#so i think thats the direction im going to go with this prompt

[eye-prophet]

Dc x Dp Prompt

Look when Sam said that he's been acting like a cat more and more recently Danny thought she was joking. But now there are cat ears sticking out of his head and he has absolutelly no clue what to do.

Just yesterday he transformed into Phantom just fine, nothing out of the ordinary. His hair white, eyes green, teeth fanged, everything how its supposed to be. Now he is transformed and there are cat ears sticking out of his everflowing hair. A pair of unnaturally white fluffy cat ears.

But its not like he could think about it, hes fighting (insert ghost). And oh fuck. Thats Sam and Tucker in the crowd taking pictures of him. Clockwork has forsaken him, Danny had no other explanation.

After the fight he was gonna head to Tucker's because why is he a furry now. Sure maybe going to Frostbite is a smart idea, but Danny was so not in the mood for that.

So standing in Tucker's bedroom he was just waitung for his partners best friends to stop laughing at his misery. Danny could have waited, he wanted to if he was honest with himself. But he kind of can't do that when a freaking PORTAL opens up underneath him.

He barely felt the summoning take place before he was falling through the portal as Sam's and Tucker's faces froze with worry. Danny felt his form change, entering a more kingly one.

He arose in some dingy dungeon. A circle in blood and green around him with symbols drawn around. "Who dares summon the Ghost King?" His voice echoy and distorted boomed. I mean, if he was being summoned he can atleast be a bit dramatic.

A dying laughter cut through. All of Danny's 2?4?9?35? eyes snapped in its direction. There stood a depressed looking trenchcoat guy. He reeked of alcohol and magic.

"The- *wheeze* the fucking king's a furry-" trenchcoat barely got out laughing, a british accent present.

Danny's eyes quickly scanned his surrounding in confusion, seeing... holy shit isthatBatman. Trying to not appear super shocked he looked towards a very conviniently placed mirror in the dungeon (idk man im half asleep).

His Crown Of Ice floated above his head, the kindgly regalia looked normal, the totally normal amount of eyes and mouths sat on their regular places, constalations floating around him. But holy shit why were his legs like a cats? Is that a tail??? The ears are probably surprising him the least.

How was he supposed to be serius when even the depressed british gandalf didn't. And this was infront of The Batman. Danny is about to die fully right now. Death from embarassment, worse than electrecution. Trust him.

[majorasnightmare]

okay so like. mizora

im pretty sure we're in agreement that the conditions for wylls pact were sus as fuck right? like there just happened to be a fully formed cult to tiamat rarin to go right outside baldurs gate mid ritual, and the home of high harper and nosy grandma JAHEIRA didnt notice shit?? nobody saw anything and no one could confirm wylls story despite baldurs gate having an active enough night life to sustain 7 actively hunting vampire spawn for at LEAST 200 years AND a sewer murder cult committing covert assassinations and murder sprees??? with a cult of bane conducting weapons trade deals and the knights of the shield operating a smuggling ring??? the flaming fist didnt even see anything to pointedly ignore??? not a single chickenshit recruit filed a report about observing a dragons head in the night sky with a filed dismissal by a senior officer claiming they probably drank too much. Saitama_Okay.jpg

im personally of the opinion that zariel didnt stage that particular incident but DID utilize agents to provoke tiamats cult into action while also stifling potential witnesses. we know raphael does similar because of his stupid chess themed letters to his own agents, so its not unreasonable to suspect zariel is doing the same. but i think the REAL prize of that particular operation was not the destruction of an active tiamat cult, but instead something more subtle and with a potentially higher payoff: the ear of duke ravengards son. a dragon cult getting annhilated was a bonus, and a convenient call to action besides

mizora, by karlachs admission, was part of zariels personal inner circle (by choice, as devils are ambitious creatures with a drive to climb the ladder). this means that, through mizora, zariel herself took direct personal interest in wyll ravenguard. wyll himself was only 17 years old by this point: he had yet to achieve anything of note and was drifting through noble highborn society as the odd man out, son to a lowborn duke who rised through meritocracy and raised to appreciate the down-to-earth rural pasttimes his father grew up with, like fishing. wyll himself had nothing to offer to a devil besides his heritage; baldurs gate is full enough of self sacrificing do-gooders to keep the harpers regularly staffed, and The Urge regularly sated. for mizora to target wyll specifically makes the most sense if the real target was his connection to the current grand duke of baldur's gate, a city home to a practicing diabolist, several evil cults, and itself has been a hotbed of planar activity thanks to the dead threes meddling for YEARS. that ulder also commands the flaming fist, the gates de facto policing force, is also a point to consider.

this is also reflected in wylls pact, and the terms we experience of it. wyll specifically states that the terms of his pact primarily target the evil, the monstrous, and the heartless. remember, this is BEFORE he was the blade of frontiers. he became a warlock 7 years before the game, but only became the Blade five years prior to the plot. thats a two year gap of being a warlock but not the blade, where his pact STILL primarily targeted monsters. this is. a REALLY weird pact for a devil to offer! like firstly, its overwhelmingly in wylls favor. there is very little wyll does FOR mizora, and the targets she assigns to wyll near exclusively align with his moral code. he sees no reason to doubt mizoras portrayal of karlach, and has to be prompted into sparing her even as he hesitates, because past experience has told him that mizoras targets DO deserve to be slain as judged by HIS beliefs, as indicated by his line of participating in a mummers farce, and him playing his part all too poorly. wylls upset at himself for not thinking to question mizoras target and considering his hunt of karlach to be just. clearly thats because, in every other instance, wyll believed that to be the case!

thats REALLY FUCKIN WEIRD for a devil! like yes mizora gets to take down political rivals using wyll, because wyll knows devils are evil, but. thats a really weird pact to sign in return for destroying a cult mid god summon? like you could extort a LOT more for that and be assured youd get it, cuz its ALL OF BALDURS GATE and the RETURN OF TIAMAT on the line. and it doesnt seem to be a case of poor dealmaking, unlike raphael, whos every deal overwhelmingly reeks of desperation. he'll translate astarions back if you kill yurgir, because he really really really needs you to kill yurgir before he figures out raphael played him and he gets out because of it, and the clock is rapidly ticking down on that because balthazar is already in the temple, interacting with the dark justiciar skeletons, and actively looking for yurgir because the orthons annoying him. we are literally a single step removed from balthazar casually dropping the fact theres a dark justiciar hivemind in the bodies of 100 rats and raphael getting his ass beat for setting yurgir up. raphael really really wants you to hate the emperor and free orpheus because the only bargaining chip he has is the hammer, and in the midst of THAT deal literally spells out its location for you and why youd want it, for free. raphael the crown of karsus is almost in reach but to defeat the absolute ill need the plastic card you dad keeps in his wallet, make sure you send me the 16 numbers on the front, the 3 on the back, and the expiration date! hurry raphael we dont have much time!

comparitively mizora only ever bargains from a perceived position of strength. she can afford to make demands of wyll because he has no way to stop tiamats summoning without her. then, later, she has the easiest and most accessible source of information for wylls father knowing his life is in danger as a political prisoner. these are very strong bargaining positions! shes only ever undercut by the players presence bargaining on wylls behalf. its a quick and easy way to show that her inflated opinion of herself isnt entirely without merit, although her second pact is framed as choosing between two potential agreements, save wyll and kill ulder, or save ulder and damn wyll, when in reality shes proposing a new pact that has no authority over wyll OR ulder until signed (which is why you can save ulder because she doesnt actually have the pact given authority to insta kill him the way she implies, she can only throw thwartable assassins at him like anyone else with a grudge). shes a manipulator with plenty of skin in the game and a good amount of success behind her that justifies her position within zariels court. the point of this is make a point of highlighting how *little* mizora actually fucks with wyll *as enabled by the terms of the pact*. mizora is cruel, she is manipulative, she is condescending and rude, and she makes wylls life awful with her presence, but takes very few ACTIONS towards those ends, and relies primarily on verbally demeaning him. when he violates a clause in their pact, mizora utilizes a loophole to make karlach qualify by its terms and then punishes wyll by infusing his soul with infernal essence. thats... really it. you can watch wyll backtalk her, but she doesnt even do that leash yank she does in act 1. if you blenderize her, wyll dies by the pacts terms, but like. mizora literally also dies, and is REALLY upset by it to boot. you break wylls pact, tell mizora to fuck off with her second one, and she just kinda stomps her foot and fucks off for a bit before loitering in your camp still. as a warlock you can even mention to wyll that she very easily could have snatched his soul about the karlach thing but she doesnt.

in terms of "classic warlock struggles" we barely see mizora do anything beyond being an Unpleasant Person wyll is forced to interact with. theres none of the classic "being compelled to do something evil for self serving ends at risk of suffering The Horrors", mizora barely even tries to corrupt him. wyll is never forced by mizora into circumstances where he has to evaluate his code of ethics against an action he needs to take and decide what parts of his moral code he needs to capitulate on and what to keep, wyll keeps almost every single line in the sand he ever draws! his biggest character conflicts are actually between his OWN ideals, whether to live within the heroic persona of the Blade of Frontiers, or to accept his own capability of failings and live as Wyll Ravengard. like. being a warlock barely factors at all into those decisions and the closest it comes to mattering is choosing whether or not wyll breaks his pact or saves his father, which you can expose as a false choice by just rescuing his dad anyways. mizora exerts that little influence over wylls interior world. for a literal devil on his shoulder, bargaining from the greatest position of strength a negotiator could ask for, that is so fucking WEIRD.

okay thats a whole lotta post pointing out that mizoras motivations for even makin the damn pact in the first place needs examining, so now several paragraphs in let me actually get to what i MEANT to talk about. so firstly weve established that 17 yr old wyll doesnt have anything unique to entice a devil beyond his connection to the grand duke. weve established that the pact is weirdly in wylls favor, and that its pointedly not a Skill Issue but seems to be intentional, and furthermore that the POINT of the pact doesnt seem to be corrupting a good soul into the embrace of the Hells to make a new devil, because the pact seems to be made to allow wyll to just Be Himself comfortably without much internal conflict or moral sacrifice. we know that wyll made the pact before he became the blade of frontiers, and thus the pact was not made with the Blade of Frontiers persona in mind, which removes another layer of potential justification for the extremely loose terms of the pact. we know zariel is interested in wyll through the usage of mizora as his patron, and we know that stopping the summoning of tiamat without any external aid from the myriad conflicting interests within baldurs gate almost definitely necessitated a good amount of smokescreen work behind the scenes, but also that it most likely wasnt staged in its entirely because it benefits zariel to thwart tiamats ambitions. so. why is wyll ravengard a warlock pacted to mizora? i suggest the following hypothetical: that mizoras goal, and by extension zariels, was to have a morally agreeable framework within which to make a pact with duke ravengards son, such that hed be guaranteed to agree to it, and then to hide the evidence of the pacts circumstances to allow themselves greater reign to act within baldurs gate. that the goal was to have a devil on the shoulder of the dukes son, to push their relationship into strain so as to make ulder ravengards behavior more predictable and thus vulnerable to manipulation, and that through mizora (through wyll), zariel would have a first hand source to the inner political workings of baldurs gate, and the movements of the flaming fist and the goals they were pursuing. through the fist, zariel could keep track of the cult elements they were investigating (and thus what rivals need deposing), and through wyll and his father, zariel could monitor the movements of the gates upper class and utilize mizoras skillset to ingratiate wyll further into high society and put him in close proximity to those capable of mustering meaningful resistance to an influx of infernal influence. wylls relationship to his father prior to his pact was good, we know ulder was a firm but loving father and that wyll was generally well liked in baldurs gate in general, and that wyll openly admired his father and sought to follow in his footsteps. it is in fact extremely reasonable to suspect that such a good relationship was more than a single incident away from breaking. its in fact more reasonable to presume that a major political figure would be aware of the adage of keeping ones friends close, and enemies closer, such that you could monitor their movements. its reasonable to believe that one would assume good intentions on the part of ones son, who himself has made it known that he desires to be like you. to assume, in good faith, that even with all signs of dragoncult activity removed, that ones son clearly lost his eye and gained new scars *somehow*, through *some* kind of incident related to his new fiend pact. all of these are logical and reasonable things to assume and plan for, when you have made a point of manipulating people, of reading their intentions and catering to them like a monkeys paw.

