#we'd all lose focus of the plot

[dilf-destroyer-04]

DEAR LORD, WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN, PLS LET ME BRING MY MANNNN (shiu kong)

Cold Case, Hot Detective

When the police declare the mysterious disappearance of your husband a cold case, you hire a private detective to discover the truth. Shiu Kong says he is the best man for this job, and admittedly, he is not just excellent at investigating cold cases but also at heating things up when his discoveries lead to you looking for comfort in his arms.

Pairing: Shiu Kong x Reader (female) Genre: smut + fluff Word Count: 3.5k Warnings: 18+ smut, fingering, praise, mentions of masturbation, smoking, sharing a cigarette. A bit of forbidden romance trope, reader develops a crush on Shiu during the investigation but only acts on it after discovering her husband left her. All characters are of age. This story is 18+ Minors don't interact.

You stop in front of the small private detective agency, eyeing it warily. It looks exactly like you imagined a place like this to look like. As if you are in some film noir. A small office on a shady side street crammed between a takeout shop and a dry cleaner's. But the small room you step into a moment later is surprisingly clean and tidy. Just like the man greeting you with a raised eyebrow.

Shiu Kong was recommended to you by a close friend. Apparently, he is the best at finding lost things and people. He sits behind his polished desk, a neatly stacked pile of case files in front of him, looking much more handsome and posh than you imagined a man in his line of work to be.

He is wearing an immaculate-looking black suit with a white dress shirt and a black tie. His short hair is styled in an attractive modern way. If you had to guess his age, you would say he is in his late thirties. A pair of intelligent-looking, narrowed dark eyes meet yours across the room. His lips are wrapped around a half-smoked cigarette, explaining the smell of smoke you could already sense before entering his small office. In here, your nose also picks up another scent. An expensive, fresh, and masculine smell, probably his aftershave. Sexy.

You smile politely at him, introducing yourself and explaining your concern shortly. You tell him about your husband, who disappeared without a trace six months ago. About the police telling you they found no new leads and would stop investigating. Declaring the disappearance a cold case and telling you with a pitiful look that sometimes people just leave and don't want to be found.

Mr. Kong watches you interestedly, taking a slow drag from his cigarette as you finish your story. He blows out the smoke and straightens up in his chair, looking amused when he says,

"Ah, I see. You want me to do the police's job."

You feel your face heat up and quickly scramble to explain that no, of course, you trust the police to do their job right... It's just that... But he interrupts you politely,

"Please, don't worry. It is my job to do things like these. No shame about it at all. The police tends to drop cases like these too easily. However, I have certain connections that allow me a better assessment of the situation. So, let me summarize it. Basically, we have a typical case of "Honey, I'm getting some cigarettes," only for the husband to never be seen again. Is that correct?"

His gaze is intense, brown eyes with gray flecks, looking at you as if he is trying to read your mind. A detective's gaze. You avert your eyes, feeling shame flood your veins once again. It's embarrassing to admit it out loud. But he is right. Your husband just left one day and never came back. No signs of a crime, no indication that something happened to him.

You nod as you watch his long elegant fingers tap his cigarette on the glass ashtray standing on his desk,

"Yes, that is correct."

"Then you came to the right man. I am experienced, thorough, and discreet. If someone can find your missing husband, it is me."

He smiles reassuringly at you and points at the wall behind him that is lined with thank you letters from former clients. You nod and smile gratefully at him.

You leave his office half an hour later with a copy of a signed contract in your pocket and a good feeling in your gut. Yes, Shiu Kong seems like the best man for this job. Experienced and professional.

And, as a small voice in your head whispers to you, it also doesn't hurt that he is incredibly charming and sexy. A true gentleman. A private detective that could have stepped out of a noir romance novel. Tall, dark, and handsome.

You are back in his office two days later, delivering the additional documents he requested. He smokes his obligatory cigarette, going through the case file with you and explaining which steps he plans to take.

You nod gratefully at him,

"Thank you so much, Mr. Kong."

A smile plays around his lips,

"Please call me Shiu."

Your pulse flutters at that, but it gets even worse when his narrow warm brown eyes look at you inquiringly,

"Let me ask you something: Why do you want to find your husband? Is it out of love? Or is it because you need him to provide for you? Or is it for revenge?"

It catches you by surprise, and you squirm in your seat,

"Um...is this relevant to the case?"

He laughs, low and soft, his eyes glittering amusedly as he shakes his head,

"No, I am just curious. It comes with the job. I am constantly confronted with people's dark side and their deepest secrets. That makes you develop a certain curiosity, I guess. You don't have to answer."

But before you can think twice, you find yourself confessing everything to him, all the things that were obvious to everyone around you but no one ever dared say out loud, not even you. You don't know what it is about this man that makes you spill all your darkest secrets, all the things you are ashamed of.

"It's a marriage of convenience. I was young and needed the money, and he liked having a young wife he could parade around and who depends on him."

You cringe at those words, sounding like the biggest cliche. But Shiu just chuckles good-naturedly,

"Please, don't be ashamed. It makes perfect sense. A lot of marriages exist for that reason."

He winks at you, making your heart skip a beat at how attractive he looks. He leans closer, looking deeply into your eyes when he continues,

"I already suspected something along those lines. A guy like him could never pull a woman like you otherwise."

You feel your heart flutter at his words. At the apparent flirty nature of his comment and the way his gaze trails slowly over your body. You know you should be offended. You know you should get up and leave. You should tell him his behavior isn't very professional.

But you don't. Instead, you can't help but feel flattered at his comment.

When you leave an hour later, he accompanies you to the door with a hand on the small of your back, gently steering you toward the exit. You can smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes and his sexy aftershave. You even imagine you can feel his body heat when he is standing so close to you, his body just shy of pressing against yours.

You lift your head to look up at his handsome face, noticing how tall he is and how incredibly attractive he looks in his fine suit and the confident little smirk on his face.

He opens the door for you like a true gentleman, telling you to get home safely.

Shiu keeps you updated about his investigations at all times.

He calls you in the evening when you are already in bed, apologizing for the late call, making you feel strangely flustered because you are only wearing a flimsy lacy nightdress, and his low voice sounds almost seductive over the phone. It makes you picture sitting on his lap while he trails kisses over the low neckline of your nightdress, the stubble of his thin mustache scratching lightly over your sensitive skin.

You feel guilty for the sound of his name falling from your lips when you come undone on your fingers a while later, hiding your burning face in your pillows.

You should get him out of your mind. You really should. But it's hard when he is so charming and caring. When he is the first person in over six months who really takes you seriously and is willing to help you.

You meet him in a fancy restaurant for lunch, where he shows you pictures of a surveillance camera of a casino, clearly showing your husband. Shiu tells you about his contacts in dubious places. Tells you about illegal gambling, the Yakuza, and big money. When your eyes widen in worry, his hand lands on yours, his thumb caressing your wrist soothingly.

He insists on driving you home, making your pulse flutter nervously because he looks so sexy next to you, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting casually on the open window, a cigarette between his fingers.

You can't remember the last time someone gave you butterflies just from driving in a car with them. You don't know why this man makes you feel like a teenager on your first date.

But when he turns his head to look at you and offers you a small smile, you can't deny how attracted you are to him. How much you want him, even if it is wrong.

He parks his car in front of your apartment and walks over to the passenger side to hold the door open for you and offer you a strong arm. Does he know that he makes your knees go weak with this? Does he know his charming smile and politeness make you feel light-headed?

You don't know what's gotten into you when you step closer to press your body against his side and kiss his cheek, muttering a thank you before you quickly walk to the entrance of your apartment complex, practically fleeing the scene with your heels clacking loudly on the pavement and not daring to look back.

You lie awake in bed for hours that night, haunted by a sexy grin and the smell of cigarette smoke.

Unbidden, the same thoughts repeat in your head over and over again: What if Shiu finds your husband? What then? Do you even want him to come back? Wouldn't it be better if he just stayed missing?

