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lurkingshan · 29 days ago

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Love in the Big City Drama: Book Club Meta Round Up

Welcome back, book clubbers! Here is your weekly round up post, which will be updated each Monday for the next few weeks as we work our way through this excellent drama adaption of our beloved novel. Any additional essays that post after today will be added to the list next week, and I'll add on a new section for each part every week as we progress.

Episodes 1-2 (Part 1)

A Ramble: Love in the Big City Eps 1-2 by @solitaryandwandering

Go Yeong's parallel losses by @shinjiikari

Jaehee by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Künstlerroman vibe by @becomingabeing

LITBC Episodes 1 and 2; Differences in Mediums by @starryalpacasstuff

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Love in the Big City Drama: Episodes 1-2 Book Club Discussion by @profiterole-reads

Love in the Big City, Ep 1 and 2 by @wen-kexing-apologist

Love in the Big City Part 1: A friend is your needs answered by @impala124

Love in the Big City Part 1: It's Gay by @bengiyo

Love In The Big City: Reflections on the Novel, and Episodes 1 and 2 of the Television Series by @waitmyturtles

Love In The Big City series adaptation: Episodes 1 & 2 by @doyou000me

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 1 &2: The Loneliness of Conformity and Nonconformity by @twig-tea

On queer loneliness by @poetry-protest-pornography

On the use of Namsan Tower by @lurkingshan

On Yeong and Mi Ae by @lurkingshan

More thoughts on Mi Ae by @shinjiikar1

Part 1 book parallels by @troubled-mind

Responses to discussion questions by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

That Jaehee didn't live here anymore by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

The role of Mr. Splendid by @moutheyes

Thoughts on episode 1 by @stuffnonsenseandotherthings

Softened entry into the story by @avorbl

Use of Noh Sa Yeon's Meeting by @troubled-mind

Episodes 3-4 (Part 2)

A bite of rockfish, taste the universe by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Adaptation choices by @impala124

A Ramble: Love in the Big City Eps 3-4 by @solitaryandwandering

Just another part of the world that was him by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Kdramafication of the story for the screen by @lurkingshan with additional thoughts from @wen-kexing-apologist

LITBC Ep 3-4: What Does Eating Pasta Have to Do With Your Tough Past? by @wen-kexing-apologist

LITBC ep 3 & 4: When they're homophobic but you love them by @starryalpacasstuff

Love in the Big City Drama: Episodes 3-4 Book Club Discussion by @profiterole-reads

Love in the Big City, episode 3 + 4: A Piece Of Rockfish, A Taste Out Of This World by @colourme-feral

Love in the Big City Episodes 3 and 4 by @avorbl

Love in the Big City Part 2: Call me "Blueberry" by @impala124

Love in the Big City Part 2: Go Yeong and Umma by @neuroticbookworm

Love in the Big City Part 2: The Weight of Homophobia by @bengiyo

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 3 & 4: Found Family by @twig-tea

Notes on Love in the big city Part 2 (Eps 3-4) by @impala124

On homophobia, remaining closeted, and character foils by @shinjiikar1

On Knowing The Story and Characters (and their trash) Beforehand by @doyou000me

On Yeong's complex feelings for Umma by @lurkingshan

Thoughts about the episodes by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Thoughts on discussion questions by @shinjiikar1

Episodes 5-6 (Part 3)

A Ramble: Love in the Big City Eps 5-6 by @solitaryandwandering

Feelings About the T-aras by @impala124

LITBC locations by @colourme-feral

Love in the Big City by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Love in the Big City Drama: Episodes 5-6 Book Club Discussion by @profiterole-reads

Love in the Big City, Ep 5-6: Visuals to Support Adaptation by @wen-kexing-apologist

Love in the Big City Eps 5 & 6: That Apartment Was Too Small by @bengiyo

Love in the Big City Part 3: Go Yeong and Gyu-ho by @neuroticbookworm

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 5 & 6: Kylie Once Again Recontextualizes Everything by @twig-tea

Responses to discussion questions by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Thoughts on Part 3 by @shinjiikar1

Thoughts on Yeong and Gyu-ho's romance by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Yeong in his relationship with Gyu-ho by @lurkingshan

Episodes 7-8 (Part 4)

A Ramble: Love in the Big City Eps 7-8 by @solitaryandwandering

Go Yeong & Gyo-ho after Thailand: Freefall by @impala124

Gyu-ho. My only wish. by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

LITBC Ep. 7-8: Gotta Love an Adaptation by @wen-kexing-apologist

Love in the Big City adaptation changes by @avorbl

Love in the Big City Drama: Episodes 7-8 Book Club Discussion by @profiterole-reads

Love in the Big City Eps 7-8: Always Forward by @bengiyo

Love in the Big City IRL Locations by @colourme-feral

Love in the Big City Part 4: We All Need T-aras in Our Lives by @neuroticbookworm

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 7 & 8: Different Flavours of Hope by @twig-tea

Moving on by @avorbl

On Habibi and Yeong by @lurkingshan

The End - LITBC Ep. 7/8 by @shinjiikar1

Tis better to have loved and lost by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Yeong's enduring wish by @lurkingshan

#love in the big city #litbc book club #kdrama #korean bl

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markrosewater · 5 months ago

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Hey Mark, I just wanted to say you've always seemed like a really cool guy. I've played magic for over 4/5ths of my life, since the early 2000s when I was only five years old, I even met most of my long time friends through it. But I think I finally feel alienated enough by it to drop it entirely.

I always enjoyed every aspect of this game, from the deckbuilding, to the flavor, to the color pie and the possibilities it presented. I loved the fantasy of it, of planeswalkers and wizards, dragons and castles.

Universes Beyond really was the end of it, all the way back then. When i heard the announcements I was terrified, I knew where it would lead even then. I loved the world of Magic, and it feels silly to say about a card game but I truly felt immersed in the world when I played, even with the different planes, everything cohered to an internal set of rules that seemed unbreakable.

For a while I continued, our local scene created a variant format that banned Universes Beyond cards so I was able to ignore them, but then came Neon Dynasty. It felt strange to me, like it was breaking what I had come to expect out of the game. Most people disagreed, said it was still Magic enough, but I wondered just how far it would be pushed before Magic lost any identity of its own, anything that separated it from Fortnite or any other crossover soup known entirely for the things it borrows rather than the things it is.

When I saw the first spoilers for Duskmourn, I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back. When I play at the table with my friends, I enjoy the fact that all the cards feel like part of one larger universe. And when I see cards with televisions and smartphones in them, with modern clothing and internet references, I just can't fit them together in my mind. It seems like a cool world, much like a lot of the crossovers are cool worlds, but I play Magic for well... Magic. If I wanted to play Fallout or Warhammer 40k, or watch Insidious or Walking Dead, then I would. But when I play Magic, I want to see magic.

And it's canon, just as canon as Innistrad or Alara. We can't excise it like we can Universes Beyond, and if we can't, then what's even the point of trying to "protect the tone" with those bans? What tone are we protecting, that's already been shattered from within?

More and more it feels like the game just isn't for me, doesn't want the kind of player that feels strongly about cohesion and immersion. And that's fine, it doesn't have to cater to me, and the current approach seems to bring in more people than it drives away. But it still just makes me sad, on a deep personal level, to give up on what has been such a major part of my life.

In all likelihood, I'm an outlier, and you could easily say that Magic getting even broader in what it covers is only a positive thing. Take my critiques only as the lamentations of a single person. But when you can put anything in a piece of media, when there's no unifying idea of what is and isn't possible, then it just starts to feel meaningless.

I'm sorry, I know you'll probably never read this, I mostly just needed to get it off my chest- and you're the closest thing to a human face Magic the Gathering has. Thank you for all the work you've put into it over the years, and I'm sorry that I can't enjoy it anymore.

Thanks for writing. From a big picture, Magic excels at creating variety and does poorly at consistency. The core idea of a trading card game is we make lots and lots of pieces you can play with and then you, the player, customize your game as you see fit. History has shown us, the wider we spread the potential of what Magic can be, the more people find something they enjoy and are attracted to the game.

Think of it this way. Each player has a different sense of what Magic is to them. There's no cutoff point where we make the majority of players happy. In fact, for many players, it's the ever-expanding quality to the game that they enjoy most.

This does mean though that we might make choices that don't connect with what you personally enjoy, and I respect that. If Magic isn't providing what you want out of it, that's okay. My only recommendation is don't get rid of your cards. Many Magic players rotate in and out of the game, and the number one complaint I hear from players who rotate back in is them having gotten rid of everything when they rotated out.

Magic might not be what you need right now, but maybe a few years from now you've changed in ways which makes it something you will enjoy. Or maybe Magic will evolve in a way that speaks to you. The only constant I know is you and Magic will both change. Just leave yourself the possibility of reconnecting.

Thanks for playing all these years, and I hope to see you again.

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hannahssimblr · 15 days ago

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Winter.

When did this happen? Was I looking away for long enough for the season to change without my notice? I haven’t spent enough time here watching time, from this old velvet seat by the window that overlooks brutalist blocks, each building identical to the next. These utilitarian slabs might stand like this, grey cubes jutting from the asphalt, for five hundred years. I’m here for five months now. Thoroughly settled, used to this place, this apartment with the tarry flavour of cigarettes clinging to the furniture the landlady never took away.

Jonas says she’s strange, this woman who has left all of her old things for us to live around. Her lamps, with sun-faded shades, her record collection, the chenille bedspreads stuffed into a closet, and the ancient television I replaced the day after I landed. I’ve never met her. Sometimes, I slip a dusty bottle from her wine rack in the cellar and serve it to my friends at dinner. Surely, by the time she ever notices, I’ll be long gone.

Through the vignette of condensation, the snow drifts, white flecks, across the beam of the streetlights. Kreuzberg is quiet. Sunday.

I refocus my eyes to look into my face, a mirror reflection in the black window. I look older, perhaps, than in the photographs Jen posted to me in September, the ones from the summer, where the light is hazy and our noses are sun blushed, from that time that feels like another lifetime already, or like fiction. At Christmas, I returned to Ireland, and it rained for two weeks without stopping, and it felt something more like reality.

