#tell me it doesn't give Raven and Trapped vibes

[not-mary-sue]

Traitors works because it hits the CBBC generations craving for overly dramatic gameshows

[peerlessscowl]

Champagne: This isn’t a church-run event anymore, so the bar is open and flows freely. The waiter-mice might give you judging looks if you make a fool of yourself, and really, how low do you have to go to be judged by a mouse?

"Your vibes are atrocious."

Heedless of the irony of her statement, Vaida offers the man a drink; she had spotted him from afar earlier in the night but had refrained from approaching him, as she had dealt with her own gaggle of nuisances. Not the best way to greet someone she has not ever met, but when has she ever treated anyone with common decency?

"Now... Who are you, I wonder?" There are very few others, here, who appear to be as out of place as she feels; then again, she is more than a little bit tipsy. Nevertheless, she is nothing if not persistent (and notoriously annoying), so she doesn't even bother to hide her disdain. "Certainly not a lordling, with that scowl of yours; or, if you are, you're at least as not as bullheaded as that Ostian brat. Ugh. They're all the same to me," she grumbles, "and far more trouble than they're worth."

Oh saints above, this couldn't be happening again. Not a third time.

What were the chances?

The woman makes herself comfortable - just as the others had - although this one came with a drink to soften what he expected was the true coming blow.

Though he was well and truly exhausted - of being trapped, of the ball itself, of his saints forsaken life - Raven stiffened at the accusations, straightening as he shrugged on the coat of old noble manners once more. For all the good they'd done him.

"No one of importance, my lady. Surely nothing you need concern yourself with - if my vibes have bothered you so much, I can only apologize that you felt the need to come tell me. Believe me when I say I could remove myself from your presence if I could."

He did not accept the offering of champagne, and inclined his head to her in what he hoped indicated that she could leave the conversation whenever she wanted - but he tensed at the mention of the Ostian whelp, and he felt his fingernails quite suddenly biting crescent moons into his palm.

In, out. Narrowing his eyes, he considered the woman again. The armor wasn't of familiar make, but the shape of it was unmistakable - wyvern rider.

Bern again, is it? What was it about the warriors of Bern that decided they simply had an issue with him? He could only hope that this conversation would end before blood was drawn.

He paused a moment, then; "A wonder, my lady, that you find me so off-putting as to not be nobility, but not quite on the same level of aggravating. I am...honored to be placed in such unique esteem. I regret to inform you, though," he said, his throat tightening, "that I am of the same such stock as our dear Marquess Ostia."

[crimeronan]

hello. i followed you for correct leverage opinions, and have continued to do so because the vibes. impeccable. that being said, please tell me about the trc and cdth and the nightmare trauma pals and the other group

omg. okay i'll do my best

the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater is the first series, you'll find a lot of quick and simple summaries of the plot with a google search. there's a girl who can't kiss anyone because she'll kill her true love with a kiss, a boy searching for a dead welsh king in virginia to give his life meaning, a lot of romping around in the woods, etc

but the heart of the story is that it's about these six teens from wildly different backgrounds (though one of them doesn't enter the scene until book 3) falling in love and being Horribly messy about it. the external plot is centered on magic but the internal arcs are all about isolation, mental illness, classism, identity, growing up, growing apart, love as a choice. most of the main cast is desperately trying to save a doomed boy who just wants to make sure all of his loved ones will be okay when he's gone

the ot6 polycule is made up of

the girl who's already grieving the doomed boy because she's seen his future ghost, trying so hard not to let anyone else in on her secret, taking on more trauma and fear by the day as the series progresses

the doomed boy himself, an achingly lonely and extremely privileged kid who wants to do the right thing but always seems to fuck up; he feels he loves everyone more than they'll ever love him

the classic scholarship kid present in any book involving a boarding school, poor with a rough home life, desperately in love with the doomed boy without believing that love actually exists, & sick with terror bc of it

the shouty fighty walking disaster who's just starting to recover from a suicide attempt; found his father's dead body and it's been all downhill from there. nasty and caustic but prone to consistent quiet kindness

the actual ghost who's dependent on magic and the love of his friends to stay corporeal, exhausted, tired of decaying and trapped in a traumatic feedback loop that he can't pull himself out of

the social chameleon who's up to his ears in double identities and the criminal underground and trauma of his own, trying to suss out whether any of the other 5 are trustworthy and whether he can use them to his own ends

all of the interpersonal relationships are STUNNING and dynamic, characters can go from enemies to friends to enemies to lovers over the course of a few books, it's all just. really good

call down the hawk is a sequel to this series, the first book in a trilogy

it's about magic as chronic illness, magic as community, magic as something that wants to kill you but could also save you; you can view all of the character arcs through different lenses of disability, & the main conflict in book 2 boils down to accommodation versus independence for chronically ill people

the nightmare trauma pals are ronan and hennessy. both of them can bring their dreams to life. both have had nightmares try to kill them for years, thanks to their unrelenting ptsd and other illness. they're intensely platonic (ronan is gay) and have all the dynamic messiness of the trc relationships, turned up to eleven

