#the story of a villain who has everything they want

[rgbstatic]

Rewatching Marble Hornets really has me questioning why Alex wasn't really included in Creepypasta media, at least alongside his peers with Masky and Hoodie.

This may be spoilers if you've never watched Marble Hornets before (its 15+ years old, but I digress).

First I do want to establish that in Marble Hornets.

Alex is the acting antagonist, Jay is our unreliable protagonist and narrator, Tim eventually becomes a side protagonist. Hoodie is a side character who often seems to help our protagonists. Every other character are side characters that help move things forward and intensify plot- when I go into detail on some characters, some of what I say can be applied to them too.

Next, the Operator's way of controlling it's "proxies".

The Operator has some sort of aura that, when exposed, causes some sort of illness. Coughing fits, seizures, and presumably more. It's presence also in turn causes paranoia, insomnia, memory loss, and a general loss of senses. This is what it seems to use to control others.

You see this with all characters in the series, how ill they get, how paranoid they get, how the worse these all are the more they do things for the Operator. You see this happen to nearly everyone.

For Tim, he is able to eventually curb this via medications, presumably seizure medications. It doesn't fully stop Tim from being controlled by the Operator and acting as Masky, but it does over time seem to make it happen less and less. You also see Masky act in later acts of the series against the Operator, or at least for Jay.

Hoodie is interesting, because you really don't see much from him, but most of his appearances is helping Jay, and you find his house full of medication bottles, presumably stolen from Tim or from some other means. The totheark videos have many purposes. They can threaten Jay, or they can warn him, they can help him. In some you see messages which echo and parrot the drawings Alex makes, in others you see him give Jay clues. He both works for the Operator, but against him and Alex at the same time.

Jay starts off as seemingly one of the only people on the cast/crew of Marble Hornets to not get involved when Alex first started his shenanigans. He remembers Marble Hornets and starts looking, immediately he gets sick and paranoid and starts encountering the Operator. He is tired and irritable, and towards the end you see him make more and more rash decisions, violent decisions. His path seems to mirror Alex, the only difference is that Jay wants to stop all of this.

Alex is the most interesting, because you almost never if at all see him ill. You can presume that maybe he saw the Operator as a kid, as one of the totheark videos show childhood home videos of him and mark him with the Operator's symbols and show's the being there, but you never see it. Alex acts under the operator seemingly at all times. He starts off paranoid, maybe even afraid, but very quickly he becomes numb to it. Seth and Sarah die very early on. He attacks Brian, Tim- all so early on, and he seems to feel no remorse for it. Eventually, it does seem like he falls away from the influence. He moves away, stops recording. This goes on for years, until his girlfriend finds his old camera. Almost instantly the Operator is there. She is missing, but he survives. Once again, the moment the Operator is involved he works under him without skipping a beat. He knows she's gone, he drags Jay into it to stop him from searching further, or perhaps to be a magnet to finish the job of those who escaped before. Alex doesn't have any sort of alter ego. He remembers, he remembers everything. Perhaps he acts out of self preservation, but something else is going on. Alex starts to corrupt the footage just like the Operator, he seems to be able to call it to him and he approaches it, stands in it's wake unaffected. He's too far gone, maybe he always was.

All of this is to say, he is the villain of this story. He may eventually be defeated, but you could argue Tim gets better and moves on and never is a proxy again.

Alex should have, and should be viewed as a more scary person, with the likes of other creepypastas, because for all intents and purposes he was the Operator's favorite, and the one to carry out it's wants and to carry out it's actions. Hoodie and Masky disobeyed time and time again, Alex continued without question or remorse. Killing people not even involved with the story.

Just in terms of story, for the longest time Masky and Hoodie were side characters that popped up once every several entries. It wasn't until over half way through that Tim becomes a central character. Alex is always there. It's his story, it's his tapes, it is him who brought the Operator to them all over and over and over again, he is the main character with Jay as a narrator of things he has done. It all leads back to him.

Something something, i think 15 years is long enough to give this evil guy a bit of spotlight in his own story.

[ravensvirginity]

Titans #15 Review

Oh my god. Where do I even begin.

To start with my one and only positive: the art is gorgeous. Lucas Meyer is the best artist the Titans have had in ages, and his new Raven design really delivered. I'm so sad that it appears that the artist who'll be taking over for him in #16 is undoing his design changes, I think it's a massive shame. I did appreciate the detail of Raven's white cloak design having rings on her index fingers, but it feels a little pointless without the lore of Azar's rings to back it up.

Now, the negatives: literally everything else about this comic. This comic fails to deliver on an eight issue arc in any kind of satisfying way, has a bizarre and out of character tone, and severely misunderstands the lore of its main villain. They literally defeated Trigon with the power of friendship. Maybe that could work in Teen Titans Go, but in a main timeline DC comic? What?

First, the demon Raven stuff. Gar saying that demon Raven and regular Raven aren't two different people--yeah, obviously. The severe degree of separation between demon Raven and regular Raven has been one of the big issues of this arc, and this conclusion is as unsatisfying as the rest of it. Raven and her demon side being able to talk face to face isn't new, but them being two separate people with separate physical bodies who can operate completely independently of each other--while there is some precident for this, to me it's a very strange writing choice and misses the point of a demon Raven arc.

The original idea of Raven and her demon side was that her demon side is her. It's all the worst instincts she inherited from Trigon locked up and carefully controlled. When Trigon takes control of her and turns her into her demon form, everything she's repressed, both good and bad, is released. Raven still having a soft spot for the Titans in her demon form makes sense; she's still Raven, just corrupted by Trigon into something she isn't. Raven deciding to stop being evil (not that she even really was) and going back to normal from one brief conversation with her teammate does not, and is really anticlimactic.

