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rowdyluv · 4 months ago

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summary: a requested prompt with trevor, trevor and y/n cuddling up sharing memories of their years together.

warnings: none, absolute pure tooth rooting sweetness, quite literally, “its so fluffy I’m going to die”

word count: 2.8+

notes: request made by @sweetestdesire - “Tell me again how you fell in love with me.” “I literally told you yesterday. “I don’t care, I wanna hear it again. Plus, I love hearing you speak.” - altered slightly but not much

The rare California rain gently fell against her bedroom window, carrying with it the faint echo of wind and the occasional honk of a vehicle. Trevor and Y/n lay snug in her bed, their limbs intertwined in a familiar sense of comfort. The soft rustle of their sheets joined the sounds of the weather that filled the room, a stark contrast to the joyous and thunderous cheers of Ducks fans they had just left behind at the Honda Center, a lingering memory of the game that had just concluded.

Hopefully gone were the ugly memories of watching Trevor’s team lose game after game, the Duck’s were on a hot streak currently winning the last five home games as shutouts.

Y/n's head rested on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart, a rapid strumming that was slowly beginning to flow back into normal rhythm.

“I’m sorry we had to spend our 4-year anniversary at my game.” Trevor mumbled, he had apologized already at least twenty times, feeling terrible for not being able to do something for Y/n that day.

“Trevor, truly baby stop, I love going to your games!” She looked up at him, her eyes gleaming with affection. “I got to see you play, and score the game winning goal! I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else in the whole world, plus I am taking any opportunity to show off that I’m the only female who is wearing your last name with meaning.” She grinned a cheeky smile and he just shook his head.

They had met at one of his games, she had been dragged by one of her friends who was a die-hard Ducks fan. At that point in time, Trevor had been playing the not-so best season of his career. He was constantly in the box for silly retaliation calls, starting and finishing fights, he wasn’t scoring like a previous first rounder top prospect should have been. He was trying to keep himself from being distracted by the fans in the stands, so he hadn’t noticed her right away. It was her friend’s enthusiasm that had stood out among the sea of fans drawing his teammates eyes over during warmups.

However, when Trevor cracked and his attention was finally drawn by the way her friend cheered and yelled for his attention, his eyes fell on Y/n instead. The instant connection he thought that they had made, made him feel invincible on the ice that night. Trevor ended up earning himself a hat trick accompanied by two assists for a 5-1 win over the Sharks.

Trevor was determined to find her, after the game. He didn’t spare a single second for the media, he didn’t shower either. He wasn’t risking her leaving. In record time, he slung his gear off and changed into shorts and a t-shirt to make a mad dash out in hopes to find her still sitting in the seats behind the goal.

Luckily for him, she was still there. They ended up talking for hours after that game.

“Do you remember the night we met?” He asked her after being lost in his own memories about it.

Y/n’s eyes lit up, she had told the story to her friends and family a hundred times but hearing it from his perspective was something she never tired of. She nodded eagerly, “I was so nervous, I didn’t know why. Maybe it was because your eyes had this intense look when you were on the ice that night, or maybe it was just because you were so damn hot in your gear, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you.”

Trevor pinched her waist playfully, a smirk playing on his lips. “I looked hot eh?” He teased, his thumb stroking the skin just above her hip bone. She giggled, swatting his hand away playfully.

“Stop it! You know you do.” Her giggle fit died down before she tried to speak again. “So, if we’re starting to share our memories together,” she smiled at him whole fully.

Y/n propped herself up on her elbow, sole purpose to be able to look at him better.

“Remember that night at the beach, when we had our first kiss?” Her voice was soft, a gentle whisper that danced in the air between them, stirring up the butterflies in Trevor’s stomach like it had that very evening as if he was a schoolboy again.

Trevor’s eyes searched hers, the question in her gaze so earnest, so hopeful. He couldn’t help but smile at the memory of the cool sand beneath his feet, the sound of the waves crashing in the background, and the way the moon had painted the horizon in a soft silver light. The night before she made a surprise trip to the Sharks arena to watch him play, unfortunately this game didn’t work out in the Ducks favor. When Trevor received her message post game about being there he turned towards one of Ducks equipment managers giving them directions to go get her.

“The night at the beach, the day after you surprised me by showing up at the game in San Jose?” He said, his voice carrying a hint of surprise. As if he would forget about it.

“Yes, the very one. Where I just showed up and you guys had just lost….but you still took the time to see me or I guess wanted to see me, so you sent someone out to get me.”

“It wasn’t a want after I knew you were there babygirl, I needed to see you. I knew you were going to be my girl after you bought your own $100 plus ticket to come watch me play and you went by yourself. You paid, knowing I could have got you free tickets all so you could surprise me.” Trevor's voice grew softer, the memory bringing a gentle warmth to his words.

He paused for a moment, his gaze drifting to the ceiling as he relived the night.

He had felt a fierce protectiveness over her as she approached the locker room full of raging hormonal men. He had almost immediately wrapped his arms around her, the smell of the generic body wash in the guest showers mingling with her perfume, something sweet and floral. The moment between the two shared in front of the locker rooms was when he had hastily asked her out to the beach later the next day.

Y/n layed back down on her stomach, her chin propped up on his chest, her eyes searching his as she spoke. "The night on the beach when you stopped suddenly when we were walking, I was scared you were bored or something," she confessed, a hint of vulnerability in her tone. She had never admitted it to him before, the small doubt that had lurked in the back of her mind that night.

Trevor stilled his motions before speaking, his eyes focused on hers, "Bored? With you? Not a chance." His voice was gentle, a warm caress that seemed to dispel any lingering shadows of doubt. "I knew right then I wanted to kiss you. I just had a moment of second guessing in case you smacked me or ran away." He laughed slightly as he smiled. “Then you turned back around and the way you looked, looked at me, I didn’t care if you smacked me. It wouldn’t hurt long. And hell, I’m a professional athlete. I'd catch up if you ran.”

Y/n felt her heart swell with affection as she laughed. "You're so dramatic," she said, her voice filled with love and amusement. She reached up and brushed a lock of hair from his forehead, her fingertips tracing the line of his cheekbone.

Trevor's smile grew with the soft touch of affection. "Maybe, but it's all true." His voice grew husky, the emotion of the memory thick in the air.

“Hey, Y/n?” He whispered, grabbing her by the waist with both hands lifting her to lay on top of him.

Her eyes searched for him, questioning and curious of the sudden change in position. He didn’t say a word, instead he leaned in and kissed her with a tenderness that could melt an entire ice rink three times over. It was the kind of kiss that made time stand still, where every beat of his heart resonated against her own. A kiss that was sweet and gentle, like a whispered promise of forever. It was a nice and welcomed difference to the passionate, urgent kisses they often shared in the bed they were occupying, but no less powerful in its own right.

When he pulled away, she found herself breathless, a soft blush painting her cheeks. “Trev, what was that for?”

He looked into her eyes, the warmth in his gaze making her feel like she was the only person in the universe. “I just wanted to remind you how much I love you, and that every day, every moment with you, makes me love you even more than I did the last time I said it.” He spoke with such conviction, his words a sweet melody that filled her soul. “I love you more now, than I did when we got home, and I’m sure you’ll give me a reason before tomorrow to love you more than I do right now.”

Y/n’s heart skipped a beat at his declaration, a feeling that was becoming as familiar as the sound of their breath mingling together. She knew she didn’t need the reassurance, but she craved it. She craved to hear his voice tell her that he felt the same way she did. That she wasn’t just some girl he had picked out in the crowd one night who had gotten lucky to get to know him, but the love of his life.

“Trevor.” Y/n whispered, laying her head against his shoulder, still lying on top of him, Trevor’s arms wrapped securely around her waist. “Will you tell me again how you fell in love with me?”

Trevor’s chuckle was a warm rumble under her cheek, a gentle reminder of his presence, and of his affection. “You’re like your little nephew asking for a bedtime story when he stays, you know that?” He said playfully, his eyes crinkling at the corners. But the request from her, nor the little guy, didn’t annoy him.

It was quite the opposite, it reminded him of their earlier days together. Back to when he first told her he loved her, back when she would ask him almost every day just to hear him say it.

He sighs and kisses her forehead before starting his story, his eyes closed as he recounts the moments that had led up to him falling for her. "I was in love with you far before I told you I was," he starts, his voice low and earnest. "Remember that summer when we got lost on our way to the Hughes’ lake house?"

Y/n nods, a smile playing on her lips, "You were so mad at the GPS," she murmurs, the memory bringing a hint of embarrassment to her voice, “thinking that it was wrong, but I had accidentally put the address in wrong. You never showed anger to me once we realized and wouldn’t let me apologize either. You laughed with me, not at me.”

Trevor’s arms tighten around her slightly. That summer had been one of the best of his life. It was the summer he had realized she was more than just the girl who had stolen his attention at the game. She was the girl who was breaking down every wall. Walls that he had no idea existed until she was in his life, because no other girl had ever managed to reach them.

"I was in love with you before I knew I was," he repeats in a caressing whisper. "It was the way you'd laugh at my terrible jokes, the way you not only cheer me on, but the entire team. It’s how even when I was playing like shit, you were still right there by my side. You see me for me I know that if I don’t or can’t play, you’ll still be here. You’re not here for the hockey side of me. It was the way you looked at me in a room full of people, like I was the only person in the room that mattered." His voice grew softer with each word, each memory weaving a tapestry of emotion in the air.

She’s heard the explanation a few hundred times over the four years, each time it fills her with so many emotions that she can’t help but tear up a little. She had never experienced such a love before Trevor, she never wants to experience anyone else’s but his.

“I knew it, when I had to pull over and ask that old man with his pet llama if you could pet it. You were so embarrassed I actually did it but you talked about petting the llama all day.” Trevor laughed remembering that specifically odd encounter.

“I still can’t believe I got to pet a llama because of you, that was pretty amazing.”

The warmth in her voice brought a grin to his face as he leaned further back into the pillows. She was so much more than he had ever hoped for in a partner.

"Every time I saw you, every moment we spent together, it was like you were throwing little glances of light into the darkest parts of me." Trevor's voice grew softer, his eyes still closed as if he could feel the moments more deeply that way. "You had this way of making everything feel right, even when everything was so wrong." He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, his grip on her waist tightening slightly as the weight of his feelings pressed against his chest.

“The first time I told you that I love you that New Year’s Eve, when I flew back early to surprise you, during our first year together. I was so anxious. I had never felt this way about anyone before. And when I saw your face light up like the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center when you opened the door to your apartment when I knocked, I had to tell you, right then and there. I blurted it out right in your face like the idiot goofball that I am. But whenever you feel so in love with someone the way I do, the kind that makes you want to jump out of airplanes to see if it matches the way they make your heart race or fight your way through the crazy mob of media instead of taking the interviews just to take a chance at meeting them.”

Trevor unwrapped his arms from her waist, only to move his hand to tilt her head to look up at him.

“Y/n, every day since then, that love has only grown and grown until it’s all I can think about, no you’re all I can think about. To the point I know that I want to marry you one day." His voice was steady, filled with certainty that had been growing in his heart for months, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her.

Y/n popped up with renewed energy, elated with the words that fell from his lips. “One day? Why not elope tomorrow? I have been waiting for you to say that for, forever. I don’t need big and fancy, I just need you.” She was beaming at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Trevor shook his head in amazement, his eyes filled with love and amusement. "You're something else, you know that?" He replied, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb. "But no, not tomorrow, I want to do it right. Meaning I am going to ask you, not you ask me. I also know that you do want some type of ceremony, I’ve seen you scroll through Pinterest.” He stroked the side of her cheek with his thumb, wiping away the small tear that had fallen. The smile she wore let him know she wasn’t crying from him saying no. “I have always been one to rush into everything. I want us to take our time and make sure that when we do get married, it's a day neither of us will ever forget."

Her heart fluttered at his words, feeling the love between them grow stronger with each shared memory, and his confession. The room grew quiet once again, their breaths mingling together in a soft dance of contentment.

"I can't wait for that day," she whispered with a yawn taking over her words, her second wind of energy vanishing as quickly as it appeared. "But until then, I'm happy being with you just like this." Her eyes fluttered shut and reopened slowly.

