#trying to throw new ppl together . if it kills me

[judvs]

𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽  :  the  ministry  of  magic  (  level  two  ),  london  ! 𝙵𝙴𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶  :  @amarcttos  !

"you look lost," she forgoes a greeting in favour of boldfaced assumption; familiar enough with the auror office occupants to know that she isn't one of them, though anything beyond that is little more than guesswork. she walks the corridors fairly knowingly, for someone who spends so much of her own time at her cubicle, but that was not a talent that was shared by everyone at the ministry. it occurs to her, of course, that she could be from a different department but she suspects not, and though this whole event is about mingling, suspicion clouds her expression. "the presentation is that way-" she motions to the left, back towards the room where it has already been called, "and the elevator is back the way you came. the offices are closed."

[milesmolasses]

I'm gonna kill you

miles morales x reader

if you don’t know what “throwing franks” means it basically means telling someone to “suck my dick” lmao

which reminds me the setting is nyc (bk)

is this what ppl call crack? idk man

"miles I'm not playin with you right now, put my water bottle down I'm thirsty!"

miles walked around the dingy restaurant, my bottle in his hand, which was waved high in the air. "you gon have to come and get it than miss smart mouth! you keep playin with me like I can't beat you up," he joked.

miles has been my best friend ever since the middle of third grade when he switched his elementary school. i remember when he was this tiny, shy kid who sat at the back of the school basement for lunchtime since our school never had a formal lunchroom. all i wanted was to make a new friend, so i walked up to the shy new boy and ate my lunch with him. we would walk home together, play at the park together, and have cute lil playdates scheduled by our mothers; ah, yes, those were the times; up until now.

"bro, my bad, just give me my water bottle my mouth is on fire, no funny shit," i had my tongue out, breathing heavily. my mom owns this restaurant, where she cooks (insert culture) dishes for the world of Brooklyn to enjoy. this space doubled as our hang-out spot, considering i would stop by every day after school for free food. my mom had served me (insert dish) with extra spice; "try something new," they said. "it'll be delicious," they said. while yes, the food was good, the new added spices had me steaming at the ears, tongue out, huffing and puffing like a damn dog.

now you may be wondering, "who the hell told you to do this?" miles. it was always miles. he knows I don't usually stray from the usual dishes that i get every time we come here, but somehow he convinced me that trying something new would be good for me. so, i let him order on my behalf; this dude ordered me (insert cultural food)… with 3x the amount of hot sauce I usually get. leading us to now...

"'my bad' is not an apology, bozo, i need to hear you say what i want you to say," he said with the biggest smile on his face. all i did was throw a frank at him, and he chose to torment me, saying, "i was disrespectful." he wants a sorry? imma give him a damn sorry.

"ok ok I'm sorry, miles please just give me the bottle," this time, my eyebrows were furrowed and i made sure to put my acting skills to the test. miles gave me a worried look, scared that he actually went too far this time in his games. he gave me back the water bottle and came closer to me, examining my face to see if i was ok.

"yo, you good? I'm sorry i didn't know it was that deep. here you go drink this," he looked so sorry. he looked like he really regretted what he did to me, it almost made me feel bad for what i was about to say to him.

almost...

"yeah, it was that deep... deep in ya momma!" i watched as miles face slowly converted from looking worried to "what did this bitch just say to me?" i started to run out of the store as fast as i could, chugging the water down my throat with my mouth still on fire. miles was definitely faster than me, so i decided to hide somewhere, anywhere.

i turned the corner, body jerking forward so fast i almost fell face first into the concrete. i caught myself on my hands just in time as i kept my momentum and ran down the block. i looked behind me and he was literally right there in arms reach of me literally, reaching his arm out to grab me. i grabbed the door handle of an unknown store and stumbled into it.

there i could see several women and young girls look up from what ever they were doing to look at me. just as they were looking at me, miles ran in the store and came to an abrupt stop. great now even more people were staring; it was then i realized all the assortments of nail polish laid out neatly on different shelves. oh my god it was a nail salon. miles looked down at me with eyes wide open and a look on his face that screamed "oh hell nah." a lady from the front desk with a slim figure and a headwrap, came up to us and pulled us to the side.

"I'm sorry, you cant just run into this store and be rowdy. we have customers to attend to and they don't need disturbances." i looked up at miles to see him already responding to the lady with prayer hands, "I an so sorry about my friend here please forgive them, sometimes they're a bit hard to control. i think we'll be leaving now, once again, so sorry," he responded whilst dragging me by the shirt to leave the salon. once we were on the side walk again, i busted out laughing so hard, i had to hunch over and close my eyes to keep tears from falling out.

miles gave me the biggest side eye known to man as i laughed in the middle of the street, looking around for people possibly staring at us.

"i swear to god I'm gonna kill you when i get to your house."

this was fun to write lmao

I was really just writing anything that came to mind

I did this once after 7th grade in the summer with some friends so that’s what I based this on

[gothamslostboy]

Marko W/ A Werewolf Mate

DAVID MICHAEL PAUL DWAYNE

A/N: I FINALLY DID IT! Here’s the final part to the lost boys with a werewolf s/o series. This started last year when I made Paul’s post, and I really didn’t expect me to take so long finishing this💀 sorry to all my marko lovers that his took almost a full year to complete and enjoy:]

————————————————————————

Marko finds you while strolling the boardwalk

He had separated from the boys in order to steal pick up some new paints

He’s a little disappointed that you’re a werewolf for 3 reasons

He thinks the idea of turning his mate and “corrupting” them is pretty hot

It’s easier to understand his mate’s emotions and feelings if they are eventually the same species as him

He’s been told since the day he was turned that werewolves hate vampires and now he’s scared you’ll reject him for it

But he doesn’t let it stop him from overall being excited about finding you

It’s been a couple decades since he got a new mate and he’s extremely curious what your personality is like

Will you be like any of his current mates? Or maybe something entirely new?

Marko’s mainly just hoping for someone who can keep up with his shananigans

Pauls fun to cause mayhem with but he’s also clumsy as fuck and normally they end up kicked off the boardwalk

At least until they can eat the guard who bands them

While Marko is still thinking of all the possibilities, you manage to catch his scent

Immediately you start running towards him

He notices you and starts to greet you

But Paul caught your scent, and wanted to protect his boy

He ends up tackling you into an alley and holding you down

Paul keeps asking you why you were trying to attack Marko but doesn’t trust you when you say he’s your mate

Well at least until Marko throws him off of you

It’s safe to say it wasn’t the first meeting either of you expected

But once everything got sorted out, and Paul gave an embarrassed apology, it ended up okay

Paul left to tell David and Dwayne what was going on, so you and Marko got to talking

He asked you to help him get the paints, and with the extra help, he also got a new sketchbook and some markers

With your supernatural speeds the two of you manage to out run the security guards and end up hiding under the dock, huddling together in order to avoid being seen through the cracks

He looks at you and breaks out into laughter, as quiet as he could, until you can’t contain your own laughter

Both of you whisper about the successful haul, until the giggles naturally die off

Staring at each other without speaking, you take in the other’s scents again

After the moment passes Marko has an idea

He smirks quickly before stuffing the stuff into his “shopping” bag and pulling you by the hand

Together you flee the boardwalk and don’t stop until you’re about 50 ft into the woods near the cave

You ask him what he’s doing and he tells you to listen to the noises around

Focusing as hard as possible, you notice a couple things: rushing water from the creek, an owl on the hunt, various animals walking, and finally, a group of ppl laughing near a camp fire

He proposes a challenge, first one to get a kill gets to make the first move

You chuckle at the idea but end up agreeing, shifting into your wolf form and darting towards the group

Marko is a bit in awe of your transformation

He had never seen anything like it

He doesn’t let himself fixate on it for too long long bc he realizes that now you’ve had a head start

Going as fast as he can, Marko gets to the campsite just in time to see you pounce

“Fuck!” He lets out a playful sigh as he helps take out the group, making sure there isn’t any stragglers

He fakes annoyance as you shift back, gloating about your victory

Marko is about to respond when you lean in and kiss him

He pulls away after a few seconds and you guys spend the rest of the night joking and getting familiar, eventually going back to the cave and meeting the others

Date nights for you two tend to involve some kind of scheme or murder

You pretending to be a dog and luring ppl into the woods to kill, testing each others abilities and seeing who’s better at certain things, messing with the rest of the pack, etc.

Marko also loves to play fight, so thank god you both have advanced healing

The full moon tends to make you more playful and increase your sex drive, and Marko is more than okay with both of those things

The only time Marko is gentle with you is the night after a full moon, when you’re dazed and tired from the heightened emotions and sensations you experience

But he’s right back to his normal self as soon as your better

After a couple years he starts getting sad about your mortality, so you both go to Dwayne for help

He figures out the rituals and items you need, and you and Marko set off to complete them

If you thought Marko was a sadist before, well you’re in for a shock now that you’re not a risk of death

He likes to howl at the moon with you at night, even though he doesn’t fully understand why you like it so much

He wanted to know if you play fetch since he met you, but didn’t know if that was a rude question to ask or not

He goes to the boys for advice on how to ask you but David just gets up and asks you right then

Now it’s a game yall play as a group

After a hunt they take a limb and throw it as hard as they can

If Marko is trying to hide something from you, like a gift or a conversation, he tends to throw things in the opposite direction

Your instincts are to immediately go get it

After the 3rd or 4th toss you figure it out and manage to stop chasing it though

He also thinks it’s funny to jokingly call you “bad dog/good dog” at random times and laugh when you give him a dirty look and growl

Marko doesn’t think it’s as funny when you bury his things in retaliation

————————————————————————

TAGS

@crustyboypix @lazywerebat

[byfulcrums]

@thebrainrotsreal HEY SORRY FOR TAGGING(? PINGING(? U, ITS ABOUT THE AU. I DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE THE OTHER POST THAT LONG LMAO

FLYING BEING NATURAL TO VILTRUMITES MY BELOVED

ASJDAJSD MARK TRYING TO GET AWAY W SLIGHTLY HOVERING(? IN A WAY THAT IS BARELY NOTICEABLE TO ANYONE BUT HE CAN'T DO IT WHILE HE WALKS BC HE JUST, DEFAULTS TO ACTUAL FLYING

mark and wasp are the same height, and they hate it almost as much as they hate each other. even if wasp is older than mark (read somewhere he could be 20, not sure tho), he'd still look 17 bc of the weird viltrumite aging thing

so basically they'll stay the same size for about 500 years. this is what nolan meant when he said mark would suffer...