It's just such a waste of the story's potential. If you don't want to commit to Raven being the villain of the story, don't do a demon Raven arc! It's possible to do a Trigon story without Raven being evil, I don't get why they didn't just do that. None of the drama with Raven being evil was particularly well executed, and all it seemed to do was drag the comic on longer and longer with nothing actually happening, because they were unwilling to make Raven actually do anything villanous.

All that pales in comparison to how they defeated Trigon. I don't think I've ever seen such blatant disregard for previous canon. As Raven, powered up by the other Titans, fights Trigon, Gar narrates as follows:

"I doubt Trigon has ever been in a fight. An actual fight. With someone his own size and power level. Never had to face someone like Nightwing one-on-one. Never tried to stand while being pinned by the power of Donna Troy's will. Never been blasted... with a giant-sized Apokoliptian blast from Cyborg. And never, ever... felt the full force of a Tamaranean hit powered by the stars."

WHAT?

This comic canonically takes place in the same timeline as the New Teen Titans. There are many homages to the New Teen Titans. It has been made very clear that the team started as the New Teen Titans, and then after many, many years of crazy comic book history the team reformed as the Titans of this run.

The first ever Trigon arc that introduces him and Raven as characters takes place in the first six issues of the New Teen Titans, and culminates in Trigon being defeated by the Titans and thrown into an interdimensional prison. I can't stress this enough: literally every single one of the things Gar said have never happened to Trigon happen in that fight. Donna uses her lasso to dampen Trigon's will, in combination with Raven and Arella's empathic abilities. Wally rips a hole through the fabric of reality to throw Trigon into, and Kory and Vic connect their powers to amplify their blasts to throw Trigon into the interdimensional rift. The whole thing is coordinated and managed by Dick Grayson (who was still Robin at the time).

Gar was there when all this happened. There is no reason for him to not know that this happened. The only explanation is Tom Taylor doesn't know, or he doesn't care. This would be disappointing for any comic book run, but it leaves an especially sour taste in my mouth for this to happen in a run that's so built on NTT homages. It's clear that the writing could not care less about the comic it was inspired by.

And then Garth causes Trigon to have a heart attack. Okay, that was just stupid. Admittedly, I did think the page of Raven stabbing Trigon was cool (again, the art is really the only saving grace here), but her saying "Fuck you, Dad"? Seriously? An ongoing problem in this run has been the dialog feeling janky and too much like lines from a generic superhero movie, and this line embodies that very well. I'm not opposed to swearing in comic books, but to me, this is not the right time for it. It doesn't fit the moment, and I think it's quite out of character for Raven, even if the sentiment behind it isn't.

And then Trigon isn't even dead? What does "Demons don't die. They just fade away." even mean?? Is he dead or not? Will he come back tomorrow or in a thousand years? It's such a strange, confusing letdown of an ending.

I didn't have high hopes for this issue, but it was somehow worse than I could ever have imagined. I'm so glad that this run is getting a new writer. Here's hoping that the coming issues will actually feel like a team book, and that the decades of lore and characterization of these beloved characters will actually be considered during writing.

[yuseirra]

onk spoilers (161)

Sorry, I really can't keep quiet about this because this series has been my brainrot for the past couple months and this is pretty..;; hehe.. depending on how it plays out, it will determine how I'll feel about this entire work completely. So bear with me for the next few weeks!

There are a few panels that really stand out in terms of expressions that really bug me, this guy could be acting. Putting the rest in the read-more, I'm vagueposting but still, I feel it's better manners to do so.. I'm sorry for being unable to keep to myself. I hope you understand though, I've been drawing something for this series almost every single day!

There are a few really genuine-looking ones and those.. could be interpreted as him being concerned over Aqua, it's not really my wishful thinking because he's actually persuading his son to think of things he must live for, regardless of what thoughts and intent he has behind it. He DOES want Aqua to live, and when Aqua says he'd give up on that, he has the exact same face he had when he fell in despair in the movie arc (when Ai said she'd leave him/when Airi gaslit him). I think that expression IS real. And he's really shocked when Aqua.. yeah, does what he does. So I don't think he likes the idea of Aqua dying.

I've been looking at this character a lot, and came to a conclusion that his smiles are masks. I've mentioned this a few times in my earlier analyses regarding him and in one post, I wrote:

That smile he floats is consistent through the entire time he's shown in the story and the only times it breaks is when it has to do with Ai and when she sees him through. And it starts to break the moment he sees her talking about him. Every expression he makes when he sees Ai in the video are his true feelings. His smiles, on the other hand, are his coping mechanism and are all masks.

so I actually feel this is the case this time too, the author wouldn't have made this guy a genius actor who's TAUGHT Ai to act for nothing... The whole chapter starts out with his expression being expressionless, then forming a smile, just before he starts saying everything onwards. And by doing this, he IS actually talking to his son to forget about killing him and go on living his own life while sounding pretty evil...

but that means we can't believe the god or whatever she says either, so that's why I don't know. She was wrong about Ryosuke and "a middle school boy" having gone to the hospital once if Kamiki never went and it was really Nino, but would she be TOTALLY off in this case? I have no idea. That's what makes it confusing for me and have a lot less hope on how things will unveil, but the expression cues do say something... if it weren't for her, I'd say he's acting.. but the things she mentions about him are just too...that of a third-rate villain and it's so nonredeemable. If that is right, the whole idea of Ai having wanted to help him is sort of thrown out the window. They DIDN'T need to make her say that... it was so WISE of her to leave a guy like him, and all her visions of him were wrong, you know?

