#then again ive said already most of it can be rewritten

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/6/2023

two things to frontload:

if you have good vibes to send off in service of me getting a livable apartment in the greater houston tx area i would be most grateful, bc the hunt ain't fuckin goin too fuckin great

go play ABZÛ

listening

soul bossa nova by quincy jones bc it popped up on my discover weekly. i can only assume spotify recced this to me for bossa nova reasons bc i have been categorically ignoring austin powers my entire life and intend to continue on in this fashion.

it is a bop tho.

-

reading

when i wrote the pinned post for this blog i settled on "a common throughline in Shit What I Like is understanding how and why systems work" bc i hadn't yet listened to Well There's Your Problem, a podcast with slides about engineering disasters and systemic failures, and "OSHA aficionado" is shorter but less snappy than "WTYPP fan". anyway when i think "chemical spill" i do not generally think "hand sanitizer spill", and when i think "how do i get rid of all this unsellable poorly made hand sanitizer made in the early days of the pandemic" i do not immediately leap to "well i'll just dump pallets in this parking lot and warehouse and surely it won't spill and/or explode bc hand sanitizer is a product that makes you safer".

ArtNaturals was, at that point, not on the [FDA warning] list. Its sanitizer, labeled with a tasteful, millennial-friendly design that said it was vegan and infused with jojoba oil, was marketed as “safe for kids” and “a great bulk hand sanitizer pack for parents and teachers.” At least two school districts on the West Coast had purchased the sanitizer to distribute to students, in addition to two Ivy League universities. Then, in March 2021, a year into sales, an independent lab in Connecticut called Valisure announced that it had found benzene in the company’s sanitizer. Benzene, a widely used industrial chemical derived from petroleum, can be absorbed through the skin and is known to be a risk factor for leukemia.

came across it bc my rss feed really wanted me to subscribe to longreads (no), but this one did catch my eye as i was checking to make sure the site still wasn't for me

-

watching

watching this was a unexpectedly funny experience bc i recognized one of the backing instrumentals as a previous tuesdaypost song, which kind of felt like solving a mystery book on chapter three bc u knew an obscure fact about eels. this documentary came out in nov 22 and the song was one of this past feb's tuesdaysongs so i can only assume the spike in popularity from the documentary propelled it onto my discover weekly playlist??? the internet is a series of algorithmic tubes &tc

this is a tremendous work, as a documentary/history/archival effort/piece of art. it made me tear up. there's a very lovely sequence about memory and legacy that got me thinking a lot again about how i would like to be remembered. ive rewritten this section four times, when usually i don't redraft the tuesdaypost much at all. boils down to: complex and weird topic to talk about as an orphan, i am reluctant to be any more emotionally vulnerable than i absolutely have to during this time of great cross-country change and moving upheaval.

i appreciated how this was not tearjerker webby bait, which would have made it feel very hollow and embittered me even more during a week i am already predisposed to hate humanity. instead, mr perjurer is simply very good at his job (being an ethical documentarian)

-

playing

one game i really loved and one game i really hated, so it goes.

despite religiously downloading the epic store free game of the week bc i have a reminder written in my planner, i never fucking remember to actually look at what i have in that library.

ABZÛ genuinely healed my heart during a very unpleasant weekend.

i don't use this as a recs platform except for this one time when i am cashing in all my chips. go play ABZÛ, it takes like an hour and a half.

all you need to know about it you can get from the cover art. it is not a hard game and it is not a horror game. i went in totally blind and the less you know about this game the better. i was delighted nearly every minute. every time i saw an ammonite i felt like i was seeing an old friend. there are SO many clever game design choices i want to talk about. message me after you play this. i said "of COURSE IT WAS AUSTIN FUCKING WINTORY ON THE SCORE" during the credits. what an absolutely goddamn perfect little jewel of a game.

AGAIN: go play ABZÛ.

i also played Call of the Sea, bc it was in my epic library and i wanted something fast and oceanic to continue the high of ABZÛ.

Call of the Sea did not continue the high of ABZÛ. i think this team carefully and thoughtfully sidestepped several of the usual issues is making something Lovecraftian but fell into the rest of the pits. eg i liked that they had Polynesian culture consultants, but from an interview it seemed like it was limited to a one-day crash course? i am deeply grateful this isn't a dead-wife game and the female protagonist has a great deal of agency, but she's still a rich white lady from boston trekking about the Tahitian islands commenting on primitive structures, which made me suck air in through my teeth at many points. there is an "ancient slave culture" thread that never actually resolves. i really wish it resolved. the game overall is in a very weird place, trapped between the norms and mores of the early 40s and the 2020s. you have Got to commit to one or the other.

the overall vibe is very polished for a first game. general vibes are Firewatch but puzzle-adventure. the lighting is a little too dynamic and was very distracting throughout. due to this studio's age (new) and odd location (spain) and how their debut game came out (took a year and a half to make, debuted on gamepass) i understand why this game exists the way it does from a marketing and industry standpoint and why they favored visual polish and art style over everything else. it's still annoying bc it is so close to an interesting game.

the twist particularly infuriated me as a chronically ill person, spoilers for the twist behind rot13

gur gjvfg vf gung Abenu gur cebgnt vf frpergyl n "Qnhtugre bs Pguhyuh", naq ure puebavp cebterffvat gb grezvany vyyarff vf op fur'f ba Rnegu naq abg va gur Urnirayl Ernyzf jvgu Pguhyh jurer fur orybatf. guvf frg bss fbzr fvyrag nynez oryyf gb zr nf n puebavpnyyl vyy crefba, op vg vf Fb fvzvyne gb gur Arj Ntr "vaqvtb puvyqera" pbaprcg. n terng qrny bs zrqvpny nohfr naq abezny nohfr fheebhaqf guvf pbaprcg. guvf ernyyl fbherq gur raqvat sbe zr

-

making

fallow week. if it isn't moving-related it isn't happening, and even then a lot of moving-related things are grinding on painfully slowly

[lilyrealm]

not yours - tom/reader

👉👈 first time posting my writing on tumblr but i NEED to connect with the tom riddle community LOL... so yes. i have a sprawling self insert au in my head but lets not get into that. ive rewritten this drabble so it can be read as a nameless self insert

edit: girl no one told me i accidentally left my self inserts name *and* tomies name in the beginning of this i am SO so sorry to all.

warnings: dubious consent, smut, asphyxiation, impersonation, gender-neutral reader with pussy, dirty talk

summary: past r/s with tom in hogwarts. after graduating, you lose contact with him and find a new boyfriend. he's great, if a little gentle, but recently he's changed... and you find it intriguingly familiar.

You couldn't pinpoint exactly when your boyfriend changed.

Maybe it was when he started to bring you out on dates again. Or when he'd started giving you back massages. Merlin, he even started spicing up your sex life, which you thought he'd never dare to do. Of course, you weren't complaining. This was the most pampered you'd ever felt throughout your entire relationship.

Which was why something felt off about it. He was a sweet guy, but he'd never been this observant before. And something about it felt so familiar...

"Welcome home," he said, greeting you at the door. You shivered as he bent down to kiss you. His kissing had gotten more fervent and dominant as of late. Not that you didn't like it, but sometimes you had a fleeting thought that it hadn't always been like this. He'd been shyer before. Was he just more comfortable with you now?

He pulled you further into the room, distracting you from your thoughts.

"I missed you," he murmured, sitting you down on the sofa with him. His arms encircled you, trapping you in his embrace. You leaned into him, sighing. It had been a long day, and you'd missed him too. Closing your eyes, you tilted your head up to kiss his neck.

His free hand cupped your cheek, cradling you gently. Then, without you noticing, he'd whipped his wand out to Vanish your shirt.

"Hey!"

"Shh," he hushed against your lips, pulling you close. You felt his wand tracing your spine and you stiffened. While you were pressed against him, his other hand reached into your pants. You let out an embarrassed gasp, because you were—

"Already wet?" He dipped his fingers into you, and you let out a strangled sigh.

"So predictable," he chuckled darkly, so lowly you weren't sure you heard it right. "Are you always this much of a slut?"

You moved your hips against his fingers slowly. He'd started dirty talking a lot recently, too. You didn't say you liked it, but he could see the way you blushed and got wetter for him.

You felt rather than heard him Vanish his own pants, and then the sound of his hand rubbing his cock reached your ears.

"Please," you whispered, looking into his eyes. His eyes, dark and tinted with lust, reflected no light as he entered you slowly, one hand gripping your hip. You leaned your head back to let out a soft moan.

"Fuck, you look beautiful," he muttered. He increased the pace, thrusting in you harder. As your nerves coiled in anticipation, suddenly there was a force on your neck, holding it tightly in place. You struggled in vain to take in a breath, barely managing just a bit of oxygen in your lungs. You cast a desperate look around to see what was holding you.

His wand was pointed right at your throat, and as he turned his wrist turned ever so slightly, you felt your airflow get cut off.

You spluttered as he thrusted extra forcefully, and you almost saw stars. Your lungs begged for air, your hands scrabbled uselessly at his shirt. "St—"

The spell lifted suddenly, and he placed the wand aside, so calmly and deliberately you thought you'd imagined it—since when was he so composed during sex? Barely had you taken a breath when his hand was on your throat. Not as tight as magic, but somehow worse, because you could feel the force shifting with his movements. Every time he pushed into you, he pressed against your throat too. You reached up to grab at his hand, but he was stronger than you, and the heat coiling within you was taking up all your attention.

"Darling, you are a vision to behold." You barely registered the sentence, a lower timbre than normal. In front of you, his brown eyes seemed to flicker red for a moment. Just as you thought you might pass out, he loosened his grip. Oxygen flowed into your lungs, and you took in several deep breaths.

"Stop, I can't... I'm gonna..." you panted, your mind a mess as you struggled to take in air and deal with your approaching orgasm, about to reach your peak.

"Come for me," he commanded, capturing your lips in a kiss as he spilled his cum inside of you. You kissed back desperately, holding onto him as an anchor. He let you ride it out, his fingers rubbing circles into your back. It was a strangely kind gesture, after what he'd just did. Even more surprising was when he noticed the tears in your eyes. He brushed them away gently, and you couldn't help but stiffen at the touch. A less attentive man might not have noticed, but lately, your boyfriend could see right through you.

You breathed in slowly, trying to steady your trembling hands. He turned to cup your face, waiting for you to meet his gaze. You eventually did, and you wondered if he could see the fear in your eyes.

"Did you like it, baby?" he murmured, leaning in close, kissing your throat softly where he'd choked you. You swallowed nervously.

"Could you... warn me, next time?" you asked tentatively.

He held you close and didn't answer, a smile on his face.

[blorbosondeck]

fic rec masterlist

canon divergent/finale fix its

Anamnesis

THIS! FIC! this fic lives in my head rent FREE it is so good and it makes so much sense in the narrative that the shitty finale concocted, as to why they wouldn't mention cas or anyone else and its just. so good and they write chuck in the most villainous way that i love!!!

"Chuck is depowered, Jack is the new god, and the world is free. Dean and Sam get into the Impala and chase down the miles on an endless highway, and their story is finally, finally their own to follow. At least, that's what Dean tells himself. But the diners and motels and painted interstate lines are blurring together and the smallest details keep catching at his brain like tiny fishhooks and he can't quite shake the feeling that not everything is exactly as it should be. Fix-it/alternate series finale. Canon-compliant through the end of 15.19."

