#what then. pick up the unfinished scenes? what a wild concept

[ace-malarky]

The fact that I've already finished three of the five prompt pieces that I normally take two months to do is uhhh

Well. Interesting? Fun? Work's been riveting, I assure you

But like yeah actually kinda digging how nice it's been this month

Almost suspiciously nice but uhhh we're not gonna poke that

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

I know I usually do Ewanverse or HotD, but I fell in love with this story. Thank you @bhxrdy for indulging me and answering my questions. 💜 As always, Interview With a Writer is my ongoing series of the talented souls on Tumblr and ao3, and their brilliant writing!

Dividers by @saradika

Name: bhxrdy

Story: timeless

Paring: modern Finan x original female character

Warnings: Explicit/18+, be mindful of chapter warnings!

So, when did you start writing?

I started really writing, like 10 years ago now - right into 2013. I had discovered and gotten very into (I'm shy to say) k-pop, and at the time, social media was new to me. I had joined a couple of forums here and there, but really got into the thick of it once I joined Twitter and Tumblr. It was also then - for the 1st time - that I found out about fanfiction, which was an unfamiliar concept to me.

Its a bit blurry, but I remember I started reading a few stories here and there about my fave group at the time and - I don't remember the specifics but - I had eventually started coming up with wild scenarios, small ideas here and there, that I wanted to put down on paper.

Writing in general was relatively new to me (a few years before, when I was in high school, I was writing "poems" and other notes in a massive emo-like notebook - all because of a boy of course), so the idea of creating something substantial, like the fics I had read so far, was a bit terrifying but also kind of exciting because I stumbled on something brand new to me and was dying to be part of it along with some new online friends I had made (which I unfortunately lost touch with over the years).

Within the span of 2013-2015, I wrote 28 stories (on a 3rd party site) - a mix of one shots and multi-chaptered fics, which includes 2 unfinished stories - which were left to die by 2017-2018. I had finished school and started working, which totally changed my routine. The lack of interactions in the fandom didn't help either as by then, it was pretty much dying from the band's moving on and eventually disbanding. The stories are still there, my account is still there, as I don't have the heart to take it down. I've spent so much time on them, and loved every genre I wrote. I either went fluffly fluff or super angst and dark, all of them fun to write.

After that I moved away from the fandom as well and just the k-pop scene in general. I took a hiatus from writing altogether too - the will of it had died so I mostly focused on editing. And then, I started back again in 2020, wrote a couple of stuff on Tumblr (for the 1st time) until I stopped again a few months later. The inspiration stopped and I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. So I moved away.

And then this year, TLK happened and I just had the inspiration back on the tip of my fingers, just swirling in my brain and was dying to write it down, so I gave it another shot and wrote my first Finan fanfic. It was very rusty getting back into it after so long but I'm glad I did because I got to meet amazing people which I'm grateful for.

I have a tendency of daydreaming a lot, I can easily get lost it my own head. Finding out I could actually just write them down, liberating everything I held up and see them face to face vs. just thinking about them, became a whole new ball game.

Where did the plot for timeless come from?

It hit me out of nowhere and happened when I was re-watching The Originals (TVD spin off). I'm not sure how, but it physically/literally stopped me in my tracks (mind you I wasn't doing anything special, just going to the kitchen to get a snack) as if I was hit on the head with it, like, "Yes! omg! shit! this is it!!"

I immediately picked up my phone and started typing random thoughts and notes down for the story. It was very rough, just generalized ideas of what could happen. Some of those ideas did change trajectory from where they started, but I'm hoping they were good changes and worth the story telling 😊

Watching The Originals helped with the inspiration. I knew Finan was always meant to be cursed, I just had to figure out the best way to present it. I also drew inspiration from other witch shows like Charmed, A Discovery of Witches, and BTVS. I love anything related to the supernatural and witchcraft, so it was fun coming up with the initial layout of the story.

At the beginning, I debated if it should be a one-shot or multi-chapter based on how much I had come up with. I was 99% sure I would stick with the one-shot, but eventually the 1% took over and I just went from there...the lines took a life of their own.

Explain your interpretation of Finan. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in timeless?

I was mostly trying to stay true to how his character was built on the show and transport that in writing within the concept of the story (I'm sure I've strayed, but hopefully that's alright).

When we first meet Finan, he's infiltrated modern day life as if he was part of that world, always. Then he meets a woman on a random night and everything changes for him.

Thinking of it this way, the man has been by himself for a thousand years - the life he knew, his family, his friends - everything from his past has disappeared and he is all alone, and so he was just at this point in his existence where he was done with everything, partly discouraged from being immortal, partly begrudgingly accepting of his fate as a man who will never die.

