-year-old man guy! COOL!

And, like, come on now. It's kinda fucking sick to do all this lying and manipulative shit to multiple women, and then shame the women involved for being mad that you did that shit to them. Like, if God will just forgive you for everything you do, how dare they not forgive you for being a lying, manipulating piece of shit? Like, if this was just a one-off instance, that'd be one thing. But this is a thing you have been KNOWN for and CAUGHT DOING for DECADES to COUNTLESS WOMEN. But this time you were legitimately caught in 4K. You don't get to just pretend that these are just crazy, lying, vindictive, vengeful bitches, man. We all know. We ALL know!

And to top it all off, the man confirms that he had this relationship (albeit while trying to gaslight his audience into thinking it wasn't all that it actually was), and yet turns around and says elements of the things Farah has been sharing are fake. As a reminder, Farah faked an absolutely abysmal Change.org petition, as well as an abysmally terribly faked "CNN-Anime" article on Medium.com (she wrote my name as Kaylyn Dicksion-Saucedo, and that's not my name--my name is Kaylyn Dalene Saucedo, not using my maiden name, and not hyphenated). I cannot stress enough to you that when Farah fakes things, SHE IS EXTRAORDINARILY BAD AT IT. I ran so much of the stuff she was sharing via Discord and other screenshots since then by so many other people, and we all came to the conclusion that when it came to this, she was absolutely not faking it. Like, it was way too COMPETENT to be faked. Do you understand what I mean? She is not good enough to convincingly fake the important parts of her relationship with Vic that she has been sharing. Top that off with video recordings of phone calls she's had with him (which he confirms in the video are real), and it more than proves that she's been telling the truth about the nature of their relationship. And it's ALSO what makes me that much more able to believe that it's entirely possible they'd had conversations about plotting my death.

This man has repeated the same rhetoric for decades now--that people only say negative things about him because he's famous and his detractors are just looking for attention. DO NOT BELIEVE HIM. Sometimes, when people are trying to warn you, it's because they've seen enough shit and don't want other people to get hurt. That's where we're at right now. At this point, we are not signal boosting these stories because it earns us brownie points within our communities. We do it because we CARE about those communities enough to not want them to get hurt at the hands of some fucking 60-year-old Screamy Broccoli Man narcissist. We earn nothing by spreading the message. As you saw from my longpost, clearly, we get death threats and possibly even future hit jobs put on us! What good does this actually do me in the end?

Just come away from everything you've read with this:

Be safe out there in this community, and let manipulative gaslighting narcissists like this asshole get bent.

[calliesmemes]

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (2012)

A SET OF SENTENCE STARTERS PULLED FROM THE DIALOGUE FEATURED IN DREAMWORKS’ ANIMATED FILM RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

CHANGE gendered words and in-universe phrases as needed.

SPECIFY muse for multimuses.

“   Why I am here and what I am meant to do, that I've never known. A part of me wonders if I ever will. ”

“   Oh, uh, excuse me. Can you tell me where I am? ”

“   How many times have I told you to knock? ”

“   We are going to have company. ”

“   It is our job to watch over the children of the world and keep them safe. ”

“   The children are in danger. ”

“   An enemy we have kept at bay for centuries has finally decided to strike back. ”

“   We alone can stop him. ”

“   I obviously wouldn't have called you all here unless it was serious. ”

“   Look, he's up to something very bad. I feel it in my belly. ”

“   I don't have time for this! ”

“   We have a serious situation. ”

“   It's been a long time, old friend. ”

“   Since when do we need help? ”

“   He doesn't care about children! ”

“   Oh, that looks interesting. Good book? ”

“   Come on! You guys will believe anything. ”

“   Okay, who threw that? ”

“   Did you guys see that? It was amazing! ”

“   What's a guy got to do to get a little attention around here? ”

“   But I can do it this time! ”

“   Straight to bed now, mister. ”

“   If there's something I'm doing wrong, can you just tell me what it is? ”

“   Why, there's only one thing missing. ”

“   Feel your fear. Come on. Come on, that's right. ”

“   Don't look at me like that, old friend. ”

“   You must have known this day would come. ”

“   You're not still mad about that, are you? ”

“   You got to be kidding me. ”

“   Oh, yeah, I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal. ”

“  I've heard a lot about you. ”

“   Hey, ho, anyone want to tell me why I'm here? ”

“   I must've done something really bad to get you four together. ”

“   What are you doing? Get off of me! ”

“   What makes you think I want to be a Guardian? ”

“   This is all very flattering, but, uh, you don't want me. ”

“   I don't think you understand what it is we do. ”

“   All the more reason to pick someone more qualified. ”

“   You were chosen! Like we were all chosen. ”

“   You see, you cannot say no. It is destiny. ”

“   No, no. That's not for me! No offense. ”

“   None of them believe in you, do they? ”

“   It's like you don't even exist. ”

“   It's nothing personal. But what you all do, it's just not my thing. ”

“   You must have something very special inside yourself. ”

“   I told you I'm not going with you guys! ”

“   Hold on, everyone! I know a shortcut. ”

“   Oh, thank goodness. One of you is all right. ”

“   I have to say, this is very, very exciting. ”

“   I'm a little starstruck. ”

“   Maybe I want what you have. ”

“   Since when are you all so chummy? ”

“   Oh, good. A neutral party. ”

“   I'm going to ignore you. But you must be used to that by now. ”

“   You shadow-sneaking ratbag, come here! ”

“   Took me a while to perfect this little trick. ”

“   They smell fear, you know. ”

“   Such happy times for me. Oh, the power I wielded. ”

“   Oh, there's nothing to be afraid of. ”

“   They... They don't believe in me anymore. ”

“   There will be nothing but fear and darkness. ”

“   It's your turn not to be believed in. ”

“   You should have seen them. They put up such a fight. ”

“   When someone needs to remember what's important, we help them. ”

“   Are you saying I had a life before that, with a home and a family? ”

“   You really don't remember? ”

“   All these years, the answers were right here. ”

“   No such thing as too late! ”

“   Look, I'd tell you to stay out of my way, but, really, what's the point? ”

“   Whoa, whoa, whoa! Take it easy there, champ. ”

“   Why did I ever stop doing this? ”

“   All right, nobody panic. ”

“   You know, for a neutral party, you spend an awful lot of time with those weirdos. ”

“   This isn’t your fight. ”

“   Remind me not to get on your bad side. ”

“   Don't fight the fear! ”

“   How did you do that? ”

“   Finally! Someone who knows how to have a little fun! ”

“   I just... I wish I could've done something. ”

“   I don't know who you were in your past life. ”

“   How can I know who I am until I find out who I was? ”

“   He's tipped the balance. ”

“   Crikey! Somebody do something. ”

“   When was the last time you guys actually hung out with kids? ”

“   How much time do we have? ”

“   All right, troops, it's time to push back. ”

“   Don't be afraid. I'm not gonna hurt you. ”

“   It's the one thing I always know. People's greatest fears. ”

“   Why were you chosen to be like this? ”

“   They'll never accept you. Not really. ”

“   You make a mess wherever you go. ”

“   You should be happy you still get dreams like that and not nightmares. ”

“   They never really believed in you. ”

“   All those years in the shadows I thought no one else knows what this feels like. But now I see I was wrong. ”

“   We don’t have to be alone. ”

“   Look at what we can do. ”

“   They'll fear both of us. And that's not what I want. ”

“   You have a bad habit of interfering. ”

“   You can't have fun all the time. ”

“   It's okay. It's okay. Don't look down. Just look at me. ”

“   I promise, I promise. You're gonna be... You're gonna be fine. You have to believe in me. ”

“   You and I are obviously at what they call a crossroads. ”

“   He told me you were real. Just when I started to think that maybe you weren't. ”

“   That little trick doesn't work on me anymore. ”

“   All this fuss over one little boy. ”

“   There are other ways to snuff out a light. ”

“   If you want him, you're gonna have to go through me. ”

“   I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you all like this. ”

“   I'm just not afraid of you. ”

“   Mate, you are a sight for sore eyes. ”

“   You dare have fun in my presence ”

“   Leaving the party so soon? You didn't even say goodbye. ”

“   You can't get rid of me! Not forever. ”

“   There will always be fear. ”

“   It is time that you take the Oath. ”

[gloomth-and-wanderings]

I guess there's no better day to drop my silly little les mis playlists! e/R playlist under the cut for length, since I've added relevant lyrics.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears

There’s a room where the light won’t find you / holding hands while the walls come tumbling down / when they do I’ll be right behind you / so glad we almost made it

(planning an animatic for this one once I learn how to animate! This song is so them coded)

The Secret Garden by The Divine Comedy

So much time and so little to do / I furnish my mind with pictures of you / Fading portraits, peculiar names / Replaced by your face in a big golden frame

Golden fragments of moments in time / Tarnished with guilt for an innocent crime

The Rise and Fall by The Divine Comedy

(Basically all the lyrics but especially the chorus:) Hold me in your arms / Hold me till you kill me / Hold me till you break my will / And passion fills my heart

Ignorance is Bliss by The Divine Comedy

You rely upon my charity to survive / I deny myself to keep this world alive / You walk headlong off the edge of the abyss / I oppose the motion / Ignorance is bliss

Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

This is our last dance / This is our last dance / This is ourselves / Under Pressure

Your Daddy’s Car by The Divine Comedy

Can you feel the sadness in our love? / It's the only kind we're worthy of / And can you feel the madness in our hearts?

Timewatching by The Divine Comedy

If I fall in love it could be forever / So I'll never fall in love / But the moment I can feel that you feel that way too / Is when I might fall in love with you

I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Obviously)

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered jazz standard)

Lost my heart, but what of it / He is cold, I agree / He can laugh, but I love it / Although the laugh's on me

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by the Smiths

To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die […] To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine

And in the darkened underpass / I thought "Oh God, my chance has come at last” / But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask

Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now by the Smiths

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour / But heaven knows I'm miserable nowTwo lovers entwined pass me by / And heaven knows I'm miserable now

How Soon Is Now by the Smiths

You shut your mouth, how can you say / I go about things the wrong way? / I am human and I need to be loved / Just like everybody else does

(I think of this one as the switch from outer words to inner feelings)

It’s the End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M.

World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleedYou vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light / Feeling pretty psyched / It's the end of the world as we know it / It's the end of the world as we know it / It's the end of the world as we know it / And I feel fine

Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives / And I decline / It's the end of the world as we know it / It’s the end of the world as we know it / It's the end of the world as we know it / And I feel fine

You Take My Breath Away by Queen

Every time you make a move, you destroy my mind / And the way you touch / I lose control and shiver deep insideI could give up all my life for just one kiss / I would surely die

So please don't go / Don't leave me here all by myself / I get ever so lonely from time to time / I will find you anywhere you go / I’ll be right behind you / Right until the ends of the earth

Watch What Happens by Michel Legrand

Let someone start believing in you / Let him hold out his hand / Let him touch you and watch what happens

Falling in Love With Love by Carmen McRae

Falling in love with love is falling for make believe / Falling in love with love is playing the fool / Caring too much is such a juvenile fancy / Learning to trust is just for children in school / I fell in love with love one night when the moon was full / I was unwise with eyes unable to see / I fell in love with love, with love everlasting / But love fell out with me

Born With a Broken Heart by the Divine Comedy (I actually don’t like this song very much but it gives such Grantaire vibes especially with the loser recorder solo so I actually like it)

Basically all the lyrics buckaroo it’s a Grantaire song

Hallelujah (assorted versions but I didn't think about it till I saw the George Blagden version)

Well baby I've been here before / I know this room and I've walked this floor / I used to live alone before I knew ya / I've seen your flag on the marble arch / But love is not a victory march / It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Also I forget if he does this verse but:

Maybe there's a God above / But all I've ever learned from love / Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you / And it's not a cry that you hear at night / It's not somebody who's seen the light / It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

I Wanna Hold Your Hand by the Beatles (I’m so sorry)Oh, yeah, I'll tell you something / I think you'll understand / When I'll say that something / I wanna hold your hand [something = long live the revolution! I belong to it]

All That Jazz by Echo and the Bunnymen

Where the hell have you been / We've been waiting with our best suits on […] See you at the barricades babe / See you when the lights go low, Joe / Hear you when the wheels turn round / Someday when the sky turns black

You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi

Shot through the heart / And you're to blame / Darling, you give love a bad name / An angel's smile is what you sellYour very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye / Oh, oh, you're a loaded gun / Oh, oh, there's nowhere to run / No one can save me / The damage is done

When Did You Leave Heaven (jazz standard)

If I kissed you would it be a sin? / I am only human but you are so divine / When did you leave Heaven, angel mine?

Maid of Orleans (the Joan of Arc Waltz) by Orchestral Manuevers in the Dark

(Basically all the lyrics)

Thank you for bearing with me through this awfully disorganized list! Happy Barricade Day Part II!

[ashtxeman]

BIGGER Punch-Out!! Relationship HC's!

Shhh.. I went into more depth on a couple of the mentioned relationships from the last post..

Kaiser and Joe are obviously a romantic duo! They often go out on walks (since Kaiser likes the peace and Joe thinks forests are good places to kiss), eat at restaurants or visit each other's houses and talk over coffee. Sometimes they'll train together until Joe becomes distracted looking at Kaiser and gets decked by a punching bag.