ANYWAY. That thing abt them wanting to be taller than the other made me laugh and reminded me of a shadowpeach hc i posted on 2022(? LMAO

gonna use the same hc w them too

so. they're out as invincible (they still haven't decided on a name yet. wasp says he's stronger and therefore should be called invincible, but mark points out that he's the one in charge and also that this dimension is his. mark gets to keep it. they're still arguing about what to name wasp) ("why don't you just go by "vincible"?" "no.")

mark is talking to some gda agent or a cop or smth, when he notices that wasp (who is looking at the sky w the most bored expression he can muster, bc he genuinely doesn't understand why they have to talk to such inferior beings) seems to be just, a few milimeters taller than him (he may be shit at schoolwork, but if you hate someone enough you can notice the smallest details about them)

he, w/o stopping the conversation, answers to this by floating just a little higher, barely noticeable to the human eye

ofc, i said "human" eye

wasp notices. he flies higher

mark flies higher too

eventually he's screaming instead of talking bc of how far down the cop is

wasp laughs. now mark is screaming at him

they fight

ALSO WASP REFUSING TO STOP FLOATING AS A CIVILLAIN IS SO FUNNY AJDSHFASJ, IMAGINE THE AMOUNT OF TROUBLE HE'LL GET MARK INTO

PLS. THEM TRYING TO GNAW THEIR ARMS OFF BC THEY HATE BEING NEAR EACH OTHER SM ASJFHADJFH

most normal ppl r used to mark working alone as invincible. so since wasp really doesn't do interviews and he's usually too fast to see when he fights, no one really knows what his name even is

and everyone is used to invincible being. well. invincible. sure, the news say that when he's around this guy he gets a little meaner, but it can't be that bad!

it is that bad

wasp says smth mean n sarcastic. everyone expects invincible to answer w something equally sarcastic, but not as mean (maybe making fun of how his suit looks). they do not expect invincible to just fucking bite him after 8 of those comments

wasp keeps trying to kill This One Kid, who is either super brave or super stupid and won't stop asking him questions (they go from "what's your name?" to "what underwear do you have? do you even need underwear?" in a matter of seconds) for his weird school diary thingy

he can't get close, bc mark starts pulling the other way. besides, they're stuck together, and killing people would seem awfully annoying if it's with this guy

they can't punch each other, so wasp bites him. they bite each other a lot bc of the "no punching (or kicking)" thing

"Wasp throws a car at Mark which Mark instinctively swats away and then goes flying after it to prevent it from slamming into a building. Wasp cackles so hard it gets hit by a laser beam to the throat by some other bad guy." ASJDSAJDHDSJFAH YES THAT'S SO FUNNY

they mess w each other sm

it's funny bc they do the same things to annoy each other (wasp throwing a car at mark, mark hitting him with a tree, etc) , but lose their shit when the other does it to them

they're basically this:

mark, sleep deprived, flies straight into a lamp post

wasp laughs at him. he actually laughs so hard he runs into the same lamp post

there are a lot of compilations on youtube that is just them laughing at each other mid fight and running into things or being hit w stuff the other throws at them

they grow more wild every time

it goes from throwing cars, to throwing real life dinosaurs (mark doesn't want to talk about it) (wasp absolutely does)

"Cecil remarks Mark handled something well and he looks like Cecil just told him his entire family got slaughtered."

THISSS

"you did well today. hella efficient, quick and straight to the point. who taught you that?"

mark: D:

and also,

"oh, wow. you saved an entire family and their cat from a villain that wanted to turn them into zombies while mark was off fighting the bad guys? that's great!"

and wasp. cries

"oh no, no, you think I'm gonna help you?" THIS TISHTISHTSIHIST

this really feels like smth he'd say in canon. he'd say it w a smile, half-shocked half just pretending out of amusement

he'd laugh too

it's the same type of cocky tone of voice sinister mark/wasp used when teasing angstrom

"I gotta imagine if they tackle things separately, they are also allowing each other to do they want and like to do?" YEAH!!

it's hard 'cause wasp always wants to take the bad guys on alone, but mark also likes to fight (just not w the same brutality) and he doesn't want to be just a lifeguard

it takes wasp a while (a LONG while) to stop tackling mark when he's about to attack to get to the enemy himself, or to kick mark into the next country, etc etc etc

but eventually they settle on mark getting everyone to safety while wasp stalls the bad guy. then, after he's sure no one's here anymore, they both fight the villain together

or uh. they try. sometimes they'll start fighting each other too so it's less of a 1 v 2 fight and more of a... 1v1 V another 1 fight lol

"Mark's own reaction that truly confirms it to be true"

he gets the episode 8 levels of anger and anguish

HE'S JUST SO MAD

wasp is talking shit on tv and he just loses it

he immediatly flies off and tackles wasp into fucking space

i mean, they do say that actions say more than words, right?

mark is usually making the typical superhero noises when he's fighting, but now? he's just focusing all of his anger into This One Motherfucker

wasp loves it

it's a "see? i knew you had it in you!" type of moment

he's been longing for a real fight for a WHILE

they don't kill each other but it comes close

see, the things is. they are the same person. it's easy to start viewing them as two separate beings, but they're really. not

they're evenly matched in everything

this is why wasp likes fighting mark

this is why mark doesn't like fighting wasp (never ending battles are boring to him) ( he likes to win more than to fight. i mean it's not like he enjoys getting beat up)

we could dive deeper and start talking about the self-destructive tendency these two have to getting beat up. i mean, wasp's idea of a real, actually enjoyable fight is when the other is either able to beat him, or when he can kill ppl. and mark spends sm time out as invincible, neglecting his social life and mental health to the point he quits college, and he gets beat up a lot while doing it. so yeah--

self-destructive tendencies

"-having to confront he sees the exact thing in Wasp to a slightly different degree" i will ALWAYS love making them deal with the constant reminders that they're the same person

they deal w stuff in similar ways but to different degrees and realizing that gives them psychic damage like that magic squirrel in mca so they just preted they don't exist

unless it's to like. bring the other to their side

"you like fighting too. violence is in you, it's part of you. you're always covered in blood. all that's left, would be your hands" VS "you're me, and i'm you. we have similar thoughts, and that means i- y'know. but it means you are, too. you have a chance. and get that blood off you-- you need a shower"

COMICS!! AND!! WASP!!

yeah

HIM HAVING TO CONFRONT THE FACT THAT THE DESTROYING OF HIS WORLD HURT HIM TOO

because it is, in a way, his world too

he grew up in it. raised differently, yes, but still on earth

he was always different from the rest, getting his powers at an early age and all, but it's still the place he grew up in

not all the memories from it can be bad, right?

ANDDDDD... wasp reminding ppl of how strong he is regularly

"i could pull out your spine in a second." he says that out of nowhere, in a conversation that would've seemed normal to literally anyone else. he says it like it's nothing much. "i could kill you." you know he could, but you still wonder

would he? with how he is, with his inability to escape --- would he?

also he has fun when he watches the color drain from their faces

"Rudy has psychological profiles on all his friends he regularly updates like a diary, and he has one for himself too." NO BUT THIS IS SO IN CHARACTER FOR HIM

wasp talks shit about mark to anyone avaliable and rudy is no exception. even tho he finds him deeply annoying

honestly wasp is capable of doing p much anything to mess with mark

HE JST WOULD

the self-hatred is strong with this one too master!!! (sw ref again lol)

ASDJASJDSJAD THE BETTING POOL

wasp saying mark breathes annoyingly is such a sibling thing tho. "why are you chewing like that" "stop biting your stupid fork" "the way you cut your food is so weird" "your handwriting sucks, don't hold the pencil like that" etc etc etc

ANDD "he knew what wasp was going to say" DUDE YES??

he's talking and he gets. a feeling. and he turns to wasp, who is opening his mouth, and says "don't you fucking dare"

same w wasp. mark is annoying little shit too sometimes, he's also a teenager. so he infuriates wasp too

mark calls him a hypocrite

THE TWIN TERRORS OF HEROISM I CAN'T

imagine if ppl actually start calling them that tho

one day wasp calls mark to their? his? room and is like, "holy shit look at this" and shows him their? his computer

mark doesn't understand, until he sees the title and image of the video

"the twin terrors of heroism, terrorizing the terrorists once again" and its a picture of them kicking ass

"twin terrors of-- oh, come on, really?" "yes" "they couldnt have at least called us the invincibles or something?" "that'd be even worse" "...alright, i'll give you that" "..." "...." "they think we're like the fucking mauler twins" "oh you have got to be--"

ALSO this is so funny, them being like "mark/wasp" when they show up hurt or smth. everyone just learning to accept it. i mean what are they going to do. fight against two gods??

ha

AND YES YES YES DO TAG ME IN IT!!!! if i make anything about this au (posts, fics, drawings, u name it) i will tag u too

alcohol doesn't really affect viltrumites i think, but there has got to be something that gets them drunk

nolan could've taught wasp how to make it. if the ingredients are on earth, then he would maybe try to prepare it on mark's earth. mark shows up and sees that he's drunk. he goes "nope" and gets drunk too, maybe on accident maybe not. debbie shows up and sees her two superpowered sons sobbing over a bowl of popcorn

alternate version: gasoline gets them drunk

[kivaember]

new ac6 au idea help me

okay so i've been playing pacific drive since it came out, and it gave me SUCH brainworms for a post-apocalyptic AU of AC6. In BULLET POINT FORM:

when the Fires happened (the first one), it occured just as a coral collapse started to initiate

this basically fucked up rubicon and its now the bermuda triangle of space

anyone who lands on it don't come back and no sensors or satellites can penetrate the thick crimson cloud that covers the entire planet (looks like jupiter from the outside now, with storms and the like)

still, corpos gonna corpo. so after a few decades when nothing changes, they send a few reconnaisance groups to the planet

some manage to report back before vanishing, and the reports are: laws of physics have been screwed up, nothing makes sense, and everything's trying to kill them