So I'm just.. wondering how much we need to trust the crow.

I thought I could trust her, but how much does she actually know?;

Or maybe it IS true that Kamiki's done some hideous things the way she's depicted it, and yet he doesn't want his SON to be the same way.

If there's one thing I can pick up from this chapter that's going to be released... it'd be that Kamiki doesn't want Aqua to die. He thinks there's many reasons for Aqua to go on living. If you pay careful attention to his speech, that's what he's actually talking about... he actually looked a little relieved when Aqua agrees he has a lot to live for and that breaks when Aqua still refuses.

Yeah.. I think.. I'll stick around a bit more actually. The part that REALLY bothers me is what Tsukuyomi says, if that's really true.. ehh.....it's a huge let-down for me I don't like that. It's not a very good way to use this character. It's really dumb and I don't think it works but if the author says so; okay?? but I won't feel the need to collect the physical volumes any further if that's true. That's just me though.

[who-gives-af]

say what you will about it but sometimes i wish movies wouldn’t end with the ‘hero wins and everything is good’ type thing. sometimes the kidnapee should be dead if the villains say they’re dead. sometimes the hero doesn’t survive the wounds they’ve got. sometimes, the serial killer keeps killing until they’re dead. sometimes, the villain just wins, and i want to see that in media.

and ESPECIALLY in like a visual novel or a very story driven game. the idea of this protag who’s trying to save the world and stop the villain but then at the end it was all for nothing because the villain wins anyways. id eat it up

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The girls are plottinggggg

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[codenamesazanka]

Shigaraki/Tenko wanting to destroy the false sense of peace All Might and Heroes created

.⬇️.

Shigaraki/Tenko wanting to destroy everything that lead to the existence of that house, which he conceptualizes as the embodiment of rejection and injustice in the world. Be a Hero for the Villains.

.⬇️.

AFO basically literally created that house

.⬇️.

Shigaraki/Tenko helps defeat AFO

.⬇️.

Deku telling him 'you already destroyed it' is... apparently Shigaraki/Tenko having finally gotten rid of the true cause of (his) rejection and injustice? main antagonist's big problem that represents an overarching major issue of the story/in-universe society... solved? (main antagonist's big problem that represents an overarching major issue of the story/in-universe society not actually being the problem he thought it was but now also solved?)

.⬇️.

No longer a need for there to be a Hero for the Villains, Shigaraki/Tenko dies.

.⬇️.

Heroes not to be blamed in the first place. also fuck everyone else and all other 'actual' outcasts I guess.

[batsplat]

casey also talks about sepang 2015 what do you think of that

oh in that podcast? uh... lemme listen again...

yeah idk it's not really anything new I'd say? he's said basically all the same stuff in more interesting and extensive ways elsewhere. I think casey inevitably has a very 'well feuding is bad and helps nobody' point of view, has expressed that before in the past, does it here again, and he's also drawn a parallel between himself and marc on several occasions. which... well, of course there's similarities in terms of public discourse or whatever, but the parallel really falls apart whenever casey argues the feuds cost valentino. like, I do think it's sometimes important to just. keep in mind. it's interesting that casey draws this comparison in his mind but that doesn't necessarily means he's right about this. I'm not sure how you'd argue that starting a feud with casey cost valentino anything competitively? you can argue it didn't help him I guess, and then we can have a debate about the ins and outs of the 2008 season. we can also have an argument that in a hypothetical world where casey isn't ill in 2009, valentino doesn't break his leg and casey isn't on a piece of junk in 2010, and valentino isn't on a piece of junk in 2011-12, then actually maybe valentino sparking open animosity with casey COULD have cost him. but we don't know that! didn't happen! I wish we could have found out, but we never got the chance! as it stands, the tally on this is pretty straightforward: casey won the title when things were reasonably civil between them in 2007, and valentino took control of the following season at the exact moment he worsened the relationship between the pair of them in 2008. obviously, it's all more complicated than that and casey would of course argue laguna didn't negatively affect his subsequent performances... but it certainly didn't help them. like, at the very worst valentino escalating tensions in 2008 is a complete net neutral. after 2009, them being bitchy to each other every other tuesday was completely competitively irrelevant beyond maybe affecting how they approached occasionally fighting for a podium position. hey, maybe casey used that feud to fire himself up through sheer spite throughout the later stages of his career, but that doesn't actually support his anti-feud stance - it's basically the exact same thing as what valentino does. they're both quite similar in that regard! always so hungry to prove a point, to show how someone else is wrong. kinda half the point with this feuding business is to get yourself going, get yourself motivated, yeah. he straight up openly admits to using yamaha's repeat rejection of him as a way of giving himself motivation, and at the end of the day that's really not all that different?

anyway, what else does casey say... oh yeah, that him and the other aliens were already kinda prepared for this and had learned vale's tricks. that valentino had only been able to get into the minds of the previous generation. welllllll *wiggles hand* sure, I mean, he did clearly have to change his approach... he couldn't just use the exact same playbook to get to them, either on-track or off-track. but that's why he did change up the playbook... again, whether you want to believe valentino won his final two titles 'in the head' rather than just through pure pace kinda depends on how you assess the evidence, but it is at the very least a debate. and, y'know, it's always worth remembering that valentino's most important mind games with casey didn't happen in a press conference... it was on the track. and the on-track stuff really is just embedded in how valentino approaches winning. speaking of aliens, this is what dani and jorge have said:

like, valentino's entire approach to his riding, even to the way he's setting his bike up, is deliberately about directly fucking with you... he's not actually always trying to be faster than you as much as he's trying to give himself the tools to make your life miserable, to pressure you into mistakes, etc etc... and again, especially with casey (if anything because he was so mentally sturdy), the off-track stuff was really just window dressing. (I know they bicker a lot after 2009 but it's just so fundamentally irrelevant to actual on-track competition.) so you can be aware of those tricks, but it also doesn't necessarily help you when someone's being nasty to you on-track in a way you just fully do not enjoy. which is what it was like for casey! for casey, a lot of this comes back to the truly unpleasant context of how he was perceived by the public, how he was treated as mentally weak or 'broken' or whatever partly because he had the misfortune of coming up against a bloke who had the reputation for breaking rivals. I think it's quite natural to end up with a bit of a hardliner 'actually I've never been mentally affected by a result in my life' stance - and of course casey is a lot tougher than a lot of people give him credit for. that being said. sometimes your rivals affect you, shit happens, it's part of the game. it's fundamentally a nice idea to think that valentino's tactics weren't just morally wrong but also ineffective, which is kind of the appeal of this narrative, right? you want to believe you're above that, you want to believe you were adequately prepared and wise to valentino's tactic. it's unsurprising and understandable that casey does tend to tell the story that way, but again it's *wiggles hand* also hard to describe it as completely factual

uh. what else. oh I'm thrilled casey does canonically know valentino and marc were friends, he has said he wasn't following motogp too much during that time period so you couldn't be sure of that. does this mean anything? does it tell you anything? well, no, but it's just a pleasing thought to me. I like that. oh also 'provoking particularly aggressive riders isn't a good idea' is kinda a funny take from casey? like, he of all people would hate the idea of being cowed by someone's reputation like that... casey's right that provoking fast riders can potentially be dangerous, but y'know I do think that's probably not news to anyone almost nine years later. um. that's all I've got I think

[scribblingface]

I went into bg3 fully ready to have a good time and have done so despite many ways in which the game is not good and have not worried too much over various dramas about patch changes but my chill streak has finally ended and I am wailing gnashing my teeth etc. about patch 7 (the supposedly final one with story/content changes) not adding companion reactivity for any of the durge content in act 2

[basssiliskk]

I have personal beef with most of the tiktok mlp infection aus because of how they mischaracterize or immediately kill off Twilight as if she doesn't literally give off the most potent Final Girl vibes 💀 like she's smart, strong, and knows how to function both alone & w/ a group. Her ass would NOT be dying immediately. Then if they don't make her the first to die they usually make her the evil-scientist villain or something.

Really missing the whole point of why survival horrors are scary, the main conflict should revolve around the struggle of surviving in a wasteland and the strained relationships that come along with that. What good does having a "main antagonist" do? They defeat them and then what? There's still zombies outside

[thestamp3d3]

i cant get over how absolutely insane satosugu is...gege was born to write yaoi forced to write shounen

[softquietsteadylove]

For the Doctor AU

5 times Gil tried to tell her he wants more and one time he finally get to tell her👀

This time, he thinks.

He slept over last night--not like that, though. They have yet to do anything intimate outside of the hospital. But he likes sleeping over at Thena's whether they make love or not. Because he likes being with her.

That's what he's been trying to tell her, at least, but they always end up not talking about that. They talk about work, and their days, and whatever they're watching while they eat takeout. And maybe they end up making out a little bit.

He has yet to manage to ask her out in any proper way.

Part of him is a little worried she doesn't want that--just wants to be friends. But he also knows Thena, and he knows she feels what he does (or at least something akin to it). Because he can see it in her eyes when they're drifting off on her couch, or when they kiss, or when he calls her his 'wife' when they're at work.

"Coffee?"

"Fuck yes," Gil answers instantly, and they both laugh as she offers him his mug. It's not just a mug, it's his mug. He has a couple of things that are his here at her place.

Thena sighs into her own cup of coffee pod 'vanilla latte'. As if they're not going to get some from the coffee kiosk at the hospital as soon as they get to work, anyway.

Gil watches her hold her hair back as she tips the mug back to chug it in her haste. She's so impatient it's a wonder she ever became a doctor. She's also cute.

Thena blinks as he pushes her hair behind her ear for her. Her mug is empty now, although she looks into the bottom of it to keep herself from looking at him.

Gil moves his fingers down her jaw so he can tip her chin up, slowly and gently. He leans down, kissing her, morning coffee breath and all. She leans into it, happily kissing him back on the tips of her toes.

She deepens the kiss, looping her arms around his neck and leaning into him more. He receives her, his arms around her lithe waist. Their tongues swipe against each other and their different mixes of coffee blend together.

"Fuck!"

Thena sinks back to her heels as she rips her beeper off her hip with a fury. She huffs, "I'm already on my way, they can't wait fifteen minutes?"

"What is it?" he asks, although his disappointment is also evident in his face and tone.

"Nothing too bad, but the trauma surgeon from upstairs is stuck in a procedure and the children are panicking." She looked up at him with an apologetic smile, tossing her mug in the sink and reaching for her backpack, "sorry, Ajak needs me."

He shakes his head with a smile, leaving half of his coffee in his mug on the counter and following her out the door, "duty calls."

Okay, maybe this time.

"Hey, Thena-"

"A bit busy, here, chap."

Gil blinks at the acerbic reception. Eros has never liked him, although he's not sure if it's a surgeon thing, or if he's just a little stuck up or what. "Sorry."

"Gil," Thena nods him in though, over to her side as she looks at the x-rays they have spread out.

Eros glares at him the whole time.

"Patient is late 50s, has thin blood, we've got what might be the beginning of a heart murmur on scans," she runs through the details, pointing to the chest x-rays as needed.

