#there’s backstory to it if you care to receive a message spam from me

[ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask]

Here I go again with a whole new rare pair.

@thefinaljediknight’s use of the word “Rarepair” to describe me is, unfortunately, incredibly pertinent. 🥲

[ridiasfangirlings]

So I've seen all the LSW movie now and I have Thoughts and it's been a while since I did any kind of anime review so I just had to type this up.

(Note 1: No, I'm not sharing any links to where to find it. I know there's a less-than-legal link floating around that you can find on Tumblr in the tag if you look around. I actually used Google Chrome and a VPN to rent LSW for 500 yen for two days from the official Bandai Channel site linked here.)

(Note 2: The entire thing has not been subbed yet as far as I know. My knowledge of Japanese is spotty at best especially when it comes to listening rather than reading, but I've read the novel translations and the manga enough that even without subs I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.)

-We open on Fushimi's rainy Scepter 4 induction ceremony that was shown in the trailer. I suddenly remember how in the novel it's mentioned that the raindrops don't hit Munakata because of his King powers and it makes the part in MK where he has Awashima holding an umbrella for him while everyone else gets soaked that much more peak troll.

-There's this weird computer-y thing as Fushimi closes his eyes and I don't know if it quite works for me? This isn't jungle guys, the Blues can just be fancy in the rain, it's cool.

-Fushimi takes the sword and they totally cut out Saru snarking back at Munakata about the whole 'pride and pledge and such isn't really necessary.' I wanted to see Fushimi being a little shit why do you deny me.

-They also cut out Fushimi seeing Yata's hand reaching for the sword, instead we only have Fushimi taking it as he voiceovers the whole 'The first King said take this hand. The second King said take this sword.' The background also gets all computer-y again and it looks a little cheap and weird? This is not the first strange decision this movie will be making.

-Then that weird kid from the sixth movie promo material who looks like he escaped from Handshakers and has pokeballs for eyes says something profound-ish, etc etc TIME FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL BABIES.

-We cut to Yata on the toilet. Not what it sounds like I swear.

-Middle school Misaki so cute and dissatisfied as he hides in the bathroom. He spots something in the next stall and climbs up to look, like Romeo ascending Juliet's toilet balcony or somesuch.

-Fushimi is also on the toilet. Also not what it sounds like.

-Flirting ensues, with Yata being cute and enthusiastic and Fushimi playing hard to get by yelling at him to go away. Ah, young love.

-Yata mentions his phone has been getting weird messages due to jungle. That's called spam, Yata-chan, and you're probably too young to be reading anything that has a lot of xs in the subject line.

-Triumphant video game music plays as Fushimi's voice gets all excited and he lets Yata come over to watch him, which is when we see poor baby has a bruise from being beaten up by upperclassmen. (I'd say that's what happens without Yata there to save him but he probably ended up getting beaten less in the movie than the novel precisely because of that XD)

-They've known each other for like two minutes and already Yata wants to beat people up to defend Fushimi's honor.

-Fushimi proceeds to beat his opponent in jcube while Yata yells about how amazing it is and we get that 'this guy is scary...but amazing' moment, aka the actual exact moment where Yata falls totally in love.

-Fushimi's triumphant smile gives me life.

-Cue Yata walking to school. We don't really get any exact passage of time indications here but I like to assume this was at least a few days later – Fushimi's still a bit standoffish but Yata has clearly already officially adopted him as New Best Friend.

-Yata gets Aya's letter in his locker and proceeds to show us all that yes, he can get even cuter than he already was.

-He goes running after Fushimi and there's this weird slo-mo thing for a moment? I feel like if we're going for that there should be like romantic music playing or something.

-Other students stare at them, wondering if these two are really going continue to be this gay in public. (Spoiler alert: yes. Yes they are.)

-And then Aya tackle-hugs Yata. I really like her voice, it sounds super cutesy in just the right affected way, and even the big anime eyes work well for her character (since I get the impression from the novel she's supposed to look young). Also that 'Mi-sa-ki-pyuun!' is so cute.

-'You know what would be completely gratuitous?' 'What?' 'If instead of Aya wearing pumpkin pants like she explicitly says she is in the novel, we put in a middle schooler pantyshot.' 'Great idea!' -Gora, probably.

-Yata hides behind Fushimi because he too has had enough of this fanservice.

-Yata tries to use Fushimi as his totally heterosexual excuse to get away from the scary girl and Aya's voice becomes noticeably less high pitched and cutesy as she talks to Fushimi. I think they did a good job with showing the shift in the way she talks to Fushimi versus how she speaks to Yata.

-Aya tells Yata about the jungle mission and then shows him all the hateful messages she received. Yata looks away and we see his own phone, with the mean chat messages his 'friends' exchanged about him. The former Yata team still sucks and are not even worthy of showing up in this movie.

-Yata adorably clings to Fushimi and have I mentioned he is adorable because I'm dying here.

-So our trio heads out to summon the airship. Aya shows Yata the program she created to decode jungle's hints and Fushimi noticeably sighs and walks away when Yata calls it 'cool.' Someone's jealous~

-Aya's mom calls and Yata takes the opportunity to go talk with Fushimi. This part is really abbreviated from the novel, with Fushimi only confirming that Aya's his cousin before Aya breaks in to ask Yata to talk to her mom, so we don't get any of the family talk between them. I get that there was no way the movie could fit everything in but I think it's an unfortunate loss that will pretty much continue throughout the movie – Yata's backstory gets really shafted here, continuing the trend of LSW tending to be more about Fushimi than about both Fushimi and Yata as it should be.

-Yata's face as he starts his girl impersonation, I can't. Fukujun's female voice sounds like an old woman, Aya is cracking up and so am I, this is beautiful.

-And Fushimi laughs. I think I like how the manga did this one better, in the movie it seems more like mocking laughter than real happy laughter that I think it's supposed to be, and it felt more like he was trying to suppress it. Basically even though Aya's like 'Fushimi's laughing?' I don't get the impression that this is supposed to be a rare event, which I think the novel was intending and which for me the manga managed to convey.

-They spot the airship in the distance and Fushimi starts recalculating the position as Yata stares in awe and Aya gets annoyed. No smiley face like in the novel though, alas.

-Fushimi's ready to give up on chasing the airship but of course Yata's fired up now, and the bicycle built for three kicks off in hot pursuit. Yata strains to peddle even though you know Aya and Fushimi combined probably weigh like barely anything.

-Of course they still can't catch up and we get that 'If we'd gotten on...would anything change?' I feel like the visuals let this moment down a little – the manga was more dynamic here – but Mamoru Miyano's voice acting almost makes up for it, with just a slight undercurrent of longing underneath the tone.

-'A different world?' Yes Yata, you would have seen a different world where an immortal man has an airship complete with its own Real Doll or whatever that thing Colorless was dancing with in S1 was. Maybe it's better they missed the airship.

-Another cut straight to Yata in front of Fushimi's house. Again this makes sense to cut everything before it to streamline things, but I'm sad to lose Aya's comments on Fushimi's family and the mention of him being home when the house got robbed.

-Precious sick baby Saru coughing as he works on what is clearly meant to be Yata's watch. Someone's already got a crush.

-We get the whole 'Yata taking care of sick Fushimi' part and I love everything this scene chooses to be, Fushimi is just so precious and confused as to why Yata's there taking care of him. Also huge props to Mamoru Miyano because the voice acting in this scene is adorable, every little 'Yataaa' makes my heart go doki doki.

-The last time Yata goes back to check on him and Fushimi is sitting up and looking so shocked and amazed because Yata came when he called and he's being loved and taken care of and no one has ever done that before someone hold me my heart can't take this.

-Yata makes Fushimi food and then falls asleep and it's all so wonderful and sweet gosh I hope a raging asshole doesn't show up to ruin it all.

-'Who are you?' One raging asshole, right on time.

-Niki's voice...isn't really what I was expecting? It's a bit deep in a way that I'm not sure works for me... I mean, he does sound like he needs to be punched in the face so that's spot on. As far as Nikis go though I think I give stage play Niki the edge as far as how I imagined him sounding.