My grandmother told me that my hair was straggly, and she’s right. It’s been too long since I’ve cut it, but the ends of my hair spent the summer with me. Even though my skin cells have replaced themselves, the parts of my hair touching the collar of my coat and curling around my ears hold the memories that the rest of me is slowly losing.

I haven’t stayed in touch with my friends from there as much as I would have liked. These days are busy, with friends, with college. I draw and paint more than I ever have, lashing out piece after piece, sketchbook after sketchbook, building a tower upon the desk in my cold little bedroom, though the women in my pieces don’t have green eyes anymore. Now, I choose blue.

The door buzzes, and I stand to answer it.

My finger on the button, “Yeah?”

“Hurry! Open up, it’s fucking cold.”

I buzz her in, then stand waiting by the open door as she ascends the stairway. Three floors. I hear her the whole way, the snap of boot heels against tile. There’s an elevator in her building, and I feel acutely guilty about my building’s lack of one, despite being entirely powerless to do anything about it, as I am an art student, not an engineer, and was not yet actually born during its construction.

She appears on the landing, shivering, with snowflakes clinging to her hair, and sitting on the structured shoulders of her trench coat.

“Ugh, oh God, those stairs. I hate them.” She says. She unzips her boot and tosses onto the pile of shoes next to the door, and I notice immediately that she’s barefoot, toes balanced on the tiles like a ballerina.

“You didn’t wear socks?”

She’s not wearing tights either. Her long, pale legs poke, completely exposed beneath the beige gabardine.

“Did you take the U-Bahn like this? It must be five below zero.”

Her second boot hits the tile with a clatter, and she backs me into my apartment. As the door clicks shut, she pulls on the tie of her coat.

She’s wearing nothing but black lingerie.

“Ah,” I am enlightened. This now makes perfect sense to me, in much the same way it does to her. Astrid has a way of bringing me around to her way of thinking.

This was actually an excellent idea.

“I was bored,” she says, which makes sense too. She is always bored. This is why she does what she’s seen people do in films. It’s a way to keep herself entertained. An unwelcome thought flashes into my mind, as I wonder if she has done this specific thing for previous boyfriends. I hop off that path. With Astrid, it is important to dwell only upon the present. Anything before this, now, me, us, is nothing worth worrying about.

I slip my hands under her coat, onto the soft, downy velvet of her skin.

“Nice and warm,” she murmurs.

“Astrid, you shouldn’t have gone out like this.”

“It was only thirty minutes.”

“I know, but,” Her hands are freezing between mine as I heat them with my breath. “It’s too cold.” I’ll have to give her something of mine to wear when she goes home, but begin to worry that nothing is clean. I have been avoiding taking my dirty clothes to the basement since I flew back in ten days ago, too cowardly to face the seizing cold of the communal laundry room and that ever present leak in the ceiling surely turned to an icicle by now.

These are not sexy thoughts.

It’s like she can tell just by looking at me. “The point is, you will heat me up,” she says, a bit slowly, like I’m thick.

I don’t want to be the guy that lacks spontaneity. That would make me anxious. She pulls her hands from mine and pouts at me, as though at a little dog. “Look at you, you’re so nice.”

It’s not intended as a compliment, and I understand I should be doing something a bit wilder, like, I don’t know, taking my own clothes off already. Why on earth haven’t I started to do that?

Ah, because I am nice.

“Okay, fuck your hands then. They can freeze.” Often, jokes are a mistake around Astrid. She rarely laughs at them. In fact, she rarely smiles at all, and only indulges us when she feels like doing it. It’s never to be polite. She knows her own mind. I’m obsessed with her.

I’m obsessed to an ever greater extent now, because, once again, she’s not laughing. She’s not trying to please me. It’s me, always, trying to please her instead. I tug on her coat and it pools to the floor, then I kiss her.

“God, I love you.”

I murmur it, the truth.

I knew it the third or fourth night we spent together, in November, as the last stubborn leaves clung to the branches. She wasn’t like anybody I had ever met before. She reminded me of nobody, and that was the point.

I felt it, that weakness, my molten insides, and the deep fear of it in the early hours of one morning as she lay on the sheets with moonlight spilling across her back. She has a tattoo between her shoulder blades of a heart pierced by three daggers. She says it’s from a tarot card, and she was younger and stupider when she got it. That night, as she slept, I uncovered some kind of symbolism in it that moved me, but in the morning light I had forgotten all the profound thoughts I’d come up with except one: That I loved her. It surprised me. I ignored the tiny pang of sadness I felt, like mourning for a part of my life that was already long gone. It was useless to miss it.

I chose Astrid instead.

I choose her now, love her in the same way I kiss her and touch her and fuck her, by doing what she wants me to do. It’s not a submissive situation. I’m not into that stuff. I am a man clocking in and doing as he's asked, thoroughly, diligently, excelling at his job. Eager to please. Employee of the month.

“Will you put your hand on my throat?” She breathes. Beneath me, her hands claw the bedsheets.

Yes, I think. That would be nice.

I am interested to discover that I like it too. I don’t think the other girls I’ve slept with would have let me try the things that Astrid does. They couldn’t picture themselves doing it, I’m sure, and neither could I. Back then I didn’t think about sex the way I do now, but Berlin has been bringing it out in me.

She comes first. That’s mandatory. Then afterwards, when I have, and thoughts return to my brain, I’ll lay here, haunted by the years I didn’t know about this golden rule, and all the time that I thought I was good at sex but wasn’t. Dwelling on the disappointment I brought upon women and girls will make me spiral a bit, I’ll feel it rising, but I’ll feel better when I fuck Astrid again, in some new, fascinating position, and she’ll tell me I’m pretty good, in fact.

She’ll be loud enough about it that Klaus from downstairs may complain, and point out that such volume levels are forbidden on Sundays. He’ll threaten to raise it with the building management, so I’ll bring up the fact I know it was he who put cat food containers in the recycling bin. Neither of us will do anything, and the cycle will repeat until one of us moves or dies.

“Klaus is a miserable, jealous old fool,” Astrid says. “He probably doesn’t have sex, so he’s furious at people who do. I think it’s basic psychology.”

“He lives with his wife, you know.”

“Oh, that doesn’t mean he’s having sex. Married people don’t do it. Or at least hardly ever. That’s why I’ll never be tied down like that.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“You think Mr and Mrs Klaus are fucking like rabbits down there?”

I scrunch up my face. “I’ve never heard them. Maybe they do it very quietly while I’m out of the apartment.”

“They never do. I bet they hate one another. Surely they sleep in separate rooms and only speak when they have to.” Astrid invents this story with glee. She is describing what is to her an indisputable fact of life. Her parents, and her mother’s relationship with her stepfather, too. I think she believed these things about marriage before meeting me, but the confirmation that my parents are the same has solidified it.

“I don’t like to think about things in such a black and white way,” I say, and hold my palm against hers. Her fingers are long and slender. “Just because a lot of marriages are bad, doesn’t mean they’re all doomed. I believe some people are happy.”

“Trapped,” she whispers. “Like canaries in a cage. Maybe they don’t know any better.”

“If I was married, it’d be because I loved that person completely. I wouldn’t do it unless I was sure, and if I loved someone that much, I think I’d still have sex all the time. I can’t really picture that changing. When would I ever not be doing it, you know?”

She hums gently. “So you would never join a monastery.”

“Ugh.”

“And if you married me, you’d want me like this forever?”

This isn’t a serious question about marriage. That would be ridiculous. This is a test for me to pass, and am about to, with flying colours.

“Yeah, you’re so appealing in every way. I can’t imagine not being completely crazy about you forever.”

“You definitely wouldn’t get over me if I left you.”

“Nah, probably not. In my grief, I might even refuse to sign the divorce papers or some shit.”

She nods, satisfied, and rests her head on my chest. It slots nicely beneath my chin. “I want to go to sleep,” she says.

“Alright, me too.”

I switch off the light and listen to the pitter patter of the snow on the window, drifting slowly away with it.

Astrid shifts, restless.

“Tomorrow, I have a lecture at eight.”

“Unlucky.”

“I don’t have any clothes.”

“Ah, yeah, probably because of the lingerie stunt.”

A pout. “It was a gift for you.”

“And I loved it. I can find you something to wear.”

“To my class? Your clothes? I’ll look ridiculous. Can you get me a taxi to my house so I can change?”

“Yeah, of course. If you wear my clothes in the taxi.”

“I won’t be naked under my coat in front of a strange man, Jude.”

“Okay. Good. I’ll arrange a taxi, then.”

“That’s sweet of you.” She adjusts her position again, and the subtle contact of our bodies sets off a chain of sensation. I rake my nails lightly over her back, and she shudders.

“You’re so pretty,” I say. “Did you know that?” I know she does, but I like the smug way she always says yes.

“It’s okay if I leave my underwear here?”

“If you want to, yeah. Why? Do you think I wanted to carry it around in my pocket or something?”

“So you can wash it for me.”

“Yeah,” I press my lips to the back of her hand. “I’ve been meaning to go to the laundry basement for too long now. I’ll just add them to the pile.”

“No, you need to hand-wash them. They’re made of lace.”

“Oh right. So like, in the sink, or something.”

“I thought you might have known that.”

“Nah, see, in Dublin, we had a cleaner who washed all of my lace underwear for me.”

“Mm…”

“... That was a joke about the lace underwear. We did actually have a cleaner, though.”

“You’ll take care of it? They were quite expensive. It’s not as though I have a lot of that kind, so if it got ruined…”

“I will.”

She slips a hand into my hair and seeks my lips in the dark. She kisses me with such affection that I melt into her. “I love you, Jude. Thank you.”

“I love you too.”

A low chuckle as I bite her earlobe. “You really would never be a monk, would you?”

“Oh, my God. The thought makes me sick.”

I roll over her, and we give Klaus one more thing to complain about.

Beginning // Prev // Next

#lucky boy 2011 #prose is back baby!#sim spice #sims 4 storytelling #sims4 story #sims story #simblr #simblr story #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 #ts4 #sims community

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transparent-peach · 3 months ago

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English is totally not my first language and i hope i spelled everything perfectly. I hope you enjoy it.