Corpos sent their ac squads bc if its dangerous bring guns

They vanish, and after sending a few more they throw up their hands and are like, planet's haunted. fuck it. no coral ever now

ENTER WALTER

who's been closely observing this whole thing for a while

paranoid this effect will spread to other systems, as ambient coral levels are rising in the vaccuum of space around the planet

sends 621 to the planet's surface with strict orders for him to find 'watchpoint alpha' which should have a functioning comms array that can send through heavy coral interference

621 crashlands on the surface and man, what the hell is this scp shit

anyways, there're still ppl living on rubicon, but they've adapted to the fact that they're stuck in a reality-warped nightmare and roll with the weirdness

they have acs, but they're such precious resources that they're only deployed whenever they're gonna do a big expedition for a resource haul when identifying a safe passage opening up to some intact ruins or old foundries

most of the time they're trundling around the planet's surface on old MRAPs or jeeps, harvesting resources where they can

the redguns and vespers who were sent before have kind of like. settled down there - those that survived, anyways. bc they can't leave, but they can't survive without working together either. so there's like an uneasy alliance between the native rubiconians, the redguns and the vespers. as well as various independents that landed and learned to survive

AYRE OF COURSE IS IN THIS

so sentient coral do exist, and they tend to possess random objects

ayre in this case has possessed a car :| 621's gonna drive it

anyway 621 and ayre come across rusty, who's a scavenger for his rubiconian outpost - and the pilot of STEEL HAZE - and tl;dr rusty takes 621 back to the warrens

621 saying he has a mission to reach watchpoint alpha, bc then he and walter can "fix" rubicon

(621 is unaware of the "burn all the coral" plan. walter only told him they're fixing this mess)

rusty's interested, but says reaching the watchpoint is dependent on the conditions. he may have to wait a while

THEN POST-APOCALYPTIC ROAD TRIP AND FALLING IN LOVE while ayre plays wingman

anyway i had to get that idea out of my mind and writen down. ac combat is super rare and is only done when redguns and vespers scrap over a big haul of resources, and even then they try not to damage each ther too much, bc if their acs get too damaged, that's it. it's not being fixed with their limited resources.

rusty who's never been a spy. born on rubicon when it was already messed up and thinks this is normal. oh hey so the landscape is constantly shifting and transforming a mile long field of grass into an acidic bog that'll chew through metal in seconds? haha yeah that happens. it is what it is. oh those manniquins you see on the road sometime? yeah they multiply when you're not looking and try to creep up on you. they explode. yeah that's normal. it really is!

god rusty would actually be incredibly weird in this. even 621 would be side eyeing him...

[arthurmargon]

every day i have that moment after hearing horrific news from gaza and congo and sudan where i genuinely feel like the world is ending. it’s been five months of that feeling and every time it’s all-encompassing and intense. just this sinking in my stomach and i wonder how the fuck am i gonna do something else now. how the fuck do i move and do any of the unending responsibilities i still have bc the world keeps turning as thousands of people are massacred every day.

the most disturbing part is that i welcome it at this point. i welcome every reminder that i’m not as desensitized and numb to human suffering as the government and propagandists are desperate to make me and all of us. they want us to be so nihilistic and self-obsessed and disconnected from reality so that they don’t have to drown out our protests as they continue to kill and starve and bomb and rape and steal.

i saw a tiktok earlier of a black usamerican woman talking abt how cyclical dopamine rushes and lows from social media and fictional media and the news all come together to desensitize ppl, in relation to aaron bushnell’s act of extreme protest, may he rest in peace. it’s been on my mind all day, that bit where she said and i paraphrase “if we weren’t so numb to everything, a livestream of a man setting himself on fire and screaming to liberate a ppl from genocide and occupation would have us all screaming and crying in the fetal position. it would have us all storming the streets and burning our governments to the ground.”

she’s precisely right. i watched aaron’s video uncensored twice before i could actually believe this is a real person self-emulating. i had to watch it twice before it sunk into my mind, before i was able to fully separate all the deaths my mind has been inundated with from movies and shows and true crime documentaries and the news. i saw that video twice, stopped myself from throwing up, and then i put my phone down and went to finish a midterm assignment. and i’ve felt sick abt how i just moved on ever since. just now i watched a video of the “flour massacre” and i can’t stop crying and feeling like my whole body is sinking.

when is it going to be enough? are the disgust and shock and body-freezing horror and anguish ever going to be enough for all of us to take control of this world no matter what? or are we fucking doomed to repeat the same cycle of helplessness as the same fucking rich white nations torture, starve, steal from and murder entire ethnic groups. bc i’m trying to have hope bc i need to have hope but i can’t help but wonder

[unicyclehippo]

This is anon from earlier. I didn't mention Laudna's role because you already had, and I interpreted Imogen as the only one inviting my unhinged input. I simply believed your big beautiful brain had tomes already covering the subject so I stepped back. In fact, Laudna is my #1 favorite CR charcter of all time to the point that talking about her makes me shy?? so even focusing on Imogen that much was probably a good exercise for me. I'm looking at a Dark Crystal art book on my shelf as we speak. The puppeteer concept owns my ass.

yeah that makes sense 👍 talk abt her more! shyness is not being sure if what u say is good or beautiful or funny enough or attention seeking whatever i tell u fuck it up!!!!! yell scream holler!!! this is not just abt laudna it’s midnight for me n im fucking pissed talk loud talk shit make weird art make crude jokes im sick of POLITE im sick of SOFT im sick of every weird thing being apologised for or hidden away loud n proud baby make weird art make weird characters try smth new be messy be in the moment try your best do it loud

anyway i hope i didn’t sound too rude before i was being a little bitch abt ppl not giving laudna enough attention but it wasn’t abt u specifically. here’s a snippet i wrote when i should have been working:

The show is going to be a fucking disaster.

Imogen hasn’t said those exact words out loud yet because if the actors hear her they’ll go into hysterics; she’s considering it still, despite that, because at the moment it feels like she either tells them they’re fucking stupid or she personally strangles someone. No one has learned their fucking lines, or their blocking—despite Orym diligently taping it out for them; FCG keeps trying to find a way to get the flamethrower into the show; the leading man and his understudy got into a fistfight—and Imogen still can’t figure out what the fight was about (except that Fearne was involved, of course), if Fearne encouraged it, and whether she needs to fire these guys or just give them a stern talking to—and as if all that weren’t enough, the set is falling to pieces. That wasn’t the troupe’s fault. Or Imogen’s. The moving company fucked it up on the move from storage when the theatre was getting repaired and after a very, very, very long back and forth, the theatre is going to get some kind reimbursement from the insurance but she doubts very much that the cash will make it to them in time for everything to be fixed by opening night. Basically, they’re fucked.

‘Why don’t we take five?’ Orym suggests, very quietly over his walkie. ‘I can hear you grinding your teeth from here,’ he jokes.

Imogen hopes it’s a joke. She tries to look for him but gives it up as impossible—most likely, he’s backstage or at Props and she can’t see him from her place in the third row. She relaxes her jaw. Rubs her temples for a second before fumbling for her walkie talkie.

‘Might as well. We could take twenty and it wouldn’t fix shit.’ Movement on the stage. Imogen looks over—and locks eyes with big, bright, hopeful eyes. She jams her finger onto the talk button of her walkie. ‘If FCG comes a step closer to me, I’ll kill ‘em.’

‘Roger that. I’ll send Ash to distract.’

Imogen drops heavily into the back of her seat. Scowls as she takes in the stage. She doesn’t notice actors throwing themselves bodily out of her line of sight.

Truth is, it’s going to be fine. There’s two weeks until dress rehearsal, and three until opening night, and—as it has with every show Imogen’s directed—it will come together. The actors will figure it out, maybe fumble a line or two. FCG can be handled, flamethrower drastically underpowered (or denied entirely, as is Imogen’s preference). Fearne…is Fearne. Still more talent than trouble, barely—which was really saying something, since she was maybe the most talented actor Imogen had ever met.

It’s the set that’s the real problem, the real reason Imogen hasn’t been able to sleep at night. Whenever she looks at it, her heart feels like it’s going to crack open. And every bright idea and directing cue she adds to make up for it is just a band-aid barely holding it together. It’s ridiculous to be so upset about it but…

Every year. Every year, the Bertrand Bell’s House of Entertainment, Leisure, and Luxury (most just call it the Bell Theatre) puts on Matilda & Delilah. It’s an old play and a crowd favourite for a reason—performers come and go, costumes change, sometimes a bold director changes the setting to something more modern, but it’s the set that keeps people coming back to see it, year after year. The tree. It’s the heart of the entire play. For Imogen, it’s the heart of the entire theatre. There wouldn’t be a Bell Theatre without it; there wouldn’t be an Imogen without it.

The tree is old and gnarled. One big piece that looms in the back of the stage—when the lights fall on it, just right, it is impossibly huge in the tiny little theatre. The shadow it casts stretches across the back curtain, branches twisting and grasping like crooked fingers, and every year Imogen lives for that moment when the lights shut off—all but the one behind the tree, and those same branches crawl out over the crowd. Menacing them. Trapping them. It’s dark and, when it’s done right, genuinely frightening.

But it’s broken. Half the branches snapped off, and the mechanism to wheel it up and down the stage busted. The cage doors won’t open either, and the colour has bleached in odd places. Imogen half-suspects the moving company hadn’t stored it at all. This wasn’t her tree at all, just some shoddy replica.

