#the life series are murder games but they're also More

[justathingfromthebrainvoid]

Okay so Gem throughout Secret Life (and also the one episode in Limited Life) has been so fascinating for several reasons. (hello i'm back, yes this is the brain rotates the gem post, welcome.)

so first off everyone is fairly Aware of her pvp prowess, GeminiSlay is a name they know. So for the most part, no one tries to fight her. She's brought down by fighting blazes & an enderman, the red horde going after everyone (them fighting back) and eventually Scar's bow, and then by and large Grian's tnt minecarts before Pearl and Scar together kill her in a 2 v 1 fight (that for the 1st part mostly-ish bows, something she isn't quite as good at). People talk about how they don't want to fight Gem. Not unless they have to.

This affords her a level of safety. If they're scared of fighting you, they don't go after you.

And then she's the New person. She's the only New Person. She's cheery and happy even as she goes on her murdering sprees. Even Lizzie and Mumbo, not back since Last Life, have a different edge to them and then they're out so quickly they don't reach the line where the server goes into murder and betrayal. Cleo says it in the last session: Gem doesn't know what is about to happen.

And she doesn't. Not in the way everyone else does. It is a murder game, and Gem treats it as such, but she doesn't get the weight of what happens in those last sessions.

She loses her first life and is mildly bloodthirsty, she opens the end, sends in greens in hopes of getting more yellows, she gets a task that says kill every non red at least once and does so without hesitance, she turns red, succeeds 5 red tasks in her next episode and gets her two teammates to sacrifice themselves to her along with killing Pearl, and she smiles throughout the entire thing.

When the last session starts she's happy, ready to go out and murder some more people, and sure it's a bit "erie" and "quiet", but she's having a great time on the murder camel, looking for Skizz, figuring out how they can kill Etho/Cleo/Grian.

The other players Know what's about to happen, and she doesn't. Scott stays with her almost the entire episode. He knows what's going to happen. He already decided how he's going to die.

And then they come back from the Nether and Gem loses about 30 of her hearts, she panics slightly and a bit more when she finds Grian behind a wall (alone and down a bunch of hearts her first thought is run), but she goes back to the fight, kills Grian herself, and, oh, it's only them and the mounders left, time for the last battle apparently. She tries getting her murder buddy on their side again but Pearl refuses and it's not like she's leaving the Scotts, so they shoot arrows and run around the server a bit before retreating up the stairs back to their base. Pearl shoots her, Impulse dies, and Gem is starting to think they are going to as well (it's fine, that's what the game's about), but Bdubs and Joel are killed pretty easily and then she and Scott are running again (run, shoot, run again, why'd it have to be a bow fight?), there's a close call with Scar (it's fine, she gets away, where's Scott though?).

But I don't think she really gets it yet. Not until she joins back up with Scott and the first thing he says is "I need you to kill me. I've got 2.5 hearts, you need to kill me." And Scott throws items at her, food and an end crystal, and takes off his armour and Pearl and Scar aren't far behind...

Gem doesn't even get time to process. Pearl and Scar weren't far behind. She runs and fights and holds her own even in a 2v1, but it doesn't matter.

Gem is the new person. And she makes it all the way to 3rd, she's proud of that, should be proud of that. But she only thought of it as a fun murder game right up until Scott died. Sacrificed himself for her.

[emberwritesinsight]

(Ramble below, not very structured)

I'm watching episode 9 again and losing my mind over the scene where Saionji fucking kidnaps Anthy because. I forgot how actually upset Anthy is?

Like. The way Anthy is fucking shouting as Saionji drags her up to the arena. The way she tries to physically stop him from getting in! What the fuck!

The way he just bats her out of the way and we get a shot of her from behind, kneeling on the ground with a hand to her face, but we don't see her face. That's... not normal! Most of the time when Anthy gets slapped in the early series, we get a shot of her afterwards with a bruise.

Here, we don't see her face. But we can see that she's shaking, and the first-watch assumption would be that she's crying, but... I'm not inclined to view it that way given everything that happens after.

The way I read it, Anthy is pissed.

The next time we see Saionji, he's face down in the water. How did he get there? We don't see. On a first viewing, one might just assume that's a negative reaction the arena has to being opened at an inappropriate time- along with all the crazy shit going on inside the arena once Utena gets there. But given Anthy is later shown to have more control over what the arena does than she lets on, and noticeably does her flashiest magic (the sword pull, the transformations) in or on her way to the arena, I think Anthy is behind almost all of that. And I'd say she's also behind the Saionji-almost-drowning bit. You guys might remember the half-joking drawing I made of Anthy, uh, dragging Saionji into the water by his hair, and while she might not have gotten as hands-on about it as that drawing suggests, I still think she's responsible.

So, like... why?

Why does this piss her off so much? I mean, sure, Saionji absolutely has it coming, but Anthy's been through worse. She clearly doesn't like Saionji and messes with him whenever possible, but to attempt murder and then set up an elaborate illusion designed to upset him as much as possible is... a little extreme. I don't think she even goes that far with Nanami, unless you consider the elephants to be legit murder attempts (which I do not- I think that was Anthy scaring Nanami, not trying to kill her, because I can't believe Nanami would survive that many encounters with elephants that actually wanted her dead).

I think the answer is that, for all the shit she takes from the duelists, Saionji is one of the only ones who breaks this many rules. Not only does he mistreat her when they're engaged- something she's used to, but that seems to be at least frowned upon, if not outlawed (given Touga felt the need to call a "stop hitting your girlfriend" meeting in episode 1)- he mistreats her afterwards. He refuses to let her go, he acts as if she still owes him something. And then he goes and pulls this. He kidnaps her, takes her to the arena without a duel scheduled, and tries to enter the arena- all things that are against the rules of this stupid game that Anthy, however much she knows it is a stupid game, lives her whole life around. And he tells her End of the World is responsible, which Anthy knows isn't true, because if Akio were planning something this batshit, she'd know about it! Of course she's angry, this goes well beyond the threshold of nonsense her job usually entails!

I don't know if she was aware of Touga's plan to play the hero for Utena and get Saionji expelled- if so, she obviously wasn't aware of all of it. The freakout on the way up to the arena is too intense for me to read it as anything but genuine. She's shaking with effort trying to stop Saionji from opening the gate. Things do fall perfectly into place for Touga to get between Saionji's sword and a defenseless Utena, but I honestly think Touga's plan may have been to just...

1) Impersonate End of the World and tell Saionji the castle is coming down, this will incentivize him to go up there and break the rules.

2) Tip Utena off that Saionji has kidnapped Anthy.

3) The castle doesn't come down, upsetting Saionji and heating up his inevitable confrontation with Utena enough that he tries to kill her and Touga can step in at the perfect moment.

4) Profit.

I don't think he knew Anthy was going to Do That. For one, the plan was to get Saionji expelled, not kill him- Anthy's stunt there could have ruined the entire plan if Utena hadn't dragged Saionji out of the water. And Touga is drinking the "Rose Bride doesn't have feelings" juice. Evidently, he doesn't put two and two together after this, because he's still beating that drum in episode eleven!

I don't think Akio knew much about this either. Touga is telling him about it over the phone, so Touga didn't tell him, and Anthy didn't know, so she couldn't have either. I think he probably got woken up in the middle of the night by all the chaos and had to dial Touga up after the fact to ask him what the fuck was going on.

[dailycass-cain]

Can you tell us more about Gabrych and the end of the 2000 run? Why was it cancelled?

Near the end of the comic book event "Infinite Crisis", Batgirl Vol. 1 was axed. This was not due to low sales (several DC Comics at the time were selling worse and continued on when the relaunch "One Year Later" program was to hit) but for a rather sexist reason.

Back in 2010, the inker for Batgirl Vol. 1, Jesse Delperdang, posted on Deviantart the real reason the series was canceled, "canceled to make room for the coming Batwoman."

That "coming Batwoman" was an ongoing series by Devin Grayson, and would never see the light of day (DC got cold feet when the character got more publicity than they realized and decided to retool the character (which we got with Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III over in Detective Comics a few years later).

Because more than "one female bat comic" was one too many. Not only that but just last year Dan DiDio posted on Facebook the original outline he had for "OYL" regarding Cass:

Of course, DiDio always changed his mind and instead, we got the racist caricature in OYL. Nor would this be the last time DiDio would change his thoughts on what to do with Cass (2009, 2011, and 2016. Each a can of worms of themselves).

So that's why Batgirl Vol. 1 was canceled, due to sexism.

As for Gabrych, he continued to work with DC until an Omega Men mini in 2006-2007 and began to go back to his life outside DC Comics. He did come back to write a 2010 graphic novel Frogtown for the Vertigo label.

The thing is, DC Editorial under DiDio was a nasty business. Sometimes you followed the edicts or didn't and walked altogether (Kelley Puckett for a brief run with Supergirl Vol. 5 in 2008 and Dylan Horrocks with the "War Games" event when he and Grayson objected to Stephanie Brown being brutally murdered and DC taking away Babs from the comic too). Or you got nasty pricks in editing to deal with like Eddie Berganza (a noted DiDio toadie). It was just a toxic culture altogether, and I'm glad it is over when DiDio got fired in early 2020.