“It’s okay to go to sleep, I will be here tomorrow. I can always talk about whatever it is you have ready to ask me then.” Trevor assured here pressing a kiss to her head from an awkward position. “Close your eyes and go to sleep, babygirl.”

tag list: @thedevilrisen @luke-hughes43

if you would like to be added to the tag list follow the link in the pinned post ♡

#cay writes #tz11 #trevor zegras fic #trevor zegras fluff #trevor zegras imagine #trevor zegras x reader #trevor zegras x y/n #trevor zegras #anaheim ducks #Anaheim Ducks fic #Anaheim Ducks fluff #hockey fics #ducks hockey #soft!trevor zegras

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pianostarinwonderland · 4 months ago

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Thoughts on the Lost in the Book Halloween Event [Ep 1-3]

hello 🤠🤠 guess which bitch decided to kick this blog alive after checks calendar 6+ months of inactivity.......

unfortunately, twistie wonderworld has created a not-azul character that appeals HEAVILY to my tastes 🧍‍♀️ and you may as well call me dead with how much i've thrown myself off a cliff over mr skully j graves

this is also not counting that AZUL MOTHERFUCKING ASHENGROTTO IS IN THE EVENT AND THEREFORE I GET DOUBLE WHAMMIED

SO ANYWAY. I WOULD HAVE DONE EPISODE BY EPISODE SCREAMING AND CRYING BUT MY ASS HAS BEEN TIRED AND BUSY THE PAST TWO WEEKS. BUT THIS RECENT UPDATE HAS GOTTEN ME BY THE T H R O A T SO IM UP. REVIVED. AND ABOUT TO BLOW PPL'S EARS OFF WITH MY THOUGHTS ON THE LORE, AZUL, AND SKULLY

since all 3 episodes have been long out, i'll just give my thoughts on the theories that sprung, thoughts on moments that struck me, and thoughts on the most interesting lore we get

Episode 1

it is embarrassing to admit how many times i've entered 1-4.

when i heard the voiced line, i was like ?!??!1/1!?!1 because not even rollo and fellow got that much voiced lines

and then when i saw the translation, it was joever for me

YOU CANT JUST GO "hello, hey, you who slumbers in my arms, can you hear my voice? please wake up for my sake" AND EXPECT ME TO BE NONCHALANT ABOUT IT................ IM JUST A GIRL

anyway when he said moshi and wagahai, that was when people started going oh fuck is he even from the present?? IS HE EVEN HUMAN???? and his asking what magical pens are does Not Help

all i can add further to this discussion is that i have not seen enough discussion about the fact that we don't really see his ears in the live2D............

his school lore is rly interesting too because he implies that magical stone distribution isn't equal unlike what the nrc cast have now (which is that they each have 1 stone of the same quality). so if the theories about him being a past nrc student are true, then it opens up a lot more lore about nrc's history

speaking of "skully being a past nrc student" theories, i do actually support them! for one, epel was silenced by jamil when he was about to say that they're students of night raven college. writing direction wise, i find it a very suspicious move to cut epel off just before he mentions where they go to school. but i think the strongest evidence right now is the detail that a jp tweet pointed out, in which skully also called the town in sage island the foothill town. said tweet said that night raven college students would call it the foothill town because it's how they see it from their point of view of being on a cliff. to them it's the town on the bottom of the cliff, or the foot of the hill. but for royal sword academy students let's say, since the town is just right next to them, they wouldn't call it the foothill town because it doesn't make sense in the perspective of where they're located. tho ill say, im not really sure if it Is officially called the foothill town in the twisted universe (it is called the foothill town officially in location names though). if it is officially called the foothill town in-universe, then consider this evidence null

its pretty crazy to me how deliberate the cast choice in this halloween feels because u really feel it when riddle called for a leader's meeting and it was just first years left alone. overblottees altogether is already an INSANE choice that i'll get back to later in this post, but for majority of them to be dorm and vice dorm leaders, it's p interesting. but it ends up making sense tho later on when they start doing halloween prep (and let's be real, if it was the others, barely anything would be ready)

it. left me insane. how skully gave everyone a kiss. like sure, it probably wasnt the best feeling to have your hand kissed without consent. BUT. I REALLY LIKE THAT HE DOES IT TO EVERYONE. INCLUDING US. im pretty weak to being included in general, so skully rly stole my heart here, like the kiss on the hand (WHICH IM ALREADY WEAK TO) isnt already stealing my heart. it adds sm to his character too 😭 when u account for how he's been made fun of, him talking to everyone and including even yuu is a way of him coping with the loneliness he's experienced 😭😭 he tries to be gentlemanly to everyone he meets

hinterlands!! just a side note, but when i was watching nightmare before christmas earlier, i realized how similar the hinterlands doors are to the mirrors in twst. cause u can still arrive at the hinterlands from the different towns, the doors just let u travel faster to them. the beginning of the movie also specified that nightmare before christmas was set in a time long long ago, when it was the age of the holidays. though the halloween townsfolk aren't familiar about twisted wonderland, it's a really cool thought to consider that maybe they were in the same world, it's just that they wouldnt have called the entire world as twisted wonderland, they just know of their own towns. or at the very least, in-universe, the writing of hinterlands' doors was inspired by OR PROBABLY inspired mirror travel

SKULLY LOSING A BIT OF HIS POLITE SPEECH WHEN HE MET JACK SKELLINGTON, IT'S SO CUTE 😭😭😭 but i also wanna bring it up now that having this event feature both the og character and the character twisted from them is BIG. the moment jack skellington was teased in the trailers, i knew twst was starting to bring out the big guns. i always figured ever since way back then that twst was going to let us meet the great seven, but we just don't know How. but it's Big that we even get to see the interaction between the movie character and the twisted character because it may be a possible foreshadow to what may happen once we start to tackle the historical revisionism of the great seven's' stories and how our characters will react to it. halloween 2 and glorious masquerade were also used to foreshadow book 7, so lost in the book nbc event foreshadowing something like book 8 or hell even book 9 would make sense.

HAHAHA AZUL BEING ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED WHEN JACK SKELLINGTON SCARED HIM AND EPEL EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT YEAH GET REKT ASHENGROTTO HAHAHAHAHA KEEP DOING WHAT UR DOING PUMPKIN KING 🥰🥰🥰 SEEING AZUL SCARED SHITLESS IS SO FUNNY

Episode 2

ok episode 2. god fucking damn it this episode RUINED ME PERSONALLY

but before we get to that, i wanna talk about skully's vision of halloween because i found it very interesting

when he was talking about how halloween should be silent, dark, and a time of reflecting on repentance and atonement where you can have an aid for it (like a pumpkin or a candle), i genuinely felt my catholic upbringing hit me way harder than with rollo. i SWEAR i've had my mom tell me once or twice while i was a kid that halloween is supposed to be a holy day because of the word hallow, and how it was called hallows eve😭😭 and how it's not good to dress up in costumes of witches, monsters, and devils because it's devil worship or smth. and it's also why we never had halloween decor growing up. im pretty sure she no longer remembers that cause we're now way more lax about those things, it's just that damn, i'm just saying y'all, i would 100% believe a person in 2024 celebrates halloween similar to skully's version

maybe it's just me being stupid pilled, but i really find the situation very ironic. i know that the interjection of the night raven college boys to voice out their disagreements about skully's way of celebrating halloween is to mirror the interjections of the townspeople when they were trying to understand and even voicing out disappointments about jack's presentation of christmas. but i find the scenario very very interesting because irl, christian puritans and conservatives would scoff at the pagan traditions, call them barbaric while we're at it, and do the whole thing of inserting christianity into it. it doesn't help that pope gregory III called november 1 as a day to honor all saints and then oct 31 was called all hallows eve, and then the christians celebrated some of the samhain traditions as well. but you see here in the story how it's the night raven college students, who promote a festive and more modern halloween, calling skully barbaric for his ideas of halloween, especially for the elimination of ghosts.

some ppl might find skully's ideas boring or too traditional. for me, it's kinda just a matter of differing cultures. like, i've grown up having a mix of trick-or-treating halloweens and halloweens where i just stay indoors. and i grew up in a catholic sphere where halloween in skully's vision is much preferred. so maybe it's just me but i can't really hate his vision. at the same time, i've also been on the side of completely shutting down people who bring up arguments rooted in strict catholic tradition, simply because i looked down on them. but i got lectured (not directly) that we shouldn't immediately shut down those arguments because hey, there are points that are made, esp if worded right. so reading this conflict in episode 2 tickled my brain. in the end, though, my overall thoughts are: i think that while skully looking down on people for disagreeing with him is something for him to improve, nrc students aren't totally in the clear either. they're all fair for having their disagreements, but in twisted fashion, they're all stubborn as hell

this also made me think about the ghosts and how the vast majority of twst might perceive them. the population of twst is still vastly non-magical, and while the dead are generally celebrated, i can't help but wonder if nrc's harsh reactions to skully's bias against ghosts is due to the fact they are in a campus where ghosts are able to manifest all year round and therefore they get to interact with them. but for a good majority of the population that cannot see ghosts nor are they mages, how do they really feel about the ghosts? i find it to be food for thought. and on that topic, people also avoid ramshackle because it's haunted. though,,, from the way halloween is characterized in twst, it sounds like everyone really celebrates the ghosts coming to the living, esp because the magic is stronger everywhere. but are all cultures receptive to that..?

anyway, poor skully had to meet the jack who's been seeking out something different for halloween (esp bc movie jack was dissatisfied initially with his pumpkin king schtick) so he's had to have his ideas rejected

jamil's so kind as to comfort skully. very interesting part though from azul 👁👄👁 he's like "well if his ideas get rejected then he should just make a new proposal, don't give up" and it's just a nice lil look into his projection. like dang azul :') it's obvious that he gets up very quickly after every setback, but knowing that in his mind, he Has to get up quickly, and thus expects everyone to do the same,,, ,he never gives himself time to breathe and process, i kinda cry for him. jamil thankfully being like "yea he can do that but still, it sucks to be rejected" like yes jamilllll say it!!! on another note, this feels like a really good idea to write for an azujami fanfic :)

THE MUSIC GROUP SEGMENTS. WHY ARE AZUL AND SKULLY INTERACTING REGARDING MUSIC. TWICE.

like the first one, we get to know the music tastes of azul, jamil, riddle, and skully. azul, being the gay ass bitch he is, exposes jamil's music taste, being fast tempo music one can dance to

as a classical music girlie, i personally lost my mind when skully asked if it was waltz or tango music 🤡🤡🤡 LIKE. WAAAAHHHHH WALTZ AND TANGO MUSIC ARE ABSOLUTE BANGERS PLS I NEED PPL TO BE FAMILIAR WITH THEM AND OUGH OUGH THE THOUGHT OF DANCING A WALTZ WITH SKULLY AND—

azul u bitch telling us that u listen to a lot of genres and play jazz music for mostro lounge fucfkfufkcff LIKE THE JAZZ IS A GIVEN. BUT AZUL WDYM BY A LOT OF GENRES. DO U STILL LISTEN TO JAZZ AZUL? OR HAVE U DABBLED INTO TAYLOR SWIFT AND OLIVIA RODRIGO? ARE U SECRETLY A CHAPPELL ROAN AND CHARLI XCX GIRLIE? HAVE U LOOKED INTO INDIE ROCK BANDS? DO U ALSO LIKE CLASSICAL TOO PLEASE SAY YES

riddle, in typical fashion likes classical music!! AND SKULLY ALSO LIKES CLASSICAL MUSIC YYYYYYYYYYESSSSS FUCKKINIGFIGNFDNKGNKFD WINNINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

AND JACK ASKED HIM WHAT SKULLY LIKES AND SKULLY SAID HE LIKES OPERA AND IM SO HAPPY THAT SKULLY GOT TO FANGIRL ABT JACK ALSO LIKING OPERA AND EVEN SINGING FOR THEM (and jack's singing is amazing like no cap)

but also suddenly i regret not listening to more opera in my life. im sorry puccini for ignoring u all this time. i may or may not have binged some opera music the night of the update.

BUT THE SECOND MUSIC DISCUSSION. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

WHAT DO U WANT FROM ME TWST ISTG. WHAT ARE U DOING MAKING SKULLY GO "ooh ive been thinking of learning how to play the piano" AND AZUL GOING "i know a bit of the piano!" U CANT JUST TEASE US ONCE AGAIN ABOUT AZUL'S PIANO EXPERIENCE WHILE ALSO MAKING SKULLY WANT TO PLAY PIANO.. .. ..... ...

that aside, idia also mentions doing programming music, so like MIDI and shit. wooo sound prod idia lezgooooooo

i do love also that skully asks us if we play music!! AND AZUL BEING EXCITED IF WE DO SAY THAT YES WE CAN DO MUSIC, OUGH AZUL U PREDICTABLE MF BUT ALSO THE WAY U MOTIVATE ME

anyway, just before the second music group segment, we get a really nice conversation between skully and sebek, in which skully shares that he's afraid if everything he's known is so far from reality. and sebek's like ok u respect tradition but u also have ur ideals, u should be more firm in ur ideals. and skully's poetically thanking sebek for showing him the light, and ty sebek for contributing to the future shitshow that skully will start in episode 4

Episode 3

ah yes. the episode where i lost all my marbles

first part, we get lock, shock, and barrel popping in. jack said that they were going to help out, but they ended up causing a lot of chaos

absolutely LOVE how they rattled almost all of the students, like i wheezes at lock calling epel a shortie and epel losing it. then vil's like, epel that is a CHILD insulting u, dont stoop to their level. and then lock was like ewwwww ur eyelashes look like centipedes, and vil was like SAY WHAT BITCH and jamil's reminding him of what vil just said.