-Niki threatens to stuff a mantis in Yata's mouth and we hear the sounds of poor sick baby Fushimi stumbling his way through the giant house as fast as he can go, likely falling over things and breathing hard and just terrified because he needs to get Yata away from his asshole trash king father now.

-And Fushimi absolutely screams at Niki to shut up and it's beautiful and painful and this entire scene just makes me want to kidnap him and save him from his terrible dad.

-Niki's laugh is just kinda there too, like anime!Niki doesn't quite manage that distinctive 'gyahaha' that stage play Niki did so well.

-Fushimi outside with Yata and again the voice acting is so good, that desperate little 'Yata!' and then the hesitant, stumbling attempts at thanking Yata when Fushimi's never thanked anyone before. My heart.

-Yata says he'll see Fushimi at school and Fushimi smiles and I just...precious baby. Must protect.

-Of course this beauty couldn't last forever and Fushimi's face falls as he has to go back inside to face the piece of unburnable trash sitting on the stairs. This is the one place Niki's voice 100% worked for me – that 'Saruhiko! Asoboze~' was just chilling.

-And we begin part two, with Yata and Fushimi hanging out on the street where they'll shortly meet Mikoto. Yata mom gets cheated out of not just a name but a cameo animated appearance too, why this Gora.

-They use a mix of old and new animation for this part – Yata drinking and then throwing the drink is clearly the exact animation from S1 but Mikoto catching it has been newly animated. That's probably for the best – the bigger eyes work well enough with Fushimi and Yata, since they're supposed to be kids, but there would be a pretty obvious difference between the old and new styles with Mikoto. (I think Mikoto looking back at them might be from S1 though...honestly this just makes me miss the S1 animation style again.)

-Cut to Fushimi getting yelled at for having his phone out in class. Fushimi of course gives no fucks and walks right out, and Yata runs after him while their teacher is completely done with this level of gay.

-I don't really like how those last two scenes went flow-wise, it feels kinda abrupt? The scene with Sarumi meeting Homra continues to feel shoved in and awkwardly out of place even in its own movie, and having nothing to really indicate the passing of time between Yata visiting Fushimi at his home to the two of them on the street and then back to class makes things feel choppy to me here. I assume they rearranged things from the novel for time reasons but it definitely feels shuffled around.

-Yata asks if Fushimi's going home and says he'll go too, and Fushimi has this little '...sorry' moment that's adorable, especially when Yata proceeds to put a hand on his shoulder and smiles and I think this movie is as in love with Yata as Fushimi is, every scene of him smiling is so bright.

-Yata mentions that they're third years already, finally giving some indication of how time moves in this movie thank you Yata.

-Fushimi pulls up jungle, showing Yata pictures that jungle's managed to take of various Homra members as part of a mission. I'm just concerned that someone is stalking Kusanagi.

-They discuss the rumors of the 'Red Monster' as images of Mikoto looking scary cross the screen. My favorite part of this is when they show Mikoto and the Homra members in silhouette with glowing red eyes looking all ominous, except one of the silhouettes is clearly Totsuka and I'm pretty sure the worst he's gonna do to you guys is ask if you want to help him with a hobby.

-We also get a close up of glowing eyes Fujishima. Did someone kick a dog in his presence, or...?

-Yata proposes to Fushimi talks about how they should get a place together and we get a quick flash of Niki looking like an asshole, which is his specialty. 'You don't need a home like that.'

-Yata says their place should have a helicopter pad and suddenly we're in Yata vision with an adorable cartoony plane rising up from a hidden door and just when you thought Yata couldn't be cuter.

-...Followed by Fushimi vision which is basically a mad science lab featuring human-like organisms in glowing pods. The chuunibyou is strong.

-The two of them walk off discussing plans and being in love as Aya stares down from the window, wondering why she's even in this movie again.

-Back to the Fushimi House of Shitty Parents, with Kisa making her cameo. Her character design is just way too....soft, I think, for my tastes. I feel like the manga did the better job of portraying a beautiful but cold and professional woman. Also she's got a hedgehog on her shoulder (or it's some kind of fluffy necklace thing, idk, it's weird why is it there why isn't she in her party dress like she should be).

-Her voice feels a little too pleasant for me too, though it does shift slightly colder when she gets off the phone and starts talking to Fushimi.

-Also while on the one hand the front of the house being wide and empty fits, since we know they don't keep anything valuable where people can see, the background here feels a bit...off? Like at one point we see these huge open doorways behind Fushimi and Kisa and it looks like they live in a fucking museum or something, like there's 'rich person's house' and 'no one actually has a house that looks like this.'

-Kisa tells Fushimi his dad is in the hospital and leaves, her cameo appearance over for the day. She still got more screentime than Yata's mom.

-Fushimi thinks about Niki's illness and then smiles and laughs, as we all should.

-Back to school, and Aya is pissed at Fushimi only being in 45th place in exams and that he isn't competing with her, because once again Fushimi gives no fucks he's moving in with his boyfriend and doesn't need no education.

-Aya mentions getting into Tsubakigahara high school and Fushimi cleans his glasses, reminding me that I wish we'd gotten to see Aya in her glasses animated.

-'Have you ever listened to me with your eyes sparkling and saying 'amazing'?' And Fushimi walks right past her because he doesn't want a rival, he wants someone who will look at him as he is and think that he's worth something, that he's amazing from the point of view beyond just what society expects.

-And Aya scores a direct hit with her backpack! Throwing things at people must run in the Fushimi family.

-Fushimi says he doesn't hate Aya and for a moment she stares at him with romance in her eyes....and then he kicks her backpack right back in her face. Such a smooth talker. At least they resisted the urge to put in another pantyshot there.

-Cut to the Sarumi Apartment of Love. The quick pan up the building makes it feel like they should be on the top floor even though we know from the novel it's a first floor apartment. Also the building looks a bit too fancy for me, considering their apartment's supposed to be cheap and purchased via an underworld-type realtor.

-Yata shows off his skateboard tricks and Fushimi is not interested. He's just playing hard to get again.

-Yata and Fushimi plan their attack on the surprise party and are so cute and hopeful and it's depressing knowing this is really the beginning of the end of their sense of invincibility.

-KNUCKLE BUMP!

-Also please note Fushimi's loft is big enough that Yata can like climb right up there with him and there's plenty of room for things like for example making out if the two of them wanted to do such things you know just saying.

-The night of the surprise party. Dewa and Chitose get to make appearances trying to disperse the crowd as Yata waits on top of the roof and Fushimi runs the computers while wearing a cute stripey blanket.

-They discuss the plan as tiny CGI people hang out around Homra. It looks like the bar is being attacked by rogue escapees from a Sims game (new plan: Yata leads them to the nearest pool and Fushimi removes the ladder).

-Fushimi is still wearing a stripey blanket on his head, and he is adorable. Just to make note of the important things.

-Fushimi begins the hacking mission as everyone puts on freaky-ass masks. Did Hisui have a coupon for the local freaky mask shop or something? Was this a wholesale deal?

-The jungle kids start shooting off party poppers. Sensing a threat to his bar counter, Kusanagi finally makes an appearance.

-Fushimi sends out a fake mail to indicate jungle's having server issues and we see Aya in the crowd, which makes you think her presence here is going to be important. Spoiler alert: unlike in the novel, her presence has no payoff and means nothing.

-Yata dons his own freaky mask and skateboards into the fray. His acting is slightly less bad than I expected it to be but Fushimi still facepalms over it.

-Fushimi's terminal sparks green and a tiny avatar appears in the corner. I think I liked the manga interpretation of Hisui's avatar guy better, there he was just a faceless completely unassuming avatar and here it's a little guy in a suit and glasses who looks more distinctive. I do like the way his voice is computerized but still obviously Hisui under it, which gets more pronounced the more he talks.