Two have left comics altogether (Puckett & Gabrych) and Horrocks is doing indie comic work in his native New Zealand, but avoiding the Big 2 after the "War Games" experience.

The sad truth is, if you write a Batgirl ongoing there's a 75% chance you're gonna get out of the industry. Literally, there's only a handful of Batgirl writers who've done stories on the ongoings and not left.

We just got Bryan Q. Miller back to DC in a few months (they're also reprinting the Batgirl Vol. 3 run he did), and that's probably cause most of the old regime left (see an SDCC 2020 Batgirls panel he was on with Sarah Kuhn and others where he goes onto a tale regarding his clashes with the heads over Cass).

Puckett did do a new foreword to his Batman Adventures run which got an Omnibus recently. So MAYBE there's hope for him too.

I hope I answered your question to the fullest on why Batgirl Vol. 1 ended and why Gabrych left the industry.

[harley-rose25]

In which I give the longest explanation of my opinions on Eremika and why I don't like it.

If you see my other AoT post, I likely give the impression of being a hardcore eremika anti; and while I'm not clearly not a fan of the ship I also don't believe that it just came out of nowhere, or was completely unexpected; like some eremika antis seem to think. Seasons 1-3 I honestly expected an eremika ending. Season 3 I had some thoughts that maybe we were getting a erehisu instead, but ultimately I assumed either an eremika or a no-pairing ending even by the end of season 3.

This is not because I thought the ship was built up well or had really good moments pointing towards a mutual romance/love. There are some moments where Eren shows some level of care or affection towards Mikasa; but, to me, it doesn't come off like he's in love with her. It can be interpreted that way, but I felt it was more like showing general platonic care and that those more romantic feeling could be built up or in some cases like his feelings were moving in that direction. The reason I assumed it was the most likely end game ship if there was to be a ship is because of other cannon ships where one character is in love, often obsessively so with the other and the other is either oblivious, doesn't really care, or actively seems to dislike them until the end of the series when suddenly they're also in love. ie; Sakura and Sasuke, Hinata and Naruto, Aang and Katara. Eren and Mikasa dynamic reminded me of these, especially Sakura and Sasuke.

My main issues with the eremika ship are: 1. how it compares to erehisu; Eren and Mikasa do have deep emotional moment together but Eren and Historia have deep emotional moment because of each other. That is, Eren's emotional moment with Mikasa would be just as emotional even if she wasn't there, where as Historia is integral to the moments she has with Eren. In season 4 the erehisu ship is really build up by how desperate Eren is to protect Historia, how he angrily jumps to her defense, how he's shown visiting her at the farm, how he smiles at her and no one else. Even other characters notice this; in season 3 Jean tells Eren he should stop holding hands with Historia all the time (I'm aware that the hand holding was because they were trying to get more memories/activate the founding titan, but it means that Eren and Historia had a lot of confirmed off screen time together), and in season 4 Hange looks at Eren smiling at Historia and then later tells Eren that She thought He would never sacrifice Historia; strongly indicating an assumption of a deeper level of care. All in all I think erehisu had better scenes to building a relationship of mutual care and understanding and also better scenes showing that Eren cares about Historia in a way that isn't shown with anyone else (save maybe Armin) This means that when we end up with eremika now it feels a little cheap or just off. If we got more moments showing a deeper level of care and understand between Eren and Mikasa or if The moments between Eren and Historia, and Erens reactions to Historia didn't have so much weight then an eremika ending would make more sense.

reason number 2: What it does to Mikasas character; Mikasa's love for Eren seems born out of an obsession that comes from losing her parent in a violent murder/kidnapping and then being saved by him. This is then compounded when Eren's mom dies since she was like an adoptive mother to Mikasa. She's a traumatized young girl who never actually deals with her trauma and instead hyperfixates on Eren. Mikasa entire character arc is her chasing after Eren like a neglected dog until that one scene where for like 5 minutes she finally starts to see Eren for the violent psychopath he actually is and questions what she had seen in him; but never mind that because she's back to being so obsessively in love with him that even after he dies she spends that rest of her life visiting his grave with her (probably husband and kids) and also never takes off that scarf.

reason number 3: Mikasa doesn't understand Eren. People argue that Mikasa understood Eren in a different ways, that she understood certain parts of him, but that's literally just admitting that there's clearly parts of Eren she doesn't understand. Actually, I'd argue that as its depicted Mikasa doesn't seem to understand Eren on a fundamental level. Examples: When he failed at the initial ODM gear test she told him to give up being a soldier and then went on to say that he needn't drop out alone, that she would be following him; when he passed the ODM gear test she says that he's relieved that he wont be separated from her. She assumes that the reason he'd be upset about failing to make it as a soldier is related specifically to her and not wanting to be apart from her; When Connie is angry about Eren laughing after Sasha's death he asks Mikasa why he would do that and she can't answer; despite the fact that she's witnessed him laughing in an emotional and traumatic situation before and should have been able to understand that he does it as a coping mechanism. She'd also completely blind to his obvious anti-social personality disorder (psychopathy), though to be fair so is everyone else including most Eren stans. (like, I love Eren, I stan Eren but he is like text book certifiably ASPD psychopathic)

[pienhime]

Ten Under-Recognized Jirai Kei Characters!

Ive been meaning to make a post on some jirai kei characters that i think are underappreciated by the overseas landmine community! Mostly i think its bc they don't wear girly kei, cybercore, or other fashions associated with us on SNS, and bc their media came out before 2020. So ive compiled a list and an explanation for why i think they're jirai! I have another list for pien kei characters who arent jirai in my opinion too. If u have any characters u think the western jirai comm sleeps on, comment/reblog and tell me who & why!

1. Celestia Ludenberg

Celestia (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc) has screamed landmine to me for like, ever! She's wrapped up in her appearance and at first glance makes the effort to come off as regal and formal. But she frequently lets that disguise slip and shows her sadistic side at the slightest inconvenience, threatening violence and screaming in peoples faces. She's got both a superiority complex AND inferiority complex, and has an unhealthy obsession with gambling, her super high school level talent.

2. Nijimin Anazawa

Nijimin (Mahou Shoujo Site) is super popular in the japanese jirai comm, and its easy to see why. She's easily lovestruck and a borderline yandere (dependent type), murderous and hellbent on revenge, and her magical power literally revolves around manipulating others. She's a beloved idol and a symbol of cuteness, but she's a murderous magical girl? How much more jirai can you get!

3. Mayoi Ayase

Mayoi (Ensemble Stars) is a very interesting character! From his obsession with the occult to his self depreciating behavior to his obsessive and stalkerish tendencies, he's an overall offputting yet charming guy. As an idol, he has fans who have a totally different image of him than the creep (affectionate) he can be at times behind the scenes. Also, not to stereotype, but his favorite sanrio character is kuromi, whos super popular within jirai.

4. Yuri

Yuri (Dokidoki Literature Club) being a landmine seems a little self-explanatory to me. She's a yandere character who's probably the most unassuming of the cast at first. She's shy, smart, kind... and a self-harming yandere with a knife fetish who will literally kill herself if you get involved romantically or reject her.

5. Yoosung

Wow, when's the last time I thought about Mystic Messanger? No idea, but Yoosung feels pretty jirai kei to me in retrospect. In the beginning of the game, hes the adorkable self-conscious junior with an unhealthy online addiction. But, by the end, he's a self-harming yandere who refuses to let the player character go, and is willing to do whatever it takes to secure a happily ever after.

6. Kusokawa-chan

While I have an immeasurable hatred for her creator, Kusokawa-chan (Menhera-chan spin-off 4komas) is a comfort character of mine... for some reason. With a name that means "kawaii trash", her personality is probably predictable. She's human trash, a sadistic asshole with no respect for others who will insult and berate you at the drop of a hat, and turn on a dime on her fans. She tries to cover it up by putting on an exaggerated innocent act and kawaii-fying herself and her life, but she just cant stop herself from exploding on others with no remorse.

7. Azusa Mukami

Admittedly, everything I know about Diabolik Lovers is through its fandom as I've yet to cave and buy the games. But from what little I know, Azusa seems pretty jirai. He seems innocent, fragile even- but has the typical amount of yandere tendencies for the series. He has a self harm addiction, and if you peruse his route you're in for a toxic time.

8. Satou Matsuzaka

This might be cheating because she's so popular on yandere tumblr, but Satou Matsuzaka (Happy Sugar Life) is ultra jirai kei. It's no wonder she's such a popular choice of pfp on japanese jiraitwt! She's obsessed with living out a fantasy saccarine-sweet life with the object of her desire, and given her full-blown yandere nature and her lolicon status, its no doubt shes a toxic partner. She's beloved at her school and workplace for her seemingly sweet nature and cute looks, but her kindness is only for the purposes of manipulation.