A week later, you find yourself once again in Shiu's private detective agency, wringing your hands in your lap as you listen to him explain gently how your husband won a lot of money in one of his illegal gambling events, how he booked two plane tickets afterward, leaving the country with a young woman on his arm, with no intention of returning.

You feel nauseous. Part of you wished your husband wouldn't come back, but you can't help but feel crushed anyway. Hurt, anger, and worry wash over you.

Hurt that your husband just replaced you. That you weren't enough. Maybe not young enough anymore? Not attractive enough? Anger that he just left without a single word. Why didn't he just file for divorce if he didn't want you anymore? Worry how you will fare now. You are dependent on your husband's money. What will happen to you now? You need to get a divorce to make sure you get alimony. But the thought of everything you must do for this overwhelms you. You feel tears gather in your eyes.

Shiu stops in the middle of his report, grayish-brown eyes watching you worriedly. His voice is gentle when he asks,

"Are you ok?"

Your lips tremble, and you shake your head, unable to form any words. The first tears run down your cheeks. You can see Shiu's handsome face soften as he looks at you.

He reaches across the desk to cup your cheek and gently wipes your tears away. His hand is soft and warm, feeling so comforting on your skin. It's a touch so gentle that you instinctively lean into it, so starved for affection. It has been years since someone touched you like this.

Shiu looks deeply into your eyes, watching you closely, his voice soft like a caress,

"Please don't be sad, sweetheart. That man didn't deserve you."

More tears well up in your eyes, not even because of your husband's betrayal but because Shiu is so nice to you. And a moment later, you are out of your chair and practically fling yourself at Shiu. He catches you, his arms wrapping around your waist and pulling you onto his lap.

He smells so good when you bury your face in his shoulder and cry into his suit jacket. His arms feel so comforting around your body, holding you securely and gently, one hand slowly caressing your back. His low voice is gentle and soothing when he murmurs,

"Please don't cry, sweetheart. Tell me what I can do for you. Tell me what I can do to make it better."

Your voice doesn't sound like your own when you say,

"Just make it go away, please. Make me feel good, please. I just... I just want to be held and feel...feel loved."

You cringe at how dumb you sound. So naive. So pathetic. Begging this guy, your business partner, for affection or sex, or whatever it is you want.

But Shiu doesn't laugh. He doesn't mock you or turn you down. Instead, his hand that was rubbing soothing circles on your back is suddenly on your thigh, warm fingers sprawling over your skin.

The touch of his skin on yours is like an electric jolt, buzzing through your body, making your pulse race and your head spin. Rekindling a fire in you that you never thought you would feel again. It has been years since someone's touch did this to you. And you know you need more of it. You need more of this sexy man who was so nice to you all those weeks.

You press yourself against him, your right hand coming up to run up his neck and into his hair, lips breathing a soft "more" against the side of his neck.

Shiu's warm hand caresses your inner thigh, slowly moving higher. Your breath hitches in your throat, but you open your legs for him, showing him this is what you want.

"Shiu..."

"Yes, let me take care of you, darling."

His voice sounds husky as his warm fingers slip under your skirt. You whine when those fingers reach your panties and brush over them, making your pussy twitch with a need you haven't felt in years. Shiu's thumb finds your clit and teases it lovingly, rubbing it slowy through the thin fabric, making your legs open sluttily as a shaky moan falls from your lips.

You bury your burning face in his suit jacket, inhaling his sexy scent, cigarette smoke, and expensive aftershave, clinging desperately to him. And he keeps massaging your swollen clit through your now wet panties, sending you higher and higher, head spinning and heart racing.

"You like that, sweetheart?"

You are putty in his hands, nodding wildly and sobbing an embarrassed,

"Y...yes...Shiu."

Your hips buck uncontrollably, and you push against his hand almost desperately, rubbing yourself against his thumb, craving his touch, needy for more, jerking when his thumb prods your little sensitive bud so good that your whole body feels on fire.

His voice is gentle, laced with desire when he says,

"Look at me. Let me see your pretty face. Please don't hide from me. I want to see how you like what I'm doing to you."

Something about his tone, the mix of gentleness and dominance, makes your toes curl, and you do as he says, lifting your face off his shoulder and looking straight at him.

Letting him see your face, letting him see the need in your eyes, letting him see the obscene way your mouth opens as a loud moan falls from your lips when he rubs more slow circles around your clit, filling the small office room with the wet sound of your arousal.

It sounds naughty. It feels forbidden what the two of you are doing. But it's the hottest thing you have ever experienced. Sitting on this sexy man's lap in his office, with his hand under your skirt, his fingers caressing you through your panties, bringing you closer and closer to the edge.

And suddenly, you find yourself being bold, letting go of your former shame. You reach down to grab the silky fabric of your panties and pull them to the side, exposing yourself to Shiu, whining his name when he grins at you and gently flicks his thumb over your clit again, this time skin on skin, spreading your cream over your puffy needy bud, massaging it thoroughly. You buck against his thumb as if you are in heat, nails digging into his back as you chase after what you know will be a mind-blowing orgasm.

All thoughts of your husband's betrayal have left your mind when Shiu pampers your pussy like that, so loving, so good, taking care of you in a way you have never known in your marriage.

His middle finger teases your creamy hole, slipping in and out slowly, just the fingertip, until you mewl loudly and push onto his finger needily, begging him for more.

And he gives it to you. Warm gray-brown eyes watch you intently as he pushes his finger deep into your wet heat, making you gasp loudly and spread your legs even wider. You ride his finger unashamedly, moaning shakily when Shiu rubs against that sweet spot inside you.

A second finger joins the first one, making you cry out in pleasure. Your eyes close as you give yourself completely to him, letting his strong arms hold you while he fucks you with his middle finger and ring finger, and his thumb caresses your clit.

Your needy moans and the wet sounds of your pussy getting fucked fill the small office, and Shiu's lips trail soft kisses over the side of your neck, murmuring against your skin in that sexy low voice,

"Hmm, yes, like that, sweet thing. Let go, baby. Just let go and cum all over me."

It's his words that make you tumble over the edge, crying out shakily as your orgasm washes over you, strong and deep, your cunt clenching around Shiu's fingers, your juices flowing down his long fingers and his wrist.

He fucks you through it, his fingers gently massaging the spot inside you that makes you see stars, rubbing every last wave of orgasm out of you while whispering sexy encouragements to you,

"Yes, you're such a good girl. Cumming so sweetly for me. Yeah, my sweet thing, just like that."

You collapse bonelessly against him, sobbing and whining from the overwhelming feeling of cumming so hard. And Shiu slowly lets his fingers slip out of you, but his thumb stays pressed against your swollen clit, massaging it tenderly, making your body twitch from the overstimulation.

It's you who grabs his handsome face with both hands and pulls him into a passionate kiss, licking hungrily into his mouth, tasting whiskey and cigarettes and chewing gum on his tongue, moaning into his mouth while he keeps playing with your sensitive clit, and your pussy pulses hotly with the aftershocks of the orgasm he gifted to you.

He kisses you like you haven't been kissed in years, tongue flicking tenderly against yours, deep and slow, his lips moving firmly but gently against yours, making your head spin and your heart race. His thumb rubs a few times more over your clit before he lets go and pulls your panties neatly into place again.

His lips remain close enough to brush against yours when he whispers huskily,

"See, you don't need your loser of a husband. I can take very good care of you, too, darling."

"You have already taken better care of me today than he has in all those years of our marriage."

Shiu raises an eyebrow, a handsome smirk lighting up his face,

"Oh, is that so? Well, in that case, you'll be surprised what else I can do for you. Will you give me a chance to show you?"

His gray-brown eyes observe you carefully. You smile and nod, filled with joy that he wants to see you again, that he wants more than just a short fling.

"Of course. I would love for you to show me everything you can do for me."

Shiu laughs softly and lets go of your thigh to reach behind you and grab his cigarette pack from his desk. He brings one cigarette to his lips, lighting it while he looks at you,

"So my new case will be to mend your broken heart and take proper care of you. It's a pro bono case, of course."