-At the end when the avatar goes all demony, I think this is another point for the manga which actually looked scary, businessman-avatar looks a bit more on the silly side. Though for Fushimi it was probably creepy either way (also it makes me wonder about Hisui on the other end of that transmission turning his avatar into a scary demon while his parrot eats his hair).

-Fushimi pulls the plug on his computer and then is off and running, yelling Yata's name over and over again, just so desperate to be sure Yata's all right.

-”Saruhiko!” “Misaki!” My heart.

-Yata drags Fushimi into a corner and Fushimi has that 'it's our—my loss' moment before they suddenly get attacked by party poppers again. One hits close to Fushimi's eye but it's just a random hit, which makes me wonder why they bothered even showing Aya before.

-I love Fushimi dragging Yata away here – he sounds just so harried, like here he's lost and he wasn't superior at all, and even worse he's put Misaki in danger and he just has no idea what to do.

-More fireworks come flying at them as Mikoto makes his grand appearance at last, in a giant ball of flame.

-I feel like the blocking of this scene was really weird, it seems like Fushimi and Yata should have been being swarmed by masked people but in order to save animation budget they just had random firecrackers flying around and then all of a sudden Saru's being dragged off by fangirls enemies. I wish it had been a little more frantic.

-Yata running towards Mikoto while yelling at him to save Saruhiko was perfect though, he's just so terrified for Fushimi's sake.

-I really loved the whole scene of Mikoto saving Fushimi, the way Fushimi looks up as the fire rains down and then Totsuka coming up behind him and holding him as lovely music plays, the atmosphere was so lovely (….though it kinda made me suddenly want some TotsuFushi. Just a little).

-Totsuka keeps hugging Fushimi, doing what we all wish we could.

-And we finally get a proper Sarumi hug! If nothing else at least the anime didn't punk out with a leg hug, we got a real hug this time.

-Fushimi and Yata head home in failure. Fushimi clenches his fist and you can see bruises on his fingers, my poor child.

-Back to the hospital where ding dong the dick is dead. The manga only implied that Kisa was a terrible mother who made her middle school age son collect his dead dad's body, the anime nicely confirms it by having her call Fushimi and tell him to do it.

-The manga was a little more abrupt and creepy with this scene, where Fushimi briefly sees Niki sitting up and mocking him. Even dead Niki is punchable.

-Also I like how even dead Niki's hair is perfectly styled. Are those bangs natural or what?

-Fushimi loses it and starts yelling at a corpse. It's almost like making your traumatized and abused middle schooler son retrieve his dad's dead body was a bad idea or something.

-A rubix cube falls from Niki's hand and--

-And--

-H E L P M E

-HE'S SO CUTE

-L O O K A T H I M

-HE HAS A TINY BOWTIE AND LITTLE NERD GLASSES LOOK AT HIS SMOL HANDS I LOVE HIM

-Only a true piece of utter trash could upset such a pure baby

-D I E

-Okay, things that aren't baby Saru, right, there's still movie left.

-Yata and Aya talk in the rain, I'm mostly distracted by how cute Yata looks in a poncho.

-It feels a little depressing that the last we see of Aya is her sobbing in the rain. I don't think the novel's resolution for her was the best either but at least there was something like closure.

-'The first King said take this hand. The second King said take this sword.' Fushimi voiceovers once again as Yata and Fushimi stand side by side in front of Mikoto at Bar Homra. They reach for Mikoto's flaming hands and...roll credits. Wait, roll credits?

-So yeah the entire back half of the novel isn't in the movie, it ends with Sarumi joining Homra. I wonder how this plays to people who haven't read the novel, because to me it very much feels like this is a narrative without an actual ending. I think they tried to make a parallel with the 'take this hand/take this sword' part but without the latter half of the novel the opening scene actually feels somewhat out of place to me, like it has no real relation to the rest of the movie (I almost feel like since they were messing with the novel anyway they should have started the movie with Yata and Fushimi reaching for Mikoto's hand, then backtracking to how we got to this point and finally jumping forward just as Fushimi's hand is about to take Mikoto's and suddenly have him reaching for the sword instead, looking to the side as Yata's phantom hand next to him fades away).

-I think they were in somewhat of a difficult position with LSW because the novel's too long for the movie they were making so some things had to be cut – and to be fair I have no idea how I would get the whole novel into a movie of this length either – but I can't deny it doesn't suffer for losing that back half. LSW is the story of how Yata and Fushimi met and then how they broke apart, and the movie to me feels like it's building towards a resolution that doesn't happen. In that sense starting the movie with the Homra installation rather than S4 might have worked better, restructuring the source material so it's more focused around how the two of them became friends and joined Homra with only the hovering specter of future betrayal at the end.

-Similarly, as far as dropped plot threads go, I liked seeing Aya animated but she feels somewhat... extraneous in the movie as it is. Her presence is mainly necessary for kickstarting the airship plot but as the movie stands that's it, and her arc feels rushed with a lot of pointless moments – having her be at the surprise party, for example, but not having her attack Fushimi and then cutting out the two of them speaking at Niki's funeral and Aya talking about being Fushimi's enemy, all of which ultimately makes her appearance there in the movie be without any real payoff. It also means her final interaction in the movie is with Yata rather than Fushimi, even though her character is more of a foil for Fushimi than Yata and her relationship with him more complex.

-Other things they cut I didn't like: no anthill? Seeing babu Saru with the rubix cube was fine enough and I do think the movie made it pretty clear that Fushimi was being abused, but the anthill is so essential to Fushimi's worldview that I feel losing it downplays some of his trauma a bit. As sad as poor upset Fushimi's face was when Niki destroyed the rubix cube it really doesn't carry the punch that this image does:

-Also this was a weakness in the novel too but once again, Yata gets really shafted by LSW. In the novel he at least has some presence in the first part of the novel but the movie completely removes everything about feeling left out of his family and even the part where he finds out his 'friends' hate him is a lot more downplayed than in the novel. A lot of what we see of Yata feels like it's from Fushimi's view, all those dazzling smiles, and it's wonderful from that perspective but I wish we'd gotten a little more of Yata's inner life here.

-On the good end, I am glad we at least got what we did of animated LSW. Middle school Yata is an utter gem of adorableness and I am so thankful to have him. The voice acting was also really great, Fukujun and Mamo knocked it out of the part (best in show probably goes to Mamo's 'Yataaa' during the scene where he's sick in bed, that was absolutely precious). Niki was complete trash in just the right way and I think the movie did a good job in conveying the dread and fear Fushimi feels towards him. If I had to rank adaptations I would probably put the anime last after the manga and the stage play but it's still a good watch and I'm looking forward to actually being able to, y'know, watch a nice legal stream with subs and then actually be able to buy it on disc some time in the next decade whenever Viz finally stops being jerks and give people who can't go running across the country to random cons on half a week's notice a chance to watch.

[berdbrainx]

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• That being said, characters who have already interacted in canon will know each other. Unless the roleplay takes place in a different point of time and we are staging their first meeting, of course.

• Doubles are welcome to interact too! Although currently I don’t know of much other Berdly roleplay blogs lmao. I’m also cool with interacting with and following multiple blogs who portray the same character! Such as the Kris squad.

• This blog will not have mains. Other than the Kris at @daggcrisms. That Kris originates in his timeline in the "main verse". Excluding them, he will not have any specific version of a muse that he’ll talk about in threads, unless the thread is specifically about that one muse for some reason. For Deltarune blogs, he will typically be the Berdly in your muse’s timeline in serious roleplays, unless your muse is part of an AU/UA/canon-divergent universe, or there are things about your muse’s backstory that would contradict Berdly being in your timeline naturally (like Berdly being dead or something), or you talk about it with me beforehand. In his “main verse” in spontaneous roleplays/asks/replies to in-character posts, he resides in his own separate timeline. It’s a classic timeline that doesn’t have any other muses in it, so he doesn’t have a specific blog’s Susie, or Noelle, that is from his own timeline. Only Sponte/Kris from the blog mentioned above.