Sunset Sound: Stairway to Heaven by @adhdeancas

GOD FUCKING CHRIST this is so good and sweet and im such a sucker for team ups and reunions!!! its 3:30 am rn and i just finished it and i love it SO much it made me laugh a lot and the last few chapters i had the stupidest grin just plastered to my face

The Closer the Star, the Greater the Parallax by @rocksalts​

repressed bastard dean submits to the mortifying ordeal of being known and receives the rewards of being loved but only after some miscommunication i LOVE this i read it last night and it’s a fast favorite. my interests have overlapped and i am INTO it

“When Dean sits down to watch some bullcrap Discovery Channel episode with Cas, he doesn’t expect to actually learn anything. Except, with Cas explaining, he makes an effort to connect the dots.”

Don't We All Deserve To Be Happy?

VERY sweet and a VERY good pick me up. all around feel good fic!!! 

"Post-canon fix-it, divergent from 15x19 where Jack stays and Dean doesn't die and Cas comes back and everyone is happy. Take a shot every time I'm salty about the finale."

Keep Your Love Alive

okay. okay okay okay this may be my favorite finale fix it just because of how well reasoned it is. like this feels what should have happened i love it SO much

"Dean gets to spend eternity sharing beers with Bobby on the Roadhouse porch and riding around in his Baby with Sam. He’s at peace… or he feels like he should be. But a few things nag at him: Where is Cas, and everybody else Dean had been hoping to see in Heaven? Why does he feel like he’s stuck in a loop, reliving the same memories over and over again? And who are the strangers wearing Sam’s and Bobby’s faces?"

The GoldenRod Revisions by @aethylas​

this is one of the most well written things ive ever read. the script format DID make it feel more real and honestly? this is better writing than this show deserves. the finale that could have been ♥️

“A rewrite of Supernatural’s final two episodes, expanded into a five episode arc - in which Chuck needs to be defeated, Castiel deserves to be saved, and the characters in this story get a very different ending.“

Ascend by @wanderingcas​ 

THEE finale fix it fic!!! written by the AMAZINGLY skilled and talented @wanderingcas !!! it’s 50k of angst and hurt/comfort and pure bliss

“Something in the world is wrong.

Demon activity is rising where mysterious black substance oozes and unusual ecological events are shaking the world. Dean, grief hanging on his shoulders, restlessly searches for answers that might lead him to the Empty… and to Cas.

But what Chuck wrote can’t be undone. The narrative thread pulls Dean along, forcing him to comply. Because once a story already has an ending, it can’t be rewritten.

Or can it?”

Things Happen (They Do, And They Do, And They Do) by THEE @sobsicles

i KNOW everyone has already recommended this and likely you’ve all already read it. but it has to go here bc REPRESSIOOOOOOOOON i LOVE this so much it is one of the most perfect things i’ve read. are you bisexual? did you have a kind of weird relationship with your best friend and not realize that how you felt about them wasn’t necessarily how other people felt about them and you were maybe a little bit in love with them but were too repressed to realize it? you’ll feel seen. maybe a little too seen

Closer (isn't close enough)

are you a sweet and sappy yet horny bastard? do you like cas exploding light bulbs? you will like this.

“the one where they finally talk about what cas said before the empty took him”

You and Your Husband

it is exTRMELY sweet!!! repression dean strikes again <3

"Five times Dean corrects someone about his relationship with Cas, and one time he realizes he doesn't need to."

Tall Grass

miscommunication and a slowburn! despite being written in 2017 and finished in 2018, it feels like a fix it. ft. plant obsessed cas <3 

Invictus

a LOVELY and short (relatively) finale fix it

“They saved the world. They're free. It's done.

Except it's not, and carrying on is the last thing any of them are thinking about.

They still have someone they need to save.”

Unchained Link

post finale- it’s a great case fic and i am compelled i want more!!!

"It's after the end of things. Life continues on while Dean is "livin it up" in heaven. But it's never that simple, is it? A freak occurrence sends Dean into another time stranded back on Earth. And he thought his hunting days were over. But, no worries. His knight in shining armor comes to the rescue. Hijinks, therefore, ensue."

fun and time unspecified

Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Love Potion No. 5

very funny and sweet! miscommunication at its finest ♥️

"Cas gets drenched with a mystery potion from the ‘love spell’ shelf and... Dean has a sneaking suspicion, angel or no— the spell may have taken effect. And Cas might be in love with Sam."

The Way We Were

Y'all. It is so good its a great mix of funny and serious- extremely fun to see dean as like a base bisexual

"Dean and Castiel pose as a couple to gain access to a gated community known as 'The Glen', a pleasant if secretive location that the boys believe might be linked to several dead bodies showing up over the years bearing signs of ritualistic sacrifice. All seems well until Dean's memory is affected from an incident during a solo exploration, leaving Dean convinced that their cover story is true. Castiel is left trying to resolve their case without taking advantage of an increasingly enthusiastic Dean"

While You Were Sleeping

this is basically just the movie but replacing sandra bullock with cas. this is my comfort movie and imo, one of the most perfect rom coms. the fic isn’t finished but i still have the tab open on my phone and i will straight up go back and re read it when i need a pick me up. 

aus/rewrites

The Harvelle Gospels: Offscript

i know everyone ever ( @jewishcharliebradbury ) has recommended this fic. and for good reason go fucking read it

“The Apocalypse is averted, the angels are in Heaven, and Jo is free from the threat of possession. Somehow it couldn't be farther from a happy ending.“

absolute riots

An Ineffably Profound Bond

i honestly would have put this in the finale fix it section! look. i know. i know you've been burned by crossover fics before. but this is Thee good omens/spn fic you want. its funny as hell and immensely satisfying. im weak for everyone working together tropes and that is this

"After Chuck sets 'The End' in motion, the remaining members of TFW make a miraculous escape. Not willing to waste any time, Castiel comes up with a plan to travel to one of the other worlds to try and get help from the angels there, but after a fight with Dean, it's the hunter who gets sent into an alternate universe,with seemingly no hope of return.

When a mysterious human with a heavenly weapon shows up in Aziraphale's shop, he and Crowley learn that their world is not the only one. Now it is up to them to decide whether or not they want to join forces with the human and help him save his world or simply find a way to send him home."

Somebody Up There Likes Me by @lafilleredige

cas is hit with a spell that turns his vessel into a woman, hijinks and sexuality crises ensue etc etc sam is a supportive and bitchy little brother and its all SO fucking funny and also. horny as hell i love it i love it i LOVE it

“’Dean doesn’t want to talk about your breasts, it’s making him uncomfortable because he hasn’t acknowledged the complex fluidity of human sexuality.’“

Stray Cat Strut

a long crack fic that IS one of the funniest things i’ve ever read and i can’t explain why. it’s so ooc but its so funny that i don’t care. if you need a laugh you gotta read this

"Sam and Cas are immediately in love with the adorable kitty they find outside the bunker door, and occupy their time planning how to convince Dean--who they believe is off sulking after a botched hunt--to let them keep their cat. Along the way, Dean learns to use a litter box and hears some confessions he maybe wasn’t supposed to hear, all while realizing just how much he loves Castiel.

Now all Dean has to do is convince Cas and Sam their new pet cat is actually him before they do something crazy--like neuter him!"

canon compliant or slight canon divergence

Give

by @doublestuffedimpala post season 7 episode 7, kind of ambiguous ending but truly a cas is happy to bleed for the winchesters fic

Punch Like Bones 

short, post 5x04 homoerotic moment that i wish we’d gotten

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Epilogue: Ja Mata, Friends

I finally finished the Main Story Quest Rewritten Series! Yaaaaay! *Kermit Flail!*

Erii settled down on her knees and opened her little red suitcase. She wrote down on the paper notepad that she was supposed to be going to Korea to start a new life, but you notice that she didn’t pack very much. 

Your body still aches terribly to the point where you wanted to puke. Your eyes rolled with fatigue. But Erii was showing you her things and writing down her words in her way to chat with you even though you could only stare blankly.

You were in the middle of a graveyard of bones. The cooling effect of the broken canister of liquid nitrogen mixed with the spring air and created a dense fog in the Red Well. But you could still see the outlines of ribs, femurs and skulls among the pile of debris. Charred skeletons embraced each other in battle and deadpool remains mixed with human remains. It reminded you of a scene in an ancient fossilized tar pit. Over hundreds or thousands of years, countless animals and people fell into the pit and died together. Archeologists discovered them but their bones were all mixed up.

Erii showed you her Roman shoes, her white strapped shoes, her hairpins, stockings and ribbons all neatly packed. Then she showed you her little toys. Then she showed you her postcards.

“On April 24th, I went to Tokyo Sky Tree with Sakura. The warmest place in the world is on the Sky Tree.”

“On April 26th, I went to Meiji Shrine with Sakura. Someone held a wedding there.”

“On April 25th, I went to the amusement park with Sakura. The haunted house was scary, but with Sakura there it wasn’t so scary.”

You blink sleepily and suppress a yawn to avoid the pain of stretching your bones. “Hmm… at Christmas, I will take you to see Siberia.”

She nods seriously as this is a solemn vow to her.

Erii quietly took out some of her clothes and pressed them against your skin. The battle had ruined the last remnants of your wedding dress. She opened a blouse and slid it on your arms, pausing when you flinched and hissed in pain, only to continue when you relaxed. Then she buttoned up the front for you. She handed you her skirt and slipped it over your body. 

A soft noise, like a stone rolling down a hill made you sit up in alarm. Erii pressed one hand to your shoulder to keep you from standing. She wrote in her notebook. “Sakura is here.”

You blink at an approaching, staggering human shaped shadow in the fog. For a second, you think it’s Z and your heart lifts. In a few more seconds, Lu Mingfei came into view. Erii with her amazing hearing had already sensed his approach. That explained why she had dressed you and covered you up.

The man looked exhausted and soaked to the bone. At the sight of Erii’s wave, he relaxed to near collapse. “You’re here!” He exclaimed.

Lu Mingfei stumbled the rest of the way into her arms. He hugged her tightly and after a long time, he quietly began to cry. You watched them embrace, feeling happy for them at first, and your eyes grow dull.

Chance was gone. Ruri Kazama was gone too. He fell asleep in the mind of Chime and you would never be so greedy as to use the clapper on him to bring him back. Chime was off somewhere with his brother. It was uncertain if you’d ever see him again. Somehow, you’d seen the world, been wooed by the most beautiful men of Tokyo and still had ended up alone with no one to hold you and cry. 

Lu Mingfei had arrived in a black Mercedes and that’s what you took to get out of this place. You fell asleep on your way there.

You woke up days later to an IV in your arm in the comfort of the luxury suite. You stare up at the princess canopy. You’re surprised. How could it be that this place remained untouched throughout the whole disaster? Ruri Kazama knew your room. Perhaps by his fierce order, all the Devil Clan members knew not to destroy the bedroom of his precious love.

“MC…” A familiar voice speaks out of the dimly lit corner. You sit up. 

Renata was sitting next to your bedside. Her long blond hair was down over her bare shoulders. She wore a frilly blue lace top and a light yellow skirt with a white obi belt at her waist. A black knee brace interrupted her silhouette. For a moment you stare silently into each other’s eyes, expressionless. 

“Is there still a bug in this room?” You ask.

“I had Fingel remove it.” She said, standing and sitting next to you on your bed.

You finally wrap your arms around her, rest your head in her chest, and the tears roll down your face. Renata doesn’t cry but the strength in her arms as they hold you, so firm and so tightly, conveys her thoughts. You slept for twenty years and traveled all the way across the world. You’d fought with monsters and devils, gangsters and gods. But you still managed to find each other in the end. In this secret hide away in the dark, you could hold each other again. You press your ear to her chest and listen to that strong heavy heartbeat and hear her breathe in and out. “Renata… I loved you back then.”

“I thought so too. I was too embarrassed to say anything about it. I was afraid of getting in trouble with the nurses. But please. Continue to call me Zero. It’s more than my new identity. It’s who I am now.” She pulled away from you slightly. “Do you know about… him?”