He exhales the cigarette smoke slowly into your face, never averting his gaze as he watches you through the smoke with a grin on his handsome face. Does he know how fast your heart is beating when you imagine what your life with him will be like?

A smile spreads over your face as you reach out and steal the cigarette from his mouth and slowly bring it to your lips. You take a long drag, grinning when you return the favor and blow the smoke into Shiu's face.

"You are hired, Detective Kong."

AAAHHHH I REALLY WROTE SOMETHING FOR HIM!!!

When I read that Shiu used to be a detective, I immediately pictured him as one of those cool private investigators, and yeah, I HAD to write him in that role. Thank you so much to @blueparadis for encouraging me to write this! I had a lot of fun, and I am happy to contribute to the love for this man!

I listened to Taylor Swift's "Reputation" album on repeat while writing this story, and I think the vibe and the lyrics of those songs fit Shiu and this story very well. My heart was definitely beating faster :)

I hope you enjoyed this sexy little story! Please let me know what you think. Comments and reblogs would be very sweet.

[imagineweasley]

I Love You Deerly

Harry Potter x Reader

summary: after a DA meeting, you and your boyfriend harry take a second to be alone together.

y/n: your name

word count: 0.9k

submit requests here! | masterlist

author's note: basically no plot, just so much fluff! fluff here, fluff there, fluff everywhere!!

--

"Fantastic job tonight everyone! See you all next Tuesday, 8 pm sharp!" Harry claps his hands and grins at the DA.

The group disperses, happily chatting amongst themselves. Tonight's meeting was pretty successful, so the group is in a cheery mood. We'd been working on Expecto patronum for the past two weeks, and today, a few more students, including myself, had been able to conjure our patronuses. I weave my way through the crowd towards Harry, who's standing in the far corner of the room with Neville, who looks dejected. Poor Neville. I can't blame him, he's been trying really hard for the last two meetings with only a few wisps of his patronus to show for it.

"See ya later y/n!" Hermione smiles and waves at me as she passes.

Ron on the other hand salutes me and says, "Remember you promised to lend me your potions notes tonight y/n!" I call after him, "I did no such thing Ronald!" I laugh and shake my head before turning back around.

"... such a hard thing to achieve, most people our age can't even get what you got consistently. Trust me, by next month you'll be an expert. It takes time." I walk up to Harry and Neville and chime in, "Yeah, and look at Zacharius, I thought the vein in his forehead would pop today and he came nowhere near what you did." Neville jumps but then smiles sheepishly when he realizes it's me, even laughing under his breath. Harry also turns at my voice and his gaze softens when he meets my eyes. With a big grin on his face, he rubs Neville's shoulder one more time before patting his arm.

"Don't lose it just yet, mate. You're really, truly doing great."

"Thanks guys." Neville wipes his nose and smiles at the both of us, "I'll see you around!" In much better spirits, Neville grabs his sweater and heads out.

Once we're alone, Harry steps towards me and wraps me in a tight embrace, and my face ends up smushed in his chest

"Mmmph - hey, mm, can't breathe here!" Harry laughs and kisses the top of my head before loosening his grip.

"Sorry love, I'm sorry, I've just been waiting to do that since you walked into the room. It's hard to focus on everyone else here when you're right there, you know?"

I smile up at him before wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss.

"Maybe... I should... stop... coming... so you... can focus!" I peck his lips between every word and he snakes his arms around my waist.

"Little... do you know... that's... useless... because... you're... always... on... my... mind!" Harry plants big kisses on the top of my head, my forehead, my cheeks, each ear, and the rest on my lips, making me giggle like a little girl.

"By the way... a doe?" He's talking about my patronus that revealed itself today, a graceful doe. As soon as I had conjured it, it had pranced in a circle around Harry and his stag before returning to me. Everyone had paused in their own efforts to stare, jaws dropped. Hermione had gasped and grabbed onto Ron's arm and she gazed up at it with wide eyes and a huge smile.

"Mmm what a surprise, huh?" I look up at Harry and he looks back at me fondly, grinning so wide I think his face might crack in two.

"Maybe we can make our patronuses kiss in front of everyone."

I laugh before wriggling out of his grasp to retrieve my things. "You are ridiculous Mr. Potter, utterly ridiculous."

I don't make it far before Harry pounces and wraps himself around me from behind, "Where do you think you're going!"

"Hey!" I lose my balance and we both fall to the ground onto one of the mats, giggling. I roll onto my back so he's on top of me, our limbs entangled and our noses touching. He rubs our noses together before kissing me and I can't but melt into the it. Almost two years of dating and his kisses still never fail to make me all fluttery inside.

He pulls away, suddenly serious, and leans his forehead against mine.

"You know I couldn't have done this without you, you know?"

"Yes you absolutely could have, and you know it."

"Actually, I know that I wouldn't have been able to. You're my strength, my love. You were the one who encouraged me to take the risk. You were the one who believed that I could do it when I didn't."

I cup his cheek and he leans into it before continuing, "Even during meetings when I don't think I can, all I have to do is look for you and your smile tells me I can keep going. I have to keep going. For you. For us."

My heart swells with his words and all I can think about is how in love I am with this boy, with the Boy Who Lived And Captured My Heart. "Merlin, I love you so much, Harry." He lets his head rest on my chest and I snuggle into him.

"I love you, y/n."

I close my eyes and lean into my boyfriend while I mindlessly run my fingers through his hair. We lay in comfortable silence.

"Y/n?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we stay here for a second?"

"Of course, my love. Let's stay here forever."

[nanowrimo]

Write Smarter, Not Harder: 5 Ways to Conquer Chaotic Writing

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[cluescorner]

Tim Drake has a weird fucking function

The thing about Tim that I find unique is that his life became SO MUCH WORSE after joining the heroing thing. Everybody else had a mid-to-shit life before becoming a hero/living with Bruce and mostly everybody (except Jason who LITERALLY DIED) had their life improved by being a hero/being Bruce's kid (or at least it is typically portrayed as such.

Tim had the exact opposite trajectory. His life wasn't perfect before he became Robin, but like...multi-millionaire/billionaire (canon is unclear, but he's within Gotham's upper-strata) kid with both natural intelligence + charisma and a bright future ahead of him and parents who were emotionally neglectful but nothing really beyond that (which is also a form of trauma, but all of the info we have indicates that the Drakes were no Arthur Brown or David Cain) and he still had other people he could rely on outside of them. He went to boarding school, which could be something horrible OR something amazing depending on your own thoughts/experiences. I grew up having a commute where we'd drive past a really pretty and rich af boarding school that literally everybody in our area DREAMED of going to, so to me the idea of going to boarding school sounds incredible but mileage may vary. Tim seems like the type of kid who would thrive in that though. Based on what we know in canon atm, his pre-robin life was fucking amazing.