that ulder ravengard would not just chastise wyll, but banish him from baldur's gate entirely, must have been a horrible shock, not just for wyll, but for mizora. i doubt the uneventful two year gap between taking the pact and becoming the blade was purposeful. it makes more sense to interpet that as mizora simply having no fucking idea what to do with her warlock now, as the pact she dictated (designed so that wyll never felt it was unjust enough to make a point of breaking it, no matter how often he thought of doing so, because it was so in favor of him and aligned with his moral code), simply had no vehicles for any of the usual courses of action. cant force wyll into tricky moral quandries, because she can only ask him to kill evil, infernal, monstrous, or heartless beasts. cant ostracize him through the pact to isolate and grind him down, wyll cant talk about it. what do you even do? now your both stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the pact to show for it

and heres where i veer into hot take interpretation country. i think mizora genuinely likes wyll. when you blenderize her in moonrise towers (before reloading a previous save ofc), her screams are oddly... genuine? confused, frightened, upset. its odd than an otherwise vindictive and catty individual isnt angry upon being killed, but confused and hurt sounding. i think in a lot of ways mizora both relies on the consistency of wylls moral code, while also considering it a hinderance, not to her plans (thoroughly derailed thanks to one ulder ravengard) but to wylls own personal development as a person. shes a devil, she doesnt have the kind of personality where she can be genuine and vulnerable and kind. but she was stuck as the only authority figure wyll had to rely on, for seven whole years, after being kicked out of the only life he ever knew and the only home he ever had. i think in a weird fucked up way, she really does want whats best for him, its just that her opinion of that is filtered through the lens of Literally Being A Devil. none of this is to say she was *good* to wyll. how wyll feels about mizora is pretty blatantly stated, and would be a much shorter post, and im not here to interrogate that or question it, because being stuck with a devil who can use your eye to spy on you is just an awful experience even without regular verbal degradation on top of it. im mostly just intrigued by the other end of that relationship. mizora clearly cares enough about keeping wyll as a warlock to go as far as trying to make a second pact with him if you succeed in negotiating the first one to be broken. which, as weve established above, is really weird because Wyll himself brings next to nothing a devil would value to the table. Mizora isnt trying to corrupt him into breaking his ethics, really the only thing she pushes is sacrificing his father instead, a decision a recruited minthara finds value in as "patricide is often the first step to greatness". i think mizora might have ulterior motives for wanting ulder ravengard dead, and i think its because she believes that wylls love for his father is holding him back. any time wyll is selfish in pushing back on her, mizora indicates some measure of being impressed on wylls behalf. if you encourage wyll to not sign the second pact, mizora taunts him with his fathers death but still says shes genuinely impressed that hes choosing himself over his father

genuinely i think what mizora wants is for wyll to become a more assertive person. a more selfish, self interested, less heroic, less self sacrificing individual. i think mizora considers wylls tendency to bend over backwards to help people to be actively detrimental to him, and i think shes invested in his growth as a person by virtue of being a guide and companion for seven of the loneliest years of wylls life, and in a fucked up devil kind of way i think she invests her pride into it. that, with her plans so thoroughly mangled, the LEAST she can do is forge wyll into a warlock worth the cost. wyll has so much potential he refuses to take, as minthara (another ambitious prideful character) will note, and its explicitly because he would rather give something up than take for himself. i think thats part of why mizora is so cruel and demeaning towards him, to try and push wyll to be pettier or more spiteful, instead of endlessly self sacrificing for the benefit of others, and this is even consistent with her punishment of wyll! she turns him into a devil and specifically notes that he wont be able to be the heroic persona The Blade of Frontiers anymore! ie the facade thats swallowed up wyll ravengard completely at the beginning of the story! i think her investment in wyll as a person is why shes so upset if you kill her at moonrise, because i think she genuinely thought that wyll would always save her and turning him into a lemure was a kind of bluff she didnt expect to cash in.

this would also explain why the terms of her second pact are so comically extreme. eternal damnation and serving zariel forever in return for maybe possibly getting to save ulder from a dangerous situation where he might die anyways from the absolute crisis and WILL die in a few decades from old age even if all goes well? its almost like shes taunting wyll. give it up, give up everything youve ever worked for and sacrifice everything you want to achieve to lock yourself into the worst evil you can think of for someone who banished you who might not even survive anyways. make this overwhelmingly stupid self sacrifice because thats just what you do wyll, never think of yourself or whats best for you, only other people, trade away all of eternity for the CHANCE of someone else getting another day, if THAT. this contract is so blatantly overwhelmingly unfair i DARE you to think so little of yourself youd agree to it. of course she wont congratulate him for choosing himself over his father, shes a devil and she has to rub salt in the wound, but that doesnt mean she disapproves of the choice. the only way wyll ever gets away from her is by thinking of himself and mizora takes every chance she gets to punish him for sacrificing himself and i think its because she knows he can do more if he just takes it for himself instead of passing it up. its the only kind of affection a devil can have. and every time i sit there and talk wyll through breaking his pact at moonrise and bully mizora into giving him a rapier (one of the best in the game, made specifically for wyll, made specifically out of his pact, when she doesnt have to give him anything and least of all something good, how its a reward specifically for wanting more from her and demanding it and not letting a circumstance where you have power over her go), i keep seeing hints of it underneath the surface.

a genuine devilish compassion for a warlock who rightfully loathes her, a loathing she encourages whenever she can. does wyll need an enemy to keep him from getting complacent? something to strive for thats just for his own benefit? it doesnt benefit anyone else for wyll to break his pact. most people benefit from him keeping it. its why he HAS kept it, all these years, despite hating mizora. i think mizoras taken it upon herself to do what the duke refuses to, and thats making sure Wyll becomes someone who can thrive in the world as she understands it. someone who has the ambition to reach higher, someone selfish enough to step on somebody else to get what they need, someone who refuses to get themselves killed just for somebody elses sake, somebody who doesnt give unless they receive in equal or greater value. someone who sees a situation where they have power, where someone needs them, and gets all they can out of it. and if not for people they want to protect, then at LEAST exploiting the people they HATE. does mizora demean him so much so that wyll is more comfortable firing back? so that wyll doesnt have to feel like hes becoming a worse person if he treats her as bad as he gets? if he treats his help as conditional, for her and only her, does he get to walk away feeling like he hasnt done anything wrong because he knows mizora does worse, and more often, and at least wyll will eventually help?

when he breaks his pact, and tells her no, he wont sign another, when he saves his father anyways, when he tells her off and gets everything he wants without sacrificing a damn thing, underneath the bluster and rage, is mizora proud of him?

things to consider sometime.

[iamnotyourgodsherald]

@desired-love- Im so sorry I haven't got to your prompt yet! Im here now, though, because I just had to write your prompt. I think Alistair, being natural so curious about magic and seeing that beauty within his love interest, is so tender and sweet. Like opening a whole new door for him! I also played Surana in a playthrough I did on Twitch a LONG time ago and absolutely loved playing her. (She didn't romance Alistair, though.) Sorry for rambling, but heres the finished prompt! I kept her appearance as vague as possible so anyone could group their Surana in. <3

Name: "Opened Doors."

Contains: First Love. Fluff. Romantic Starry Night. Dancing.

Characters: Alistair Theirin. Warden Surana.

Music I listened to while writing: Can you feel my love? By Juniper Hale. (Acoustic Version)

I know this is a fluff piece, but all of my work is considered 18+, so no minors can interact.

"Maker! It's sooo good to finally be out of that armor!" Alistair cheered.

Alistair stretched his arms above his head, grunting from the effort. The knuckles of his hands cracked, and he could finally feel the strain from all the fighting on his aching muscles, but to feel them at all made Alistair all the happier. Once he relaxed his body, he looked over the camp, taking a deep breath of the crisp evening air, only losing his smile slowly once he realized that Surana was not sitting in camp.

He looked over at Leliana, who happened to be walking by at the time and tapped her shoulder.

"Hey, Leliana. Where's Surana? I don't see her in camp."

Leliana stared at him before a smile slowly appeared on her face. The coyness in her smile made him feel uneasy and hesitate asking her.

"Why?"

"I... Just wanted to make sure she's safe. S-she is a mage. She doesn't... wear armor like we do!"

He suddenly felt embarrassed for even asking, and he had no idea why. He was only asking for safety reasons, he told her and himself.

Right?

Leliana turned and pointed out into the forest, a mischievious grin appearing on her soft face.

"Wellll, I did see her going off into the forest. I can't imagine that she went very far from camp, though. You seem to be rather protective of her. Is your templar training kicking in or is there... Something else~?"

"N-no! I didn't even become a full templar. She's just... frail. Want to make sure she's okay. Besides, we are wanted? It's not a good idea to be separated."

"Yes, thats the reason. No other." Leliana chirped.

Alistair felt his face get hot, and he started quickly walking towards the direction Leliana pointed to.

"NO. OTHER. REASON."

Leliana ended up being right. Surana didn't get too far into the forest outside of camp, but he could see why Surana would want to be out here. The air was cool, but little flashing bugs were flying around, dancing around him as he walked. It was the perfect night to clear his head, he thought. He was having too many run through his head recently.

Alistair ended up finding Surana dancing under a moon beam that was shining down from a hole in the canopy of trees. Her hair almost glittered in the soft, silver light of the moon. Her eyes sparkled like the sky above. White stars twinkling in her big, joyful eyes and her long night dress fluttering as she hopped around, sparks dancing at her ankles as her feet touched the ground. Her giggles were quiet but filled with unmistakenable joy.

Wow, look at her... She's so beautiful when she smiles... Maker, what am I thinking? Alistair thought to himself as he approached and then promptly reprimanded himself.

"Surana?" Alistair spoke gently.

He was trying not to spook her, but as he made his presence known, she jumped, flames bursting at her feet.

She cursed, looking embarrassed and trying to put out the fire with her dress now, and Alistair, not wanting the fotest to burn down with them in it, threw himself on top of the fire to snuff it out.

Surana started to apologize over and over gently, trying to quickly lift Alistair to his feet as she brushed his chest free of debris and soot. Alistair returned with apologies of his own, checking her to make sure she wasn't injured from the flames. Once they realized their hands were on the others, Alistair and Surana blushed together in embarrassment, their eyes making sure to look anywhere else but the others eyes.

"I was trying so badly not to spook you... You seemed to be enjoying yourself." Alistair forced out.

"Yes... It was the first time since I was a child that had this much... freedom. I just wanted to enjoy using my magic the way... I wanted to for a little while."

"Well, it was... pretty. The-The way you were making it dance at your feet! It was like the... the flashing bugs."

She giggled, which made Alistairs heart jump in his chest, and he felt his mouth curl into a smile. A smile that he couldn't force away.

"The flashing bugs?"

"You know... The bugs that light up their butts as they fly around."

She laughed louder, snorting as she did, and all Alistair wanted was to make her do that more. The urge was so strong within him, but he held himself back. He just quietly enjoyed her laughter as he looked down at her.