You know she’s talking about Z and you nod. “A little.”

“Please keep it to yourself.” Her eyes were gentle, but her voice held a command. “There are things that are still far beyond that we cannot understand. But if you stay useful to the end, he will not leave you.”

It takes three months for everything to settle and, in the meantime, you stay with the men in Takamagahara Night Club. Your bloodline test returns completely clean and you are installed as a full member of Cassell College.  You don’t tell them how it happened, that you were bitten by the Light King parasite and filled head to toe with its fetal blood. When Erii embraced you, the effect was the same. She bathed in the blood of a young dragon and her bloodline issues resolved. In Caesar’s report, he simply states that your bloodline problems were clerical errors and you were never a dangerous hybrid.

In those months, the club Takamagahara was fully restored. Though Tokyo still lies in ruins, a great final performance has been arranged. You settle in your seat next to Zero and she looks at you and smiles.

The curtain was slowly opened. Caesar’s fingers ran across the keys of a piano, Chu Zihang blew out the first note on the saxophone and the applause rolled over like a tide. The spotlights swayed over them and the banners that read “Love Sakura!” “BasaraKing forever!” and “Sacred Ukyo!”

Zero huffed to your right. “Someone should stand behind Lu Mingfei before he faints.”

Erii sat next to you on your left and held up a sign. “Go Sakura!”

Tonight is his debut show and the farewell show for the three of them. The theme is ``Goodbye, Ikemen Team.” The TV regrettably announced that BasaraKing, Ukyou, and Little Sakura would be returning to the United States due to their expiring contract. Tonight is their last performance. They would also be ending their careers as performers, so this was truly Sayounara.

All the tickets were sold out in advance. Not even VIPs could get a hold of them. Whole bar fixtures were removed to accommodate more guests. The dance floor was full of women, young and old. Everyone was dressed in costumes from shiny sexy short skirts to dignified long black sleeves. In order to ensure safety, the Metropolitan Police Department temporarily activated traffic control measures and everyone had to walk to the Takamagahara.

Apparently, Cassell had pulled some sort of mass brainwashing. All the people who witnessed the raging deadpool in the club suddenly didn’t remember it that way at all. They only remembered you and the boys protecting and helping people during the storm and that was it. Cassell was scarily efficient at hiding the truth of the world from the world.

Lu Mingfei stepped to the microphone and looked at Erii and sang a shaky little “Sayounara.” He picked up the champagne on the piano cover and drank.

You only understand the word Sayounara in the song. It’s all in Japanese. Lu Mingfei might not have the best voice, but he does have the best Japanese of the three. You quickly pick up a handkerchief. “Erii… don’t cry! Come on, you have to give your support! You can still chat over Line tonight.”

There was no more fear that Erii would rage out of control and kill everyone. So she was free to express sad emotions like this. Now her red eyes ran with tears. “I want to go to the US with Sakura.” She wrote.

“And you will! You will! Eventually… Don’t despair okay?”

The best theater speakers in Tokyo were tuned to the use of the Takamagahara. The sound from the subwoofers burst like ten thousand cannons. Caesar’s piano skills were handed down to him from the world’s top masters and flowed into the sound system. Chu Zihang’s saxophone was also very good. The musical emotional refrain climbed higher and higher. And then when the hall seemed to no longer be able to accommodate such surging music, the top of the hall suddenly opened letting in the moon and starlight.

The spring had turned to summer and the warm air of the seaside city flooded in. You look up at the star strewn sky and grin. Your hand tightens on Zero’s hand. “Make a wish.” You whisper.

Caesar got up from the piano and Chu Zihang put down the saxophone. They all walked to Lu Mingfei’s side and the three took each other’s hands and bowed deeply. 

Cries and applause swept the stage like a storm. And the enthusiasm can't be contained. Women rushed the stage to embrace the young men who were leaving but the stage was too high to climb. So they throw roses, thousands of roses until the stage is covered with bright red, pink and white.

“Ukyou! Ukyou! BasaraKing! Basaraking! I love you! Don’t leave!”

It was time for the final rankings of the performers. At this moment, the spotlight suddenly came on to Lu Mingfei. Whale who had lost an arm in the disaster strode onto the stage. “According to Takamagahara practice, whether Little Sakura stays in our warm family depends on one thing - love! That is, your love!” Whale shouted. “Only the flower tickets of your love can get him to stay. So vote for him. Waiter! Please reveal how much love did LIttle Sakura get during his internship?”

A waiter came with an envelope on the platter. Whale tore it open with his teeth and shouted “320 flower tickets!”

“Oh…” You wince. Poor Lu Mingfei. Chu Zihang and Caesar and easily gathered over 900 ticket buyers in a few days. And after months here Lu Mingfei couldn’t gather half that.

But Whale continued. “In addition to the flower tickets purchased before the show, the total is 100,320 flower tickets! Congratulations Little Sakura, you passed the internship period and you are now a member of our Takamagahara club family!”

Whale took a check from his pocket. A projector enlarged the check until it was the whole background of the stage. It was a check for 100 million yen. Lu Mingfei stood in stunned silence. The check was signed by Erii Uesugi.

Erii had stood up at the end of the show but now she held up a new sign with a sad silent face. The sign read clearly. “Sakura, please stay.”

“Oh… Oh Erii…” Your heart was moved by this. You reach out to her.

Zero takes your arm and whispers urgently. “You have to go now. Or else you’ll miss them.”

You hesitate. Erii doesn’t look at you or shift from that spot. Lu Mingfei stares at her over the crowd but the curtain goes down in front of him. Zero is pushing you now and you have to go.

Erii still stands there even though the curtain is down.

Zero drags you out a side entrance to a waiting Alfa Romero Sports car.

“You can comfort her later.” Zero says as she shuts the door of the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Yeah…” You buckle up and then do a double take. “Since when did you learn how to drive?”

“Since forever ago.” She turned her head and backed out of the alley and sped down the street so fast you were pressed into the leather. 

The helicopter was parked in a large parking lot two blocks away and the eight executive members of the Hydra lined up to send the Cassell team off. After this incident, the Japanese branch was established again, but a new agreement was signed. Anjou gave up his personal control over the branch, though he still holds the highest decision making power.

The last surviving member of the original family was Nanami Sakurai and she was promoted as Minister of Japan and the new acting director of the Executive Bureau. Chisei and his brother were missing in action and assumed dead. But before his disappearance, Chisei had left the leadership to Mrs. Sakurai. Caesar and Anjou spoke to Mrs. Nanami and she was impressed by their words enough to let you have a special internship and training as a White King bloodline operative and you would be handling all matters when it came to the Devil Clan and unstable hybrids.

“These small gifts left by the clan chief are not quite high end,” Crow gave sunscreen in glass bottles to Casear, Anjou, Lu Mingfei, Zero, and Fingel. “They’re his whole collection. He was really serious about going and selling sunscreen.”

“I’ll smear it on the prettiest girl’s back for him.” Caesar said.

“That would make him happy. That’s what he looked forward to the most.” Crow said.

Your heart aches slightly, thinking of Sakura Yabuki. You wondered where Chisei was now. You hoped he managed to find peace somewhere with his brother.

Caesar approached you. “Are you going to be alright by yourself?”

Your lips curl upward. Then you dip your head and delicately remove your contact lenses. Your eyes are glowing golden, permanently. One didn’t just brush up against the experience of being a dragon king and not be left with some sequelae. “Caesar… Are you going to be alright by yourself?” You ask in a sly voice.

Caesar averts his eyes. “Okay, okay, point taken.”

You replace the contacts in your eyes. “I’m no Caesar Gattuso, but I think I can hold my own here.”

Caesar’s eyes soften. “We’re going to look for him.”

Your smile fades. “Don’t look too hard.” Your chest aches again. “Chime needs time. And so do I.”

Caesar pulls you into a tight hug. You inhale deeply and focus on the bright sweet scent of tobacco. “Don’t forget to text me when you get in. And tell Nono I said hello.”

“I will.”

You approach Lu Mingfei. His eyes are dim and he doesn’t look up. You shake your head. You’re living because of this guy, so you can’t punch him or threaten him too badly. You tap his nose and he looks up at you, looking irritated. 

“Better step up, pretty boy. She went through a lot for you.”

“I know… I... “ Lu Mingfei rubbed the back of his head.

“Don’t say anything! I’m having the hardest time not dragging you back to the Takamagahara right now. It’s 100 mil yen man… come on.” You suddenly hug him tight.

“Ow! Ow! Have you been working out or something? Geez you’re gonna leave a bruise!” He whined.

“Text her.” That’s the last you say to Lu Mingfei.

You approach Chu Zihang. He looked down at you with golden eyes hidden behind black eyed contact lenses. Even now, you didn’t feel particularly close to him, especially not close enough to hug. Chu Zihang was holding a long white wood box that contained Chisei’s swords anyway. He nodded once to you.

“I will be following your progress closely.” He said.

Principal Anjou was blowing out a puff on his cigar as you approached him. He handed you a small white card. “This is your official Cassell Credentials. You’ll be on remote study, but given your performance, you can study at your leisure.”

“Thank you, Principal. I would like to learn Japanese, and how to drive faster than Zero.”

Zero looked up from where she was about to board the helicopter and rolled her eyes at you, but there was a trace of a smile on her lips.

The helicopter took them up into the sky and you watched as its white light disappeared like a shooting star flying into the distance, taking your friends away across the ocean to the United States. 

You turned back to Crow who bowed deeply until he was horizontal. “Mrs. Chief. Forgive my bad English, but your car is ready to go to your new accommodations at the Hydra headquarters in Genji Heavy Industries.”

You grin flashing your white teeth at him. “Arigatou.”

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 6: Shyvana

I’ll be honest: before doing the research to write this script, even I had no idea how complicated the history of Shyvana’s character was. Counting her current lore state, Shyvana has had no less than five different bios over the course of her existence, putting her in the same league as Warwick in terms of retcons. While I personally think that her current lore state is relatively fine as-is, there are definitely some aspects of her story that could use a little polishing up.

As always, though, we need to first take a look at Shyvana’s history in League and see what the core of her character concept is. With that established, we can try and build a more solid foundation for Runeterra’s resident half-dragon. So, without further ado, let’s see how she was originally envisioned in her very first bio.

Alright, so, Shyvana is a straight up human-dragon hybrid, conceived through… Well, the traditional means. I do think it’s interesting to note that this is actually the first mention of Celestial Dragons we get in the lore. Apparently, the concept for Aurelion Sol goes back all the way to the early days, though I doubt Celestial Dragons were anything like what we know them as today. Hard to say, given that this was the only mention of that entire subspecies in the old lore.

But, enough beating around the bush. As a whole, I think this bio is fine, all things considered. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions, sure, but it’s a decent basis to build her character off of. Most importantly, this bio establishes Shyvana’s connection to Jarvan IV: something that has remained consistent through every iteration of her character. While Warwick’s ties to Soraka were constantly fluctuating and eventually severed in his recent bio, Shyvana’s relationship to the Demacian prince is something all her future incarnations would carry over. Speaking of, let’s check out her second bio and see how her first retcon was handled.

So, Shyvana’s no longer Celestial in nature, which is probably for the best given that her element was always aligned more with fire than space. What’s more, it’s now established that half-dragons like her are hated by both humans and dragon-kind. Also, apparently most, if not all dragons can shape-shift now. Frankly, there are still a few mysteries left by this bio, such as who killed Shyvana’s father and what even happened to her mother. Still, it’s not awful, though Riot apparently decided that they wanted to give her a more active role rather than just being saved by Prince Jarvan. Thus, do we receive her third bio.