9. Kosame Amagai

Again, I'm no expert on Diabolik Lovers! But based on what my friends on yandereblr tell me, this guy is definately a jirai danshi. He's a lover of all things cute, who uses his cute shota-like appearance and polite manner of speech to lure others in. In reality, hes an abusive partner in his route, and takes his anger out on others verbally. He's willing to cry, scream, and threaten over the smallest of transgressions. Of course, he's also a yandere as per series standard.

10. Momonga

Okay so this is only half-serious, but there's a reason Momonga (Chiikawa) is so beloved by jirai girls and often depicted fitting the visual jirai stereotype in fanart. She's ultra cute! But she uses her appearance and acting vulnerable and innocent to try to get away with shithead behavior. She's loud, erratic, and self-obsessed, and often cries when she doesn't get her way. She's obviously the worlds cutest little manipulator, and she knows it.

I hope you enjoyed this list! There's a list for non-landmine pien kei characters coming soon, so feel free to send me asks with recommendations! And feel free to add on to this list in reblogs and comments!

[mixelation]

on itatori

tori and itachi late game plasticity: weird, horrible and mistrustful alliance, shaped by "you got my brother killed" and "did you know your deep conspiracy is even more insane than you thought. please help"

itachi early mutagenicity: i recognize your skills might be useful to me, and also, that letting you free could fuck over me and everyone i care about, and absolutely no one will be able t anticipate how

tori early mutagenicity: i'm annoyed by being strong armed into this, but i find itachi reliable and predictable in a comfortable way even if he's an asshole

the past couple weeks i've been writing rando scenes in some plot-heavy places (like the Get Rid of Danzo Arc) and actually it does end up making "oh, they're dating" an incredibly believable development from the outside. there's a short window where they think tori might be dead and itachi is visibly upset. he lies to minato to frame him sharing & withholding info as being about his close friendship with tori (it is, in act, about tori being an excellent co-conspirator and them murdering danzo). he tells his family he now has the mangekyou as a result of the trauma of seeing the mangekyou and thinking tori is dead. he makes all their super secret team 4 time traveler meetings happen in tori's dorm (and then apartment) because he makes her set up a bunch of wild seals for privacy because it would be the least suspicious place for her to be doing that... which means itachi goes and seeks out tori in her own home a lot.

from the INSIDE he does just tell tori he doesn't like danzo and she's like "then LET'S KILL HIM :)" because this is her favorite hobby most reliable way to maintain a sense of control over her life. this makes her 100x more appealing to itachi & tori enjoys the sense of fucked up empowerment she gets from it. she comes to him with the idea to start a book club and he immediately supports her. they've both just accepted each other's freak tendencies. they've gotten in too deep and they WILL get upset if the other is made upset in their enclosure. like the part where he didn't tell her they were dating was fucked up but this does mean she can take advantage of him now

dating stage 1: tori has no idea what's happening **short break up** dating stage 2: tori wants free meals and the social benefits of dating **longer break up bc they realize this is not sustainable** dating stage 3: itachi gets roped into mikoto-arranged dates and is Dying. tori misses having a fellow Freak around. who else will just stand there and watch while she harasses random civilians. no one **series of break ups because they're old enough marriage is on the table and they're both insane about it** dating stage 4: they get engaged and deidara thinks it's some sort of prank

[bestlaidplansproductions]

Hi, Is Lady Jane Neville in any way inspired by Lady Jane Grey? The nine day queen of England? I may just be drawing similarities from the fact they're both called Jane and villainess Jane may or may not get her head chopped off?

Oh! And congrats on getting fully funded so quickly that's amazing but it was bound to happen with a game as interesting as yours! ✨❤

In Save the Villainess, Jane Neville is our loving tribute to the long line of quirky, funny, and lovable villainess characters from villainess comedies like Beware the Villainess, My Next Life as a Villainess, and Tearmoon Empire.

Like Melissa, Katarina, and Mia, Jane is a proactive character who takes action as soon as she can to save her life… even as she experiences the extra burden of not knowing what story she’s in… what lead the past Jane Neville to be a villainess… or who is out to murder her!

We also based her name and her plight on amazing historical villainesses, as @tinycandle astutely pointed out. Lady Jane Grey gave our Jane her first name (and also inspired the amazing series My Lady Jane). I wonder if you can tell which historical villainess the Neville in Jane Neville's name comes from...?

Interested in more? Support us on Kickstarter now!

[paragox]

DR S2 P2 Discussion

A lot of yapping about Arin :3

Quick thoughts:

Overall I think it was a solid season, Imo pt. 2 had more pacing problems than pt. 1 but it was still very enjoyable and overall tops s1.

I have my problems, a few w some characters but I also think people were over-hyping a lot evil Jay when I think what we got was enough, he got his moment, we got more interactions and well, he's gonna be on and off in the series and I think we all have to make pace with that, we can't just follow all the storylines all the time and the focus are still the source dragons and the merge.

As I said, this is a long wanting game and we're gonna have to understand that to make this more enjoyable to us.

A bit BS how obviously they're underpowering the Ninja on the matches but I can get behind it better after the revelation of the traitor.

You can tell if not Doc's fav season he really likes ToE a lot, a lot of parallels to it which as one of my fav seasons is fun.

Kai and Nya relationship is still beautiful and I'm glad Zane seem to be showing more emotion, still sidelined but his expresions and behaviour seem way less robotic now.

They did kinda put all the grief part onto the Wyldfyre audios and shorts and I wish they kinda expanded on that w everyone else but well, better than nothing ig.

Arin and Sora conflict being dragged is good, and Arin doubts growing each ep is nice too.

Good on them for the attention to Riyu's scales, I love Sora and Jordana true brief interactions.

Cole is... Cole? At least he's there, and nice touch to see his Mom's mech.

I can't say much about Geode 'cause I don't ship it, sorry, cute to see them together?

Btw have a game and check on the background charas, you might find some other EMs from the older season ;)

Speaking of, some elements are definitely bs and they were running out of ideas but whatever, fun matches overall.

Love the long-running main story tho, I think that one is having a good phase and we got open ending, as I said, long waiting game, gotta get used to it-

Now Arin

I actually wanna discuss Arin a bit more in-depth here because as an Only Child I can really really understand him.

First, Arin seemed to be quite a lonely child, mostly on his own without friends which could be for multiple reasons, I get that, I totally get that, he's used to entertaining himself, play by himself and most importantly, be a lot with his parents.

See, as an only child if you got a good relationship with your parents you might spend a lot of time with them, especially if you have difficulty socializing, I won't go too deep into this but is not weird to go you three out as family to a lot if not most of stuff, this is why when Arin just spent a lof of time with his parents playing Murder Mystery I could totally get that.

Your parents are gonna be there, they're gonna be your parents sure but a lot of times they're also gonna be your only playmates and maybe the few people you will ramble about your likings, this creates a more complicated relationship with them, not in a bad way, in an intricate way so I can totally see why he's in such a rush to find them and get them back.

An only child relationship with his parents (when is a good one) is very different from one of children w siblings and their parents, I don't think I'll ever convey it properly as you have to experience it yourself but what shown on Arin's memories and urges is very real.

They were probably the only "friends" he had for a long time, Arin doesn't seem like the type of kid to be outgoing or going to party or such, he probably stayed at home or close to home a lot and so he spent a lot of time with them, the were the only stable thing through his life too and his safe space, when your parents (and maybe few only friends) are you only stability to get that ripped out of you-

Yeah, I can totally understand why he's so tired of Ninja business, sure he loves the Ninja, he loves Sora, he loves Riyu and all, but there's always be the empty space his parents filled for such a long time and knowing they're alive is just-

Hurts.

[justrainandcoffee]

Against all odds (Alfie Solomons x fem!oc) Part 1.

(Crossover Peaky Blinders - Hunger Games)

Series masterlist - Alfie x Rose masterlist

Summary: Six years ago, Alfie won his games and the ghosts of those years still haunts him. But he has not choice but go to the Capitol, once again, because that's his role as mentor. No one of those kids who went with him to the Capitol survived and probably this year it'll be the same. Fuck the Capitol and its citizens. They're all the same. The thing is... Not all of them are the same.

Series warnings: Mentions of sex (consent and non-con). Murders. Blood. PTSD. Cheating. Prostitution. || This is set in Panem universe. Topics as minors being sexual corrupted are also mentioned because it's CANON.

Words: 3.1k

Six years earlier.

District 8.

Rose woke up sighing. Last week she celebrated her 18th birthday. Already an adult and yet, once last time she had to prepare herself for the reaping day.

The last six years of her life were tortuous. Year after year, praying for a miracle. But for now, God or whoever was up there, listened to her.

Just one more time.

Her brother Samuel was already up when she went to the kitchen. He was 13, almost 14, and that was his second time facing that not so special day.

"Hi, Sam."

"Rosie…"

She tried to prevent him from asking for things so he couldn't get any extra tesserae but also, there was a time where she fell ill for almost a month and Samuel was the one who had to ask for medicine. His name was ten times on those damn papers. Rose's name was fifty-five.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"If by okay you mean that there's a chance I can be reaped and then die then, no, I'm not okay. But I'm still alive and these toasts are good, so yes, I'm okay."