[naughtygirl286]

We went to see Scream 6 (Scream VI) This past Tuesday and yes there was plenty of collectable goodies too! you can see them here.

Now I'm a huge fan of the Scream Series/Franchise I loved all the movies and where I did watch the TV Series I didn't like the first 2 Seasons it didn't feel like Scream to me but the 3rd Season was excellent. I loved the original Trilogy and thought Scream 3 had the perfect ending but along came Scream 4 in 2011 which I thought was great and then surprisingly Scream 5 in 2022 Which was excellent and which reached back to the very beginning of the series. I was watching Scream 4 before going to see this one and I had to laugh being at the beginning of Scream 4 they are making fun of franchises for going on for too long and the target they use is Stab 6 which like I said made me laugh being here we are at Scream 6 so is this a bit of life imitating art or did Scream see it own future? lol

but seriously though as for the movie I thought it was excellent! when we went we were surprised to get seats were we did (I went with like 6 other ppl) being the theater was packed for this. Now were I would be excited to talk about all the details about this I don't want to give to much away and ruin any of the surprised or twists.

The movie leaves the town of Woodsboro for New York as "Core Four" the Carpenter Sisters (Tara played by Jenna Ortega and Sam played by Melissa Barrera) and the Twins (Mindy played Jasmin Savoy Brown and Chad played Mason Gooding) try to start new lives after the horrific events of of a year ago (the previous movie) as Tara and the Twins attend college and deal with things in their own way Sam is seaming to have a hard time and might be suffering from some PTSD as well as a online smear campaign claiming that she is the true mastermind behind the Ghostface killings of the previous year and claiming that Amber(Mikey Madison) and especially Richie(Jack Quaid) were innocent pawns of hers. While these people are trying to get their lives back together a more brutal and seemingly intelligent Ghostface appears to make it known that they will never have a normal life again.

Now like I said the movie is was excellent there are plenty of twists and turns and it will keep you guessing! the opening kinda throws you off a bit at first being they do something and its like wait what? you can't believe it is reviled in like the first 10mins but this is kinda like the first twist in the movie.

but having the movie set in New York and at Halloween time sets it up perfectly becasue there are plenty of people in costume and that includes Ghostface ones as well so you don't know where he is or who he is in a sea of costume party goers which I thought it was a great way to do it he can blend in anywhere at any time and the city itself is used as a character also.

And speaking of Ghostface like I said this one is far more brutal and violent and seems to be more intelligent and always one step ahead. This Ghostface and the movie in general is not mainly focused of being meta when it comes to horror movies there is plenty of that and movie references but it also tackles some things like internet and social media culture as well which I think fits into the current world we live in now and makes lots of sense. Some of the kills that were done were very graphic and interesting in how they pulled them off there was plenty of reactions from the audience during the movie when ppl were killed. alot of the physical effects and make-up work on this was very on point and great.

Also this movie just like the previous digs into the last of the series where Scream 5 mainly focused on the events of the first movie this one also does a bit of the same and references events and characters from Scream 2-4 and with that bring back "Legacy Characters" namely Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed from Scream 4 who is now working for the FBI and is studying the Ghostface murders. I thought she did a great job returning to this character you can tell that her experiences from Scream 4 have hardened her and made her more serious and cynical I though and her interactions with the other character was awesome especially with Gale Weathers(Courteney Cox) I also thought Courteney Cox really shined in this and her showdown with Ghostface in Gale's apartment was awesome. She had this "fuck around and find out" attitude which was great and yes they did mention Dewey (David Arquette) and of course they did mention Sidney Prescott(Neve Campbell) I though her absence was handled perfectly and respectfully and it worked for this movie and the movie did go on and did work with out her. The story of Sidney Prescott is over and the movie and series does work with out her.

but in the end this movie was great I loved it it has plenty of action and some gore and plenty of twists and turns and a good mystery that seems to be fueled by a sense of paranoia being anyone can be the killer and the characters express this perfectly. so I was happy and excited about how it turned out. and if you enjoy this series and especially the previous one I would highly recommend it.

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

not to talk twd meta on main and accidentally invite people to engage me in conversation, but i was thinking about how the entirety of leah's existence is bc of lauren cohen. it was Such a Battle to get her back on the show, and my guess is that in order to pull it off they had to give her a good ("good") backstory and just throwing her into the mix with the stuff that was already happening was going to overshadow her, so they needed a new villain of her very own, except why would anyone give a shit about it if it was just maggie and people we don't know? they had to get a main in there, preferably The Main. but why would daryl leave his family in the time of crisis? they had to give him incentive to get involved. and i've felt from the start that kang is a hardcore caryl shipper who has finally gotten a platform to write her own caryl fanfic, and so she was like, "i'm gonna write my caryl/temp storyline for angst, and also to appease ppl who won't stfu about daryl not having a love interest in a decade. i'll give him this lady who foils carol directly (and progressively looks more like her in every new scene, wtf is up with that), give them no physical affection, make her toxic as hell, and make it explicitly clear that it all came to fruition bc daryl was hardcore pining and needed companionship, and then i will end it in bloodshed 🤗," and i'm sure she knew people would lose their gd minds bc that's what they do, but she had a lot of people to pander to (ensemble cast yo), and lauren cohen to appease, so it seemed like a good plan at the time, and so this first third of episodes has been "k let's get this dumb thing over with so we can move on with our lives before someone throws a molotov cocktail through my window," and she, like us, has been counting down the days to when we can get to the real content

as for connie, i have maintained from the beginning that i didn't think she was ever meant to be a romantic interest, and kang and the other writers saw the potential and were like, "k this can placate the non-caryl shippers for a bit while we plot for caryl to, quite literally, ride off into the sunset together," but bc ppl, as previously mentioned, are insane, they read things like, "daryl hugs good friend he thought got blown up in a cave explosion," and immediately think "kang hates carol and caryl and all their chemistry and has anyone doxxed her yet i have the molotov cocktail ready to go," and rip literally any actress who steps within 100 feet of norman reedus

(let's not forget that connie being alive probably thrills daryl not just bc his bud is back, but also bc it means carol is freed from the "whups i killed some innocent people during my quest for revenge" and that will help their relationship out immensely)

anyway, i'm not Blaming lauren cohen for the shitshow response, girl's gotta make a paycheck, but i do think that had she not returned to the show, none of this would have happened, and Mistakes Were Made in terms of trying to make maggie relevant again, and i believe that the entire thing is pandering and in the scheme of things couldn't matter less

i wrote this in five seconds on my phone in a towel after taking a shower and did not reread it, but those are my thoughts, the end, send post

[cutemeat]

I wanna hear your charmacden high school HCs!!!!!!

IVE GOT SO MANYYYY

but okok lemme lay the sort of backstory foundation here... basically we know dennis was so eager for ppl to like him (and more visibly so than he is when we pick up with the timeline of the show) so I imagine he was even more desperate in HS to be liked (cuz we see him reverting RIGHT back to that in the HS Reunion ep)... i think him n dee probably had like.. zero friends in HS but both Hated that. they did not like having to stick together. i think dee def seemed to have friends in HS like Ingrid, but dee always felt like she was superior to Ingrid n so wasn't really a "friend" lol.

den likely had some idea of who Mac n Charlie were since he mentions remembering the news show they made in 8th grade. I actually have the HC that Dennis was weirdly like Obsessed w Mac n Charlie from a distance for a Loooong time before really trying to make a move to get into their friend group. i think he was intimidated by them based on rumors, cuz we know Mac n Charlie had their Freight Train group.

Dee catches onto this quickly bc Den is so insanely obvious n she teases him for it which spurs den to make up some entire lie abt only wanting to get in with Mac/Charlie's group bc they have connections to the 'cool crowd' n THATS what dennis is actually aiming for (totally. lmao... again. liar)... so this pushes dennis to a breaking point cuz dee is like 'well ur never gonna get in there if u just sit here and stare at them, moron'

so my idea for how Mac n Dennis first meet is basically dennis following Mac home that day after him n dee have that convo thinking he's being 'sneaky' n all trying to build up the nerve to actually talk to Mac. but Mac has that hypervigilance so he catches on that he's being followed n takes this 'shortcut' that he knows well n knows there's a stoop that's easy to trip over if u don't know the route well... so Dennis trips n makes his presence known LOL n before he can get up Mac pulls a pocket knife on him n demands dennis tell him why he's following him. den makes up an excuse abt wanting to buy drugs, but Mac has him empty his pockets n they're empty so he's like 'u know u need money to buy drugs right? ur not getting shit for free from me I know you have the money' n dennis throws some compliments at mac to try n 'defuse' the situation n it works enough that mac just tells dennis to leave him alone n not pull some shit like that again

the next day mac is bragging to charlie n dooley while they're sitting under the bleachers at lunch n thinking he's so cool for running this kid off but charlie is ANRGY n mac doesn't understand why n charlies like 'nono dude u don't understand... he's from the reynolds family, right?' n mac is like 'yeah? so?' n charlies like 'oh my god don't u GET it?? this is the perfect opportunity to sew ourselves in mac!' n mac is like 'oh I guess that's a good point' so charlie has mac go reluctantly apologize to dennis n invite him to hang out w them.. dennis is all smug when dee is glaring at him.

n charlie takes this as an opportunity to just totally humiliate dennis with insisting there's all these 'initiations' in order to get into their friend group (which we know is at least partially true, but charlie gets really excessive with it cuz its funny to him LOL) ranging from shit like dining n dashing to more fucked up like killing crows ('because they're the most annoying kinds of birds dennis, don't you know that?' cuz uh.. charlie bird special interest I guess) n dennis totally cries after having to kill the crows n charlies laughing his ass off meanwhile mac is rlly concerned abt dennis ... this trend continues of charlie making dennis do shit that used to make both him and mac laugh, but instead mac actually feels bad for dennis. that starts really getting on charlie's nerves cuz he has like zero sympathy for dennis n doesn't understand why macs getting soft all of a sudden for dennis reynolds of all ppl too. (he has the sort of frank mentality in Ass Kickers United where he wants to see how far he can push ppl n that's how he has fun, like I bet u for a while he was constantly impressed by/jealous of the fact that dee got someone to eat Horse Shit)