Alright, so once again, no real mention of Shyvana’s mother, and her father’s identity is still kinda vague. By this point, another recurring theme of Shyvana’s story should be evident: tragedy. Riot seems quite insistent on giving her the whole dead parent trope for her backstory, yet that’s never REALLY brought up in her character besides a single voice line: “By the blood of my father, I will end them!” Once again, we know nothing beyond the fact that her father was a dragon and her mother was inhuman. It might also be worth noting that no mention of shape-shifting is present in this version of the story, so… Take that how you will.

Still, I like this story because it helps to better establish a bond between Shyvana and J4, having them fight together to bring down a mutual enemy. This, in turn, turns the initial concept of Jarvan merely saving her out of pity to a relationship born of mutual respect. This was Shyvana’s backstory when I started playing League, and so this is the version of the character that I grew most familiar with. Still, Riot would retcon her again after the 2015 reboot, leaving us with her fourth bio. Buckle in folks, because this one is the longest by a landslide and there’s a LOT to go over here.

Phew! OK, that was a LOT to take in. Frankly, you could make an entire analysis about this version of the lore alone, but let’s just go over some of the major talking points, shall we? For the first time, Shyvana is no longer the offspring of a human and a dragon, but rather the result of a human using magic on a dragon egg. The reason for this direction is most likely because dragons in Runeterra can no longer shapeshift, so they needed to find a new way to justify her existence.

Once again, we touch upon the Vastaya Problem, where we have an entire race of half-human creatures that Shyvana could have easily been slotted into. Would the existence of dragon vastaya really be that much of a stretch, Riot? Well, I already harped on about that quite a bit with Warwick, so let’s just move on, shall we?

The fourth version of Shyvana’s bio is the first time in which her mother actually takes a prominent role: that of an antagonist. Yvva is actually pretty compelling as a villain, antagonizing Shyvana all her life while her father tries to protect her. The one major issue I have with this is that, if Shyvana’s dad knew about Demacia and that its petricite could conceal his daughter, why did he not think to bring Shyvana there sooner? I suppose he needed to train her to control her power first, but could the petricite not have also helped with that? Oh well. That’s a bit of a nitpick in the grand scheme of things, I admit.

The other major change here is that now the dynamic between Jarvan and Shyvana has been changed once again. Now, SHE is the one saving HIM, a complete reverse of the original story. While I don’t exactly have a problem with this, I do think Jarvan agreeing to help her fight Yvva comes off as a bit abrupt, and the Demacian soldiers seemed a bit too ready to accept her into their home. I mean, yes, she saved their prince, but fear of magic is rooted DEEP into their society. This is the same nation that would rather let entire fields succumb to disease and rot than rely on mages to sustain the crops.

While there are some other small issues I could nitpick about, I honestly think that the way they handle Jarvan and Shyvana’s team-up is the biggest by far. For a little context: Jarvan’s whole backstory is one of repentance. He gets cocky and tries to retake some land from the control of Noxus without the sanction of the king, and his recklessness and inexperience wind up getting his men killed and himself gravely injured. This is what leads to him being found and saved by Shyvana.

Though Shyvana’s bio would be rewritten one more time, the way in which she and Jarvan meet and team up to take on Yvva remains more-or-less the same. Frankly, I’m not a big fan of this. I like the idea in concept, but the fact is that Yvva isn’t really Jarvan’s antagonist. She is a threat to Demacia and Jarvan does redeem himself by helping to bring her down at Wrenwall, but it feels more like he’s just jumping in to help Shyvana deal with HER problem out of gratitude.

That being said, this is an analysis about SHYVANA’S character, so let’s take a look at her fifth and final bio to determine her current lore state, shall we?

Alright, so I’ll be honest: I think this might be the worst version of her story so-far. To begin with, it’s not even really clear WHY Shyvana is the way she is. At least the previous version of the lore made it clear that a human mage tampering with the egg is the reason why Shyvana became a half-dragon, but in this story, the baby mutates just because of his proximity? Even then, that may not even be the cause. “Whether it was the act of removing it from the nest, or the last moon of autumn giving way to winter, something had changed.” So, yeah, it’s even really clear what caused Shyvana to take on human qualities.

Also, can we just acknowledge another bizarre line from this bio? “From an early age, she was able to shift her form into something monstrous, akin to the half-dragons of ancient myth.” So, hold on, there have been half-dragons before Shyvana? This is something that’s occurred in the past? Can we get some elaboration on this? No? We’re just going to ignore that. Alright then. Moving on.

This version of the bio tries to reintroduce the tragedy of Shyvana losing her father, but it’s honestly handled a lot less gracefully here, in my opinion. He’s just a random human mage that decided to raise her out of pity, and his death is kind of pathetic, honestly. In the previous lore, Shyvana’s dragon father gave his life defending her, whereas this nameless mage is just killed unceremoniously in Yvva’s rampage. Even his burial feels rushed and anticlimactic.

As for Jarvan’s introduction this time, well… My prior thoughts still stand. Shyvana’s lore has always been connected to his, but I truly believe their relationship was handled best in the third version of the lore, where they had a mutual enemy to bring down. Hell, he doesn’t really even do much in the showdown against Yvva other than have his soldiers fire arrows. It all feels like a hyper-condensed version of Shyvana’s fourth bio, which is understandable given how long it was, but a story like this kind of needs to be properly fleshed out if we’re meant to actually CARE about the individual story beats.

 So, with all that said and established, let’s get into the meat of this one, shall we? Without further ado, I present to you all: my reinterpretation of Shyvana’s backstory. Please, enjoy.

Among the many breeds of dragon that inhabit Runeterra, few command as much fear and respect as the rare elemental drakes. Though they command the primal magics of the world itself, elemental drakes are be reclusive creatures, typically lashing out only when their territory is disturbed. For this reason, the lands near Nockmirch remained untouched by mortal settlements for centuries, as all knew the name of the beast who ruled them: Yvva, the fire drake.

For years, Yvva inspired tales of terror and reverence alike, feasting on travelers and traders who dared to intrude upon her lands. Even her mate, Urgrin, feared Yvva’s power and fiery temper. Unbeknownst to Yvva, Urgrin was no ordinary dragon: in truth, he was a member of an ancient vastayan tribe with the power to take on draconic form. As his kind dwindled in number, what few of Urgrin’s people remained scattered to the winds, with Urgrin himself maintaining his draconic form constantly in the hopes of finding a strong partner.

At first, Urgrin believed himself fortunate to partner with an elemental drake, but as their clutch of eggs began to hatch, he felt himself growing increasingly worried. Only one of these younglings bore Yvva’s primal fire, meaning that the rest would likely be discarded or eaten. When the final egg hatched, Urgrin was shocked to find not a dragon youngling, but a girl with purple skin and horns. He’d not thought it possible, but this child was vastayan just as he was, and her birth would expose Urgrin’s secret to Yvva.

Fearing for both his life and girl’s, Urgrin fled the under the cover of night. Resuming his vastayan form for the first time in decades, Urgrin took shelter in the northern mountains, hoping that the cold of the Freljord would deter Yvva’s pursuit. There, he raised his daughter in secret, naming her Shyvana out of his lingering respect for her mother.

For a time, Shyvana and Urgrin lived in relative solitude. Urgrin taught Shyvana all about her vastayan heritage, but as she grew, it became apparent that Shyvana had inherited something from her mother as well: the primal elemental magic of a fire drake. Urgrin spent years teaching Shyvana how to harness her rage, hoping to keep his daughter from succumbing to the same fiery temperament as her mother. Though this training seemed effective at first, Shyvana’s power only grew with time. This power, in-turn, became a beacon, luring Yvva to the far north in pursuit of her stolen child and traitorous mate.

One day, as Shyvana was returning from a hunt, she was shocked to find her house ablaze. Two great dragons clashed in the skies above, one of whom she instantly recognized as her father. Shyvana tried to join the fight, only for Yvva to turn her wrath on the half-blood child. Urgrin shielded Shyvana from his mother’s fury, astonishing even Yvva with his strength. Even so, Urgrin was clearly losing the fight, and so he bid Shyvana to flee south to a land called Demacia, where petricite walls could dampen her magic and shield her from Yvva’s wrath. Begrudgingly, Shyvana did as told, trekking through the mountains as her father gave his life on her behalf.

After a long, hard trek, Shyvana finally reached the land her father spoke of: Demacia, a kingdom made of petricite. She quickly found herself an outcast, forced to hide from the magic-fearing humans that lived inside petricite walls. And yet, just as her father said, those same walls served to dim her power and hide Shyvana from her mother’s fury. Even still, Yvva would not relent so easily.

For years, Yvva scorched Demacian settlements near the border in search of her daughter, forcing the Shyvana to remain constantly on the move. Hunted by her mother and persecuted by the people around her, Shyvana found herself utterly alone in the world. Finally, after years of dogged pursuit, Shyvana had had enough. Embracing her inner fire, Shyvana took flight on blazing wings and ascended the mountains near Nockmirch, where she found Yvva waiting for her.

The two drakes clashed for hours, primal flame against primal flame. Their battle charred the nearby plains and melted stone, yet for all her ferocity, Shyvana was ultimately no match for her mother’s fury. Yvva sent her daughter plummeting into a nearby river, content to leave her half-breed daughter to drown. As Yvva fled, however, Shyvana dragged herself out of the water, reverting back to her humanoid form as she gasped for breath. Battered and beaten, Shyvana wandered blindly for days, knowing full-well that her mother would likely come for her again soon.

Eventually, Shyvana encountered a young man in charred armor at the base of the Argent Mountains, who himself looked to be barely clinging to life. She learned that this man, too, had sought to challenge Yvva and lost. His soldiers had sacrificed themselves on his behalf, leaving the young man stranded and alone. Sensing an unusual kinship with this stranger, Shyvana offered to bring him to the nearest Demacian settlement, and to her surprise, the stranger agreed. Even after revealing herself to be Yvva’s daughter, the stranger bore her no hostility.

The people of Cloudfield were not so inviting. At first, many were terrified of Shyvana, and yet their fear turned to elation when they realized who her companion was. This man, she learned, was none-other than the prince of Demacia himself: Jarvan IV. Seeking to end Yvva’s reign of terror on his kingdom’s borders, the prince had set out with a handful of elite soldiers, only to return to home in shame and defeat. For coming to his aid, the people of Cloudfield begrudgingly allowed Shyvana to remain amongst them to heal her wounds while the prince .

Though grateful for their hospitality, Shyvana knew her presence would only draw Yvva to her sooner or later. As she made to depart, Shyvana was approached by Jarvan once again, this time with a proposition: alone, they had failed to defeat the fire drake, but together they may stand a chance.

Jarvan and Shyvana traveled to the fortress of Wrenwall, where they began to develop a plan. Jarvan would organize his troops and set traps in place for Yvva, while Shyvana flew ahead to garner her mother’s attention. Though reluctant to place her faith in these mere humans, Shyvana understood that this would be her final chance to avenge her father. Sure enough, when Shyvana neared Nockmirch once more, Yvva’s furious cry shook the heavens themselves as she began her pursuit.

Once again, the fire drakes clashed, but this time Shyvana wasn’t planning to defeat her mother with raw force. Instead, she led Yvva closer and closer to the fortress of Wrenwall, where Jarvan and his soldiers were waiting. Believing her daughter’s retreat an act of cowardice, Yvva was taken totally off-guard by the volley of petricite bolts launched from the fortress’s ballista. As the bolts tore into her scales, Yvva felt her power weakening, and Shyvana was quick to capitalize on this. Once again, their battle was intense, yet Shyvana now had the upperhand as Jarvan himself led a new battalion into the fray.