• I’m pretty lenient with short replies. Don’t feel pressured to match the length if my reply gets long! Multi-para (usually 2-5 paragraphs) is my go-to for roleplays, so I usually do long replies by default.

• Adding onto that, I honestly don’t mind one-liners. Of course, in crack/online roleplays it's fine but I'm okay with it in serious roleplays too. I prefer it if you don’t give me one-liners, but hey, as long as I’m still having fun with the roleplay anyway, it’s cool with me! I understand not being able to think of anything to write, so just as long as you don’t give me one or two words as your reply like ‘He smiled.’ or ’*laughs*’, I’ll be cool with it. Put at least some effort even if you’re only gonna give me one sentence, otherwise I’ll drop the rp once it becomes a repeat offense.

• I will not change the formatting of my roleplays to fit yours. I’m comfortable with sticking to only paragraph style roleplays, thank you very much. Feel free to keep formatting your own posts though, because I think formatting looks really cool! I just don’t want to format my posts, however. I will not go all out with formatting my own posts with all that cool ‘small text’, and indents, and bolding and all that. The most I ever do with my formatting is italics for emphasis on certain words, and using icons.

• I tend to move roleplays from asks onto its own post. If I send you an ask meme and you answer it, I'll respond by making a new post, tagging you, and linking to your reply. Until formatting on asks are fixed, I will answer any asks sent to me in a new text post rather than asks.

• I accept any sort of asks! If they aren’t answered after a while, either I don’t know how to answer it or I might be drawing it out and I am a very slow artist- Sorry-

• Feel free to tag me in any of those tagging memes! I don’t mind and I think they’re pretty fun to do! ^^

• Adding onto the above rule, you’re more than welcome to send me those chain asks like “send this to 10 roleplayers you think are really great!” because it’s super duper nice that you would think to send one to me! But don’t expect me to send them to other people, because I won’t :’) my anxiety won’t let me, so I’m sorry-

• If I follow you, that means I’ve already read all of your rules. I might not send the codephrase, though, because most of the time I get very anxious over having to send things like that. I’m very sorry–! But if I follow you then chances are that I have definitely read them before following- If you choose not to trust me on this, I understand.

• I generally follow every rp blog that follows me, but I might not follow some people back for a few reasons. Some might be for the type of content you post on your blog, but I am still non-selective! I will roleplay with anyone who asks (unless you wanna rp gross things or you’re a mean person,,,, like your muse can be as much of a dick as you want, that’s no problem but don’t be gross to other people as yourself) and if I do roleplay with you, I will be more likely to follow you as well.

• Adding onto the above rule, however, please respect that it’s nothing personal if I ever unfollow you either! It’s not that I hate you or anything, but if you haven’t followed me back and you’re a private rp blog, or if we’re mutuals but never really roleplay, our muses just don’t click, you spam stuff that I don’t want to see on my dash, or you’ve become inactive for years and/or don’t interact with me anymore, there’s nothing wrong with that! We can still be friends but I prefer to have all the people I follow be potential rp partners. Feel free to follow me on my personal, Briightskies, if you still wanna keep in touch but not rp :’)

—

–ABOUT THIS BLOG–

• This blog is OC, multiverse, and crossover friendly! I love OCs and have many of my own tbh, you’re all more than welcome to come rp with me!!

• I’ll also rp with fandoms I’m not into either, as long as you have a good about section for your character, which also indicates how you portray them (any headcanons or AUs you have that aren’t canon, or whether you portray them as canonly as possible, unless they’re OCs of course since a regular about page is a given) and I’ll probably look up other things about that fandom in its wiki if I don’t know what something is anyway.

• This blog is multiship! So any relationships my muse is involved in, are in different timelines unless specified. Poly relationships aren’t bad though, just saying. I ship pretty much anything unless it’s incest or if they’re children paired with someone a lot older. Selfcest is fine too (though I really don’t know how to feel about Berdly x Berdly,,,,,, I mean, if you want to try it with me, go for it lol!). Because Berdly is a minor, he won’t really get intimate with his partners, but romantic stuff is a-okay.

• I also only ship with chemistry. My muses need to get to know yours first, so don’t get disappointed if he only sees you as a friend/acquaintance at first and has no intention of pursuing a romantic relationship with your muse. Give my muse reasons to care about your muse and let the feelings develop naturally, and don’t ever force your muse on mine. Unless it’s to mess with him, or whatever other reason. Unrequited stuff is absolutely okay with me too!

• I will tag common triggers and such, but don’t be afraid to tell me if you have something you want me to tag! I promise I’ll remember to tag it from then on. I do not have any known triggers myself. Any trigger warning tags will be written as “tw; ____” with a semi-colon, not a colon.

|     Requested tagged triggers:

tw; gore

tw; spiders

tw; insects

tw; blood

tw; homestuck

tw; smoking

tw; drugs

tw; alcohol

tw; needles

tw; oceans

tw; cutting

duplicates // (if anyone else has a specific way they want something tagged that's different from my tagging style, please let me know)

tw; zombies

tw; bats

tw; maggots

tw; sibling death

tw; sibling peril

• I will only talk through the IM system ooc. If you send me a message through there, I will not respond with ooc brackets ((these things)) because I will automatically assume you know that you’re talking to the mun. I do not do roleplays on there.

-

Thank you for reading this really long list of rules! It means a lot if you did!

There’s no password, because I’m also anxious with those for other people’s blogs as I said above. But if you would like to interact with me, you can shoot me an ask directed to my muse, or like one of my starter call posts at any time (also feel free to re-like those posts so I can make another starter for you at any time!) for me to write you a starter!

[serenagaywaterford]

1) Hey, it's me again. The idiot rambling anon. I wasn't gonna spam you again, but then I read your responses. At this point, I'm convinced you're my alter ego, lol. My thoughts are all over the place, but I'll try to organize them. So, about Nick. I've purposely avoided talking about him so far, but why the hell not? Let me make one thing clear: I'm NOT of of those thirsty fangirls. But even if I was? I wouldn't get offended or butthurt, because another person likes different fictional

2) characters (of all things) than me. I mean, big fucking deal. Each to their own, no need for apologies. ;) (My tone is a little aggressive, I know, but I’m sick and tired of some people on social media –in and out of fandoms– acting holier-than-thou and sending hate messages and even actual death threats (!) to creators or people that express unpopular opinions*. It’s reached a point where many people feel the need to put disclaimers in their posts so as not to be attacked.)

3) Back to Nick. I liked him just fine back in early S1, when he was all mysterious and his background story was unknown to us. When we did learn about it and the fandom started acting like he’s that pure, handsome angel uwu? Nah. Obviously, he’s no Fred/Serena/Lydia,but he’s not a “cinnamon roll” either. (Imo, the only decent dude on that show is Luke.) I mean, if Nick was SO altruistic, he wouldn’t have joined this job. Or even after everything went down, he could have tried to help other

4) handmaids without expecting anything in return. But no, he only helps June and that’s because he’s in love with her. I’m not blaming him for trying to survive under such circumstances, but I won’t idolize him either. Now, in s2? I’m kinda neutral about him. I don’t hate him, but I can’t say that I’m a fan either. Not gonna lie, he bores me at times, because he’s just… there. No sparks, no fireworks. Not sure if it’s the writing that doesn’t do the actor any favors, but his acting hasn’t

5) really drawn me in yet. A counterexample to this? Aunt Lydia. Her personality is despicable 98% of the time and yet. Dowd’s captivating performance makes me want to know so much more about her character.) On the other hand, I’m glad that June has someone (besides Rita) to back her up in that hellhole. She needs comfort and allies. But the whole ‘tRu Love 5eva" fanon thing? No, thanks. Not only it doesn’t fit the tone of the series, but I also believe that sharing an intense, forbidden love/

6) during such a shitstorm is not the same thing as keeping it alive after all is said and done (post-Gilead). Maybe they’ll stay together (as long as Nick doesn’t die), maybe they’ll fall apart. I can’t really see June romantically reconnecting with Luke either. After everything she’s been through… She’s a completely different person now. Unfortunately, the same things goes for Emily and her wife. Even though I’d love to see her interact with both her wife and her child in S3.