"And if I open him up within the week," Eros interjects eagerly, clicking the pen from his white coat pocket. "I can have that taken care of."

Gil makes a face.

"Exactly," Thena pats the back of her hand against where his shoulder meets his chest (right over his heart).

Eros raises a brow, but he doesn't have any of his unpleasant attitude for Thena, it seems.

"I mean," Gil shrugs, but Thena encourages him to go on, despite the surgeon in the room mentally willing him to shut his damn mouth. He slips his hands in his hoodie pockets, "do we really wanna open up someone at this age just for a murmur?"

Thena turns to Eros with her arms crossed, obviously vindicated, "see?"

Eros manages a smile for the lady (which is more than he managed for Gil, that's for sure). "A pacemaker is not a guarantee, my dear. It is a temporary solution that could be solved with a heart stint."

"I don't know, man," Gil continues to argue, not that anyone asked him. Eros makes it very clear that no one asked for him to go on, but Thena leans closer to him, and that's all he needs for support. "The recovery from even a simple surgery is tough."

"And poking around an old man's aorta is needlessly risky," Thena ads, moving her crossed arms to put her hands on her hips. "We can insert a pacemaker endoscopically and have him home in 48 hours."

Eros sighs, but maybe he's not up for being teamed on because he gives up on his argument. He gives Thena a little smile, "most people who call me for a consult want my opinion."

Thena doesn't even glance at it, still focused on the case at hand. "I wanted a second opinion, and it happened to be yours."

"You really know how to shatter an ego, don't you?" Gil looks at Eros, wondering if he's imagining the flirtatious tone he's using. Is he?

"Egos don't fall under the umbrella of emergency medicine," she sasses right back at him as she collects up the chest x-rays and scans. She knows what she needs to, "therefore: not my problem."

Eros practically swoons in her direction, "careful, Thena. You'll break some hearts with that attitude."

"Well then I'll send them your way," she mutters, and it's really making small talk so she can leave and get back to her patient.

But Gil can see how one might mistake it for returning a playful jab. He looks at Eros, who now has heart eyes for all the world to see. Gil wonders if it's been like this the whole time--if he's always been this way with her.

Has Eros not liked him this whole time because he has a thing for Thena?

"Thanks for your time," Thena mutters, now eager to return to her patient with both good news and having been proven right (two of her favourite things as a doctor).

"Adieu, my lovely," Eros practically sighs.

Okay, buddy, take it down a notch. Gil tries not to give him a funny look as he opens the door for Thena and follows her out.

This time was promising.

That is, until Ajak swept Thena's arm into hers and all but dragged her into the closest bar to the hospital. Thena had managed to grab the corner of his hoodie and pull him along.

Now he's the official drink watcher, four different cocktails gathered under him like ducklings hiding from a hawk. It's not so bad, he supposes. He is sitting down after a long day, and one of these drinks is Thena's.

She's not nearly as into it as the other Emerge staff who followed them, but for Ajak's sake, she's here, and she's doing her best to have a good time. She's had half of a single vodka cran, while Ajak is somehow on her sixth tequila shot and hasn't even blinked.

"Nurses are a different breed."

Gil smiles as she sits down right next to him, watching as Ajak finds new victims to dance with her. Indeed, the other night nurses swarm around her, all of them dancing out the strife of their unreasonable working hours.

Thena reaches under him for the rest of her drink. "Sorry."

He looks at her, surprised as she sheepishly takes a sip from the dinky little cocktail straw in her glass.

"I've blown off Ajak ten times for every one, now, but-" she sighs, giving him her cutest pout and with those big, beautiful eyes of hers (unfair). "I didn't want to come without you."

"Hey, I'm not allergic to a drink after work," he chuckles, and sees the relief on her face straight away (she's more of a lightweight than she thinks she is). He motions around his brood of drinks, "besides, I'm here on important business."

She laughs, and he loves that sound. "Yes, you are taking up a very important vigil for us."

Gil shrugs, looking down at the drinks getting more watery by the second in the warmth of the bar. None of them are his; he opted to be the designated driver in case everyone - including his work wife - wanted to get drunk. "I don't mind."

Thena leans closer to him in her seat; he does the same. "I knew you wouldn't. I guess the girls felt the same."

Gil grins at her, "should I take that as a compliment, or that they don't see me as an eligible bachelor?"

Jokes aside, Thena looks at him, "are you?"

Gil looks at her too, gulping down the bait eagerly, "am I?"

Thena shifts in her seat, looking down at her pathetic single shot drink again. She tugs at the 3/4 sleeves of her white sweater. "W-Well-"

"Gil!"

He only looks at Ajak for a second, but he can see that look in her eye. He shakes his head, "no!"

"Gil," she sing-songs to him again, swaying her way over to him.

"No, no, no," he shakes his head more fervently, leaning closer to Thena for protection, "I'm the drink watcher."

"Thena's here now," Ajak waves off as she reaches to drag him up by the hoodie. She sinks her claws into him before looking at Thena, "you don't mind if we steal him, do you?"

He looks at her, pleading for help.

Thena laughs, "all yours."

He pouts at her as Ajak drags him to the circle of other night nurses shouting their glee, "betrayed by my own wife!"

Okay, this isn't a great time, he'll admit that.

Thena is in the field with him and Kingo. They got a call for a car accident with more injured than just he and Kingo could handle. Kingo is driving while she's in the back of the bus with him.

"That's quite a few," Thena mutters as she looks over the details sent by the dispatchers. It's at least two cars worth. "Why are there so many?"