AND THEN THE FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE EVENT: LOCK GIVING JAMIL A BUG ON HIS HAND, AND JAMIL PROCEEDING TO FAINT

in true gay fashion, azul tells epel and the audience about jamil's fear of bugs

SECOND FUNNIEST MOMENT: LOCK OFFERING THE BUG TO JADE BUT JADE'S LIKE nah give it to vil and epel BUT THEN HE'S CALLED BORING AND THAT FUCKING TRIGGERS HIM???? JADE LEECH, THE MAN THAT DOESN'T USUALLY GET FAZED BY PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS OF HIM, GETTING PISSED OFF THAT HE'S CALLED BORING TO THE POINT THAT HE GOES "give me the bug. i will even make exciting reactions. just give me the bug." LIKE HOLY SHIT FKDHFAKJBFSKANFKNSAF THIS MAN HAS A COMPLEX ISTG

barrel sticking candy onto riddle's clothes and then eating it, u see riddle and trey being hella weirded out by that

idia's like, i wanna go away from this i do Not like parties, but malleus completely mishears idia and is like omg party? you want an invitation to a party too? omg me too bestie and idia's like oh my god nO

then u see shock staring at malleus and sebek's yelling at her but she's quiet.... until she hops on top of malleus

sebek's like WAKASAMA ILL TAKE THEM OUT FOR U but malleus is like don't sebek.......... I WILL TAKE THEM OUT MYSELF lightning strikes

congrats to azul, trey, leona, and idia for having the privilege to just stand there and panic at the chaos going on

jack is hella sad about the state of things

and SKULLY. SKULLY IS PISSED AT HOW MUCH OF A MESS THINGS HAVE GOTTEN. AND THEN HE'S LIKE IM GONNA TAKE CARE OF THIS

ANDDDDDDD THE MOMENT THAT MADE ME DIE IN CHAT: "Light the lanterns. Scary Night (Oct. 31)!"

guys i think skully likes halloween, im not sure tho

anyway, skully's unique magic can change people into pumpkins, and lock, shock, and barrel turn into pumpkins. once skully transforms them back, they're like do it again !! but skully's like no my UM is still developing so i cant use it more than once. but still, this impresses everyone.

SOME LORE ABOUT MAGIC: jamil says that skully's um is pretty advanced because it's appearance changing magic, which is already really hard with the aid of a transformation potion. and leona points out that while it might not work on those with high mana, it can at least catch someone off guard. i think it is also worth bringing up that transformation potions generally are banned, so this is a really interesting um that can still be perfected and developed !!

poor sebek, he gets jealous and tries to assert dominance but even malleus compliments sebek, and that pisses him off more SKDFJNSDKSDSKF

anyway sebek demands a third round of splitting into different teams so he can try to be with malleus, even when everyone was already happy enough with their teams

well sebek won finally BUT poor skully, he's now separated from jack AND HE'S CRYINGGGGG

leona is so funny, he's like oh thank GOD im not with the octavinelle bitches, and azul's like aw dont be lonely there :))) istg i love these two bitches and their bitchiness rubbing off each other, it's so yummy (and with the latest octa manga update it's made even YUMMIER)

can i just point out that for three consecutive rounds, azul's been in the music team. LIKE TWST CMON IF THIS ISN'T TEASING US ABOUT AZUL PLAYING MUSIC IN A LATER EVENT, IDK WHAT IS. PLS TWST. PLEASEEEEEEEE

too bad for leona, he reunites with his bitches later on 🥰 and by GOD the banter and the lore drops here are really yummy

well first off, we gotta get to the convo between leona and skully. skully compliments leona and stuff but leona's like ok bro u gotta focus on urself first. don't look away from ur dilemma rn that what u thought ur idol was is not how he actually is. basically, skully gotta acknowledge the disillusionment that he's experiencing

OH DEPENDING ON UR CHOICE, IF U AGREE WITH SKULLY THAT YES JACK'S PUTTING A LOT OF THOUGHT INTO THE HALLOWEEN PREP, HE'S GONNA BE LIKE "yes yes!! u see it too!!" AND THEN HE KISSES UR HAND like maaaaaaan THIRD KISS IN THE EVENT UWEEEHHHHHHHHH i feel so loved 😩😩😩

anyway you, skully, leona, jack, jade, and azul meet. we get more details about skully's way of celebrating halloween, he shares that he spends halloween alone, but jack's like nono! halloween is something we should spend with everyone! and this is probably skully's last straw because he ends up shocked and asks to leave, saying he'll help out lock, shock, and barrel

oh girl bye it's about to start

now music group's gotta compose AND WELL. FINALLY I GET CONFIRMATION ON THE COMPOSITION SKILLS OF AZUL (and jade). BOTH OF THEM DONT KNOW HOW TO COMPOSE....

leona's like lmao dont merfolk love singing or some shit, aND THIS ACTUALLY GETS AZUL PRETTY UPSET. Azul's like, hey not all merfolk like music or have an inclination to it! How prejudiced of u leona, and meanwhile jade's like well he's Not wrong idk any mer who dislikes music. dang did azul actually have a thing about not being skilled at music before???? or does he actually care more about his people than he lets on? both maybe?? that's so sweet tho

anyway they manage to shift the conversation to making fun of leona for not being good at singing HFSKJDHFSDKFHS octavinelle bitches i love u to the ends of the earth

top moments from this event definitely includes jade going "aw azul he's probably tone deaf" and azul dramatically gasping and going "jade how can u be so blunt?!?!?!?"

leona ends up singing the coconut song from his homeland (the one zazu sings to scar when he's caged) to show that yea he Can sing. AND AZUL AND JADE FOLLOWNSKNGSDNFNLKSDNFADNFNLNFSDF FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK WHY IS THIS EVENT NOT VOICED,,,.,. AZUL, JADE, AND LEONA SINGING THE COCONUT SONG TOGETHERR.

LORE DROP: the song is also rly popular in the coral sea, as in they learn it when they're really young. and leona's like well it makes sense, the sunset savannah faces the sea, so trade between us and the coral sea is very likely to happen. WORLDBUILDING MY LOVE

HAHAHHAAHHA AZUL IS LIKE "wow leona ur so good at singing, u should sing for the mostro lounge" AND LEONA'S LIKE "yeah and my payment should be u guys fighting against us in magift" AND THE WAY AZUL AND JADE WENT OK NEVERMIND HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AND AZUL'S PANICKED FACE IS SO FUNNY GET REKT AZUL LMAOOOOOOO

anyway we go to the trey, jamil, riddle, and idia group AND THIS IS A FUNNY ASS GROUP TOO

POOR IDIA GETS SCOLDED BY TREY BC THEY ASKED IDIA WHAT HE EATS AND IDIA MENTIONS HE BASICALLY EATS JUNK FOOD AND TREY'S LIKE UR NOT TAKING CARE OF UR JAW!!! UR JAW'S GONNA BE WEAK!!!!! AND UR TEETH!!!! OH MY GODDDDD

riddle mentions he eats the daily special in the cafeteria bc he can calculate the amount of nutrients that he gets. dang that's some habit to get from his mom, i really hope he's getting his fill this time :')) at least get some more protein riddle

trey was so close to being screwed bc he says he rly loves the hamburger steaks in the cafeteria and they're so good he could eat them every day. but then riddle gets mad because there is a queen of hearts rule banning hamburger steaks on tuesdays AND TREY HAS TO CLARIFY NO I DIDNT ACTUALLY EAT IT

jamil meanwhile mentions he rarely eats at the cafeteria cause he makes food for kalim anyway so might as well make his meals. honestly real and good for him.

AWWW SALLY WANTS TO MAKE FOOD FOR JACK AND JAMIL GIVES HER ADVICE well that backfired on him cause now she wants him to taste test her soup BYEEEE

AND JAMIL DOES THE SAME THING MOVIE SALLY DID WITH FINKLESTEIN he uses the spoon with holes, pretends to like it (which shocked EVERYONE AT FIRST) and then he tells the others fuck no yall i didn't taste it, it looks rancid af (and honestly smart move jamil bc there is a nonzero chance that the soup contains deadly nightshade in case sally wanted to poison dr finklestein, and if not deadly nightshade, frog's breath would be terrible to deal with)

anyway moving on to the vil, malleus, sebek, and epel group!! ok this group is so cute cause the two first years are together, and their senpais are with them!!

WE GET A LOT OF LORE HERE OMG so they used to dye cloth with plants in lilia's house because they got,,, three colored sauce,,, on the curtains. malleus offered to buy new curtains but lilia said no. me too vil and epel, idk what three colored sauce is. ik it's a reference to the three fairies BUT HOW DO U GET THREE COLORED SAUCE LILIA PLS I HOPE IT'S THREE SAUCES IN DIFFERENT COLORS NOT ONE SAUCE IN THREE COLORS

finklestein mentions oh we have witches here too u know! and vil's like omg they must be beautiful like me

if u watched nightmare before christmas before this scene, you KNOW this is the start of the punchline. unfortunately, i did not have the pleasure of watching nbc before this so i did not get to enjoy the joke BUT I DO NOW

so the witches come in and OF COURSE VIL'S FUCKING HORRIFIED THAT THEY'RE UGLY AS SHIT. AND THE CHERRY ON TOP IS SEBEK BEING LIKE "ohhh this is a punchline" HAHAHHADKABSJDBJS

BLESS THIS UPDATE BECAUSE THE LORE DROP HAS BEEN SO GOOD THIS WEEK we get broom lore in which not every broom can be used for flight. the ones in school are standardized to be good for flight. i feel like i've heard the first part in another place, probably a book or so, but the second one is new

anyway after all that prep that everyone does, skully's asking lock, shock, and barrel 😨😨😨 THEY ALSO MENTION BOSS. SO OOGIE BOOGIE EP4???? PLS?????? ESP KNOWING THAT SKULLY AND OOGIE HAVE A LOT OF SIMILARITIES TO EACH OTHER SO LIKE MMM MM MMMM M

zero is soooo cute :')) he liked leona, and he found the smell of tea on jamil rly nice too

ZERO SNIFFED THE SUS ON TREY AND JADE AHAGAGAHAAHSFDHGHFHGC RIP TO THEMMM tho lowkey treyjade won too bc hey :) trey said he never got to own a dog cause his home (a bakery) couldnt have one. jade finds dogs adorable. treyjade could 100% have a dog in their house

riddle and idia were criticizing how they approached zero LMAOOOOO AND IDIA EVEN SAID HE WATCHED VIDEOS OF APPROACHING DOGS. WELL CLEARLY THOSE VIDS WORKED W HOW ZERO RAN AWAY FROM U IDIA.

SALLY ACTUALLY GOT TO GIVE JACK THE LUNCH SHE MADE HIM 😭😭😭 im so happy for her honestly, esp cause in the movie, she snuck it to him :")) but here, she gives it. well, she still sneaks it BUT SHE DOESNT HAVE TO JUMP OUT THE WINDOW AND MAKE A PULLEY SYSTEM TO HAND IT TO HIM!! bless jamil for helping her too

AZUL PLS "id love to help sally out" whats w u and ppl in love, huh, azul 🤨

oh hello 3-19 whats gonna hap-

🧍‍♀️

chat he's lost it

CHAT HE'S KINDA HOT WHEN HE LOSES IT.

SHFCJGCJGVGHVHJ SKULLY CONFIRMING JACK'S VIEWS ON HALLOWEEN AND THEN HE. PUTS JACK TO SLEEP. WITH A DRINK. BRO PUT DEADLY NIGHTSHADE IN THAT.

AND SKULLY REPEATING HIS MONOLOGUE IN THE PROLOGUE. AND HIM GOING "ahh jack-sama pls dont worry, ill protect the true halloween, even from u jack" girl everyone smelled the yandere. have u seen jp twitter/bluesky? the yandere is BAD

and it's hot on him. good god

AND THEN OH GOD WE COME IN CAUSE GRIM WANTED TO EAT JACK'S FOOD BUT WE FOUND SKULLY

AND SKULLY TURNS GRIM INTO A PUMPKIN THINKING THAT GRIM CAUGHT HIM. NO SKULLY U JUST OUTED URSELF, GRIM'S STUPID AS FUCK

oh god i got dizzy w this last part YUU HAD THE CHOICE TO SAY "why are you doing this" OR "we won't tell anyone". AND IF U CHOOSE THE SECOND OPTION, SKULLYYYYY GOES OH REALLY?? we're kindred spirits indeed we were fated to meet

girl i fell off a cliff. i drowned even. passed away.

GIRL I ATE ROCKS. WTF. I SWEAR. THE WAY SKULLY TALKS TO US FR LIKE WHAT IM BEING SWEPT OFF MY FEET HERE EVEN IF HE'S GOT SOME SCREWS LOOSE

ANDDDDDD HE TAKES US AWAY.