Disco and Hippo are an unlikely friendship to be sure. I've touched on this before but since Kaiser and Joe go off on their own little ventures, Disco and Hippo are stuck together and have to come up with things to do. Disco enjoys taking Hippo around the city and showing him cool details about everyday life to help the other get accustomed to the ins and outs of such a different environment (during the time between contender and TD, Disco was the one who gave Hippo the suggestion of a guard for his stomach, but unfortunately he was too busy having his own crisis to actually help Hippo find one).

Hondo and Hugger are next, and they're probably the most obvious best friends out of everybody. They've known each other for years and compliment each other well. They're both good cooks, polite people, encouraging to others and know when to draw the line. Hugger's sense of humour also balances out how emotionally dry Hondo can be, they're pretty much each other's bread and butter. Most of the time they enjoy going out on hikes or on rare occasions volunteer together at pet shelters and help get some good animals to equally good homes.

Tiger and Don are.. hard to explain. 90% of the time they're forced next to each other and throw insults to pass the time, and the other 10% they're getting into fights over said insults. It's impossible to count the amount of times one of Tiger's clones has stolen Don's toupee and stuck it to the ceiling as a joke. Poor Hugger has to act as the Dad for them, separating their fights and calming tensions with his signature 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' glare. Hondo threatens them with his signature 'So help me God if you don't stop now, there will be hell to pay' glare. Both work. Overall Don and Tiger are good friends, they just express their friendship in very.. bothersome ways.

Aran. Dear God. You'd assume he doesn't have any friends, but there's two notable people. First off there's Tiger, who people actually know Aran gets along with well. They enjoy poking fun at others to pass the time and usually stand in the corner of the room pointing things out and making each other laugh. Tiger is also one of the only people who supports Aran's pranks, but mostly because if he supports Aran then he can't be pranked himself. It's a friendship with benefits, in a way. Second off there's Hondo, who nobody knows about. Both Hondo and Aran keep the friendship they have hidden well under wraps, with Aran constantly sneaking over to Hondo's house so they can watch anime and draw.

Soda and Bull are similar to Hondo and Hugger in the sense that they've known each other for ages and everybody knows it. There's never a time when they're apart, since Soda's always there to help Bull stay calm and Bull's always there to stop Soda from being too social (like starting conversations with shady strangers since he can't read people very well). Sometimes they're forced to go their separate ways when Soda goes off with his doctor or Bull goes to therapy, but they're never away for long. Usually they hang around in a dry cleaners run by an old couple they enjoy the company of, since it's quiet and they get free stuff if they behave.

Last is Macho and Sandman, an unlikely pair! Even though Macho started off hating Sandman since he was the one thing keeping him from the title, he came to like him more after Mac stormed the ranks and they ended up becoming good friends. Macho often trails after Sandman when he goes to volunteer work like cleaning the rings after matches or helping in soup kitchens, even if he hates it.. he basically just does it to be around Sandman more. Now that is a huge signal right there, but Sandman really doesn't catch on, since Macho is naturally a himbo and at this point Sandy doesn't question anything he does or says. He is beyond being questioned.. there's not a thought in his brain.

[gregrulzok]

What are your top 10 favorite media, like from books, anime/manga, movies, tv series, etc (if you feel like listing multiple) of all time? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them....

Now THIIIIS is way different from asking me my favourite characters.

When it comes to characters, I tend to be heavily analytical and critical. When it comes to media... Well, you'll see. Whatever the case please note that these pieces of media being my favourite doesn't mean I necessarily recommend them. There's things I love with my whole heart that I wouldn't inflict upon my mortal enemy. You've been warned.

I'm also purposefully omitting some of my favourite pieces of media to shine a spotlight on ones I don't really get to talk about, or just want more people to know about (sorry, Berserk)

I'll try and keep these ones spoiler free, since I'm thinking of them more as recommendations! NSFW media will be marked with a *, but I won't go into anything explicit here. Please look up media mindfully and with discression, some of these may be triggering.

Thank you for the ask and I'm sorry for the ridiculous lengths of information you're about to witness !

Dungeon Meshi

Lets start with a safe one. A simple one. An expected one.

Yes, Dungeon Meshi IS that good.

Dungeon Meshi is a beautifully drawn manga that starts out slow, whimsical and almost slice-of-life-y, and then descents into utter madness so slowly and skillfully that by the time you blink you're in another dimension.

The world building in this series is second to none - everything makes sense and nothing is handwaved. The genuine and honest passion in the way the world feels alive is palpable, and despite its realism it never loses its magical feeling.

The characters are charming, lovable, realistic, and complex. Each of them have an inner world to tap into, each of them feels like a real person you could hold a conversation with and would WANT to hold a conversation with. Here I'll also proudly announce that we get zero (0) gratuitous fanservice, zero (0) characters who exist as a punchline, and guaranteed Sexy-Lamp Free !

The plot... Fuck, man. The plot is the most honest and bare faced look at some of the most nuanced subjects in the world (desire, ambition, love, death, survival, trauma, neurodivergence) wrapped up in a way that feels simple, grounded and real.

It also sincerely began to heal my relationship with food. I don't think I've ever seen the subjects of cooking, eating, health, weight and body diversity portrayed so well in such an empathetic, understanding and caring way in any piece of media. Body positivity is not so much a focus, but rather an undercurrent in the whole manga.

Whew ! With one objectively good piece of media out of the way, let's move on to something more unhinged, such as ...

Honestly I can't begin to imagine what kind of person WOULDN'T enjoy Dungeon Meshi. Do yourself a favour and read it.

Cats (1998)

Cats. The Broadway musical cats. One of the longest running musicals in the world, award winning, famously bashed and hated, recently revorked into a horrible film that was even more bashed and hated, the beautiful, glorious wonderful disaster of my heart - Cats.

Specifically, the 1998 film version.

...It's so hard for me to explain this one.

At some point, while watching Cats for the second time (for a reason I cannot explain), some neurons fired the wrong direction in my brain and now I have a pathological obsession, to the point where I can name each and every single Godforsaken cat in this show, including the ones that don't even appear in the credits.

Cats. What am I even supposed to say here, like, genuinely. It's cats.

Well, here's the thing - the choreography and acting direction in this fucking musical is genuinely breathtaking. It takes a few watches for it to fully click, but once it does, I sincerely believe that Cats is one of the most endlessly fascinating pieces of media to analyze. What you have to understand about Cats is that every single character (with very few exceptions) is on screen basically for the entire show. And so while you're watching the dancing in the foreground (which is beautiful on its own), every single cat in the background is just ... There. Moving, interacting, portraying characteristics that are never stated, never so much as focused on - but you can see them. You can see the kittens playing with each-other, you can see the elders gossiping, you can see small bits and gags you won't catch your first time, or second, or fifth. You can see how rowdy Tumblebrutus and Pouncival are, you can see how excitable Electra is, you can see the quiet dignity of Coricopat and Tantomile, the friendship between Jellylorum and Jennyanydots. There's always new little bits of background characterisation you can catch, pretty much regardless of how many times you've seen it.

In that way, Cats is feels the most alive, the most ever changing and evolving. I'm completely enraptured by it and if you do want to watch it, I recommend watching it as many times as you can stomach, because your first time through it'll glide right off you like water off a duck.

Chainsaw Man (Public Safety Arc)*

The first time I finished reading Chainsaw Man, I stared at my phone for a straight minute, then started sobbing. The next morning, I drank alcohol for the first time.

I wish that was a joke.

I'll admit I'm not up to date on the second arc of Chainsaw Man - it honestly got away from me a little and I'm not entirely sure I'll be finishing it.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that the first arc is one of the most tightly written, beautiful, emotional stories I've ever read.

Sure, it's fun and funny. Sure, it's cool in it's action scenes. Sure, the art direction is absolutely breathtaking. Sure, the character design and worldbuilding are interesting and detailed.

But at its heart the core appeal of CSM, to me, is the way it speaks about trauma, abuse, assault, isolation, fear, and desire. Chainsaw Man is painfully down to earth in a gritty, real way, and while it is extremely dark, it's also uplifting and hopefull in a way a lot of dark media isn't.

Chainsaw Man makes you feel tiny, helpless in a massive world. Chainsaw Man puts you up against horrors both tangible and fantastical, and then it looks you in the eyes and says "Hey. You aren't weak. You aren't useless. The world is scary, the world is cruel, the world is harsh, but that doesn't mean you can't fight it. That doesn't mean there isn't hope".

I really don't know how else to describe it without going into spoilers. It's genuinely moving.

Arcane

Arcane is a beautiful tragedy that has no right being as impactful as it is for being a goddamn League of Legends adaptation, of all things.

The art direction in Arcane is absolutely insane - Taking a page from Into the SpiderVerse (which is another favourite of mine), it blends 3D animation with a 2D-esque art style and fully 2D effects to bring what I genuinely believe to be one of the best looking shows in the world to life. And that's not all !

Arcane is infinitely nuanced. Between it's multiple plots it introduces many, many characters, all of whom have their own wants, needs, goals, ambitions, fears, flaws and trauma, and it clashes them together beautifully. Nothing in Arcane feels like an afterthought to me, I think the most fantastic thing about it is how expertly it weaves all these different storylines together. Everything ties into something else, everything affects something else, the story changes based on every little movement of our main characters and by the time it unfolds you realize that there's nothing that could really be done to change it because EVERYTHING lead to this.

It's a tragedy in the best way possible.

Attack on Titan

I don't care what anyone says - Attack on Titan is one of the best Anime ever put on screen.

I am a person that grew up in a colonized, war-torn country. Part of our land is still occupied, and our occupants are currently seeking refuge in our city and acting like this is their vacation resort. My people have been marginalized, demonized, dismissed, our culture has been erased and we have been fed more propaganda than I can count.

And I say this because I think being in this situation lends me a pretty good perspective of what AoT is:

Propaganda. The first two seasons of Attack on Titan are literally an extended propaganda film, meant to trick and decieve the viewer into siding with the protagonists, and dismissing their enemies as mere monsters.

If I go any deeper into that statement, there will inevitably be spoilers, so I'll cap it off with this:

There are no easy answers in war. There are no heroes and no villains, there are no good guys and bad guys, and there are no winners. There is only deception, control, and death.

I've never seen a piece of fiction capture the true, real horror of war quite as well as Attack on Titan does.

Death Parade

Everybodyyyyyyy put your hands upppppp

Death Parade is the show I go to rewatch when I have nothing else to rewatch.

It is a soft, yet painful look at human nature. It's an exploration of what makes a person good or bad, and whether such things even exist. It brings into question the very nature of humanity, whether there's such a thing as being good or bad, whether our character is formed by our circumstances or our behaviour, and how those things should be judged. It asks what it means to have emotions, to have feelings, and how your own personal emotions and biased factor into how you assess other people - whether it's more unfair to judge someone objectively without empathy, or subjectively with your own narrow, biased worldview.

All of that wrapped in a beautiful aesthetic, and a somber, subtle love story. Not even necessarily a romantic one - just pure love.

Highly, highly recommend.

Oyasumi Punpun*

Oyasumi Punpun is the most direct, honest, unfiltered, unbiased look at a human being's psyche I've ever seen.

It's also one of the most triggering bits of media on here, so proceed with caution.

Oyasumi Punpun follows the life of a single boy from his childhood, through his adulthood. Every single hardship, every single setback, every victory, every memorable experience, is shown to us through the lense of his own eyes. His childhood innocence, his teenage cynicism, his adolescent hopelessness, his own naivete, his own trauma, his own biased colour the way we view the world around him.

It genuinely makes you feel like you are wearing his skin and living his life through him.

Its disturbing, uncomfortable, dark, scary, and it's funny, hopeful, and just plain bizarre.

Great Pretender

Alright, back to light-hearted things !!!

Great Pretender might be the funniest show I've ever seen, to me, personally. Its bright, saturated, expressive animation compliments the absolute insanity of this show perfectly.

The most basic premise is that Great Pretender is about two con artists desperately trying to out-con each-other, and then it all goes downhill from there. It sets up so much of its payoff in such tiny little ways that by the time I got to the end I'd be beating myself up for missing a completely innocuous detail like a characters fucking watch, because it was actually a hint towards the overall plotline.

Its clever, it's funny, it keeps you on your toes, and it can be genuinely heartfelt and delightfully homoerotic to boot !!

It's absolutely worth the watch. Please give us season two. Please. PLEASE.

Dark Heaven*

Dark Heaven is what I'd recommend to someone if they told me they liked reading BL.

As a gay man in an interracial relationship, I've yet to find a piece of media that is quite so open direct, brutal and honest about the kids of issues that gay people, people of color, and people in interracial relationships can face.

To that end - it's extremely triggering if you're sensitive to those particular topics, as well as some other things. I'd very much recommend looking up a list of triggers first if you want to read it because it does get very, very dark. (And very NSFW). (Right from chapter one)?

But yeah - Dark Heaven is a beautiful, engaging, and at times very fluffy and humorous romance between two men, that is heavily overlaid with real actual issues people face every day (and some people don't face every day, but are nonetheless very real). It's honest, soft, and uplifting where it needs to be, despite not sugarcoating absolutely anything. It also does us the wonderful favour of not fetishizing gay men, not playing into weird creepy stereotypes, and not turning their relationship into something to gawk at.