"It was a kid in his 20s who called it in," Gil adds, leaning over her shoulder, "maybe there's more than five of them per car."

Thena huffs, snapping on some gloves with a particular fury, "kids."

As soon as the doors are open, they hear the screech of brakes and the crunch of metal against metal.

Gil looks down at her. She's wincing. "Thena?"

She shakes her head; she's shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Her leg is bothering her.

"Hey," Gil whispers, bending slightly to look at her. He moves in front of her, blocking off the sight of the crash (that just seems to be getting worse and worse). "Hey, it's me."

She looks at him then, and he can see that she's trying to keep a grip on herself.

He still thinks about that night--finding her pinned under that car. He still wonders if it would have happened at all if he had been by her side.

"Thena," he calls to her, pulling her eyes until they can lock onto his. He leans close to her, "just focus on me."

She nods faintly, her rapid breathing just starting to slow.

"That's it," he whispers, doing what he can to offer her shelter in the middle of the chaos that's already around them. "Just breathe."

She does so. If anything it sounds like it's hard for her to do, at the moment.

"I'm right here, baby," he whispers, letting his lips brush over her forehead. If he could sweep her into his arms and cuddle and kiss her better, he would. But this isn't the place, and it certainly isn't the time. "Just focus on me."

Thena gives her head one more shake, her ponytail flailing behind her. She sniffs back the beginning of tears and nods.

"Yeah?" he asks, giving her a long look to determine if she can do this or if she needs to tap out and call for someone else.

"Yeah," she nods. She's not her usual self, but even on an off day, she's more than strong enough to handle this. She snaps her gloves again and looks towards the wreckage--now complete with a third car in the pileup, "yeah."

"Okay," Gil whispers, following her lead as she runs to assist Kingo.

This time is at least better than last time.

The day hasn't been too bad. Thena's part way through a 24 hour shift while he's at the tail end of an 18-er. They're stealing what little rest they can in an on-call room.

And he does mean rest. Thena was already asleep when he found her and he crawled into bed with her less than two hours ago. He dozed off for a little bit and now he's just watching her.

She is so beautiful.

She doesn't wear makeup, because why would she in this line of work? Maybe she has mascara or something, but he's pretty sure that's just how lovely she is, all on her own. Her skin is flushed from sleep, and the hair curtained around her cheeks is mussed from tossing and turning.

How he loves her.

Thena turns over from being the little spoon. She always turns over so violently in her sleep--she doesn't just roll over, she turns and jerks and kicks. It's cute, though.

Gil rubs her back as she snuggles into him. This is an old song and dance for them, now. He sighs as he smells vanilla. She's using a new shampoo. She's been really into vanilla as of late.

"Gil," she sighs, but that doesn't mean she's awake.

He kisses her forehead, "honey?"

"Gil," she purrs again, stretching against him like a cat and pushing her nose into his shoulder. She giggles a little.

God, she'll be the death of him. He tickles her cheek with the back of his finger, "you awake, sweetie?"

"Hm," she groans, and that's Thena awake. She would never willingly be so adorable when she's conscious enough to feel embarrassed. "How long?"

He looks at his watch, "three-ish?--maybe four?"

"Not bad," she grumbles, going limp again after her stretching. She yawns against his shirt, and the heat of her breath makes the rest of him shiver. Her hand grasps at his hoodie, pulling it more over her. "You?"

"Maybe an hour or two," he whispers, pulling her closer and letting her steal all of his warmth that she wants.

She sighs, finally looking up at him. She blinks slowly, because everything about her is lazy and reluctant when she first wakes up in the morning.

She kisses him first this time. But he's all too happy to kiss her back, lips meeting lips in the silent on-call room. He can still hear the bustle of the of the hospital outside, but in here, it's just him and Thena.

Thena whimpers as he kisses her a little more firmly. "There's no time."

"I know," he whispers back. It doesn't stop him.

She doesn't stop either, letting her tongue slide against his, morning breath aside. Her hand tangles into his and she arches her back slightly, knocking her dainty little shoulder against his meaty one.

"Thena," he whispers, and it comes out a little rough. His watch beeps and she rolls her eyes. "I told you there was no time."

"Fine, go," she flops onto the on-call bed again as if he's dropped her from six feet up.

He chuckles, kissing the corner of her lips, "sorry, sweetheart. Next time."

"Hm," she crosses her arms at him as he climbs over her to get out of bed. She rolls over into his spot, "leave the hoodie."

"And where is yours?" he asks, even as he's pulling off his work hoodie to leave it for her.

"At home," she answers shamelessly, even reaching out for the garment with grabby fingers.

Gil does her one better, laying it over her preciously and leaning down to kiss her cheek, "fine, but I only get so many of these, y'know."

"Hm," she doesn't reply, inhaling as she pulls the hood up to her chin, "go, you're needed."

He chuckles on his way out the door, "I'm gonna get jealous of that thing."

"Don't," she at least looks at him before he leaves, "it's not as warm as you."

Maybe he should just give up.

He's not some pining schoolboy, desperate to hold her hand in the hallway. He likes what they have, and he liked it even before the sex. She will always be enough for him.

He catches the increasingly familiar scent of vanilla as she sits down with her coffee. He looks at her, a pen behind her ear and vanilla latte in her hand and crumbs of power bar on her lip.

She doesn't even blink as he wipes her crumbs away for her, "thanks."

"You're off in 10, right?" he guesses, still taking her in carefully as she flips through charts.

"Mmhm," she confirms as she scribbles a truly horrendous signature on paper after paper. "You?"

"Same," he confirms. He tilts his head to look at her better, "vanilla again?"