HAH HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA................

YALL HAVE NNNNNNNNNNO IDEA HOW INSANE I WENT ON MY IG 💀💀💀 literally i had a status that said "OMG YALL MY POOKIE KIDNAPPED ME 🥰🥰🥰" and now my irls are scared. they think i have stockholm's now.

honestly i just love the skullyuu dynamic too, like they're just two ppl who are lonely in their own ways. while skully would talk to everyone as much as possible, he rly talks to yuu.

delusionally, i like to think yuu saying i won't tell anyone is them not being scared but understanding skully too. like, they cant blame him for losing his shit

alot of ppl are also thinking omg skully overblot might happen. and i wanna yell NOOOOOOOOOO to that. on one hand, everyone said the same thing abt rollo and well, he didnt. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, SKULLY LACKS SLEEP, AND THE NARRATIVE REMINDS US TWICE ABOUT THAT. WE DONT KNOW IF HE EVEN ATE FOOD. AND HIS MAGIC IS EMPHASIZED TO BE ADVANCED. AND HE DOESNT HAVE A MAGICAL PEN AND WE DONT KNOW IF HE EVEN HAS A CRYSTAL. THE MAGIC'S GOING TO HIS BODY. AND THE WORST PART IS THAT ALL 7 OVERBLOTTERS ARE IN THE EVENT. THAT CANT BE A COINCIDENCE. FUCK'S SAKE, ONE OF THEM WORKS IN STYX. THE ONLY ARGUMENT AGAINST SKULLY NOT OVERBLOTTING IS THAT HE MIGHT NOT HAVE ENOUGH MANA FOR IT CAUSE HE HAS EPEL'S MAGIC LEVEL. BUT STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL cries

but also having all 7 overblotters may mean that twst wants to hint to us that this event could foreshadow a future arc where we meet the great seven and explore the disillusionment they may face. i'll dedicate a longer post to that though. but im excited for it

i do hope that in ep4 and 5, ppl realize that there is merit to skully's ideas of halloween. in the movie, jack skellington realizes that maybe doing christmas just doesn't suit him and sally was right. and at the end, santa gives halloween town a taste of snow. i'd like to see a merge of the ideas of nrc boys and skully's. at the same time, i hope skully realizes too that halloween can be celebrated with everyone, and in fact, it's more fun that way :'))) i want all of them to learn from each other. i want skully to be happy.

anyway i eat this event. it genuinely made me go back to playing twst as actively as i used to (never mind the fact that i put irl responsibilities to the backburner until urgent-), and im so excited for the last 2 updates 😋😋😋😋 i may also post a few more things about this event before the update on monday because god, my brainworms are terrible

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst jp #skully j graves #riddle rosehearts #trey clover #leona kingscholar #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #jamil viper #vil schoenheit #epel felmier #idia shroud #malleus draconia #sebek zigvolt

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askkintsugitale · 3 months ago

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notes on cryo's eyes :33

translation encase you cant read my handwriting: Cryo doesn't really have an eyeglow anymore, it only shows up when he uses his own magic, and that's almost never. (explanation and rambles under cut)

The soul gem that Cryo got changed his magic a lot. It basically cannibalized his powers and used the parts it had to create new ones. He lost the ability to use shortcuts, but can now travel between universes. (ofc he doesn't figure out how until later, because up until that point he wasn't really aware that it was possible. But afterwords it becomes extremely easy, and he can jump between world quickly and instantly which i will elaborate on when it happens in the fic) The bones that he usually uses have been replaced with crystals in the shape of bones, and sometimes just crystals. These crystals have different properties, and are able to shatter and re-form into basically any shape that can exist in three dimensions. (more complex constructs require more energy). He also has an extreme healing ability that only applies to him, where if he gets a physical injury he can force crystal to spike out of the fracture as a quick way to patch up and repair injuries. He's got a health boost as well (The crystal acts like a armor Frisk could pick up and use, meaning it interacts with his base stats. He's got around the same amount of HP as Undyne, a little bit more than that even). The only part of his magic that was left intact is his the ability to change the properties of an opponent's soul during battle, and that's the only time his eyeglow is activated. His eyeglow changed from patience and justice to patience and perseverance because of his change in perspective while isolated. He no longer believes in absolute justice no matter what, instead he just wants to keep living and be left alone. I think the only time justice would come back into play would be if someone killed Papyrus, but he already assumes Papyrus is dead sooo :(

#kintsugitale #undertale #undertale au #utmv #art #artists of tumblr #cryo #drawing #sans undertale #ramblings

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writingintheshadowsforever · 2 years ago

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Imagine being Namor's Wife and and stopping him from killing Queen Ramonda

Side Note: After Black Panther Wakanda Forever first came out someone posted. This fic idea saying someone should write it I was kind of inspired by never got around to it. Well here it is and to the original person who came up with it. I hope you enjoy.

Italics is english translation.

No one had seen where you come from. One minute it was the thick glass window between Namor and Queen Ramonda with the two locked into an intense staring contest.

Namor eyes filled with anger as his gaze turned to the young girl.

Queen Ramonda refused to back down reaching out a hand to move Riri behind her. Hiding the young girl from his prying eyes.

The action just fuel his burning desire for revenge and war even more. Namor let out a raging cry bringing his spare up, and Queen Ramonda stood her ground watching him preparing to stab through the window. She was confident the glass would hold and even if it didn't. The King of Talokan would still have to strike her down first before she let him touch the girl.

The spear was getting closer and closer to her face and then Namor paused his attack. The tip of his weapon resting inches from your nose as you stood before him arms crossed with a raised eyebrow.

"In yukanj" He whispered in surprise his eyes softening at your sudden appearance.

"Yes my love its me your lovely wife who entrusted you with one simple task. One that you promised me you could handle alone while I went off to lead the Americans astray to buy us more time." You scolded him shaking your head in disappointment. You wanted to be surprised by your husband's actions, but unfortunately you couldn't be. His hatred for mankind and the surface world had always been insatiable. It was your patience, his love and respect for you that kept those intrusive thoughts of invading world on land at bay.

You always hoped overtime maybe Namor would gain a new perspective on humans. But you should've known it was never going to happen especially with. The lack of sympathy after the events of Thanos invading Earth. Talokan had been affected by the snap as well, and you wanted to join the fight. Namor insisted that both of you stay out of it as it was a surface world problem. You should've seen all this coming your heart clenched at the sight of. All the destruction your husband and the Talokan's army had brought upon Wakanda.

It wasn't right. Countless lives lost for no reason. The murderous look you sent towards Namora and Attuma had both Generals cowering in fear. They called off the rest of the army and disappeared in the depths of the ocean without a word. You were going to deal with them later.

"Invadieron k otoch in yaakunaj kíins juntúul u le nuestros." He explained lowering his spear back to his side. They invaded our home my love killed one of our own.

Ti' ka' ta wuk'aj u princesa. Le k'áate' paal le Reina yéetel le ts'o'ok u internet ichil k'i'ik'el." You argued back pointing a finger over your shoulder at the woman behind you. After you took their Princess. The Queen's only child and the last of her bloodline.

Namor frowned. "Bix a wojel tales ba'alo'ob?" How do you know such things?

"Querías u Wakanda ka Talokan u convirtieran ti' aliados ti', máasima'. Tin tukultaj u sería útil mantener k'iin yéetel." You wanted Wakanda and Talokan to become allies right. I thought it would be helpful to stay up to date on information.

Namor scoffed earning a raised eyebrow at you. He hovered around you to land on the platform as well. "Wa k meentik u sometan ta To'one', Talokan yaan u sukbenilo'ob asab poderosa ti' le yóok'ol kaaba'. U yaalab le yóok'ol kaaba' le superficie caerá le kan k'iin." If we make them submit to us Talokan will be the most powerful nation in the world. The rest of the surface world will fall when the day comes.

A loud clapping noise filled the air and even the Wakandans heard it. As well as they witnessed your hand come up to smack Namor across the face. The stinging slap had his left cheek turning red.

His head snapped to the side from the force of it, and you waited for him to turn back to you with guilt in his eyes.

"Ku suponía u debías negociar jump'éel tratado Jets' óolal yéetel leti'ob. Utia'al u pudieran wáantik ti' le estadounidenses alejados ti' k wotoch. Tu cambio ta meentaj jump'éel rabieta bey juntúul chan xi'ipal petulante ka u negaron ceder." You were supposed to negotiate a peace treaty with them. So they could help keep the Americans away from our home. Instead you threw a tantrum like a petulant child when they refused to yield.

"In yakunaj" He pleaded with you.

"No Namor we talked about this" You said backing him away from him to run a hand through your wet hair. Your eyes drifted to the people standing before you. All of them regarded you with wonder and suspicion. The damage your husband caused wasn't beyond repair, but it was going to take a lot. For starters he had to be on the same page as you.

You went over to him to cup his face between your hands lifting his face back up. "Wakanda ka Talokan serán imparables wa k unimos bey juntúul chéen, ba'ale' ma' u páajtal meentik jump'éel alianza ichil le desconfianza yéetel le odio. Yaan k k'aax le bey chíikbesik." Wakanda and Talokan will be unstoppable if we come together as one, but you can't build an alliance off the back of distrust and hatred. We have to treat them as our own.

Namor closed his eyes and sighed "I'm sorry."

"You need to tell them that" You instructed nodding your head in the Queen's direction.

You took a step back watching as Namor turned to face Queen Ramonda, her daughter Shuri, and their guards. He laid his spear down on the platform and backed away placing the palms of his hands together and curling his fingers in.

Inside The Palace

Shuri reached out grasping her mother's arm. "I think he is surrendering."

"How can we be sure? Who is the woman?" Queen Ramonda questioned.

"The woman is his wife. He told she wanted peace between Talokan and Wakanda." Shuri explained meeting your soft eyes that seem to bore into her soul inviting her into your own world. She felt as if she could trust you.

You gave her a small apologetic smile and followed suit with giving her Talokan greeting.

"What does that mean?" Nakia asked this time a bit unsure.

"She's saying hello and maybe sorry at the same time. She wants to talk and I think we should listen." Shuri told them.

"I don't think that would be a wise idea" M'Baku voiced his concern.

Queen Ramonda watched as Namor stood by your side with his weapon still at his feet. Gone was the hatred in his eyes replaced now with shame as he barely met her gaze. You had that effect on him. If you were anything like your husband. She could possibly be injured or even worse dead by now.

"We will hear them out" She announced.

Everyone in the throne room let out collective gasps expect Shuri.

"Just one more question though" Okoye started waiting till Shuri turned to her.

"Where has she been all this time?"

#mcu imagine #marvel imagine #namor imagine #namor x reader #queen ramonda #riri williams #shuri #black panther imagine

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fibula-rasa · 6 months ago

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Cosplay the Classics: Nazimova in Salomé (1922)—Part 1

My cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé

The Importance of Being Peter: Nazimova’s Take on Wilde

With over two decades of professional acting experience behind her (six on the “shadow stage” of silent cinema), Alla Nazimova went independent. She was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood at the start of 1922 when her contract with Metro ended. Almost exclusively using her own savings, Nazimova founded a new production company and immediately got to work on two films that reflected both a deep understanding of her own fan base and a faith in the American filmgoer’s appreciation for art.

Discourse around these films and their productions that have emerged in the century since their release are often peppered with over-simplifications or a lack of perspective. Focus is understandably placed on Salomé, as her first project, A Doll’s House (1922), has not survived. In part one of this series, I plan to contextualize Nazimova’s decision to commit Wilde’s drama to celluloid and examine the details of the adaptation. Then, in part two, I will cover how Salomé (and A Doll’s House) fits into the industry trends and the emergent studio system in the early 1920s.

While the full essay and more photos are available below the jump, you may find it easier to read (formatting-wise) on the wordpress site. Either way, I hope you enjoy the read!

Wilde’s Salomé: The Basics

Salomé was a one-act drama written by Oscar Wilde. In a creative challenge to himself, Salomé was one of Wilde’s first plays and he chose to write in French, which he did not have as complete a mastery of as of English. Wilde was directly inspired by the Flaubert story “Herodias,” which was, in turn, inspired by the short story which appears twice in the New Testament. The play was later translated into English and published with illustrations by artist Aubrey Beardsley. Wilde’s play was the basis of the opera of the same name by Richard Strauss. While both the opera and the play had been staged numerous times across Europe and in New York before Nazimova’s adaptation, Strauss’ opera was the main reference point for the story in the popular imagination of the time. The success of Strauss’ opera led to the popularization of the Dance of the Seven Veils and the accepted interpretation of the character as a classic femme fatale.

My cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé

Nazimova’s Salomé: The Basics

When Nazimova announced her production of Salomé, she did so assured that she and Natacha Rambova, her art director, had a unique and creatively compelling interpretation of the story to warrant adaptation. Nazimova was not only the star and producer of Salomé, she adapted it from its source herself under her pen name Peter M. Winters. (Cheekily, contemporary interviews and profiles joke that “Peter” is one of her common nicknames.) Charles Bryant, credited as director, was as much the director of the film as he was Nazimova’s husband, which is to say, he is not known to have contributed much at all. It’s now accepted fact that Bryant acted as a professional beard (Bryant and Nazimova were also never legally married). The choice to credit Bryant was to offset the heat Nazimova was getting in the press at the time for “taking on too much.” Having Bryant’s name in the credits was a protective measure. Charles Van Enger was a talented, up-and-coming cinematographer who had been recommended to Nazimova following the inadequate cinematography of her Metro films.

Rambova was in charge of the art direction, set designs, costumes, and makeup. Nazimova and Rambova had become close artistic collaborators after Nazimova hired Rambova to design the fantasy sequence for her film Billions (1920, presumed lost). [You can learn more about Rambova’s career here.] Both women valued their work above all else. Both were convinced that film could be art. Both had the gumption to believe that they could make a lasting mark on cinema’s recognition as a legitimate medium of artistic expression.* (Spoiler: even though Salomé was not an unqualified box-office success, they were right.)

Photo of the Salomé crew from Exhibitors Herald, 29 April 1922. Original caption: Nazimova ordered this picture taken that she might be reminded of the real pleasure encountered in every stage of the production of “Salome.” Top, left to right: Monroe Bennett, laboratory; Charles Bryant, director; Mildred Early, secretary; John DePalma, assistant director. Second row: Sam Zimbalist, cutter; Natacha Rambova, art director; Charles J. Van Enger, cameraman; the star; R. W. McFarland, manager. Front row: Neal Jack, electrician; Paul Ivano, cameraman; Lewis Wilson, cameraman.

Nazimova’s independence was at least partly spurred on by feeling creatively bereft from her work at Metro. In a 1926 interview with Adela Rogers St. Johns, Nazimova said:

“You asked me why I made ‘Salome.’ Well—’Salome’ was a purgative. […] It seems impossible now that I should ever have been asked to play such parts as ‘The Heart of a Child’ and ‘Billions.’ But I was. And instead of saying, ‘No. I will not play such trash. I will not play roles so wholely [sic] unsuited to me in every way,’ I went on and played them because of my contract, and they ruined me. “WORSE than that, they [made] me sick with myself. So I did ‘Salome’ as a purgative. I wanted something so different, so fanciful, so artistic, that it would take the taste out of my mouth. ‘Salome’ was my protest against cheap realism. Maybe it was a mistake. But—I had to do it. It was not a mistake for me, myself.”

Given that Nazimova now had full creative freedom, outside of the confines of the Hollywood film factory, why were A Doll’s House and Salomé the first works she gravitated towards?

Initially, Nazimova had conceived of a “repertoire” concept for her productions: one shorter production (A Doll’s House) and one feature-length production (Salomé), which could be distributed and exhibited together. Once production was underway for ADH, Nazimova instead chose to make it a feature. The reasons for this decision that I found in contemporary sources are purely creative, but I don’t think it’s too much of a presumption that this may have been a financial choice, as profits from ADH (which unfortunately wouldn’t materialize—more on that in part two!) could have been cycled into Salomé’s production.

Ibsen was not popular source material for the silent screen, but Nazimova’s name and career was forever tied to the playwright as she is considered the actress who brought Ibsen to the US. (Minnie Maddern Fiske starred in a production of Hedda Gabbler in the US before Nazimova, however it failed to raise the profile of the writer.) Nazimova’s stage productions of Ibsen’s work proved that there was an audience for it in the US—both in New York and on tour. Superficially, ADH might seem like a risky proposition, but Nazimova had good reason to believe it had both artistic and box office potential. (Again, I’ll delve into why it might not have found its audience in part two.)

Nazimova as Nora in A Doll’s House

Though ADH is now lost, we know from surviving materials that Nazimova understood that by 1922 The New Woman archetype was already becoming passé to the post-war/post-pandemic generation of young women. Nazimova endeavored to translate the play in a way that would resonate with 1920s American womanhood. (How well she succeeded is lost to time unless we are lucky enough to recover a copy of the film.) Likewise, Nazimova approached her adaptation of Salomé with a keen eye for the concerns of modern independent women.

——— ——— ———

*Incidentally, both women also had a personal connection to Wilde. Nazimova was a close friend and colleague of Elizabeth Marbury, who worked as Wilde’s agent. Rambova spent summers at her aunt’s (Elsie de Wolfe) villa in France where she lived with her longtime partner, Marbury.

My cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé

The Adolescence of Salome

In the decade following the end of the First World War, there was a great cultural shift for women in America, who experienced and pursued greater independence in society—particularly young and/or unmarried women. This quality was emblematized in the Flappers and the Jazz Babies, but even women who didn’t participate in these subcultures lived lifestyles removed from “home and family” ideals of the past. The lifestyle change was mirrored aesthetically. As Frederick Lewis Allen describes in Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s:

“These changes in fashion—the short skirt, the boyish form, the straight, long-waisted dresses, the frank use of paint—were signs of a real change in the American feminine ideal (as well, perhaps, as in men’s idea of what was the feminine ideal). […] the quest of slenderness, the flattening of the breasts, the vogue of short skirts (even when short skirts still suggested the appearance of a little girl), the juvenile effect of the long waist,—all were signs that, consciously or unconsciously, the women of this decade worshiped not merely youth, but unripened youth […] Youth was their pattern, but not youthful innocence: the adolescent whom they imitated was a hard-boiled adolescent, who thought not in terms of romantic love, but in terms of sex, and who made herself desirable not by that sly art that conceals art, but frankly and openly.”*

Allen’s summary of youthful womanhood in the 1920s resounds so clearly in the character design and performance of Nazimova’s Salomé, it’s apparent that she and Rambova were thoroughly informed by contemporary trends around young/independent women. Belén Ruiz Garrido puts it succinctly in her great essay on the film “Besare tu boca, Iokanaan. Arte y experiencia cinematografica en Salomé de Alla Nazimova:”

“Las concomitancias con la flapper o la it girl de los felices años veinte son evidentes. Se muestra mimosa, pero su seducción es como un juego de niña. / The similarities with the flapper or the it girl of the roaring twenties are obvious. She performs affection, but her seduction is like child’s play.” (translation mine)

Nazimova was also fully conscious that her fanbase was predominantly female and that she held significant appeal for younger women. From the moment she signed her first American theatrical contract with Lee Shubert, Nazimova’s status as a queer idol was already being established.

“The women… were enthusiastic about [Nazimova]… [At the hotel, the] ladies’ entrance was always crowded with women waiting for her to return from the theatre. It is much better that she should be exclusive and meet no one if possible. They regard her as a mystery. And there are other damned good reasons besides this one.” – citation: A. H. Canby to Lee Shubert, December 29, 1908**

While women, particularly middle-class women, were emerging as a prominent consumer group in the US, Nazimova’s popularity peaked on stage and on screen. Arriving in Hollywood, Nazimova also continued her trend of surrounding herself socially and professionally with other queer women. Profiles and interviews of Nazimova in the Hollywood press often contained coded language about her queerness as a wink and nudge, usually but not always accompanied by mention of her “husband” Charles Bryant.

This well-developed understanding of her primary fanbase led her to break from popular presentations of the character as an embodiment of monstrous feminine sensuality. Instead, Nazimova chose to present the character as an adolescent. While Nazimova was the first to put this read on the character on film, Marcella Craft chose an adolescent interpretation in a production Strauss’ opera in Munich and Hedwig Reicher was a teenager when she assayed the role and played it accordingly (also in Germany). (Maybe not insignificantly, Reicher was also working in Hollywood at the time of Salomé’s production.)***

This is the American pop culture landscape we’re talking about here, so of course women’s independence was rapidly codified for capitalization. Young women were moralized at for not conforming to traditional gender roles while simultaneously being framed as sexually desirable in order to sell consumer goods (including motion pictures!). The American way. It’s hard to not see social commentary in Nazimova’s reworking of this icon of wanton femininity for a new generation.

This isn’t to suggest that Nazimova’s Salomé glorifies the character, but rather that making Salomé a teen adds layers of complexity to the production. Considering it in conversation with her predecessors, Salomé isn’t even named in the New Testament stories. Flaubert built out the character with 19th century concerns in mind (though his story is more about Herod & Herodias) and Wilde shifted even more focus to Salomé. Nazimova continued that trend with her version of Salomé—an impetuous child too young and ill-equipped to constructively deal with the horrible environment she was brought up in. (Might that resonate with a generation of young people disillusioned by a World War and a pandemic?)

As Nazimova/Peter wrote in the opening intertitles to the film:

“It is at this point that the drama opens, revealing Salome who yet remains an uncontaminated blossom in a wilderness of evil.

“Though still innocent, Salome is a true daughter of her day, heiress to its passions and its cruelties. She kills the thing she loves; she loves the thing she kills, yet in her soul there shines the glimmer of the Light and she sets forth gladly into the Unknown to solve the puzzle of her own words——”

My cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé

As Salomé was an experiment in pantomime for screen acting, it’s worthwhile to look at how Nazimova embodies this image of youth in her performance. In the first scenes, Salomé’s facial expressions are pouty and her movements like a bored child’s. Her wig emphasizes every movement she makes with a flurry of pearls and creates a neotenous silhouette for the character. When denied access to Jokanaan, her facial expressions are imperious, but the imperiousness of a spoiled child. She swings on the bars imprisoning Jokanaan as if they are a jungle gym. As she “charms” Narraboth, her expressions and body language shift toward a scheming energy with barely concealed artifice, displaying a distinct lack of sophistication—like she’s trying to angle a second serving of ice cream not exacting a favor of a servant that could cost his life.

Perhaps most crucially, Salomé’s adolescence emphasizes the inappropriateness of men’s gaze upon her. Wilde’s drama is built around rhythmic repetition in the dialogue—a key repetition being the act of looking. Though the play is only one act, some form of “regarder” in relation to Salomé is repeated nineteen times—most often in some form of “don’t look at her” or “you shouldn’t look at her that way.” As Salomé is a silent film, to repeat this in intertitles nineteen times in intertitles would be absurd. Throughout the film, frequent close ups are strategically employed to visually recreate the rhythmic emphasis on gazing. (The purpose of this device seems to have been lost on one reviewer for Exhibitors Herald who said in his review: ”too many close ups.”) Additionally, the motif is foregrounded by front-loading the mentions of looking. As soon as the opening narration ends, we’re introduced to Herod behaving lecherously toward Salomé and Herodias telling him not to look at her. The perversity of Herod is amplified here because Salomé is not only his niece and his step-daughter, but also a child. This scene is followed by Narraboth and the page having a similar interaction, albeit with a different tone.

As Nazimova put it herself in a profile in Close-Up magazine:

“The men about her are obnoxious; they cannot even look upon her decently. She loathes them all. Even the Syrian [Narraboth] whose approach is of all the most respectful and decorous, is of his times and his love is tempered with the alloy of lust.”

In the film, Salomé’s rage against Herod is justified, and her rage against Jokanaan is a raw confusion of emotions—she doesn’t have the capacity to act constructively. When the first unfortunate man commits suicide over her, she barely takes notice, establishing Salome’s blasé attitude toward death. When the second man takes his life this time directly in front of her, Salomé only notices after almost tripping on his body. Her response is giving the body an annoyed kick for tripping her! The key phrase of the drama is “The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.” Salomé is surrounded by death, enveloped by it, but love (of any kind) is unknown to her until Jokanaan. So, when her love of Jokanaan is rebuked, she reverts to the only response that has been nurtured into her: death.

Nazimova’s Salomé is a perfect surviving example of a quality of her acting described in an uncredited review of Nazimova’s theatrical work:

“If the actress you’re seeing knows what she’s saying but you don’t, it’s Mrs. [Minnie Maddern] Fiske. But if the actress doesn’t know what she is saying and you do, it’s Alla Nazimova.”****

We as viewers understand what Salomé is going through, but she is being psychologically buffeted by fate and circumstance without ever comprehending the nature of it. The tumultuous feelings brought on by Salomé’s first brush with the spiritual (rather than the sexual), launches her into an accelerated ripening of her cruelty. This is masterfully communicated by Nazimova through facial expression and body language and accentuated by Rambova’s costuming.

As Herman Weinberg put it in his essay “The Function of the Actor:”

“The true film crystalizes action for us. ‘To see eternity in a grain of sand,’ the poet said. ‘To see a life cycle in an hour and a half’ is the modern screen parallel.”

Because of the emotional scale of Nazimova’s performance in Salomé, it has been variously described as “bizarre” or “grotesque”—though not always said derogatorily. That’s on point, as Nazimova’s performance is only one expression of her protest against realism in the film.