"Everything will be fine, Sam."

"Except for one boy and one girl."

Rose nodded, "except for them."

.

The escort who always visited the district during the reaping day was an extravagant man called Alistair Pullman, who had half of his hair blue and half white. Perfectly combed. He also had a ridiculous moustache and talked in a funny way.

"Welcome to The 53th Hunger Games!" Alistair exclaimed. He was wearing a white hat and a brilliant green suit.

The introduction was always the same. Same words, same tone of voice.

"…as always, ladies first."

Her heart was pounding.

Please, help me one more time.

Alistair picked up a paper and opened it "Rose… Gregg."

Gregg. Not Coldwell. Not Coldwell. She couldn't help but cried. The odds were indeed on her favour. After all those years, after all those fucking tesserae, she did it. She was never reaped.

Rose Gregg was a thin ginger girl. She was also crying but for very different reasons. She was probably walking towards her death. Rose Coldwell felt sorry for her.

"And now the gentlemen…"

The boy, luckily, wasn't her brother but a boy called Martin Wallis.

When she had the chance, she ran towards her little brother and hugged him tightly.

It was indeed a good day. At least for the Coldwells.

Far away in district 9 a boy called Alfred had been reaped.

Now.

District 9.

"How old are you?" Alfie asked.

"19."

"You're fucking not. How old are you?"

"16."

"Fuck off. Go home, girl."

"Please, sir! My sister and I, we're hungry! Let me show you! Other men say I'm good… I can be good. Whatever you want, sir."

Alfie went to the kitchen and grabbed some canned food and bread and gave it to her. "I said fuck off."

He growled. Not infrequently women and sometimes men knocked on his door offering sexual services in exchange for food or medicine he now had. Since he won his games six years ago that was a every day routine. And not so infrequently, too, he accepted their offer. It was a good way to stop thinking. As long as the person was adult and never vaginal sex. The last thing that the world needed was more kids. Were his actions questionable? Who the fuck cared? That was Panem not a fucking monastery. You had to survive and every person chose their methods. At least he wasn't a fucking rapist.

Alfie tried not to think about it. It was only once but…

He knocked the rest of the cans out of his table. He was angry.

It was months after his victory. A woman in her 50s paid for a night with him. And he didn't have the option to say no. The lady had a fetish for young teenage boys who were like him. They forced him to take a pill so he could last longer during the sex encounter. Not only the woman was older than his own mother but also was incredibly annoying. He forced himself to close his eyes and just do his job. It was the longest and most unpleasant night of his life.

No one else wanted him. Too rude and not childish enough to them. He already had beard. People of the capitol preferred baby faces. Alfie never shaved again in his life, that kept the rest of the citizens away from him.

And that day was the beginning of a new nightmare. Once again, a new reaping day. Another year where probably he was going to lose another boy and another girl.

He watched the ceremony from the distance. Both girl and boy were 15 years old. The boy named Philip had only one hand.

Alfie knew it from the very beginning, Philip had his days numbered. Later he could study the girl. In the distance he heard the train already waiting for them.

.

The Capitol. Wealthy, big, colourful… full of hypocrisy and heartless bastards. Full of people cheering for the tributes and waiting for them to be slaughtered by other kids. He despised that place. Their escort, Alissa, was speaking but Alfie wasn't paying attention to her.

The training centre was full of people. From servants to guards. Alfie saw how other victors talked to the new tributes, introducing that place. Philip and the girl were at his side in silence listening to Alissa who was too enthusiastic about these new games.

A short woman approached them and greeted Alissa with a big smile and also the kids. She just nodded at him, probably reading his facial expression.

"I'm the new stylist," she introduced herself to him and the rest "I'm Rosebeth. And I'm glad to announce you're going to shine."

.

Another fucking year. Rose watched the different kids being selected on TV. Same old story. Happy and proud faces on those from district 1 and 2, resignation on the rest of them.

That was her first year working as stylist and they assigned district 9 to her. The previous stylist had problems with authorities and he had been incarcerated. Probably killed by now, she didn't know. And Rose learnt that it's better not to ask.

If you wanted an answer all you had to do was wait and listen. Sooner or later, people talked. Especially those wealthy bitches ready to spread gossips.

The train was already there. And Rose prepared herself. Time to be someone new.

When you're part of the Capitol, you had to act like one. You couldn't have a simple and mundane name as Rose. Because of that she merged her both names in one, Rose Elizabeth: Rosebeth. And voilà, she wasn't a simple girl anymore.

Not long time ago she was part of the districts too. She didn't born there. She hated the Capitol, the ideals, the way that those kids were treated. Rose wanted to burn that place from the ground and watch it explode in thousand of pieces. And was already working on it.

But for now she was the stupid, superficial and happy Rosebeth Evert, married to one of the richest men there. And one of the biggest piece of shit, too.

"What happened to André?" the mentor asked. She looked at him and smiled.

"André isn't here anymore. As I said, I'm the new stylist and for the next weeks we're a team. The five of us, isn't that great?"

Alissa clapped happily and Philip smiled. Alfie and the girl remained in silence.

.

While they entered the elevator to go to their floor, Alfie realised he was mad. No, in fact, he was disgusted. At least André was a man who he could talk with. The woman in front of him was nothing but the perfect example of a empty minded person who probably celebrate every death. The next few weeks were going to be a hell. He looked at her and Alissa talk like very good friends but said nothing.

Alfie knew the place but the kids not. The floor that the Capitol gave to district 9 was big, elegantly decorated and with enormous windows facing the city.

Alissa was jumping here and there expressing her gratitude for the food on the table, the soft music on the background and almost everything.

"You're Reah," said Rose looking at the girl. Contrary to Philip, Reah was shy and quiet. Not agressive at all, just timid. The girl girl nodded "I'm already thinking about your dress, Reah. But I need opinions, what do you like about your District? I'm against all traditional, sweetie. André was good, but too classic. Make them talk about you, Reah."

"Reah wants peace. Her life is about to change forever, last thing she needs is to talk about stupid costumes."

Rose looked at the mentor who just talked. She read his files. Alfred Solomons, winner of the 53th Hunger games. An impressive number of seven deaths, one of them by decapitation. Two sickles was all he needed to be a victor. But the grumpy man in front of her had nothing to do with the photo in the files she read.

"Well, Alfred, what about let the girl talk instead of speaking for her? My reputation depends on the parade and I'm not going to ruin it because you're against it."

"It's okay," Reah said shyly. "I'd like to talk about the costume."

Alfie huffed before turning around and go to his bedroom.

The fucking Capitol.

.

But Alfie had nothing to say when he finally saw the costumes. Over the years, he had seen his mentored kids dressed as corn or a wearing weath hats. That night, both Reah and Philip represented Ceres, the roman goddess of grains. Comparing the costumes to distract 1, for example, probably they weren't that extravagant. But if you looked closer you could see the little details like weath ears made of golden threads perfectly sewed to the fabric. Plus longer weath ears made of real gold outstanding over their shoulders and heads.

Alissa was fascinated and told Rose. Alfie remained in silence.

Apparently, people loved them too.

The only thing that Alfie thought was that maybe that could help him to get sponsors for them.

At that hour the building was almost empty except for guards and some night workers. No one asked her what she was doing at those hours. She's carrying a sewing machine in her arms and some clothes on her shoulders.

Rose was trying to ignore her heartbeat. You had to start with something, right?

"To spy my husband," she said to the seller who didn't ask much questions when she bought a microphone.

She gave two fucks her husband. He was probably now celebrating with some other men in a bar thinking about the tributes and who could win.

A guard stopped her when she tried to enter the control centre. She knew that was going to happen. She wore her fakest smile.

"You can't pass, ma'am."

Rose giggled stupidly "oh, I know, love. But Claudius is there and I have a message for him from my cutie husband Lawrie Evert. It's just five seconds."

The guard looked at her and used the communication device on his wrist to speak with other guard inside. After a short exchange of words he let her in.

The message was fake. Probably the man named Claudius will forget that, but it gave her the chance to be inside the most precious room in the whole Capitol. The fucking control centre. No one noticed that she put the tiny mic under the table. Especially because everyone was busy and because the clothes covered her arms. Long life battery. Probably it will last longer than this game edition.

Once she left the room and the hallway. That stupid smile she hated so much disappeared from her face.

"Be careful with her," an old victor warned Alfie once the training began.

Alfie had been watching Philip and he was extremely surprised by his ability to use spears despite having only one hand. It's not like district 9 had a lot of wild animals to hunt. Alfie promised himself to ask the boy about it later.

"With who?"

"Your stylist. Do you know her husband?"

"I don't know a shit about her except that she's annoying and she's laughing like an idiot all the time. Who the fuck is her husband?"

"Lawrence Evert."

Alfie stopped looking at the boy to look at the victor. It was the black woman known as Volcano Girl. Alfie was a little kid by the time she won, probably 4 or 5 years old, he barely remembered those games. But for a few years Aveline Young was quite popular. She was 34 years now, almost two decades passed from the moment she won.