(cuz this is also where i think the charlie/dee dynamic gets interesting too... again I have the HC that it all starts when charlie is over with mac at dennis' house n sees dee lighting things on fire n throwing them into the pool in the backyard. pyromaniac to pyromaniac lollll... n I think overall charlie admires dee's really cruel/dark side. i don't ship ch*rdee but in canon I think they def have a bond that is probably rooted in shit like that n I think its interesting LOL)

i think this is where a lot of mac's internalized homophobia starts to take root cuz charlie makes a lot of patronizing comments abt mac and dennis cuz charlie knows mac like the back of his hand n knows every way to push his buttons n get inside his head. so we then have dennis getting a similar treatment to his chaotic homelife where mac was just beginning to warm up n feel 'safe' but then gets more distant n hostile (and even worse, not knowing why mac's had a sudden change in demeanor) n I think this sets the tone for how even to this day macdennis' dynamic fluctuates... cuz of course at a certain point (esp after going to college) I think dennis is tired of feeling like the 'weak one' who gets shit on (esp after being in the frat house) so he sees all the ways his frat brothers will humiliate guys to prop themselves up n replicates this kind of behavior. however, with mac, as I've stated in other macden posts... there are always some invisible boundaries with mac that even dennis isn't fully aware are there for a long, long time.

we already know charlie/dee manage to find a lot of enjoyment in watching mac n dennis act like total jackasses while charlie n dee are pulling all the strings (Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom) n I think that's been a long-running thing personally...

sorry i guess this turned more into Chardee Macdennis HCs than anything uhhh... i got another ask abt this so I'm gonna include my actual random HCs for HS charmacden in there LOL. i wanted to get all the backstory stuff out first thooo cuz I feel its. important context KJNKJDF

[elbowreveal]

i am going to put my emduo backstory headcanon brushup i wrote down in discord earlier here. just because ive been writing Around it and in case i publish any of my WIPs this is more context. or simply bc maybe one of u mite enjoy.

under the cut be a wall of text, unformatted, with typos abound:

ironing out a third or fourth version of emduo meet... and i really simply cannot get away from the 'EXTEEMELY mysterious dangerous self-sufficient vagabond guy journeying through all the lands over decades because he Can and Wants To' trope i think youd have to kill me at this point to get me to stop having having c!phil skittering around the world causing and solving problems. infinite flat world of minecraft. will he reach the edge and fall off into the void /j

[5:02 PM]so phil comes to this town and gets a tavern room to sleep and hes in the room laying on the bed with his stupid bird feet swinging behind him writing in a journal labeled 'year 57' which is how long hes been out of isolation for bc he just wants to meet ppl and travel etc when he hears a commotion across the river at a castle and is like "👀👀👀" so he flies over and is like "wots up :)" turns out the local peasants revolted killed the king and are working together to repurpose the castle and redistribute wealth and phils like "im not from around here but i can help if you want??" and theyr elike "shore!" and tell him to find any prisoners and hes like "ok i dont even NEED a key or lockpick hehehehe" and the guy internally is like 'ok! terrifying but i wont question that!'

[5:06 PM]so he finds a basement or dungeon and lets out all the imprisoned ppl and tells them to head upstairs where the organized locals will give them anythign they need. they all hurriedly thank him and scamper out to restart their lives as free men but theres one dude who is just fuckign terrified. a dubiously-teenaged piglin shoat who cant walk great but refuses to let phil touch him. so phil sits nearby and minutes turn to maybe an hour or two or three before hes able to convince the dude hes jsut a Random Guy Trying To Help and that Everything Is Cool Now and You Probably Should Take Antibiotics For That Scrape.

[5:11 PM]eventually the patience pays off and after heading up to the organized peasants one thing leads to another and phil is saying he can help the kid get back on his feet. then yknow it plugs into the old hc structure i have a pretty good handle on. cottagecore living where techno heals up and phil teaches him to read write cook hunt etc. and they simply become friends and never drift apart and are happy. ofc until some assholes from phils past show up one day try to stab him and techno throws himself into the way and dies bc he was also born hardcore. and then kristin (death god!) is like "WAIT I MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIX THIS-" and curses techno with all that blood god (a subordinate/more evil death god? like one of kristins shifty employees but thats all she could do in a short notice) shit but it restores his 1 life infinitely and gives him spidey senses.

[5:13 PM]so then techno respawns somewhere else and phil scrambles to find him bc kristin is like "ummmmmmmmmmm i sort of had to curse the dude sorry, but hes Alive" and then its a couple life cycles of Hell as techno adjusts to his new sort of divine powers and then they are able to calm down again and just be two dudes scampering around the world causing trouble and uncovering Forbidden Knowlege again

[5:14 PM]throw in the AE at some point bc they think theyre Smart Enough after a few centuries to lead better than other mortal blokes (theyre Wrong and it solidifies the whole anarchist philosophy about power over others etc) and then eventually u throw in a baby wilbur and land at the dsmp. mmm bqckstorie

[5:17 PM]the cottagecore section at the start before they really get into the Killing is such a comforting thing to think abt tbh. techno owning and caring for his first cows... trading recipies with the locals and waving to the townsfolk in the market,,, phil showing him a sturdy stitch to work deer hide with... hours and hours of bogus enchanting to learn somethign workable... making arrow tips by the fire...

[5:18 PM]etc etc. calm...

[5:19 PM]figured itd be a good foundation for a sweet guy trapped in a bigass piglin body whose destined to become a war criminal and mass murderer. makes it all add up ig

[5:20 PM]and then phils survivalist nature can be pinned on a couple of centuries of depending on only Himself and a little bit of creepy divine influence every couple of years. (points to death points to ender points to the empress)

[5:21 PM](mashes them up like potato in bowl) ingredience

[5:24 PM]also if u think abt it they Argue a Lot which just makes everythign funnier bc you know theyve been pinging back and forth the same braincell Forever and can have a whole assed conversation in "you suck >:(" "NAUR..."

[5:26 PM]everyones like 'awwww emduo the them<3" and its just 40 mins of them berating the other as if theyre stuck in the same habits from 1497

but then u know its just like. part of their fun when they toss the veil aside and r like "bro id die for you 🥺🥺🥺" "bro... pls dont bro"

scrunt ass milk. — Today at 5:40 PM

[hezuart]

That anaversary aizen looks absolutely fabulous, he looks like a figure skater xd.

I heard along time ago the last arc of the anime was being animated finally bc they pulled a 90s sailor moon were the last season was not either animated or dubbed untill decades later.

I recall near the end of the current 366 episodes there was an episode were the creapy demon ppl woke up in hell and we're all bitter, and there was the other guy who was like, iM cOmEiNg FoR u IChIgO, but then is never mentioned again after and I'm like,why? Why is lt there just plopted randomly into a different arc that seams unrelated.

And locking aizen up underground seems ok, but It deff won't hold, and he will. Escape, and he will kill, you either need that one spell from star, dubbed, the darkest spell of moon the undaunted, a powerfull dark spell that killed immortal beings, that came from best character, eclipsa, the queen of darkness.

We need that.

Or stick him I'm crystal like eclipsa was in star. Is there no one who could trap him in ice or crystal for all eternity.

How about throw him into the centre of a volcano trapped and caged , forverr being killed by heat?

I assume there's space travel, send I'm into a black whole, were a black whole don't fuckin care if your immortal or fat, you will die

:3

Yes, I love anniversary Aizen. His original octopus-butterfly hollow design was ugly so I'm glad he's back to being the fashion icon he is.

Locking Aizen up underground once is one thing, doing it twice after saying he got more powerful by just sitting there, and he escaped to battle the Quincy Soul King God... is another. I think he should have escaped at the end of the Quincy arc. That is the only feasibility.

I heard the anime is coming back for the Quincy arc as well, but because of COVID its probably going to be delayed. (I'm not gonna watch it until the Rain section of the arc then I'm dipping out. I'm only here for Zangetsu)

and funny that you mention that hell scene in the manga :)

-> spoilers for the new BLEACH 73 page anniversary chapter / thoughts/critique on it

So hey you had a premonition! Syazel .... returned? And his hole is outside of his body??? for some reason???

(I didn't understand the explanation or why / how that happens and what that means for the hollow)

And my friend and I were laughing because out of ALL the things. Kubo could do in this anniversary. He gave Syazel his dick back after going to hell. That is iconic. (that's where his hole was located, and now that its not on his body ... well...) This is the funniest thing Kubo has EVER pulled. Kudos to you, sir.

The entire internet is freaking out over Ukitake being in hell. Honestly Kubo has done far worse, and we've established that Soul Society is a corrupt system that hasn't changed, so I'm not surprised he would pull something like this.

At the same time, Kubo 1. cheated his audience. 2. continues to prove me right that he cannot bring himself to kill his characters

1. Hollows who have commit murder in their human life are sent to hell. Syazel and Aaorniero are two of these hollows, and yet, when they are killed, there is NO gates of hell scene. We see them there later in the hell chapter (which was more of a promotion for the fourth movie and I didn't believe it would hold any merit)

But the same goes for Ukitake. We never see the gates of hell take him. What, was hell late? Did hell's gates get lost like an uber before picking him up? It's bull. Withholding such vital information from your audience, not showing the gates of hell when they should pick up this soul IMMEDIATELY is ... I mean its a lie. Kubo lied to his audience.

2. Now we are told powerful shinigami are sent to hell when they die. First of all that sounds like a security threat. Wouldn't shinigami want revenge for that? Or attempt to escape? Why would they still hold loyalty after being sent to a prison of eternal suffering?

Also "Yhwach and Aizen" were the only ones keeping Hell's gates closed is way too convenient and doesn't really make any sense. I feel like Aizen should have deliberately gone to hell to retrieve powerful shinigami / hollows for his army instead of keeping it /closed/.