And then he starts being the sidekick and working towards becoming Robin. His parents immediately get kidnapped and poison themselves through drinking tainted water; his mom dies and his dad is in a coma. This is not the fault of Robin, but Tim himself muses about the idea that Robin and dead parents are linked: to become Robin completely, you must lose your parents. And with how fate/destiny/canon events can operate in comics universes, maybe he isn't that far off. Once his dad wakes up, their relationship becomes strained as the man grieves the loss of his wife and realizes that his son has been doing vigilantism as a hobby. It is unclear exactly how good of a parent Jack was before the incident, but the results of Tim's involvement with the Robin mantle has definitely made things worse between father and son. Jack will also die within quick succession of 2 of Tim's best friends, his girlfriend, and his other father. He will also effectively lose like 1/2 his loved ones in the fallout of all of that mess including: his older brother, his other friends (both civilian and superhero), and the stepmother with whom he shared what I would argue is his best parent-child relationship (Dana also may have died, but it's left unclear). He has stopped pursuing higher education (the moment he even applied for college he 'died', and it seems he hasn't made another attempt since) and if he wasn’t a major focus of the media before he sure is now. He tries to quit briefly (in fact he initially was planning on quitting once someone more suited came along) and cannot bring himself to do so. Even when he does manage to get away for a while, his superhero life impacts the pre-robin life he is trying to go back to. Leaving is an impossibility, this is all there is for him now. He also isn’t allowed to make mistakes anymore, not when lives hang in the balance. The one who enforces that impossible standard the most (besides Bruce depending on who's writing) is himself. He’s got TRAUMA now and people want to hurt him constantly. He is constantly questioning his own sanity and morality and place in the world. He almost dies like every month. Tim grows colder and less grounded, he is becoming both a better and a worse version of himself at the same time. He’s saving lives in the same few issues as he’s setting up a Saw movie plot for the man who killed his father. He is haunted by the ghosts of his past and the looming figure of his future. His life becomes SO MUCH FUCKING WORSE after he becomes Robin. Some of it is the fault of others, some is the fault of circumstance, and some of it is due to his own actions. But basically all of Tim's worst traumas and life-changing moments are either tied to or caused by Robin. Dick's parents would still be dead, Jason would still be living on the streets, Stephanie would still have Arthur Brown for a father and a lot of other things that deserve their own posts/IDK if they've been retconned, and Damian would still have been raised in the eco-cult where death is a constant. Those are life circumstances that occur without the involvement of Robin, the only one who even needs Bruce involved at all in their series of events is Damian. But Tim? All of what is considered his 'worst' moments occur after he assumes the role.

This idea is what I find the coolest and most fascinating about Tim as a character. Being a hero is usually portrayed as either an outright awesome thing or a righteous duty that one must fulfill or (maybe in a grimmer and/or more grounded story) a sacrifice to your interpersonal relationships/mental health that is made for the greater good. For Tim, being a superhero actively ruined his life (both because of the general circumstances surrounding being a kid vigilante and the choices he made as part of that role). It's never portrayed that way in canon because we need to come out of issues going 'wow being a superhero is so cool! I'm gonna buy the next issue!', but when you just look at Tim's life literally everything really bad that we know of occurred after he became Robin.

[thiscanbegood]

WHAT IS THE SECOND FUNERAL?

So I've been going crazy trying to figure out a timeline of events based on the episodes descriptions we got. We know Luca makes an appearance and that something happens to Marcus that makes him lose his focus enough for him to need a moment to get his groove back (which we all are pretty sure it's his mom's passing). All of that happens from the start to mid season.

BUT there's a mention of a funeral at the last episode.

Some people are guessing Donna's or Jimmy's but I feel like their passing in last ep would be such a huge cliffhanger that giving it away in the description like that just doesn't makes sense. Plus, Carm hasn't been seen actually processing his grief for losing his brother, Donna passing would be another huge blow and we wouldn't get to see each process separately, consecutive and similar punches might be cool in a fight but in a tv series would feel too much.

My guesses are on either one of these two (or a mix, they aren't mutually exclusive):

1. Something like a Michael's funeral redo for Carm. Giving him more closure and acceptance, maybe get in his brother's head somehow (his real head and not the persona's he liked to use with his weird messages and catch phrases) to understand his suffering and why he kept Carm away.

2. The Bear is gonna be put to rest. Either by an accident that compromises the building or by money problems (considering Mr. Eleven Mad is going cray cray with the budget making daily changes to the menu), the restaurant closes and the crew morn the loss. In this case (love this plot, have to admit) I think we'd get a light at end of the tunnel kinda thing, like Syd having an offer in the bag to open her own place (maybe the opportunity she gets) and take the crew with her or some investor looking to put money on a sydcarmy's restaurant.

Anyway this funeral goes, I think the restaurant is gonna finish the season in very shaky legs even if they get a star, like the opposite of the end of S2, which was "disaster just happened with this guy in the freezer but good things ahead maybe", S3 could be "great thing just happened but there's an incoming disaster, stay tuned for S4" lol.

Let me know what you think the another funeral is going to be if you want, would appreciate it!

[raayllum]

stop the episode is making me lose my mind ok

it will never not be funny to me the way rayllum has literally taken on a life of its own. like between aaron being like "we didn't want this they just made it happen somehow idk" and the writers being like "we don't even ship them they're teenagers" despite the fact that they are the ones writing them (or so you think) to be digustingly in love. i'm fully convinced that the spirit of rayllum has possessed the entire cast and crew and it's amazing

"he needs to be murdered, she needs to learn how to murder someone, they're perfect." HUHU HUH HUHA WHAT MR EHASZ SIR HUH REPEAT THAT WHAHT

terry arc + pure of heart trope??? consider me gagged

you mentioning ez/runaan conflict and aaron just being "THATS A VERY INTERESTING QUESTION 😈😈"

aaron ehasz fanboying over you???? as he should. as he should

Listen it was so fun and I've always wondered that about Rayllum for a Long time (like 4+ years) so getting to finally know (within reason, who knows about the story boarders / animators sneaking stuff in) is immensely satisfying.

Between "he needs to be murdered, she needs to learn how to murder someone" & "we'll see [Rayla's conflict between love & duty" manifest again" from another interview it's like. yeah dark magic + possession plot line in s7 let's goo

"True Heart" is super intriguing as an episode title since we've seen pure of heart be referenced (hi s3 Amaya) and I could see any of the trio having it, but I'm Pumped for the Terry focus and confirmation he's gonna have a bit more outright inner turmoil next season over his relationship to Claudia vs what he thinks is Right. Makes me nervous it's spell ingredient adjacent but maybe not (TDP loves its "hearts as ingredients/symbols" in particular after all, I wonder if we'll see why Laurelion got his heart stabbed/pierced)

And listen I was not prepared aah!! Aaron has always been gracious/appreciative over twitter and we'd talked a bit in DMs where he'd been very kind (stuff like character analysis from this video being "spot on") but I was of course floored and very flustered, it was incredibly kind and like getting to write/analyze stuff is its own reward, but knowing that my love/appreciation for the show is also seen and appreciated in turn is a very positive feedback loop that is very validating/affirming too of course! ("I was a little bit intimidated" will always live in my head rent free bc What The Fuck truly aaah from the bottom of my heart forever & ever)

[comicaurora]

If you were to actually write a tournament arc (be it in Aurora or a future story) fashioned in your own preferences and ideas, what would it be like?

Oh boy. That's an interesting challenge, because there are so many factors to the Tournament Arc that I just don't like on principle-

Foregone conclusion. If the tournament is centered on a final battle with the Super Scary Big Bad, as they so often are, the heroes are just killing time before they get there, and at least one of the heroes is guaranteed to get to the final round. If the stakes of the tournament are too high, the conclusion is set in stone from the outset. If the heroes are being forced to participate for hostage or supervillain reasons, their victory becomes narratively assured. If the heroes aren't being forced to participate by narrative necessity, then the whole thing becomes an even bigger waste of time.

Formulaic. There's only so much you can mix up a tournament format - environmental hazards, minigames, ring-out rules - and without that, it's just a linear series of fights. Can give the heroes a chance to show off their unique movesets, but narratively they're just ticking up a progress bar before they can get to the end.

Fuckton of characters. Tournament needs meat for the grinder, let's make several dozen characters to throw at the heroes of which maybe five will be memorable enough to recur later. Better make sure they all have interesting gimmicks too - otherwise the formulaic fights will become even more formulaic!

None of these are particularly enticing for me, so in order to construct a tournament arc I actually liked, we'd need to find some way around them:

To avoid a foregone conclusion, the tournament stakes can't be a simple boolean value with "heroes win" and "heroes lose" tied inextricably to things like "heroes save hostage" or "villain destroys entire world." The easiest way to do that is to remove "the heroes" as a single unified participant. It's not a question of whether good will triumph over evil, it's a question of which characters will win and under what circumstances? Part of the reason I liked the tournament arc in MHA more than most is the actual overarching victory was basically irrelevant and our protagonist got eliminated in the quarterfinals, because it was actually all about character development inspired by that fight. So splitting the heroes up, letting them work independently and making their opponents something other than a monolithic antagonistic force would probably help to reduce that issue.