(Please be nice.)

James McAvoy x Reader

words: 1500

Romantic, isn’t it?

You were so close to getting insane, considered to the fact that you were all alone in North Scottland in a huge property. You had so many things to do but your social skills were all out and you haven’t got any energy lately. You felt the psychical pain of being alone, being without him. You felt terrible every time you saw him on tv, wishing he could have been there with you. But you knew it was impossible. If he wasn’t in the set of the “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, he was out there doing interviews, talking about the movie, promoting all of the little piece of it for the world. Your caffeine addiction went on another level, your mental health was falling into the nothingness. You always knew there was this risk of being with James but this never really affected your relationship. It’s been six months since he left.

————————————

It was a rainy morning of a thursday. It was almost templated how i went to work every weekdays, how i made my coffee and breakfast and headed out to the town. I sat down to my desk and made my day better than nothing with paperwork and telephone calls. I was exhausted by doing almost nothing but sitting down and force my mind to calm itself down was really doing something to me. In my early days i was working as a designer a graphic designer and a set designer at all in once. I had three jobs as i quit the graphic designer one. I was so full of ideas and things that i had to do for the sets and the movies but in that exact week i was doing some manager work. Some celebrities were almost like children when it came to their jobs and careers but i enjoyed working with them. I was helping them apply to work and put their life in order.

"Hello, love. It is your man on the television, isn’t it?"

My friend asked me with a lowered voice. She was nearly whispering.

"Yes, indeed."

I said it with a monotone tone, heading back to my desk. It was four in the afternoon that meant that i almost finished for that day. Excellent.

"What is wrong with you?"

She asked. Curiosity rushed through her eyes and she furrowed her brows.

"It’s just… You know… Work…"

I looked into her eyes.

"Can’t lie to me. Now tell me the real ‘wrong’."

She was following me to the desk. She was standing there, staring at me like a freak trying to read my mind.

"I miss him."

"Oh, love. I understand that."

The pity… That was the ultimate reason for me to not tell anyone about it. I am not a silly teenager anymore. I can handle this. At least that is what i thought. She knew from the very beginning, i told her first that we were a thing with James. We tried hard to hide from the world. We did great since in our four years of relationship there was only rumours about us. James’ manager did great with hiding things from everyone. I put my phone on the charger in the corner of my office. When it started to buzzing like hell, i raised my head up and started to feel a little bit anxious.

"Hey dear!"

A familiar voice came from the other side. My heart dropped and i sat down as i raised the phone to my ear.

"Hi James. How are you?"

I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

"I’m alright love. I am fine. What about my precious woman?"

He asked with a calm voice, made me feel warm from the inside out.

"I miss you."

I pursed my lips together and biting them in anxiety.

"I miss you too. But hey! It’s alright. At least you won’t get bored of me ."

He said jokingly. I heard his keys jingling in his hand. He opened his car and i heard a big sigh of exhaustion.

"Don’t be ridiculous James.”

I cleared my throat.

"You know it was a joke. Baby i need to go now. My manager set the date of my interview for 17.20 and i am nowhere to be found."

He chuckled a bit at his own words.

"’Kay. Love you."

"Love you too, Y/N. Take care."

He said softly as he hung up the call.

Devastated maybe, that is the right word to use for my situation in my head. I put down the phone started to pack my things up. Another day without him. Another night. I slept a bit better knowing that he is safe wherever he was. He sent me a picture of himself enjoying travelling. I felt the butterflies in my stomach as i looked into his eyes on the picture. I was like a girl who stalked her crush’s instagram. At least that was i did that morning. What can possibly be a more joyful project than this at seven in the morning when i almost just woke up from a coma.

jamesmcavoyrealdeal

🩷115K 💬1 956

It’s a little funky isn’t it? We are halfway there you don’t need to wait for too long.

I smiled at the mobile. I was totally in love. Until i realised i was late from work. I was in a hurry i didn’t even packed anything for the day. I was messed up but when i walked into the office i acted like i was a complete collected and mindful young lady with an attitude. I needed to go to the theatre to set some things right. I thought i must do some of my costume work. At reality i collected myself at almost one in the afternoon. I was stressed, anxious and never recovered from the fact that i was so tired that day. There was so much material, needle, threads, my ideas sketched on papers and stuff like that. I needed to make some tidying up because the room was a mess. I almost finished the costume, as i sat back down to my chair. It was dark out there already. I felt the coldish wind rushed through the room. I packed my things. I deemed the costume ready for that day. I headed home. It was pitch dark in the house as i walked in. I made myself a nice dinner and poured a glass of red wine. I sat down in the bedroom and started to watch an interview with Graham Norton. It was cosy to be honest it felt like some sort of meditation. There was Hugh sitting on the red couch. Next to him there was Michael and James. Hugh was beyond excited and kind as he enthusiastically talked to Graham. He had a lot of laughs with him and Michael. James seemed a bit off that day. I saw the problems on his face. I chuckled a bit at his attitude. I lighted up a cigarette near the window and i looked out to the busy street for a moment.

I sighed in discomfort. I was listening to their chit chat and laughs on the television. When they started to sing 'Afrika' by Toto. I zoned out a bit but when i heard James’ laugh i immediately looked back to the screen.

I heard the door opening and i tossed the cigarette stub out in fear. I almost spat out my heart in fright my pulse was racing and my head started pounding. The door opened and i saw a huge bouquet of flowers. The head was slowly peeking out behind the flowers and i nearly fell over the window.

"Oh god…"

I gasped in disbelief as he walked over to me. I looked at the tv and then to him in awe just like it was some kind of a lucid dream.

"Hello love."

He handed me the roses and gave me a kiss to my forehead while i enjoyed the scent of the flowers.

"Hi."

I whispered to the thin air. I put down the flowers and i gave him a thigh squeeze.

"I think i told you a million times not to smoke in here."

He smiled at me and poked my nose.

"Well, i think you should be at London shooting interviews and chatting with famous people."

My sassy attitude came in handy for the moment. I held him closer, and gave him a kiss.

"That was a bit cocky… but i guess you are right. I missed you."

He looked into my eyes with his cold blue ones, and spinned me around.

"You look cute with Michael."

I teased him a bit before i gave another kiss on his forehead.

"Thank you love."

He laughed with nothing but pure joy.

"I am thinking about inviting him over for dinner someday."

"We are free this weekend. You should give it a shot."

He teased me back while leading me to the bed.

#xmen #xmen days of future past #james mcavoy stories #james mcavoy #hugh jackman #michael fassbender #james mcavoy x reader #james mcavoy x y/n #romance #romantic #interviews

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whateverisbeautiful · 3 months ago

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♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL

#27: The Timeout (1.04)

Every now and again there comes a piece of media that you know is going to stay with you for a lifetime. For me, that’s TOWL Episode 4.

I’ve never been more excited and more overwhelmed to try and dive into all the scenes of an episode than "What We". It’s my favorite Richonne episode of all time so I have to revel like never before. Truly what Danai crafted with her writing and what Andy and Danai delivered in their performances is phenomenal and transcendent. I’ll cherish Episode 4 forever, from minute one to the final shot 🥹🤩💛...

Now that we've arrived at the illustrious episode 4, it's only right to kick it off with a happy dance😋...

For some March 17th, 2024 is just a regular day but for Richonne stans...

Because it's the day that the Richonne episode aired.

I remember how stoked I was when the time had finally arrived for episode 4. Leading up to it there had been high praise and acclaim for the episode with it even being deemed the climax and ‘for the richonners’ and one of the best of the TWD franchise. So I was already going in with big anticipation and "What We" knocked it out of the park in every way possible.

What Danai wrote is just 🔥🔥🔥 in all the ways and I'm very grateful for her and this thoughtful powerful episode she crafted. 👏🏽

There was a time when I had ep 4 memorized from the first line to the last cuz it was just excellent and moved me like no other. There is so much to say about this one episode and I'm gonna try my best to say it all because this is the kind of episode you rave about for years on end. And as someone who already revels in every detail of Richonne's story, this episode is the epitome of why I do what I do with this blog.

The raw and visceral range of emotions captured in about one hour of television - it’s a triumphant feat and I’m obsessed. TOWL is already a dream come true but episode 4 is a dream within a dream and perfectly captures why Rick and Michonne are the greatest soulmates to grace a screen.

So let’s get into it. 🤗

The masterpiece of an episode kicks off with a bang as we’re brought back to the moment Rick and Michonne are in that rocking helicopter with Rick silently freaking out and Michonne looking right at him cool, calm, collected, and a little crazy. 😋

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

They intercut with the apartment that will become a very pivotal and important setting in Richonne’s journey. And I absolutely love the choice to have the episode mostly take place in a swanky high-rise apartment similar to where Michonne lived before the apocalypse. It’s like after years of being out in nature which is more Rick’s territory they now get to enter Michonne’s more city-girl territory.

I also like the 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree' song they use for this scene. The lyrics are very much intentional and the song's meaning is also fitting as it’s “sung from the perspective of a man returning home after three years in prison and looking anxiously for an agreed-upon sign that the woman he loves would welcome his return.”

So right off the bat with this song and helicopter moment, I was like...

The lyrics start by saying, “I’m coming home, I’ve done my time.” Which by the end of this episode, Rick will arrive at that same realization with Michonne’s help. Also, Michonne is determined to head home herself too after doing her time with the CRM. And considering Rick and Michonne are home to each other and they’re finally about to get some extended alone time it really is like they’re coming home to each other this ep.

Then the song says, “Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine.” as we see the little Roomba that could. I love the way electricity and these items all help to tell the story.

Throughout this opener, we see Rick and Michonne both staring at each other in the helicopter, and again the way they can express so much without words is clear.

Rick is attempting to like idk sternly stare her down but Michonne is unfazed and you can tell her mind is made up that she will do anything to keep them from falling apart. She knows if they go back to base it’ll only be that much harder to convince Rick to leave, so she’s yanking him out of there before that happens.