When she finally stopped, she looked around them for a moment before leaning up to Alistair.

"Would... would you like to see what else I can do with my magic...?" Surana offered quietly.

Excitement raced through his chest, and he spoke before he could think.

"Yes! I uh... I would love to see more."

She bounced in place and grabbed Alistairs hand, pulling him along into the open spot she was dancing in before. Alistair gulped as she held his hand in hers, her hand small and thin compared to his and softer too. Not a single callous, he thought to himself. He couldn't bear to say no or pull away from her. He just went along with whatever she wanted.

"What are we...?"

"Do you know how to dance?"

"Uhm. I uh.. I never really practiced... I practiced with the other templars when I was young. To prepare for balls or things like that. You know, young gentleman stuff... Can you see me? Dancing at balls? I'd most likely serve cheese balls or something to-"

Alistair felt two fingers press against his lips gently, and he looked down at a snickering Surana, who was looking up at him with starry eyes and a shaky smile.

"Hush."

"Yes-Yes, Ma'am. I MEAN SURANA."

She shook her head and took his hands in hers and wrapped one of them around her waist, and took his other hand in hers in a dancing pose, gently swaying.

"Just... Do what you remember. I want to feel like... I want to recreate my favorite part in a story Im reading."

"Oh... uh... Okay..." Alistair said nervously.

At first, Alistair was so nervous and so anxious about how close she was to him that he felt like he couldn't move. Then he willed himself to step to the side. Then again. Swinging her gently as he took steps. Then swinged again. Once he started to get a rhythm down, he looked down at Surana, who was smiling up at him.

"You're doing great, Alistair! I feel like I am a princess having her first dance with a prince at a ball. Or a private garden visit!" She giggled.

Oh, if you only knew...

He smiled at her and pressed her body closer to him. With his heart pounding in his chest, he began to spin her gently in circles as he swayed and stepped with her. He watched her press her face gently into his chest, almost cuddling into him, and it made his heart race faster. Filling his head with all kinds of romantic desires.

Her hair blowing in the breeze as they sat on a hill, his hand in hers as they walked along a soft dirt road, her smile always being directed towards him as they talked. He felt a goofy smile growing on his face as he thought these things, making him feel giggly and bashful. Like a school boy with his first crush.

A pretty girl is dancing with me... A pretty girl is dancing with me! Maker, thank you for this!

It took him a minute to realize that all around them as they danced were some kind of multi colored orbs of light that were floating and moving with them. That and they both were floating off the ground by a couple of inches as they danced. He snapped out of his daydream, looking around them at the lights, watching their feet glide across the air and wondering how he never before saw this kind of magic.

Such a gentle display... I am so used to seeing destructive magic or... or healing... I didn't realize... how beautiful it could be...

"Are you okay?"

Alistair looked down into Surana's eyes, getting lost into her vastness with a smile that turned soft.

"More than okay... This is... beautiful. You..."

He paused before hugging her gently against his chest, swaying back and forth to continue their dance. Leaving darkspawn and the Blight behind in the back of his mind. Only thinking of her now.

"You are beautiful, Surana..."

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Elisabeth: das Musical (1992) [Elisabeth: the Musical]

Ayyyyyyyyy its been several months but Im BACK BABEY!!! Im not gonna be back for long though because Im not unemployed yet so I dont have the time to watch movies and write reviews about them all the time, but I do have the time to sit down every once in a while and write a little bit of this. which has been taking me several months now

Anyway, if you thought I wouldnt use this project as an excuse to rewatch my favorite musical, you would be very wrong >:)

Now, since this is my favorite musical you would probably think that writing a review would be easy, but because Ive basically been thinking about it nonstop for a few months, its caused me to have this giant buildup of thoughts, its kind of like theres a clogged faucet in my brain right now, to the point where I struggle to properly articulate any of them, especially if Im not being prompted somehow. Like it goes beyond vampire-autism at this point, its not enough to just invite me to talk about Elisabeth, you need to ask me specific questions (on that note, my askbox is always open <3)

So yeah, Im not going to go into a lot of detail but to make up for that, I will be talking about all different productions Ive seen so far in the order that I watched them in (all proshots because Im unfortunately very picky when it comes to my musical-recordings looking and sounding good lol)

The Vienna Production(s)

Thats referring to the original 1992 version, the 1998 version and the 2005 revival.

oughhhhhhh its so good, they really put everything into this one: beautiful songs, strong artistic direction, incredible social commentary, a portrayal of death that serves mad cunt, gay sex etc etc

My first experience with this musical went as follows: my mother bought me the 2001 Essen cd and just kinda put it (and a few other musical cds that dont matter) in my room while I wasnt there without telling me, because we were arguing and our relationship was pretty bad at the time, and it took me a while to listen to it, in part because I was mad at her and wanted to spite her (?) but also I didnt look at the cd cover very closely and for the longest time I thought it was about one of the british Elizabeths and I was like "tch. i dont care about some british queen, im not listening to that". And then one day I actually looked at it and saw that it was a Sissi-musical, which, I also didnt care about her at the time so that didnt really pique my interest either. A few days later I decided to look at the back of the cd cover which had all the song titles, and then I just kinda did that again every few days until I finally took the little booklet with the lyrics out of the case, read through them, and then at last listened to the songs. I do not know why I was doing like, regency-era courting rituals with this random cd, I have never done this before or since, but I did it this one time. And I really liked it so I would listen to it atleast once every day, usually in the mornings because I always wake up at 5am and I needed something to kill time before I had to leave at 7 lol

Theres only 16 songs on this cd and I think they do a decent job at 'summarizing' the story, but I could tell I was missing a lot (although I thought it was just dialogue at the time), and I was really curious about that but I didnt even try to find a proshot or a bootleg or look further into it because I didnt think I was going to find it because I thought it was super obscure because its. german. Idk, does anyone else kindof instinctually assume that every piece of media from your native country is some obscure bullshit that no one cares about (including other people from your native country) or is that just me? Whatever, despite me not looking further into it, I did eventually get the 2005 proshot recommended to me on youtube which is great, i love that google knows my every move and I love that I cant do anything about it. But for some reason I still needed that push to get me to actually watch it, and that push came in the form of a Diana: The Musical review. I watched it and then I read some of the comments and then I left my very own, very long comment where I compared it to Elisabeth: das Musical. Since I obviously hadnt seen either musical in full it was honestly probably pretty incoherent, but my main point was that it looks like Diana couldve really used some satire and social commentary elements similar to the ones present in Elisabeth, which I knew were there because the cd had Milch and Kitsch. Those songs are actually one of the things that I initially found very intriguing because they seemed so out of place among most of the other songs that are these very emotional and earnest ballads and duets, like Wie Du, Ich gehör nur mir, Elisabeth mach auf mein Engel, Ich will dir nur sagen, and Boote in der Nacht are more or less what I would expect from a Sissi-musical, and then Der letzte Tanz is more or less what I would expect from a Sissi-musical where death is a love interest, but Kitsch especially was such a wildcard in there.

Anyway, after I wrote that comment under the Diana: The Musical review, it occurred to me that I should probably watch Elisabeth: das Musical before I start writing needlessly long analyses in random comments sections. And then I thought to myself "oh! since these are both musicals about generally beloved royal women, it would be interesting if I watched both of them for the first time back to back and then maybe made a video essay comparing them" I decided to watch Diana first because what little I heard of the songs in that review sounded pretty bad so I wanted to get that out of the way first, and it was indeed bad, but I was still sure that there was enough there to make a video essay about, especially if Im comparing it to something else. And then I watched Elisabeth and it was so good that I was like "you know, I dont think i want to compare this to that other piece of shit" so I didnt write the video essay I wanted to write originally and started on something that was just about Elisabeth das Musical, which I also didnt end up writing because I usually have a low attentionspan and I struggle with writing alot, thats a big part of why these posts take me so long, along with the fact that I have a job now thats been sucking all the time and energy out of me like a cruel vampire

So yeah, the 2005 proshot was my first time properly experiencing this musical and I do think its a good introduction because things are explained a bit more and it feels like more of a cohesive story compared to the original one which feels more loose with less connective tissue; like, you can tell this musical was made the assumption that the aufience already knew about Elisabeth as a historical figure to some extent, which is fair enough but I missed out on three years of highschool history so I knew literally nothing, like Rudolf's suicide was a huge surprise to me. And it spared me the disappointment of watching the full musical for the first time without getting to hear my second favorite song, Wenn ich tanzen will. That being said, I do vastly prefer the 1992 version simply because the cast is the definition of perfection. I have yet to see or hear an actor that managed to do a better with Lucheni than Ethan Freeman, and ohhhhh you shouldve seen how insane I was about Uwe Kröger's Tod after I first watched that proshot

Of course I also loved Pia Douwes, Andreas Bieber and Else Ludwig but I just feel a little less strongly about them because I think they usually do a pretty good job casting Elisabeth, Rudolf and Sophie, whereas I feel like they struggle to cast actors for Lucheni and Tod that manage to live up to the original cast even a little. Its definitely less bad with Lucheni, the main issue I have with most of his actors besides Ethan Freeman is that none of them ever even try to do an italian accent (probably because they cant do a good one which is good, no accent is definitely better than a bad one in this case, but still) so all the italian bits of dialogue sound really unnatural imo. But with Tod its like, straightup i dont even know what on earth theyre trying to do most of the time, but it very rarely works for me.

Now, the eagle-eyed of you will have noticed that ive talked about the 1992 proshot and the 2005 proshot but not the 1998 proshot, even though I mentioned it at the very start of this section. Thats because i FUCKING HATE IT!!!!! No just kidding, its mostly the same as the 1992 production except it has the longer version of Nichts, nichts, gar nichts and the cast is a bit worse. Its actually kind of impressive because thinking back on it, I feel like literally every actor was just the slightly worse knockoff version, with the exception of Maya Harkvoort as Elisabeth. And thats not to say that theyre bad, I just like them less than the original cast and I dont think they make any interesting acting choices to make up for it. And then theres the guy who played der Tod, whose name I am not looking up because Im about to get mean and I'll feel less bad about that if I dont use his actual name. He just sounds so bad. Hes like Uwe Kröger from an alternate universe where he cant sing. And to be fair, Im pretty sure this is the same guy as the one who played Tod on the 1996 cd and hes literally unbearable on that one, so he has improved quite a bit, but it just wasnt enough.

I remember a while ago when all my Elisabeth-mutuals reblogged this gifset of 1998!Tod and I dont remember if I only liked it or if I reblogged it as well but whatever I did, I did it with gritted teeth because I had recently watched that proshot and hated his performance. Everyone was going #woa mama hes serving cunt and in my head I was just like "yeah, but hes not serving a good performance thoughhhhhhhh". Also, he literally looks and has a lot of the same mannerisms as uwe!Tod, I'd be gravely disappointed if he didnt serve cunt

So yeah, its not like, awful or anything but I think the 1998 proshot is really only worth watching if you wanna see Maya Harkvoort as Elisabeth but in a pre-2001-changes production

The 1999 Schevening Production

Now THIS is an awful Elisabeth production! I hated this fucker so much I didnt even bother rewatching it for this post. Fortunately I did write a little review of it immediately after watching it, so if you care about my fresh 1999 Schevening Production Thoughts, feel free to scrawl through the bog that is my blog to find it

The first (and pretty much only) thing that you need to know about this one is that they cut all of the political songs. So theres no Hass, no Jedem gibt er das Seine, no Milch im pretty sure, and definitely no Die Schatten werden länger Reprise. Honestly I might be missing a cut song or two here because they somehow managed to shave a whole half an hour off this thing. I would be impressed by how they managed to do that without rendering the story completely incomprehensible if I wasnt so busy being angry at the way they just completely gutted this musical. I dont even understand why they did it, the musical is SO MUCH obviously worse for it! Like, okay, I could kinda get it if they had just cut Hass since thats obviously the most uncomfortable song (i would think less of them for it, but I would get it, the takarazuka version does it too) but them cutting the other political songs is just baffling to me because its like. bro. its politics from the 1800s, how is that upsetting or discomforting nowadays?