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*If you’re interested in the 1920s at all, I highly recommend Allen’s book. The section this quote is from has a detailed survey of changes in American women’s lifestyles throughout the 1920s.

**as quoted in “Alla Nazimova: ‘The Witch of Makeup’” by Robert A. Schanke

***Gavin Lambert’s biography of Nazimova intimates that she referenced the 1917 Tairov production of Wilde’s Salomé, which she reportedly had a detailed description of. Reading about the production for myself in Mark Slonim’s Russian Theatre: from the Empire to the Soviets, I’m not sure what precisely she would have drawn from this production. It doesn’t seem to have much in common with the ‘22 film at all. That said, in a 1923 interview with Malcolm H. Oettinger in Picture-Play Magazine, Nazimova admits that in preparing for the film, she compiled a large scrapbook of previous productions and artistic interpretations of the story and character. Unfortunately, though Lambert clearly did voluminous research for his biography, his presentation and interpretation leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the things I tried to verify or try to find more information on from the book proved to be misrepresentations or were factually incorrect. So, I’m avoiding quoting Lambert without verification, unless what I’m citing is directly taken from a primary source; like a quote from Nazimova’s correspondence.

****quotation is from an uncredited clipping held by the Nazimova archive in Columbus, Georgia as quoted in Gavin Lambert’s biography

Illustration of Nazimova as Salomé by F. Corral from The Story World, March 1923

Nazimova and Rambova’s Modernist Phantasy

The assurance that Rambova and Nazimova felt that they had something new to bring to Salomé was obviously not solely founded in a character interpretation updated for the screen and for the decade. The two crafted a singular work born of pastiche in a manner that genuinely had not been done before in the American film industry. It’s often repeated that Salomé is America’s first art film. This may have its origin in promotional materials* made for the initial release of the film. Before the film’s official release, Bryant, Nazimova, and Paul Ivano (assistant camera & Nazimova’s on-again-off-again lover) arranged preview screenings and a few reviews from those screenings mention in some form that Salomé was a direct retort to the notion that art cannot be made with a camera.

What constituted the Nazimova/Rambova strategy to elevate film to the status of art? Both women had around six years of experience working in film (twelve collectively), but both came from a live performance background—theatrical acting and ballet respectively. Salomé is a film based on a stage play (though not strictly based on any one production of that play). Salomé inherits its symbology (first and foremost the moon) from its source material, but the filmmakers found creative ways of communicating and remixing symbols for the camera. The art design is inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for a printed edition of the play, though Rambova pulled more broadly from art-nouveau to devise designs that are in no way unoriginal.

As for the much discussed Dance of the Seven Veils, in my opinion, Nazimova’s execution is inspired by the dance described in Flaubert’s “Herodias” rather than a previous live performance.

“Again the dancer paused; then, like a flash, she threw herself upon the palms of her hands, while her feet rose straight up into the air. In this bizarre pose she moved about upon the floor like a gigantic beetle; then stood motionless.

“The nape of her neck formed a right angle with her vertebrae. The full silken skirts of pale hues that enveloped her limbs when she stood erect, now fell to her shoulders and surrounded her face like a rainbow. Her lips were tinted a deep crimson, her arched eyebrows were black as jet, her glowing eyes had an almost terrible radiance; and the tiny drops of perspiration on her forehead looked like dew upon white marble.”

Clearly, I’m not implying that what’s described above is exactly what we see on screen. My thought instead is that Nazimova may have drawn inspiration for the dance to be provocative in an uncanny way instead of provocative in a conventionally sensuous way. What we do see on screen is a distinct lack of practiced sensuality and an element of menace. The former comes both from Salomé’s youthfulness and from the logic that, as Salomé has already gotten Herod to give her his word in front of dignitaries, there’s no need for seduction. The latter is brought on by the expression of Salomé’s fractured emotional state and feelings about Herod. In execution, the use of close-ups again serves a major purpose. Intercutting close-up reactions from those gathered at the court provides a crescendo to the motif of looking, which is then pivotally reversed in the kiss scene. Cutting to close-ups of Salomé’s face accents the ecstatic and maniacal quality of the dance. Together this variation of shots creates an effect that could only work on film.

Salomé has a significant appreciation for its non-cinematic antecedents, but filtered through the prism of Nazimova’s and Rambova’s own creative strengths and sensibilities—a melding of theater and graphic art into something not only fresh but also totally cinematic.

It speaks to their filmmaking skill that all of these ideas and influences do in fact come together as a cohesive yet wholly unconventional film. Some critics of Salomé (both contemporary and modern) will cite vague notions of theatricality, or state that the film is only a series of tableaux, or that the limited sets don’t depart enough from a stage presentation. Art is in the eye of the beholder, but I think whether those specific elements preclude Salomé from being cinematic is a matter of perspective.

The oversized, stylized nature of Salomé’ssets might at first register as theatrical, but those same sets also serve to amp up the anti-real nature of the film. It’s uncharitable to Rambova to suggest that this artificiality was not a conscious artistic decision. If you have seen the sequences she designed with Mitchell Leisen for De Mille’s Forbidden Fruit (1921) then you have seen her demonstrated understanding of how designs register on camera. The gorgeously executed lighting effects in Salomé that are employed to to sublimate tone shifts could feasibly be recreated in a theatrical setting, here, filtered through the camera of Van Enger, register as thoroughly cinematic.

To once again quote “The Function of the Actor” by Weinberg:

“In nine movies out of ten (most particularly those emanating from the film factories of Hollywood), the actors stand around and talk to each other, relieved only by periodic bursts of someone going in or out of a doorway. (Sixty percent of the action in the average Hollywood movie consists of people going in and out of doors.) […]

“The actor going through a doorway may be a necessary device on the stage, to get him on and off. But Pudovkin has made a neat distinction between the realities of stage and screen: ‘The film assembles the elements of reality to build from them a new reality proper to itself; and the laws of time and space that, in sets and footage of the stage are fixed and fast, are in the film entirely altered.’ On the stage, that is, an event seems to occur in the same length of time it would occupy in life. On the screen, however, the camera records only the significant parts of the event, and so the filmic time is shorter than the real time of the event.”

Weinberg cites Pudovkin in an amusing but illustrative way here. People may throw “overly theatrical” or “stagey” casually, but more often than not the distinction between theatrical/cinematic comes down to how space and time is traversed. Even if the base material, a narrative drama for example, is shared between stage and screen, there should be a thoughtful construction of geography and chronology. Could Salomé have played more creatively with space? Perhaps. But, for a film made in early 1922, its creative geography isn’t all that uninventive. The majority of the action in Salomé takes place exclusively on one set, so it does rely a lot on the types of comings and goings that Weinberg identifies with theatre. That said, there are some comings and goings that forcefully pull the audience away from the feeling of stagey-ness. The most consequential occurs in the scene with the first suicide, which I previously mentioned in the context of developing Salomé‘s character and environment. The man runs to the ledge of the courtyard, beholds the moon, and leaps. Cut to a wide, back-lit shot of the figure plunging to nowhere, establishing that the city above the clouds depicted in the art titles and opening credits is the actual physical location that film is taking place in. It’s a genuinely startling moment in the film and Salomé’s most evocative use of creative geography.

The majority of legitimate critical appraisal at the time of Salomé’s release recognize it as an achievement in film art, even highlighting artsiness as a potential selling point. As art cinemas started popping up in the US, Salomé stayed in circulation. Appreciation grew. Legends emerged around its production. And, now one hundred years later, it’s safe to say that Salomé has earned and kept its place as a fixture of the history of film art. As we are lucky enough to have the complete film to watch, assess, reassess, and debate its qualities as a work of cinematic art, I’m positive that conversation on Salomé will continue.

So, if Salomé was appreciated in its time, why did it ruin and bankrupt Nazimova? What was going on in the American film industry at the time? Find out in part two!

“If we have made something fine, something lasting, it is enough. The commercial end of it does not interest me at all. I hate it. This I do know: we must live, and I must live well. I have suffered—enough. Never again shall I suffer. But most of all am I concerned in creating something that will lift us all above this petty level of earthly things. My work is my god. I want to build what I know is fine, what I feel calling for expression. I must be true to my ideals—” — Nazimova on Salomé quoted in “The Complete Artiste” by Malcolm Oettinger

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*As of the time of writing, I haven’t been able to track down a complete copy for the campaign book for the film, so I’m relying on fragments, quotes, and second-hand references to its content.

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Read Part Two Here

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☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

——— ——— ———

Bibliography/Further Reading

(This isn’t an exhaustive list, but covers what’s most relevant to the essay above!)

Salomé by Oscar Wilde [French/English]

“Herodias” by Gustave Flaubert [English]

Cosplay the Classics: Natacha Rambova

Lost, but Not Forgotten: A Doll’s House (1922)

“Temperament? Certainly, says Nazimova” by Adela Rogers St. Johns in Photoplay, October 1926

“Newspaper Opinions” in The Film Daily, 3 January 1923

“Splendid Production Values But No Kick in Nazimova’s “Salome” in The Film Daily, 7 January 1923

“SALOME” in The Story World, March 1923

“SALOME’ —Class AA” from Screen Opinions, 15 February 1923

“The Complete Artiste” by Malcolm H. Oettinger in Picture-Play Magazine, April 1923

“Famous Salomes” by Willard H. Wright in Motion Picture Classic, October 1922

“Nazimova’s ‘Salome’” by Walter Anthony in Closeup, 5 January 1923

“Alla Nazimova: ‘The Witch of Makeup’” by Robert A. Schanke in Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History

“Besare tu boca, Iokanaan. Arte y experiencia cinematografica en Salome de Alla Nazimova” by Belén Ruiz Garrido (Wish I had read this at the beginning of my research and writing instead of near the end as it touches upon a few of the same points as my essay! Highly recommended!)

“The Function of the Actor” by Herman Weinberg

“‘Out Salomeing Salome’: Dance, The New Woman, and Fan Magazine Orientalism” by Gaylyn Studlar in Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film

Nazimova: A Biography by Gavin Lambert (Note: I do not recommend this without caveat even though it’s the only monograph biography of Nazimova. Lambert did a commendable amount of research but his presentation of that research is ruined by misrepresentations, factual errors, and a general tendency to make unfounded assumptions about Nazimova’s motivations and personal feelings.)

Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen

Russian Theatre: from the Empire to the Soviets by Mark Slonim

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bananasfosterparent · 7 months ago

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AA fans aren't even that horny compared to the fandom as a whole or other parts of it…and what's funnier is that Spawn fans themselves produce A LOT more horny content so it's very funny to call Ascended enjoyers obsessed with abusive relationships or sex pests. Projection maybe?? Also it's not like these people mind fan service, they just dislike it when it doesn't cater to them specifically lmao

I mean, we're all thirsting after the vampire man one way or another.

And you point out the hypocrisy well. The issue is not that people are doing it, but rather that some who make that sort of art or post those sort of things, are simultaneously coming sideways at AA fans claiming that we're the ones "sexualizing" him solely for ascending him.

Sure, many AA fans also hornypost and thirstpost for Astarion... the exact same way Spawn fans do. The same way any Astarion fan does. Because that's partly what he's there for.

He's a figment of fiction for your fantasy needs. He isn't going to come to life and have feelings outside of the video game and feel depressed for being used for human enjoyment lol He's not a real person and no amount of hypocritical finger pointing can change that.

It is frustrating though. I mean, I still haven't seen any discourse about them changing the spawn ending. Isn't that tampering with their original vision too? Haven't spawn fans been repeatedly asking Larian to allow the companions to speak kinder to Astarion as he burns in the sun? And there's more of them than there are AA fans, so the amount of AA fans "bombarding" Larian with messages to make the AA kisses more roleplay friendly, is a vastly smaller number than the amount of spawn fans asking to have that final scene changed.

They got something they wanted for their favorite route too, and yet no AA fans are criticizing them for having that changed... because we don't care.

Most AA fans only play the spawn ending for angst and perspective.

Likewise, most Spawn fans only play the Ascended ending for.... angst and perspective!

Why care so heavily about a route you don't even play for joy? Especially when it's made to be more enjoyable for those who already enjoy it? Not everything is for YOU. Not because it can't be, but because you don't want it to be. And that's fine. Different things resonate with different people, but I don't understand how respect is lost in that translation.

#astarion discourse #ascended astarion #astarion ancunin #anon ask #anon

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rikeijo · 2 months ago

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Today’s translation #825

Animage 2016/12, Toyonaga Toshiyuki x Uchiyama Kouki interview

Part 8.