Even weakened, Yvva fought hard until her last breath. She tore at her daughter’s scales and devoured Demacian soldiers, yet in the end, the fire drake was outnumbered and outmatched. Shyvana sank her teeth into her mother’s neck while Jarvan plunged a spear deep into her forehead. In that moment, the flames of Yvva finally flickered out, and the soldiers of Wrenwall cheered in triumph.

In the aftermath of the battle, Jarvan approached Shyvana once again, this time with another proposition: in exchange for her loyalty, he would offer her a place among Demacia’s elite. Awed and humbled by the prince’s might and valor, Shyvana knelt and swore her loyalty on the spot. Though many still harbor doubts about the half-dragon, she serves her prince with undying devotion and respect. Shyvana’s fire burns for Demacia and Demacia alone, and those who threaten her new home are to learn that even a half-dragon’s fury is not to be trifled with.

Alright, so, the biggest and most notable change from the get-go: I made Shyvana vastayan rather than human. I understand that this might seem a bit controversial to some, but it doesn’t really contradict or change anything. Shyvana is simply called the half-dragon; there’s never any mention of what her other half actually is.

Ideally, I would have liked to keep her half-human as well, but since Riot clearly wants to remove the concept of dragon-human intercourse to produce an offspring naturally, the only option that remains is the contrived method of “it happens because a human was near the egg.” Like, that’s the same sort of logic as Rengar becoming anthropomorphic because he was raised by a human hunter as a cub. It’s just silly, if we’re being honest, and the human “father” in Shyvana’s last two bios has been such a non-entity that they don’t really even bother to give him a name.

So yes, I’m making Shyana half-vastayan, not unlike Sett in a way. Again, I get why some might take issue with this, but I feel like that’s a much easier and simpler route to go with. Of course, the other big change would mean rewriting a bit of Jarvan’s story as well, though that’s kind of inevitable; the two are so closely intwined that changing one story kind of has to impact the other.

Now, I don’t think J4’s current bio is bad enough to warrant a full rewrite, but as I stated before: I think his story would work a lot better if he also had a personal reason to fight Yvva in the first place. I think that having him lose soldiers to her rather than some random Noxians fits more thematically and gives him more reason to team up with Shyvana. I also wanted to give him a bigger role to play in bring Yvva down, to further emphasize that she’s an opponent Jarvan and Shyvana could only defeat by working together.

Overall, Shyvana’s current lore state isn’t the worst I’ve seen, but it could definitely do with some improvements. I hope you all enjoyed my take on her character, as this was possibly the lengthiest retcon to write. As always, though, feel free to share your thoughts down below, and I’ll see you all next time!

[becausewerehere]

Hello! I thought I’d write something for tumblr, as it’s been a couple of months now. Even around the time I was posting semi-regularly on twitter (circa the Act II release in Sept), I wasn’t always posting here as well - and I feel like I should try to rectify that! It’s nice to have a devlog.

So, here’s an extremely general BWH update! I mean, I’ve not got a huge amount to say. And I’m aware that’s a pretty bad start to an update post! But I really must stress that if you want to enjoy this post to its fullest, it’s very important that you immediately please lower your expectations. Have you done it? Are they low? I’m going to trust you! If they’re sky-high, I’m going to be livid.

This isn’t a 100% exhaustive list of current BWH developments, by the way! There are one or two things I’m saving for their own post sometime soonish~

Act III Development Update!

Act III is going swimmingly! I took a little time away from BWH after the exhausting last couple of months of Act II’s development, and it was nice to come back with a fresh perspective on Act III. It’s very handy to take a step back and look at it all from a distance! As you may know, the entire BWH story was planned out in 2015, but there were still a handful of plot elements that I’d drafted in that period that I really wasn’t happy with, so I wanted to make sure I’d managed to fix them before starting on the nitty gritty of the actual script. And I’m very happy to have done so - that ought to be the ‘plotline revisions’ stage of Act III sorted now, and it’s definitely much better for it. (Parts of Act II had the same journey! And parts of Act IV definitely will as well, ha.)

So I’ve now started on the script itself! I was very curious to open up the files again - the last time I’d touched the draft was early 2018 (i.e. before BWH went episodic) so it was a bit of a shock to see just *how* rough a lot of it was, hahaha. But it’s nice to finally be fixing it all up into something real, after it’s spent so long as a cluster of chaotic shorthand~

I’ve also been talking to some of the game’s various artists, and I’m very excited to see the new artwork for Act III! Some of it’s arrived already and it’s excellent. But, as always, a huge amount of it is currently top secret. ;)

So I’m happy with how everything’s coming together! As I said on the Steam forums recently - I’m not really giving estimated release dates for Act III because I’ve learned my lesson after my optimistic ETAs for Act II kept being pushed back!! But, extremely unofficially, I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t in 2020, and most likely at a similar time of year to the past two acts~

Minor Updates to Acts I + II

I’m working on these right now! They should be up before too long. They don’t change a massive amount, but just do a little bit of tidying. The Act II one is slightly bigger - I was playing through it again and I’ve found quite a few lines of dialogue I thought could be sharpened up. And they’re generally concentrated in the same scenes! So it’s not a huge overhaul or anything, but still, if you were planning on starting Act II soon, I’d hold off for a very short while until v1.3 is out.

Revamping Publicity

I’ve been fixing up the Itch/Steam pages over the past couple of weeks! I’m not sure they’ll look much different if you’ve not looked at them in a while, but there have been lots of small changes, and hopefully they give off a better first impression now. I’ve also been making new versions of the Character Profiles here on the devlog! They were a little ugly before, but I think they look quite nice now. And a lot of them have been rewritten, to get rid of slightly clunky phrasing from when I originally wrote the descriptions. Check them out!

And Remember! We have a Discord!

A timely reminder about the existence of Windmill Corner, the Because We’re Here Discord! I hadn’t previously linked it on the Itch page / the devlog sidebar - but I realised I should, uh, probably do that. So take a look if you haven’t already! It’s a very nice community, and it’d be great to get some fresh members. (And I’ll post it on the Steam forum near to Act III’s release, I think!)

So! That’s it!