And now, the one, the only, the piece of media that captured my heart and soul and will never ever let go:

Warrior Cats

Fucking Warrior Cats.

I have read every single book in the series. The series with over 100 books (depending on how you count them). Every official piece of media, I have consumed.

I've been reading this book series since I was 11. I've loved, cherished, lived and breathed it. I keep up with them to this day. I recently completed a chronological re-read. I've made OCs. I've roleplayed it in person and online - in fact I've been a mod in a DeviantArt roleplay group.

I HAVE A GODDAMN EXCELL SPREADSHEET WHERE I ANALYZE THE STATISTICS OF THE WARRIOR CATS NAMING SYSTEM

"Oh wow, sounds like the series is really good" WRONG

Warrior Cats is one of the worst written series I've ever read. It's poorly paced, it's full of plotholes, most characters are pieces of cardboard with a furry coat. It's dumb, nonsensical, inconsistent, and infuriating. It preaches the worst lessons I've ever heard, it's full of nothing but wasted potential, and I could honestly count the number of books I'd consider to be genuinely good on both of my hands.

Out of a 100. I've read a fucking hundred of these. Send help.

Why do I do this to myself? Why do I read them?

Because I'm autistic and my brain is holding me hostage.

Against my better judgement, I have such a deep and genuine love for this series, for the characters, for the content mostly created by the fans, for the world building.

And every single time one of these fucking cats dies, I end up tearing up.

I love Warrior Cats and you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

...

And that's IT !!!

Thank you again for the ask, and thanks if you read it this far !! You can really tell which ones of these I'm currently hyperfixated on haha.

Again please practice discression in looking these up - I have absolutely no triggers, and so don't think twice about consuming really dark and heavy pieces of media. This is also why I didn't just opt to put in my own trigger warnings - because I don't know everything that could be potentially triggering, and I don't want to give off the impression that you know everything you need to, in case i missed anything.

Be careful and be safe !

[sirensea14]

Now listen 'ere partner, I'mma need that list or mayhem songs 🤠 also I'd love to know more, I've always loved weird ships that come out of nowhere with little to no possibility of it even being considered ( evident by my Marcus x cup ship, I actually don't know where that one came from) and I always love learning about them and why they happened :33

Wait-wait-wait--WHAT??!! SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERES SOMEONE OUT THERE WHO SHIPS MARCUS AND CUPHEAD? 😨 Now thats... quite cursed... didnt even know that exists...

But anyway here's the songs with some explanation

Bendy songs:

Instruments of Cyanide (DAGames)

My favorite bendy song, i had different versions of this song as an animatic for inky mystery (i want to animate it but i dont have enough skills to do it yet and its quite long) but there's this one particular version in my head where in WitchBrew was singing chorus 1, Mayhem and Not-Cup had their hands as if spinning the cog with Cuphead and Holly on it.

This is the art for it.

Behind the curtain (squigglydigg)

(Watch the mv first so u can get what im saying lol)This one is where Cuphead is henry and alice angel was holly-turning-to-mayhem. Mayhem taunts cuphead about the fact that he didnt manage to save holly from the cog

Alice's Tango (You will be mine) by chi chi

Literally just Mayhem dancing tango with Not-cup. He might be newly possessed since i imagined this with him having a bitter expression. (Compared to the art ones where he is smiling af lol) But yea, but him frowning or smiling and dancing with mayhem is still him dancing with mayhem, no matter whoch expression you or i choose lol

All eyes on me (squigglydigg's verison)

I love the og one, Or3o's version, but the og one's for sarah, it had some sweet evil girl tone in it. Whereas Squigglydigg's ver had Alice with a kind of that evil woman voice which is suiting mayhem. Its about her capturing the questers, tying them to a chair and make them watch her sing as they show her that they suppressed her from the cog. Cuphead manages to escape (Oh no no no no babe, hey!;- this is the part of the song where she caught cuphead loose from his ties) and i then she becomes insane as she sing and captures him back while pointing at him, blaming him for uhh everything...? *shrugs* lol

Are you proud of me now? (DAGames)

Ah yes, also one of my favorite songs. This is about holly and cuphead pulling the cog in replacement of audrey and the ink machine in DAGames mv. They bury the pressure that is put on them the the bg figures (Holly: bendy, fanny and cuphead. Cuphead: vicious,fanny, holly and mayhem) and then Mayhem is trying to pull Cuphead into madness when a memory ball revealed that holly is mayhem that is fully influenced by the cog. Cuphead back steps as mayhem is trying to get at him.

Lemme tell ya bud, giving this into detail is quite hard, but i told ya this the best that i can

Now onto the non-bendy songs!

Show yourself (frozen 2)

Hehe, quite weird to see a disney song here eh? XD but basically, this song is about Holly discovering the powers of the cog and some runes in some kind of old hidden Micco Cave. She followed the light where it leads her to Lukahd singing her and transforming her into Mayhem. The questers appeared at the end of the song and Mayhem raind down a cloud of runes she summoned. Cuphead was left flabbergasted at what happened. Alice's angel runes and bendy's demon magic protects them from the attack.

A sad song (we the kings)

This one is based from the Gala heartbreak. Holly goes into full mayhem which makes cuphead heartbroken as she shows bloodlust. But we also get to see Holly's pov which is cuphead laugh off and having fun with fanny and walking away from her as they talk.

And heres the most heartbreaking part; mayhem holds cuphead in a chokehold with her magic as she floats on her broom. Cuphead looks at her with teary eyes, but Mayhem showed no remorse. She was smiling ear to ear as she watched him in pain. Her memory of being holly and messing with the jokester cuphead is vanishing. She chose to ignore those aching memories because of the pain he caused.

Enchanted (taylor swift)

Aint a swiftie but ngl this song is amazing. Perfect for colly heartbreak. Again, this is based from the gala. Also goes along with the storyline of A Sad Song. But this is more on holly's pov tho. This also includes some moments from the gala, when she spied on the cupbros (cuphead hung her on a tree) etc. and then shifts to mayhem attacking cuphead with regrets carved on his glassy eyes.

All of this is kinda hard to get into detail, i tried my best and thats it. Hope u understand my explanations😅

Meanwhile, heres a WitchBrew song but them in a fight:

Devil's Gambit (fnf: indie cross)

Yes, you read that right, an fnf song XD

This one's cool cuz i imagine Notcup having a bit of characteristics from Nightmare Cuphead's form (indie cross).

Kind of like this.

I imagine him assisting Mayhem of defeating the Questers cuz they were on a hunt for them during the song. Mayhem unleashing her most horrifying abilities and Cuphead shooting blazing hot pink bullets. He still has all of the potion bullets like the chaser, lobber and peashooter etc, its just in pink.

Or possibly theyre fighting sarah, instrument boris and the night terror cuz sarah considered mayhem (and possibly notcup) as anomalies.

Welp, i think ive got it all covered up lol. A LOT was running in my head back then when i was a silent fan.

Holy cuss its 11:30 pm XD i should wash myself now cuz its getting quite late (imstillnotsleepyhelpandimhungry)

Im still wondering how tf did someone got the nerve to ship marcus and cuphead💀

[jinkoh]

pentagon x gn!reader

summary: you unexpectedly fall into a strange world and quickly find yourself entangled with its peculiar people—as well as their problems.

tags: alice in wonderland au, multiple routes for several members, a little madness; warnings: non-graphic descriptions of violence, mentions of blood and weapons, cruel characters (but also very sweet and fun ones—this au is less dark than it sounds...probably)

wordcount: ~13,8k

a/n: okay so this kinda became a really really huge project that i've been working on for a while and that i am very attached to so ofc i'd be really excited if you gave it a try hehe i didn't stick very close to the original material so don't be too surprised. in case you want to know who is who from the get go you can check out the character introduction, but they also all get introduced bit by bit~ do heed the warnings before reading!

series masterlist // character introduction // ptg masterlist

The weather had been weird for days now, heavy clouds hanging in the purplish sky and a constant drizzle making puddles form in the streets. The Uncle from the car shop on the first floor said it was an omen; that something bad was approaching. Your landlady called him crazy and said it just needed a proper thunderstorm and the sunny weather would be back. But she didn’t like him much to begin with and if he wasn’t such a good tenant, for whatever that meant, she would have thrown him out long ago. You didn’t really care much for her idle talk. You were somewhat fond of the Uncle, even more so since your cat Humpty Dumpty seemed to have taken a liking to him too, visiting him in his shop, whenever he managed to sneak out of your third floor apartment.

So, when the Uncle told you to be careful in this weird weather and to keep an extra watchful eye on Humpty for the time being, you’d meant to heed his advice. 

You must have had a moment of inattention though, because when you came home after getting groceries you found your small flat to be empty. You’d forgotten to close the bathroom window and he must’ve snuck out from there. With a sigh you set the groceries down in the kitchen area before stepping out again, hoping that maybe he was just in the car shop downstairs. 

You were lucky, finding the brown animal curled up on the roof of a beige vintage car, while the Uncle himself was working beneath the car, only his legs poking out.

“Here to pick up your cat?” He asked, without coming out.

“He slipped out again,” you replied while picking Humpty up from his spot that must have been incredibly comfortable if his unsatisfied meowing was anything to go by. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him.”

The man laughed. “Felt more like he was keeping an eye on me, honestly.”

You nodded even though he couldn’t see you, watching a little longer. 

“That’s a nice car,” you commented, more to make polite conversation than anything else. You didn’t actually know anything about cars, but you did think it was a pretty one with the little hood ornament resembling the shape of an M.

“Yeah, it’s a nice one. A Ford Mercury Monarch, though I doubt you’ve suddenly taken a big interest in cars, have you?”

“Not really.” You chuckled, feeling caught. Of course he’d know that you were just being polite. “Still, it’s kinda pretty.”

“Mhm,” he hummed. 

Humpty started to fidget in your arms and you knew it was time to head upstairs if you didn’t want him to scratch you.

“I better go back.”

“Mhm,” he hummed again and you were about to leave, when he pushed himself out from under the car and eyed you seriously.

“Remember to be careful, y/n,” he reminded you once more. “I think there’ll be a storm tonight.”

Somehow the way he said it felt insinuating and sent a weird shiver down your spine. 

You swallowed around the lump in your throat.

“I’ll remember it.”

With a weary feeling in your stomach you left his shop, slipping back out into the rain. The building you lived in was an old factory that had been turned into several loft apartments and the commercial property downstairs. A bunch of the complexes in your neighborhood were like that which gave the area a certain charme when the sun was shining onto the red brickstones and reflecting from the big, old windows. When it rained like now though, the sky above dark and grey, the tall buildings almost looked intimidating.

Just when you wanted to turn towards the entrance door next to the shop to head upstairs, you saw a white shadow rushing through your peripheral vision. Your head instinctively snapped around, and you clearly hadn’t been the only one to notice. Humpty all but leaped out of your arms, chasing the white shadow down the street which seemed to be—a rabbit?

For a moment you were frozen in place, watching your beloved fur ball disappear down the street. But then you snapped out of it, running after him as fast as you could.

Sadly, it wasn’t fast enough to catch up to him and to make things worse the Uncle had been right about the storm. The rain was picking up and you heard thunder rumbling in the distance.

Eventually you found yourself in a side street, no trace of either the cat nor the rabbit. Humpty had never been one to come back when called, but you tried anyway, shouting out his name, the brick-lined house walls echoing it back to you.

You knew Humpty would be able to find his way back home, but you didn’t like the idea of him outside in this weather by himself. So, you kept going, even when the rain got so strong you could barely see what was in front of you.

Feeling somewhat resigned, you turned into another side street, just to be met with the rabbit sitting right in the middle of the road, his bright white fur standing out against the gray surroundings. Humpty on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. But something inside of you told you that if you caught the rabbit, you would surely find him too.

The white animal watched you with calm eyes as you approached, and you almost thought you’d be able to grab it, when it bolted, disappearing behind a corner. You rushed after it, turning into the dead end just to find it deserted and almost completely flooded. The giant puddle seemed to reflect the sky above impossibly sharp, despite the raindrops rippling the surface. In the reflection it didn’t even look all that dark and cloudy, but before you could wonder about it more or bemoan the water drenching your shoes, you suddenly felt yourself stepping into a void, the floor beneath your feet simply disappearing. In a weird epiphany you realized it must have been a missing duct cover, but it wasn’t like that would help you now. You were already falling, dark water swallowing you whole.

When you came to, the first thing you realized was that you were cold and wet. You blinked your eyes open and pushed your damp hair out of your face. It didn’t make sense, you were sure you’d fallen down into the sewer, but you found yourself in the same dead end again, sitting in the middle of the giant puddle, completely drenched. At least the rain had let off and the sky was dyed in shades of pink and purple. 

You felt for the opening in the ground that you’d fallen into with your hand, but the duct cover was right there. Confused, you tried to squeeze some water out of your clothes which was only so effective considering that you were still sitting in the puddle. 

Just then, your eyes fell onto the white rabbit at the street corner he’d come from, looking at you almost thoughtfully. But then, as if he snapped himself out of a trance, his eyes widened. 

“Oh no, oh no,” he mumbled, or you would have thought he did if it wasn’t impossible for a rabbit to speak. “Go back, quickly!”

“What?” you asked anyway, but the rabbit just turned and bolted off again.

“Time is running out.”