This is definitely a Kubo-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing-and-is -making- stuff-up-as-he-goes, but it might have a pinch of merit because of previous plot lines.... but either way, there's some big plot holes here, but again, its Kubo, so I expected nothing less.

Again, he can't kill off his characters. He introduced zombification, he introduced immortality through the hougyoku, he has Orihime and Hachigen's reversal / rejection abilities. He brought back Luppi, friggen.... a character who's entire upper half of his body was incinerated. Like.... come on. No. He's dead, you can't bring him back like that. That's a cop out and just weird. You're taking away consequences and grief.

(Also Yamamoto and Unohana deserve to be in hell far over Ukitake, they've done some fcked up stuff in their pasts unlike him)

Also Kubo's favorite character is Mayuri, which.... you're allowed to have a favorite problematic character. But Keeping said character alive and bared from the consequences of abusing his daughter, murdering innocents, and experimenting on your own squad members? Nah. Nope. Kill him, Kubo. Kill this dude.

(his weird attachment to Mayuri is probably why he keeps bringing Syazel back, since Syazel is Mayuri 2.0, but Syazel is the bad guy who does face consequences for his actions while Mayuri is not)

~

Also, I'm certain Kazui and Orihime are going to be THRILLED that their precious husband/dad is going to hell when he dies :)

(I just... Rukia teased Ichigo about leaving Orihime at home. She teased him about having a house wife who he leaves all the chores to. Orihime had two panels. She checks on her son who promised he would be at home and sleep. Kazui fcking breaks his promise like it never mattered to him and JUMPS out the window after pretending to sleep in front of his mother. ... An 8 year old... alone... in the middle of the night.)

Orihime is abandoned. She is not invited to SS, she is not informed of what is going on, her son leaves her.... I...

Orihime is a side character. She doesn't matter anymore. She hasn't mattered for a long, long time.

A part of me is glad she had little screen time, since she tends to waste it, but another part of me is embroiled with rage.

I've even see people try to defend this. "Orihime and Ichigo can't be together ALL the time, that's an unhealthy relationship!" and I'm like guys... that's not the point. The point is Orihime is not part of Ichigo's other life. Any shinigami stuff from now on is none of her business. She's going to stay at home while Kazui and Ichigo go off and save the world. Ichigo is going to be fighting by Rukia and Renji while Orihime watches from the sidelines, or worse, doesn't even know what is going on with her husband and son. Orihime is going to be uninformed and abandoned, because she has not proven she is capable of fighting by their sides(go on, @ me. I will fight this. She's a failure.), and also because she prefers a human life over a dead one. Which is ironic, because she married a dead man. Ichigo is a shinigami, and he will be one forever. god forbid she ever meets his Zanpaktou. She would tremble in fear at the monsters her husband harbors in his soul, especially when she realizes they don't care about her and would rather see her dead. (Zangetsu would absolutely kill Orihime. Not sure about Kazui, but Orihime has not accepted Zangetsu, she does not like either of them, and the feeling is assuredly mutual.) frick now I want to make a comic about this

Also still frustrated over Zangetsu's shikai / bankai regression. Kubo once again lied to his audience. Ichigo has no bankai. How ridiculous is that? The main character of BLEACH doesn't have a bankai. Insulting.

(RIP to Chad. He doesn't exist anymore. He's just gone. No mention, no cameo. Gone.)

Kazui is a demon child. That character from the novels? Hikone? They're the same character. Literally same personality, same power level. Its worse because Kazui is a liar. He constantly goes behind his parents' backs. He can summon creepy fish and creepy eyeballs and open portals like is ANYONE aware of this? How has SS not kidnapped Ichigo's son and experimented on him / locked away his powers yet? All substitute shinigami require a reiatsu controlling / spy badge to keep them in line. Where is Kazui's? Or is he just a weird fullbringer?

I was worried Kubo was gonna try and pull a knock off Boruto but luckily he kept the focus on Ichigo and the others. But that being said, Ichika and Kazui are now just... sort of there? Kazui was kinda just.... having his own adventure that doesn't matter to the plot at hand, and Ichika had some nice characterization at first but she just hid behind her dad the whole time.

I have a feeling Kazui is gonna step in at the last minute or do some major behind the scenes thing that indirectly interferes with the main plot so no one will realize how powerful and dangerous he actually is. Its sad because Ichika is the superior character in personality and likability, but she clearly is not going to have a bigger part in this.

Ichigo having a normal life after everything still feels extremely boring and uncomfortable to me. Everyone's like 'I'm still bLEACH!" but.... BLEACH just... doesn't feel like BLEACH anymore. It hasn't for a while now.

~~~

There's two new shinigami characters. Didn't care for the girl, but the Sign Language kid who talks to animals is adorable ... however... he just reminds me of Chad, and I just... it hurts knowing Chad has essentially been deleted. Chad and Orihime are officially benched. They have chosen the human world, and Orihime has given Ichigo his spawn so she has no more use/purpose to him anymore... ////sigh

~~~

Also. This is claimed to be a new "arc". So is the BLEACH manga coming back? What is happening. I thought Kubo was tired and didn't want to do BLEACH anymore. I thought Shounen Jump cut him off. People made so many excuses for Kubo and why the past two arcs have been so badly written the past 6 years and now almost everything they've attempted to defend him with has been revoked.

BLEACH is going to continue to screw up its plot lines and characters, so Its probably best for it to stay dead but I've seen a lot of Kubo stans drooling over this content, they're desperate for BLEACH's return, but its already given out all its possible revelations. There's really nothing else to top here. It's just going to make things up as it goes along ,and I'm not really here for half-assed writing like that, especially since the damage of rushing the previous manga has already been done. Kubo and Shounen Jump are riding off a money nostalgia. None of this was planned.

Honestly though.... overall feeling of this chapter, not as bad as it could have been.

Syazel stole the spotlight, and he's my friend's favorite character, so that's all that really matters.

[churchyardgrim]

HEART OF MIDNIGHT by J. Robert King

[intro post]

oh boy that is a cover innit. god.

Spirit Halloween wolfman in tights aside, this one gives me some mixed feelings. bit of good, bit of bad, averages out into something i enjoyed but that left a weird taste in my mouth

our tale begins in fair Kartakass. do you like wolves? is your ideal political system American Idol? do you like, really like wolves? then boy howdy have i got the dread domain for you!

yes this place appears to be 50% bards and 50% werewolves. or wolfweres. or other, wolf-shaped things, it's just all wolves all the time ok

also you become mayor by winning a singing contest. that's literally the first thing that happens, is our uhhhhhh sure let's call him a hero for now, Casimir, charisma-rolls his way into ousting the current reigning mayor, who is also his estranged dad, whomst he hates.

and who is also a werewolf! shocking, i know.

if you've got two brain cells to rub together here you can figure out the next twist; Casimir, as the child of a werewolf, is also a fuckmothering werewolf. so, naturally, he lures his ex-mayor dad out of the public eye and kills him in a nasty lil dogfight

the downside to all this, is that in order to pull it off Casimir had claimed to be the bardic protégé of Harkon Lukas, the meistersinger of the next largest city in Kartakass. Lukas tolerates this for unknown reasons, and isn't shy about using that leverage over his new pupil.

shame the kid turns out to be shit at governing! he wants to Fix Problems, which manifests in bandaid solutions that piss off the guild leaders and hereditary nobility, and also he bullies his friends :( it's very sad.

there's also a bizarre cousin romance played remarkably straight? not even a token "oh she's adopted" excuse, just full on "my estranged father's sister's grandkid is the hottest person i've ever seen actually" and it goes on for most of the book. granted, several US states have looser consanguinity laws than that, so i guess it's a matter of personal taste, but even putting that aside the romance is lackluster and typical of the genre, and also the plot physically recoils from the mere possibility that this lady might catch werwolfism from her beau, which obligates us to give it a failing grade

let women be great hairy beasts dammit! half the guys in this plot get to rampage around as furries, i think we deserve some feral wolfwomen! give us the monstrous feminine, the redditor's worst nightmare, hairy and bloodthirsty and all beast no maiden!

my consolation prize for this travesty is that the entry for Kartakass in the Doomsday Gazetteers (a campaign supplement published at around the same time, composed of in-character travelogs through each domain) delivers in full on my lady werewolf cravings with a handful of delightful npcs. the entry also references the events of the novel, through the perspective of the traveling scholar conscripted to research each domain, which is very interesting to read lemme tell u

but i digress; we have werewolf fuckery to get on with

so Lukas, to our considerable surprise, is not a werewolf! no, dear reader, he is a wolfwere. what the fuck is a wolfwere? why it's a werewolf in reverse, because of course it is. a trickster wolf that takes a human shape to fuck with ppl, untethered to moon phases and other such pedestrian things. silver does nothing to them, but they're really not fans of iron. some fae ancestry in there? maybe.

anyway Lukas says to our friend Casimir he says, "kid you're a shit politician and you're an even worse predator. maybe stop trying to be nice and start hunting your constituents for sport?"