Whatever, lets talk about some other stuff. The cast was mostly not remarkable enough for me to remember ~1 year later. Pia Douwes is here as Elisabeth and shes very good as always, thats kindof it. This version of Der Tod is the most aggressive and overtly antagonistic Ive seen, which was kinda interesting in the sense that Death is usually personified as a straightfoward villain and vienna!Tod was kind of a subversion of that and a little more complex and now this production is basically subverting the subversion, but I untimately wasnt all that into it

I remember initially quite enjoying the sets and overall style of this production, Im pretty sure in my original review I said something along the lines of "I like the symbolism and abstractness of the original production, but its neat seeing a more literal take on it" and now Im just like. chuckles nervously, Okay guys, its been fun, can we go back to the symbolism. please.

So yeah, I really dont think this one is worth watching unless youre a hardcore Pia-stan or youre just really committed to watching every version of Elisabeth: das Musical you can get your hands on, like meeeeee <3

The 2004 Budapest Production

This is a really good one! I actually rewatched it for this post and I was excited to do so. I dont have too much to say about it though, in terms of story its fairly similar to the Vienna productions except that it has Kein Kommen ohne Gehen and the conspiracy song and der Tod has a bit more of a romantic vibe. Actually, i think a better way of describing it is, its like the takarazuka production but un-takarazukafied, which might not make that much sense if you havent seen both of these especially considering I havent talked about the takarazuka production yet. But what I mean is, both of these productions focus a lot more on the hungarian revolution-side of things and make it into more of a proper subplot, and the way they do it is mostly structurally the same (as in, new scenes/songs are inserted at mostly the same points in the narrative) but takarazuka version is a lot more glitzy and overdramatic where this production is a lot more grounded. I dont really prefer one over the other because the approaches are so different that I feel like they cant really be compared. I do like that they do that overall and I really like the conspiracy song for drawing additional parallels between Rudolf and Elisabeth, even though I know its not historically accurate, although I will say that it feels a little bit off in this production which otherwise does seem to be going for historical accuracy. Like, it doesnt bother me at all in the takarazuka production just because i feel like that one takes so many liberties that it doesn't really stick out, but even here, its not the biggest deal to me

Anyway, other stuff. The stage feels weirdly small, but I really like the sets, they lean a bit more towards being literal rather than symbolic but they do some really cool stuff with them, I especially like the way they'll spin essentially the whole set sometimes, it makes for some very interesting and dynamic staging. The performances were great, obviously Szabó P Szilveszter as der Tod was amazing, he has such a beautiful and powerful voice, and I also loved Janza Kata as Elisabeth. I feel like she played it a bit angrier than Im used to, like you can really feel her her frustration at the world around her even early on during Wie Du, and its so good. mwah

This production is the first one that Ive ever liked Franz Joseph in even a little. With him Im usually like "goddddd he sucks so much, i literally cant believe they got married" from the very start, but with this guy I was like "oh..... hes kinda cute, I get what Elisabeth sees in him" during So wie man plant und denkt and Nichts ist schwer. And I was initially worried that I only thought that because they didnt give him that historically acurrate haircut that the Vienna productions give that looks really bad and stupid, however I have since seen the takarazuka productions where they also give him a better haircut, and out of all the performers Ive seen Ive only liked two, so. yay! Im not shallow as fuck! Although I will reiterate that that era was truly a dark age for men's hair, I have such a viscerally negative reaction to most of those styles. And ugh, dont even get me started on the facial hair...... So yeah, while the haircut is not my only reason for liking him so much, it does help quite a bit

I will say, I noticed quite a few lyrics that I didnt really like. Or rather, because I dont speak hungarian so i dont actually know what the lyrics are and have to go off the subtitles and other translations, I dont like the sentiment behind them regardless of whether the lyrics sound good when you can properly understand them, if that makes sense. Like, the last line of Kein Kommen ohne Gehen was something like "You will be my queen of the night forever" and I just dont like that idea fundamentally, like my opinion of what this line is communicating wouldnt change if it was communicating it in a different way. But there werent too many lines that bothered me like that and most of them are not particularly (negatively) memorable, they just made me frown a lil as I was watching and then I basically immediately forgot about them.

So yeah, its really good and I'd definitely recommend watching it if you havent already

The Takarazuka Production(s)

That's referring to. all of them. I have seen all the normal proshots from 1996 to 2018, all the concert proshots and I have seen a few of the shinjinkoen ones as well (not all or even a lot of them bc theyre very hard to find unfortunately). Fortunately, theyre fundamentally all the same, the only big change that they ever made was adding Wenn ich tanzen will in 2002, and they change the costumes sometimes but thats it, so I dont have to get into every single individual production. Atleast not right now, I might at least compare the different Tod-performances because there are some striking differences, but that would be for a different post

I went on a bit of a journey watching all these different proshots, the first one I saw was the 1996 Star one and I absolutely loved it, then I watched a few more and I started noticing some issues which caused me to start disliking it, but then I watched some more and came around to liking it again. Its like, I have all these criticisms and complaints but I dont really think about those as Im watching it, Im just kinda along for the ride and having a good time and then when Im like, on a walk and I randomly start thinking about Elisabeth: Ai to Shi no Rondo I go "man, theres a bunch of shit here that sucks"

So yeah, lets talk about the shit that sucks, from Bothers Me Most to Bothers Me Least

It feels like they tried to make der Tod the protagonist instead of Elisabeth by giving him more stagetime and also giving him like three reprises of Ai to Shi No Rondo, effectively replacing the Ich gehör nur mir melody as the most important one, which I dislike on principle, but it also just plain doesnt work. Like, theyre trying to make this guy a protagonist with a rich inner world but first of all, hes supposed to be a personification of aspects of Elisabeth's (and Rudolf's) inner world and second of all, even as a more straightforward and human-seeming romantic character, his whole appeal is that you cant really know his inner world because hes mysterious like that and ultimately nonhuman, so all you can get out of him here is shallow little songs about his feelings for Elisabeth that are really bland and boring. Also, him singing about his love for Elisabeth so many times (and at such inappropriate moments like directly after she considered killing herself and at her sons funeral) makes him seem unbearably pathetic, but that actually doesnt bother me that much because I think its very funny

This version is definitely a lot more sanitized with there being no Hass, Kitsch and Kitsch Reprise being heavily altered to be less poignant, the bigger focus on Tod's romantic nature and Elisabeth's rougher edges being sanded down. The colorful costumes and sets also just make it feel like more of a silly fun time which contributes to the sanitized-ness imo. In a way, its kinda like the Scheveningen prod except this one went about its sanitization with surgical precision, where that one just started senselessly chopping off limbs

This version is very sillygoofy, thats the best word for it. This is my last complaint because if you catch me in the right mood this isnt even a complaint, this is just an aspect of the show that I think is fun and that I like a lot, but if you catch me in a different mood then boy will I complain. I dont really know how to properly explain this one in a concise way to someone who hasnt seen it. Instead of that little scene of some hungarians gossiping about little Sophie after Stationen einer Ehe, we get a scene of some hungarians being upset at the austrian empire and planning to stage a protest next time Elisabeth and Franz Joseph come to do some kind of assembly (? i guess) and then the assembly happens and they do the protest and the imperial guards shoot up into the air to intimidate them into stopping and then Franz Joseph turns to Elisabeth like "cmon, we gotta leave" but shes like "no wait" and she takes of her cloak (shes been wearing a cloak that hides her whole body basically this entire time btw), revealing her dress which is hungarian flag-colored and then she says "Éljen, Hungary!" and the crowd goes wild!!!

That scene is the sillygoofiest thing that happens in this production, nothing tops it, all the other sillygoofy bits are more subdued in their sillygoofiness, but still, I feel like its a good scene to use as an example of this show's sillygoofiness. Also, whenever I think about scenes in this show that are sillygoofy I always think of the scenes that are part of the whole hungarian revolution-subplot. Theyre actually not that tonally different from any of the other parts of this show, like obviously they would be absolutely hilarious if you just inserted them into the original austrian production or the hungarian production as they are, but they dont stick out within the takarazuka production itself, yknow what I mean? They've made enough subtle changes to the original material that the things that they added (which would otherwise seem incongruous with that material) dont immediately stick out.

All of this to say, I think the people who have tried to adapt this musical into the 'takarazuka style' have done an excellent job at it, but I could definitely see people who are fans of Elisabeth das Musical not really enjoying it because of that, unless theyre like me, and can be momentarily distracted from its flaws by virtue of featuring a bunch of beautiful women singing beautifully for 2 and a half hours. But if that sounds good to you, I would 100% recommend it because its a fun and very well-made time. I dont have a specific proshot that I would recommend over the others, but I will say that I have a huge soft spot for the 1996 Star one because its the first one i saw and I absolutely adore Asaji Saki's Tod, and for the 2009 Moon one because thats the one I spent a bunch of time making german subtitles for to show my parents

Okay, before I move on to talking about the next production, I just have one more thing to say, or rather ask: why are the takarazuka and hungarian productions so similar? They both premiered in the year 1996 (and there was no pre-takarazuka japanese prod to my knowledge) so it seems impossible to me for one to have taken from the other, and from what I can tell, the changes that are specific to both of these productions and that dont really appear in any others (except for the toho production but we'll get to that) have existed in both of them from the start, so like, how did that happen, what overlap was there between their creative teams because there must have been something or else they wouldnt have turned out so similar? So yeah, if anyone reading this knows more about the behind the scenes history of these productions, please tell me about it, Im very curious

The 2016 Toho Production (White Cast)

Its kinda funny going from the Takarazuka section where I had seen literally as many of them as I could physically get my hands on, to this one where Im just like "yeah, Ive just seen the one that Im pretty sure is the most popular one, its atleast the one I see people post gifs of the most". To be fair, I think theyve only released 6 or 7 proshots even though theyve been putting it on since 2001, god knows why

Whatever, this production is really good and I like it a lot. The songs are overwhelmingly the same as they were in the takarazuka production, although theyve made some changes to the ones that were the most different to make them more like they were originally. Thats honestly a good way of describing this production as a whole; if the Budapest one felt like the takarazuka one but completely un-takarazukafied, this one was like, 50% un-takarazukafied. I was really debating with myself what percentage I would say there, because while the changes are for the most part subtle and the overall sillygoofiness remains intact for the most part, they did keep Kitsch the same and they kept Hass the same which was honestly shocking to me, I was kind of expecting them to censor it somehow or atleast tone it down or something, which is why I was actually looking at the screen during this version for once (Hass usually gives me horrible intrusive thoughts and I usually watch musicals on my tv so I cant just skip ahead, so if Im watching it and its a language I dont speak I just look away for a bit, and if Im watching it in german I'll just leave the room for a bit) but uh. they dont, and not only that but they put a gigantic swastika flag on the stage that takes up basically the entire screen and just gives me the worst intrusive thoughts. And honestly, even though this caused my brain to torment me for like two weeks, Im glad they did it because Hass really isnt a song you should try to censor or downplay, you either do it or you just dont even try. Anyway, my point here is, because that alone was SO un-takarazukalike, I was originally going to say that this production was 80% un-takarazukafied, but then I thought about it some more and I was like "well yes, but then they also added that bit to that already-sillygoofy scene where Elisabeth reveals that her dress is hungary-colored to the crowd where Batthany tried to assassinate her at Tod's behest, so. i gotta lower that percentage I think" and thats how I ended up with that number