"Hm," she brings the cup up to her lips. She's barely listening.

"You really like it suddenly, huh?"

"Well, you said-"

He looks at her more closely, and now she's aware of what she's said. She's aware of her mistake. He leans closer, and she looks away from him more. "I said what?"

"Nothing," she mumbles, trying to bury herself between the pages of charts.

"Nu-uh," he chuckles, even pulling the completed charts away from her. He tilts his head further down, catching her trying to avoid his eyes. "What did I say?"

She fidgets a little now that her hands are bereft of distraction. "You just...mentioned that you like it, is all."

He doesn't even remember it, he must have said it so casually, just in passing. He grins, "the vanilla lattes, the shampoo--the candle at your place?"

She huffs, obviously embarrassed, "and? I happen to like it too!"

Gil's smile continues to grow, which he knows isn't helping her feel less embarrassed. But he adores her--he loves this woman so much. He leans in, kissing her cheek, "aw, honey."

Thena squirms, pushing his face away from hers as colour rises in her cheeks, "ugh, it's not a big deal."

Gil lets her press her fingers to his lips, because even that's still a kiss. His heart is skipping around happily in his chest and he realises now is the time. "Hey."

She peeks at him anxiously, still blushing faintly, "hm?"

"I'm off," he begins and she nods at the obvious being pointed out. He gestures, "you're off."

She nods, still not getting it.

"You wanna...?"

She tilts her head at him, "get...food? My place or yours?"

He leans closer, and he catches that look she gets sometimes when he leans in close but doesn't do anything more. She looks flustered. "I was thinking...out."

"Out?"

"Out."

"Like," she blinks and looks away from him again, not that there's anywhere to go with them just sitting on a gurney parked by the elevators. "Go...out?"

He can lead his Thena to water, but he can't make her say it. He pulls her hand into his, clasping their fingers together, "like a date. What do you say?"

He asks it gently, and if she says no, he'll let it go completely. He'll never bring it up again. He might need a few days to lie around his apartment and listen to breakup ballads, but he'll never bring it up again.

Thena looks down at their hands, that lovely rouge coming back to her cheeks. She nods, and if he weren't watching her so closely, he might miss it. She swallows, "okay."

"Yeah?" he asks, and the Goddess of War refuses to meet his eye as she nods again, more clearly this time. "Dinner?"

She nods again, letting go of his hand and standing off the gurney. "I, uh, I'll need to-"

He just stares with a dumb grin as her hands flutter around her. He's pretty sure she means she has to get ready, although he'd be happy to go to a five star restaurant with her in scrubs. "Sure--I'll pick you up at home?"

She nods, holding her charts desperately as she makes it partway down the hall. "Right."

"Half an hour?" he suggests, enamoured with the sight of her nearly tripping as she finally turns away from him.

"An hour!"

She doesn't need all that time, but he supposes he can go home and shower and shave, throw on some cologne. Maybe he can pick up some flowers for her on his way. She likes roses.

Sixth time's the charm.

[prophecystation]

i feel like discourse about hockey (and sport in general) would really improve a lot if more people realized that spectator sport is a form of narrativized media and applied their literacy skills accordingly

[inthelittlegenny]

tavern talk is great; just completed it. 10/10 would recommend if you want something super chill (i'm going to ramble in the tags so probably spoilers)

[marinecorvid]

on the endless list of things to do: work out scifi android/cyborg “nonexistent” govt agent who goes rogue and finds her way home to the desert beyond the broad strokes of it

[tofixtheshadows]

Sorry but Kabru is so fascinating to me as a character, in a pure mechanical sense, because of what Ryoko Kui does with him. Everything about him is a red herring. He's deliberately introduced as some kind of rival for Laios, a party leader who is hopeless against monsters but absolutely brilliant with people both in and out of combat, and who has good reason to oppose him.

By the end of chapter 31, you might even think Kabru's going to end up as some sort of anti-villain, an antagonist with the best of intentions who nevertheless tries to foil our hero's plans. He wants to defeat the Mad Mage himself, he suspects Laios of being too irresponsible to be trusted with control of the dungeon, and his crew even thinks that Laios's party stole from them (and they're kind of right!). All signs point towards an inevitable showdown.

And then ... none of that happens.

Confrontation over the stolen treasure? Kabru is literally too smart to fall for the classic miscommunication trope and correctly decides it's not worth making a big deal of.

Kabru's deadly PVP skills? Aside from trying to take down Falin, he never fights another human again.

Wanting to be the one who defeats the dungeon? Turns out he was only doing that because he didn't think any other adventurer would have people's best interests at heart, and he's more than willing to play a support role in the whole affair.

Thinking Laios is up to no good? He really did just want to get to know the guy more. He has his misgivings, but ultimately ends up trusting Laios with his life.

Is Kabru going to get some sort of comeuppance for hating monsters and not appreciating their ecosystem? Well no, he has good reasons for hating monsters. He ends up wanting to learn about them through Laios's eyes, but he's never forced into any "Wow, guess I was wrong about them!" revelation.

Hell, even his implied ladykiller ways, which might lead you to think he'll end up being the stock "chivalrous lech" type of character, don't really manifest. He has a lot of opportunities to act flirtatiously around women, but doesn't. He's just a guy whose natural charisma makes him into human catnip.

And that's all hysterical to me, to pull it off. It's a fascinating way to tell a story. To introduce a character explicitly as a rival, potentially even a villain, and instead make them a deuteragonist. It's like a magician making a coin disappear, then slowing down their trick to show you the misdirection. "Did you see what I did there?" they ask with a wink. "The coin was in my other hand the entire time."