Some tournament arcs also make things more interesting by having a single loss not categorically eliminate a character from the running - the Dark Tournament arc of YYH was pretty good about this, despite being way too long, since it meant protagonists could actually lose fights without being kicked out of the arc entirely, which was a very smart way to keep the tension going, since only a few fights became foregone "either the heroes win this one or they die" situations.

The problem of fights being formulaic can also be addressed here, although I think the more relevant way to fix that is to simply make sure the tournament doesn't drag on for too long. Like, three to five fights is probably the max number we can really focus on. But we can also dodge the formulaic-ness accusations by making sure the fights have more going on than just "which action figure gets mashed harder." This is where most tournament arcs solve things by making a lot of unique gimmick characters with weird powers (so the heroes can't just smack em around the same way every time) and by giving the heroes either handicaps or new abilities/powerups they're still figuring out. This makes the choreography more interesting, and honestly even a really boring plot can be significantly brightened up by extremely cool fight choreography. "They fight and [character] wins" is a single line in the screenplay that can translate into something very spectacular in the execution. But this is, again, something they did in the YYH Dark Tournament arc, and that was still way too much tournament arc, so I think plotline fatigue is a problem that can't entirely be solved by finding new spices to pepper onto the same bracket structure.

You can, of course, also add emotional stakes like "this character's self-worth is tied in with their victory" or "this character is being manipulated by someone else" or "this character is having a personal crisis and handling it poorly" or even something really basic like "the other people in this tournament think we suck, let's prove them wrong."

The "fuckton of characters" problem isn't intrinsically an issue, because it can also be an opportunity to create and introduce a lot of very interesting secondary characters, but it does unfortunately lock them into an extremely artificially constraining plotline. The problem with a tournament arc is it is literally the same subplot template over and over again until the finale inevitably breaks the format. It's an extremely rigid scenario to lock a character-driven story into, and no matter how individually rad parts of the fights are, the overarching structure is repetitive and it limits the characters' ability to shine. Ultimately, no matter how neat or complicated a new character is, they only exist in the arc to be defeated and then get out of the way of the plot. They can have cool stories when they show up later, but in the bounds of the tournament arc they're just more obstacles.

On paper a tournament arc should be a fantastic way to elaborate on a character. The number one recipe for cool character moments is putting that bitch in a Situation and seeing how they handle it, and "a bunch of different fights with different enemies with different powers and different rules" sounds like an ideal Situation Gauntlet. But practically speaking they're all the same! Outside a tournament arc, the stakes of a fight can be anything and the victory condition can be anything. The heroes can bypass the fight, talk down the antagonist, plan a heist, turn the bad guys against each other, organize a prison break, hide and be sneaky - they can find allies, negotiate with political leaders, get captured or rescued, protect someone from pursuit, navigate a hostile and unfamiliar environment, outwit a super-persistent predator, join an underground resistance movement, run off for an angsty solo arc - but within the confines of a tournament, no matter how wacky that tournament might be, everything boils down to a fight with a clear-cut victory and defeat condition. The space of characterization carved out by this format is very, very narrow, so I think legitimately the only tournament arc I would uncritically enjoy is a short one.

[kirwell]

I don't have to voice that the new era of warrior books are,,, struggling creatively,,, to put it nicely, cus everyone's who has been here for a minute already knows. But A Starless Clan is already coming to an end,, and I just feel like it was all REALLY short. The final book drops in November before we immediately move onto Changing Skies in January, but I feel like we should still be in the middle of THIS arc. The conflict is so short-lived.

Maybe it's just me, but when comparing TBC to ASC, the former felt it had a much longer, drawn out and more involved story and plot, with all the POV characters going through plenty of experiences that impacted them before the final endgame.

Rootspring dealing with Bramblestar's spirit. Direct involvement. Shadowsight being manipulated by Ashfur. Direct involvement. Bristlefrost and her complicated involvement with the imposter, the Rebels, and ThunderClan. Direct involvement.

That's not been the case for half of our protags in A Starless Clan. Not that Nightheart and Sunbeam don't do anything at all, but compared to Frostpaw, who is literally carrying everything, they might as well be background characters. Damn near the entire plot has been carried on this poor girl's shoulders, and it shows, because Nightheart and Sunbeam are suffering from lack of important character progression and main plot relevance.

Nightheart's most prominent arc was his angst phase and temporarily switching clans for his crush. Even when he and Frostpaw were traveling and met the park cats, he took a major backseat compared to Frostpaw. The book told us that Nightheart and Frostpaw grew closer on their journey together, but it really doesn't feel that way. It would've made more sense for a banished Frostpaw to stay with Thunderclan rather than ShadowClan. We'd get more Night and Frost interaction, and now all our protags are together as well.

And Sunbeam, don't get me wrong, I like her, and I've been much more invested in her emotional journey then Nightheart's, post his ShadowClan arc. Breaking up with her best friend, crush rejection, her overbearing and phobic mother, leaving her birth-clan, being abandoned by Nightheart more than once, and her family (aside from Spireclaw) living in exile. However, Sunbeam has little affect on the overarching plot, compared to Frostpaw. Sunbeam's chapters in Wind basically consisted of her worrying about her mother and crossing the border to check up on her family. As for Nightheart, all that he was really doin' was trainin' Waffle (our precious waffle boi) and being his girl's yes-man for the majority of the book. It also seems like Sunbeam's and Nightheart's romantic arc is just finished now i guess. We'll probably see their kits in Changing Skies, and Sun and Night will be put on the backburner of obscurity.

I just wish Nightheart and Sunbeam took a more pressing role in the plot and were more emotionally invested in the main conflict. Their personal stakes aren't nearly as high as Frostpaw's, who is truly burdened by the weight of so many responsibilities, on top of having damn near no one that supports her. A Starless Clan is truly Frostpaw's series- and ya can't tell me otherwise.

Nightheart quite literally has nothing to lose if Splashtail takes over RiverClan completely. He has Sunbeam, and that's all he wants.

Sunbeam has an emotional investment now with BerryHeart being Splashtail's cohort, (and now deputy), but her focus is less set on RiverClan's wellbeing, and more so directly on her family's. If Berryheart wasn't involved with Splashtail, I feel Sunbeam wouldn't have gotten herself up in RiverClan's business after the ShadowClan warriors left.

Frostpaw is carrying an absurd level of trauma and personal involvement with what's going on, as she's entangled in everything that's important within the plot from every single angle.

ASC just feels really, really short and underwhelming, in terms of it's supporting cast and main villain. Part of me kinda likes that Splashtail is a sleezy snake, but he's still just sooo,,, boring, especially when putting him up against other villains like Ashfur and Darktail. Curlfeather didn't even get a chance, and she's by FAR, a much more interesting choice for an antagonist.

Off the top of my head, a better plot could've been Curlfeather successfully pretending to be Curlstar, and Splashtail being discontent with only being deputy, and stirring up chaos and plotting to overthrow Curlstar. The endgame could've been Splashtail trying to kill Frostpaw (again), but Curlstar refusing to let her daughter be murdered, and in the end, sacrifices herself to take down Splashtail for good. And then, like what a lot of us are expecting will happen at the end of ASC, Frostpaw becomes Froststar (i love frost so much this better happen dont let the flame die out!!)

The theme of this season has 100% been family issues/trauma, as every protag has stuff goin' on with their moms, but we get Splashtail as a main villain, with no prominent ties to anyone except Curlfeather (tho we don't rlly see much of it)

but anywayy,,, enough rambling and GIVE IT UP FOR ARC 9 EVERYBODYYYY!! ARC 9 COMING SOON LETS GOO !! WE'RE GONNA BE READING CAT BOOKS TILL WE'RE 90 :)

[troutfur]

Are you reading the Feline Wizards books? I’m thinking of getting the bundle but I’m not certain. Would you be open to sharing your thoughts on them?