(Side note: I know there’s often debate on whose crazier in general - Rick or Michonne. and I honestly think Rick. Even tho they’re very equal and match each other's crazy. It's just that Michonne is a bit more composed most of the time that’s why Rick edges her out to me. But when Michonne doesn’t want to be composed...oh she can beat everybody in the crazy department. And she took the Crazy-Off trophy home in this helicopter. 🏆👌🏽 Also when I thought about it - it would probably be hard for Michonne to yank a grown man out of his seat that swiftly and so I like to think Rick basically let her lol. Like he saw that helicopter door open and while he was yelling no he knew Michonne’s gonna do what she’s gonna do and so he’s gotta go with her.)

gif cred: @chaoticroad

The lyrics then say, “If you received my letter telling you I’ll soon be free...” which is very fitting to the letters Rick used to write Michonne. And then we get that moment where Michonne grabs Rick and throws them out of the helicopter. Just iconic. 👏🏽 And Rick is genuinely shaken by Michonne doing this, understandably. You can hear it in the way he yells as they fall into the rushing water.

I like that when Michonne throws them out of the helicopter that’s when the lyrics say, “Then you’ll know just what to do if you still want me.” Fitting. And in this case 'just what to do' was to jump out of a helicopter together without a parachute or anything. Michonne is crazy and we love her for it. 😋

And honestly, Rick loves her for it too even if he’s obviously rattled by it at first. She really looked at her man and said 'the CRM can’t have this one' and plucked Rick out of the sky...again.

Also, the fact that this implies they were able to hang onto each other and not at some point get separated either in the air or in the water. Magnets confirmed lol. 🧲😂

So then I like the way it’s filmed as Rick and Michonne’s hands are seen grabbing onto rocks and then without seeing them we get this sense of movement as they make their way into the apartment building.

They rush into the apartment both breathing heavy from the wildness that has just occured as the lyrics say, “It’s been three long years. Do you still want me?” Fitting again.

And then I love the clever use of the thermostat system (there's probably a more accurate word for what that temp controller thing is but I wasn't sure what, so I'm just gonna call it a 'thermostat' lol). It’s perfect that the first thing the thermostat says is, “Welcome home,” as it's in this place Richonne will finally return home to each other.

gif cred: @nerd4music

As Rick and Michonne silently look around the lyrics say, “I’ll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me” which speaks to Rick’s current mindset of staying behind to help her get home and his willingness to be the 'bad guy' if it means keeping Michonne safe.

And then y’all, I love this final moment of the teaser when Rick slowly looks at Michonne, upset but also very clearly reminded of who he’s dealing with after she chucked them off a helicopter. And then Michonne looks right back at him like she’d do it again too. 🤭

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

Once again they are very much communicating with eyes alone and after he talked cash crazy to her, you know in this episode it’s now going to be Michonne’s turn to do some talking. 👌🏽

And then the teaser ends with this great shot of Richonne facing each other with some distance between them in front of that scenic stormy window and I love the symmetry of it. 😍 For me, it illustrates how they may not be in sync yet but they're still in some way aligned.

gif cred: @nerd4music

There really are so many great cinematic shots in TOWL and this is definitely one of them.

The way that teaser ended with them just silent staring at each other and the lightning - ooh I just knew we were about to eat good as Rick and Michonne get a whole episode to themselves in this building. 🙌🏽

gif cred: @perryabbott

After the title sequence, Michonne and Rick are again staring each other down, and then Michonne says with certainty, “We needed a timeout.” I mean she’s not lying. 💁🏽‍♀️ It’s hilarious tho that that’s her first explanation for doing what she did. For her, those extreme measures were justified because of how badly they needed a timeout. And I agree with her entirely.

Also, I adore her saying 'we' and still operating like a package deal despite what Rick said about what they had being broken at the end of ep 3. She knows this relationship well and so she knows they just needed to get away from CRM territory to finally talk.

And after all that posturing Rick was trying to do last episode, I like how Michonne still heard the subtext in his words so she knew clearly 'Everything you’re saying and doing was just a sign that you and I need a breather away from all those other people.' Like I just love the wording of calling this a 'timeout' so much. (See, RJ’s not the only Rick Grimes who needs an occasional timeout. 😁)

Then Rick testily says, “I can’t believe you did that.” and Michonne is quick to retort, “I can’t believe you said that.”

gif cred: @figmentof

I always love how to Michonne, his words and her actions were equally crazy, if not Rick's words being crazier. 😂 She’s like 'You nearly ended our relationship, I nearly ended our lives so...

Then the thermostat, which really nicely needles a thread through the emotions of the story says, “Your preferred temperature will be reached in ten minutes.” That distracts them a bit as they look around and then Michonne walks away to take in the place some more.

And as she does this, Rick reaches for his PRB which I hadn’t noticed the first time I watched. I was like dang so had Rick not lost his PRB he might’ve called the CRM here before he and Michonne could even get some much-needed time to talk. Thank goodness he lost his. Reaching for it so quickly definitely demonstrates that the CRM has done a number on him.

Rick starts taking in the swanky apartment too with its electricity and running water and I love seeing the two of them in this new environment. He asks, “What the hell is this place?” And it’s clear this is way more of a familiar environment to Michonne than Rick.

Again, I thought this setting was such a great choice because it’s almost like they want to exacerbate Rick and Michonne’s differences even with the whole city girl/country boy thing to make you wonder if enough time has passed for their differences to now outweigh their similarities. But of course, the answer will be a resounding no and they’re still the compatible soulmates we know and love. 👌🏽😌

I love seeing Michonne admire the place and feel like she’s really at home. Like she’s not rattled at all from plunging into the water after leaping off a helicopter just moments before.

gif cred: @kinyany

And then I adore this next moment of Michonne going to the closet to change clothes for several reasons. There’s so many scenes that accomplish multiple things at once in this episode and this scene is layered in the best way. 👏🏽

Naturally, Michonne wants to get out of that soaked uniform but on a symbolic level it shows how she’s far more eager than Rick to shed the CRM off of her. It's like as she changes, she’s letting both herself and Rick know, Dana's gone.

She's gonna be Michonne Grimes from here on out. 👌🏽😌

And then "somehow" Rick finds his way over to where he can watch Michonne changing. 😋

gif cred: @nat111love

And even though they’re supposed to be mad at each other, he of course can’t look away as he watches her. He’s not even trying to be subtle about it lol.

gif cred: @nat111love

As he watches Michonne from the legs up, I know good and well Rick knew at this moment that ain’t nothing feels 'broken' between her and him.

Also, I just know this whole moment was a lot to take in for Rick because so far since reuniting, he had only seen Michonne super covered up with ponchos, jackets, and soldier gear. Like he hadn’t even seen her signature tank tops and tight pants combo - but here, Michonne was like let’s just dive right into 🎵panty and a bra we can’t get involved, boy🎵 (yet lol 😉)

gif cred: @nat111love

And honestly this whole ep I was like Michonne really knows the exact things to do to help Rick come to his senses. Because while yes there’s definitely the steamy checking-her-out element of the scene, I also always appreciate how changing in front of him like this is effective in establishing their closeness and comfortability.

Like Michonne is not gonna just strip down like this in front of anybody but in doing so here it’s setting the tone to communicate to Rick 'you’re still my husband, I still feel safe with you, and so I can comfortably be this bare.' 👌🏽

gif cred: @nat111love

And then, because each scene expertly communicates several things at once, this moment of Rick seeing his wife’s body for the first time in years then takes a somber turn when Michonne lifts up her shirt and Rick sees that X scar she got during that excessively brutal episode in season 9. 🥺

I thought it was such a smart move to include Rick seeing the X scar in this scene, and it gives Rick this reminder that Michonne has been through a lot he doesn’t know about while they’ve been apart.

Rick has been so convinced that Michonne won’t be safe if he goes home with her but this lets him know she still has had to face a dangerous world without him. She's been through so much. 😢

gif cred: @nerd4music

Breathing really does tell quite the story throughout this episode. The way Rick takes a breath when he sees Michonne's X scar, you can tell that it sobers him up after longingly eyeing her down and he’s shaken by seeing she’s been hurt.

I feel for him because I think every scenario overwhelms him right now. It’s overwhelming to think about all Michonne has been put through in his absence & it’s overwhelming to think about all she could be put through if he doesn’t get her home. Like he’s feeling a lot. But never peeling his eyes off of her while he’s feeling all these things tho. Just saying lol.

gif cred: @nat111love

And because Rick is staring straight at her, Michonne can likely feel his eyes all over her and so she gives this look back at him which I love. 😊 She knows what she’s doing. She knows what he’s thinking. And she knows because Mr. Everything We Had Is Broken has his eyes glued to her rn.

Rick Grimes really is the reason there are phrases like “eyes glued” because the way his eyes consistently get stuck on Michonne is really something.

Also - Michonne/Danai's beauty is truly divine. 👑

gif cred: @kimwexlersponytail

When Rick makes eye contact with Michonne here he has another one of those shaken breathing moments as I think he’s brought back to the reminder that they’re still supposed to be in a fight. Cuz homeboy looked like he forgot for a sec. 😋

So he finally looks away and then Michonne looks away with a knowing expression as she resumes changing.

gif cred: @kimwexlersponytail

Rick walks over and sees Michonne’s PRB and in his state of stress, he’s convinced himself that this PRB is a solution to their problems and will be what best keeps Michonne safe. But as he looks at it, he then sees Michonne emerge in fresh new clothes. (Side note: it always makes me so happy to see Danai and Andy’s executive producer credits each ep and especially seeing Danai’s writing credit this episode 👏🏽🥹)

Again without even needing words, Michonne immediately can tell what Rick is thinking as she looks from him to the PRB and then rolls her eyes, disappointed. She wants them to be done with the CRM so bad. And I completely get it. So she grabs the PRB and then she says, “You lose yours, huh?” Rick is silent and then Michonne slowly approaches him as she says, “I know what they do.”