I’ll try not to leave it so long before the next update! But there’s not much to say in the long periods where I’m just working on stuff. Especially as the further BWH progresses, the more spoileriffic the screenshots and artwork become! So there’ll likely be a lot of nice Act II art used for social media over the next few months and precious little from Act III, haha. Anyway, thanks for reading this absolute marathon of a post! You are cool and decent.

~~~~~~

Because We’re Here is a bittersweet otome visual novel in an unforgiving WW1-inspired setting.

Acts I + II are out now on itch.io and Steam!

You can also support Studio Elfriede on Ko-Fi! You’ll help towards the cost of the new Act III artwork, and get in the Special Thanks if you’re not already~

[squeezeofthehand]

A (late) Review of Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning

I saw Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning by Dave Malloy last month, and I can basically divide it into “The Good, The Bad, and the Racist/Queerphobic/Ableist etc”

Some background: As most people who’ve ever spoken to me will know, I have a special interest in Moby-Dick AND Dave Malloy/Rachel Chavkin musicals (I truly believe that Great Comet is one of the best works of all time) and I consider Malloy and Chavkin both to be my biggest heroes and inspirations, at least when it comes to their respective style of writing and directing. That being said, they’re not perfect. I waited for this musical for about two years, and music/set/etc wise it exceeded my expectations, but it also majorly let me down in a lot of ways.

The Good: The cast! The crew! The set! (It was literally The Pequod - like, they got rid of the stage.) The lighting design in particular was really good - thank you, Bradley King. Manik Choksi, Andrew Cristi, and Starr Busby are gods. I do not have a singular bad thing to say about the cast or the design team! Even the stuff that was tacky/campy (i.e. some of the puppets) was tacky/campy in an enjoyable way. And the “fun” parts of the show were REALLY fun - the fact that they invited the audience on stage, the fact that they TRIED to make Moby-Dick more accessible even if they didn’t do it perfectly at times….the music, when not problematic, was BEAUTIFUL. Listen, I’d be lying if I said Dave Malloy wasn’t one of the best composers when it comes to skill. Everyone in that show sure can act, and sing…the band too, was marvelous, I heard no errors from anyone. This is, what, a three hour long show? And the cast/band was just like, “oh, no big deal.” Which makes “the bad” and “the racist” even worse because these people deserve better. This show deserves better, it deserves to be better.

The Bad: Well, as a book fan, I disagreed with a lot of characterization…most of which can fall into The Racist etc, so I’ll just focus on the “bad but not inherently problematic” here. I really didn’t agree with a lot of things about Ahab’s characterization, i.e. I did not read him as just a bad white guy who’s the epitome of privilege. Stubb, on the other hand is, a canon white supremacist in the book and that barely gets acknowledged in the ways that it should. I do get what Dave was trying to go for, especially in re: Ahab & climate change, but this wasn’t the show for it - or at least, Ahab wasn’t the character for it. Which brings me to my next point: Most of the time, I’m a fan of the quirky Malloyian anachronisms and parallels to modern day issues, but I feel like he was trying too hard here and stepping out of line. Loose adaptations can be fun, anachronistic adaptations can be fun, even INACCURATE adaptations can be fun…but this just wasn’t. It didn’t feel like Moby-Dick, but more like a story vaguely inspired by it. If that had been what he was going for, it would’ve been fine, but he really acted like this would be an accurate adaptation of the book, so I felt let down. The only anachronism/breaking of the fourth wall that I somewhat liked were the talks of Melville and Hawthorne, honestly, and even those I’d sacrifice in favor for accuracy to the source.

And now…The racist/etc.

So. 

Where to begin? I suppose chronologically. Queequeg. Who, according to Dave Malloy, is a stereotypical flamboyant queer person of color! and also a quirky cannibal! He’s trans in the musical, apparently, but there’s not much indication of that in the show beyond from him wearing a binder and a skirt. Now, I am all for trans Queequeg of course, but he was a caricature in this particular adaptation. I do not blame Andrew Cristi. I blame Dave (and mayyyybe the costume designers to some extent). I felt baited. Also, early production rumors and quotes said that there would be a song in which Queequeg saved someone from drowning. That never happened. It pains me to say it, but he didn’t feel that much like an important character (due to the bad writing -- again, it has nothing to do with the actor). 

Additionally, Dave Malloy said that Queequeg and Ishmael would be a clear gay relationship…but the musical left so much room for them to just be interpreted as friends. It somehow became less gay than it is in the original Melville novel. The marriage was excluded, as were the quotes about them being a cozy and loving pair and about Queequeg holding Ishmael like a wife. They were replaced with the “I don’t wanna sleep with a cannibal” song, which was fun to watch at first but way too grossly stereotypical for me to genuinely enjoy it. Queequeg deserves a fun and light-hearted song, but he does not deserve a racist/homophobic one. My advice? Replace it with the actual chapters from the book, please. I do like the fact that The Pacific was a romantic duet and that they sing directly at each other during Squeeze Of The Hand, but those two songs are mere scraps especially compared to, for example, the Bosom Friend chapter of the book. It looked like they were going to kiss during The Pacific and I was very disappointed that they did not. Perhaps the team should keep the songs the way that they are for future productions, but add more romantic staging.

Pip-not-Pip/Elijah/??? (Ashkon Davaran’s character) and Fedallah were also major, major, issues. Not the actors, I love them. Not the book characters, I love them. But the musical characters.

Basically, Fedallah gets this 20 minute long monologue that can be summed up as “religion is bad” and a lot of other things including but not limited to egotistical fake-woke praise on color conscious casting and how badly America is fucked. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Fedallah is Parsi and Zoroastranian in the book (and it is NOT good rep in the book by any means, trust me, I’ve been calling Malloy out on his racism but I can’t act as if book!Fedallah was anything less than an ~exotic caricature~ either). However, that’s beside the point, at least in this review. Musical!Fedallah is not Parsi nor Zoroastranian. Don’t read this the wrong way, I’m all for Black Muslim rep! But with a character who is already canonically something else? Take a white character and make them a Black Muslim, I encourage that, but when a character is already something else, no.

If the monologue was influenced/written by the actor, that’s one thing and I’d have less issue with it, but I think Dave wrote the vast majority of it, which…yikes…

My constructive criticism: Cut the Fedallah monologue. If the creative team still wants the actor/character to have the same amount of stage-time as he does now, replace it with a different monologue, maybe something from the book? Something about whaling history?

Another thing that needs to be cut or at least completely rewritten: Tambourine. The song starts off with an ableist verse that can be summed up as “you think you’re crazy because you get nervous on the subway? No! I’m more crazy than you!” Don’t take this as me saying that Pip’s trauma/PTSD shouldn’t be addressed at all, but this is the absolute worst way to address it. The song also has a lot of performative lines such as “is god cisgender?” Which, considering this is the same musical that also has trans bait, I truly hate it. Not that I think God should ever be viewed as a cis white man, but much like the “America is awful” stuff in the Fedallah Monologue, this is an offensive and fake-woke way to address such a topic. 

Part IV was really heart-wrenchingly beautiful. No criticism there.

To summarize by part-

Part I: Cut/replace the campy Queeqeug song, but otherwise keep it as it is.

Part II: Cut/replace the racist and xenophobic Fedallah monologue.

Part III: Cut/replace Tambourine. The rest of the Ballad Of Pip (starting with Kim Blanck’s beautiful song) is alright. Good, even.

Part IV: Great! No editing needed besides from the typical tweaking that writers may choose to do after their first draft.

In general: Make Ishmael/Queequeg more obvious, make Queequeg less of a caricature, do some major editing to Fedallah and Pip-Not-Pip/Elijah/???. Tambourine and Fedallah’s Monologue need to be completely rewritten, but I get that the creative team may not want to take scenes away from the actors, which is why I encourage them to remove all of the racist bs and create something completely new/different for the actors to perform. 

I understand that Moby-Dick is clearly a work-in-progress on all levels. I do not dislike for the show for being a scrappy rough draft. I judge it for its racist, homophobic, ableist, etc messages. Dave has acknowledged that this first copy is far from perfect, and I sincerely hope that the racism/etc. is the first and main thing that he fixes. 

[p4nkow]

Happier - part IV

God knows how many times I’ve deleted and rewritten all over again this part and that’s why I’m not entirely sure about it but I hope you’ll like it! 

I’m already working on the next part (insert here Roger saying ‘which I’m really excited about’) and please, please let me know what you think of it! As usual it can also be read as Ben!Roger

Part I, Part II, Part III

Summary: you work as an assistant at EMI and you meet Roger while organising Queen’s gig at Hyde Park. lots of fluff but then, after months of relationship, Roger admits something that breaks your heart and the two of you break up. You try to move on and so does he, but after two months of being apart you meet at a pub and you both have a date. What will happen? But most importantly, will you and Roger fall in love again after being forced to see each other everyday?

Warnings: a very drunk Roger but that’s it; things are gonna get spicy from the next chapter 

“Roger?”

You quickly glanced behind your shoulder and by noticing Noah looking at you with a confused look you decided to step outside in the hallway, half-closing the door behind you.

Roger recoiled with a grin on his face and you immediately realised what was going on. “Are you bloody drunk?” You whispered, trying not to make Noah worry.

Roger slowly raised a hand, pointing at you and mumbling “Maybe I am. I’m pretty sure I am, yeah.”

He took an uncertain step towards you and you put both your hands on his chest, trying to hold him.

“Roger, you need to go home” You softly said, meeting his gaze. His blue eyes were locked into yours but then his gaze fell on your lips. Roger smiled, placing a hand on the wall behind you in order not to stumble.

“Five” He suddenly said and you narrowed your brows.

“Five what?”

His smile grew wider as he said “Five bloody blocks to get to you. I counted them and I made it!” You chuckled at his words, temporarily forgetting in which situation the two of you were.

“Yeah, you made it. But now you need to go home.”

“I miss you, love.”

You clenched your jaw and quickly looked away— his words were like a knife in your heart. You were about to answer him and tell him to leave when he asked “Is he here?”

It was obvious he was talking about Noah. “Yes, Roger. He’s here. If you just could stay still for one minute I—”

“No, don’t go. Please, don’t.” Your heart sank at his words as he gently grabbed you by your wrist. “She said... she said she loves me.”

You narrowed your brows at his words, giving a quick look behind your shoulder to make sure Noah wasn’t listening. You knew who he was talking about and you felt the urge to cry.

“Nicole?” You whispered and Roger nodded, taking a step back.

He slipped his fingers through his hair and started to gesticulate— he seemed desperate.

“She said it just like that and I felt terrible. Terrible.” His voice was squeaky because of the hangover.

You cleared your throat, looking away for a few moments before meeting again his gaze. “And why’s that?”

“Because I don’t! Fuck, I’ve tried so hard to... to—” And in that moment he didn’t seem drunk at all. “Forget about it, I’m gonna head home.”

He started to walk away and without even thinking it you said “Wait. I can... I could drive you, if you want me to.” You felt like a knot on your throat and you added “‘s not safe for you to drive or walk while drunk. You’re a disaster when you’re hungover.” You softly smiled at him and he seemed to consider your offer.

His blue eyes were so deep that you couldn’t read his look. Was it hope? Resentment?

“It’d be— it’d be great, thanks” He replied and you nodded.

You pointed at your flat and said “I’m gonna grab my keys. Please don’t do anything stupid, please.”

You quickly entered your flat and you immediately met Noah’s gaze. “Is everything okay? Who’s it?”

“It’s just...” You took a deep breath as you hurried to find your keys. “It’s just Roger. Gotta drive him home. I’m sorry.”

“I can do it” He was about to stand up but you cut him off.

“No, I got this. Don’t worry.”

You felt terrible about the entire situation and you knew that it wasn’t right for Noah, but when it came to Roger you were never rational.

He stood up and looked around, clearly in discomfort. “Then I’ll... hum, I’ll head home.”

“You don’t wanna wait for me to come back?” You softly replied and you knew you weren’t being fair.

“Gotta work early tomorrow and babysitting Roger Taylor weren’t exactly my plans for the night.”

You were about to answer him when he cut you off. “I knowthis isn’t your fault, silly. Don’t you even try to apologise again.”

What did you do to deserve him?

You gave him an apologetic smile as he placed a kiss on your forehead. You headed to the door and before going back to Roger you turned again towards him, saying “Lock the door when you walk out. I’m so sorry.”

-

During the drive Roger was unusually quiet. You glanced at him a few times and when the silence seemed to be unbearable you said “You okay?”

“D’ya think krakens exist?” He asked in a serious tone and you chuckled.

“I don’t know, do you?”

He slowly nodded, looking at you. “Yeah, they’re out there. Somewhere in the deep blue sea.”

You gave him an amused look but you didn’t answer. He tried to make himself comfy in the seat but he hit the roof of the car with his head. “Oh fuck.”

“Roger, stay still. We’re almost there.”

You felt again his gaze on you and you desperately tried not to look at him, focusing on driving.

“D’ya remember the day we met?” His sudden switch of subject cought you off guard and you raised your brows.

“Yeah, Rog. I do.”

“You were so bloody beautiful” He softly said and you shook your head in disbelief. “And you were bossing me around.”

“Roger, you’re too drunk for this subject. Let’s go back to krakens.”

He gave you an amused smile and you took a deep breath. You were used to deal with a very drunk Roger, but it was a long time ago.

“I do remember your sparkly pink Converse” You said, even though all you wanted to do was to pretend it all never happened.

He chuckled and slowly turned towards you. “I still wear them.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.” He slowly nodded. “You loved them.”

“I did” You softly replied. “Even if I told you I didn’t.”

Roger stood quiet for a moment, then said “I know. I remember all the things you said to me.” He slowly turned towards you and you could feel his blue eyes staring. “Every single word.”

Your heart ached at his words. You didn’t reply ‘cause you were sure you would have fallen apart so you both stood quiet until you made it to his flat.