[sunderwight]

Been thinking about the potential of a Luo Binghe transmigration fic where he has a similar experience to Shen Yuan's -- meaning, he transmigrates into a story that didn't originally have a "Luo Binghe", but rather a different character with a similar name, and Bingmei himself still has his canonical personality and broad strokes modern version of his backstory (i.e. abandoned, adopted, orphaned, struggling with the foster system, etc), whereas the character he transmigrates into has a different background and personality.

So, concept: Luo Binghe transmigrates into Su Binghe, the spoiled prince of the demon realms, son of Tianlang Jun and Su Xiyan and scum villain of the novel he read.

In said novel, Su Binghe was driven by a perpetual lack of satisfaction with things. He had almost everything handed to him on a silver platter, but none of it seemed to actually matter to him. His parents were powerful and loving, but also extremely busy and somewhat distant. His sibling relationships were soured by the fact that they were all basically raised separately by different groups of servants and expected to compete with one another for the supreme throne of the demon realms one day. The servants who raised him also had only limited authority over him, thanks to his rank, so he was encouraged to be self-centered and tyrannical from an early age because behaving that way helped him get whatever he wanted. Yet he felt ultimately purposeless and lonely, lacking any actual friends or companions.

Shen Yuan, the main character, was the third son of a wealthy noble house and was stolen by demons during a raid on his family's properties. He was rescued by Tianlang Jun's people, who officially disapprove of attacks on humans (special cases like Huan Hua Palace being an exception), but not before the rest of his family was killed or else sold off into less friendly territories. Shen Yuan himself was subsequently taken on as a ward of the emperor, as a sort of apology for the whole deal, and inserted into the somewhat younger Su Binghe's household as a companion and tutor to try and curb the prince's loneliness. The empress also took Shen Yuan on as a personal disciple, as the only person able to teach him human-style cultivation.

This worked about as well as anyone expected, which was to say that the spoiled prince treated his weakling human tutor like his own personal chew toy, blowing hot and cold, manipulating and mistreating, jealously resenting Shen Yuan's attention from his mother while also taking every opportunity to insert himself into the additional lessons as well.

Eventually the situation came to a head, with Shen Yuan lashing back after being pushed to the limits, and Su Binghe using the "attack" as an excuse to exile him in the midst of hostile demon territory. Thus began the protagonist's power-up montage segment, where he was forced to fight and survive, leveling up his skills until he came across Xiu Ya.

Xiu Ya was a legendary sword that had been wielded by an equally legendary human cultivator, an actual secret ancestor of Shen Yuan's, long ago. It was sealed away by a past Heavenly Demon emperor, after its wielder managed to use it to successfully kill one of their kind (a difficult feat). By sealing the blade deep within the demonic realms, the past emperors had assured themselves that no human cultivator would successfully venture so deep into their territories nor uncover its hiding place, and so they mostly warded it against other demons (who might want to return it to the humans in order to sabotage the Heavenly Demons). Thus, Shen Yuan successfully liberated the blade, and after winning a harrowing battle against an ancient evil (boss fight!) with it, he ascended to godhood.

But, even the heavens weren't merciful in this story, and Shen Yuan was tasked with using Xiu Ya to end the threat of the Heavenly Demon race once and for all before he could claim his rightful place among them. If he failed, his soul would be forfeit and Xiu Ya would shatter, eternally condemning the mortal plane to the tyranny of demonic rule.

Luo Binghe absolutely loved the character of Shen Yuan, even though his story was kind of trash, and he did not want to transmigrate into Su Binghe, especially not with a mandate hanging over his head that he had to one day cast his favorite protagonist out into the wilds, and then let him kill Binghe in order to fulfill a mandate from the heavens!

Featuring:

-Modern day culinary student Bingmei, absolutely revolutionizing food prep in the demon realms and desperately wishing he could change the genre to one of those slice-of-life cozy escapist novels instead.

-Bingmei being actually a thousand times sneakier and more self-aware than his predecessor, taking Su Binghe's absolutely pathetic attempts at politics and making it work for him instead (between the foster care system and the food service industry, Bingmei takes no prisoners).

-Su Binghe originally had a sprawling harem by the time Shen Yuan reunited with him. Luo Binghe wants nothing to do with it, so he has to just keep on dodging his parents attempts to set him up in political matches.

-Some of Shen Yuan's original household and family actually did survive, so Luo Binghe dedicates himself to rescuing the rest of them to try and farm points with the protagonist. This results in him retrieving Shen Yuan's brother, Shen Jiu (asshole rat bastard feral cat of a guy, Luo Binghe almost wishes he'd failed), Shen Yuan's personal companions the Liu siblings (terrible decision, Shen Yuan's always waxing poetically about how beautiful they are), Shen Yuan's younger sister Yingying (annoying but nice), Shen Jiu's situationship Yue Qi (there is something deeply wrong with that guy), and the son of the family's head servant, Shang Qinghua (weird rodent man, somehow has evil advisor vibes despite also looking sort of like the designated non-threatening one in an idol group).

-Bingmei identifies Mobei Jun as a fellow transmigrator pretty early on, when he absently whistles the notification sound for a smart phone and Mobei reaches for his pocket. Mobei Jun's approach to transmigrating is basically to say and do as little as possible. Bingmei subsequently doesn't find out that he is in fact the author of the original book until some time after the main plot has passed.

-Despite not wanting to, Bingmei is fully prepared to die in order to secure Shen Yuan's eventual destiny as a god. He only hopes he might go out cleanly and with more sympathy than the original goods got. Imagine his horror when Shen Yuan decides he's going to fight the gods instead of wiping out the Heavenly Demons.