Yes! I'm part of a book club with a few friends from WC Tumblr and they came up as a recommendation. Currently we are finishing To Visit the Queen and we were discussing diving right into The Big Meow instead of taking a pause as we usually do. (As an aside we don't only read cat books, our first book was in fact This is How You Lose the Time War but you can probably see how the kitty wizard books came up as something we'd all want to read.)

Feline Wizards is fantastic. I was afraid that it wouldn't be an accessible read standalone as it's a spinoff of Diane Duane's long-running Young Wizard series but The Book of Night With Moon perfectly sets up the world all its own in a very impressive and compact way. My biggest compliment is just how tightly paced the whole work is. Absolutely no word is wasted by the end.

I also found it very interesting how, despite being a book with a child as part of the protagonist ensamble and that it is clearly aimed at that sort of demographic at least to an extent, the adult characters are the focus. The kid more often than not seems more of a supporting role or even plot device. That's an unusual dynamic I appreciate and found very compelling.

I also enjoy how the worldbuilding of the wizards and the fact wizards of all species exist makes the world feel so vast. To Visit the Queen makes particular good of use with the introduction of the ravens of the Tower of London who although not full wizards still have some magic capabilities. It's neat and contributes to this overarching theme about how all life forms are valuable and special in their own way.

Also I'll say that if Warriors and its anti-domesticity messaging feels tiring you will definitely appreciate this one. Our primary PoV character is a pet cat and she loves her humans so much. Many a chapter have gotten me soft and wanting to hug my own kitties.

I will append though. This series can get rather silly. Not enough to undercut the seriousness of the plot but the animal wizards and time travel and dinosaurs and all the rest are there. Definitely be prepared for a story that really utilizes both the urban AND the fantasy of urban fantasy.

[true-blue-sonic]

honestly the forces plot would’ve been fixed in my eyes if silver and espio had actually gotten any direct interactions. the story would still be utter nonsense but i’d’ve overlooked all of it as long as my boys found some amount of happiness in each other

I mean, we do have Espio hanging over a table to tell Silver he's right about miracles and what-not! That's pretty romantic, isn't it? /j XD

Amy is judging in the background, oops XD XD

In general, I think Forces would have done well if we'd seen the Resistance as a whole do more, or at least its core members. I feel quite uncertain about the idea that seven people with a collection of extremely powerful superpowers and weaponry plus a ton of manpower can only protect .1% of the world over six months, and then the two Sonics roll around and in three days Eggman has lost everything. It feels like it's doing the other characters in the cast a disservice, almost. We don't know how the war went, so we really cannot say if they immediately got overrun by Eggman or if they gradually lost terrain over six months' time. But still... Of course Sonic is powerful (as the main player character who always wins, he of course is always going to be more powerful in the end than whatever threat he faces), but the Resistance really could do nothing to win back a bit of terrain and protect it until the Sonics plus the Avatar ran through it once and destroyed some robots? (Hmm, one reason I'm willing to accept on this topic is that Sonic is supposed to be so inspiring to the populace, he gave them the strength to persevere where they could not before. After all, if the most powerful being on the planet is killed by Eggman, what chance do some commoners have to persevere against him? And if that being then comes back to life (sort of XD), it could be the push they needed. I like that idea, actually!)

The above kind of also ties in with the reason why I think six months is simply too long for such a story. There's so much that happened, both to the planet physically and (you would presume) everyone mentally: it's strange to me that afterwards things are immediately back to normal again and in the next game everyone is totes racing around with the guy who actively was destroying and terrorising their home for six months. Nobody, except for arguably Tails, seems particularly affected by that long time-span and the fact they thought Sonic was literally dead, and I feel like more could have been done on that topic. The story is dark and grandiose and epic without being willing to commit to the consequences the events should have, I would say. Except that immediately brings issues: diving into that comes at the risk of things getting melodramatic and overly edgy, which iirc is already a complaint against Forces to begin with, and the Sonic franchise also just plain isn't going to overtly deeply dive into such things, I feel like. The characters are meant to be ideals to marvel at and to be inspiring; obviously they're going to focus on making things right instead of angsting about Eggman's six-month regime in excruciating detail. Such things are hit or miss, and I think it suits the franchise to not even attempt to swing and see. (and during the times it does try, such as with the translation of Forces into English, people immediately point out how things like "Tails losing it" and "Sonic has been tortured for six months" feel very unfitting and don't even match what we see in the game after. But then again, the games have managed to handle dark topics like weapons of mass destruction in a proper way, I would say.) But I'd have to replay Forces and gather my thoughts on this topic more to describe my gripes with the story in much deeper detail, haha. I find it a very inspiring game and I always enjoy playing it because Sonic is so kind to the Avatar, but I do wish they'd tackled certain things differently.

Regardless, your ask did give me an idea about a story I could write between Silver and Espio, so I'll upload that to Tumblr in a sec! ^-^

[mobumi]

I was kinda frustrated and intrigued at the same time after watching ep 6. I mean, we did get some types of development with Arajin, but the pacing and the writing is a little bit irregular for me. That being said, it's just a fun little anime about delinquents so there's no use having high expectations, and in terms of entertainment the contract has been fulfilled.

I'm not going to dive into what I liked and didn't like 'cause I'm waiting to see more to form a better opinion on the show.

But here are some of my predictions or what to expect for the second part of the anime:

Senya/Ichiya: they probably have a history as rivals or something, at least it's insinuated from the beginning. They are most likely a parallel to Arajin/Matakara and as many said before I think Ichiya is going to merge with Matakara and he and Arajin will eventually fight. For what reason? I have no clue, maybe Mata's brother Mitsukuni is going to have an important role in the upcoming events.

Mitsukuni/his relationship with Matakara: something is definitely going to happen after Mitsukuni goes out of juvie. We know he was the former leader of the Minato Kai gang, so what will his role be next? Perhaps he'll be the trigger that will make Matakara merge with Ichiya. At least, I think Mata will turn to his brother instead of Arajin and his brother's presence will change something in his relationship with Arajin. Idk I feel like something will happen because of him

Mahoro's development: I thought Mahoro was not going to be important and we'd rarely see her. But she's not just a love interest, she showed us that besides being a brocon and manipulating others, she has unshakeable character, she's strong. Didn't like her at first, but now I think she's interesting. I'm curious what her character can do to help move the plot even further. She has the potential to actually be the hero of her own story and evolve. I think she'll help Arajin for something big in the future

Arajin, his goal and the gangs: we saw how Arajin didn't want to have anything to do with the gangs and their fights. He is still uninterested to join a gang and jumps from one gang to another just so he can get Mahoro's attention. He's also scared to be seen as weak again. The fact that he couldn't save Matakara has haunted him til now. He has avoided his trauma and fixed his mind on a new goal. Arajin may have wanted to be a Honkibito with Matakara but his childhood dream is buried deep down in his heart and his only wish is to be a normal teenager, have a girlfriend, lose his virginity, what he thinks society expects of a teenage boy. And they are in a men's world so there's this demonstration of masculinity conveyed with all the fights and disputes between gangs, but in the end, Arajin rejects that. He wants to enter a women's world through Mahoro because the men's world disappointed him in the past. There's something interesting about genders here i think but it's just speculations at the moment, we'll see how the story progresses

So yeah I think the last part of the anime will focus on Arajin doing a little introspection because for once he is seen as strong, he got up to defend someone and he is not left with shame, but with the cheers of everyone. By defeating Akutaro, maybe he finally defeated his fear, so I guess a new arc is starting for our mc and he is going to reevaluate his goal and his relationships with others. Will he fix his relationship with Matakara though? That's unsure if we consider them fighting at the end.

But anyway, these are my predictions for next episodes or more exactly my speculations. I may have been disappointed with some of the writing choices, but I still expect to be surprised by the end. I think they really tried to change our vision of the shonen genre with the comedy and tropes so I'm still really curious! It's not the best anime of the season, not by far, but it did subvert all my expectations so yeah I'm intrigued!