———

My inbox is so beautiful right now! Never, ever call yourself an idiot, my friend. (If you are, then so am I!) Brain twins, you see.

(Also sorry about this being out of order lol.)

I was trying not to talk about him too cos generally I just … I prefer not to think about him much. The fangirls, just, *sigh*. I try to avoid as much as possible in this fandom, esp on tumblr. Just hang out in my quiet little, not-Serena-hating corner. I always feel a need to put disclaimers these days cos as much as I don’t really care about random hate, I’d prefer not to have to deal with dogpiles or to look at it lmao. Like people can go around just hating on any character here–especially if they’re women–but say one critical (not even hateful) thing about their male fav and things just go off. 

I’m more than aware the majority of people don’t like Serena and think she’s the worst thing ever. And fair play! (I get it… cos I’m not delusional. She’s awful.) Each to their own. I don’t go around bitching at people who say shitty things or stuff I don’t agree with, or blocking anybody who doesn’t like her. (There are a few posts I do engage with cos normally they seem like they want to go deeper in The Discourse but most Serena/Lydia/Eden/Janine/June-hate I just ignore.)

ITA. S1 was, like, okay. That’s Nick. What’s he up to? What’s his deal? (I don’t really care but I’m not opposed to him either. Just like I didn’t care about Luke’s backstory/escape.) He’s trying to be good to June and she needs that.When we did learn his backstory I was not pleased cos he seemed like a twerp but whatevs. Grey characters are grey. It wasn’t until S2 that I started to get irked by him (and the hypocrisy of his fans but that’s a whole other issue). 

I can’t agree ANY more with your assessment of Nick. Like that’s EXACTLY what I’ve been saying! Firstly, he was RIGHT THERE when the Handmaid/Ceremony thing was first suggested and was like “Oh, yeah, great idea!” to Fred. I get that perhaps he was pressured to go along to keep his job but that’s a stretch imo, and if you can give him that sort of leeway, why can’t characters like Eden, Serena, Lydia and June get the same benefit of the doubt for certain things? Why is Nick’s pressure to keep his job more important and forgivable than anybody else’s pressures? It’s like that entire scene doesn’t exist to fangirls and Nick is so precious and in love and wonderful. Then there’s the rape of June. Like I know it’s pretty controversial to look at it that way, but that first time, with Serena overseeing it like a fucking creepy pimp (YUUUUUUCCCKKKKK I HATE IT THANKS) was rape. June barely knew the guy and I’m pretty sure if she wanted to have sex with him it wouldn’t be like that! And sure, after that, it was totally consensual but that first time was not. And I’ve heard the justification and excuses of “Well, Nick didn’t have a choice either!” which I call bullshit on, cos Nick is not some powerless delivery boy. 

He’s a fucking Guardian who is tight with the top Commanders. He’s a man, if nothing else. Serena can act all high and mighty but she’s still a woman in a highly misogynistic society. I’m not convinced Fred would take his wife’s word over Nick’s tbh, especially if it was like “Dude, your crazy wife asked me to fuck the Handmaid you’re obsessed with”. If he really didn’t want to do it that badly, he could have taken that chance to report Serena. Even if Fred wanted to keep it hush hush away from other Commanders, he would have gone after Serena. Men are far more likely to turn on women than each other, esp in THT. But that’s just my take. Maybe I am missing something about Nick’s status. To me, it was like double rape. Neither of them wanted to do it, like that anyway. But Nick also did fuck all to stop it when IMO he did have some power to do something. He is not a helpless victim in that society, imo. Again, probably not a well-received opinion. 

Don’t even get me started on his “Poor me!” routine in S2 when June tells him to have sex with Eden. I’m glad she called him on that bullshit. (But again, over the fangirls heads. Enough about them!)

Basically, everything Nick has done wrong isn’t his choice; he’s just a victim. In a story about women, Nick’s victimhood at the hands of these nasty women and men is the real issue. Blah. Whatever.

I just find Nick lacks total self-awareness about being part of the shitty ass system. He kind of just floats around thinking nothing is his fault and he’s blameless for it all, and he certainly can’t seem to see it from anyone’s perspective except his own. He’s upset about Fred & June’s Jezebel trips, not for her own safety or well-being but mainly he’s jealous. Of course he’s concerned about her safety but I believe it takes a backseat to his jealousy. He just seems to never take any responsibility for anything.

And BINGO about the previous Handmaid. Nothing we’ve been shown has given any hint he cares about any other woman’s plight in Gilead other than June, and only cares about her cos he had a crush/fucked her/is in wuv wiv her. Basically, she’s HIS so suddenly he cares about her. Look how fast he dumped that Martha as soon as he got brooding about June. He’s done fuckall for anybody except himself and that alone makes me dislike him. He’s no better than Fred in that way for me. But where Fred can occasionally be an interesting villain, cos Fiennes is nasty good, I find the actor who plays Nick just… not engaging. And he’s not SUPPOSED to be a villain! He’s meant to be a good guy! It’s crazy. He’s not compelling, he’s not interesting. He’s bland. He’s not even good looking, lol. I was watching with a friend once and mention I thought Fred was way better looking than Nick and she just stared at me and said, “You shouldn’t say that. But me too.” So, count me in the camp that just does not get the appeal of the character OR the actor.

I don’t hate Nick generally. I am just totally indifferent to his existence. If he left the show tomorrow, I’d shrug and probably be a little glad I don’t have to see that bland moping anymore. If he stays, oh well. Shrug. And I just don’t want his and June’s star-crossed romance shoved down my throat. It’s so… I dunno. I’m not opposed to June finding solace and hope but making it some beautiful forbidden romance, I’m not buying it. Like you said, it’s all well and good in Gilead–but it doesn’t strike me as something that can be sustainable outside it. To borrow from you last time: It’s the Handmaid’s Tale, not The Guardian + the Handmaid’s Tale.

Okay, enough about that pipsqueak. I don’t even like talking about him, tbh. He’s not worth it when there’s so much else going on.

ITA about Luke/June too. I feel like the level of disconnection and trauma that they’ve sustained, especially June, they can try to reconnect but it’s pretty difficult and I think especially with June having a sexual/romantic relationship with Nick pulls that really tight. It’s just two different planets they live on now. I don’t doubt that she still loves Luke, but actually reforming the relationship they previously had seems like an impossible task considering everything both of them have been through. It’s sad, but … sadly true for many people. Relationships can fall apart for far less.

And on the same page about Emily/Sylvia too. She is just soooooo fucking broken, and hopeless, that if they have them just rekindle with no issues, it’ll be bad writing. (I dunno if you see spoilers but there’s one about them.) She needs therapy so much more than a cutesy feelgood storyline.

Back to Lydia: Exactly! There’s a character we know very little about and who is a horrible person, yet the performance by Dowd makes almost everyone go, “TELL ME MORE!” With Nick, it’s the opposite for me. I’m just like, “Please, less of this.”

[sage-nebula]

Mystic Messenger - Entry Six

And here we are once again with Mystic Messenger, the visual novel / dating sim that I downloaded on a whim from the app store because it was free and I was bored and am now way, way too invested in. The good news is, it sounds like some of you are just as invested as I am, so at the very least, I’m not alone in my suffering! And with that said . . .

Let’s get started!

So, this part of the playthrough (and I think it was Day Six? Pretty sure it was Day Six) begins with Jaehee having received a strange e-mail. Now, before you think, “oh, this is probably nbd,” I should inform you that this song was playing throughout the discussion of this e-mail, which never means anything good. (In fact, what it means is that Weirdo sent the e-mail, even though there was no way to know it for certain at this time. Like, the characters had doubts. I did not.) I understand that it can be kind of hard to see from the screenshot, but the e-mail was sent to Jaehee’s personal e-mail account, the logo is for something called Mint Eye, and the e-mail itself reads:

“One paradise. 