Casimir, who is an asshole but is at least trying, says "fuck that actually" and spends a few chapters trying to be a human person while his teenage hormones lycanthropy continually throws wrenches in the works

eventually Casimir's human friends identify Lukas as a persistent saboteur, and Casimir himself as someone who is both a supernatural predator and also a selfish jerk, and there's some confused escape and/or assassination attempts, and this is where the plot goes in circles for a bit. there's betrayals, and double-crossings, and un-betrayals, and a lot of ppl acting on conflicting information, and it honestly goes on a bit long for me

the final climax is very fun though, with Casimir attempting to out Lukas as a monster without realizing that uh…. buddy his pack is everywhere. u are so outnumbered.

so it's a big fun wolfbrawl, and Casimir's clever enough not to get cornered, and also to poison Lukas so he can't actually change shape, so for a while you're not sure who's gonna come out on top here

but spoilers, it's Lukas. dude's just too wiley, and also too lucky; Casimir's the one what gets outed as a monster, and tho Lukas barely survives the mauling, he does survive while Casimir's ladyfriend tearfully puts him down

very tragic, very sad, but damn if it isn't a fun show to watch

overall i'm torn on this book. on the one hand it scratches my chronic itch for werewolves, not just Wolf Shifters; they're actual monsters here, wild animals, and the book does not shy away from the brutality of it. 

it's also something that one of my horror discussion podcasts touches on, which is that werewolves are different from possession or haunting stories, bc it's not some outside force taking control of you or invading your body; The Werewolf Is You. that's the core of the conflict here, is that as much as you are this human person with goals and family and a desire to accomplish good things in the world, you are also a base and feral animal that just wants to hunt and consume the things that attract you. and this book does that very well i think, even though i suspect it doesn't know that's what it's doing.

the downside is, well, the prose just doesn't live up to its subject matter. something's missing in a way that's hard to articulate, it comes across very bland. there's some very nice gory descriptions, and it makes a valiant effort to get the feral vibe right, but it falls short of what i really want it to be with the visceral focus and drive that i like best

the other downside is hoo boy is there a lot of suicidal ideation in this book. most of our characters die in genuinely tragic ways, it starts with a suicide and ends with a suicide, and in my opinion it crosses the line from Horror to Depressing. there's fun twisting the knife and then there's twisting the knife in a way that just leaves you unhappy about it, and this is the latter

so yeah, it's a mixed bag! worth a shot for the fun hairy bits, but be warned it doesn't pull punches in the mental health department

[mell0bee]

exu ep 5/series so far thoughts because i feel like i haven’t fully processed it and also It’s About To Go Down

this is very long and i am very adhd so i will put it under a cut

the wildmom asking the party to prove themselves is way up there for me in exu scenes (i think like second fav #1 being The ted and opal argument). i loved how aabria plays her as sort of fluid/shifting personality wise based on who she’s talking to like!! it makes a lot of sense

also HOW AABRIA PLAYS THE SPIDER QUEEN??? HELLO??? SHES SO FASCINATING I LOVE IT i love all-powerful deities who do things because they’re bored or maybe she’s lying idk??

and w dariax we get the dynamic of all powerful deity trying to use a mortal to get what they want vs one mortal with a negative intelligence score perplexing the deity. amazing

overall just watching aabria dm like it’s rlly made me think abt how i play the game like!! she rlly prioritizes fun and cool stories rewarding the players for rp and crazy ideas and if something stops being fun she just!! moves on!!! and it’s still cohesive and smooth! not to mention the cinematics!! all her npcs being hilarious!!! the way she encourages more quiet players! it’s very cool

the way she uses saving throws to give information/vibe checks is fascinating esp in this campaign where there’s a bunch of deities at play and yknow a whole missing week but also every time she says it as a player of dnd where saving throws are reacting to something bad i have a pavlovian response to go OH GOD OH NO agfbjfjf

i feel like we got insight into lots of these characters today

the opal+ted/fy’ra rai+fy’ra kai parallels may kill me oh man it’s so good

and also IN THIS HOUSE WE STAN FY’RA RAI ma’am thank you for having a brain cell MORAL COMPASS MOM FRIEND DO NO HARM TAKE NO BS!! like thank u wildmom she is exactly what these idiots needed

i love aimee sm being new to dnd and just coming up with the most buckwild solutions to problems stretching the limits of the game it’s amazing

and i still stan opal and ted so much i love siblings sm and like their relationship is so fascinating like 'are you okay?' 'are you?’ then i am too' BYE

also completely unrelated but i hate naming characters so i made a character who would have a backstory reason not to have a last name but aimee rlly said no opal just doesn’t have one it’s fine ❤️ it’s so funny to me agdhd

also love it when ppl call her opal nolastname or something similar because i do the exact same thing w my character!! same running gag!!

dariax hit a little close to home as a neurodivergent person with his being so used to being a screw up and being willing to accept that there’s a problem he caused and needs to fix without even recognizing what the problem is oh man

dorian??? like dude has major trust issues who hurt u and the ALIGNMENT SHIFT i love neutral characters sm. so interesting. ppl smarter than me could write a whole essay probably but just aghhh

2 bros chilling on a bedroll back to back because they’re not gay (their relationship is also fascinating tho like dariax #1 dorian fanboy and dorian trying to reciprocate and also going on a corruption arc together… feLLAS IS IT GAY-)

orym sir i need to know. do you have a husband. is he dead. is he named riegel. also thank u for being the moral compass we stan. i feel like orym more than ever is Just A Dude like how fjord was yknow i love it

and then just fearne head empty chaotic neutral fey queen just flirting with opal and being the biggest sweetheart and the funniest excrew member and she rlly said no i will not have a corruption arc no thanks ❤️ i like how i am right now ❤️i love her

MYR’ATTA GIRL WYD???

[mymostimaginaryfriend]

QoTS 5x02 Reaction Post

My brain has basically been Jeresa airhorns since the episode aired lmao but I’m going to try to add some Thoughts to my liveblog from last night.  Here goes:

First of all thank you to @gild-and-fire​ for making this tag meme for me that is ALREADY coming in handy.

Iiiiiiiinteresting that the moment James’ name is cleared the Ice Queenpin of last week thawed quite a bit, right?  Sure the trademark cool under pressure business dealings were there for Teresa (including a bit of ruthlessness) but in very calculated, ultimately successful way rather than terrifying.

James is back like what? 48 hours and already throwing up speed bumps for the descent of Teresa’s soul.  It’s gonna be a tough job, but if anyone can do it....

How to say I love you without saying I love you: Some guys bring you flowers, some bring you a personal army.

This episode was a Jeresa Callback All U Can Eat Buffet

There were SO many from the greatest hits: Take Care of Yourself, You too / “Smart” / You Deserve That / I Want You to Stay etc.  to even visual cues from past Jeresa scenes - the talk outside about going to NYC / 2x04, the lunge into the kiss from 3x09.  And of course the cigarette scene that @medievalraven​ goes over in her great meta.  It was an episode tailor made for parallel gifsets. 

I’m kinda shocked they didn’t add a driving together scene for old times sake.  Still holding out hope for a S5 Jeresa adventure episode too.

These two, as ever, are so so soft and so so stupid lmao.  But even with the interruptions of their private scenes, they packed SO much in. And I loved how you could both tell they’d learned from their past miscommunications.

They were a little rusty at first - doing that thing they do approaching it from an angle instead of head on - T: “You didn’t have to come back.”  J: “Yeah I did.”   T: “Are you staying?” J: “Do you want me to stay?” But right out of the gate James is like this is what I feel, I need you to verbalize what you want from me. Which by end of the episode Teresa does.

But then he says “these Russians are animals” and you can practically SEE Teresa visualizing his death in her head so she’s like "you should go”.

LOL at James playing the emotional game of chicken with THE master of the game Teresa Mendoza.  Him being like “Okay I’ll pack...this is me walking to the bed slowly...packing...to leave...this is me leaving....and I’m going to wander around the house...slowly... in case anyone needs anything...just in case...do a shot with Pote...get to know Chicho...oh hey, I’m already packed let’s go to NYC” lol.

“I’m a quick healer” If only, my friend.

The laugh!!! the smiles!! the heart eyes!! the “people who you love” meaningful eye contact!!

The KISS - THE LUNGE - THE WAY JAMES CUPS HER HEAD WITH HIS HAND AND THEY TILT THEIR FOREHEADS TOGETHER - THE WAY JAMES TOUCHES HIS LIP AFTER LIKE WE’RE IN GODDAMNED PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

The smoking scene.  Poor James was probably thinking of a victory celebration a la 3x09 like “will my stitches hold for that?? Lets find out” and then

Teresa comes out with a CLEAR “I want you to stay”!!!! growth.gif

Only to  drop the (albeit heart eyes included) hammer of “You and me can’t happen.”

I love how James didn’t technically agree.

Can’t wait to see if Teresa caves physically or emotionally first....

Just gonna leave these lines here: “I thought we could be like normal people” / “Get lost for awhile, get these hands clean” / “[change] is the only way to survive in this life” / “we can’t happen...maybe in some other life but not this one.”  Mmmhmmmmmm.  

Non Jeresa stuff:

I really like Oscar the Dominican so far.

Teresa’s “We can double our business or go to war. These are my terms.” CLASSIC Teresa smarts with Queenpin power...I loved it.

The judge: “You’ll be the next Mexican I set on fire”. He can’t just die now, his death better top Cortez’s death by chainsaw b/c this had me ready to drive to NOLA and do it myself.

I loved the expression on James face when Oksana said “[Kostya] wasn’t sure you’d save my life.” LOL like saving other ppl’s lives is kinda what Teresa does, if only I could get Teresa to save her own.

Is the Oksana stuff legit?? It felt really convenient that the “sleeper cell” was dead before Teresa could talk to them.  Were they really rogue or did Oksana just kill off everyone who knew otherwise?  We’ll see. Kostya agreed to her new terms for now.

I loved that of all the many conflicts introduced in the first ep (James, NYC Russians/Dominican rivalry, waterfront $$, the kill team, etc) so many had some sort of resolution or solid movement FORWARD in this episode.  That’s something I really missed from the earlier seasons: mini conflicts that had a 2-3 episode arc instead of *cough* dragging out all season (s4).

Speaking of which, Boaz’s sixth sense of when things are going too well for Teresa remains unparalleled lol.  But I can’t wait to see what JT does next. He’s killing it. Maybe literally...

And now.....the baby news.

At first I was too happy to get an extended James and Pote conversation to care but is anyone else kinda irked that it was POTE who shared the Tony story? I get it story wise w/ his own Tony redemption opportunity on the horizon with KA’s pregnancy they wanted to get that “this world is not for a child they make you weak and vulnerable” ominous foreshadowing in there but oof.  I wish it had been a Teresa/James convo first. 

A baby can be a catalyst for a lot of things (as if Teresa isn’t already feeling the pressure to get legit fast) but what I’m wondering is this:  If it comes down to protecting pregnant Kelly Anne or Teresa, in the heat of the moment, who will Pote choose? He violently reacted to the incarcerated teen boys and that was before he knew KA’s news.   