Anyway, time to talk about some stuff that isnt the tone and how it compares to other productions. I really liked the sets, theyre leaning more towards being symbolic, although I will say that the symbolism felt a bit more simplistic compared to the Vienna productions. Still, how can i deny the sheer effect of just having like half of the stage taken up by three gigantic coffins? I feel like there are so many scenes that were kindof elevated for me because I was just like "ohhhh theyre singing about this thing while standing on this gigantic coffin and it symbolises that death is all around them and the monarchy is built on death and theyre in the midst of this dying era". One example of this is in the Jedem gibt er das Seine scene, they do it exactly like you would expect, they dont do a carousel-thing like the Vienna production, but they put Franz Joseph and his desk and his whole entourage on those coffins and then the mother comes in below them on the stage, and its just so good, I dont know what to say

I dont have too much to say about the cast, it was pretty good all around, the only thing that I can remember rn is that I thought Hanafusa Mari as Elisabeth was a bit off. Specifically whenever she had to be sad, I just never quite bought it, but I did like her whenever she was happy or glad or during Wenn ich tanzen will when she was all spiteful, and obviously her voice was absolutely beautiful. Shirota Yu as der Tod was also great, he plays it like a real freak, he actually reminded me a lot of Matè Kamaras except I like this guy more because I feel like hes not constantly hissing and growling

So yeah, it's a good production that I would definitely recommend checking out if you can

The 2009 Antwerpen Production

I never thought I'd see a version of Elisabeth: das Musical that I would consider to be basically completely uninteresting, but those freaks over in belgium somehow managed to make it

But before I get into that, I want to tell you something about my experience watching this one (and also the Scheveningen one). So, the only languages I can speak and understand fluently are german and english, so I need subtitles in order to understand all of the non-austrian productions. However, I couldnt immediately find subtitles for the Scheveningen prod and I didnt even really try to look for them that hard because I thought "eh, it doesnt matter, i know this musical inside and out and I'll probably be able to atleast kindof of understand the lyrics without subtitles anyway" because in my head I just kinda think of german and dutch as being very similar because germany and the netherlands are geographically close, even though they really arent, so I ended up watching it just not understanding the vast majority of the words. But again, I know this musical very well so it really didnt matter, although I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting to have an interesting experience listening to this musical in a language that I can somewhat understand but that is also clearly not a language that I can actually speak, do you know what I mean? Anyway, smash cut to like a year later and Im on vk.ru looking for musical proshots to download and I stumble upon this one. Because antwerpen sounds kinda german to me I assume its a german-language proshot I hadnt heard of before so I dont look for subtitles and I just watch it as is, and Im very surprised when it is not in fact german. But I feel like I can kinda understand it, so I just keep watching and I end up having that I expected to have with the dutch proshot with this one which I think is flemish (?). I'm not sure, I dont recognize this language and when I looked it up to see if anyone online knew what it was, all I got was someone on reddit being like "idk, its probably flemish" so

Anyway, back to the actual review part of this whole thing. Why do I find this to be the most uninteresting version of this musical? In a lot of ways, its basically just the 2005 Vienna production except flatter; a lot of the physical sets have been replaced by screens, the performances are all good albeit pretty unremarkable otherwise, the few times they deviate from the Vienna production are fine but also unremarkable to the point that I dont feel like going into detail about them, and the costumes felt worse somehow? Like, theyre not trying to have any kind of symbolism, theyre just historical clothes, which, to be fair, none of the non-Vienna productions that Ive seen so far really try that hard for symbolism with the costumes, I think the reason it stuck out to me here is that its otherwise so similar to the Vienna ones. They dont have a mayerling dress which is immensely disappointing for the same reason, and also now that Ive written that out, Im fully realizing for the first time that literally no production other than the Vienna ones has it and Im getting pretty upset. sighhhhh. when will men-crossdressing enjoyers win

Moving on, while I find the cast mostly unremarkable, I do have a little bit to say about them. I really enjoyed the pathetic wet cat vibes that Jan Schepens brought to Lucheni, especially in the prologue where he has that very brief interaction with Tod, although I will say that I dont like how they made him so unaware of the main plot of the musical. Like, during his little narration bit before Jedem gibt er das Seine he has a newspaper and he has to read it in order to remember that its 1854, I know they do this in some Vienna prods as well and I hate it every time. Because the whole point is, hes just been stuck in this endless loop of retelling this whole story since he died 1898 so by the time youre watching this musical in 2009 or 1992 or whenever, he knows it in and out, thats why he seems so goddamn tired in the 1992 version!!! But other than that hes fine 👍

The other person I have something to say about is der Tod, although its not relly about his performance. His performance is like. in the nicest way possible, the reason i would say hes not literally the worst in terms of singing or cuntserving is that 1998Vienna!Tod and Scheveningen!Tod respectively exist. But while I was watching I was really distracted because I keept thinking "this guy looks so familiar but Im 100% sure Ive never seen him before, he just looks like someone else i know, but who is it that he reminds me of" and then when i got to Mama wo bist du, I realized: he looks so much like one of the guys who played Sebastian in some of the black butler musicals, or atleast my memory of what that guy looks like. And I felt kind of embarassed because I was like "ohhhhhhhh ive enjoyed the concept of Young Boy And Fucked Up Non-Human Have A Relationship Which Is Oddly Soft While Also Being Nothing But Red Flags for way longer than I realized huh" And also, OF COURSE i noticed the similarity in that exact scene, good god

Whatever, theres only one last thing that bothers me and that I wanted to talk about and its Wenn ich tanzen will. I dont like how Tod grabs Elisabeth and manouvers her around like that, which, the choreography here is the same as in the 2005 Vienna production, but I didnt fully realize just how much it bothered me until watching this one so Im talking about it here. I was originally going to do a whole analysis about how I dont think it fits the song very well and thats the reason I dont like it, but upon thinking about it, I think it works well enough. Yknow the contrast between Elisabeth being so defiant and refusing to give into him even though its clear that she knows hes right about all the stuff hes saying and her compromising physical position, and also how it lays bare that der Tod has no real power because hes ultimately a manifestation of her wants, thats all pretty good tbh

No, the reason I dont like this choreography for Wenn ich tanzen will is that its sexual in a way that I dont appreciate because the woman is in the submissive position. Its like. okay so, you know those dark romance/romantasy books about a 17-20 year old girl falling for a ~500 year old guy with overpowered shadow magic and having a bunch of sex with him that are really popular right now and also really popular to make fun of? Well, I used to really like hanging out in the making-fun-of spaces until I realized that people were getting really puratanitical about what people are 'allowed' to write and the extent to which authors are 'responsible' for imparting 'good messages' to their 'impressionable audience' which, these books are not usually categorized as YA, theyre pretty clearly aimed at women who are 18 and up and even if they are, teenagers are not that impressionable but Im not getting into that rn which bothered me, not just because I fundamentally dont agree with that, but also because my issue with them is not that theyre presenting relationship dynamics that are problematic in the sense that the age gap is too big or the power gap is too big or that theyre abusive or whatever, but that theyre presenting relationship dynamics that are problematic in the sense that theyre extremely sexist

And like, to an extend this is just an issue with mainstream romance books as a whole which is why I dont really read them, and Im not saying that anyone who enjoys them is sexist or bad, its just that it personally discomforts me to the point of killing my enjoyment in things like large age gaps or crazy power dynamics, which, for the record, I do genuinely really enjoy! I just dont like it when its like "oh the virginal teeny tiny girl whos barely legal gets with the biggest most bigdicked most powerful ancient MALE to ever exist and whos lowkey highkey abusive", but if a book like that came out where the genders were reversed and it was a cute barely legal ingenue boy and an ancient powerful evil woman, I would not only not have an issue with that, I would find it extremely hot. or if it was gay in some capacity which, books that are exactly like typical romantasy books but gay probably do exist, but I dont really see people discuss them as much, so. My point here is, the typical romance/romantasy relationship dynamic just feels like a model of the patriarchy except its two people instead of like, all of society, and I dont like that and I feel similarly about this Wenn ich tanzen will choreography. Like, its not quite the same feeling but I have trouble articulating my exact discomfort with it, so Im comparing it to a different kind of discomfort that I have with something else that I am capable of articulating.

So yeah, its a fine enough Elisabeth production. watch it if you want, dont watch it if you dont want

Aaaaaaaand thats it. I know Im still missing a couple of korean proshots that I havent seen yet because I havent been able to find subtitles for them, so if theres any korean-speakers in the audience who would be willing to make and share them, I would appreciate it. If no one wants to share them, there is a website called lyricstranslate where people can submit translations of any song into any language, and the korean lyrics are on there so if Im really lucky, someone has translated all of them into a language i know and i can make my own subtitles with those. But Im still working on making a subtitle file for the 2004 Budapest proshot (the version thats available with subtitles on the internet archive is hardsubbed and I'd like the option of having softsubs), so thatll have to wait. I also downloaded a video of the 2001 Essen production, I dont know if thats a proshot or a complete bootleg but I'll watch that one eventually too and if I can muster up the motivation, maybe I'll even write reviews for those as well

Anyway, how many of these have you seen and what did you think of them? Please tell me in excruciating detail, I love reading other peoples Elisabeth-thoughts

[dasiesanddarkness]

wesper winter ✨day three✨

theme: first meetings

prompt: through a friend

summary:

17:32 in Bad Bitches 💅

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

wifey: WHAT

witch: JESPER

wifey: YES

witch: AND

witch: WYLAN

witch: DO YOU SEE THE VISION

wifey:...

wifey: I SEE IT

witch: THATS WHAT IM SAYING

witch renamed “Bad Bitches 💅” to “Matchmaking Services”

witch: buckle up bitches we got work to do

wifey: let’s brainstorm

no tw, and general audiences

full thing below the cut!

17:32 in Bad Bitches 💅

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

witch: INEJ

wifey: WHAT

witch: JESPER

wifey: YES

witch: AND

witch: WYLAN

witch: DO YOU SEE THE VISION

wifey:...

wifey: I SEE IT

witch: THATS WHAT IM SAYING

witch renamed “Bad Bitches 💅” to “Matchmaking Services”

witch: buckle up bitches we got work to do

wifey: let’s brainstorm

***

“Can I at least see a picture?”

Wylan was in Nina’s room, trying to decide which sweater to wear to his date. His blind date, with someone who, according to Nina and Inej, would be perfect for him.

“Then it wouldn’t be a blind date, would it? Here, try this one.” Nina passed him another sweater, and Wylan grumbled but pulled the other one over his head to try this one on. “I can assure you he’s gorgeous, if it helps.”

“It doesn’t,” Wylan said. He plucked at the sweater and appraised himself in Nina’s full length mirror. “I think I need a necklace.”

“Right you are, love. Luckily, I already thought of that.” Nina winked and held out two, a delicate choker, and a much longer chain with a pendant. She watched as he clipped them around his neck, and reached out to adjust how the choker was centered when he finished.

Wylan turned to look at himself in the mirror again. He thought he looked rather nice, actually. Hopefully, it was enough to impress his date.

“You look adorable.” Nina reached out to pinch his cheek teasingly, and Wylan scowled and swatted at her hand.

“If that’s all-”

“Yes, yes, and you look hot, Saints.” Nina rolled her eyes. “If you weren’t so vain, maybe we wouldn’t have been here for the last hour.”