The cast talks about Katsuki Yuuri

He is surprisingly stubborn, and that's why he can't get 100% honest - that's one of a lot of ways in which, I think, he and I are similar. I think that's quite an achievement that even though he complains, and can become sulky, he can still get along with Victor well (laugh). [Toyonaga]

From Yurio's perspective, Yuuri teamed up with Victor, when mentally, he was at his lowest and after that, he got back in the game. And actually, Yurio lost to him in Onsen on ICE... Yurio's senses the danger, I'm sure. [Uchiyama]

The cast talks about Victor Nikiforov

At first glance, he seems to be a funny person, detached from this world, but you don't know what he is really thinking. He seems to be having good time in Hasetsu 'sightseeing', as he calls it, but at the same time, he is diligently gathering information.... But I'm sure that all of this is 'the real Victor'. [Toyonaga]

My impression is that the story is created in such a a way as to make it the most difficult to know how Victor truly feels. A mysterious person. The reality is that I don't even have any idea why he really came to Yuuri. I'm looking forward to see how this plot line is going to develop. [Uchiyama]

The cast talks about Yuri Plisetsky

Yurio can see his weak points, and be honest and admit it when he's bitter about something, so even though he's very young, I feel that he is very much an adult. On the other hand, when he is being sulky towards Victor, he looks very much like a child. My impression of him is that he's a boy that it's just right in the middle of developing, from a child into and adult. [Toyonaga]

He has the ambition to show off his abilities just right after he advanced from junior to senior division. That's why, I think that now it's a time for him, when he wants to show everyone that he's bigger than he really is, because he feels that he can't let himself lose, and if people will think of him as weak, it's going to be over for him. [Uchiyama]

#yuri on ice #yoi translations #yuri on ice translation #tr_voice acting #tr_toyonaga toshiyuki #tr_uchiyama kouki

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felixcloud6288 · 2 months ago

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Dungeon Meshi Miscellaneous Monster Tales 6

I'm going to use this as an excuse to talk more about the Shapeshifter arc.

Harpy

Like with the fishman section, this one seems focused on assuring that harpies are not demihumans and are instead a completely different species that just happens to have traits we would ascribe as human.

I think the translation got the "oviparous" and "plumage" lines mixed up. It would make more sense to point out the harpy's hair is feathers.

The more Laios talks about them though, the more eating harpy eggs sounds gross to me. And it's specifically because they are carnivorous and potentially carrion birds. Their eggs would taste very different from poultry eggs since those birds are fed primarily grain.

Everything else Laios says about them is pretty normal behaviour for nesting birds.

Hag

We get a tale of Shuro's childhood. I bet if she stuck around long enough, Maizuru would have told Laios's party all sorts of embarrassing tales from his childhood.

I don't think summoning a knife wielding ghoul to retrieve a lost child is good for their psyche. Maizuru said that Shuro was a compliant child growing up. I think being chased by a monster every time he decides to misbehave and run off might have something to do with that.

Shapeshifter

Izutsumi confirmed that from an outside perspective, the fakes are just leaves and empty space. No physical beings were made.

Marcille's scene in that panel was when she was pointing out the Senshi-made fake Marcille, but the line "Clearly a fake" was spoken by the Laios-made fake Marcille.

This does beg a question from me. Izutsumi was in the blizzard with the others but was entirely unaffected. Does this mean she showed up after the illusion was cast, she left before then, that there's a required bare minimum mental image of a person needed for the spell to work, or is Izutsumi immune to the illusion to begin?

Let's say we were to put the Touden (plus Falin), Tansu, Shuro, and Kabru parties in a big enough space and then hit them with the shapeshifter's illusion. Would this result in 462 fakes being created with every person having 21 fakes of themselves, or would there be a varying number of fakes per person based on how well they're known within the group?

If the illusions didn't have any tangible body, how were the party able to do things like pick up a fake Chilchuck, bind a fake's hands, or get grappled by a fake? It must have been a really powerful illusion.

Gee. I wonder which of them might have been responsible for the strange-looking fake Marcille. Could it be the Tallman who admires her because she's friends with his sister and who has a barely contained ear fetish? Or maybe it's the half-foot who has voiced no real complaints about her? Or maybe it's the dwarf who almost always refers to her as "elf-girl" and has frequently stated how he doesn't like magic and thought Marcille was a pampered child when he first met her?

In chapter 40, Laios said "Shapeshifter" is a generic term for monsters that use mimicry to slip into human groups. I would guess the proper name for the monster they fought was a kitsune. There are also certain slimes, magic mirrors, and another unnamed one that might be a succubus. Looking forward to the party encountering those in the future.

If I hadn't already looked up the results, this would have been my hint that I got the Marcille-made and Senshi-made fake Laios's mixed up.

Marcille pointing out that the fake Senshi in chapter 40 was too dashing would have been the hint that I got her and Chilchuck's fake Senshi mixed up as well.

Shen (Nightmare)

Just like the person who discovered the snake part of the basilisk is the main body, the someone who researched why shen always produce nightmares was also given a name and face.

Hotomer was probably a gnome since he lived to 126.

Also, this gives us a lower-bound to the current year in the story. It is at least the year 504.

Turns out the nightmare-producing aspect of the monster is a side effect that is caused by long-term exposure. Shen don't care what you dream about as long as it causes a high emotional reaction.

I think this might be an example of salience bias or the von Restorff effect. These are a type of bias where you only pay attention to the most striking events or objects and ignore things that don't cause as much of a reaction even if there's no objective difference. In this case, happy dreams and nightmares are both caused by shen, but you don't notice until they start causing only nightmares.

Marcille must have a very active imagination if she was able to dream up an entire shoujo series with its own opening theme that ran for three seasons.

It's probably because of the "In the Twilight" line, but Yuki Kaijura's Key of the Twilight from the .hack//SIGN OST played in my head every time the theme song started.

The Tribe of Pelkian is an example of why long-term exposure to shen inevitably results in them always producing nightmares. The show has an amazing first season with a beautiful finale only to run for two more seasons where season 2 was a rehash of plots from the first, and season three was so uninteresting that most of the party didn't bother finishing it.

If even Marcille wasn't interested in finishing season three, the shen wouldn't bother generating more episodes, thus they moved to nightmares. Maybe if Marcille stopped being bothered by the monster that devours everyone she knows and loves because they can't outrun it, the shens would have done something else.

Marcille probably was infected by shen back in chapter 2 considering the bulk of dreams they had made.

I don't think Izutsumi blinked once during the entire binge-watch.

Shapeshifter Continued

I just have to come back to this one cause the hypothetical scenario amused me so much. Here's some things I think would happen:

Almost every one of the fakes Kabru makes would be perfect matches to the originals. The only exceptions are the fake Laios (can't properly replicate his monster obsession) and Kuro (it looks a little too human)

There is a perfect down-to-the-smallest-detail fake Kuro and an argument breaks out over whether Kabru, Mikbell, or Laios made it (It was Laios). Mikbell's Kuro is an ordinary dog.

Laios would have the fewest convincing fakes because almost everyone's mental image of him is some variant of deranged madman. Ironically, the most convincing Kabru fake was made by Laios.

Namari's Laios and Kaka would have abnormally long legs. Her Kaka and Kiki would also look the same aside from the legs.

The most convincing fake Falin is actually Falin's fake Laios.

There are two Falins that look like the main girl in a shoujo manga. One was made by Shuro and the other was made by Marcille. Shuro's fake Falin has bigger breasts.

Falin's Senshi is super muscular and dressed like a viking warrior

Izutsumi's Maizuru looks like the hag. Maizuru's Izutsumi looks like a kitten.

The fakes Maizuru makes of everyone other than the Shuro party and Rin are all racist and ethnic stereotypes. Maizuru's fake Rin looks like a yamato nadashiko.

Maizuru's Holm is a dwarf, her Marcille looks like a frog, and her Shuro looks like the painting of him in chapter 36.

The Tansu's fake Kiki and Kaka are little children.

Namari would be able to sniff out several fakes because she recognizes who has functional equipment and who doesn't. Her Senshi is the only one who's pot is made of adamant.

Senshi's Maizuru looks younger and more motherly. His Shuro looks similar to Maizuru.

Sadly, this scenario would probably be far less interesting than what happened in canon because Kuro could probably find the shapeshifter immediately. The translation notes mention foxes are afraid of dogs because dogs are immune to their illusions, hence why Laios impersonating a dog caused the shapeshifter to reveal itself.

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#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi readthrough

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treatbuckywkisses · 2 days ago

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Perspective

Summary: artist!steve and .... you weren't supposed to find out like this

A/N: this was written on my phone:) I've had this idea for 3 years now and finally fully executed it and I feel good enough about it to post it!!! please let me know all your thoughts & reblog!! love you big🩷 moodboard made by yours truly💛 dividers made by @firefly-graphics

Warnings: literally so soft and fluffy, mentions of insecurities, my blog is 18+ only. I do not give permission for my work to be translated, copied, or shared.

Steve loves art.

He loves that there are multiple ways to express himself; drawing, painting, sculpting. Oftentimes he found himself lost in whatever medium he was using. Hours passed without him noticing and he felt lucky to have so much time and freedom with his arts. But that freedom required frequent check-ins. Always making sure he wasn't too lost and keeping up with himself.

A few years back he'd gotten so immersed in a project he hadn't eaten for a whole day and when he finally remembered it might be a good idea, his mild hunger he previously ignored had turned into a splitting headache along with his stomach screaming in agony, and by then, it was too late. He'd found himself dehydrated and damn near passed out from it. So now if he doesn't answer the phone within half an hour, you show up with a full spread and a list of questions.

And without fail, every time you let your self in the studio asking for signs of life, he has no choice but to fuss and whine, "Don't you know I'm a bit old for a babysitter?" (His easy smile tells you he's at least partially joking.)

Still this remark results in a scoff or a pointed look. He likes knowing that you care so deeply.

Besides, you're the only person he doesn't mind showing his art to, even before it's finished. Because somehow, you always see his vision, even when others don't. Steve likes that a lot. You're always there for him even if it's not physically and he's unsure if you know this or not.

Being friends with Steve since uni, you've been his model plenty of times but that didn't mean Steve got used to how intimate the setting was. Honestly, you've been his model enough times, Steve can sketch you by memory. Every part of you has been embedded in his mind. Your lively essence the only thing lacking compared to you lounging around his studio.

He had such intense focus on watching both you and his sketchpad. He had to be sure not to miss any detail. From the way your hair sprawled out over your shoulder, down to the tip of your cute nose and over the curves of your cupids bow. Even though this wasn't new to you by any means, he could tell you were a bit squirmy when he finally met your eyes.

It was intriguing how impressive Steves talent was, and always has been. Especially with the typical artist ego some folks get. No matter the amount Steve prospered, he remained as humble and dare you say bashful as ever. Cheeks pinking up with his blue eyes shining at the praise. Remembering that minor detail from professors in uni till now with big time art collectors.

Steve may have fucked up.

Scratch that. Steve definitely fucked up.

He forgot to tell you about a consultation he had today. Depending on the client consultations could be pretty lengthy. Looking at his portfolio, recommendations from previous clients, credentials, blah blah until finally getting to what this client expected to receive from buying something Steve made. It was a whole process you knew all about, having to wait on Steve to potentially celebrate afterwards.. if you'd been told that is. He has no one to blame besides himself. Yet for some reason, he hadn't expected this to happen so soon..

He doesn't mean to be a creep, really! He just can't help himself. He would definitely be mortified if you ever found out. It's the only thing he's ever kept from you in your entire friendship. Not that he wants to! He just can't possibly imagine a positive reaction to you being the only material in an entire sketchbook. He knows you. That's why he keeps it hidden.

You can't find out he has two pages full of just your eyes. Or that he's drawn you in every angle he could without being lewd. (Not that he hasn't thought about it, he just really, really couldn't risk that getting out.) All the things you've ever nonchalantly complained about. Every curve of your body, stretch marks varying in color, the size of your nose. Everything you view as an insecurity perplexed Steve. At first it was supposed to help you. When you got bad about it and didn't think anyone noticed until Steve brought it up. He had this grand idea. If he made it, you'd have to think it was gorgeous! The thing was, once he started, he couldn't seem to stop. Not in a bad obsessive way, in a way that allowed him to see you, to truly see you.

Normally, when you model for Steve you're just there for him to double check his vision while he gives it life. They don't always look exactly like you, he just mimics your movements, but in the end he does get to sneak in a detail he knows is from only you, that's what makes his pieces stand out. That he's certain of. You know you're the base for quite a bit of his works both in paintings and sculptures. Knowing deep down you're the same shape as whatever he decided to turn you into. And you always compliment his work, so Steve couldn't understand why it was hard for you to view yourself the same way he does.

When Steve is finally finished with his consultation he's able to check his phone on his trek back home. There's one missed call from about half an hour ago, which he knows is all it takes, so he's expecting you to be awaiting his arrival, most likely with takeout.

What he didn't expect, however, was to walk in on you flipping through sketchbooks. You hadn't heard him come in the front door so he sets out to look for you. Once he finds you..It's as if time is standing still.