For a brief second you stared at the spot where he’d still sat a moment ago, but then you quickly stumbled to your feet and ran after him. You turned the corner just in time to see a man, not a rabbit, scurrying down the street. He had snow white hair, just like the bright fur of the rabbit, and it felt a bit too odd to be a coincidence. Especially with the pair of rabbit ears sitting right there on his head.

“Oh no, oh no,” you heard him again from the distance and even though none of this made any sense, you kept going after him.

Despite running until your lungs burned, you couldn't catch up to him. Maybe that was your sign to call it a day, you thought. Surely, Humpty had already made his way back home to your apartment by himself to escape the bad weather.

When you looked around though, you noticed that something about your neighborhood felt off. On first glance it was the same, but on second glance everything was different. All kinds of weird plants were overgrowing the pavement and crawling up the brick walls. There were no lights on behind the windows, no matter where you looked, nor was there any other trace of people. 

Overcome with an eerie feeling you slowly made your way down the street in the direction of your home. The light of the street lamps looked colder than usual and they flickered in irregular intervals. 

“I think you’re going the wrong way,” a voice behind you suddenly said matter of factly.

Startled, you turned around, looking right into the face of a young man with bright blue hair. He smiled and it was undeniably pretty, but it didn’t look entirely genuine.

“What do you mean?”

Instead of a reply he just shrugged and then seemed to disappear into thin air. You looked around, trying to understand where he’d gone, but he was nowhere to be found.

“What do you mean?” you repeated, your voice a little shaky.

“That the direction you’re going in is wrong.” He suddenly replied from right next to you.

“But I’m going home.”

“If you say so.” He giggled and it almost sounded childlike.

You felt yourself growing a little annoyed. “Then where am I supposed to go if not this way?”

“I won’t tell you.” With that he disappeared into thin air once more and you didn’t have it in you to feel surprised about it again.

“Fine,” you snapped in no direction in particular. “Then don’t tell me.”

You continued your way, but from time to time you still heard his giggles and little comments.

“So wrong,” he would say with a chuckle, his voice coming from one direction first and then another next.

“If you’re not going to tell me, then at least leave me alone!”

“But it’s funny,” he argued, suddenly appearing right in front of you, a wide smile plastered on his face. “It’s funny to see you run right into their fangs.”

“Whose fangs?” 

“The Queen’s servants,” he whispered right into your left ear, before reappearing on your other side. “The heartlings.”

You frowned in confusion, all of this giving you a headache. None of it made any sense. You just wanted to go home, curl up in your bed and cuddle your cat. But you couldn’t help the weary feeling in your guts, telling you that there was at least some truth to the weird guy’s words.

“So, where would you go?”

“Oh, I can go anywhere,” he replied with a giggle. “They can’t catch me if they can’t see me, right?”

“And if you couldn’t turn invisible?”

“Hm,” he seemed to think for a moment. “Maybe I’d get myself a snack from the gas station?”

You looked at his vanishing form in utter disbelief. “A snack?”

“Or a coke, maybe.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Well, I’m not saying you should do that. But you asked me what I would do. And I gave you an answer.”

You felt so unbearably frustrated with whoever this guy was, and yet you still turned around and headed into the direction of the gas station. Maybe you’d get some answers there and if you didn’t you could at least buy a snack and a coke before going home.

When you reached the gas station it too wasn’t quite looking the way you remembered it to. Instead of the brand logo you were so familiar with, the pink neon sign showed an abstract symbol next to letters that you couldn’t read. Just like the rest of the neighborhood it seemed to be completely deserted, but at least the lights in the shop were on.

“Are you sure I can go in?” You asked, convinced the blue haired guy was still around.

“If the door isn’t locked you can,” he replied, his voice coming from further away than you’d expected.

You turned around to spot him sitting in the branches of a tree near the edge of the parking lot.

“Are you not coming along?”

“I doubt my presence would be appreciated.”

You frowned in confusion. “Why?”

“Because I don’t like to pick sides. Besides,” he hopped off the branches but disappeared before his feet hit the ground, just to stand in front of you a second later. “Cats aren’t welcome.”

He pointed towards a sticker on the glass door, a pictogram of a cat crossed out with a thick red line.

“But you’re not a cat,” you argued, following the gesture with your eyes before your gaze settled on him again.

“Am I not?” He tilted his head and a pair of grayish blue cat ears was sitting right there, poking out of his hair. 

You stared at him flabbergasted. You knew for sure they hadn’t been there before. You would have noticed such a detail, wouldn’t you? 

“Wha—how?”

“Because I’m a cat,” he replied as if it was common knowledge. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” 

With that, he vanished into thin air once more, the last thing you saw of him the bright white of his toothy smile.

“Wait! Am I supposed to go alone?”

“Weren’t you alone from the start?” sounded his reply, but he didn’t turn visible again.

“But what if I need help?”

“I’m sure you will.”

“So how will I know how to find you?”

He giggled. “Find me? You won’t. But should I ever be in the mood to help, I will certainly know how to find you.”

“Wait!” you tried to stop him once more, but it stayed quiet and you were sure he was gone for good this time.

You sighed, focusing your attention on the shop in front of you instead. Even on closer inspection you couldn’t spot anyone, but the staff door behind the cash desk was cracked open, so you assumed that someone was in the back.

With a deep breath you opened the glass door and stepped inside. It felt cramped with how closely the aisles stood together, maybe a little more so than usual. You looked around, hoping that the cashier would come out if you just waited a bit. You picked up a coke and a chocolate bar from the shelves, not because you were in the mood for either, but because the cat guy had mentioned it.

By the time you stepped to the counter and sat down the products on top there was still no sign of anyone coming out anytime soon, nor was there a bell to ring.

“Hello?” You timidly shouted in the direction of the door. “Hellooo?”

“Hello?” It suddenly echoed back from beyond. “Hellooo?”

You rolled your eyes at the staff’s humor. “I’d like to pay.”

“They’d like to pay,” it sounded back, but this time it didn’t seem to be addressed to you.

Before you could say anything else, the door opened and a guy with tousled red hair stepped out. For a moment he just eyed you thoughtfully but then he broke into a goofy smile that made a dimple form on his cheek.

“Welcome.”

“Uh, hi,” you replied awkwardly. “Do you work here?”

He wasn’t quite what you’d expected. Instead of the off-white t-shirts the staff here usually wore, he wore a sheer turtleneck in bright orange and a colorful silk shirt on top that he kept open. He absolutely didn’t look as if he was working here. Nevertheless, you couldn’t help but think that in some peculiar way, you found him attractive.

“Work here?” he repeated, sounding almost a little confused. “No, I don’t work.”

“Uh, then, is someone here who does?”

“Is anyone here who does?” he shouted towards the staff door, passing your question on.

“No, no one,” came the reply shortly after.

“The hare says no one is here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard.” You pinched the bridge of your nose slowly losing patience with whatever was going on today. “So, how do I pay?”

“Oh, with money.”

“With—forget it.” 

“All forgotten.” He nodded with a bright smile. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I was just looking for my cat and then got into this whole,” you gestured vaguely at your surroundings, “mess.”

“A cat?” His face crinkled with disgust. “Not a blue one, is it? That scoundrel is not allowed in here.”

“Blue? No, Humpty Dumpty is brown.”

“Humpty Dumpty is an egg.”

“What?”

“What?”

You shook your head in exasperation. “Anyway, so I was looking for my cat and then there was this rab—man?” It sounded more like a question. 

“You’re looking for a man?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“Hm,” he looked around the store as if he could find him between the aisles if he just searched hard enough. Then he turned to the door once more.

“Changgu, do we have a man?”

“A man? No, no, we don’t have that.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any in store,” he said apologetically.

“I’m not—I don’t want to buy one. I’m—he was running away. He had white hair and—rabbit ears? And he seemed to be in a hurry. Have you seen him?”

“Ah, you met Hui. Terrible workaholic, really.”

“Do you know where to find him? I think he knows where my cat is….maybe?”

At the word cat his face scrunched up once more, but he didn’t comment on it this time. 

“I might know.”

“So, will you show me?”

“Now? I can’t. It’s tea time. In fact, maybe you should come in and have tea with us.”

You frowned in confusion. “But you don’t even know me?”

“Right,” he nodded. “Who are you?”

“Y/n.”

“Y/n. That is certainly a name,” he nodded once more. “I’m Shinwon. The Hatter.”

“A hatter?” You weren’t aware that it was a job that still existed. You’d assumed that the fast fashion industry had more or less let that handicraft die out. Furthermore, “You’re not even wearing a hat.”

“Not a hatter. The Hatter. And my hat—” for a moment he stared into the distance, a deep sadness in his eyes but then he snapped out of it, smiling like nothing happened. “That’s a story for another day.”

The sudden change in mood had piqued your interest, but you decided to respect his privacy and not pry into it further.

“And what is the Hatter doing in a gas station?”

“A gas station? I’ve never been to one.” He didn’t give you the time to question his words, already turning towards the door. “Now, let’s have some tea.”

Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to follow this guy to the back. He didn’t seem to be right in the head, though to be fair, you weren’t sure about your own sanity either. After all, you’d chased down a talking rabbit and then shared a walk with a man who seemed to be able to vanish into thin air. Perhaps, a mad hatter in a gas station was on the normal side of things in comparison.

The backroom didn’t look the way you’d expected, though at this point you weren’t sure what you were expecting anymore. The space was completely cluttered with chests and boxes, and all kinds of fabrics and curtains were draped throughout the room. In the middle of it all was a long table which was decked out with way too much dinnerware. In fact, the tea cups were stacked up so high, you almost didn’t notice the guy sitting in one of the mismatched chairs near the end of the table. 

“I brought a guest,” Shinwon declared, pointing at you.

“A guest!” The guy jumped up from his chair with a dazzling smile. 

Only now did you see the floppy ears that sat on his head, reaching down all the way to his shoulders. They were a light brown, the same shade as his wavy hair, and they looked so soft and fuzzy you kinda wanted to try petting them. 

“Hi,” you awkwardly greeted, raising your hand in a small wave. “I’m y/n.”

“That is certainly a name,” the man replied with a nod and Shinwon next to you clapped excitedly.

“Right? That’s what I said.”

You didn’t know what to make of the comment so you decided to just ignore it. “And you are Changgu I assume?”

 “Ah, where are my manners?” He rushed over, accidentally knocking some cups off the table that shattered on the floor.

“Yes, Hare, where are your manners?” Shinwon echoed.

“I’m Changgu. The March Hare,” he introduced himself, reaching out his hand to you, that barely poked out from underneath the sleeves of his plaid coat.

“The March Hare?”

He nodded, before leaning in closer as if he was about to share a secret. 

“It’s because I’m as mad as one,” he whispered. “I don’t have both ears in the water.”

As if to prove his point he raised one of his ears and let it flop down again.

“It’s oars, Hare. You don’t have both oars in the water,” Shinwon corrected, before ushering you further into the room. “Now, let’s have some tea?”

He pulled back one of the chairs for you while he took the seat at the head of the table. You sat down and stared at the mess before you, unsure how to behave. It didn’t exactly look as if it was set for a tea party (or set at all, for that matter). You felt out of place and it didn’t help that your clothes were still wet. It had almost slipped your mind, but now that you were sitting you felt the damp fabric sticking to your skin again, leaving you with an itchy feeling.

“Tea?” Changgu, who’d taken the seat across from you interrupted your thoughts. He pushed a cup he’d poured in your direction. The other porcelain on the table got shoved out of the way on his quest but he didn’t seem to mind, not even when one of the higher stacks started to sway dangerously.

Unable to watch what was clearly going to end in disaster, you quickly took the cup with a “Thank you” and promptly received a bright smile in return.

Before you could take a sip of the steaming liquid though, Shinwon held out a plate with muffins to you, each one decorated with a small candle.

“Dessert? We also have cake,” he pointed at a ring cake somewhere in the mess. “And biscuits.”

“Then, a biscuit, perhaps?” You agreed reluctantly.

“A biscuit, Hare, quick, a biscuit for the biscuit!”

Changgu nodded eagerly, holding out another plate to you, and you took one of the cookies from it.

But you didn’t get to try that either, because all of a sudden the door was pushed open with so much force, it made you flinch and drop the cookie into your tea cup.

“Ah, not in the middle of tea time,” Shinwon complained, clearly annoyed but not surprised. “What does the Queen want now, Paul?”

For a moment you weren’t sure who he was talking to, but then you spotted the frog that was standing upright in the doorway, dressed in an outfit that resembled a Victorian newspaper boy.

“An invitation,” he croaked, taking a big leap right onto the table, porcelain clinking at the sudden impact. He fished out a piece of paper and handed it to Changgu who took it from his green fingers.

“We got it. Now, shoo, we’re having tea.” Shinwon gestured for the frog to leave with a wave of his hand. “Unless you fancy to join us for a cup?”

“Not particularly,” the frog replied, hopping off the table and disappearing to where he’d come from. 

Changgu passed the paper onto Shinwon who took it with the tips of his fingers as if it was something disgusting. 

“What is it?” You’d managed to catch a glimpse of the writing and once again had to realize that whatever alphabet it was, you couldn’t read it.

“A party invitation,” Shinwon replied, almost spitting out the words.

"Do you not like parties?"

At your question he broke into a laughter so intense as if it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

“Do I not like parties?” He turned to his friend in amusement "Did you hear that, Changgu?"