The place where everyone’s happy.

The magenta of dreams and hope.”

So, you know, gibberish . . . except for the fact that this was sent by Weirdo, so you know it can’t be entirely harmless.

But anyway, there wasn’t much that either Jaehee or I could do about the e-mail, so discussion moved on from that to the one who could do something about it: Seven.

If you’ll remember, last time this liveblog ended on a rather worrisome note for Seven. Seven feels absolutely horrible about himself because he can’t complete his work for the agency due to the fact that he can’t focus (because of his feelings for me), but at the same time he also can’t find Weirdo, and on top of all of this, he is in denial / can’t accept his feelings because of the position he’s in, what with being some kind of secret agent and all. The thing about the RFA chat, however, is that messages can’t be deleted (as Jaehee found to her horror at one point when Seven refused to delete her gushing over Zen), and all of the members can read everything posted in the chat whenever they log into the app. Even if they didn’t participate at the time, they can still scroll back through and read them. And so with that said, Jaehee saw the conversation that took place between Zen and myself . . .

The “another task” that Jaehee is talking about is tracing the source of the e-mail that Weirdo sent. =( Everyone can tell that my babe is completely overwhelmed and just . . . afdjsklafdsafdsa Sevennnnnn

What do you mean, “even” me? What’s that supposed to mean? Have I not been comforting? Have I not been a good gf?! (Well, technically I’m not his gf right now because of his hang-ups---we all remember the heartbreak in the last entry---but still.)

“I think you are quite special to him” --- that’s better. =| I mean, honestly, Jaehee, I felt kind of dragged for a second there . . .

Anyway, after this conversation---okay, so I’m pretty sure that this was one of those times in which the guide I was following said that I was supposed to receive a phone call from Seven, but I didn’t, because I had to pay for the chat with hourglasses. Maybe it wasn’t, but either way, I ended up calling Seven myself, and---

He was singing this song about looking up at the night sky, and he said something like, “Star one, me one, star two, you two---” and then these were my answer choices, and I . . .

Don’t judge me, but I . . .

. . . I went with the second one. ... Look, I wanted to see what he would say, okay?!

And as it turns out, it worked out in my favor. :D MEANT TO BE. Unfortunately, at that point he got a signal that someone (probably Weirdo) was trying to tap the call, so he had to disconnect. Unfortunate.

This, though . . . ughhhh, so:

One thing I noticed from this point forward is that the answer choices often have two options for Seven: One that is more natural, and one that is grossly embarrassing. Out of the ones above, I’m sure you can tell which answer is grossly embarrassing. I mean, first of all, as a general rule, I hate the word “hubby”. It sounds so unbelievably trashy to me, probably at least in part due to the fact that it used to appear all the time in the Weekly World News satirical tabloids from my childhood as part of the advice sections, and I just . . . I don’t know, I associate that magazine with trash because of the time in my life in which I read it, and so the word “hubby” feels very low-brow to me, very . . . Jerry Springer, or Maury, if that makes sense.

So I already hate that word from the get-go and so I’m Offended™ that this game made me look at it with my own two eyes (and not only that, but gave it as an option for me to say, ugh, as if I would ever), but honestly, the grossly embarrassing answer choices are---I mean, on the plus side, according to the guide they pretty much all lead to a Bad End. This is good, because I really do not ever want to pick them, and now I don’t have to (and shouldn’t!) because they lead nowhere good. But the reason why they lead nowhere good, and also the reason they’re so horrible, is because---

Look. There is a time and a place for flirting. Earlier in the game I had a lot of fun picking the flirty answer choices, particularly because Seven played along and it was a fun time. But now we’re no longer in that fun time. Now things are Serious™. Seven is immensely stressed (for good reason!), and conflicted, and depressed. Not only that, but he made it pretty damn clear last time that he doesn’t want (or rather, feels like he can’t) be in a relationship right now. So pushing with things like this, acting like we’re married when we’re not even dating, is invasive, gross, and a complete disregard for his boundaries, feelings, wants, and needs. If I picked answer choices like that, it would show that his feelings as a person don’t matter to me in the least bit, that all I care about is getting what I want. So of course answers like this lead to a Bad End---of course they do. Not only do they sound obsessive and clingy (and therefore gross, like---seriously, ugh), but they also treat Seven rather callously and terrible in the process. We’re past the flirtationship stage for the most part, but even if we weren’t, Seven made it clear that he does not want to progress the relationship right now. That needs to be respected, and grossly embarrassing responses calling him “hubby” does not respect that in the least bit.

Anyway. Soap box that looks way too deep into this goddamn dating sim is over now. Time to progress with the story.

As it turns out, Zen had received the same e-mail that Jaehee did (as you could probably tell from the chat behind the answer choices), and I picked the second answer choice because, as just explained, I am not a gross person. Like with Jaehee, a conclusion was reached that Seven would be notified about the spam e-mail, and then the conversation shifted to everything Seven had said the night previous, because Zen wanted to talk about it, too. And what would you know:

Zen was actually a decent person for once. I was so impressed! I couldn’t help but think, wow, Zen is really turning himself around. He is developing as a character and a human being. He is actually making progress and is no longer being an obnoxious douch---

. . . Never mind, I take it back. And I made sure he knew just how Done™ I am with his nonsense, too:

NO MERCY. NO REGRETS.

Anyway, the next conversation (or at least the next one I have screenshots of) actually did feature my boy, and---

He’s trying to play it off as if everything is fine, but. =/ I mean, I know better because of spoilers, obviously, but I also knew better at the time because I knew better. Either way, Seven did his best to keep up appearances---

---literally. :D Lookin’ good, God Seven! (That’s not me being weird, that’s actually an in-joke in-game, which you’ll especially see in a couple screencaps. ;D) Also, can I just say how much I appreciate that he wears oversized headphones? Because I do, too. I literally never leave home without them. I feel under-dressed if I don’t have them. Seriously, MEANT TO BE.

On a completely different note, Jumin uses Urban Dictionary. I . . . I can’t . . . okay. You know, there are some things that are better to just accept. This is one of them. Okay. (By the way, the word / phrase they were talking about is “gap moe”.)

If you’ll remember my short posts from last night, you’ll remember where this leads. At the time I took these screenshots I didn’t know where this leads, but now I do and just . . . oh Jumin. Oh Jumin. In his defense he was really trying to do something good, but what he does . . . and how he uses the cat speech bubble to announce it . . . oh Jumin.

But that’s enough silliness. Now it’s time for SERIOUS TIMES WITH SEVEN™.

I’m pretty sure it was right after this chat that there was another Visual Novel Mode™ between Seven and Vanderwood. I only took a couple screenshots from this bit, but essentially what went down is that Seven isn’t even close to finishing his work for the agency. What exactly that work is isn’t specified, but according to Vanderwood they’re working for a client who is extremely dangerous, as well as extremely impatient, and the work is supposed to be finished by the end of the day (and has already been delayed several times). Seven tries to convince Vanderwood to stall their boss, which Vanderwood says is impossible due to how dangerous and impatient their client is, and how likely they are to end up dead if Seven doesn’t finish this work (which is why Vanderwood is being such a hard-ass about it). Vanderwood then goes on to give a bit of backstory in an attempt to motivate Seven, saying that they allowed Seven to continue working with the RFA because Seven was so young when he became an agent (how young was he? D:), but that Seven can’t let that interfere with his work, because it’s counter-intuitive anyway. After all, he can’t help the RFA if he’s dead. He has to live in order to do that. And, if that doesn’t drive the point home well enough---

---then Vanderwood will just tattle on him and get him locked up in a psych ward somewhere, what the fuck. >( Just when I thought Vanderwood might be decent, no, they remind me that they are not.