He doesn't know why but he's frozen. He can't even allow himself to breathe as he watches you pick up his yellow sketchbook. You open it like you probably opened all the rest, not knowing what you were about to see, and Steve can't believe he's allowing this to happen. He's so confused in himself he doesn't even feel like he's thinking. Why did he think plain sight was a good hiding spot? If he didn't hide it then it wasn't a secret, right? Oh, fuck him.

He takes the risk to make his presence known, softly knocking on the open door so he doesn't startle you too badly. The first thing he notices are the tears in your eyes as you look at him for the first time all day. He can't decipher what the tears mean for you, but his stomach flips with his own interpretation in mind.

"Steve.."

"I'm sorry—"

A small huff escapes you at your sudden burts to each other and Steve knows. That look in your eyes he couldn't make out earlier. Those eyes he's etched into his own, blanketed in tears, are also filled with admiration.

He releases a light sigh and starts explaining himself. "For once I can't positively say I know what you're thinking. It wasn't meant to be exactly the way it turned out somehow." He hates how vulnerable this feels, which is a bit ironic if he lets himself think about it. He takes a deep breath and decides to take another (arguably bigger) risk, "I couldn't stop myself. I know how that sounds believe me, but honestly. I just couldn't get you out of my head now matter how hard I tried to. You've been there for me so much I'm not even sure you fully realize how much you've helped me. Hearing you talk about yourself so negatively? I don't know, I just felt that I needed to help you see how beautiful you are." Steve looks over at you and the tears are streaming down your face, he didn't know they could be so enamoring.

You can barely choke out his name and he's thinking the worst. But when you follow it with a soft kiss to his lips, he feels like he can finally breathe. Foreheads pressed against each other he smiles the most he ever has before. "What can I say? I found my muse."

#fayths moodboard #fayth writes #steve rogers #artist!steve #marvel mcu

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maxbegone · 11 months ago

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happy wednesday! thank you for the tag @iboatedhere ♥️

u ever think about how pineapple is eating u when u eat it the enzymes they like eat away at ur skin or w/e it’s why ur mouth will feel weird Alex is frustrated and honestly pretty bored, hence the spam texting. He’s been chipping away at this fucking paper for a week, it’s nearly fifteen pages long and he knows he’s going to have to cap it soon. But there’s a point he’s still trying to make here that he cannot figure out how to articulate, and he’s quite literally about to pull his goddamn hair out. It’s going to be a bitch to edit and he honestly might set his laptop on fire and move to the mountains if it means he can just be done. But Alex knows himself well enough, which means he’s going to keep staring at his computer screen in attempt to make something happen until the words form a weird Rorschach-like image and he blacks out. Maybe that’s why he texted Henry. Actually, he texted June and Nora, both separately and in their group chat, but Nora hasn’t responded and June told him to touch grass before putting her phone on Do Not Disturb. He sighs heavily and falls back into his chair, slumped in a way that absolutely cannot be good for his back, not that he cares. His mug has run dry when he brings it to his lips, and he silently thanks his caffeine-addicted self for the needed refill and a break to stretch his legs. Who knows, maybe if he drinks enough coffee, he’ll somehow transcend into a different dimension. Then he won’t have to hand in this paper. He’s really just asking for impossible solutions here, isn’t he? It takes approximately two and a half strong cups and a few bites cold leftover sesame chicken for Alex to even feel remotely capable of returning to his laptop. Jesus, his eyes are already starting to sting at the thought of staring at the screen again. He presses his fingers into his eyes beneath his glasses just as his phone buzzes on the counter next to him. He lowers the brightness and squints at the screen. Bromelian. What? Another text comes through: That’s the name of the enzyme. Alex outwardly laughs. He didn’t expect a legitimate response, let alone from Henry. “Is that so?” Alex asks when the call connects, equally as surprised that Henry answered. “Why are you calling me at half one in the morning?” “Why are you answering at half one in the morning?” He mocks. “Just say one-thirty, man, it’s not that complicated.” Henry ignores him. “Have I not told you that I’m the prince of insomniacs?” “I’m pretty sure it got lost in translation. See, from my perspective, you’re the prince of blowjobs.”

tagging @kiwiana-writes @rmd-writes @cha-melodius @orchidscript @indestructibleheart

#wip wednesday #rwrb fic #firstprince #firstprince fic

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hotvampireadjacent · 9 months ago

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i went to the library today and heard a girl speaking Japanese but it was.. hm. Ok so. She had her phone set up and the video was on so the other person could see her. She was repeating body parts like she was teaching someone japanese (?) or maybe she was being taught japanese from a family member (?) (In hindsight) But from my perspective.... that's very weird to just be standing AT one of the library self check out booths to be doing that. if you were studying you would. like. sit down at a desk or. use a room. or something.

So. My second suspicion is I go to ask if she's ok or needs help. bc There's a lot of immigrants in this area who don't speak english and people who can speak Japanese are rare. I wanted to make sure she was ok and not lost or having trouble at the self check out.

So I asked her "Are you ok? Do you need help? (in Japanese)" And she said something like. I forgot her exact words but "No. I'm ok I don't need help. (japanese)" Her response felt a little cold. I was wondering if I should repeat myself in English and explain myself better, but I decided I got my point across enough and didn't want to bother her if she wanted to be left alone.

i wonder if she was surprised to find someone else who can speak Japanese just passing by. I was listening to her name body parts and then I was like "wait a second I know those words. I can help her out if she needs a basic translation or how to use something."

#hurff durff

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yuseirra · 2 months ago

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Pardon me, I got my copy of volume 15 after getting home and it re-sparked a lot of feelings- I jotted stuff down again. Rest is machine-translated.

Kamiki really is a god, isn’t he??? ;;

That character is literally a god. ;; After hearing Ruby’s words, he granted her a wish at that time, didn’t he?(147) ;; He’s the god who grants wishes alongside his wife, Ame-no-Uzume.

To begin with, there’s this god of entertainment that was mentioned, whose husband is the god of light. And this character’s name is "Kamiki Hikaru," right? There are multiple references to gods in the story, and it is mentioned that there have been gods that's helped out the protagonists.

Then it's all set in stone. I don’t think this can be interpreted as something else, can it?

As for Kamiki’s problem: the topic of his “true nature” keeps coming up. But if you look at him, at least when he was younger, he wasn’t inherently “evil.” Kamiki’s issue, or rather, his driving principle, stems from how deeply “hollow” he is (chapter 146). This hollowness made him constantly seek love, try to fill himself, and want to see/feel Ai.

And when does the idea of hollowness come up? Isn’t there a part in Mephisto about being "Born of the abyss"?

In Fatal, there’s a narrator who, even with happiness, feels it disappear quickly and agonizes over how to fill that void, ("No matter how much happiness I pour into, This vessel will never be filled") all while yearning to see Ai again.

That’s him. Not Aqua. Remember when this person and Aqua both fell into the water? You see Kamiki reaching his hand out and being pulled down by things within the waters. That matches the ending scene. Aqua wrapped with red strings holding him down, reaching out toward the stars before scattering... I think the Season 1 ending sequence was a combined portrayal of both this person’s and Aqua’s fates.

Ugh, so what exactly was the movie’s plot? And this person—honestly, I think the scenario suggested around chapter 160, what Kamiki told of the day of Ai's death was the correct one, right? What reason would there be to change his statement from that point? Why would he contradict himself? To survive longer? But at that point, he didn’t know Aqua was trying to harm him, did he? I think he was genuinely ready to die, maybe even after seeing Ruby shine? If you follow mythology, that development would make sense. After being persuaded by his wife, Ame-no-Uzume, Sarutahiko abandoned what he was doing and returned to his homeland, was it, went fishing, and drowned—there’s that specific legend about this god! But whether he really died or not is ambiguous, and he ends up being honored alongside his wife, blessing relationships, guiding people, and overseeing purification rituals. Even though he lost his position as the sun god, he remains a protector and earth god.

I feel like Ai’s words must’ve caused some kind of change in his heart. Seriously, I reread the physical copy, and he said he won't mind if he died. ;; Which does make Mephisto his song, AQUA WANTED TO LIVE! Kamiki was ready to give his life FOR AI!!!

I think his storyline is best understood in connection with Mephisto and Fatal. Those two songs are clearly about this character.

But if that’s the case, the conclusion becomes: “This person wanted to revive Ai and meet her again or go to where she was.” That makes the scenario he mentioned in chapter 160 the most plausible. ;; It’s not like he killed her out of malice and then tried to bring her back out of regret after realizing she loved him.

Rather, it’s: "Ai didn’t love me. But even so, I want her to live. I want to see her again." < This type of desire is far removed from someone who resents being rejected and seeks revenge. He accepts that Ai didn't love him back. Kamiki poured everything in his life related to Ai, completely derailing his mental state and any semblance of normalcy. From my perspective, this behavior is less about wanting to harm Ai and more about someone so shocked by her death that they completely lost their grip on reality.

It’s not like he did much after being rejected for four years! Seriously, what is going on here? The scenario Kamiki himself explained is the most reasonable. Unless he can literally brainwash people with some superpowers (and even if he's capable of doing so, I doubt he'd have done it for Ai's case!! he loved her!!!) how else would events unfold this way? He’s a god, right? I think he didn’t even realize his own powers until Ai’s death, as suggested in the lyrics. It says he “I've forgotten who I lived as!” This person can literally twist people’s futures, but it always ends in destruction, which is why he’s Mephisto and Fatal.

So what’s the movie even about? Was it about Ai forgiving her boyfriend who killed her? But if that’s the case, Kamiki wouldn’t have had to explain himself to Aqua in chapter 154. That would’ve already been covered in the movie. Unless the movie portrays him as someone who ordered Ai’s murder but he’s explaining he didn’t intend it that way?

Why is everything so vague? But again, judging from how they recall each other, it doesn’t seem like they wanted to harm one another. Their feelings for each other are so affectionate and positive. Kamiki even thought Ai was the reason he kept living; her existence was that precious to him.

So why would he harm her? He couldn’t live without her. This doesn’t add up. And Ai wouldn’t speak so fondly of someone who was a bad person. If he had made her life difficult, she wouldn’t have said she wanted to spend eternity with him, was scared her children with him would burden him, but still kept them because she wanted to raise them together. That wouldn’t make sense.

For everything to align, Kamiki has to be a corrupted god. After rereading, I think this interpretation fits. It’s truly correct.

His name, actions, motives, abilities, traits, other people’s descriptions, and the events in the story—all of it matches if Kamiki is Sarutahiko Okami, the husband of Ame-no-Uzume, who Ai is the incarnation of.

They even said they were "the same". Ai was the one who first brought it up, and it was established early on that she’s tied to a god.

If Ai is a god, Kamiki is a god. If Kamiki is a god, Ai is a god. Sarutahiko also has been described as a monstrous figure, even if it’s rare. Why else would this character be named Kamiki Hikaru? It’s because he’s literally the god of light!

Ugh, they didn’t explain anything, and I spent months piecing this together... Why do they have him show up near shrines? He’s a god who grants wishes and interferes with people’s futures. I’m right. The stories of Fatal and Mephisto—I’ve been insisting on this—they’re Kamiki’s songs. Once that conclusion is reached, everything about his stance toward Ai is explained. He wanted to offer her things, even if it meant dying himself... and he does have lines hinting at this. He said he was willing to sacrifice his life for her(153) and that' it's okay if his life is used for Ai(161).

Isn’t this whole thing that's been happening around this guy...him reinforcing divine punishment? That would at least carry some sort of message.

If the moral is “Ai shouldn’t have loved her boyfriend; he was a terrible monster,” what kind of story is that? Does the protagonist have to die to take down such a monster? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the protagonist to live victoriously after defeating him?

But still, this story should feel separate from a straightforward “take him down” narrative. Blaming one character for all the story’s issues feels irresponsible, lazy, and disrespectful. That would be such a disappointing ending. Besides, if that were the case, Kamiki’s statements in 160 wouldn’t have been necessary. But I think they put that in there because that IS the real truth. I was talking about it even before it was suggested in the manga!!!

I think Kamiki originally only intended to send flowers to Ai. If Aqua’s interpretation is correct, Kamiki’s emotions would’ve been entirely different. He wouldn’t have become so desperate, done so much, or inspired songs like these. He wouldn’t have acted like that. Trusting Kamiki’s words makes the most sense in many ways. If what he's said is what's really happened, it would’ve certainly driven him to madness.

#oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #oshi no theories #hikaai #hikaru kamiki #ai hoshino #spoilers #sigh...#this story would be so flat if the conclusion is “the boyfriend is the true monster! kill him and we're done with all our problems weee”#although the comic does..;; make it seem like it #they really did him dirty.. and Ai dirty too #tbh..;; one of the biggest reasons why I want to believe him is because of Ai... she really did love him. and it just makes sense this way #why would the writing be so cruel to Ai???? what does it even accomplish?? that she loved the wrong person? what do they want to say???#that's not just bad writing #it's a foul move and degrades the message

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