“I was going to go with the first outfit I tried on, but you insisted-”

“Hush, Wylan, and hold still. I need to send Inej a picture,” Nina scolded. She was grinning widely, which only made Wylan roll his eyes. But he listened and didn’t move so she could take her picture and send it off to Inej.

“He better not be as insufferable as you,” he muttered, running his fingers through his hair to try to get it to lay flat.

“Worry not, dear,” said Nina as she patted his shoulder, “He’s worse.”

***

“You look better in the purple,” Inej told him.

“I look amazing in everything,” Jesper replied, but he turned and started to switch shirts. As he did, his mind wandered back to his date. “Why won’t you show me a picture?”

“Because Nina wouldn’t show him one, and it would be unfair for you to know what he looked like if he doesn’t know what you look like.”

“Well, if he’d seen a picture of me, he’d have passed out because I’m so hot.” Jesper winked at Inej in the mirror. “I have that effect.”

“And yet, I haven’t passed out in your presence even once.”

“Well, that’s because your type is anemic white boys that have no sense of style,” reasoned Jesper. “I’m the exact opposite of all those things, so of course I don’t appeal to you.”

Inej didn’t respond. Instead, she had turned a critical eye onto his eyeshadow collection. “I will tell you that he has red hair,” she said absentmindedly.

“He’ll be easy to find, at least,” Jesper mumbled. Inej snorted.

“Hurry up and do your makeup.” She handed him one of his pallets and a brush. “You can’t be late to your first date.”

***

Wylan was terrified. Inej and Nina had both agreed that he’d like Jesper. but that changed very little. What if Jesper didn’t like him? It wouldn’t be unreasonable. He’d had plenty dates tell him he was awkward, or too direct, or-

“Are you Wylan?”

Wylan very nearly jumped out of his chair. “Ye-yes, that’s-” he coughed, awkwardly, “Yes, that’s me. You must be Jesper?”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Jesper held out his hand, but when Wylan took it, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to his knuckles with a wink. He could feel his cheeks flush embarrassingly, and glanced away.

His friends had been right. He did like Jesper. He was outrageously gorgeous, for one thing. He had the most perfectly shaped lips Wylan had ever seen, and a broad nose and grey eyes that Wylan would love to paint some time.

“You too.” Wylan smiled weakly. He should say something, before he made everything awkward and drove this beautiful man away. “I, um, like your makeup.”

Jesper smiled, and Wylan had the wonderful feeling that he’d done something right. “Thank you,” he said, “I like your necklaces.”

“Oh they- they’re Nina’s, actually. She insisted I come over so she could help me get ready, and then made me try on about a million different shirts before she decided this one looked good, and-” Wylan cut himself off. Jesper tilted his head, and Wylan blushed again. “Sorry, I just… Well, I feel a little underdressed, to be honest.”

Jesper reached out to place a hand over his. Wylan looked down at it with wide eyes, then back up at him. “You look wonderful,” Jesper assured him. “I think your outfit suits you.”

“And how would you know? You barely know me, after all.” Why couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut? It had been going so well, but his incessant need to be contrary had likely just ruined everything.

Instead of looking offended or weirded out, Jesper grinned. “So help me get to know you. What do you like, Wylan?”

Wylan smiled. Maybe Nina and Inej were right. Maybe this would go well.

***

21:16 in “Matchmaking Services”

wifey: okay i just got off the phone with Wylan

wifey: it went *very* well

witch: CURRENTLY AT JESPER’S

witch: HE WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW ADORABLE WYLAN WAS WHEN HE TALKED ABOUT MUSIC

witch: I DO BELIEVE WE CAN CALL THIS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

wifey: i would agree

wifey: operation wesper was a success

witch: oh without a doubt

witch: were great at this

wifey: couldn’t agree more, nina

wifey: couldn’t agree more

@wesper-winter

[secret-sturniolo]

jealousy, jealousy - chris sturniolo

summary - After y/n starts talking to a guy she met at a party, Chris expresses some feelings that he had been trying to suppress.

warnings - angst, fluff, some kissing

a/n - you guys asked and you shall receive! im blown away that i had over 100 responses on my poll, so thank you. also, thank you for over 25 followers and over 100 likes in like 3 days, i think thats crazy lol <3 i know a lot of people also wanted the "stay with me tonight" prompt, so i think that will be the next thing i write for chris

When I met the triplets, we were in our junior year of high school. I first connected with Nick the most, but after he introduced me to his brothers, the three of us became almost inseparable. From the minute I first met Chris, I immediately thought he was cute. I wouldn't say I had a crush, but I was definitely developing feelings. But as time went on and I got to know Chris more, I very quickly learned two things about him. One, he was scared of commitment, and two, he didn't even want a girlfriend. To be honest, this disappointed me, knowing that I would never have a chance with him, but I didn't take it to heart or let it bother me much because I didn't want to lose our friendship. So, when I met this guy at a party and he asked for my number, I happily gave it to him.

We were at an influencer event, and like usual the triplets invited me to join them as their plus-one. At some point, we got separated and began to mingle with other people, which wasn't unusual for us. A nice looking guy slowly made his way over to me, flashing me a shy smile. We started with small talk, but as more time went on we became more engrossed in our conversation, both of us enjoying it. I glanced around, looking for any signs of my friends when I saw Chris out of the corner of my eye. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, trying not to make it obvious that I was looking. He had an uncharacteristic scowl on his face, looking in my direction. I thought that was weird, noting to talk to him about it later. When we felt the conversation wrapping up, the guy asked me for my number, telling me he wanted to take me out sometime. With a smile, I took his phone and entered my contact information. Just as I was handing him his phone back, I heard someone behind me clear their throat.

"Oh, Chris, there you are! I was just talking to Luke here." I turned to Luke. "Luke, this is my friend Chris!"

"Nice to meet you, man." Luke reached out to shake Chris's hand.

I noticed Chris's jaw was tightly clenched as he silently shook Luke's hand. Chris then turned to me.

"Hey y/n, you ready to get out of here? Matt's going to start the car." He said, still tense.

"Um, yeah, that's fine."

Luke put his hand on the small of my back and smiled, as he told me he would talk to me later. As Luke turned to walk away, Chris roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

"What the fuck, Chris! What is up with you?" I said, harshly.

"So you just met that guy and your already agreeing to go on a date with him?"

"Nobody said anything about a date! We were just having a good time."

"Yeah, I bet you were." he scoffed.

"Oh, so I'm not allowed to talk to other guys?"

Chris shot me a glare as his cheeks flushed pink. "Shut up."

"Oh my god, that's it! Chris, you're jealous, aren't you!" I said, eyes wide.

"I said shut up!" When we reached the car, he opened the door and pushed me in, before climbing in himself and sitting next to me.

The ride back to the triplets house was long and awkward, as everybody could sense the tension coming from the backseat, but nobody said anything. I watched as Chris pulled his phone out and opened my contact, not wanting to talk out loud.

we need to talk. come to my room when we get home. 7:35pm

I looked at the text, then glanced at Chris, silently letting him know I understood. Once we arrived home, Matt unlocked the door and Chris walked straight down the stairs to his room. Matt and Nick must have understood that Chris and I needed to talk, because they silently made their way to the living room to give us space. I softly knocked on Chris's door.

"Come in, y/n."

I opened the door, closing it behind me. He was sitting on his bed, back against the headboard. he motioned for me to come sit next to him, and I silently made my way over. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Chris finally spoke.

"I was a dick, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, do you want to tell me why you were so upset?"

He leaned his head back against the bed frame and sighed. "You're gonna think it's stupid."

I gently put my hand on his thigh as I looked over to meet his gaze.

"Please Chris, just tell me. I promise I won't think it's stupid."

"Okay. You know how I'm not good with feelings? Well, I guess I've been having some feelings that I don't know how to deal with."

"Okay, go on?"

"Listen, I know I've always said I didn't want a girlfriend, but when I saw you with Luke today and how happy he made you... I don't know. I guess I realized that I want to be the one that makes you that happy."

"Chris-"

"No, let me finish. I've spent so long trying to deny my feelings about you, and I can't do it anymore. So even if you don't feel the same I just needed to tell you-" he rambles on.

"Chris!" I say, getting his attention. He turned to me, letting me know he was listening. My hand found its way into his, our fingers interlocking. "You know, you make me happier than any other guy ever could. Luke was nice, but hes not the guy I really want."

"Oh yeah? So who is this guy, then?" he says with a cocky grin on his face.

"Just shut up and kiss me already!"

Chris seemed surprised at this demand, but quickly recovered, not wanting to lose his chance. He turns his body to face mine, gently cupping my cheek before leaning in to kiss me. The kiss was long and passionate, finally releasing both of our pent up feelings and things we couldn't say with words. Finally, we both pull away, his hands still on my cheek.

"Y/n, I'm ready to try this with you." he says with a serious look.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I ask.

He chuckles. "Yes, I want you to be my girlfriend."

"You already know I'm all yours." I smirk.

Without a word, he pulls me into one more kiss.

"Do you want to stay here tonight?" he asks me sincerely.

"I would love to, Chris."

Excitedly, he jumps up out of bed. "Perfect, I'll get you some clothes to sleep in. T-shirt or hoodie?"

Amused at his excitement, I smile and reply, "A hoodie would be great!"

He walks over to his closet and picks out his favorite hoodie and gives it to me.

"Chris, isn't this your favorite?"

"Yeah, that's why I want you to wear it. Plus, it looks better on you than it does on me." he says with a wink.

Once we were both ready for bed, he laid down next to me, our noses almost touching.

"Roll over." he says.

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Just roll over, trust me."

I do as he says, and he immediately pulls me into him, my back against his chest.

"That better?" he asks me.

"So much better." I say, melting into his embrace.

"Goodnight, y/n." Chris tells me admiringly.

"Goodnight, Chris." I say, drifting off to sleep.

Laying there wrapped safely in Chris's strong arms, I realized that all of the puzzle pieces had finally fit together in the most perfect way. Everything was as it always should have been, and I couldn't have been happier.