"What?" Alfie asked looking at her.

Lawrence Evert was a bad word. It was an open secret the things he did to some victors. Even Alfie who was one of the youngest and hadn't heard everything, knew about him.

"Just telling you, Alfie. I couldn't trust her if I were you. Who the fuck can marry that bastard?"

His head were full of questions. Not only now he had to protect those kids from other tributes, but in case that any of them could win, he had to ptotect her o him from the husband of a woman who was pretending to be their friend.

.

The hostility towards her the following days only increased. Alissa tried to calm him, talked to him about other things but he didn't cooperate. Every time Alfie found her talking to Reah or Philip alone, he approached them.

Those bastards were everywhere. Every night when Alfie looked through the window and watched the lights he asked himself how many of them corrupted kids. The answer was probably: a lot.

Four nights before the beginning of the 60th Hunger Games, Alfie saw Rose dancing with Philip a tropical song. Both of them were laughing, but he wasn't. Not just he turned the music off, but warned the woman with his finger.

"It's nothing…" Philip tried to say.

"It's fucking a lot. Go to bed, now. You need to rest," the man ordered.

"But Alfie…"

"Go to the fucking bed, Philip!"

The boy nodded and left the dining room, leaving the two adults alone.

"Stay fucking away from them."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Rose frowned "the moment you put a feet here you treated me bad, but these last days were awful… as far as I know I did nothing! So tell me, Alfred, what the fuck is wrong with you!!"

"With me? I came forced here! And I'm doing my job! Part if it is protecting those kids from monsters like you!"

Alissa appeared that moment to tell them that they were yelling at each other. Rose open the balcony door violently. Alfie was behind her.

"What the fuck do you mean by monsters like me. Because I was giving the kid a moment to be a child again? Joking and dancing trying to make him forget about his fate?? I don't understand, so tell me!"

"You know nothing, don't you?" Alfie snorted. "Probably you spend your days thinking what ridiculous shoes to buy, what new fucking bag to wear. Meanwhile in your back your beloved husband is a pe…"

"A what?!"

"Pedophile."

Alfie saw the exactly moment where life escaped from her eyes. She was paralyzed.

"What?"

"You heard me. Why don't you ask victors what do they think about Lawrence Evert?"

"What the fuck are…oh God." Rose felt sick and ended up vomiting in a flowerpot that was there. Alfie didn't move.

It couldn't be. Those years she had heard those rumours and never doubted about it. But that was new information. Disgusting new information. Her marriage it was recent, she accepted because he promised to keep her brothers names out of the bowls and he fulfilled the promises. Now Samuel was safe from it, he was 19, but her little brother Louis was only 14.

"FUCCKKKK!!" she screamed in the wind, crying. She let him fucked her without knowing he touched kids. She felt dirty. It was disgusting. "How many…" she thought. She didn't want to know. When she calmed down, moments later, she faced Alfie who was still there.

"You too?"

"No. Not by him, at least."

"I didn't know. Please, believe me, I didn't know. This kid, Philip, he is barely older than my little brother. I miss him! For me he's nothing but like my brother Louis. I never… never!"

"Yeah. I can see you didn't know. I believe you. But I don't want you near them. I don't trust people like you. Capitol citizens enjoying the killing. You didn't touch them, but I bet my ass you enjoy the games. Born in a fucking golden crib..."

"Don't you dare to talk about me like you know me, Alfred. You know a shit about me! I'm from district 8! I put my fucking name 185 times during my adolescence. I was fucking lucky that I never been reaped. I suffer from the same misery than you or these kids. I was lucky that when I was 19 they accepted me to work here. I'm sorry your lucky was worst than mine. But don't you dare to judge me. You don't know me. You don't."

When she left the balcony, Alfie kicked the wall. Everything was a shit.

Reah and Philip the next days continue training. Alfie prepared them to face the judges. Rose was in her studio finishing the clothes for their interview on live TV. They barely talk to each other during those days. But they didn't yell at each other either.

At night, alone on her bedroom, Rose heard the conversation in the control centre and took notes: Specific words, times, names, codes… She also knew that the arena was a copy of a Grand Canyon. Beautiful but mortal. She couldn't tell Alfie, even if she wanted to. She didn't trust him. He could tell this secret to other victors and it could be the end.

.

Both kids ending their training with 7 points over 12 and the TV presentation was successful even for the shy Reah.

If kids could make it, was another story. That night, the last night, no one said a word but everyone knew that it was going to be the last supper for one of them. In the worst scenario, both of them.

Alfie found himself staring at the woman he knew as Rosebeth. She was quiet and she didn't look at all like the person of the previous days.

Next part

[raindropren]

!!!!!! Secret Life Episode 9 Spoilers !!!!!!

THIS SEASON IS SO FUCKING GOOD HELL YA

I LOVE THIS

I LOVE SECRET LIFE

IT'S SO GOOD

I'M

SIIJOHFSIHFJSNF

LETS GO, SCAR!! WOO HOO

I GENUINELY LOVE THIS SO MUCH AAA

ALSO WHY IS PEARL SO CRACKED AT THIS GAME!?!?!

So she was i think 3rd in last life, Won in double life, I think 4th or 5th in limited life, and now, 2nd in Secret life!!

What the F u c k

I love it so much

It really helps all my headcanons tbh, it makes me so happy.

Also why does pearl always survive longer then her allies/teammates(Unless they win)

and by always i mean like, 2 times? 2 and a half? if u count tilly maybe? i do... 2.5 :]

I really do wish joel or bdubs won, mostly joel because it would've been so good but I deffo think scar deserved this win.

I think it wouldve been kind of funny if in the 1v1 battle between scar and pearl.. pearl won... and it's just, awkward cause she... didn't want that. at all.

She wanted scar to win after bdubs and joel died, she wanted to sacrifice her life to scar in the end because she wanted her allies to win.

I also think shiny duo is a tragedy in the end. I really hope someone makes a fanfic about them in secret life cause they just, they, they just, <3 <3 <3

I love them alot

I'm making a theory that Gem might, win the next life seires.

Shiny duo winning their second season, please please please /hj /lh

I've already really loved the pearl fanfics from this season cause omg but I just, i just <3 <3 can't wait to see more!! aaa :D

if i get the motivation i fucking will make a fic about gem and pearl coming back into hermitcraft. They have very similar vibes in the life series(they're fucking crazy, don't mess with them, but also you'd rather be on their side then not(I haven't watched gems life series so if i'm wrong on this one, oopsie) cause they are more loyal then most) and I think it'd be fun to see them coming back and talking to eachother about the season ngl.

Murder camel my beloved, shiny duo my beloved

I also think(if I get the motivation) i'd want to make a fic with Pearl and Bdubs, in hermitcraft, afterwards.

ooo so many ideas, so many ideas so little time and motivation.

i wanna know what would happen if pearl accidentally won, despite not wanting too, if she hit scar just alittle to hard and now she was alone, as the sole 2 time winner. I think AU!pearl would have a mental fucking breakdown but i also think it'd be a fun concept aaaa

I want a fic about Pearl just after Bdubs and Joel died, just crying. like tears down her cheeks when she meets back up with scar and aaaa <3

All these would be my au obviously cause i'm way to obsessed with it but my au is set in canon, mostly. or at least alittle, i'm trying LOL

I'm proud of scar :]

like, i'm proud of all the winners but, i really do feel like scar deserved this win

I might watch his pov at some point, i can't wait for people to tear the angst from scars episodes, they already have alittle but with him winning, I can't fucking wait, omg <3

I'm just so excited now

aaaa

i'm nhjgofubkhgfubkjhdfjl eee

I really hope gem and pearl team next season instead of just being temporary allies because they are so fun omg

I really hope there's another season cause god they are so good /nf

I can't get enough of life series pearl in my au

which is why i keep mentioning her, i've basically only watched her pov cause I have a hard time watching others. I wanna watch gem, lizzies(it's ies right? i'm bad with spelling names aa), and now scars. stars above, i love this series

aaaaaaaaaaaaa

secret is probably my new favorite season, idk why, maybe it's because of shiny duo alittle, but y'know :]

There's so much i wish i wanna talk about

like how Pearl said "Always Watching" to BigB

Or just any moment with Pearl and Scott, I miss their last life dynamic alot /pos /notneg

Cleo and Pearls pupper alliance breaking and Pearl saying she really wanted to be allies with Cleo, like I need fics of that so much guys omg (Big MoonRot fan!! ee)

Anytime Gem, Impulse, and Pearl were in a trio together, like omg, It's Soup Group!!! Guys!!! it's them!!! omg!!!!!!!! guys!!

Pearl walking the Warden around like a pro, i love that so much LOL

there's deffo more, but i've typed way to much LOL i just love this so much, it's insane.