And then y’all, I have about 85 favorite parts of this one episode but among those favorite parts is this part here when Michonne and Rick have this whole magnetic tension that’s mostly silent but speaks volumes. 🔥🔥

gif cred: @msanonships

Andy and Danai are truly the king and queen of layered acting because every single choice they make is never one-dimensional. There’s always so much communicated in each second, hence my need to dissect each second. And in this scene, they manage to express so much - tension, desire, fear, lust, love, anxiety, etc.

Michonne asks, “You want to call them here?” and even just the way she says it is perfectly delivered because it’s not taunting or even unempathetically challenging. It’s more like she’s asking knowing he knows full well that the PRB is not what he actually wants to be pressing up on right now. 😋

After she asks this, it’s such a great and hot moment of the two making eye contact and trying their damndest to resist each other. I know they had those magnets within them confused as to why they weren’t kissing like their life depended on it being this up close in each other's space. (Also, their height difference has always been so complementary 😊)

gif cred: @nat111love

I love the way this scene breathes as their chemistry and sexual tension just fill the atmosphere. The unique effect they have on each other is made abundantly clear and only Richonne can make a moment of just staring at each other this sexy. ❤️‍🔥 The tension of their fight was outmatched by the sexual tension between them.

Like the way she puts the PRB against his chest and raises her eyebrows. The way Rick stares into her eyes and I believe also at her lips and then down at the PRB, trying hard to maintain his whole “it’s over” energy from ep 3 but not doing it successfully. And then all Michonne has to do is tilt her head for Rick’s attention to be right back on her.

She doesn’t break away from looking at his face the whole time and when Rick looks at her again you can tell they both know loud and clear that he does not in fact want to call them here. He's got other things he wants to do. But there's so much fear and shame consuming him that it has him not thinking straight.

gif cred: @nat111love

Along with Rick's immense fear and anxiety communicated in this exchange, this is also where it is just so clear that Michonne has a hypnotic hold on this man. Cuz while Rick still thinks they need to go back, he also can’t bring himself to take the PRB when Michonne is basically handing it to him.

The way he’s staring at her and moving his head it looks like he's feeling every emotion there is and it’s also taking every cell in his body to resist her. He’s so focused on trying to resist that he seems to be rendered silent, at a loss for words. But no words are needed for both of them to know exactly what this whole moment is about. 👌🏽

And make no mistake, Michonne is also putting some effort into exhibiting restraint too because during this hot moment, there are a couple times when she’s looking at him like she wants to be all over him the second he stops acting up.

gif cred: @nat111love

What they both clearly want to do but are resisting right now, will be something they finally do in a later scene that actually parallels this one...but they’re not there yet.

So in a rare moment, they go against their inner magnets and instead of leaning in, Michonne gives Rick this lingering eye contact and walks away as Rick watches her.

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

As she walks away she pockets the PRB since, without even saying it aloud, they’ve established they don’t want to call the CRM here right now. And thank goodness they don’t because Richonne has a lot to talk about.

And the most pressing thing Rick and Michonne have to talk about next is their children. As in plural. 😊👌🏽

#richonne #towl #reveling in richonne #1.04 #RIR (27)#episode 4 🙌🏽🎉#the ones who live #twd towl #michonne grimes #rick grimes #rick x michonne #twol #michonne #rick and michonne #twd: the ones who live #twd #richonnefandom

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hourcat · 10 days ago

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the best part about ody3 rn, aka the part that has me so confident about them being endgame, is that the hardest part (for television) has already happened. like, everyone's had an ot3 before but it's almost always been in concept only with tidbits of canon and a throwaway line here and there. it's usually the audience's job to piece it together, and it's usually something that goes completely unaddressed.

BUT DOC OD DID IT.

tristan and avery and max DID hook up. we watched them. it has already happened, they're already in it. we've now seen all three of them Clearly Remember how good it was, and heard it from their own mouths.

the rest of this is all part of their journey to realizing how deep their connection is! they get to deal with the consequences of letting themselves have what they wanted! max has to fight his bisexuality demons, tristan has to recover from getting professionally and emotionally trodden on, avery has to deal with the double rejection of two of the most important people in her life rn, and we get to SEE it

like, the way the three of them interact in the first six episodes, they're so in sync with one another. they like each other. they tease each other. they flirt! and then in 1x07 the ease of that relationship comes apart bc they (mostly max and tristan) can't undo what's already been done - they've already exposed their true feelings and wants and desires, and they can't go back. max calling the threesome wonderful and tristan comparing it to his favorite foods is so crazy bc they both clearly WANT IT but haven't had the journeys they need to in order to be in a place where they can understand they want it

i know i'm just reiterating everyone else's posts about it but like. it's going to happen. they didn't spend the entirety of gay week introducing the general audience to a healthy trio by teaching the captain about it The Episode After They All Fucked for nothing. we've got our foundation. all we have to do is stick around and watch the excellence come to life 🙏

#doctor odyssey #sorry they have just quite literally consumed all of my thoughts

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neuroticbookworm · 18 days ago

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Love in the Big City Part 3: Go Yeong and Gyu-ho

Last week I talked about Go Yeong’s relationship with his Umma and concluded the piece with a declaration of hope that someday, he learns to love the people in his life differently than the love he received from his Umma. Which begs the question: how exactly does one learn to love, if the framework they were presented with in their childhood turns out to be flawed, or even downright destructive?

@twig-tea has already gone over the dynamics of Go Yeong and Gyu-ho’s relationship in her excellent post. She talks about the irritants, the mundanity, the way they both clearly want the best for each other, even when they’re fighting. And @lurkingshan mentioned how the show’s depiction of Yeong and Gyu-ho’s relationship felt so real, something we rarely see on television. I’ve always been a sucker for narratives that explore the difficulties faced by a couple after they get together, so reading and watching this section of the story was a treat for me.

I want to bring attention to a moment from the show that stuck with me for days after: the scene where Go Yeong types “Unlike our dramatic start, our relationship turned out to be average, even dull” as Gyu-ho puts fresh water bottles into the refrigerator. Gyu-ho gets up, silently looks at Go Yeong for a moment, turns off the light and goes to bed.

This hit me way harder than I thought it would, because we just *saw* what Go Yeong was typing, and we saw that Gyu-ho could see his screen. It felt so representative of their relationship; Go Yeong dissecting it with his pen as Gyu-ho is waiting for him, right there, to talk to him. Alexa, play right where you left me by Taylor Swift *fetches a bottle of wine to pair with the despair*

The hardest part of watching this relationship come to an abrupt end was that we could clearly see the both of them trying. I love that we saw Yeong ask T-aras for advice after his fight with Gyu-ho at the cafe. Going to your friends for help when you don’t know where you’re fucking up in a relationship is a great idea, and I’m happy that the show created this detail. When Yeong was pissed off about their laundry becoming smelly on the drying rack, Gyu-ho found a way to solve the problem, by drying their clothes at a laundromat.

I wanna talk more about Gyu-ho because he was one of the most earnest characters I’ve encountered in fiction. In the book, we only see him from Young’s narrative perspective. I love his depiction in the show because it decouples him from Young’s lens and forces us to engage with their conflicts without Young’s voice in our head. Gyu-ho pursues Yeong after their chaotic meeting at the bar. He does not jump into bed with Yeong immediately, but also openly expresses his desire when he reminds Yeong that they are on their third date. He does not hesitate to take space in Yeong’s life, barging in to fix his curtains, dragging him out from bed for a morning walk. When Yeong tells him about Kylie, he hugs him close and cries. And then chides him for being so cavalier about it (I love him so much, can y’all tell?). When they’re living together and bickering about chores and the minutiae of life, he does not become mean about it. He makes conscious efforts to spend time together, before and during their cohabitation. He stands his ground in a fight, but also reaches out for truce after the fight runs out of steam.

[If it feels like I am putting down Yeong and his behaviors when talking about Gyu-ho, I am not. These characters are complex and real, and therefore flawed. I am simply focusing on Gyu-ho in this post because @lurkingshan already wrote a defense for my boy Yeong.]

Gyu-ho understands early on in their relationship that Yeong is not comfortable communicating his fears, pain and shame, and that he masks them with aloofness. @wen-kexing-apologist wrote about how Gyu-ho turns away when Yeong smiles at him from across the aisle when they are traveling to the airport. He sees it for what it is, a refusal to be vulnerable with him. And that’s the moment I saw where they failed in their relationship.

I think we learn to love by loving, or at the very least, trying to love another person. Trial and error. Go Yeong was more vulnerable with Gyu-ho than he had been with any of his previous partners, and yet he couldn’t let him in enough to share the reason why he could not travel to China. He couldn’t see himself worthy of comparison with Gyu-ho’s potential career and financial growth from his stint in Shanghai. And Gyu-ho felt this distance from Yeong and chose to not push him on it. He bared his heart to Yeong, but did not possess the strength to force his way in whenever Yeong put up a wall. This problem was too big for both Yeong and Gyu-ho to solve individually, and they did not learn to problem-solve together in this relationship. Gyu-ho could not find a laundromat to solve this one, so he chose to walk away.

#love in the big city #litbc book club #kdrama #korean bl

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reallyromealone · 7 months ago

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Title: ghost in the shell

Fandom: none applicable

Characters: ghost oc

Fic type: story

Pairings: ghost x male reader

Warnings: male reader, reader insert, OC insert, angst, ghost original character, no name for OC

Notes: :)

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

(Name) Remembered everything.

Did you know he died 1,485 times? He did.

Though he always stood back up and coughed out a bullet or puked out poison, it was hard to kill death after all and everytime he got to do his favourite party trick of truly striking the fear of death into someone's soul.

Or killing them.

But hey, they killed him first.

"The god of death, doing puzzles" a voice chuckled beside him and (name) turned to his spectral boyfriend who floated beside him casually "says the person who did puzzles with me when they walked this planet" (name) said simply as he put another piece in, this was their norm. (Name) Enjoyed his ' retirement ' until he got bored in 100 year or two weeks, it depended on his mood.

"You really abuse those reapers" the ghost teased and (name) snorted "they have benefits and one month vacation not to mention Excellent pay" (name) knew how hard the job of a reaper could be and he made sure his employees were compensated as such, living so long he had a pretty diamond nesting egg.