[fandomfantasyy]

MASSIVE WARNING FOR II 17 SPOILERS ++ INANIMATE INSANITY THEORY ++ ADAM KATZ TWITTER CODE SOLVING !!

i am holding onto way more hope than i should, however, this is a stray theory of mine that im holding onto for said hopes sake.

to those who haven't watched ii 17 yet, PLEASE keep scrolling. i mention just about everything that happened in the episode, and im basically reviewing it at the start. the episode is so much better without any spoilers!!

so, inanimate insanity 17. if you don't wanna hear me blabber on and on about the episode, scroll to the other big text. otherwise i am RANTING i need an outlet. 3:

inanimate insanity 17 was a rodeo. me and my partner had a few straggling theories before we watched it, and a few of them were true. knife did indeed punch cobs, they really did fight, everyone that heard was disappointed to find out they were made by mephone 4.

starting with the majority of the opening sequence, going from memory here, knife's desperation? ow. suitcase's new found paranoia? OW. them doing everything to find out what was wrong was so bittersweet, because you can just tell that they don't know how to stop it and are holding onto to random theories and hope.

nearing more of the middle section, i completely forgot that bow could possess people. made me giggle a bit tbh….. besides that, I HATE COBS HE MANIPULATED MY BABY, TOILET. ☹️ the admission of guilt from mephone 4, only to realize his apology could never speak loud enough almost killed me. lightbulb, fan, and test tube, all dead. the bright lights poly. when toilet told mepad that he understood it wasn't a competition anymore? and when cobs pulled off toilet and begun killing everyone? jesus christ dude (also im a little sad at the lack of extra pronunciation on "your" when paper yelled at salt saying "hes not your boyfriend" as a payjay shipper but....)

more on the end side, the fight convinced me for a damn while. it doesn't make sense to me how one single throw got knife extremely scuffed and chipped, but it's finneee, it's show logic!! :3 anygays. the main painful time. the pull of the plug, prompting toilet to call himself "the best assistant", the way knife put his hand on suitcase to comfort her, the way cobs SACRIFICED MEPHONE X??? dude this show is gonna make me go bonkers.

last but not least, "the show is over," and mephone 4 has no choice but to go back "home" with cobs. ow.

there are still so many questions. the eggs helped power everything, but were they fake? how did mephone 4 find the land he built inanimate insanity on? obviously it isn't fake, he's still sitting on it at the end of the episode. where's 3gs? what about mepad? was mepad made up? too much to answer with too little information.

overall, what a painful episode. it seems like the end, right? wrong.

inanimate insanity is not over. we are getting ii18.

at least, thats my theory. average movie length spans 1½ hours to 2½ hours. us inanimate insanity fans were told that this finale would be as long as a movie. right now, we are only at an hour. i dont remember the last time i watched a movie that was only an hour. they're out there, yes, but i doubt the creators would pray on very short movies to support their angst.

adam katz's teasing on twitter / x, saying that mephone x was after him, only for his account to be seemingly gone or empty? there's no way adam simply quit twitter because he ended his line of work. it's a thing that happens, but i dont think this is that. most of adam's characters in the show died before the plug was pulled. is that a direct reference? i don't know.

as of october 15th, adam seemingly returned to twitter, but instead as the robot from ii17. why would they bring him back suddenly, why would they make this teaser? there's no real, legitimate explanation in my eyes... other than them maybe just wanting to torture us. that, however, is not the point.

continuing on adam robot twitter thing, on his twitter / x profile / status, (idk what it's called i don't use twitter / x,) it says, "Loading a large amount of files... / Estimated wait tim: 2880 minutes, 0 seconds". that directly translates to two days. we're heavily likely to get the true final episode or the trailer of such of ii2 in 2 days.

update for the above. on october 18th, around 3pm EST, a code to decipher was posted. someone in the comments of the twitter / x post said that it was "you seek to know the true reason for such a tragic second season if you decide you want to show more there may be something to restore see .com/insert code". we, the viewers might be bringing the show back.

season one and season three's final episodes ended with a "the end". ii17 did not have this end card. this seems like a very crucial thing that they couldn't just "leave out". after all, why on the most important finale of all of the finales so far, would they leave out saying "the end"? if it's truly the end, they wouldn't leave it with a black screen and a sobbing community. (the last part, maybe, but not the first part.....)

both season one ended with 18 episodes, and season three ended with 19 episodes. season two seems to almost be ending on episode 17. this could go either way, with season two ending with a pattern of 17-18-19, OR, if we're really lucky, 18-19-20. (or we just get an extra 18 or smth idk)

there is a reason why this is only a stray theory of mine. only 6 days before the release of ii17, adam katz and brian koch were saying their thank you's and goodbye's to the inanimate insanity community. it feels like the end of this show is near, if not sadly over now.

overall, i still have hope. but this wont be clear until we either see a ii18 trailer or we dont. i will regularly update this with new information as it gets found by me and my partner. goodbye for now, inanimate insanity community, and good luck.

robot adam's twitter saga.

adam katz's teasing on twitter / x, saying that mephone x was after him, only for his account to be seemingly gone or empty? there's no way adam simply quit twitter because he ended his line of work. it's a thing that happens, but i dont think this is that. most of adam's characters in the show died before the plug was pulled. is that a direct reference? i don't know.

as of october 15th, adam seemingly returned to twitter, but instead as the robot from ii17. why would they bring him back suddenly, why would they make this teaser? there's no real, legitimate explanation in my eyes... other than them maybe just wanting to torture us. that, however, is not the point.

continuing on adam robot twitter thing, on his twitter / x profile / status, (idk what it's called i don't use twitter / x,) it says, "Loading a large amount of files... / Estimated wait tim: 2880 minutes, 0 seconds". that directly translates to two days. we're heavily likely to get the true final episode or the trailer of such of ii2 in 2 days.

update for the above. on october 18th, around 3pm EST, a code to decipher was posted. someone in the comments of the twitter / x post said that it was "you seek to know the true reason for such a tragic second season if you decide you want to show more there may be something to restore see .com/insert code". (credits to @\NickleBFDIA2012 on twitter/x !!) we, the viewers might be bringing the show back.

connecting to that, more hints have already been found. there was a code on cabby's wiki that is decoded to “You want the second key word? These pages are your answer. Next, go to the three time player with the lowest average placement." (credits to @\MeesterTweester on twitter/x !!) this brought the fandom to nickel (i believe), and im not quite sure what it says.

however, i do know one thing. it's been solved, and my theory was proven true.

we will be getting episode 18 of inanimate insanity by late november.

[alexapillustration]

🪔 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 2024- 𝘋𝘢𝘺 10: 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 🪔

๑

This is unfortunately my last piece for this year's Linktober 😭😭 This year and the end of last year have been insanely horrible for me and my family, and two permanent life changing things happened two weeks ago that are really negatively impacting my household and our daily lives, so, yeah, thats fun :') Right when I thought things were going in a better direction for us, everything came crashing down yet again 🤡

๑

But enough about my sob story, this piece took forever because I initially had too many ideas I didnt know what to do 😅 Laruto was probably my 4th or 5th attempt at this prompt, with all the others being different ideas entirely. I did attempt the two prompts after this but they both went the same way, and because of the irl stress I think the right call was to pull back and just do the 10 days this year, which again suCKS I just want to do all the days again but life keeps getting in the way 😭😭 Nonetheless, thank you all for the support during this spooky season!! I was inactive for most of the year so all the support really means a ton to me 🫶 I am working on an original painting currently so Im hoping to get that out soon 🥰

[vicsstars]

❝ deal. ❞

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

summary: you and sochan convince wemby to bleach his hair

warnings; wembyxfem!reader

an: i miss his bleached hair can we bring it back asap, ALSO im sorry i died for a min i promise to be more consistent

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

it wasn’t uncommon for you and your boyfriend to hang out with his teammates after games. there was the fancy dinners with chris paul, the newfound deep talks with fox, and the unmatchable energy of jermey sochan. sochan was like the brother you never had. he was unpredictable in ways you’d never expect, and every time you all hung out it ended in something happening- good or bad.

the boys had an obsession with seeing their parlays before games. of course, they could never bet on them, but they were always interested in what the public wanted out of them. but because they could never use their own money, they found other ways to bet on each other.

you were sitting courtside, giving victor his usual pep-talk when sochan strolled over with a grin on his face. coming out of his green hair era, he looked like the grinch as he nudged victors arm.

“so, streets saying you’re gonna drop 25 tonight.”

already groaning, victor knew sochan was up to something. “is that so?” he questioned, awaiting the next prompt.

“if you get under, we’re bleaching your hair.”

you instantly began to die of laughter, but the serious expression on sochan’s made you realize this was fully serious. you looked up at your boyfriend who was now grinning as well, furrowing his eyebrows at his teammate.

“you want me to dye my hair? thats a punishment?” he questioned, reiterating what was asked of him.

“just think about it. it’ll give you a new look for the rest of the season!” sochan said shrugging, rubbing the top of his own head. “you’ve seen the headlines for fucking hair? imagine what they’d say for you? everyone’s gonna remember the platinum wemby era!”

hesitating, victor repeated his motion as he felt his own hair. the curls were soft, natural. he’d never tampered with his hair in any way, none the less bleaching it. “i know guys, what if, like, my hair gets burnt off?”

“come on vic, it’s no real stakes. you can drop 25 with your eyes closed!” you exclaimed, loving the idea of a new look on your already perfect boyfriend.

sochan extends his arm to victor as he bounces on his tippy toes with excitement. “come on, deal?”

with a groan, victor shakes his hand and nods. “fine. deal.”

22 points.

way below his season average.

a win for his team nonetheless, but a sacrifice to his hair. you approached the two boys who were already bickering before the buzzer even sounded. sochan shook victors arm excidedly, no longer thinking about another win in the season. instead, he was already buzzing about the different places they could go.

“the girl that does my hair is fucking amazing. i already know what to tell her. should i call her now? or do we walk in?” he rambles, pulling his phone out of his pocket to look up the salon. victor bends down to kiss you on the cheek, whispering in your ear.

“i can’t believe you made me do this.

before you knew it, your boyfriend was awkwardly sitting in a too-small chair for his body, watching stylists drag the chair closer to the ground to get a view of his head. you and sochan sat watching, snapping photos of your annoyed boyfriend as stylists began to prepare his head for the new color. he never gave a word towards the decision in the chair as sochan directed them each and every step. by the next hour, you all strolled out with your boyfriends now newly bleached head.

and, not to anyone’s surprised, the media ate it up.

[sniper-tf2-teeth]

Gotta confess something, the person who accused your and the dear heavy tf2 tummy person of fetish farming made that post because I spoke in a space we share about how excited I was to have received your ask, and they really didn’t want me to draw it, I have anyways because I enjoy it and I know it’s practically a trend at this point, and also because I’m an independent person capable of making my own choices. So I just really wanted to say I’m sorry if that alls been causing you trouble still. Especially since that trouble is partially, and unintentionally my fault. Hope that all makes sense. I’m incredibly sorry. I loved getting your prompt :) I can only await the day I get my heavy tf2 tummy one as well

You're not responsible for that person's actions; if you werent going to tip them off, something else would have (assuming the series of events did go down how you said it did). It was only a matter of time before someone called the trend problematic anyway.

Plus it was funny to get accused of fetishfarming and harassing artists just to see all the reblogs be along the lines of"yeah that would be really bad IF IT WERE to happen" and "oh i should look out for that" and "woah is that really happening?", because that post was moreso making up a problem to get upset over and most people instinctively recognized that that wasnt happening at all. There was also a vaguepost about it that got some traction, which I admired.

Fetishfarming would be more like asking for a closeup of Sniper at the dentist, or requests for Medic preparing Heavy for surgery (implying Heavy would be shirtless). All the asks in that trend were literally based on being extremely forward and direct with what the asker wanted, the opposite of fetishfarming or artist exploitation.

Requesting art isnt harassment-- it becomes harassment if the artist has asked you to stop or has otherwise indicated that they wont partake in the trend or wont take requests and you still choose to send the request. I heard through the grapevine that some people think art requests were entitled and exploitative, which were also the arguments used for that fetishfarming post and MAYBE a much earlier and long-forgotten post about the heavy tf2 tummy anon (dont quote me, though), which is just plain wrong. Requesting art in any way isnt entitled either (unless, like said before, the artist has indicated they do not do requests). Thats what having a public art account is like. People will interact with you and get excited when you draw stuff they like, so you set boundariies. If you don't, thats on you.

The only fair point that person really had was tagging the posts, which I couldnt really do until now. Ill add that caveat to my pinned, but Im not sure how much good itll do now

Glad you liked the prompt, anon! Thank you for sending this ask, it was a good oppurtunity to address that post. I hope you get the heavy tf2 tummy ask soon <3

[silhouettecrow]

365 Days of Writing Prompts: Day 217

Adjective: Earthy

Noun: Lung

Definitions for those who need/want them:

Earthy: resembling or suggestive of earth or soil; (of a person or their language) direct and uninhibited, especially about sexual subjects or bodily functions

Lung: each of the pair of organs situated within the rib cage, consisting of elastic sacs with branching passages into which air is drawn, so that oxygen can pass into the blood and carbon dioxide be removed, and lungs are characteristic of vertebrates other than fish, though similar structures are present in some other animal groups; an open space in a town or city, where people can breathe fresher air

[reedsofintimacy]

Damn for having so much personal advice and opinion to give, and being, yknow, theoretically, *confident dominant types* you all sure are shy and convinced on not letting me know who you are. I guess that's fine but also I'm not posting it and I would never really trust advice via an anon. Sorry. Teehee 🤭

But tbh it really has been my experience that nearly all women are truly submissives. Including self professed "dommes". I think many are submissive women who find the idea of a submissive man being dommed by a woman sexy. Like to watch in porn or imagine.