“Do you not like parties?” Changgu repeated, shaking from laughter himself, his ears flopping up and down at the movement. 

You felt awkward and maybe a little upset that you once again weren't in on whatever the joke was.

“Well, do you?” You interrupted their laughter, light annoyance in your voice.

Shinwon's eyes were gleaming when he replied. “I love parties, Biscuit. I love them so much I celebrate all my unbirthdays every year.”

Changgu nodded hastily to support his point. “Every single one!”

“We’re celebrating one right this second.”

You didn't bother asking what an unbirthday was. “Then what’s so bad about this?”

Immediately, Shinwon's face turned dark again. “It's the Queen's party.”

“Then don't go.”

“Don't go, you say,” he repeated with another giggle. “No, we have to go. It's the Queen's party."

After a brief glance at a clearly broken cuckoo clock on the wall he sprung up with so much vigor, his poor chair fell over backwards and clattered to the floor. “In fact, we should go right now!” 

Then his eyes got stuck on you. 

“You're wet,” he commented as if he only just now noticed the sorry state of your clothes.

“I fell into a puddle.”

“Why would you do that?”

You frowned. “It’s not like it was on purpose.”

The side eye he exchanged with Changgu told you that he still considered it to be weird, but he let it rest. 

“Either way you can't wear that to the party. The Queen hates bad fashion.”

“Oh, I won't go to the party, I wasn’t invited.”

Another rush of laughter overcame the two of them. 

“It's the Queen's party,” Shinwon repeated yet another time. “Everyone is invited. Hare, don't we have some clothes for the child?”

“I'm not a child,” you argued but neither of them minded you.

“Maybe we have some in the dairy section.”

“Mhm-mhm,” Shinwon nodded thoughtfully and then disappeared into the shop only to show up a minute later with an odd looking suit that he handed to you. The fabric felt cold, as if it'd just come out of the refrigerator and the combination of colors and patterns seemed a little random. But it was still better than the damp clothes that were sticking to your skin uncomfortably, so you took the suit and changed into it while Shinwon and Changgu waited outside.

When you came out again, the two of them seemed to have cleaned up for the occasion as well: Shinwon had buttoned up his shirt and tamed his red hair while Changgu had added a black tie with red dots to his outfit. He hadn’t bothered to tuck it under the collar of his shirt though so it made him look more disheveled than before, but you didn’t point that out. 

Shinwon eyed you intently, his brows furrowed as he took in every inch of you. Then he broke into a happy smile. “Oh, it suits you! Isn’t that right, Hare?”

“Exquisitely so!”

You weren’t sure about their assessment but their compliments still made you feel a little better in your skin.

The three of you stepped outside and you would have thought the sky would be pitch black by now, but it still had the same purplish pink colors as before. 

“So, where is this party?” You asked as you walked down the street.

“The Red Castle,” Changgu supplied an answer that made you none the smarter.

“Of course,” you mumbled. “Where else would it be?”

Even though Shinwon had been less than ecstatic to go to the Queen’s party, he didn’t dwell on the bad mood. Him and Changgu giggled and goofed around on the way, most of their jokes going past you. 

“I’d much rather go home,” you let out a small sigh, barely even noticing that you’d said it out loud.

Shinwon interrupted his laughter to turn to you. “Oh, that’s just the right mindset for attending this party. I too would much rather go home. But,” he playfully nudged your shoulder with his own, “when we all want to go home, it’s almost the same as actually going home.”

You didn’t a hundred percent get the point he was trying to make there, but his words felt comforting nevertheless. Perhaps it wasn’t his words per se, but the consoling smile on his lips and the genuine expression in his eyes.

You shook your head in amusement. “Let’s go home then.”

“Let’s go home!” he repeated with a wide grin, raising his fist into the air and making you giggle.

As you kept walking, you slowly realized though, that maybe that was quite literally where you were headed. You were only a block away from your house now, and the closer you came, the more lively it got on the streets that had still been empty a few hours ago. Approaching your home should have filled you with a sense of relief, but instead it just made you feel queasy. 

Your bad feeling about it all proved to be there for a reason. When you turned into your street, you could barely recognize what used to be so known to you. The streetlights were decorated with a weird assortment of red flowers and warning tape, and the whole area was jammed with people (though you weren’t sure if people was the right word for the diverse assembly of beings, some more human than others but none that were human through and through) and at the center of it all seemed to be the tall factory building with its brick walls and the car shop on the first floor. It looked vastly different, the entire front of the building covered by a huge mural painting depicting roses that crawled up the walls, their stems carrying sharp thorns. Still, there was no mistaking it:

“That’s—that’s my house.”

“Oh, how fortunate,” Shinwon exclaimed gleefully. “You wanted to go home!”

“No, but—,” you interrupted yourself, not even sure what to say. Maybe it’d been a little delusional to believe your home would still be your home if nothing else seemed to have remained the same.

“You didn’t want to go home after all?” Shinwon nodded understandingly. “Then this is indeed unfortunate.”

“Very unfortunate,” Changgu agreed.

“I’m just so confused. Why is nothing the same as before?”

“Maybe that’s a question for a caterpillar,” Changgu replied seriously. “They are experts on things that do not stay the same.”

Before you could inquire how you were supposed to discuss this with a caterpillar of all things, you spotted a familiar pair of snow white ears in the middle of the crowd that disappeared as suddenly as they’d shown up. 

Without thinking you chased after the white rabbit. You weren’t sure why you were still so keen on catching him. It didn’t seem very likely anymore that he knew where Humpty was. But he was the only one who had already been there when the world was still normal, so maybe he’d also know how to turn it back.

“Why are we running?” Shinwon asked behind you, sounding out of breath. You hadn’t noticed he’d come along.

“The rabbit!” You explained. “I saw the rabbit.”

“Why are we running?” Changgu shouted from behind Shinwon, following as you rushed through the crowd.

“The rabbit, they saw the rabbit,” Shinwon explained in your stead.

You almost expected to lose the rabbit in question again, but then he was suddenly standing right there, throwing a worried glance onto his wrist watch. You abruptly stopped in order not to run him over, causing Shinwon to bump into you. In your relief to have finally caught on, you didn’t pay it any mind though.

“Thank God,” you pressed out, catching your breath. 

The man with the white rabbit ears turned to you, seemingly only noticing you now.

“Oh. Oh, no,” he looked a little distressed at your presence before his eyes wandered to your company in surprise. “And the Hatter?”

“And the Hare,” Shinwon added, pointing at Changgu who’d come to a stop behind him.

“So, what do you want?” The man asked, his eyes darting to his watch once more. “I’m in a hurry.”

Shinwon chuckled. “It’s good to take a break from time to time, Hui.”

“Of course, you would say that.”

“My cat,” you interrupted before their discussion could drag on. “Did you see my cat?”

“A cat?” He sighed. “I don’t have time for Yanan’s shenanigans."

“No, no,” Shinwon chimed in. “This cat is brown.”

“I don’t have time for a brown cat either,” Hui shook his head. “In fact, I don’t even have time for this party.”

With that he took off, quickly disappearing into the crowd again.

“Wait,” you shouted after him. You still hadn’t asked him about whatever was going on with the world around you, and he was probably the only person who could know something (and also the most sane one you’d met so far, despite his constant haste and his rather cold demeanor).

“Don’t take it to heart,” Changgu reassured. “In fact, he already lingered longer than usual. Sometimes we don’t hear from him for months. And he doesn’t even spare the time to celebrate his unbirthdays.”

You sighed in resignation. “Still, I had so many questions.”

“Even if he knows the answers, I doubt he has the time to give them,” Shinwon replied comfortingly, though it didn’t feel very comforting at all. “Caterpillars on the other hand have a lot of time.”

You didn’t get why Shinwon too was bringing up caterpillars now, but the two of them had been talking nonsense from the moment you’d met them so it was a little late to start overthinking it now.

Suddenly, the sound of a fanfare cut through the noise of the crowd.

“Oh, it’s beginning,” Shinwon exclaimed, grabbing your hand and pulling you further towards the front, until you were standing in the second or third row with a direct view on what used to be your home and was now something else entirely. "From here you can take a good look so you know whom to avoid."

"The Queen?" you asked for clarification.

"That too. But the Heartlings and Knave as well."

You remembered the former from when the blue cat had mentioned it before, but the knave was new. You didn't get to ask though, because the fanfare sounded again.

A frog, just like the one that had brought the invitation, was standing on a stack of tires in front of the garage door, a scroll in his hands that he unrolled solemnly. He cleared his throat twice before finally addressing the crowd.

“Your Majesty, the Queen of Hearts,” he announced, his voice way louder than you would have expected from a frog of his size.

The crowd cheered more or less enthusiastically and he hopped from the stack of tires. A pack of ferrets came to the scene, quickly pushing the tires to the side. The last one had barely scurried away, when the roller shutter of the garage started to open, slowly disclosing the shop beyond. For a while, all you got to see was the car that was parked right in the center. You recognized the vintage car immediately with its beige finish and the M shaped hood ornament. As the shutter had almost rolled all the way up, it finally revealed a person sitting on top of the car, in just the same spot that Humpty had taken a nap in earlier today. (At least you thought it was still today—with the sky not changing color at all, you were a little confused about the passage of time.)

To your surprise though, it wasn’t a Queen at all. Instead it was a guy with choppy blonde hair wearing a velvet tracksuit. His gaze was fierce and there was something captivating albeit intimidating about his aura. Still—

“Where’s the Queen?”

Instantly, the whole crowd fell silent.

The man in the velvet suit cocked his head, his eyes narrowing in on the guests. “Who asked that?”

Everyone around you took a step away, trying to gain some distance from you. Solely Shinwon and Changgu stuck to your side, but even they seemed a little uneasy. From your peripheral vision you spotted a man with wavy hair next to the garage door straightening out his posture. You hadn’t noticed him before, but he must have been there all along. He pushed back the fabric of his jacket a bit to reveal the grip of a gun that was tucked into the waistband of his pants. You didn’t understand what was happening, but you were smart enough to realize it wasn’t anything good. Your stomach was filled with dread and you instinctively reached out to Shinwon, your fingers clasping onto the hem of his shirt.

“Uh, oh, Biscuit,” he whispered close to your ear. “You’ve really done it now.”

“I said,” the man in the velvet suit started again, this time with more emphasis, as he leaped off the car roof in one smooth movement. “Who. Asked. That?” 

The crowd seemed to budge even further away from you, leaving you easily exposed to the man who approached with striding steps.

“You?” His gaze landed on you, making you feel small and helpless. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

He took another step closer, close enough for you to spot the beauty marks on his face, close enough to notice the glow of his skin. “Tell me your name, dear.”

“Y/n,” you pressed out, your voice barely hearable.

“Y/n,” he repeated with a hum, almost as if he was tasting the sound of it on his tongue. “So, y/n, what were you thinking? What made you believe that I’m not worthy of being the Queen?”

The thoughts started circling in your mind. It was clearly a trick question; no matter what reply you presented him with, it would be wrong.

Thankfully though, you didn’t have to give one at all. Before you could even think of saying anything, you felt Shinwon leaning in close to your ear again. 

“I’ve got this,” he whispered, stepping in front of you with confidence.

Anxiously, you glanced over to Changgu, who gently took your hand in his, mouthing a reassuring Don’t worry. 

“Your Distinctiveness,” Shinwon greeted overly friendly, taking an exaggerated bow.

“Hatter,” the Queen replied, his face contorted in disgust.

“You see, my dear friend is new here,” he explained. “And to make matters worse, they have terrible vision, don’t you, Biscuit?”

You felt frozen, even more so now that the Queen's attention was back on you. It wasn’t until Changgu squeezed your hand, that you hurriedly nodded.

“Very terrible vision,” Shinwon repeated, his voice sounding pitying this time. “Can’t even tell right from wrong.”

“Is that so?” 

The Queen didn’t seem convinced as he gave you another once over. You instinctively held your breath, as if that could protect you from his piercing gaze.

“Consider this a warning,” he eventually said, finally taking his eyes off you.

“And you, Hatter,” he turned to Shinwon, “educate your guests right. Wouldn’t want to lose any, hm?”

“Of course, your Noteworthiness; by no means, your Exquisiteness,” Shinwon nodded meaningfully.

“Good!” The Queen’s mood suddenly shifted. He clapped his hands and a grin spread on his lips. “Now, let’s celebrate, shall we?”

He strode back to the car, using stacked up tires to take a seat on the roof again like a Queen on her throne.

You let out the breath you’d been holding, relieved that you’d evaded whatever storm would have awaited you if Shinwon hadn’t been there. You gently tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. 

“Thank you. You really saved me there.”

“Oh, yes, Biscuit, that would not have ended well,” he replied with a giggle before his expression grew more serious. “But I have your back.”

You weren’t sure why he’d helped you, after all he barely knew you at all. But you didn't dwell on it for too long. Of everyone you’d met today, if you had to choose just one person to trust, it would surely be him. In all his madness and with all his nonsense, you decided to trust him. 

The party proceeded, though it hardly resembled your understanding of the term. There was music, sure, but the mood felt strained. The Queen however didn’t seem to notice or perhaps he simply didn’t care.

“It’s a party,” he drawled. “So, entertain me.”

“Of course, your Highness,” the frog from before hurried to assure. “The dancers, get the dancers!”