they become best friends almost instantly because of their combined ability to laugh and to call the other on their shit; they're messy because they're awful codependent freaks who are both FAR too sick to truly help the other; ronan is trying to be someone healthy for hennessy despite having no idea what that looks like, so he's making it up as he goes along; hennessy doesn't understand why everything feels awful and ronan isn't helping like he promised and also why he doesn't seem to care that their codependency hurts her

but that's just one of many complex relationships in the series -- another extremely compelling one is between hennessy and jordan, a girl who's "not real" because hennessy dreamed her, but Very Fucking Real insofar as she has interiority and her own motivations and desires and a desperate want to be free. and how hennessy keeps dragging her back because she's so afraid of having to exist without jordan taking care of her

dreamer trilogy is SIGNIFICANTLY darker and more fucked up than the raven cycle, which is why i love it the most. but if you prefer lighter media you might like trc better! also this overview barely touches on, like, anything i have to say about either series. as evidenced by.... the thousands of posts on my blog. but these are the main highlights that i'm In It for!

[chastiefoul]

yellow. | itafushi

[in which fushiguro almost never wears other than black or white, and in this one he finally does.]

word count : 787

--- Itadori gasped loudly when Fushiguro presented himself to the common room, with a panicked face the pink-haired boy quickly tells the other male, “Fushi!” He pointed sharply to Fushiguro’s shirt, the latter man follows, staring at his own shirt from different angles. Itadori made it sound like he has been wearing it inside out or something.

“What is that on your shirt?!”

“What?” Fushiguro emphasized, still having zero idea about what was so wrong about the damn shirt. “Color! You have color on your shirt,” Itadori quickly changes his expression, somehow pleased. Something about whole line of events finally made sense. The dark-haired boy had to agree that he almost never wear something aside from black or any other monochrome-toned colors. But he cannot agree about the way Itadori overly exaggerates it.

“Black, white, and grey. Those are colors too, idiot.” He sighed exasperatedly, the morning of their day off felt like it has been shortened by a few hours. “I know, but right now what you’re wearing is yellow. Yellow!” Itadori says with a tone that somehow irked the younger boy so much. Made him felt like he did a heinous crime he already felt guilty for just for a guy with pink hair to berate him all the way on the road to jail.

Fushiguro intake a sharp breath, having to deal with this one time too many. “You gave this to me as a gift, Itadori,” he said in the most obvious way, yet Fushiguro too quickly realize by saying that he was basically stating that the only reason that thing is on his body was because Itadori was the one who gave it to him. Though to a certain extent it’s not wrong, doesn't that totally sounded like a declaration of lov-

“Oh my god,” a new voice jumped in at the conversation making the both of them turned their heads, “What is that you’re wearing?” Kugisaki gasped once more, adding a fake dramatization element to her words. The said person only rolled his eyes because Kugisaki knew exactly what was he wearing and why, considering all those nights Fushiguro spent on confiding his secret crush to her.

“That’s it, I’m changing.” Fushiguro turned his back, not giving the satisfaction to Kugisaki of seeing they way his expression twitched and defeated, looking pissed off.

“Noo!” Itadori quickly put his arms around Fushiguro’s waist, trapping him. His toned chest pressed against Fushiguro’s slender yet defined back. His eyes spin at the sudden closeness.

“Please don’t, I was just kidding! You look really cute in yellow.” Itadori flashes an attractive smile, Fushiguro blushes in response. “I don’t go around walking with this shirt for you to call me cute, Itadori.” He forced out a sentence, holding the last ounce of composure he usually masters in convenient situations. Yeah, since Itadori came in his life, these things just have a way to just disintegrate from his brain. With that distracting smile and happy-go-lucky attitude, Fushiguro swiftly finds himself be caught up the pink-haired male’s pace so often.

“Please,” Kugisaki added, “You were practically begging for Itadori to compliment you, seeing the way you’ve been looking at him.”

“Oooh. Is that true Fushiguro?” Itadori pulled away-Fushiguro frowned a little at that- joining Kugisaki in cahoots to tease the raven-haired boy further. They gestured a whisper to each other, the whole scene looking like a giant comedy bit.

“Ne, Kugisaki~ Isn’t Fushiguro totally adorable?”

“Yes he is, Yes he is!” Kugisaki chanted back

Fushiguro threw a glare as an attempt of fighting back, but the vibrant vibe he emitted from the shirt he had and the sweet pink color on his cheeks were not helping at all. Finally he just let out a groan relently, “I’m leaving,” he says, turning his heels back to where he came from—his bedroom.

For a split second there he saw Itadori threw his head back laughing, eyes closed without a care in the world. Fushiguro could have sworn there was literal sunshine-like softness swaying around the older boy making what was an already gorgeous sight somehow exquisite. The shadow-curses wielder wasn’t really keen on constructing flowery speech on spot, especially in his mind. But all those new vocabularies he learnt from reading his nonfiction books—he thought it would be a waste if it’s not used for something as breath-taking as that.

The way back to his haven was quiet, as the culprit of the usual ruckus was still enjoying the time of his life, laughing on the common room. Fushiguro who initially thought he was annoyed, stopped right before his room’s door, a late yet expected comprehension falls upon him. He smiled, out of utmost fondness towards those two who he likes to call idiots, his idiots.

He was having fun.