The two went about their day like this, cooking and cleaning and going about life.

(Name)s spectral loved was his everything, his reason to keep going... He loved him more than anything.

"I wonder when I'll go to the bright place..." Words that always broke (name) with guilt...

Because he was the reason he stayed.

(Name) Had the ability to keep someone bound to the mortal realm with him and he chose the love of his life, it was selfish and monsterous of him.

"One day... My moon" (name) said softly as they finished the puzzle, the sound of the television playing as the ghost watched his dramas.

Guilt always ate at him, it was cruel and unfair to bind him to this realm when he had people waiting for him...

It was late as the ghost slept on the couch, be didn't need too but it passed the time, (name) crouched before him "I'm sorry my love..." He whispered before kissing him sweetly and watching him open his eyes confused as his body glowed "babe-- what's going on?!" He asked worried and (name) smiled at him "it's time baby..."

"B-but I won't have you! I don't want to be there without you!"

"I'll be there soon enough... Just keep the bed warm for me"

"No! This isn't fair I don't want to be without you!" He sobbed as he reached to (name) as his body lifted up and their fingers connected "I love you" (name) whispered and the last thing he heard was "don't leave me alone"

But (name) was the one who was alone.

He was always alone.

Because he decided he could no longer be selfish.

#male reader #x male reader #oc x male reader #oc x reader #ghost x reader #ghost x male reader #ghost oc x reader #ghost oc x male reader #angst #fanfiction

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zombee · 1 year ago

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I feel like the luckiest Our Flag Means Death fan in the world after the season 2 finale. By a series of incredible circumstances - including a significant metatextual realization that came in at the 11th hour - it was close to perfect for me.

This essay has everything. Completely normal behavior over a television series. Steven Universe references. The David Jenkins School of Whatever is Best for the Bit. Humbling catharsis.

First: this piece does not exist with the central thesis of “it’s okay to not like something but that’s not the same thing as it being bad.” I feel like thousands of words have already been written on this since Thursday, so I’m going to try to not get too in depth on that.

Second, cards on the table, because it’s relevant and I don’t want to waste your time if this is going to sour your ability to hear me out: I’m an Izzy Canyon hater. For MANY reasons, but from way before the concept of the Canyon existed, (some) Izzy fans pinged me in the same way as Snape/Kylo Ren fans did, and before May 2022 was over I went from genuinely enjoying Izzy’s character and place in the narrative to hating him because his fans made it impossible for me to enjoy him anymore.

(SOME! of his fans. Please don’t keep making me say this, although I’m not going to talk about the Canyon directly anymore after this. I know there are a ton of normal Izzy Enjoyers and even Canyonites, I am literally friends with many of them, please take this all in the good faith it’s intended and if you’re not One Of The Bad Ones then you’re fine! I very carefully don’t go anti-Izzy on main, and when I stopped enjoying his character, I stopped writing him into fics. I’m not trying to be a dick, I just want to be honest. Anyway.)

The season 2 finale made me weep over Izzy Goddamn hands.

ALL season long, I was disgruntled. All season long. I really, truly, DEEPLY appreciated what they were doing with his character and arc, I thought it was wildly on brand for the themes of community/queerness in the show, I saw the vision, I liked it!!! But. I wanted a fucking apology, yall. I needed three seconds of “sorry I called you a slur, Ed :/” and that would have been enough. But I had to let it go. It was poisoning my enjoyment of the whole season, which I loved with very little exception (not none!) and I just had to let it go. I wasn’t getting an apology. That didn’t negate what they were doing with his character.

Yall. They withheld the apology on purpose.

THIS FUCKING SHOW!!!

Let’s go back a bit. I was at the episode 6 + 7 screening, and the breakup shook me. Probably a LOT more than if I had watched it alone in bed at 3am on my laptop - five days of no sleep after NYCC, lots of emotions, seeing it on a big screen with a hundred other intense fans, etc etc - but I did see other folks reacting in parallel ways to me when the episodes aired to the regular public, so maybe I would have felt the same way. Regardless, I was mad at Stede and to a lesser extent Ed. I NEEDED AN APOLOGY FOR THAT FISH LINE. I needed it! “Whativah” autocorrects to “WHATIVAH” in my phone. I was going through it.

(When I rewatched the episode when it aired it was not nearly as bad as I remember, lol)

So now the episode 8 screeners go out and the reviews drop and I think I catch one half-glimpse of a “What a heartbreaking ending!” kind of snippet, and some of my friends who are spoiler fiends unintentionally drop little hints about similar ideas (devastating/heartbreaking/split the fandom) type shit.

And I was a fucking WRECK! about it.

I do love this whole show with my whole chest. I do!!! But I’m not rotted because this is an excellent television show, I’m rotted because two old men kiss each other! On the MOUTH!!! in an excellent television show. You get it, right? I’ve written 700,000 words across almost 100 fics and 98% of them are dedicated to those two men falling in love in different universes.

So it just did not even occur to me the “heartbreak/devastation/fandom split” would be about anything but Gentlebeard.

Another piece of this that was fucking me up - David Jenkins and his “satisfactory” ending biz. My brain was reacting like this show was ENDING ending, even if I knew logically! that this is just season 2!!! And I wasn’t ready for that, because what if it wasn’t personally satisfying, and I’m a mess about it? Why was I so worried about not liking it? I’d liked the whole season! Even if they didn’t nail the landing I wasn’t going to stop writing fic or hanging out with my pirate community & friends.

…is what I kept trying to tell myself, but the way anxiety disorders work is funny like that lol. What if I did stop writing fic and hanging out in pirate spaces? That would hurt much more than a show I like disappointing me. And for anyone who’s having that experience with ofmd s2, I’m so very, very sorry. It sucks and that’s where my epiphany came from on Wednesday before the finale.

Because it has happened to me before.

I flit from hyperfocus to hyperfocus, as ya do when you’re spicy, but the last thing to get its hooks in me PROPERLY like pirates was Steven Universe. And I did NOT like the way the regular season ended!!! (I actually really did like most of Future; that’s not what I mean. I mean season 5). I don’t like how they handled the Diamonds, tldr; I think the scope of their villainy got too out of hand, and I was left grieving the thing that had meant enough to me I ran a fan convention for four years based around it.

Side note: imagine if I had channeled the hyperfocus of almost a million words of fanfiction into an American OFMD con instead. We could have made magic :( I did consult with Our Con Means Death though so I am at least a teeny tiny bit of that one!

I did not like the way Steven ended… but I do respect the story they were telling and think they told it well.

I’m still sad about it. Steven is still one of my most beloved, it will always be beautiful and great to me, but that experience did and does sully my memories. There is so, so, so, SO much more good than bad from being in that fandom, and I cherish it. And I hope, if you’re having this experience with OFMD right now, that you’ll find similar comfort.

But, like I said at the top, “it’s okay to not like something but that’s not the same thing as it being bad” has been belabored already by people better at writing about it than me. I just had the incredible privilege to remember my brush with lower case T trauma and having that experience in my last REALLY big deal fandom. That’s why I had been so extra anxious about being disappointed. Because it happened to me before. It helped so much to connect those two.

So the finale happens, and it’s actually about twelve hours of me going from “eh, rushed but fun, whole season was great” to “THIS MAYBE IS THE BEST SHOW OF ALL TIME, ACTUALLY!”

BECAUSE THIS SHOW MADE ME CRY OVER IZZY FUCKING HANDS!!!!

They literally told me this was the story they were telling this season. “Men can change” “The end of piracy” “Ed leaving Blackbeard behind (ish).”

As for me? I didn’t get an apology for the fish. Instead, I got “Sorry I was a dick.” “You weren’t a dick. Life’s a dick.”

Just… fuckity BAM. THREE FUCKING SENTENCES resolving that fight. Saying so much in so little.

In real life, should these two men have an actual conversation about this shit? Sure!!! But that’s not how OFMD tells its stories!

It works in symbolism. It works in vibes. It works in an hour’s worth of content into each half-hour episode, and for how much lamenting I have done about the pacing, I would prefer that 100x to having to stretch it out too much.

I have said since March 24, 2022 that OFMD wields anachronism as a weapon. First and foremost, it’s fucking funny, but in addition to that, it’s stating clearly: “This is a fantasy world. This is not real history. This show is about romance (and so much more than that), and the rest is just VIBES!!!”

Sometimes vibes can be historical accuracy. Sometimes vibes can be true emotional poignancy. Sometimes vibes can be Ed finding his sunken leathers in the sea, changing underwater somehow, and coming out of the ocean like the Birth of Fucking Venus, because water and rebirth and mermaids and shit is all very prominent this season. And ALSO, and this is very important! BECAUSE IT LOOKS FUCKING COOL!

I don’t want to do much real Izzy meta here. It’s been said by others, and better than me. But it was telegraphed and it was symbolic – he was the paragon of Traditional Piracy in season 1, for goodness’ sake, and Traditional Piracy is Toxic Masculinity, and he was a part of Blackbeard and Ed had to leave Blackbeard behind (yknow, ish), and he got this ABSOLUTLEY FUCKING LOVELY! storyline about appreciating what a (queer) community can do, and god fucking shit fucking dammit… most of all, best of all (for me), was Buttons landing on Izzy’s grave at the end. Men can change. And Izzy DID!!! He did it for Ed. For love. For community. I am puzzled by “it’s fucked up to use Izzy to further Ed’s storyline” because… this was Ed’s season, in the way that season 1 was Stede’s. And Ed cannot be removed from piracy as a whole (neither can Stede!) so to have this old, set in his ways, coded-queerphobic character blossom to the point he can give this gift to Ed and to piracy… idk man. I just find it so fucking beautiful.

It is okay not to like what they did. It’s okay!!! It’s okay, and it’s okay to mourn, and while it’s not okay to do [insert vile behavior here], it’s okay to carefully examine what you think is “bad writing” vs “what you would have preferred to happen” and give good-faith, textually-based criticism on that.

But I want to remind you over and over and over again, this show works on vibes. It tells its stories leaving many, many, many gaps. There are many things I would have liked to see, and y’know what? I would have told the Izzy story differently. I would have personally done it differently. But it’s not my show! It’s not my show, and I am humbled and delighted to remember that, and to appreciate Our Flag Means Death for what it is and not what it isn’t.