A group of dancers stepped forward, wiry figures with white wings on their backs just like those of a swan. Music started to play and they moved to the melody. It was a beautiful choreography but you couldn’t help but notice the way their arms seemed to tremble with nerves. And you weren’t the only one.

“What a pity for them,” Shinwon whispered next to you. 

“A tragedy, even,” Changgu agreed.

“He won’t like that.”

“He’ll despise it.”

You looked between the two of them, before your gaze wandered back to the Queen. He looked onto the spectacle with contempt.

“Boring. Show something else.”

Immediately the music got interrupted and a different song played, the dancers changing position and starting anew. The Queen watched for a moment, his lips pursed thoughtfully.

“If only I could make this more fun,” he complained with a big sigh but then his eyes widened as if he’d had a brilliant idea. “Ah! I know! Jack! Get me some firecrackers!”

The frog nodded, relaying the task onto the ferrets who disappeared and showed up seconds later with a red box. The Queen clapped joyfully before he took the box and fished a lighter out of his pocket. 

“What is he doing?” You asked Shinwon, your voice barely a whisper.

“Playing a game, it seems. He loves games.”

An uneasy feeling took root in your stomach. “What kind of game?”

“Dodge.”

The game was exactly what it sounded like. While the performance continued, the Queen lit up the firecrackers and threw them at the dancers’ feet, watching in delight as they tried to evade the small explosions.

You felt sick to your stomach and for the first time since you’d fallen into the sewer you truly wished to wake up from what clearly had to be a nightmare. With shaky fingers, you pinched the skin of your inner arm, hard enough to make tears spring to your eyes. But nothing happened. You didn’t wake up and this wasn’t a dream. The dancers were still hopping from one foot to the other, the Queen’s manic laughter drowning out the music they were dancing to. And you just stood there, frozen in place, averting your gaze instead of stepping in.

“That’s insane. How can he be so cruel?”

“He’s the Queen of Hearts, what did you expect?” Shinwon scoffed. “Of course, it was different when—no, I shouldn’t say. Not here.”

The rest of the party continued in the same vein. The Queen had a very different idea of how to stay entertained, it seemed. His games hardly qualified as games at all. If anything they were torture, for those who had to watch and even more so for those who had to play. But he was sitting on his makeshift throne enjoying the show.

“Oh, what a delight!” The Queen eventually addressed the crowd. “I had feared for this party to become a disaster. After all, it was off to a miserable start, isn’t that true?”

Maybe it was just your imagination, but you felt as if his eyes were looking right at you, giving you a warning glare as if to say I remember you. Don’t mess up again.

Panic rushed through your body and you were shaking like a leaf as you tried to withstand his gaze. When he looked away at last, announcing it was time for the grand finale, you felt all strength leaving your body and your knees would have given in if Shinwon hadn’t immediately reached out to steady you. Even when you’d found your balance again, he stayed closely behind you, resting his hands on your shoulders.

“Are you okay, Biscuit?”

You didn’t even bother pretending and shook your head. 

“When is this over? When is it finally over?”

“Soon. We only have to make it through the fireworks now. You can hold out, right?”

You nodded weakly and watched with something akin to relief as the ferrets set up fireworks that for once seemed to really be just that—fireworks.

“No one’s going to get hurt, right?” you asked, to be sure.

Shinwon gave your shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “No one’s going to get hurt.”

And his words proved true. The ferrets lit the fuse and you watched with tired eyes as the flame crawled over the bloodstained floor until it reached the fireworks. They shot up with a bang and exploded into sparkling pink hearts filling the sky above you that had at last started to darken. It was a beautiful spectacle and for a brief moment you could almost trick yourself into thinking that it’d been a regular party after all. Almost. While everyone’s eyes were glued to the sparkling sky, your own fell to the Queen again. He was watching the fireworks too, in awe of its beauty, while the traces of his cruel games were scattered all around him. It seemed he was the only winner today.

After a moment he lowered his head to look at you. It was a slow, deliberate shift as if he’d been aware of your gaze all along. His eyes briefly flicked over his surroundings before they landed on you again, a small smile on his lips. Despite the distance you knew exactly what he was mouthing at you.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

When it was finally over you couldn’t even manage to be relieved. You’d seen too much and you despised yourself for watching all of it in silence.

“Why is everyone just accepting this?” You asked, once the crowd had dissipated and you’d gained some distance to the Red Castle.

“Because there’s nothing else we can do,” Shinwon explained matter-of-factly. “Not yet.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that it’s not time yet.”

“Not yet,” Changgu echoed. “But soon.”

It wasn’t a very satisfactory reply, but who were you to talk? You’d only been here for a day and it wasn’t as if you’d been brave enough to say anything either. No, you’d looked away much the same as everyone else.

You sighed and followed behind them, slowly realizing that you had no idea where you were headed. It definitely wasn’t the way back to the gas station unless the streets had suddenly swapped places which wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen that day.

When you asked, Shinwon looked at you in confusion. “To the caterpillar, of course.”

“The caterpillar?”

“You want answers and he has a lot of them. And if you’re lucky a few of them might just match your questions.”

“Is it far?”

“Oh, very much,” Shinwon nodded but then he added, “we’re almost there.”

Eventually you turned into the street with the old theater and realized that that must be where you were headed. You’d always loved it there and had many fond memories of musicals and theater pieces you’d watched there. It was a charming building with a pretty front that you remembered to be adorned with big illuminated signs announcing the shows that were currently running. Now though, it looked sad and abandoned as it laid in complete darkness at the end of the street. 

“What happened here?”

“The Queen doesn’t fancy theaters, I’m afraid. He’d rather the only shows that happen are the ones he holds in the castle. Of course it was different when—” Shinwon interrupted himself once more, but then he seemed to remember that you weren’t at the party anymore and that no one was around to hear. Still, he whispered when he continued, just to be safe. “It was different when Hongseok was still king.”

“Very different,” Changgu agreed. “Hongseok loved the theater.”

“He also loved cookies,” Shinwon added.

“And fun rides.”

“And coffee.”

Changgu nodded excitedly. “He handed out free coffee on all 23rd unbirthdays.”

“He did. Every 23rd.”

“The 23rd unbirthdays are always the best,” Changgu explained.

You looked at him in confusion. “Why?”

Now Changgu was the one looking confused. “Because they are the 23rd, of course.”

“Right,” you nodded slowly even though his explanation didn’t actually explain anything. Still, even if it didn’t make much sense, what you did understand was how fondly they thought of Hongseok. You didn’t know if he’d been a capable king, but he must have been a beloved one.

“Why isn’t he ruling anymore?”

Shinwon laughed, as if it’d been a particularly stupid question. “Because now we have the Queen, dummy. There can’t be a king and a queen.”

You wanted to argue that in fact there usually was both, but you doubted that anything would come of it.

The three of you walked towards the entrance of the dark building when Shinwon suddenly stopped in his tracks and swiveled around to Changgu.

“Do you have cash on you?”

“No, no,” Changgu shook his head, turning his pockets inside out as if to prove his point. A single button fell out and clattered to the floor.

“Oh, no. I am afraid they don't take credit card.” Shinwon sighed with a wistful glance at the dark and empty ticket booth before turning to you. “You don’t happen to have any?”

Your gaze wandered between him and the abandoned theater. “What do you need cash for?”

“To buy a ticket, dummy,” he said with a giggle. “Hare, she doesn’t know you need a ticket to go to a theater.”

“You can’t just go in without a ticket,” Changgu nodded.

"No, I—agh, nevermind."

“You’re so funny, Biscuit.”

You didn’t consider yourself a particularly humorous person, but as long as it made them laugh you supposed it was fine. Still, you didn’t get why you would have to pay to go into an abandoned building where there clearly were no shows running. You checked your pockets anyway, but you had nothing except for an old bubble gum wrapper.

“Hm,” Shinwon looked thoughtful. “Well, I guess it will have to do.”

He took the wrapper from your hand, picked up the button from the street and fished a safety pin out of his own pocket. The random assortment of things was then shoved through the hatch of the ticket booth that was meant for paying. Meanwhile Changgu opened the entrance door to the right of the booth which was barely hanging in its hinges. 

“After you,” he said with a grin and an exaggerated bow.

“Very kind,” Shinwon replied with a nod and a tip of an invisible hat as he stepped past him into the dark lobby of the theater. You followed suit, giving Changgu a quick thanks.

Somehow the building made you feel weary. It was distressing how it looked as if it’d been abandoned from one second to another. There were coats hanging in the cloakroom and a half eaten bucket of popcorn was laying tipped over on the floor, popcorn scattered around it. The whole atmosphere gave you chills.

Shinwon and Changgu didn’t seem to have any such concerns though. The Hatter went straight for the snack counter, starting to rummage through the fridge that was clearly turned off.

“Coke anyone? Or a limo?” He asked, holding up glass bottles, that almost looked like the popular brands you knew, if it wasn’t for the unfamiliar writing.

He didn’t wait for a reply, already setting them onto the counter.

“Do you think we should bring something for Jinho too? You think he'd want a coke? Or something else?”

“Maybe something else.”

Shinwon nodded thoughtfully. “A water? But that's for boring people.”

“Maybe a water,” Changgu agreed anyway.

“Jinho? Are we—are we still talking about a worm here?”

Shinwon bursted into laughter. “A worm! Oh, he would hate that!”

“Wasn’t it a worm?”

He snorted before turning to Changgu. “A worm, Hare! A worm!” He repeated between chuckles, nudging his friend in the side who’d long joined his laughter.

“We shouldn’t ever tell him that.”

“We shouldn’t. He would hate it so much.”

“He would,” Changgu shook himself in delight. “Maybe we should tell him.”

“We should!”

“So, it wasn’t a worm?”

“A caterpillar, Biscuit. He is a caterpillar.”

Jinho was sitting on one of the balconies, watching the empty stage. His head was propped up on one of his hands as he leaned over the balustrade, sipping on a small pouch of red ginseng extract. The dim light in the auditorium gave his dark gray hair a blueish, almost iridescent shimmer that made you want to question if it was real. Still, he was most certainly not a caterpillar.

“A lovely theater, isn’t it?” He mumbled without looking up and you weren’t quite sure who he was talking to.

“Very lovely,” Shinwon was quick to agree but he didn’t sound serious.

“You should have seen it in its heydays,” Jinho continued, turning his head to look at you. “It was truly marvelous.”

He spoke slowly, as if his every word was well considered and it made you nervous. 

You swallowed around the lump in your throat before you replied. “I’m sure it was.”

“Mhm,” he hummed approvingly, then he turned back to the stage. “I’ve been expecting you. You’re late.”

“Oh!” Shinwon chimed in. “Really? I was thinking we should have left a little earlier.”

“Not you, Hatter,” Jinho drawled in response. “Alice.”

“Alice? Which Alice?” Shinwon looked confused. 

Jinho nodded in your direction. “That Alice.”

“I’m not Alice. My name is—”

“Y/n,” he interrupted you with an exasperated sigh. “I know. But you’re also Alice. One does not preclude the other, you foolish rat.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You couldn’t quite choose between feeling distraught by the fact that he knew your name or offended by his tone, so you settled for both.

“It means exactly what I said. You’re Alice.”

While you still didn’t get what he was trying to say, Shinwon and Changgu looked absolutely flabbergasted, their eyes flicking back and forth between you and Jinho.

“Our Biscuit… is Alice?”

“The Alice?”

“How many times do I need to say it?” Jinho shook his head. “Y/n is the new Alice. That’s how it’s written in the script.”

“It’s written in the script,” Shinwon repeated in disbelief.

Changgu nodded. “Y/n is Alice.”

“Would anyone please explain to me what’s going on? How can I be Alice if I’m me?”

“Because the script says you are.” Jinho squeezed out the last bits of ginseng extract, before shoving the empty package back into the box that was sitting on the seat next to him. “The script is never wrong.”

“What script?”

“The one,” Shinwon explained unhelpfully.

“The only,” Changgu added.

Jinho took out a new pouch of ginseng, his whole focus on the packaging as he slowly and carefully ripped it open. Your eyes automatically followed the movement. 

“I can show you. If you wish to see,” he offered without looking up.

“I—I don’t know. I don’t know what any of this means so I don’t know if I want to see it or not.” You instinctively turned to Shinwon for help, searching his eyes for advice. “Do I?”

He didn’t immediately reply and when he did his voice was unusually calm and collected. “I think you should.”

“Okay,” you nodded slowly before turning to Jinho again. “I want to see.”

He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, calmly emptying the rest of his ginseng extract before getting up from the velvet seat. 

“Let’s go to the prop room then.”

“Oh, the prop room!” Changgu looked excited, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I haven’t gone there since our last show. It’s been a while!”

Jinho led the way out of the auditorium to narrow stairs at the far back of the hallway. A chain with a handwritten sign was supposed to keep visitors out, but Jinho nonchalantly pulled it to the side.

“Careful,” he warned before going downstairs and not without reason. Fabrics, props and costumes were scattered all over the steps and the handrail, making it feel like an obstacle course. While you slowly followed Jinho, carefully not to trip on anything, Shinwon and Changgu seemed almost delighted, hopping down the steps as if it was a funny game. Though, after seeing the gas station’s backroom it wasn’t as surprising that they weren’t bothered by the mess, you supposed.

Once you’d reached the bottom of the stairs, Jinho pulled a small key out of his pocket and unlocked the wooden door to reveal a room, cramped with more odds and ends. 