But they don't actually want to be the woman doing the dominating. Its just a sexy idea. Actually being that role is deeply uncomfortable to them, they dont enjoy it, they arent wired for it, and it isnt their personality. They're submissives who happen to also find submissive men cute. Which is fine, but, is not a domme any more than finding a puppy at the park cute makes you an animal whisperer.

"Uh i wanna domme u but also im turbo nervous and shy and hate leading conversations and dont want to pick what we do in bed and it would be great if you could do all the things a functionally dominant person would do except i call you "good boy" while you do it." Mmmk. Im good thanks. "No but like even though youre like choosing everything and in total superior position by all metrics, the activity is giving me head so that makes it dominating you". Sure.

Having been a daddy dom of convenience for a long time before finally embracing that it just isnt what i enjoy most, i have hard carried sooooo so so so so many conversations over the years with submissive women who I knew wanted to talk with me but were just wholly incapable of even half guiding a conversation. They needed their partner to always being the one picking the topic. I ask a question, she just answers it. I find another topic, she passes back. Which was fine, i was the dominant and when i really was interested in someone I put in the work.

But the amount of *dominant* women I have had contacting me who feel *exactly* the same to talk to is astounding. Im sure youre all great people but i sooooo do not have the energy or drive or desire to simultaneously be in subby space and also the one clearly dominating this conversation and in total control. Thats the opposite of what I want in a domme.

I want to be responsive. Reactionary. The one being led by the dance. Putting effort into my steps, sure 100%, but not choosing their direction. Not dictating the tempo. Not selecting the music. The sensation that the person on the other end *actually halfway knows what they might want* and is going to communicate that without me having to prompt and pry it out of them and being left feeling like I'm clearly the boss. I swear. Im not a brat. Im not trying to be alpha. But somebody has to drive this vehicle or itll explode; and in a complete power vaccuum theres just nothing i can do to stop myself from expanding to fill it its just physics at that point. And im just not really into it rn.

Anyways rant over 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 lalalalalalalaalalalalalala

New writing should be coming soon!!!! Ive just been busy with restarting some classes and another thing so I hope everyone enjoys <3 submissive women always welcome on my acc. Just dont try to domme me. Because i can tell. Immediately.

[asteroid-fruitcup]

how i write poetry

basically a tutorial to how tf i write poetry because no one asked

first of all i am NOT an expert on poetry i dont know SHIT about shakespeare or any cool people like that aND i type like this like idfk 90% of the time like this is literally all one huge sentence and i made typos TRYING TO FIX MY TYPOS

anyways

usually, i start with some theme to write about. i’ll use my poem “i wish i was a river” to demonstrate

I was prompted to write a poem about victim AvA ehehe so I wanted to make a poem about wanting to change yourself but feeling like you can’t and kind of spiralling down because of it.

so step 2, I come up with a metaphor. You may have seen this post and well yeah. the metaphor I came up for was “i wish i was a river, yet I remain a lake”.

lemme break it down hold on

“i wish i was a river” because rivers are always flowing and they pave their own paths throughout the land. they do whatever they want. they’re just silly like that.

“but I remain a lake” lakes don’t fuckgn move. they just sit there. still water. mud and weird shit festers at the bottom and who the hell would want to swim in still water. they stay there and dig their own grave in the mud 😭

so now you have a yummy delicious metaphor to start your poem with. amazing. you’re on your way to cooking up a 5 star meal

now. build on it !!! explain the meaning of your metaphor through more words. use figurative language, say everything you mean. it does NOT matter. it’s poetry. poetry can be chaotic, because if it wasn’t chaotic I would never have written any.

if you would like, you could end it there. but from here there are also more options.

for example, you can repeat that process and add more metaphors. i built on to my original metaphor and changed the ending which got me “i wish i was a river, but I became a storm” so to translate “i wish i was open minded and able to change but i think i’ll just get angry at everyone instrad” so yeah we love vic

you can change the direction of the poem entirely. make the speaker confused. make them realize something midway.

in my poem “I am that friend” the poem starts off super light with “haha i love you and I’ll be loyal and never leave your side!” but then eventually the skies mfing darken and it explains how I try so hard to make people happy that I destroy myself in the process :3 (if you cant tell i kind if have a habit of saying really dark stuff like that and then purposefully putting “haha! im so silly :3” at the end idk why im like this :crying)

and something i feel a lot of people dont realize? poetry doesnt have to mfing rhyme. don’t listen to your kindergarden reading material omg like at most 2 of my poems have rhymed and they’re long lost

the poems I write are more like… rhythmic speech. like singing to some extent (cough cough liana flores cough cough)

i try to make my poems sound like you’re trying to have a deep conversation with someone and prove your point. you’re really trying to pack meaning into your words but still sound casual not to confuse the person you’re talking to. idk if casual is the right word but i think you get what i mean idkkk

but yeah, thats how i write my poetry! also keep in mind these arent like. the rules. seriously go mfing wild make your poem sound like a tired mother finding her kid on their phone at 3am and being so done with rhythmically talking or making strong metaphors

its poetry. fuck the rules. :>

[natasha-in-space]

I got a yoosung angst prompt cuz its fun to put the most sunshine guy through the worst traumas

How do you think his relationship will mc be post Bad Ending 3. Yeah its the ending where Unknown kidnaps and tortures him. Lets assume that he eventually got rescued and nearly died in the process (cuz Unknown badly hurt him in a fit of rage) but he survives....he lives

But whats gonna be after that how the whole ordeal is gonna affect his relationship with his S/O because it is going to be tough for both the parties. Ofc yoosung who was directly affected by the ordeal will need alot of therapy, and love and support. But it was quite tough for mc too.... if anything yoosung route does, it shows us the fact that losing a loved one is traumatic, nearly losing one too as well and MC also was traumatised and is guilt ridden (maybe i should have tried harder to stop him had i knew this would happen is a constant thought in her head) she also becomes somewhat protective of him because he has been through enough and deserves to get the best of the world.....but while mc is well intentioned in her actions....it somehow stings Yoosung, he is the one who should be protecting her, he should be the proactive one in the relationship....thats what he thinks. It makes him feel small....besides he can also see her running herself thin for him....and he just wants to not be a burden to her...

I rambled alot im sorry but i wanna see your take. As always i just wanna let you know I love your writing

Well, the unfortunate thing that I just can't help but bring up is that... Bad Ending 3 happens due to the player's (MC's) actions. That's not how it works in real life, of course, but with the structure of MM's storyline, that's how it plays out, and that's how it's meant to be interpreted by the player. In that ending, MC prioritizes themselves first, and encourages Yoosung self-sacrificial tendencies for their own benefit (or, well, safety, to be more exact). MC's actions are what led Yoosung to sacrifice himself in that ending in the first place. And that's also the reason behind his seeming resolve with what Unknown is putting him through in the aftermath.

'It's okay. I'm protecting them. They wanted me to keep them safe. So they wouldn't be scared. I need to stay strong for them. I'm doing this for them. Because I love them. Because I don't want to be in the dark and not do anything like it happened with Rika.'

So both sides of the argument are dealing with a messy tangle of emotions to deal with. And if you do want to imagine a better resolution to all of this, it'll probably involve a lot of conversations between the two.

Your dynamic between each other is unbalanced in that particular ending. And that's something that needs to be fixed. MC should take more care of Yoosung's well-being first before their own and believe in him, while Yoosung needs to work on his anxious attachment style.

It is difficult, though, because Yoosung's worst traits got the best of him as a direct result of MC's actions. The situation is pretty similar to those who want to imagine a better solution to Jumin's 2 Bad Ending. While it's possible, it needs to be acknowledged that MC is the one who needs to put most of the work in.

In my opinion, what would their relationship be like? Well, if we assume that MC does feel guilty for everything that happened, that's a lot of emotional baggage to deal with. Yoosung got hurt. Bad. Both physically and mentally. And he'll probably dismiss it too. It's important to remember that in this particular ending, he's devoted to you to an unhealthy extent. Not the same as in his 1 Bad Ending, but in a very self-sacrificial way. He'll probably just smile at you and say that he's happy you're safe. That that was the only thing he ever wanted. And that he held out for so long because he remembered what you told him, and how scared you were.

So... it's a pretty heavy situation for MC to be in. It's one thing to have your loved one disregard their well-being for you, but it's completely different when it's the direct consequence of your own actions.

Many apologies need to be made. Even if Yoosung doesn't understand why you're apologizing to him. Lots of talks to be had. And lots of very slow and steady progress to be made.

It's possible to come up with a better resolution to this mess. But it'll require a lot of work and patience from both MC and Yoosung. It does make a very interesting story to think about, though!

[termagax]

12 for the f/o thing because I love your opinions

12) aren’t you tired of being nice? this is an excuse to rant.

vageu prompt. anyways. one thing that always always always gets me is people want to act like he is canonically indigenous which is like. i guess not a bad idea right like its got some implications but thats neither here nor there its fine in a vaccuum. but when you like. look at the circumstances. all the canonically implications that he might be indigenous are 1) left to be very minor details you have to go hunt for while basically every other overwatch character walks up to you and says Hi My Name Is Name And I Am Ethnicity! like the game is not subtle about this stuff, so why are they trying to be here? and 2)are a pretty direct response to the racial caricatures they did. this is a tactic they used for pharah, too, where they made some skins got called out for those skins being kinda racist and then suddenly she has an indigenous father who has just never been mentioned before but. definetly existed you guys. so like im not really comfortable giving the team credit for #representation that they totally halfassed to cover their butts.

but also and this is just my take on it i think trying to retcon the ALF to be primarily indigenous australians is kind of wild given that junkers as a whole are portrayed as bloodthirsty backwoods savages and murderous robot racists. and theyre trying to make the alf situation Ambiguous Morality but i just dont think "the government took land away to give it to the robots and now brown people are being racist to the robots!! isnt that so mean!! how could they :-( and god punished them by blowing them all up and making them stupid violent monsters!!" is the way to do it. i would not frame it that way, personally. just the whole idea that the alf didnt exist until AFTER the crisis is crazy it would be so easy for it not to be what it is. you could just not do that. anyways.

again i think like looking at it in a vaccuum the idea that hog is maori is fine and im not like opposed to it on principle but i think that has to live in headcanon land because the more we treat it as definitive truth in canon the worse that entire section of the plot looks. imo.

[the-xolotl]

hiiiii i love ur work i just waned to ask if u could do like a human to demon alastor x murdered reader thing cuz like i just would love that! like here i can help,(kinda sorry for the miss spelling)

so she could be like murdered by al cuz like he had told her that he was a murderer and like she acts calme butt like alastor sees that but says nothing and readers like "here ill go clean the dishes" or something like that and she go's but really when to call the police and befor they could alastor finds them and is like "oh no Darling" and he like kisses and hangs up the phone. and u can pick what happens next u can pick if they die or live or even if the do the devils tango

(im old enough don't worry)

i hope u pick this one and if u do i hope u have fun and if not thats ok! i still love ur content! thx byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

hello~ “i’m old enough” doesn’t really count 😭 unless you have your age in your bio i don’t think i’ll be picking this idea up. besides, at the moment i’m not taking direct requests, only suggested prompts <3