[gffa]

Character Ask Game: Obi-Wan Kenobi, 4 8 &12

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in? Obi-Wan is one of those characters that probably has been in all those other media and, of course, I always want more of him, but I think if you offered me the chance to have one new Obi-Wan project, it would be: A Star Wars Holiday Special: Obi-Wan & Anakin, where they get Ewan and Hayden to do a 45 minute special about their time as Force Ghosts, as they look on over Luke working to find Jedi artifacts, talking with him when they have the spiritual energy to pull together for it, while they look on over Ahsoka trying to process her feelings about Anakin even after all these years, while they watch over Grogu as best they can while he tries to find his path in this world without the Jedi. It would be half-serious, talking about Anakin's choices and how he had to learn to let go, that that's what it means to be a Force Ghost, you have to let go of all the hate and the rage and the fear and the guilt, that it's not about blame, but about delving into Anakin's mindset, about delving into Obi-Wan's mindset, how they both had to learn to let go of everything they were carrying around before they could move on. Obi-Wan had to do that during the series of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin had to do that during Return of the Jedi, and I'd love to see them have a conversation about how they want to help Ahsoka do the same thing. Bonus points for filming a scene of Obi-Wan watching as Vader threw Sidious down the reactor shaft and the light dawning on his face that, oh, his Padawan is coming back, that he can reach out his hand as Anakin dies, with a genuine smile and say, "Hello again, old friend. Let me help you over." But then it would be half-silly antics where they're basically Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo just roasting the hell out of all the dumbass shit they have to put up with in this galaxy. Bonus points for Anakin giving Obi-Wan the once over after they see Luke at the party on Endor's moon: "Wait, why do you look like that? Why aren't--" "I appear as the person remembers me, as they most need me to appear." "....so are you saying that everyone NEEDS me to look like the hottest holonet star on--" "[dryly] Apparently so." 8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? Taking away his love for and belief in the Jedi ways. Obi-Wan's entire ultimate purpose is to be the contrast to Anakin's character, to be the wise Jedi mentor who doesn't have to be perfect, but is generally correct, that his purpose is to show the path that Anakin should have been on. But also, just straight up as a character, Obi-Wan loves the Jedi, that's his culture, his family, his people, he believes in the methods of the Jedi, he believes in the philosophy of the Jedi, he lives and breathes as a Jedi. And it's made him the person he is, he cherishes that, that he can regret that there isn't room for other paths in life, but that he doesn't regret the path he's on as a Jedi, that even when he considered other paths, it was with the full respect for what being a Jedi means. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi, and even if he might choose another path for himself, he always, always believes in what it means to be a Jedi, he believes that path is valuable and sacred. Taking that away from his character just fundamentally is not who he is imo.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? Obi-Wan Kenobi is an absolute monster when it comes to playing cards. He has perfected his bland, unreadable face and sleight of hand, so you can suspect he's a dirty rotten cheater at cards, but you can never prove it. He will absolutely murder anyone and everyone at sabacc and never give away the game, he'll just blandly look at you and pretend to be losing, all until he's lulled you into a false sense of security and then he'll rob you blind and probably leave the winnings in the pocket of someone asking for change on the street. He's an absolute bastard to play cards with and Quinlan and Anakin both straight up refuse to do it anymore because it's so infuriating.

[shamera]

March-April manhwa reccs

In the vein of my last few reccs, here is the latest instalment in Shams-reads-too-much (I know it's only mid-April). This time, I'm back to the top 3 format but with a list of Honorable Mentions because oh boy, the readin' don't stop!

3. The Guild Member Next Door [30 chapters so far]

How is no one talking about this one? The first BL series to make it on my top lists, this is an online gamer meet-ugly cafe story that had me cackling through every chapter. It will brighten your day (threat). The story of an office worker slash secret gamer who starts playing the MMO Illusion and tries to join Poseidon guild only to immediately get PK'ed and accused of being a stalker's alt account, and in his revenge he befriends the entire guild as an FU to his attacker, only for his attacker to in-game propose to him to troll him in return. An adorable and hilarious story following the two as they purposefully step on each other's toes all the way until they're friends in-game, never realizing that they actually know each other IRL!

2. Martial God Regressed to Level 2 [one season]

Let's just say in chapter 1 all of humanity dies, so we already know how this story's going to go. Another OP protagonist whom I really enjoy, starting from scratch in hopes of saving the world. It's Seong Jihan's relationship with his family that makes this series hit different, as he not only uses his knowledge to try and prevent humanity's tragedies, but also does his best this time around to save his niece from her downward mental spiral and become a good role model for her after her father walks away. With little to lose now that he knows what's to come, the MC is more than willing to make enemies out of everyone to ensure they step up their game before the real fight for humanity begins.

1. SSS-Class Suicide Hunter [3 seasons]

This was already on Honorable Mentions back in December, and I know my recc list is meant for new reads, but I had to slap this down again after the PHENOMENAL season 3 ending. We've already seen Kim Gongja's crazy fights to ascend the tower, but the sheer hope. The belief in a better world that these characters have, and their determination to make it so, brought me to tears at the end of season 3. The story of a hunter with negative survival instincts, and a power that allows him to regress to a day before he dies every time he dies... it's not the type of story that I expected to see such delicate beauty within suffering, but here we are, with an MC ready to delve into storybooks to empathize with and relieve the suffering of the characters within, no matter what it takes. I'm so excited for season 4 and the next storybook, I am vibrating.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Raising a Sacrifice

This series is impossible to describe and impossible to put down for long. This is the ultimate fantasy time-loop transmigration system apocalypse god-maker BL I have ever read? It's what happens when the apocalypse keeps resetting and you can never escape that last year no matter how many times you die, and the toll on one's mental state when you start trying-- everything. Murder. Genocide. Madness. And falling in love, again and again and again. And being alone again, after every reset. Thousands and millions of times until you lose all hope, until one day... the MC wakes up with memories of being murdered by his faithful knight, and now there's finally two people with memories beyond one timeline.

Medical Return [complete!!]

The story of a surgeon who led a pitiful life, only to return to his childhood once more by the grace of the gods-- and this time he's determined to not lead the same life again! Now if only the world got that hint, as he seems to be continuously steered back onto his original path, while trying to dodge the tragedies in his life and save just one more person others gave up for dead. This time around, he has a little outside help to finally uncover just why his life went so wrong at every turn the first time and help him retain that inherent goodness without being taken advantage of once more. With an MC with a deposition truly befitting a good doctor, this is for all fans of hospital dramas, and is complete!!

Kill the Villainess [complete!!]

The only way to return home is to play the role of the villainess, Eris, who is condemned to death after attempting to kill the heroine. There is no way to escape that fate, as Eris can't even succeed at taking her own life before she completes her part in the plot. The story of a villainess trying to die to change the story, yet unable to as she continues to uncover backstory beyond the original novel to find the reason why her soul was stuck in this world and unable to leave, while attempting to bypass paths that would trap her in the novel forever. At what point will her actions make her a true villain, and just what is she willing to do in order to return home to the real world?

Little Mushroom

...my cheat this month, with me using the novel cover and everything. (Please read the books, there are only 2 novels and the prose is breathtaking.) The manhua is absolutely gorgeous beyond compare, and the story covers a sentient mushroom post-apocalypse who is journeying into a dangerous human settlement trying to find the spore that was taken from him. In a world where threats to humans loom at every corner and shadow, drastic measures are taken to protect those who survive, employing "Judges" with absolute power to kill if they suspect a being of not being human. It's the story of a non-human and a Judge finding themselves and each other by navigating the active end of the world.

My Darling Signed In [complete!!]

Cute?? Adorable???? Another online gamer couple who meet in real life, this BL story is genuinely all fluff as the MC is found to play a beautiful female elf online, yet their beau falls in love either way as it was the same charisma and personality that drew them in. A green flag couple with turns that surprised me every time with how wholesome things are. It's 2 seasons and complete, featuring them from collage to work space through their ups and downs, navigating their relationship and growing as people all the while continuing their game. Do you need a cute read with a guaranteed happy ending? Here it is!!

Zero Day Attack [1 season done]

Another BL on the list?? This month is full of surprises, as this time it's about a hacker who had to go into hiding after being exposed and is now a barista by day while working to find the man who betrayed him by night, all the while running away from both the organizations he hacked and his old colleagues who are looking for him. Things get complicated when a man who shows up at the cafe he works at won't leave him alone, and blurs the line between his search for revenge and the fake life he's currently living. This one eked its way above Netkama Punch for the mystery and intrigue (as well as having a main couple who is obsessed with each other without wanting to bring harm to the other).

I Will Change the Genre

A transmigrater meets a regressor, and suddenly the novel plot is going very, very awry! In the novel, Judith Maybaum is the hateful aunt of the main character who betrays her nephew and dies for it, yet "Judith Maybaum" isn't actually the same character now, and her nephew is also acting very odd when the story starts rolling. She's determined that her nephew will not go through his lonely and sorrowful life this time around, even if it means giving his custody to the Duke Winterwald, yet for some reason the protagonist clings to her and calls her 'mother' when the Duke comes to take him away! A touching and funny story with, once again, a green flag couple as well as an adorable aunt and nephew pair, both with foreknowledge of the future in different ways as they mess things up and unravel a story that neither of them knew.