[egg-emperor]

I watched the Shadow x Sonic Generations Trailer and I hope we get more Robotnik Family, Gerald and Maria or maybe a Parent to Eggman.

I'd say its highly unlikely that we'd get anything like seeing more Robotnik family members that we haven't seen before because stuff like that would be pretty huge lore bombs to drop and I feel they'd do it in an original game with a whole new plot to really delve into it, rather than part of an expansion to a remaster, as cool as it looks right now.

Though with the new story focus on Shadow going through time and the mention of his memories in the descriptions, we could at least get Gerald and Maria cameos! If they can bring back Black fucking Doom of all characters, I'd say it's not off the table lol. Don't wanna get my hopes up but I'd really love to see them again even just a tiny bit.

And if they acknowledged the GUN Commander and included him too omg I'd go insane... I need to not get my hopes up for that especially though since they wouldn't even include my boy in the Sonic Channel stuff XD There's so many possibilities and so many things that I'd be overjoyed to see but I'm trying to curb my expectations.

But regardless of what we get I know I'm gonna love it and lose my mind anyway at every SA2 and Shadow 2005 related thing game and story wise because they're both two of my absolute favorite games!! But what would make it even better would be if we get a little bit of Eggman and/or Gerald and/or the Commander tooo 🥰

With the small amount we know it's one of the most specifically appealing to me pieces of Sonic media already, I can't wait! Above everything I just hope there's a good amount of new stuff but we're not sure how big it is and know barely anything so I'm trying not to go too crazy with speculation and hopes but ahahgbsbhfkbfksg

[roboraindrop]

🤪 ❤️☕️💌

Thank you!! I'll answer these for my s/I for Fenn, since he's been on my mind 🥰

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate

- My annoyance with Eddie would get blown up pretty big, I think. After all, he's kind of a dick... I'm annoyed by him for sure, but I think people would interpret it as me outright hating him, which isn't the case!

❤️: How popular is you x your f/o? Are you a rarepair?

- Considering the fact that we're dating in canon, I don't think we'd really be a rarepair. Actually, since it's a one-off episode out of a big series, we might be considered a rare ship... Hm. I'm not sure how I'd classify this one, actually!

☕️: What are the most common plots of shipping fics between you and your f/o?

- Oh, angst for fuckin sure. Ones where I jump in front of the bullet that gets him, ones where I deal with the aftermath of losing him, even ones where he lives and we mourn Eddie together.

💌: How would your dynamic be portrayed? What might people focus on most? Any misconceptions?

- People would definitely portrayme as in the way of Eddie and Fenn tbh. I feel like they would end up being a popular ship. But in the fics that did focus on us, it would be a lot of exploring Fenn's past, and how I helped him get out of his life of crime. I think a lot of people would probably think I'd hate Eddie for shooting Fenn, even though again- that's not the case. He didn't intend on shooting him, and you could see that he regretted it immediately. He might've mourned, too, if he hadn't been shot immediately after.

[kimaratomoya]

You said yesterday that you were interested in a fanfic idea I had? Well here it is.

It's about a pair of fangirls going into freddy fazbear's pizzeria and deciding to stay the night there for shits n giggles. But it's a deconstruction of several things, such as wanting to get isekai'ed into the media of your choice, the fact that I kept wanting this despite the fact that teenage me would have made a terribly dysfunctional protagonist, the way how fandom seems to fill out every gap that canon lacks, but causes the place to be confusing as if reality overlaps, as somewhat of a side effect.

It was because when I was 13 and talking with my friends online, we used to get a kick out of pretending Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria was a real place, we'd be looking up vandalised google maps places and joking about going there. The fanfiction is similar, but it's also a deconstruction of the idea because FNAF in real life would be Very Dangerous regardless of if you're 20 or 12, or a fangirl or not. And it's also about how the real world would react to the haunted animatronics, I think there might just be two entries in the series but I'll focus on the first one for now.

It takes place in around 2016 or so when FNAF had less content, and had much more of an 'urban legend' aesthetic to it than it does now. If I am ever to write this fanfiction however, I think I'll need to change that. However this goes in contrast with the 'urban legend' aesthetic I had in mind, so I'll either find a workaround or I'll just not make it about FNAF in general. The main point is to deconstruct this adventurous tangent I had in mind and demonstrate how actually fucked someone in the situation would be in, regardless of how much they know about the lore.

The names of the two girls are Áine (awn-yah) and Jene. One of them values enjoyment over personal safety, and the other is an insecure liar. Áine's the one who suggests exploring the places where the children were killed staying the night when Jene wants to look around and then leave, and Jene, while having a higher sense of self preservation, compulsively lies to Áine and other characters to try and keep them safe. The conflict is about them keeping safe from the animatronics of course, but also to work together even though they eventually end up fighting a lot and Áine starts to slowly transform into her self insert OC and lose her memories. Jene's quick lying ability comes in handy as she is able to write Áine's self insert's backstory even closer to Áine's actual memories, and preserve them quicker.

There's also a plot about how the fuck the pizzeria even came into being in the first place, because most stories where fans are transported into the medium of what they're fans of don't tend to dive into this.

In the beginning, Áine says she wants to invite whoever is the night guard over to her house so they're safe from animatronics, and Jene suggests spending more time with them to determine whether or not they're Purple Guy first. This is foreshadowing towards the end where they crash, fictional characters and all, at Áine's house and Áine's mom is like WTF. It also sets up the sequel since Áine has irreversibly been touched by whatever forces have been at play in the pizzeria, she needs to stay close to it or she might vanish from existence entirely. Áine's mom can't have her daughter staying so close to something so dangerous, so she becomes the manager and strives to make the place safer. She does things such as putting the animatronics in giant hamster wheels the whole night so even though they can free roam, there's no way for them to harm people, and installing an emergency escape door for the night guard and also doors that don't use electricity.

That's some of what I have for now. Also since FNAF has so many continuities, part of the early plot is Áine and Jene trying to figure out which one they're in. The books? The movie? The games? Some fan artist's AU? Someone's fan fiction? They learn kind of later in that it's Áine's own AU which she never fully developed and based it off a bunch of other works.

Should I continue?

Bestie

Write this please, I'd 100% read it. Sounds like something that genuinely could be in the books (with some of the weird shit that happens in them *cough cough* the fucking mpreg one *cough cough*).

Genuinely, go for writing it. I kinda am torn about hearing more, because I don't want you to spoil it tbh.

[uboat53]

I had a revelation today about why I'm suddenly disconnected from the Marvel movies and shows that are coming out.

You see, I've been reading lot about how they've just become CGI spectacles and how it's terrible for movies, but that never bothered me. So why haven't I felt as much interest in the latest series of Marvel content, otherwise referred to as Phase 4?

I came to realize it's because they spent 22 movies building up a consistent narrative which was interesting and interconnected… and then they abandoned it.

Let me explain.

For reference, I'm an older Millennial. I grew up on Marvel stuff, X-men and Spider Man, and I was just finishing college when Iron Man (2008) came out, so I'm pretty much the prime audience for this.

Now, everything in Phases 1 through 3 of the MCU built toward Endgame, I think we can all agree that that's the case. Every solo movie, every Avengers movie, everything built one or more pieces toward what happened when Thanos snapped and then the Avengers snapped back.

Not only mechanical stuff, but there was also a build-up of trauma and experience. We saw the progression of Tony Stark's PTSD and his determination to do ANYTHING to stop what he thought was coming. We saw Steve Rogers slowly lose faith in the institutions he had once believed in. It wasn't even all trauma, though, we got to see Natasha Romanov learn to trust and James Barnes start to rebuild himself after being brainwashed.

And the snap, once it happened, was devastating. Half the population of the universe disappeared, including many of the heroes we'd been following in the various movies. Beyond the personal trauma of loss, jobs were left with no one skilled enough to do them, houses were left empty, and property was abandoned. It was clear that there was not a single person or place in the universe that wasn't dramatically affected.