Other words have been written better than I could about the 18 months between seasons 1 and 2 and what that does to us as rabid fans with expectations of how things will go. Millions and millions and millions of words have been written about OFMD, fictional and non, and that is going to color our expectations and experience. We had built it up SO MUCH in our minds and along the way I think some of us forgot (INCLUDING ME!!!) that it is first and foremost about Vibes.

The vibes of Izzy’s death are about rebirth and forgiveness and leaving traditional piracy behind. And he got to die in Ed’s arms, knowing (HAPPILY!) that he had been wrong, and giving Ed the gift of letting him know he is loved, and being a part of something. We had a funeral but we also had a wedding. The only constant is change. Men, piracy, Blackbeard; it all changes. And Izzy found peace in that.

Before my last point, I want to @ myself on things I felt versus realizing in the end it is (I will say it until I’m blue in the face) about vibes.

· I was convinced they left Buttons’ transformation ambiguous because they wanted to leave room for it not having been real. NO!!! It is real, until they decided it isn’t. Magic in the OFMD universe? Fucking why not!!! IT’S SYMBOLIC!!! IT’S IMPORTANT TO ED’S STORYLINE AND THE CENTRAL THESES OF THE SHOW!

· I was unhappy, and still am a little, about the Polycule Situation, but now that I realize Oluwande is Zheng’s Stede… I am less so. The Zheng : Auntie :: Ed : Izzy vibes, btw? Fuckin immaculate.

· Obviously they touched on Stede/Ed’s “killing people trauma” but I’d reallyyyy like Stede to address it, and even though I think Ed’s is left on a very satisfying note, I’d like him to dip a bit more into it as well. But if they don’t, oh well! It’s not like they ignored it, they just didn’t have a Deep Dive like I Wanted Them To!

· They didn’t deal with Ed throwing Stede’s shit away. They just ignored it! Stede started to collect new trinkets, and I believe that was as much about giving the audience back the old feeling of the Revenge as it was anything important (not to say it wasn’t also important thematically!!!). Just like Ed going back to his leathers is both Extremely Important thematically and about putting Taika back in the leathers because that’s what Blackbeard should be wearing for the epic final scenes for the sake of visually keeping the show consistent. That’s Blackbeard’s uniform.

· Stede’s frilly little outfits my beloved. God I hope they give him back some of his frippery in season 3. I think they will re: cursed suit BUT his journey this season was about something else, so!

· Ed’s stupid little non-profit non-apology, oh my god. It was so funny. And there is a transition from eps 5 to 6 where Ed is back in his leathers and the crew is more comfortable around him. They didn’t have to have him do a Real Apology, it’s implied it was all settled. What was the timeline? A day? DOESN’T MATTER, BABY, VIBES!!!

· Lots more, I’m sure, but now that I’ve tried to let it all go, I’m remembering less of what I wanted and appreciating what I got!

And, last point here, I think it is also very very very important to remember that a lot of people are normal about this show. In fact, WAY more people are normal about this show than aren’t. And that is EXTREMELY! IMPORTANT!!! because otherwise it wouldn’t be profitable and we all know what would happen then. We are the core of it, to be sure. Without word of mouth that stems from our intensity, this show would not be NEARLY as successful as it is. I truly, truly believe that.

But.

Do normies need deeply emotional discussions dissecting the central relationships? No. What normies need is Ed and Stede running dramatically toward each other on the beach and kissing. And I am happy, so fucking happy, to realize that’s what I need too. I’ve got fanworks for the rest.

I love this fucking show and this fucking fandom and its fucking creators so much. Fuck.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2

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the-virgoperspective · 5 months ago

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Part 1

Mercury is the planet of communication and of the mind; it is one of the most important planets in a composite chart. The placement of Mercury in the composite houses can indicate how effectively and in what manner you and another person communicates as one. A harmonious aspect and house placement for Mercury in the composite chart can be very beneficial to any bond. It’s important to check both the house placement and the aspects to this planet to see how communication manifests within any bond you may be looking at.

I will be using the writings of Robert Hand from his novel “Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relations” to describe the meaning and significance of the Moon in each composite house. Please always keep in mind that this is only one vital step to reading an entire composite chart and should not be seriously considered without viewing everything as a whole. This is just one piece. Enjoy!

1H Composite Mercury

Mercury in the first house of the composite chart indicates that in this relationship communication and community of ideas should play an important part. Not that the relationship will be just an intellectual one, but communication and intellect will be important factors. Therefore this is an excellent placement for all relationships involving business or commerce in any form. However, it does no harm in a personal relationship, which often suffers from a lack of real communication. That should not be a problem for you. The first-house Mercury is usually a sign that your minds are compatible, and you are capable of thinking almost as one person.

Of course, this placement is also excellent for any relationship that involves writing or working on a cooperative intellectual venture. It will be important to keep alive the intellectual interests you share. Together you will be interested in the world around you and constantly wanting to explore and examine new aspects of its variety.

2H Composite Mercury

Composite Mercury in the second house has two different meanings. Either the two of you value things of the mind, or you put a lot of mental effort into what you possess or otherwise value.

If the first of these is true in your case, it means that as a couple you value books, musical instruments, radios, television, audio equipment, or other materials with which you can entertain or stimulate your minds. Or on a more abstract level, the two of you may value ideas and intellectual principles.

If the second possibility is more correct, you both will spend a good deal of time managing the property that you own in common, and you will put a lot of effort into it. In an individual’s birth chart, a second-house Mercury signifies cleverness and intelligence in the handling of money. That should also be the case in a composite chart.

Since it is likely that the two of you do value things of the mind or have rather strong opinions about what you do value, or is very important that you come to some kind of agreement about these matters early in the relationship. Otherwise, disputes over such matters are likely to crop up later on.

3H Composite Mercury

Composite Mercury in the third house can be extremely valuable in a relationship, because it assures easy and complete communication between you. Many otherwise sound associations are weakened because two people cannot say the simple things that keep a relationship going smoothly. This should not be a problem for the two of you. In fact, you have a strong need to communicate with each other, and it is likely that you first came together because of some intellectual affinity.

Not only do the two of you have a strong need to exchange ideas and opinions, but you also like to be with others and exchange ideas with them. You have a great liking for all kinds of mental and intellectual interaction with your environment. You do not like to stay off by yourselves but prefer to get out and talk and have a good time.

The only thing you should be wary of is letting the cheerful and often superficial banter of Mercury replace the deeper, more significant communication that any successful relationship requires. Mercury works so easily on a light level that you may be reluctant to delve any deeper. If you can avoid intellectual and emotional superficiality, you should have an excellent mental and intellectual rapport with each other.

4H Composite Mercury

Mercury in the fourth house of a composite chart indicates that the two of you are able to communicate about your deepest feelings and the most deeply buried attributes of your relationship, matters that normally would be unconscious. This is because the fourth house rules the deepest, most internal aspects of things. You can share your thoughts about how your relationship is working and what is at the heart of it. You should have an unusual intellectual awareness of each other’s feelings.

The fourth house also rules one’s home-in this case the home you set up together, if that is appropriate to your relationship. Since Mercury rules thought and communication, this placement means that you are likely to make your home as intellectually stimulating as possible. You will surround yourself with fine books or whatever else interests you, such as materials for hobbies or crafts. You are also fond of having people get together in your home for good stimulating conversation.

As is usual when Mercury is in a position that concerns feelings, the only real danger here is that you may over-intellectualize the deeper inner aspects of yourselves. Your inner feelings may come to exist purely as ideas rather than as part of your daily experience. Try not to analyze yourselves or your relationship too much.

If this warning is heeded, a fourth-house Mercury can be very helpful, precisely because it does help to improve communication about your feelings and inner selves, which in most relationships are difficult to discuss.

5H Composite Mercury

Mercury in the fifth house of the composite chart indicates that as a couple you are attracted to intellectual modes of recreation and self-expression. You enjoy talking to each other, not just to communicate what must be said, but also because you really enjoy talking. You both enjoy conversation with others and activities such as going to the theater and concerts or just being together and reading good books.

The fifth house is also the house of children and their education. If you have children, you will pay close attention to their education, making sure that they have all the right opportunities and are surrounded by the proper influences. Just be sure that you do not educate them intellectually to the point of neglecting their emotional growth. They must learn to be complete individuals.

The fifth-house Mercury indicated that your attraction for each other is based at least partly on your intellectual affinity. This position doesn’t indicate whether your thinking is similar at all levels, but at least you should enjoy intellectual compatibility. Since one requirement of a successful personal relationship is that you communicate easily, you have an excellent start.

6H Composite Mercury

Composite Mercury in the sixth house indicates that the two of you expend a great deal of mental energy on the problems of tasks that you have to accomplish together. You will analyze, consider, and explore all the various ways to deal with the matters that are important to you both, which may be either material concerns or emotional ones.

If this is a business relationship centered around accomplishing some particular task or series of tasks, you will go about them systematically, rationally, and carefully.

If your relationship is an emotional, personal one, such as friendship or a love affair, you will do what you have to in a systematic and careful manner. Here, however, the issue will be making your relationship work better so that the two of you will get more out of it. Be careful that this habit of dealing with problems in a reasonable way doesn’t turn into an over-concern with your problems. It could get to the point where your whole viewpoint is overwhelmed with analyzing your relationship.

Planets in the sixth house tend to emphasize duties and responsibilities at the expense of the pleasure and fulfillment that should come out of any personal relationship. Obviously a balance must be struck, particularly with Mercury, because Mercury’s location in a chart very strongly affects the overall attitudes of the relationship.

Find part 2 here!

☿ animated divider by @adornedwithlight ☿

#astrology #horoscope #composite #composite chart #composite mercury #1H composite mercury #2H composite mercury #3H composite mercury #4H composite mercury #5H composite mercury #6H composite mercury

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justalittlebluetiefling · 27 days ago

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So watched Legends of Vox Machina season three, some changes I liked, so I did not.... But I want to hear your opinion.