I’m glad James stayed.  Teresa needs someone who is focused on HER safety alone and as evidenced many times this episode, she definitely will need it.

CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE MARCEL BACK NEXT WEEK!

[ayzrules]

✶ 𝐇𝐗𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 & 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 & 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍   Long story short, I have been thinking about this for wayyyyy too long now and wanted to get some ~thoughts~ & analysis written down! This post is going to be...fairly long, lol. Apologies in advance :D

  Also, if you can’t see the last gif (the one for ‘holy’), click here. Tumblr keeps fucking up the image when i try to upload it :////

  This post is probably going to be about 2/3 yorknew & phantom troupe/kurapika focused, 1/3 chimera ants, maybe with some references to other arcs (including manga-only arcs) mixed in. so, ofc, tons of spoilers ahead! also, i realize that my blog theme is hard to read (and i’m p sure clicking ‘keep reading’ sends you to the og post itself), so i’m linking the post w/ full text copy/pasted in on my art backup side blog (which has a more legible font) here. 

✶ 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   I’m sure absolutely nobody is surprised with me starting here - there is just. SO. MUCH. DEATH. in hxh. & right from the start, one thing I noticed that togashi really emphasized was the #4 and its connection to death. in japanese, chinese, and im p sure some other asian cultures the number 4 is pronounced like the word for death so it’s associated with death in general, and boy oh boy does the ‘deadly number 4′ thing show up E V E R Y W H E R E. we get to the hunter exam, and hisoka is applicant #44. kurapika is #404. i didn’t notice it at first, but this was so intentional holy shit. togashi is NOT SUBTLE.

  So pika & hisoka are, right off the bat, associated with death. okay. and then there are even more clues to drive the point home: hisoka is member #4 in the phantom troupe, kurapika’s birthday is april 4th (aka 4/4). 100% not a coincidence (!!). with hisoka, it’s pretty obvious why togashi’s throwing all this death 444444 stuff around - dude is a psycho murder pedo clown, literally gets off on killing people (and there’s also the fact that judas sits 4th from the left in the last supper painting, and he’s sort of the judas equivalent for the phantom troupe). with kurapika, though, it’s a bit more subtle and woven deeper into his characterization, which i LOVE. togashi puts the mans in blue & gold & white (traditionally ‘pure’ or ‘heavenly’ colors), makes him so fucking kind & so good-hearted.....when he’s not relentlessly pursuing his revenge, ofc. more on this in the next section, but pika = death. togashi has made that v v v clear.

  Backtracking a bit to hisoka, though, I also just wanted to point out the 4 is death symbolism in the fortunes too (GOD i love the fortunes): in one translation, he’s the false fourth moon, and in the og japanese (i think), he’s the false hare (4th in the lunar zodiac or w/e it’s called. i don’t know the japanese cultural influences here, but in the chinese legend that established the zodiac animals, they race across the heavenly river & the top 12 animals got zodiac slots. the hare finished 4th, so it’s #4 in the cycle). 

  And just as a final note, Tserriednich is the fourth prince of the kakin empire, and also another dude who has a hard-on for murder & other gory shit. again: togashi is not subtle with this, lmfao

✶ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘, 𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘   As probably everyone who’s gotten to yorknew knows, togashi is so 0 fucks given when he wants to be. I mean there’s the whole thing where he just. took New York and decided, Yorknew. LMFAO, but also, he made the main antag of that arc be named chrollo lucilfer, sit around in a ruined church, have a reversed cross coat, pale & dark-haired/dark-eyed, generally dressed in dark colors, very terrible murder guy. liiiike......chrollo x devil symbolism game is 1000/10 at this point lmaooo

  And i know absolutely nothing about christianity in general, but pt/kurapika & yorknew arc is just so full of christian imagery/symbolism! one thing that i L O O O O O O V E though is how togashi really blurs the traditional christian-coded good/evil, holy/damned boundaries.

  Back to kurapika: he wears gold and blue, his coloring is very stereotypically ‘angelic’, he’s precious and good and kind. his chains are all about ~judgment~ and ~healing~ - some of the chains are also in literal cross shapes, aren’t they? And the chain dagger in his own heart...the imagery is very startlingly similar to the immaculate heart of mary, where the swords stabbing thru the heart apparently represent seven sorrows. IDK much about this stuff other than the visual similarities; literally had to google ‘daggers through heart christianity?’ to even get the name of that thing LOL. anyway, at first, it seems like togashi establishes him as the ‘angel’, the ‘good’, the ‘holy’ in the angel/devil, good/evil, holy/damned dichotomy between him and chrollo.

  But that’s not the end of the story. his entire storyline is driven by a huuuuuuuge giant desire for vengeance, first of all, and then there’s the scarlet eyes, which canonically are seen as demonic/cursed/what have you (according to one of the movies or smth? where they show pika as a 10 y/o?), and then we also have red eyes in modern culture being associated w pretty much the same thing (vampires, anyone?). the fight scene with uvo has everything in b&w besides the blood on his face & his red eyes & the moon (<<< more fortune foreshadowing & symbolism, i love to see it), and there are tonssss of scenes where he has to suppress his rage. so all of that is obviously not very angelic of him i would say LOL. in fact, what i find super interesting is that the scarlet/red eyes (which are ‘demonic’) is actually the driving factor behind his super powerful nen abilities; this ties in so well with the fortunes & death associations imo! the fortunes call him the ‘death-bringer’ in one translation, or ‘half-angel, half-death’, so that’s one side of pika = red eyes = death, but there’s also the fact that emperor time is literally draining his life force. so pika = death for both himself and others namely the pt, question mark?

  Now for chrollo: togashi’s devil symbolism is EXTREMELY overt with him, but i love the subtler jesus references too. the church thing, obviously, and the st. peters cross which is cuz st peter respected jesus too much & didn’t think he was worthy to die in the same way as him (or something like that, i am the most atheist person in the world & hxh is literally my entire christian education pls) but is also used as an anti-christianity symbol these days. bandit’s secret looks like a bible, lbr, and mans has a cross tattoo.

  Other things beyond visuals - 12 spiders, 12 apostles; hisoka’s betrayal, where member #4 can be thought to correspond to judas sitting 4th from left at last supper. and this miiiiight be a bit of a stretch, but i think the meteor city being the place of origin may also play into the blurred line between angel/devil and holy/damned here; meteors are defined as space rocks that are in earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent in the process. meteorites are for the kinds that actually reach the ground. and idk, lucifer was cast out of heaven / sky too right? so i think there might be some subtle fallen angel imagery/symbolism playing into the pt as well

✶ 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒)   Last section yay! i don’t have as much to say about this, besides when i was making chimera ant arc edits & realized that there might have been some subtle gon/meruem parallels???

  So obviously, everyone knows that line killua says to gon - “you are light” - and then i was just remembering that meruem’s name means.... “light that illuminates all” (!!!!). maybe it’s a coincidence, but knowing togashi, i’m leaning towards nahhhh. there HAS TO be some kinda meaning there (!!).

  Going back to the events of the chimera ant arc....ooh boy. let’s see: gon is optimistic & hopeful even in the face of kite potentially being dead, killua says he’s light, they find kite & dude is fucked up, gon is pissed. gets all angry & ~dark~, especially during the palace invasion when he’s staring pitou down as she fixes up komugi. then the actual fight against pitou: more darkness, more anger, but through it all there’s still light, namely his jajanken being very orange & fiery lookin.....and that final sequence, where he puts all his possible nen he’d ever have into his ~final form~ or wahtever & turns into a male version of true form!bisky but dressed in a crop top & short-shorts (i am SCARRED, btw. s c a r r e d !). there’s just huuuge flashes of light as that’s going on, and it reminded me of supernovas or dying stars when i was thinking about it, where the star is like, collapsing under its own weight? & burning thru its own fuel, until there’s nothing left except a dwarf or black hole or what have you. one final, extremely deadly burst of light & energy before death.

  On the meruem side of things: born into a dark cave, exhibits a traditionally evil/cruel/wicked/whatever personality/traits so that has ppl associating him with darkness. then he gets to know komugi, starts to appreciate other aspects of humanity, seems like he could have actually turned into a decent person who doesn’t want to eat everyone - so that’s a ‘path to light’, maybe? - and then the extermination team yeets themselves into the palace, netero takes him out to bumfuck nowhere, they fight. netero’s fighting is just ALL light, from his giant ass golden 100-type guanyin bodhisattva to the poor man’s rose. again, there’s the sense of finality to it all, in a similar vein to dying stars: netero comes in determined to kill meruem no matter what, and we all know netero doesn’t flake. then we see netero get destroyed after the zero hand, and he triggers the rose, and everything is burning & on fire before the flames are put out and all turns dark again.

  But wait!!! pouf & youpi revive meruem and all he does is play gungi with komugi, even with the poison of the rose. he eventually dies, and the gungi pieces in that final shot of them together (i am BAWLING just thinking about it holy shit) has one that’s all white, one that’s a black ring and white inside. i assume all white is for komugi, who has never done ANYTHING wrong in her LIFE, so i like to think that the 2nd one is for meruem - born “into darkness”, literally & figuratively, but he turns something like ‘good’ by the end. it’s interesting how togashi has sort of gone for a bit of a subversion here: the hero going from light to darkness, and the main antag from darkness to light.

✶ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍   AahhhhHHHHHhhh so if you read all the way down here through my LONG rambles, tysm! i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what other people think about all this, and i’ve FOR SURE missed tons and tons of stuff - chimera ants is just. SO MUCH. and i don’t know it as well as yorknew eeek.

  I’m not sure if i’m really ~knowledgeable~ in any other areas relating to hxh, so this might be the only one of these that i do, but i definitely think about some of this - esp all the religious symbolism & #4 stuff - a ton! so in the meantime, if it’s of any interest, i’m just going to shamelessly plug my hxh x religious beliefs/superstitions edit series :D lots of love to all!!!