You parked and slowly turned towards Roger, who was struggling with the seat belt. “Is... Is Nicole here?” You asked, nodding towards the front door.

He turned towards you and shook his head. “No, no she isn’t. Fuck, bloody belts.”

“Wait” You said with a sight and you got out of the car, turning around it and reaching the passenger seat.

You were so close to Roger that you could easily scent his cologne, so familiar yet so distant. “Roger, just stay still.”

“‘m sorry.” As soon as you freed him from the safety belt you had to help him climb the steps until the front door.

You turned towards him and waited while he desperately looked for his keys. You sighed and you took the extra key that he used to hide under a flowerpot.

“You know me too well” He murmured and you didn’t look at him as the two of you managed to enter the flat without stumbling.

“C’mon, you almost made it” You groaned by helping him reach his bedroom. “Please, don’t be late at work tomorrow. I don’t wanna come here to wake you up and deal with your hungover.”

“I don’t do that anymore, love.” You heart sank at that nickname.

“Yeah, you do.” He sat on the feet of the bed and you looked at him with a sad smile as you took off his shoes. “Now sleep, Roger” You murmured as you walked away, giving him a last look just to make sure he was safe and sound before leaving him.

“You stopped—” He mumbled as he looked at you, rolling on one side and hugging the pillow. “You stopped saying your goodnights. That’s when I knew I had lost you.”

You froze for a few moments, trying to let his words roll off your back just like you did the whole night, but you failed.

You closed his bedroom door and rushed to your car as hot tears ran down your cheeks. Tears you had hold back for months.

You had tried to act strong, to pretend Roger hadn’t hurt you as much as people thought, that it wasn’t a big deal being this close to him once again but not in the shoes of his girlfriend. But it was.

You hit the steering wheel as you groaned in anger, realising that your life was a bloody chaotic mess.

-

After that night nothing changed. Roger was acting like it never happened and so were you. You made things very clear with Noah and that night seemed to be forgotten by everyone.

A month passed by without any drastic change. The boys had finished their songs and it was all ready for you to leave for Montreux. The recording of the album would have been a long process and it’d have taken a lot of time, and that’s exactly why Veronica decided to come along.

She wanted to gave birth with his husband by his side and with John in Montreux it wouldn’t have been possible. The little Michael — that was the name of the little peanut — would have come into this world in Montreux.

You started to see Nicole less often. You knew she was still together with Roger but he stopped bringing her to rehearsals or to band nights.

Things with Noah had escalated quickly— you were kind of a thing now, after he had kissed for the very first time during a night out at the theatre.

But neither Noah or Nicole were coming with you. The less people the better, that’s what EMI said.

You hated saying goodbyes, even if they were only temporary. It made you incredibly sad.

“Tell me again why you gave me this promotion” You murmured against Noah’s chest as he hugged you tight.

“Because” He said, spelling the word “You’re an amazing assistant and you deserved some rest. Look on the bright side, at least in Montreux you’re gonna he far from the city. Isn’t it what you wanted?”

You backed and met his gaze when he cupped your cheeks. The chaos of the airport was unbearable to you. “Yeah, but you’re not gonna be there.”

You pouted and Noah placed a quick kiss on your lips. “But I’m gonna call every day.”

“This is a nightmare.”

“Don’t be such a drama queen, you’re gonna have a lot of fun.” You groaned and hugged him tight as you noticed Brian waving at you as to tell you that it was time for you to embark.

After saying you goodbye to Noah you hurried to reach Veronica, whose hands were placed on her belly.  

By doing so you passed by Roger, who was still chatting with Nicole. She seemed upset and Veronica, who loved gossips more than you, was trying to understand what was happening.

Roger was quiet, which was odd for him. He was explaining something so Nicole very politely, something that she didn’t take very well.

“Are you joking?” You heard her say out loud and then they went back to whispers.

“They’re like octopuses” Veronica murmured, leaning her head close to yours. “They never drift apart!”

You chuckled at her words and quickly glanced at the two of them. “That was a terrible similitude, Ronnie.”

She grinned at you and when it was time for you to line up Roger finally reached you. Nicole wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“So sad Noah’s not able to come with us, he’s gonna miss all the fun” He murmured as he looked at you.

You raised your chin in order to meet his gaze. “Oh don’t worry, we’ll find a way to make up for lost time.”

He clenched his jaw and after a few moments he looked away and you smiled in victory. “And what about Nicole?”

“What about her?” He replied with his brows narrowed.

“Are you sad she isn’t coming along?”

He shrugged and deeply sighed. “We broke up.”

You raised your brows in disbelief. You didn’t see that coming.

Montreux would have been a bloody challenge with Roger by your side.

Taglist: @but-legendsneverdie @ohtheseboysilove @xgypsy-witchy-vibes @queen-turtle-boiii @scarsout @hystericaldancingqueen @mercurycrowley @protectrowanwhitethorn  @70sarreaga @loveandbeloved29 @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogahloveshiscar @queen-crue

If you wanna be added in the taglist just tell me!

[wlw-imagines-blog]

What Are You Waiting For? Kiss Her! Kiss Her Now!

Anon asked: Would you mind writing a Hermione Granger and Slytherin reader? Maybe R is a Malfoy but very reserved, she doesn't care bout her class or house but she sticks close to her brother because theyre family. She and H have been close off and on again since first year and R finally steps out of her shell to defend H? Sorry if this is too much, love your stuff btw!

A/N: Hey anon, i love this request, I love writing for hp, it reminds me of when i was a tween. I wanted to write the reader as a Malfoy, but whether or not she is adopted is up to you (the reader). ps ive rewritten this twice and mobile has collapse, also twice, losing both pieces of progress, im yelling.

You clutched your notebook close to your chest, watching puffs of breath cloud in front of you. From across the lake, Hogwarts rose up amidst the snowy trees, full of elegance and solitude. You scribbled more notes into the leather bound journal, about school, your classmates, your brother, Draco, and the festivities that were consuming Hogwarts, surrounding the Yule ball. 

The cold bit your nose savagely. You leaned against a fallen log, legs frozen. In front of you, the lake before you was solid ice, the giant squid no doubt swimming far below the surface, perhaps closer to the Slytherin common room’s window. You promised yourself you would check later, after finding Draco and pestering him about Pansy’s obnoxious Yule Ball proposal to him that unfolded in the Great Hall that morning. 

You cringed and laughed at the memory. The way Pansy assumed he would say yes, and how red your brother’s face had been. Neither you nor Blaise would let him live that down. 

“What are you doing out here?” A high voice called to you.

Looking up from your journal, you saw Hermione stood there, braced against the cold wind. Despite the weather, warmth flickered in your chest. You always felt warmer when she was around you. Whether or not when she sat next to you in class, or talked to you, or laughed. She felt like pure magic. 

You closed it, standing up straighter. “Nothing, just getting some peace of mind. I have a break, I wanted to get away from Pansy and Draco for a bit.” 

She wandered over to you, grinning from cheek to cheek. “I heard all about that from Ron, it was quite a scene i hear.”

“You should have seen it Hermione,” you laughed. "It was almost as bad as the ferret incident last week."

Hermione giggled, caught between amusement and the fact that student transfiguration was definitely illegal.

A strange giddiness swept through you when you heard her laugh.

"If you don't mind me saying, y/n. He deserved it." she said.

"No," you responded. "I agree, he was being awful."

Hermione gave you a sidelong glance.

There was history between the two of you. In first year, you met on the train. You were refreshed by her lack of knowledge to the Malfoy name. After being sorted into Slytherin, you didn't see her much, outside of shared classes. There were moments in class, where a universal force controlled the teacher, and you were paired for assignments.

Sometimes, you would sit next to her in the library, completely silent, and just work next to each other in solidarity. You tried to talk to her as much as possible, but Draco watched you like a hawk.

"You can't be around her, y/n," he sounded exasperated. "She's not a pureblood."

“I just don’t understand,” you had said. “This is getting ridiculous.”

He had placed a hand on your shoulder. “I’m telling you this because I’m your brother, and our parents would never let you leave the house again.”

You ignored him, naturally.

"Has anyone asked you to the ball?" Hermione asked out of the blue.

"No," you responded. "I probably won't go with anyone. What about you?"

"There's been... an offer."

You raised your eyebrows. "Really? Pray tell, who?"

Hermione swallowed uneasily. “Victor. Victor Krum.”

A stone sunk to the bottom of your stomach. “Are you going to say yes?”

“Maybe,” she seemed apprehensive. “I wanted to see if someone I knew better would ask me. No one has.” She looked at you again, a glimmer of suggestion and hope in her eyes.

You clenched your teeth, but said nothing. 

Hermione rushed past the silence. “What about you? any boys lining up?”

You laughed nervously. “No. No boys. A couple of girls actually.”

“Really?” She asked, a grin still at the edge of her lips. That was a good sign. “Anyone I know?”

“Uh, Padma, Parvarti’s sister. She and I might go together,” you played with your fingers. Your nerve began to build itself. “But, it’s not her I’m really interested in, Hermione, I want to go with yo-”

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a shrill, mocking voice broke your reverie. 

From the clearing of trees, Pansy Parkinson stepped out, one hand on her hip, the other clutching the hand of a sullen-looking Draco. Her nose pointed up to the heavens, accentuating the triumphant appearance she wore. From behind her, Crab and Goyle materialized, armed crossed and dim looking. Draco seemed bored, but you could tell he was feigning anxiety. 

“Oh boy,” You muttered under breath. “Here’s trouble.”

From the corner of your eye, you saw Hermione’s back straighten harshly.

“Y/n,” Pansy sauntered over. “Didn’t Draco tell you to not to hang around mudblood scum?” Her voice was unbelievably annoying. 

“Come on,” you whispered to Hermione, gently taking her arm. She took your hand. “Let’s just get out of here.” 

Pansy let out a cold laugh. “Hmm, that’s just like you, y/n! running at the first sight of danger. It’s a wonder that you’re even related to a family like Draco’s. I can already tell what type of witch you’re going to be.” she pointed a finger at you, poking your chest with narrowed eyes. “A disgusting, blood-traitor.” 

You sighed and rolled your eyes, not willing to pick a fight right now. There were days you wanted to snap back at Pansy, but there was no point in stoking the flames. It would just rile her up more.

Draco seemed uncomfortable, hands in his pockets, unable to meet your eyes. He said nothing.

“And you,” Pansy turned to Hermione. “Miss perfect prissy Mudblood. I’ve had enough of your know-it-all attitude. Acting like you’re a real witch.”

Anger thrashed in your stomach, an uncontrollable beast that clawed up your throat like bile. All sense of pacifism was tossed out the window the moment you saw Hermione’s jaw clench tears well in her eyes. “That’s enough, Pansy.”

She let out an incredulous laugh. “Finally! the recluse speaks!” That evil glint still sparkled in her eye. “What is it, blood traitor?”

“Yeah, you finally got me talking. Congrats,” You sneered a little before continuing. “While I don’t give a shit about what you think of me, I will not tolerate you belittling my friends.” You stepped forward, up into her space. “Call me a blood traitor all you want! You don’t have the capacity or ability to make me care! But if you call her any names, bring up blood or class, or even look at Hermione ever again, I will curse you into the next plain of existence. Okay?”

There was silence. Pansy blinked twice while Draco tried not to smile at you. Something between pride and concern flickered on his face. Crab and Goyle looked at each other, unsure what to do. You could feel Hermione;s eyes on you.

At last, Pansy stalked away, and you could practically see the smoke billowing from her ears. Crab and Goyle bumbled after her. Draco left as well, but not before grinning at you. 

You sagged against the fallen log, looking to Hermione, who was all alight with a warm smile. “Thank you, y/n.”

You shook your head. “It’s alright, Hermione. I’m just sick of her and all the politics. I don;t want to be told who I can talk to, or who I can be with. I think that was the most I’ve said to Pansy for the past four years.”

Hermione slipped her hand into yours. “Before we were interrupted, you were saying something about who you wanted to go to the Yule Ball with...”

“Right,” you coughed. “Hermione, I was wondering, if you would possibly want to... um.. maybe if you would like to.. go with me to-”

Hermione stepped forward and pressed her lips to yours, tender and warm amid the snow and cold. Her hand reached up to smooth your hair away, as you pulled her flushed against you.

“I want to go with you, y/n,” she whispered.

You smiled, wrapping your arms around her and kissing her once more.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

A comment I just left on ProdigyXD’s awesome video about Kairi needing her own game:

Thank you so much for this video, Prodigy. To be honest, I didn't watch your other KHIII Kairi video... After KHIII, and all of the hate that Kairi got from fans there... as someone who loves Kairi, I've been very selective of the videos I watch. I just- I've been with this series from the beginning. I went through the horrible Kairi hate years of 2005-2006, and while I dealt with it all there... I just don't want to go through it again at this point in my life. I'm not saying that some of the criticisms people have aren't valid, of course. God, no! I'll be the first knocking down Nomura's door, telling him he honestly hasn't treated Kairi the best and begging him to get better with her. But I just don't want to see art of Sora and Riku murdering Kairi anymore. I don't. I'm not saying it's gotten that bad again (I actually don't know if it has or not. God, I hope not). And I'm not saying that that's what I thought your first video was... but do you maybe get with all of this why I was reluctant to watch your first one, not for sure knowing what kind of video it would be? But, ANYWAY. Seeing the title/screenshot of this video "Why Kairi Needs Her Own Game", I went "Cool. I've wanted that for years. I'll check this out". And I'm so glad I did! What a wonderful thing this is, that really hammers out all the fine points and is fair to both sides. And you going and counting all her hours of screentime in the main games is you going above and beyond the call of duty. Major kudos. Kairi is probably my favorite character of all time, because KH is my favorite series of all time... And that's weird, I know. Since Kairi isn't utilized as well as she could be, you'd think I'd prefer someone else. But I think I was always destined to side with Sora, Riku, or Kairi, since those are the main three we start out with. And I'm someone who always has their heart with the firsts. And Sora (who-from a writing standpoint in I and III-is probably my favorite, but shh) just always seemed... too perfect to me. I don't mean that in a way to slight him or his writing. But that I wanted a character I could somewhat relate to, you know? And I just never thought I could reach the standard of Sora. And Riku... Well, I hated him in the first game so he was out. LOL (I was a nine-year-old who saw the first game in black and white, and despised him for trying to hurt my Disney characters.). And while I've grown to love him now, of course-and think his arc in the series is probably the best-the rule of firsts for me made me prefer Kairi over him (that, and because I just genuinely like more upbeat protagonists). But it isn't just through process of elimination that made Kairi my favorite. Not at all. I've always really loved and respected Kairi for who she is... the things she's done, and her potential. Kairi was actually a role model for me, growing up. Because many forget (or just don't know, if they came into the series later), that Kairi was created when the Disney princesses at the time... weren't the greatest. And in a lot of ways, I saw Kairi as better than them: Just her take charge attitude with the boys as they built the raft... the fact that she wanted to go on this adventure to see other worlds WITH them (in a lot of media back then, the girl would have been left out of that dream)... and how Kairi-even while unable to defend herself, sure-was still selfless and wasn't content to just be saved, but would then want to try and help rescue Sora and Riku... was some powerful stuff back then. And her sass. That might be my FAVORITE Kairi trait (which is why I'm sad it's a bit watered down in KHIII. It's still there, it is, but not nearly as much as it was in KHI and KHII): In a time, where a lot of the Disney princesses could be best described as "nice". Having a character who did things like slapping Sora upside the head and calling him a "lazy bum", saying Sora was "completely hopeless" without her and Riku, insisting that Axel wasn't "being very friendly" when he tries to kidnap her (after he just said he thought he and Kairi were friends already) meant a lot to me (this is also how friends behave with each other, and why I bought the Destiny Trio's friendship more than the Wayfinder Trio's). I also think it shows Kairi isn't perfect, and why I see the arguments that she has no personality or is a Mary-Sue as unfounded. Plus... just the fact that the girl with a heart of pure light is one of the most snarky characters in the series is an amazing dichotomy to me, that a lot could be done with. And don't even get me STARTED on this girl's potential, and all the plot threads that have for some reason been left untied with her (I'm also irritated that it seems like, for example, KHIV is going to deal with experiments done on Skuld in the basement of Radiant Garden's castle. Instead of first doing it with the main girl, Kairi-and filling that story in-when the novels say Apprentice Xehanort experimented on her before throwing her into space. Why can't we see this crap? Why?). I might make another comment with all of her potential and whatnot (because I've had YEARS to think about all of this. Especially when the cast was small, so I then thought more would be done with Kairi). And just the fact that Nomura has yet to really do anything with it... just saddens me to no end. I have my own suspicions about that: I think he has trouble with writing female characters in general, and is even somewhat afraid to. But most of all... I don't think he knows how to write someone who's supposed to have a heart of pure light (not even Ven counts, since he has half a heart). Especially a girl one. So I think he leaves her out for that reason, instead of risk botching her... And I wish he'd just realize that I think he already answered his own question long ago, and to just go on ahead wit it: That just because she has a heart of pure light, doesn't mean she can't feel emotions that can be associated with darkness in this series... but rather, that it just-for whatever reason-won't turn to darkness for her like it would with anyone else. Because we've for sure already seen her and the other Princesses experience despair, anger, ambition, or what have you. But, yeah: It's really sad what's happened with Kairi (just think about the fact that the only worlds Kairi has been to are Destiny Islands, Hollow Bastion, Traverse Town, the End of the World, Twilight Town, The World That Never Was, The Mysterious Tower, Merlin's Time Chamber, an The Keyblade Graveyard, when she started this series wanting to go on a grand world tour, too. Why does only SHE get just the traumatizing worlds, and none really with Disney and Disney fun?). And I hope and pray that Nomura fixes it with IV (or whatever game), by having Kairi feel guilty about everything that's happened with Sora, get stronger, and save Sora (or at least be a key part to it), because as much as I hate to say it... If he doesn't, there may never be any going back for this character:( I don't know why he did what he did to her in III: if it was to subvert expectations (we all thought Kairi's warrior story would finally have its pay-off, so he decided to go against that idea to surprise us? Nomura has said he tries to surprise himself. And I don think one of his faults as a writer, is that he bends over backwards to try and make these crazy twists happen when he should just write the story and have them come naturally), to do a tragic romance (which surely it is. But still... there were other ways. And I don't know if the way this has now damaged Kairi was worth it. Maybe this is why Nomura's been quoted saying he doesn't think he writes romance well...), or what. ...I also will say that Nomura has a problem with fridging female characters that is pretty worrying, and should maybe be addressed: Aerith in FFVII was HIS idea, Luna in Final Fantasy XV was probably him (since she's essentially rewritten Stella. And Stella was his. And oh, how I worry for Verum Rex girl now, for these reasons), Strelitzia, and now Kairi. So, I REALLY hope Nomura didn't just think undermining everything Kairi was worth it to just give Sora man-pain... but I'm worried it was. -sigh- Like I said above... I do hope Nomura has some master plan with this and that it's all going somewhere. And that at the end of the day, this will be the start of a good payoff for Kairi: And in a few years, her KHIII performance won't even be a blip on the radar. We've fallen down so low, we can only go up at this point (and since Kairi has now been killed to be used against Sora, it can never happen again. So that's a plus). But at the same time... I do think it's best that us as a community-kindly, of course-let our voices be heard about this, so hopefully it will get back to Square Enix... and they'll realize we want a Kairi game (or whatever), and will give the fans what they want and make it, and fix some of these issues. And I thank you for, perhaps, starting some of that here:)

[myloveeflows]

Angels/demons/magick ?

‪I started watching The Magick of Solomon last night and the Christian in me’s 1st thought was “aw hell nah you ain’t bout to conjure no demons in this house‼️” homie don’t play that🚯💯Had to pause it and reestablish the spiritual boundaries of my home, letting all beings know..‬ ‪“As per my original message! NOTHING is allowed in my home unless personally invited BY ME”

(Magic is mostly about purely directed intention, not always what you say or do but actually think, feel, and mean subconsciously as well, also I regularly practice keeping my vibration high through meditation and active awareness therefore I’m pretty familiar with my own power to comand and protect my life)

and then continued.

From what I saw so far before falling asleep on it lol the focus was on calling on Angels for help/protection/guidance as well as briefly explaining what Solomon was doing (requesting angels and “commanding demons...)

Seeing as I have been studying/researching around this‬ for quite sometime now, I was already familiar with angelic Sigils and sigils/staves in general so I wasn’t too confused or taken aback by the content and how a lot of darkness has been covered in light while true light has been shrouded in darkness.

As I watched the magical practitioners perform invocations to these angels I could definitely feel the energy change powerfully and positively honestly, and when I finally turned it off the energy lingered physically it was witnessed outside in roaring winds (when you know you know)

I have always known due to my very close relationship with the creator from a very young age that I was always divinely protected I didn’t really understand how but that didn’t matter still the idea of calling on anything outside of myself weirds me out & i’m not in the business of doing it🤚🏾.

The reason I’m so conflicted is because I’ve been on the receiving end of metaphysical/spiritual attacks. I have woken up under sleep paralysis with two dark figures one reptilian and one shrouded in a hood at my bedside. I can only assume attempting to drain me of my essence 🤷🏾‍♀️ (sounds crazy try living it) . This has happened to me 3 times in my life

(story time!)

The first time was when I was about 16. Someone in my home had been actively cruising the dark web,(who knew that was real? I didn’t at the time) dibbling & dabbling in things they weren’t fully educated on. As a result I was no stranger to weird feelings and attacks through other people. I prayed a lot so I know prayer works lol. (The Creator God has been the only father figure I’ve really been able to depend on) Anywho!

So little old 16-year-old me with no idea what they were doing decided I was going to attempt to exorcise one of my family members😂🤣🤣🙄. Needless to say it didn’t work but it did piss whatever entity was in my house TF off lol. I remember I was laying on my stomach and in the middle of a dream I felt my back gets scorching hot like something was trying to forcefully enter me. I screamed as loud as I could under temporary paralysis and immediately snapped out of it. That was the day I learned nothing can enter you without you giving it your permission/ God got my back LITERALLY (ba doom chik 🥁😂) when you’ve seen and experience some of the weird shit I have humor definitely becomes your best friend ha😅) with that being said there are many different ways to give permission so be careful because you may be giving permission just by the food, drugs and or drink you injest☝🏾.

The last two times happened this year and were my first experiences with commanding negative entities I suppose. I won’t go into the exact details but the basics are I woke from strange dreams under sleep paralysis with dark shadowy figures surrounding me.

I didn’t call on Jesus or anyone. Again I have been studying and learning to cultivate my own power so the thought of calling on something outside myself didn’t even come to my mind. I simply, knowing I was being attacked mustard’d all of my strength to get the words out of my mouth to say “you have no power over me leave! you have no power over me leave! you have no power over me LEAVE!” Each time I spoke that phrase the reptilian being changed forms. After the first time I spoke the phrase the second being that was shrouded in a hood disappeared and the reptilian being changed from what looked kind of like a dinosaur to then something shrouded in a hood to then a man and then it was gone and I broke free from my sleep paralysis.

Yes it was low-key terrifying but in the moment I didn’t have time to be afraid I knew I needed to act I know the reason I was able to free myself is because I believed in the words I was speaking I knew they were true as we are all connected to the one power how do I look being afraid of something that’s part of me. So this is where my confusion about calling on angels comes from...

I know very well that you don’t have to call or summon entities to have power or to be protected. Matter of fact, I have had a few different spiritual beings come to me during sun meditation namely Thoth or Hermes, and Horus. (sounds fucking crazy I know and it wasn’t anything crazy like I saw them in their bodies or in ghostly forms, it was just like stick figures of them portrayed to me in my mind after meditating deeply with the sun.) They didn’t appear to me together I saw a Thoth first, Hours weeks later. At the time I didn’t know anything about either of them to be honest with you, I just knew that Thoth had the head of a hearing so his figure was very easy to recognize but I knew nothing about him & same with Horus’s hawk head. (Forgive me if I’m not saying the right birds, lol y’all know what I mean)

They spoke no words to me. It was more that I was just being pointed in a direction to continue my research so I immediately looked up Thoth and came across his “Emerald Tablets” (which I will link at the end of this post) and man the knowledge, the things I had felt for so long but didn’t understand was then sitting right in front of me. WEEEEEIRDDDD but more than anything exciting. Apparently they knew what I was dealing with at the time and wanted to help me (Active demon worshipers doing any and everything they could to fuck me up lmao) Thank you all so much🙏🏾 As I type this my eyes water with so much appreciation because of just how protected and guided I’ve been through all of these really hard times that I haven’t been secure enough to talk about until this moment because how do you tell people these things everyone just will think you’re crazy anyways so most people who experience supernatural things are left to do it alone.

Thank God soon after I was sent friends who are also experienced metaphysical or supernatural things so that I would know that I wasn’t crazy.😭🙏🏾❤️

Anyway I say all this to say inherently even as a human being on this planet, we are created with the power of the ALL, with God’s true essence in us. Religion has done nothing but strip us of our knowing that we can command our own power without the use of other things. In the use of other things is where the half truths come because it’s hard to know when if when you’re putting your faith in something else outside of you if said thing can be trusted. Even and almost especially the things portrayed as good or the best. You really have to read between the lines use discernment and question everything.

I share all this to say meditation is amazing, (I’ve honestly been slacking lately with all this schooling😭) taking the time to research the past really can give you better insight on the present and the future. Do not blindly follow anything! and definitely don’t go calling on things that you don’t know about!

Now with that being said can you call on things to help you, sure I suppose but as research will show you.. Genie depicted as magical beings that grant your wishes are actually demonic entities and your request come at a price which is usually your soul’s natural power. With that being said I found that when you really need help from an entity you don’t have to call on them with blood or unwilling sacrifice. Ive found they just come to you in response to “ Groanings too deep for words” in my experience anyway.

The Bible definitely holds the truth, just gotta REALLLY use discernment because the Bible has been rewritten by men for years and years and the information in the Bible was taken from other civilizations years and years before. You would be silly to believe it has not been manipulated for selfish gain. If you examine any of the books that have been removed from the Bible you know this.

I’ll link a couple videos that helped me a lot down below. I love you guys, stay safe, know you are powerful beyond what anyone will ever tell you, and thank you God and all of the helpful entities that guide and protect and love🙏🏾✨🙌🏾

If sharing my story helps even one person going through anything similar then I’m grateful and I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to do.