GOOD ENOUGH I READ EVERYTHING: -Netkama Punch -The Bromance Book Club [complete] -The Live [complete] -I'll Be the Matriarch in this Life -Reincarnator -Dark Mage Returns to Enlistment -The Main Characters that Only I Know -My Lucky Encounter from the Game Turned Reality -The Archmage's Restaurant -I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away -I Created an Urban Legend -The Regressed Demon Lord is Kind

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony vs Peter Pan from Once Upon A Time

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Kokichi Ouma:

LOVE: - "hes a bitch and that makes a lot of people hate him and a lot of other people love him. no one can decide on his motives and i think thats kind of the point. i like him personally but hes a raging asshole <3" - "Not a single DR fan I've ever met is neutral about Kokichi, he's perfect for this poll. I think he's a clever character with consistent internal logic, and his interactions with the other characters are as compelling as they are hilarious. He looks like a dog squeaky toy, and he plots like Artemis Fowl. He's one of my favorite characters in the series and I love him dearly." - "NOBODY CARES ABOUT THIS BOY'S PSYCHOLOGY AT ALL. HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF AND HIS IMAGE AND MADE EVERYONE HATE HIM AND CONSIDER HIM A MONSTER ON THE SLIGHT CHANCE HE COULD USE HIS LIFE TO HELP EVERYONE ELSE ESCAPE AND SURVIVE AND NOBODY CARES. THEY SHOW HIS BREAKDOWN AND NOBODY BELIEVES HIM. I'M SO TIRED" - "not only is he a danganronpa character (inherently controversial) he is also the antagonist and constantly lying because That's His Whole Deal. people either love him or hate his guts. he's a little piece of shit. i would submit komaeda but i feel like views on him are more positive, generally. sorry i have bad taste in video games" - "he's a horrible little guy trying his best in not very good ways what more could you want" - "I don't know, people say he's badly written because they don't pay attention to his arc beyond the cartoonish facade he very obviously forces, and they don't like him because he caused someone's death which like..fair (he did feel super bad about it though so its fine.) Some people also don't enjoy his wonderful personality and think he's a mean piece of shit, which he is, but it's fine. They're just sensitive." - "I know people don't like him because he's like. a shittier version of Komaeda. But that's what's so GOOD about him. He's a shitty asshole of a person, playing pretend at being a villain because he's desperate!!! I think that's really fun. He's dooming himself and I want him to be okay after everything ends, but he dies so he can't even have that much :(" - "so i saw you got submissions for him. but not enough i need to submit him myself he is my favorite character from anything ever. he is the silly man he is so funny one time (actually, two times if you count one optional interaction) he asked a robot if he had a dick and it's absolutely iconic i love him"

HATE: - "(dangan spoilers ahead if that matters) look ok i didn’t originally feel too strongly about kokichi. i think his character is interestingly written (can’t say well-written bc danganronpa but yaknow) and he adds a lot of charm to v3. i understand why he’s popular- he’s one of the few characters in v3 to have both a personality and plot relevance. but oh my GODDDDD he is not a good person!!!! and i am so SICK of seeing him woobified into ‘ooh little baby he did his best he wasn’t doing anything wrong’ JUST BECAUSE you find out he was trying to end the killing game after he dies doesn’t mean he wasn’t incredibly fucked up throughout the game!!! like he was incredibly manipulative, a bully, encouraged infighting, Literally Orchestrated A Murder And Protected Himself From Danger By Getting The Big Stupid Sweetheart To Do It which caused TWO unnecessary deaths and- oh yeah- tricked everyone into believing he was the mastermind and the world had ended to make them so depressed that they just wouldn’t do anything anymore bc can’t kill someone if you’re rotting away in your room!!! AUGH like he’s a good character but it’s BECAUSE he sucks that he’s interesting. maybe this is just the komaeda fan in me but sometimes!!! the character is cooler when you understand that they’re a bad person. at least komaeda gets an actual redemption arc. kokichi’s just an asshole that the game tries to make you sympathetic for at the very end but he spends the entire game being an asshole so why the hell would i like him??? and then i go in a fandom tag and it’s constant unending ‘kokichi did nothing wrong’ the whole point of his character is that he does EVERYTHING wrong. i truly feel like the dr team was trying to replicate komaeda’s popularity but it was messy and poorly handled bc he’s not even a bad person in an interesting way like komaeda he’s just got trust issues that lead him to be stupid and An Asshole. then again people eat it up so what do i know lmao. i love to hate that little shit i wanna punt him into the goddamn stratosphere. score a field goal with that asshat. this is all lighthearted btw i love to die on small hills" - "WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE HIM OH MY GOOOOOOD HES SUCH A FLAT CHARACTER HES A SODA I LEFT OUT FOR 3 DAYS kokichi oma is easily the WORST written danganronpa character. it has been a while since i was into danganronpa so the details are a bit fuzzy but my rage has NOT subsided. following the success of Easily One Of The At Least Top Three Best Written Danganronpa Characters known as nagito komaeda, kokichi had some shoes to fill. he instead showed up in clown shoes. kokichis whole premise is that you dont know if hes lying or not, him being a huge clown and causing shit for like a good third of the cast. kokichi was a simple character. hes a bitch, he sturs shit up, he eat hot chip and lie, it was FINE. not GREAT, but FINE. and then he died. suddenly— kokichi was from modest beginnings. he was actually a genius who was actually doing all of this to save everyone. he was a martyr. they TRIED to follow up on the success of nagito komaeda, and failed miserably. the guy literally has nazi imagery he didnt need to be complex he just needed to be an asshole and force the plot. for assholes that force the plot with actual good depth, may i interest you in byakuya togami? for guys who lie all the time with actual good depth, may i interest you in sou hiyori the beanie man himself from your turn to die [similar genre]? seriously. you guys could do SO much better. just... get better taste oh my GOD JUST BECAUSE HES A TWINK DOESNT MEAN HES WELL WRITTEN" - "Omg I hate this guy,,, people either baby him & make him a uwu soft boy or a funky clown dude, & both those types of people forget all the things he has done??? even if he "redeemed" himself in the end (which i don't think he did--) that still doesn't negate all of the things he did before??? actions speak louder than words but he could never rely on that bc all the does is lie anyway-- i have some strong opinions about him."

Peter Pan:

LOVE: - "My propaganda is that like. Half of the OUaT fandom is OBSESSED with this guy and the other half write fanfiction about their self-inserts beating the shit out of him. The tumblr sphere might be a bit too biased in favor of love and I doubt he'll make it far but from what I've seen people either adore this guy or want him dead in the streets"

[fictional-orphan-smackdown]

BABY ORPHAN SLAP FIGHT, GO!

All propaganda and what each competitor is from under the cut (Spoilers for Black Butler in Phantomhive's propaganda. Also tw for human sacrifice and child murder in there)

Cubone (Pokemon franchise)

Every single Cubone that exists has a dead mom and I think that's why they're more orphan than anyone else who could possibly be submitted

Cubone is iconic across the Pokémon franchise as being an orphan. It's mentioned that it wears the skull of its dead mother in almost every single one of its Pokédex entries. In Gen 1 games there is even a main plot point about going to Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower, where the ghost of a Cubone's mother haunts the top of the tower, and the player has to calm the ghost so she can move on. There's also an inherent tragedy in the fact that somehow, every single Cubone must lose its mother in order to be a Cubone. So many orphan Pokémon as a result…

Well, it wears the skull of its dead mom

Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)

ciel is a pathetic victorian child with a demon (that looks strangely like his dad btw) who sees him as nothing more than a big mac as well as losing his only motherly figure because of her toxic yuri relationship. he is the saddest little victorian orphan and i think that amount of bullshit that's happened in his life is what makes him viable to win this smackdown. he also has a gun! he would win if this was like a physical smackdown. not just because of his gun but because he is just a violent little shit. he also has his own toy company and the little funtom rabbits are so adorable. we love a tiny entrepreneur! literally the only thing that sucks is that he's british. he could change that.

The interesting thing about Ciel's being an orphan is that he is an orphan but he isn't Ciel. "Ciel" was his twin brother whose name the protagonist stole after he was brutally murdered by cultists and used as a sacrifice to summon the demon that would eventually become Ciel's butler, Sebastian Michaelis. "Ciel" was the older twin, making Ciel, the protagonist, the second born son of the noble family in Victorian England. Ciel was not heir to the Phantomhive Estate for this reason. His biggest childhood dream was to open a toy store in London. But, once the Phantomhive Estate was burned to the ground with the twins' parents inside, the two boys were kidnapped by a group of cultists who planned to defile their souls to sell them to the devil they were trying to summon. In the end, as stated above, "Ciel" was sacrified and it was Ciel who ended up making the demon deal, not the cultists, and with Sebastian's help, Ciel was able to become one of the most powerful nobles in England and take revenge on all those who wronged the Phantomhive name. Without Ciel's parents and twin brother dying and him effectively becoming an orphan (even under the care of his demon butler Sebastian and his regular butler Tanaka), he never might have accomplished the things he did throughout the series nor would he have the powers he comes to wield with Sebastian at his side. I mean, of course, not making a demon deal and having your soul eaten and living a dull life because of that is not a bad thing, but I think Ciel's claim to power is interesting.