Baby, no. :( As you can surmise, Vanderwood’s little “pep talk” did nothing to actually make Seven feel better, not even in the least bit:

BABY. And if you think that things get better from there, then do I have news for you, because my next screencaps are of a call Seven made to me immediately (at least, I’m pretty sure immediately) following this VNM segment. He was worried, because of that aforementioned bad feeling, so he wanted to make sure everything was okay . . . and of course it is. But when I expressed worry over him, and what would happen to him:

DON’T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, SEVEN.

THANK GOD I WAS GIVEN THIS CHOICE. (Well, “choice” since it’s the only option, but still. LET ME COMFORT MY BOY.)

YES I DO.

He went on a bit to talk about how he has worn all kinds of disguises for his job, and how that made people think that he just really likes cosplaying or crossdressing (which he kind of does find fun, he says, but it’s not really the point), and then he said this extremely #relatable bit:

SAME. In the cooler months, jeans + hoodie + headphones is pretty much my wardrobe. Seriously #meanttobe over here.

And then things got sweet, and kind of sad---

I said yes, of course, so---

BABY, YOU’RE NOT WEIRD.

Anyway, the call ended there. IIRC, Vanderwood was coming to check on him or something. I should add, by the by, that these phone calls are fully voiced. I really like the sound of Korean---it’s a nice language. And Seven has an excellent voice actor, too. I mean, none of the voice acting in this game is bad from what I can tell, but I really like Seven’s VA. He did a very good job conveying all the necessary emotions at the right times, a+.

But the call ended there, and as such it was time for a new chat, and---

Bahoo Mail, I’m . . . 

And as much as I want to be all “Yoosung pls” about 2000 spam e-mails, honestly, that’s not surprising for a Yahoo knock-off. Yahoo is notorious for spam. But honestly, Yoosung, it is 2017, please switch to Gmail. (Or I guess it would be, like, BMail in this universe. BMail for Boogle. =P)

Yes, Zen, Seven’s jokes are funny to me, actually. He makes me laugh all the time when he isn’t falling into a downward spiral of despair and uncertainty. And look, Jaehee gets it. Get with the program, honestly.

You may remember a post last night I made about Yoosung freaking out while Really Intense Dramatic Music™ played. I can’t find a video that has the music on YouTube (a tragedy---it would really set the mood), but here are the screenshots:

So, as you may remember from my posts last night, Jumin called Yoosung’s mom and tattled on him about playing games all the time and not focusing on his studies, eating properly, et cetera. So Yoosung’s mom, concerned about her son, decided to come visit. Yoosung’s mom is apparently an accomplished superwoman who does everything and expects the same from Yoosung. Since she’s so strict, Yoosung feels like he has lost his freedom, and is understandably super upset about it. Tbh, I agree with him. If someone did this to me, I would be livid. (And the best part is that pretty much everyone in the RFA agrees that it was wrong lol, though to be fair Zen mostly thinks it’s wrong because he hates Jumin and everything Jumin stands for. Jumin could feed starving orphans and Zen would still find a way to be pissed at him for it.)

And speaking of Zen---

Couples that drag Zen together, stay together.

Zen goes on to ask Seven if he found out anything about the spam e-mail, and surprise! It’s not spam. Seven explains that Weirdo sent the e-mail, but that Seven was able to trace the IP address and now he has Weirdo’s physical location. (Which I get is true in context of the story, but in terms of how this sort of thing works in reality, is doubtful, particularly if Weirdo is also supposed to be good at hacking, like . . . Weirdo, did you not use a VPN? Or is Seven just that good? Hmmm . . .) And that said, Seven then goes on to say something rather alarming:

OF COURSE I AM, ARE YOU NEW? Gosh . . .

I brought up the fact that Seven has a lot of work for the agency---that he’s busy, because I mean, I remember what Vanderwood said from the VNM, even though my character obviously doesn’t. However . . .

WELL, HOW CAN YOU GO THERE BY YOURSELF WHEN YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’LL BE THERE, HMM?? Sigh . . .

Zen offered to go as well, but Seven turned him down, too, and ended up logging off the chat. This is CONCERNING, but unfortunately there’s not a lot to be done about it . . . and at that point, there was another VNM with surprise guest . . .

WEIRDO! It for some reason didn’t occur to me last night, but occurs to me now as I look at this screenshot and type this---for Weirdo to know that Seven has traced him and is planning to go to that location, Weirdo must have been hacking the RFA chat still, seeing every message to pass through. CONCERN LEVEL DEFINITELY RAISED.

Special security system? Access key? . . . Uh-oh. Guys, I feel like I’m probably going to get kidnapped. Like, idk what he would want with me, but this . . . does not sound good. (And yeah, he doesn’t mention me specifically, but like, come on. We all know what apartment I’m in. This does not bode well.) Also, I have a strong feeling that the savior is actually Rika. (Like, I was thinking before that perhaps Rika was saved by the savior, but after what she said before, and now that she has the access key to the special security system . . . I’m thinking the savior = Rika. It’s her. She’s the Big Bad behind everything, calling it now, oh man.)

>:( Actually, forget about me. How dare he say those things about Seven? YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH SEVEN, WEIRDO? THEN YOU CAN GET OVER HERE AND TAKE IT UP WITH ME. I’LL WRECK YOU. I’LL DISABLE THE SECURITY SOFTWARE MYSELF, IDGAF. COME AND GET IT, DICKWEED. >:(

Unfortunately, I had no option to actually say that to Weirdo, alas. Instead, there were a few more chats, and tbh nothing too notable happened in any of them save for some more discussions about how Jumin called Yoosung’s mom to tattle on him:

At least the game lets me be honest.

But like I said, other than that the chats weren’t too interesting. However, we did get another VNM with Seven, and---

LOOK AT HIM. LOOK AT THIS ANGEL. I ADORE HIM.

It turns out that Seven, inspired by Jumin’s messages, went ahead and made a robot cat to go with the robot puppy for protection. (The puppy is better, but I’m sure the cat is cute, too.) Vanderwood scoffs at this and calls it garbage (fuck off, Vanderwood), and at that point:

Well, I value your life. YOU’RE IMPORTANT TO ME, SEVEN. DON’T THROW YOUR LIFE AWAY. ;_;

I will literally, actually kill you, Vanderwood. Don’t fucking test me. I fit the “Violently Protective Girlfriend” trope to a T.

SEVEN, NO. T__T

Fortunately, Vanderwood doesn’t take the bait, although . . . I don’t think it has much to do with fortune. I get the idea that Vanderwood is like Seven’s handler, in that Vanderwood is a more experienced agent meant to keep an eye on Seven while Seven does the work, because Vanderwood can’t do it themself. I mean, it makes sense; both of their lives are on the line (as Vanderwood goes on to angrily remind Seven), so if Seven really can’t focus and can’t get the work done, then it would make sense for Vanderwood to go ahead and do it themself if they had the ability. But they don’t; Vanderwood can’t do it, so even though they threaten to turn Seven in, they really do not want to take that option because then the work doesn’t get done and the client goes ballistic. I can’t remember if it’s in this VNM or another one, but at one point Vanderwood explains that there used to be a rival agency to theirs that ended up disappearing because they (the rival agency) pissed off this client. The rival agency was one minute late and yet all of the agents from the agency are still missing, with one supposedly on the African continent with a limp. So it’s a pretty big deal, and Vanderwood is afraid, but Seven just . . .

Like, honestly, Seven, it’s fine. I’d rather Weirdo come find me than you get murdered because you didn’t finish whatever work it is you’re doing for the agency. =/ I can take care of Weirdo, you just take care of you.

My heart. 

Uh, no, you heard something right. Step off, Vanderdick.

Maybe you don’t, because you’re an asshole, but Seven is an angel who deserves to have all the sweet relationships in the world. >:(

I mean, these are all valid points, but I still think Vanderwood is being a complete asshole in the way they’re putting this, particularly since at the end of it all they went on to say---

---as a threat to get Seven to work on the agency work again.