Okay, I finally finished watching it.

Overall I like it. There's a reason it's getting so many views on Prime and I'm glad it's doing well. I guess it's been like a week since it all aired, so I wont do a cut for spoilers, so if that's something you care about, scroll away now. This is your final warning.

Are there things I wish they hadn't cut? Sure. But also, this is an adaptation and there's no way that everything could have fit into this show. Like, Bard's Lament? I missed that. But with the way the show is structured, I doubt it would have had the same emotional impact. Kash's death? Yes, I am personally bummed out, but the casual viewer won't really know or care why it bums me out. I think it was overall fine. And this is a magic world. Vesh could have other plans for him and he could show up again. But I don't know that he will. Ummm what else. I feel like there was one other main thing that I wasn't a huge fan of, but it doesn't really matter.

I do love the way they adapted Percy's death and resurrection. That was 10/10. It has to make sense for people who just don't get it and they're working within the constraints of a certain number of seasons. I assume 4 now, because they don't really have a ton of story left to fit. They COULD stretch it to two more, but they don't really need to.

OH YEAH. Tary. I hope they don't totally cut Tary out. However, would I be shocked? Not anymore. His arc wouldn't get the time it would need to be impactful unless they do stretch it out to five seasons and realistically the story wouldn't suffer without him. Sorry to say it lol but it's true. I also don't really agree with Travis that the people who watched the campaign also need to be surprised, but I don't mind the changes they've made.

Anyway, overall, I think this is an excellent adaptation. If you think about the fact that they've crammed like, hundreds of hours of content into 12 hours of television, it's WILD actually. And honestly, while I know what story pieces are missing, I don't actually miss them until after I think about what I've just watched. I give it a 9/10.

#i get why some older watchers are upset sure #BUT i am used to watching things i love be adapted #and having the shit cut out of them #so it's not anything new to me #they're telling a great story for their casual audience on this streaming platform #if i were a casual viewer this would be a 10/10 for me #erin answers things #the legend of vox machina #tlovm #tlovm spoilers

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welcometothejianghu · 1 year ago

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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 괴물/Beyond Evil.

Beyond Evil is a 2021 Korean drama about two cops that solve a small-town murder that one of them might have committed. Also there's more than one murder to be solved. Also more than one of those murders happened twenty years ago. Also, the cop might have gotten away with at least one of those too.

It got sold to me on the strength of the main pairing, which is absolutely captivating and worth the price of admission. But the entire cast is amazing, the story is great, and it's all just so satisfying. I love everyone in this weird small Korean town. I love having emotions and various Korean foods with them.

I got five reasons why you should watch it! Read 'em!

1. Do You Want To See An Old Man Cry?

In fact, do you want to see every man cry? Do you want to see every man in the cast either cry or pretend to cry or be on the verge of tears at least once? Do you want to see the main characters, who are both men, cry multiple times, often while otherwise wet as well?

Well, buddy, Beyond Evil has got you covered.

2. Absolute Nightmare/Absolute Nightmare

I do not consider it a spoiler to tell you that Han Juwon (the younger one, on the right) is a very mentally unstable superboy. You already know everyone thinks Lee Dongsik (the older one, on the left) is psycho -- it's nearly the first thing you learn about him. But when you're introduced to Han Juwon, you're given the impression that maybe he's just cold, self-possessed, and competent.

No. He is an absolute freak. This is a freak4freak relationship. They are both completely unhinged. They have both been traumatized to nigh-unimaginable degrees, and they have each decided to make it the other's problem. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for both of them, they both get off on that real hard, and they get real mad sometimes about how hard they're getting off on it. It's delicious.

And yet what makes it great is how they're different flavors of freak. They've got the age difference (40 and 27). They've got the height difference (even though the actors are only like 1cm apart, the whole thing is somehow shot like there's a bigger gap). They've got the class difference (small town weirdo and cop royalty). One's a messy bitch, and one's a prissy prince. One has a whole network of people who affectionately endure him, and one has exactly 0.73 friends. One wants to take care of everyone else but not himself, and one has never looked out for anyone else a day in his life. One's a smug little shit, and one's ... also a smug little shit, but differently.

You have perhaps been given the impression that Beyond Evil is like Hannibal, and that Juwon/Dongsik is like Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter. It's not, and yet it scratches a similar itch, if that makes sense.

Don't let me give you the impression that this is textually gay. They do not smooch or anything, so don't be waiting for that. But holy cow, is it homoromantic -- and the leads know it is, and they roll around in it, and everyone else in the production supports their doing it. They have the kind of chemistry stars are jealous of. (It helps that the younger actor is a muffin who has a such crush on the older one.)

And that's even before the part where they get married live on national television. Is that a joke? You'll have to watch to find out.

3. Lee Changjin (and the other antagonists)

I'll talk in a second about excellent and despicable all the bad guys are. But I need a special moment for this motherfucker right here.

Lee Changjin is a wretched, scummy piece of shit who damn near walks away with every scene he's in. He's not the worst like a little meow meow -- he is the actual worst, and it's so good. He's sleazy. He's pathetic. He's hot as fuck. You meet his ex-wife, and you're like, no, honey, sure it was a bad decision, but I totally get it.

Clearly he has a special place in my heart, but all the bad guys in this series are done so damn well. Their realism makes them even scarier. They're not incomprehensible ghouls out there being bad just to be bad. They're (mostly) making calculated decisions based on keeping their own heads above water, and to hell with everyone else.

I'm not going to spoil the identity of the murderer for you -- but it kind of doesn't matter, because you find out who it is less than halfway through the show (and because there are multiple people in this show who've killed someone). There's something bigger and more awful at work here, perpetrated by people that you knew were bad news from the moment you met them.

Beyond Evil is a cop show that is not copaganda, because one of the biggest villains in the series is misuse of police power. The show stresses accountability for police misconduct -- to the point where that accountability hurts characters we want to see get away with stuff because, come on, their bad behavior was totally justified! But it wasn't! The ends do not justify the means here. The world is not better when powerful people use their power to get out of the consequences of their shitty, selfish actions, even when those shitty, selfish actions were objectively kind of cool.

Fair warning, a lot of this show is about complicated relationships with abusive, absent, deceased, and otherwise difficult parents. Those parents are not always (or even mostly) the bad guys -- but the bad guys are all shitty parents. And yet, their adult children are tied to them in complicated ways that do said children no favors. Some of the most heartbreaking pieces of the show are about how these kids break free from those parents -- or, more tragically, don't.

4. Just plain good television

This is a series that can be handled by Your Average American Television Enjoyer Who Can Handle Subtitles. Its quality is on par with a lot of well-thought-of English-language shows I've seen. It's a tight, well-plotted story that's clear enough to be easy to follow, which is sometimes a high bar for a multi-tendriled murder mystery. The small-town setting even gives it a good source of levity to break up the otherwise tight tension.

It's only sixteen episodes long, but there are enough reveals to make a rewatch more than worth your while. The first half in particular improves exponentially on the second viewing, because once you have all the information, events and decisions that you initially read one way, you can see meant something else entirely.

I was initially going to say that if this were in English, all those fans of things like the Wire and True Detective would be super-horny for it -- except that's not true, is it? No, shows like that (which I have seen, for the record) glorify cops who can't be held down by your damn system, so they have to say screw the rules to get things done, because they're too cool and manly for things like paperwork! While Beyond Evil acknowledges that there are some places where the Korean law system is janky and might let a guilty person go free, but that doesn't mean cops get to do whatever they want about it.

My declaration of the show's quality isn't just me judging by my own tastes. This show won the Korean equivalent of Emmys for Best Drama, Best Screenplay, and a well-deserved Best Actor for Shin Hakyun, who plays that incredibly handsome horrible old man. This is a show that actual people who hand out actual awards for good television thought deserved awards.

So I guess if you always wanted to get into those shows a certain kind of dude can't stop talking about, but you had reservations about how authoritarian/libertarian/misogynistic/homophobic/boring they are, Beyond Evil is here for you!

5. Written and directed by women

This one I think is important as hell, because this is a Dead Girl Show (i.e., a show where men kill multiple women as a major part of the plot), and I know a lot of people are justifiably wary about those. However, there are no hints of sexual assault. The violence is gendered, but it's not sexualized. The murders and postmortem mutiliations are handled with the appropriate horror, but it's not torture porn. And the dead girls are treated like -- and grieved like -- actual humans who matter.

I think a whole lot of this can be chalked up to the fact that both the writer and the director of Beyond Evil are women.

In fact, not only are they both women, they're women who don't do this kind of story all the time. Shim Nayeon has directed five things, four of which are comedy/slice-of-life series. Kim Sujin has written a few dramas about mystery-solving teams, but even more comedy and adaptations of webtoons. I have no idea how the two of them got put on this drama together, but it was a perfect match.

This is not to say that men would be incapable of pulling off a story like this. It is, however, a commentary on violence, and how different it looks if you've grown up seeing yourself everywhere as its object rather than its subject. Sure, you could just flip the script and make a story about a lady punchkicker! A lot of people have, and I've enjoyed many of them! But you could also choose to tell a story about gendered violence in a way that isn't just needlessly retraumatizing the people who have to live their entire lives under its shadow. Moreover, you could tell a story about how even good-guy cops can wind up unintentionally buying into paradigms where some women are valuable and some are disposible.

...And if it winds up being teensy bit of a fantasy story about a world in which so many cops give a shit about this violence, well, that's what fiction is for, right?

In short, you love a team of powerful ladies power-drunk on an Arnold Palmer of Respect Women Juice and Sad Man Tears.

Bonus: BANGER SOUNDTRACK

Oh, it's so, so good. (Spotify link)

Have I convinced you to watch it yet?

It's on Netflix, which may be easiest for most people! However, it's also on Viki, and I much prefer the subtitles over there, because a) they keep the flavor of the Korean terms of address, and b) they actually translate the damn episode titles (wtf Netflix?).

There's no bad way to watch it, though!

(ack, they're so cute~)

#beyond evil #괴물 #rec post #honorary danmei #i made this #seriously though it's so good #watch beyond evi

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