Changgu went right in, purposefully taking a handkerchief from one of the zillion shelves. 

“Was wondering where I’d kept that,” he commented happily before stuffing it into his pocket.

Jinho pushed past him with a sigh. “We haven’t taken out the script in a while, and this is how you act? Some adequacy, if you please.”

“Don’t be such a killjoy, Worm.”

Jinho’s head snapped around to Shinwon, giving him a death glare. “Worm?”

Shinwon just shrugged lightheartedly. “Right, Caterpillar. My bad.”

“These kids,” Jinho shook his head before turning his attention back to you. “Let’s take a look, shall we?”

He took your hand and pulled you along to the far back of the room, where a wooden chest was covered with a bunch of colorful fabrics. Jinho shoved them aside to reveal the little metal lock that he opened with another key from his pocket, before pushing up the lid of the chest. It was empty except for a stitched booklet that looked like a regular manuscript for a musical or a theater piece. Jinho took it out and thumbed through the pages until he abruptly stopped, his finger pointing to one of the lines.

“We’re here.”

You stared at the scripture written in the same unfamiliar letters as everything else in this world.

“I can’t read that.”

“Ah, right.” 

Jinho closed the booklet briefly before opening it again, his fingers still marking the page. When you looked this time, you were surprised to find that it was written in letters you were able to read. Your eyes scanned the lines Jinho was pointing to, and you were overcome with a feeling of disbelief.

Caterpillar: We’re here. Alice: I can’t read that. Caterpillar: Ah, right.

Below that, the sentences seemed to be incomplete, only bits and pieces that were scattered on the paper.

“How is that possible?” you asked and right as you spoke the words started appearing in the script.

“It’s the script,” Jinho explained calmly. “That’s what it does. It documents and it predicts. It assigns roles and it decides the plot.”

“That’s right,” Shinwon nodded meaningfully but your eyes were still glued to the page, watching as everything they said formed on the paper.

“And as you can see, y/n, your role is Alice,” Jinho continued. “At least for now.”

“For now? What does that mean?”

“Well, you’re the replacement,” Changgu stared into the distance with a nostalgic shimmer in his eyes. “The old Alice is no more.”

“Did they…die?”

“Died? No, no, he is fine.” Shinwon pressed out between laughter so hard, he had to hold his stomach. “He would whine so much about this. I can practically hear his voice: ‘Don’t say something like that! Don’t jinx me!’ So funny.”

“Wooseok fulfilled his role,” Jinho explained calmly. “So now he is only Wooseok, in the same way you were only y/n before you became Alice.”

You sighed. “I don’t remember applying for the role, though.”

Jinho rolled his eyes. “Very funny.”

“So, what does it mean? Is me being Alice the reason that I’m stuck in this weird parallel universe?”

“What’s a parallel universe?” Changgu whispered, nudging Shinwon in the side.

“Surely the opposite of an unparallel iverse,” Shinwon whispered back.

“Ah.”

Jinho didn’t pay them any attention. “Not exactly. You’re stuck in this weird parallel universe—”

“That’s the opposite of an unparallel iverse,” Changgu interjected.

“—because you followed the rabbit through the Looking Glass. He was supposed to directly bring you here—but well, there’ve been some circumstances.”

“I didn’t follow anyone through a looking glass though.”

“Mhm, not purposely,” Jinho hummed. “You fell right in.”

“The sewer?”

Jinho scrunched his face in disgust. “Not the sewer. The reflection. The mirror image on the water surface.”

“So if I fell in—can I fall out again?”

“Oh, it doesn’t work like that, foolish Alice.”

“Foolish Biscuit,” Shinwon echoed, but his voice had a fond undertone to it.

“You have to fulfill your role first. Then you can go back.”

You nodded slowly. That at least meant there was a way back. “So, what do I have to do?”

“Right, that’s the tricky part, dear Alice. The script never reveals the full plot until it happens.”

“Are you saying I have to fulfill my part without even knowing what that is?!”

Jinho shook his head and skipped to a later page in the script. “We do know some things.”

The page was almost blank, only scraps of a conversation readable.

Queen of Hearts: Alice?!           You betrayed me Queen of Hearts:      What have you done to me?     hurt so much Queen of Hearts:   I'm dying

You stared at the words, an uncomfortable feeling spreading in your stomach. You had an inkling but you still asked anyway.

“What does this mean?”

“You will kill him,” Shinwon whispered. “You will end his reign.”

“No.” You shook your head. “I can’t—I can’t possibly kill anyone. Can’t someone else do it?”

Jinho shook his head. “It has to be you. He won’t die if it isn’t you.”

“But—how would I do it anyway?”

“I'm sure there are plenty of options. The King would know. Poison, maybe.”

Poison. You shuddered at the mere prospect of it; the body cramping up and lips turning purple—a gruesome thought.

“I can’t.”

“You’ve seen his cruelty. He doesn’t deserve any better,” Jinho said calmly. “And it will happen anyway. The plot may not be all written out yet, but that which is written will happen with certainty. Unless, of course, you die before that. Then a different Alice would have to take your place.”

“Unless I die?”

He shrugged. “If you’re careful that shouldn’t happen. So don’t worry about it too much, just follow along.”

Your head was spinning with all of this. Of course you wanted to go home, but could you really kill someone? But what if it was the only chance to go back? And if what Jinho said was true then was there even a use to think about what you wanted? It would happen, whether you resisted it or not. The only way out was dying, so there wasn’t even a decision for you to make, not really.

“Okay, fine,” you pressed out eventually. “I’ll fulfill my role. I’ll be Alice.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of Jinho’s lips. “I knew you would say that.”

“But how would I even get close enough to do it?” You asked Jinho while he locked the booklet in the chest again. “Does the script say anything about that too?”

“Not too much,” he admitted. “But I am convinced a chance will present itself. The Queen has his eyes on you.”

His words had you incredibly worried. You’d seen his cruel games and you’d felt his piercing gaze on you—just the prospect of having to be in his presence again terrified you. 

No, the Queen didn’t seem like the type of person you’d want to have the attention of. You would much rather be invisible than to be seen by him. Yanan surely wouldn’t be afraid of him; he could just turn invisible if things got dicey. You still remembered the cat’s cheeky smile before he’d disappeared on you. In fact, it was ingrained so clearly in your brain, you almost thought you saw it in the corner of the room. But when you blinked nothing was there.

You shook yourself out of it, focusing back on the problem at hand.

“But he doesn’t know, right? That I’m Alice?”

“No one knows,” Jinho reassured. “Only a selected few. The Rabbit. And the people in this room. Though,” he threw a quick glance at Changgu who was playing around with some props on a shelf, “who knows how long the Hare will remember. He tends to be a bit scatter-brained.”

“So, what now?” You asked once the three of you were outside the theater building again.

“Hm, I guess we need to go see Hongseok. I’m sure he’ll have some poison for you,” Shinwon replied and you almost flinched at his words. How could he say it so casually, as if it wasn’t a big deal? As if you weren’t supposed to kill someone with it?

“Off to the White Castle we go,” Changgu agreed. “The King is the best address for anyone seeking leach or lotion or poison or potions.”

“Hare! You can’t call him that. Not here.” Shinwon reprimanded him, his eyes searching the streets around you cautiously.

“Right, right. The Un-King, the Used-To-Be-King, the No-More-King,” Changgu corrected. “Either way, chemistry has always been Hongseok’s strong suit.”

You weren’t sure if brewing lethal poison was really part of regular chemistry, but you’d been curious about Hongseok anyway after everything they’d said and it wasn’t like you had a better idea.

“Wooseok will be there too,” Shinwon looked at you with a small smile. “Maybe you’d feel better after talking to him.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

You walked through the city for a bit. It was deserted again, no traces of all the people who’d still been out a while ago to attend the Queen’s so-called party. As if the sky had decided to match your mood, it had turned all black by now, lit up only by the crescent moon that was hidden behind thin clouds. Time seemed to be a little off here, and you thought you could understand the Rabbit a bit. Who wouldn’t be in a constant hurry if time passed almost randomly?

“Where’s everyone?” You eventually asked when you turned into yet another street that was completely void of people.

“It’s after the curfew,” Shinwon explained.

“Yes, the curfew,” Changgu was quick to nod. “Once the sky turned fully black, it's for the best to hurry back.”

“If the sun has fully set, it is time to go to bed,” Shinwon added.

“If the sky is in the moon, the knave of hearts will get you soon.”

“But Hare, that’s not how it goes. The moon is in the sky.”

“Hm, hm, right, that’s not how it goes,” Changgu repeated thoughtfully before his eyes widened with an epiphany. “Ah! If the moon is in the sky, fear the red Knave’s dreadful eye. For if he spots you in the street, a dire fate is what you’ll meet.”

He looked at you with a proud smile after he was done reciting his little poem, but you couldn’t really share his enthusiasm.

“So, we’re not supposed to be outside right now?”

“You’re so smart, Biscuit!”

“Then shouldn’t we go inside? And who’s the Knave anyway?” you asked, the term feeling a little familiar.

“Of Hearts,” Shinwon replied. “The Knave, that is.”

“The Knave of Hearts?”

“Yes, that’s right. He’s the Queen’s right-hand man.”

“You might have seen him at the party,” Changgu chimed in. “He has a scary look. And his birthday is in January.”

“Why does that matter?” You asked in confusion.

“Oh, it doesn’t. But it means he has an unbirthday today and instead of celebrating he’s surely out on patrol.”

“You must know me very well,” a deep voice suddenly sounded from behind you, making Changgu’s ears perk up in interest.

A man stepped out of the darkness of a house entrance, and the moment the dim light of the street lantern fell onto him, you recognized him as the guy with the wavy hair from the party. You remembered him well—mostly because of the gun that was surely tucked into the waistband of his pants even now.

“If it isn’t the Knave of Hearts himself,” Shinwon exclaimed with a delighted tone. “It’s been so long, Yuto, the last time must have been when—right, you probably wouldn’t want to talk about that. It was a dark day for your Queen after all.”

“Hatter,” Yuto replied with a straight face, his tone void of any emotion. “Always a pleasure.”

Then his eyes fell onto you.

“I see you still have your visitor with you. I would say their little scene today wasn’t a source of amusement for the Queen, but that would be a lie. In fact, Hyunggu was very amused.”

His words made a cold shiver run down your spine and you automatically took a small step back. 

“Oh, yes, our Biscuit is a very humorous person,” Shinwon replied, his voice still light but he held out his arm in front of you protectively.

Yuto huffed a laugh before glancing at the dark sky. “Still, violating the rules isn’t a funny matter. Why aren’t you in your cozy little hideout yet, Hatter?”

“We’re on our way!” Shinwon said.

Changgu nodded over-enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, on our way. Almost home!”

“Better hurry then. I won’t be as kind next time.” With that, Yuto turned around to go his way, leaving you with an anxious feeling in your stomach.

Shinwon let out a small sigh as soon as he was out of sight. “That was a close call. Now, let’s hurry, let’s hurry. I wouldn’t want to run into him twice. Not a very funny fellow.”

Shinwon and Changgu didn’t seem particularly shaken by the encounter. After a few steps they were back to their giddy selves. You on the other hand couldn’t stop yourself from checking each dark corner for a person hiding in the shadows.

When you spotted the ferris wheel towering above the surrounding buildings you started to suspect where you were headed: the amusement park. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d been there, but just like the theater it was a place with fond memories to you. 

Once you reached the entrance, Wonderland written on the archway in weathered letters, you had to find that there was none of the usual hustle and bustle. The park laid before you abandoned and still, solely the lights of the castle in the middle of the artificial lake flickered weakly in the distance. What used to be a vibrant, lively place looked washed out now, the fun rides and booths overgrown with patches of moss and their colors bleached out by the sun.

“Aaaand we made it,” Shinwon said as soon as he stepped through the entrance. 

“But we’re still outside?”

“Outside but not really. The curfew isn’t in force here.”

You looked around in confusion. You didn’t really see a reason why anything would be different on the grounds of the amusement park. “Why not?”

“Because the White King’s protective spell takes effect here. It keeps heartlings from entering. Even the Queen can’t enter,” Shinwon explained.

“The Queen isn’t as powerful as he’d like to make everyone believe,” Changgu added with a nod, as he headed straight for the shabby pedal boats in the shape of swans that were floating on the calm surface of the lake. 

He pulled one a little closer to the pier, gesturing for you to get in. When you set foot onto the boat it started to wobble dangerously and Changgu held out his hand to steady you, not letting go until you were safely sitting on the bench in the back. Shinwon got on next, taking one of the two front seats and Changgu hopped on last, after untying the rope from the metal loop on the pier. The two of them set to work, pedaling the little boat towards the small castle. As a child you had always dreamed of going there, but it hadn’t been open to the public, the pretty front just a means of decoration. Now though, there was no fence separating the little island from unwanted visitors, and the two of them easily steered the boat onto the narrow shore.

Changgu got off first, tying the rope around one of the two flagpoles that were positioned left and right of the castle. You remembered them to fly flags with the logo of the amusement park but now they were white, depicting a silver pentagon with a snowflake in the middle. The emblem of the White King, you supposed. The three of you walked the cobblestone path up to the entrance of the castle. Now that you were standing directly in front of it, it seemed way bigger than the decorative fake in your memory. It probably was bigger. 