>( My earlier threat still stands, Vanderwood. I will kill you if you harm one hair on that boy’s head. SEE IF I DON’T. I especially feel this way because this conversation really upset Seven. Like, I checked his profile after this VNM, and

ASDFKASDFDSA. SHADOWED PROFILE PIC, NOTHING BUT ELLIPSES, LIKE . . . BABYYYY ;_; But the next chat wasn’t with him (iirc), and he hadn’t texted me, and he hadn’t called, and so I---

I didn’t take a screencap of it, but I remember that the answer choice I picked was “you don’t sound fine at all”, because he doesn’t, and I am worried. (The other choice was something like “no, I just wanted to hear your voice” which . . . again, time and place. That’s not as disgusting as some of the others, but it still shows a degree of selfishness that is so uncomfortable with everything Seven is going through right now. Just, no.) That answer choice---the “you don’t sound fine at all”---also included something about me caring about him, I think---or, no . . . that might have been the second one. Because after I said that, Seven kept reassuring that he’s fine, but at one point I said that I was worried because I care about him (true), which gave me this:

Sevennnnn . . . “I care about you as someone I have to protect” mmhm, mhm, okay. Sounds fake, but OK. I mean, take your time, no pressure, but like . . . mmmmmmmm.

There must have been some irrelevant chats in there somewhere, but I don’t have screencaps of them. What I do have screencaps of is the next chat with Seven, and I actually screencapped the entire thing so you guys could see it. This will be the one we end this post on (and I mean, this post is probably way too long as it is, but I had 179 screencaps so I’m not sure I can really be faulted too much over it), particularly since it feels like a good place to end this post rather than a place to start the next one.

So with that said, prepare for some serious emotional pain:

I should note that I’m pretty sure the opposite choices here were less grossly embarrassing and more dickish . . . or maybe there were three choices, with one grossly embarrassing one (things like “come save me sweet hubby~” and other trashy nonsense), and one dickish one (“I feel so scared because you can’t do anything” and things like that). Either way, obviously I picked the right ones. And the thing about this is that, to be honest, my natural tendency is to pick the right ones anyway, but I still keep double-checking against guides since I’m so paranoid I’ll pick the wrong one by mistake (and there is a chat later on with Yoosung where my natural tendency would be to pick the asterisked choices, which give me a Bad End for reasons I can’t understand, so . . . I guess it’s better safe than sorry). So I do feel a bit good about myself, that I am naturally inclined toward Seven and know to pick the right choices anyway, but at the same time I can’t help but second guess myself and check the guide anyway, orz.

Also, V, what are you doin’. (And I missed a screenshot, but Seven had just gone on to say that he left V a voicemail and that V would no doubt call once he had service and could receive it.)

Baby, yes it is. And even if it’s not, it’s not your fault and you ARE “good enough”, I just . . .

“It’s not you, it’s my agency.”

“did we ever have any kind of relationship” --- mfw: 

“but even those [conversations] are pointless for me” just adds to the heartbreak gif above, but I can’t in good conscience post it again when he’s talking about the dark place he’s in, but just---not even a friendship? Really? We didn’t even have a friendship?! I . . . feels bad, man. FEELS BAD, MAN.

I’m not sure what happened with that answer choice they gave me. The first half is fine, but the second half . . . sometimes the translation in this game is . . . not the greatest.

But what Seven goes on to say . . . Seven . . .

Too late. I already do think you’re such a good person. There’s no going back from this now. I’m in too deep.

tf does that mean.

YOU DO DESERVE TO BE THANKED, AND LOVED, AND PROTECTED, AND TAKEN CARE OF, AND ASDFJASKDFDSAFDSAFDSA.

So anyway, my entire heart was crying after this conversation. But if you want to know what happens next, you will have to stay tuned, because this post contains ninety screenshots (and there are 89 left to go). That’s more than enough. So this one will end here, and we’ll pick up again in Entry Seven. Stay tuned. 

[ripplestitchskein]

Another lovely chapter and bittersweet because it’s the end (unless you, oh I don't know, do an epilogue just sayin’) but it had a beautifully appropriate ending. I like the amount of depth you gave to Emma’s backstory; it’s something that could’ve easily been summarized and sort of explained away, but you gave it a lot of weight, especially in the details. Like the fact that Emma found the missing necklace under her bed: 1/8

that was such an expert writing choice that could’ve been left out from a strictly plot POV but made the scene that much more heartbreaking and resonant. And I really liked how you matched Emma’s canon past in ways that were creative and felt organic and how that all played out and converged. I loved Killian’s reaction to waking up from the memories and his endless sympathy for Emma, and how it only made him her love her more (because of course it did). 2/8

And I REALLY LOVED how we finally got to see (read?) him being “on top”—while also still being so attune to Emma’s pleasure and how like, he enjoys giving that to her just as much as she enjoys receiving it. And how she was able to let go and so was he. And then now their second time was metaphorical of them being on equal ground? Like, neither one is on top, but they’re both side by side. And just in general how you describe Killian being overwhelmed with sensation. 3/8

I’ve loved the sex-position-as-relationship-progression-barometer motif throughout the whole story & only wished we’d’ve gotten a scene of that post-curse (but hey that’s what an epilogue is for just a suggestion). I also loved how overall his confidence revealed itself from humor and cheek, like you didn’t make him full-on Captain Hook-levels of cocky; that you still gave him moments of hesitation and awkwardness, and how he was coming into his own but still with that endearing bashfulness. 4/8

The scene where he buys his pirate coat was ADORABLE, and how he had swag but would still apologize to people. And it was really funny that you included how everyone could see through Mulan’s disguise but just never said anything. The angst that led to their separation HURT A LOT man, but narratively I know it was important to sort of have them be on their own, to have that chance to miss each other, and fight to be reunited into their own ways and overcoming their own personal obstacles. 5/8

And I KNEW, the moment you introduced their waltzing lessons in the previous chapter that Emma would slip up by humming the sea shanty from Killian’s memories. So that scene played out painfully but you described their emotions and made their reactions feel believable for them as characters instead of being pure angst for the sake of it. And I really liked how you had Emma say “I fell in love,” and like overall both of them just openly stating they’re in love will always gets me. 6/8

I’m glad you mirrored Emma’s “I was never nothing” moment and that you had Killian return against the backdrop of his favorite sunrise (and gave significance to the ‘watching sunrises together’ theme) and that he gave her hope and was the catalyst for her breaking free of the darkness. I’m really glad you gave them a TLK, and that you had them find each other on a beach and ended the story also on a beach; that symmetry was nice. And how you had Killian refer to the castle as his HOME?? :’) 7/8

Now listen, in case I haven’t spammed you with this a dozen times by now, I would DIE for an Epilogue; I feel like the story could go on forever, or at least another glimpse into their happy lives as true loves no longer burdened by darkness or fear. But either way, I’ve loved this story; it was so refreshing and heartfelt and a beautiful universe you created that could honestly just keep going it’s so rich and unique. Thank you for writing it and giving it so much attention and care

Also, I forgot to mention, I also really loved that bit about Emma doing a little encouraging gesture with her sword when she was trying to boost Killian’s confidence, like I could clearly picture in my head, and how Killian was endeared by it. In general, I like how you include bits of humor, and little quirks from canon!Emma to subtly show that she’s still there and still /her/, and that Dark Emma has some awkwardness about her as well. Those are really nice details you included overall. 9/8

Can I just tell you much I live for this messages in my inbox??? You’re one of my favorite people on the world. You are such an intelligent and careful reader and it’s just so amazing getting this kind of well thought out feedback and it just breaks me into little bits.

All your favorite parts are my favorite parts, and you just fill me with so much happiness picking up on these things. Like I wanted the big moment to completely be opposite the beginning, morning instead of night, before a storm as opposed to after one, Emma saving him with essentially a kiss vs Killian saving her, etc etc. and I love that you got what I was going for.

I will miss this fic so much but there is probably definitely lost certainly maybe an epilogue coming. I may have already written the first lines of such a thing. Because I will miss them too much to not have a glimpse into their lives and futures and of course the post-reunion coupling.

I love you so much for all your wonderful feedback and just being you in general. Thank you for everything.