Not only are his parents killed in a plot against his noble house, but Ciel himself is captured, enslaved and abused. He only manages to save himself by making a deal with a demon: complete power and servitude in exchange for his soul. So now he's on a revenge quest; fights crime at the behest of the monarchy; takes on aristocracy and grim reapers; joins the circus; all while having a will they/won't they power-play-flirt-fest with his hot demon butler that both loves him and wants to devour him.

[noitkot1]

s4!Scar's base is so cool and shelters all the dead Scars

Or all Life Series Scar's respawn in Scar's Frontier Outpost- or or, oh god all 5 Scar's are stuck together.

All throughout s4 Scar mentions something-something that Scar's Frontier Outpost is "a place for all Scar's to go!" This au is that, but Scar's Frontier Outpost is quite literal in its description. All Scar's that have died go there to rest. And happen to meet some of the other universe's version of themselves in death.

3rd!Scar waking up completely alone as the first, only with the cats to accompany him as he slowly wanders through this very not well lit up town. Only gaping at the TERRIBLE train track construction. Even if he is no expert a train track should not have a 90 degree turn! Of course half shirtless with a cat on his shoulder, or well guiding him. The place is abandoned to his eyes and- well. He's dead isn't he? Passed when Grian murdered him in the cactus ring, so this is his afterlife...

Its nicer than he had imagined it to be.

Then one day months and months later, there's a silly wizard in his bed with green, depressed eyes. And as he stares into a mirror, this replica-Scar sits up slowly, hands shaking with winces and the biggest frown ever. Looking towards the other Scar, his voice cracks during the sentence, "am I dead?" 3rd!Scar only does a quick nod, because while he assumed this is the afterlife, why would the afterlife have multiple versions of himself? He shrugs it off, probably better not to question it. It'll be nice to have some company.

Meanwhile LL!Scar is pulling his hoodie over his head and trying his best to be small and hide away. Because he was unrightfully- totally rightfully, it was a death game. A death game he did not sign up for- murdered. And now he's dead and seeing other versions of himself. It'd be a shock to anyone's system truly, and LL!Scar stares blindly as 3rd!Scar goes on a long babble, sitting down and petting one of the cats with a smile as he talks all about the local train in the area. A week later, the two have settled in and just exist. Because they're dead now and all they can really do is make the world more pretty.

This repeats for each one. After DL 3rd!Scar stops sleeping in the bed they keep spawning in, changing that room out to be more welcoming in a sense. After the mess that is DL, the one who somehow stays farther away from the "group" than LL did, the two give little concerned glances and raises of the eyebrow. That room has a big banner over the door reading "WELCOME TO SCARS FRONTEIR OUTPOST(AKA YOUR DEAD)", streamers hanging from the ceiling, and a red carpet added to the bottom. The entire room is restructured, and they add a chest full of essential items and a little note reading, "DISCONT FOR ONE SANDWICH!" and on the back it read all horribly scribbled out, "if youd like one more glorius sandwich, that will cost you one shoe!" DL got scammed through this, the two longer dead Scar's putting on smiles and demanding two diamonds for the amazing tour they gave the other. And somehow DL couldn't help the laugh that crackled from his chest, the others couldn't stop their snickers either.

SL and LL get along well, but either refuse to acknowledge why or talk about their past. Just when the other appears they connect.

LiL!Scar being like the youngest child. Definitely does the most pranks and gets along like a fire with everyone, but 3rd!Scar encourages his chaos. These two have definitely set off fireworks for fun on the anniversaries of their own deaths(LiL starting this tradition because he simply can. Bdubs and Cleo would've loved to see the pretty lights).

DL being the dramatic middle child... somewhere in there. He ends up being the most reserved even when LiL arrives. He's scared of making many connections and accepts his cats as his soulmates and his only friends. Said cats are also how the other two bring DL out of his shell. Making tons of the toys for the kitters and bonding over their equal love of the little guys.

They all deserve a little happiness in their endings somehow! A nice afterlife where they can thrive together and enjoy some bits of it after realizing they all aren't out to get each other, they're simply just... dead. Now all they have are the alternate universe also dead versions of themselves(this being pointed out over a campfire would make them snort).

[supersoakerfullofblood]

Plot Twists Aren't Real: Defining "Agency"

People get into writing because they want to write cool things, and one of the coolest things in the eyes of the early writer is the "twist": twist ending, twist villain, etc. But twists only appear to exist; in strong writing, there are no twists. Let me explain.

If you've read some posts on my blog (which, thank you for the reception :)), you'll know I preach above all that character makes story, specifically character change. If Edmund wants something in the narrative, he will take an action towards that thing. That might lead to consequences or blessings that will cause him to make another action. More consequences or blessings, action, etc., until your story is done! All narratives are, at their core, cause and effect.

But obviously some stories are stronger than others (not in the sense of quality, since that word is subjective and nebulous, but in the sense of structure, how it holds up, its reliability), but how? It's about information. Think about the decisions you make in real life from a game theory perspective. In any moment, you can only make choices with the information you're given. If you want to get a pizza from the local pizzeria, and you're hungry, you will do that, and that will be a good choice. Similarly, if you want to get a pizza but you didn't know the pizzeria was staffed by murderers, you will still get the pizza, and even if you die, it will still have been a good decision, because you were working with the information you had.

Your characters can also only act on their own information. If your character wants a pizza and gets it, that's solid writing (albeit too bland), because it's solid cause and effect. If your character is killed by the secret pizzeria mob, that's poor writing. (Obviously there are exceptions: if it was a throwaway character designed to show the reader the pizzeria mob exists, for example.)

This is what people mean when they talk about characters who are "agents" in the story. A strong central character, a character with agency, is a character who makes decisions based on what they know and have. This doesn't mean they always make the best decision--and most of the best literature is filled with characters who make bad or mentally/emotionally/ethically gray decisions--it just means they're doing what we do as humans. But if your character operates on the best information they have and are still punished for it (ie. the pizzeria mob), they aren't an agent in the narrative, they are the narrative's victim. People don't want to read about victims; they want to read about characters who, by their actions, become victims.

Take maybe literature's most famous "victim" Oedipus, who has sex with his mom on accident. The story of Oedipus isn't him waking up one day, finding a beautiful woman, having sex with her, and then realizing it's his mother. It's a story of Oedipus making horrible decisions--killing a man, refusing to listen to people wiser than him--in order to sleep with this beautiful woman who happens to be his mother. The mom part isn't an accident in the narrative but the narrative punishment for Oedipus's horrible choices.

This is my summary of the idea, but hear it also from John Gardner in his book On Becoming a Novelist, a must-read if you haven't yet:

"Only the writer who has come to understand how difficult it is to tell a first-rate story--with no cheap manipulations, no breaks in the dream, no preening or self-consciousness--is able to appreciate fully the concept of 'generosity' in fiction. In the best fiction, plot is not a series of surprises but an increasingly moving series of recognitions, or moments of understanding. One of the most common mistakes among young writers (those who understand that fiction is storytelling) is that the story gets its power from withheld information--that is, from the writer's setting up the reader and then bushwhacking him. Ungenerous fiction is foremost fiction in which the writer is unwilling to take the reader as an equal partner." (Gardner 47-48) "The wise writer counts on the characters and plot for the story's power, not on tricks of withheld information, including withheld information at the end... In other words, the writer lays himself wide open, dancing on a high wire without a net. The writer is generous, too, in that, for all his mastery of technique, he introduces only those techniques useful to the story: he is the story's servant, not a donzel for whom the story serves as an excuse to show off pyrotechnics. This is not to say that he's indifferent to the value of performance. Those techniques he uses because the story needs them he uses brilliantly. He works entirely in the in the service of the story, but he works will class." (Gardner 50)

What we perceive as a twist occurs when both the reader and character have the information they need to understand the story, but by the writer's ingenuity, have been shied away from the truth. The best murder mysteries don't have twists but subversions. You as the reader are given everything you need to solve the crime but have trouble doing so because of the author's many tricks (probably the most common of these being a viewpoint character who comes to the wrong conclusions about the mystery. This is why so few detective stories are told from the perspective of the detective. SPOILERS FOR KNIVES OUT: Imagine if Knives Out was told from Benoit Blanc's perspective, who by his own admission uncovered the mystery early in his stay at the house, and not from Marta's perspective, who has all the right information but comes to the wrong conclusion that she killed Harlan Thrombey.)

So, as is usually the case, all strong writing comes down to characters and their choices. And strong choices are choices characters make based on the information presented to them. Strong consequences can only come in relation to the quality of these choices. If your character wants a pizza, don't give them the pizzeria mob. If your character kills a guy and refuses wise counsel, then yes, give him the pizzeria mob.