Shinwon didn’t bother knocking on the double wing door before pushing it open and stepping inside. The lobby was all white, from the marble floor to the chandelier and it almost felt blinding.

“Hello?” Shinwon yelled into the building with the same tone you’d had at the gas station earlier today and you wondered if it was on purpose. “Hellooo?”

“Eh?” A honey blond head of hair appeared on the second floor, leaning over the handrail. “Shinwon? Changgu?”

Changgu raised his hand in a tiny wave, a dorky smile on his lips. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?” The guy asked as he walked towards the stairs and made his way down. “And who’s your friend?”

“Y/n,” you introduced yourself before anyone could beat you to it and say Alice or Biscuit.

The guy came to a halt in front of you and only now you realized how incredibly tall he was. There was nothing intimidating about him though as he looked at you through big doe eyes. His hair was combed back in neat waves and he was wearing a sweater vest that was loose even on his lanky frame.

“Wooseok,” he introduced himself and held out his hand in a greeting. In comparison to everyone else he seemed surprisingly normal.

“So, what are you doing here?”

“We’re looking for Hongseok,” Shinwon explained, slipping out of his shoes and leaving them by the entrance as if he was visiting someone else’s apartment and not the prop castle of an amusement park. Changgu did the same though and you realized Wooseok was wearing slippers as well, so you too toed out of your shoes. Surprisingly enough, the marble floor didn’t feel very cold beneath your feet at all.

“He’s in the kitchen,” Wooseok nodded towards a corridor to his right.

“Alright!” 

Shinwon sauntered down the hall with the casualty of someone who’d been there a thousand times before and Changgu followed along just as naturally. You were a few steps behind them, Wooseok next to you. He kept glancing over to you curiously but didn’t say anything.

“Hongseok!” Shinwon greeted just a bit too loudly as he threw open a door to reveal a spacious kitchen.

A man with curly brown hair looked up in surprise, his hands covered in flour and a white apron tied around his waist.

“Oh, Hatter. And Hare.” He went over to the sink and rinsed his hands before his gaze fell on you. “And another guest?”

“Yes, this is—”

“Alice!” Changgu interrupted his friend, visibly excited about sharing the news.

“Alice?” Wooseok’s head snapped around to you and he stared at you with wide eyes. “So, you’re—you’re not from here?”

You just looked back at him. You’d already been told that Wooseok was the old Alice, but it hadn’t even occurred to you that maybe he too wasn’t from this universe.

“Now, now,” Hongseok walked over to you, wiping his wet hands on his apron. “We shouldn’t corner our new Alice like that. What’s your name?”

“Y/n.”

“A pretty name,” he smiled and gently squeezed your hand. “I’m Hongseok, the White King, but you might have heard. Wooseok was our last Alice, but his part has already played out.”

“Yes, yes,” Shinwon interrupted. “Biscuit already knows all that. But what we don’t know yet is how to kill the Queen of Hearts.”

“Oh,” Hongseok’s eyes widened in surprise. “Is that your part?”

“Seems like it,” you murmured, not withholding that you weren’t exactly fond of it all.

“Mhm, so it’s that time already. It’s really coming to this.” With a swift movement of his hand he motioned for the others to leave. “Give us a moment, will you?”

They did as they were told, though Wooseok lingered a moment longer before actually stepping out and closing the door behind him. 

“Do you want to drink something? A coffee? A hot chocolate? I have cookies too.”

You were inclined to say no, but when you gave it another thought you realized you hadn’t eaten anything in quite a while and could also really use the comfort of a hot drink. Hongseok prepared a hot chocolate and a plate of cookies for you, while you sat down at the small table in the corner of the room. Once he was done he sat down across from you, his eyes calm and gentle. After how Shinwon and Changgu had talked about him, it shouldn’t have surprised you, but it still amazed you how different his whole aura was compared to the Queen of Hearts. Where the Queen had been intimidating and rash, Hongseok radiated kindness and patience.

“Here,” He mumbled after a moment, nudging the plate of cookies a bit in your direction to encourage you to try some. “They are good, I promise. I only just made them this morning.”

You hesitantly took one and started to nibble on it, only to find that Hongseok had been way too humble—it tasted amazing.

“See? They are good right?” He looked a little proud when you nodded. “So, do you want to tell me about it? About what’s written in the script?”

In all honesty, you didn’t. But it seemed like he wanted to help so you told him about everything that you’d found out at the theater. Through it all, Hongseok listened calmly.

“So now,” you concluded your story, “I have to find a way to actually do it.”

“Well,” Hongseok nodded slowly, “here’s the thing: the Queen of Hearts is not easily harmed. Not just anyone can—it has to be Alice. And even then, there’s only one weakness.” 

“Which?” 

“The heart.”

“The heart?” In a way it seemed plausible for that to be the weakness of someone called the Queen of Hearts, but at the same time it seemed a little too simple.

“Yes.”

“How do I do it then?”

“Mhm,” he got up from his chair and walked towards a glass cabinet with a zillion little bottles and jars inside.

“I know of two ways. One is this,” he held up a little test glass with a dark red liquid in it. You swallowed around the lump in your throat. 

“Poison?” 

“It's the blood of the Jabberwocky to be precise. But poison describes it just fine. Once it gets into your body it will pollute your blood and ultimately make your heart stop.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be that hard. You could just add some to his food. Still, the thought of being able to feel it invading your blood circulation made your skin crawl. “And the other way?” 

“I doubt you’ll like it.” 

“What is it?” 

Hongseok sighed before opening the drawer beneath the glass cabinet. He pulled out a silver dagger so radiant it almost looked white. He held it out to you and you hesitated before you stood up and took it with trembling fingers. It was lighter than you’d expected and ice cold to the touch. 

“If you stab him with that—but it needs to be right in the heart.”

That was definitely worse. You would never be able to actually go through with something like that.

“I couldn’t,” you pressed out, holding it out in your open palm for Hongseok to take it back. 

But he gently closed your hand around the hilt again. 

“You don’t have to use it. But keep it, just in case.” 

“There won’t be a case.” 

“All the better.”

Hongseok had invited all three of you to spend the night in the castle, so you wouldn’t have to go out during the curfew again. The room you’d gotten was fancy and as white and shiny as the rest of the castle’s interior. In the middle of it was a soft bed that smelled like vanilla and fresh snow and just waited for you to slip under the covers, but you felt restless. You paced the room, unable to tune out that there was a dagger and a little heart shaped pendant with poison laying on your nightstand. This definitely wasn’t how you’d expected your day to end. It seemed to have gone downhill from the moment you’d stepped foot to that cursed party, but when Shinwon had talked about the Caterpillar having answers, there’d been a sliver of hope flaring up inside of you. Now, there was nothing left of that.

Even though you’d gotten your answer on how to get back to your world, you didn’t feel relieved in the slightest. All you could think of was the horrifying things you’d have to go through before finally going back. And the worst part was that you didn’t seem to have a choice, not really. Even if you decided it wasn’t worth it and you’d just stay—what was written in the script would happen either way.

series masterlist // character introduction // ptg masterlist

[pears-trinkets]

I watched a tiktok some days ago where OP was talking about their art variating in quality according to what they were drawing. Like for example when they were doing commissions quality plummeted and they'd ragequit because it was so frustrating even if they wanted to make it work but when they were drawing fanart for a series they loved it would be on a completely different professional level

And then they explained how they talked to a friend about it and the friend asked them

"Well are you passionate about art or are you passionate about the media you're drawing?"

Which sounds so simple and obvious but I literally needed it to be spelled out like that for it to click??

I feel like some kind of spell has been lifted a bit since then? I dont know

But all my life I was passionate about art itself and was only drawing TO DRAW but then with the internet and fandoms (that bring community and more engagement thats passionate in itself) but also art school and pressure to make a living out of it and to not get lost in the algorithm I was actually mad at myself why I couldn't draw fanart and capture that fanart vibe etc as others could but it was literally just not my main thing and wouldnt be sustainable longtime on its own

And I've literally burned myself out doing that and ever since I thought I'd use series and fanart like a crutch to get myself going again because I couldn't even imagine doing it on my own without any help but I've been actually doing myself a disservice with that?

I was trying to mend my problem with anime and movies and books and games but that's not what was broken to begin with

Its just such a different approach to everything to think "I'm getting my passion, love and joy for art back" and "I'm getting my passion for the media I love back through fandom and their passion I can piggyback off of" and how it makes things work from within and I feel stupid for thinking like that

Because at the end of the day it comes down to you and having to sit with yourself while drawing and how that's making you feel

And now it absolutely makes sense how so many people I knew were doing art but actually hated it and talked negatively about it and had no fun in art itself because they just wanted to contribute or show their love to a fandom but didnt enjoy doing it through drawing

And why we couldn't really connect because of these different approaches because while I was like DRAWING DRAWING DRAWING they were CHARACTER ABC CHARACTER ABC CHATACTER ABC

I dont know

It has been such an impactful thing I thought I might as well share it for anyone who needs it

The creator on tiktok is @ almostzander and they also concluded that it was an audhd hyperfixation problem and I'm still letting that simmer a bit in my head because I think that everyone experiences this on some level like just doing something for the wrong reasons to put it simple but I also think we are definitely more deceptive to that!

(this is me letting it simmer)

[allmoshnobrain]

WAIT WAIT WAIT-

did you watch Saltburn? if so, I wanna know your full opinion plz

I've heard so many contradicting opinions and yours is very important to me

💚🖤🤍

I did, love, I watched it last week! I only watched it once though, I want to watch it at least one more time so I can really absorb and process the whole thing

I'm not sure if you want my opinion on any specific aspects so I'm gonna ramble for a bit

This might get quite long though so, opinions under the cut!

(Please be aware this will have spoilers. Like, a lot.)

First of all THE AESTHETIC OF THIS MOVIE!!! Everything looked so beautiful and I just loved the way they chose to portray everything, I'm a bit of a design and arts nerd so the photography and lighting choices made me so so happy because it fit the movie's mood perfectly

Also, did you know that the title card was made in stop motion and it took like MONTHS to make it because every frame took forever to be hand drawn and animated?

I saw Emerald Fennel comment somewhere that the movie is all about a beauty that drives us mad and I am so not normal about this concept. Like please I just need more of this in my life

I had been spoiled about the "shocking" parts and honestly they were a lot more okay than I imagined based on what my friends were saying lol

BUT NOW TO THE PLOT

I just love the whole unreliable narrator thing. The way the film starts with Oliver's narration and finishes with it - we only ever get to see his point of view of the whole thing and I think the main thing here is how he was drawn to Felix since the beginning. Maybe because Felix represented the life and status he wanted to have, maybe because he was just in love because, well, he says all the time I WASN'T IN LOVE WITH HIM but then we get all of this shots of him just LONGING over Felix and well, yes, I do think he was in love, at least with the idea of him.

I don't think he planned to murder the entire family from the start, I think he wanted to get closer to Felix in that mix of infatuation over him and over his status, I think he was very happy manipulating his family to like him and driving away anyone who could threaten that, like Farleigh. But things kind of get out of control when Felix figures out he's lying and I think also when Farleigh gives him the "you'll never belong here because it's a blood/family thing and you are nothing" speech.

And now he's drunk and heartbroken and angry and then no one even knows his name when they sing Happy Birthday to him and I think he realizes then that even if he gets Felix to forgive him he'll always be just a pet to these people. Their little "poor" friend who's a novelty to all of their rich aristocratic friends and families. I think that's then that he decides to murder Felix.

And there is all this Romeo and Juliet references/subtext, like they both swallow the poison but then Felix is left to die alone because Oliver refuses to drink the poison. I've seen some people saying he was planning to die with him and gave up last minute but I don't think that's what happened, I think he decided to kill Felix that night because he realized he was never gonna have him the way he wanted. I don't think he even wanted to kill anyone else at this point, I think he just kind of wanted to kill Felix and then take his place in the family, to sort of become him.

But then after when he talks to Venetia he realizes that plan's never gonna work because apparently Elspeth is the only one still under his spell. So he's never gonna have Felix, he's never gonna have Felix's place in this family and now Felix's sister and dad know how obsessive and manipulating he is, so he's probably gonna lose his spot in the family as Elspeth's darling real soon, so he kills Venetia as well. Now I don't think he actually kills her in her sleep or something, I think he just knew she was unstable as fuck and left the razors there knowing she would do the work. I think he would have planned something real quick though, had she not taken the bait.

And then there's the ending where he gets everything - Saltburn and probably the family fortune as well - and he finally gets to become and own the beautiful, beautiful things he longed for SO LONG. I've seen people saying Oliver is a genius and stuff, and I think yeah his plan worked for the most part, but only because he adapted and eliminated his prey swiftly. I think his original plan was to be with Felix, so when that couldn't happen he wanted to become Felix, but that went wrong as well, so he resorted to the last option - devouring everything Felix held dear. In the end, he was obsessed with Felix - he loved him, he admitted that himself.

And I do think he was in love as well lol

I think Oliver is such an interesting character - he's fascinating at times, but also repulsive. He's smart, sure, and he knows how to pull the right strings at the right time, but I think his original plan failed. He just let himself be driven mad by the fascination he felt for Felix and for how everything about him was so, so beautiful, and then devoured everything he could with no restraints. And that was sure a crazy ride to watch!