Then, five years later, after everything had sort of adjusted, the Avengers snapped everyone back.

What happened then? What happened when the population suddenly doubled? When people thought lost forever, who had been grieved, came back? When people returned to find their friends and relatives had changed over the 5 years? What happened to the homes that had been left abandoned or had been taken over by other people? How did the universe suddenly feed twice as many people as had existed the day before?

Don't get me wrong, some Marvel cinema touched on some of this. We see people suddenly reappearing out of nowhere in Wandavision and the entire premise of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier revolves around a group that's angry at having what they feel is theirs taken away from them by people who have returned, but it's not the focus. Instead, we see everything jumping straight into the multiverse saga without much of a pause taken to explore the immense consequences of what the Avengers did in Endgame.

So yeah, it feels like they dropped the plot. Everything built up to Endgame and Endgame delivered a massive gut punch of a plot point, the kind that could reverberate through dozens of films, and then… nothing.

I should note that I'm not completely disconnected from the MCU, I'm still excited about Loki Season 2 and I've seen Wakanda Forever, but I'm not looking forward to the new movies or TV shows the way I did in the decade leading up to Endgame. It just doesn't feel like it's part of the same story arc anymore.

Maybe I'll get there. Maybe I'll find the new arc just as interesting as the old one, but I've figured out why I'm not there yet.

[bogusavathepit]

On Renesmee & BD; Confessions

REMINDER: I'm talking canon, not what people wish canon was.

RENESMEE

These thoughts have been long underdeveloped bc the fandom is very anti-Renesmee and it's not fun to try to talk to people about her, BUT:

I have never, do not currently, & will never dislike Renesmee as a character, as a device, nor even her name [bc below]

Renesmee is just a baby/kid hybrid, she was never going to more actively do much...so yeah, we don't get into her as much a swe do Bella...she's not the protagonist but BD kinda clues us in that she evntually will be in a later book or in its mere suggestiveness form the plot we get

I believe that even though it's very true that marriage and motherhood are the lynchpins to how Bella goes into her coming-of-age/vampire entrance to the disapointment of many fans (bc of issues w/conservative constraint of the value of womanhood to motherhood/marriage), Renesmee does have a narrative purpose outside of following the lines and steps towards Main Girl's forever. BD clearly was and is the opener to the rest of the vampire world Bella has both just entered and has passively "expanded" when she decided to become a part of the Cullens and fell in love w/Edward. Not only are we introduced to new and fascinating vampires through these two basically setting up event after escalating event to be together, these two literally make hybrids break out of their hidey-holes by esclating into creating what they first thought was a creature first of its kind that is simultaneously literally and metaphorically the "product" of their love/union. Their love literally cracks the "world" wide open. We see in BD's end that the Volturi are far from done w/the Cullens bc their perception of their control of vampires and vampire bodies becomes shaky upon hybrids' "discovery"; what does Aro say when things are settled at the end? That he will track down Joham and maybe spare Nahuel's sisters. Not just that, we hear from Edward that Nahuel maybe will begin to think of himself as less than a monster (Edward 2.0 👀? Will Renesmee be the "new" "Bella"?) Reading all this at the time, it felt like a massive cliffhamnger, and it seems Meyer eventually agreed.

Renesmee, like Bella, is a character who was meant to "crack" open the world. Like Hope of The Originals (who was clearly inspired by Renesmee). Renesmee, I think, represents and will "usher in" a new "phase" of the series exploring the consequences of "old rules" & "old boundaries" broken just as Bella (unintentionally) did [below].

Without Renesmee, the Volturi would not have chosen to to see the Cullens w/the express purpose of eliminating them all. Thus bringing with them those witnesses who were supposed to spread the usual news of the Volturi disposing "justice", but witnessed instead the Volturi having had wrong testimony, be proven over & over, damnedly wrong again when Nahel appears just in time, and possibly begin to doubt the Volturi's ability/interest to have the most unbiased judgements, its neutral-good "purpose", and thus its authority. We simply would not have had the next escalation or cataclysm and turning point of this magnitude w/o Renesmee. Something that publicly changes vampire politics, self-perception, and relationship to humans as much as a "new" creature does. Bella not having Renesmee would be just her finally being placed into the mold the Volturi forced her into (another vampire who happens to have an extradoridinary gift and has joined vamp world with beginning alpomb BUT was finally "settled") AND her staying human would have negated the story's very focus/"point".

BREAKING DAWN AND THE ENTIRE SERIES

Bella maybe killing someone accidentally, losing her parents forever, somehow not even becoming avampire and staying human prevents all of that EXPANSION. Because then we'd be constrained to just her (and maybe that's exactly what some people wanted bc of New Moon, but for others Bella getting what she wanted and becoming a vampire plus the things others may have wanted w/o even actually setting her sights on those things [kids] seems to be prelude to this "opening"). I myself still think that we could have more of Bella actually struggling more before she gets her self control but not too much for the themes. Which means no killing humans...perhaps instead a self-lockdown. Would also mean finally seeing why Edward and the rest have such a hard time w/vampirism, but again, not too much. just enough to realize that struggle into questioning herself similar to liek they did, but putting in mental labor to acheive her control. Call me a fence-sitter, I guess.

It was evident from the get go when the premise was there was an "impossible" love b/t a vampire and a human -> other "impossible" things were going to happen to disprove previously concieved notions of self and one's environment:

Bella confronted w/the fact that Renesmee being mostly her face makes her "better" in appearance and not "worse" lie she thought before the birth...admittedly, doesn't go any deeper bc no time like the newborn time and Bella's own frustrating self effacement...but it's there and its noteworthy bc it's one of the most clear moments where Bella is forced to perceive herself much more positively (a seemingly tiny example but a parallel/supporting device)

Jasper's belief in newborn self control and his entire persepctive of himself when Bella becomes a newborn and he witnesses her take to it much better // his falling for Alice and her devotion to him in all his "flavors"

Edward's being confronted with what "monstrosity" could mean (maybe tritely through love but that has always been the story)

Carlisle discovering he can eat anmals instead of humans and finally having hope after trying to kill himself multiple times; later seeing Esme's large capacity to love and realizing he's "loveable" as Edward seems to thru Bella

Rosalie though never fully being able to be happy, has Emmett and then Renesmee to apparently fill the gaps (eh) and thinking her selfishness "redeemed" by loving and being loved by him

In all, this series was not really over back then. It's likely never going to move from this "simple" storyline and map of "redemption" to something like some headcanons or some other wishes for Bella to make different decisions in New Moon or afterwards. Because yes, Meyer is Mormon...as C.S. Lewis was Catholic/Christian, his series literally made up and following several New Testament principles, the concept of Heaven, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection through Aslan, materiality vs spiritually in the last book, etc. Some stuff were just taken straight out of the Bible or Catholic canon and given new names or traits, etc. (I won't lie and say I ever expected pregnancy nor that I wasn't shocked...but bc it was a human-vamp child I was also excited about the possibilities when i first read it.)

Meyer wanted to express a love (whatever you wish to call it, it was written to be that) that was transformative, converting, nearly alchemical that was nevertheless enduring and "immortal" as the mormons' faith about dying and becoming "gods"; and it appears her own questions about Mormonism and the "natural man" (look it up, its a Mormon principle)'s implications of humanity/her own nature. Doesn't think about it very critically, but the ride and glimpses and sggestions of that perhaps gone-period(s)-of-reflection is still pretty intriguing to me, at least.

There's a way to acknowledge & study how Mormonisim has made Twilight's sexism without surrendering textual analysis OR invalidating and trying to deny the actual canon's emotional appeals, as flawed as the logic often is...and enjoy it. These are fictional characters...they only exist here.

Not saying that Mormonism is this harmless "religion"--I'm saying it was never going to be a backseat or a "light" influence in all its problems.