But then he meets Rebecca, a woman who has no inkling whatsoever of who Finan is, i.e. their meet up was random passing of time in the(ir) universe. Once they meet, his life alters. She was the light at the end of a tunnel, she was a beacon of hope. Meeting her, befriending her - he found purpose again. He was ready to fight again, to live like a normal man again.

Throughout the story, I tried to focus on this aspect specifically - on the basis that he is hopeful to become a free man again. And though, there is conflict within himself, to the point he was ready to give up again, I'd like to think that Rebecca was simply someone he needed in his life. Not because of what she could do for him, but because of who she was, as a character, as a person to him. She put her life on hold for him and in return, the universe gave them something that everyone wants - to love and be loved and not be so alone in the world.

Finan, having been alone for a century, found his drive through Rebecca - through her presence, always standing by his side and fighting for him. Them falling in love was an added bonus.

Do you feel Rebecca/Bex complement Finan in this?

I would like to think that she does, because she gave him a new spark into his life, allowing him to feel truly alive again - which was something he had been deprived off since his original lifetime (i.e. since the TLK era).

With Bex's stubbornness driving him insane at times, I think it also helped him on the hope aspect - she was willing to go to the ends of the earth for him, for someone she had just met all because she wanted to make things right, to help him (a stranger, when they met) find peace. She wasn't reluctant about it nor did he even ask for help (he was the apprehensive/suspicious one). And I believe, at the end of the day, it all came down to how they felt about each other from the night they met. They unintentionally nurtured a connection they created until it became so immense, they ended up wearing it naturally, like a second skin.

Not only was she his anchor to the world of the living, Bex had become the part of him that died a long time ago. This makes me believe - in a some kind of weird way - that she was his soulmate. That, despite the heaviness of the curse, Finan was meant to cross path with her, that the(ir) universe gave him a break in the form of a kind-hearted and stubborn as a mule witch. A woman who would end up gifting him a second chance, and the opportunity to experience the good aspect of life again (as well as love).

Where did the dreams and the curse lore come from?

The dreams part of the story was inspired by The Originals, as there is the concept of the “other side” where non-resting souls are (the cemetery/graveyard scene description was inspired by the one they have on the show) - so I leveraged it and made it so Bex was forced into contact with another witch while sleeping instead of through a spell (as she had no reason to contact the dead while awake).

For the curse, I knew what I wanted out of it as it was already part of the original draft when I first came up with this story idea. I knew where it was taking me and how I would want it built - the reasoning behind it though was a bit if the tough part which I had also integrated into the storyline with Bex losing her shit over it.

Any chance of a sequel? Or do have anything else you are working on next?

So, unfortunately no sequel. But it does not mean I haven't thought of an epilogue - or kind of. Just random scenes with Bex of what life is after the ending that randomly play out in my head. I don't think I'll want to write them mostly because I want to keep the ending as is.

I'm working through a few other stories at the moment. The priority ones are for Osferth (a one-chaptered drabble for your 1k celebration, and a multi-chaptered fic which will also tap into the supernatural concept), which I am hoping to get started - officially - very soon!

I have some others dangling as well, which should eventually come soon as well - this includes Finan, Sihtric and Aemond.

Do you have a personal favorite story you'd like to share?

There are so many to choose from! We Were Something, Don't You Think? by Maggie (@inthedayswhenlandswerefew), as well as Comet Donati and Have You No Idea That You’re In Deep?

Some other favorites include Wolf-Heart by @gemini-mama, Crimes of Passion by @itbmojojoejo, Sanctuary by @st-eve-barnes, and Winterwood by @lonnson

There is also a myriad of Finan x Aisling (OFC) fics by @persephones-journey which are heart-wrenching and good.

And Fire in Her Eyes by @emilyhufflepufftlk is another amazing one for Finan fans.

[notbecauseofvictories]

Hi Sarah! My friend and I are starting a bookclub (as much as you can with two people who aren't pressed for deadlines) and I was wondering if you have any recommendations? (That is if you have time to rec anything!) We're starting off with Deathless and have Fitzgerald next in line somewhere but I def want to try to expand the genres we read and tbh from years of following you, I trust your judgement

I don’t...like giving recommendations? At least not directly, it seems like too much opportunity for getting it wrong. Everybody has their own tastes, after all, and even the best of friends don’t necessarily vibe with what you vibe with. (I’ve experienced this with multiple friends, so I know what I’m talking about.) Truly, one of the reasons that my whole “I’m going to get back into reading for pleasure!” push has been so successful is that I only bother with books that interest me, and stop reading when they fail to catch my attention.

But I’ve now read at least 60 books in 2020, which is approximately 60 more than I’ve read in the years prior, so I’m happy to share that. Below is my list of recent reads, beginning to end, along with a very short review---I keep this list in the notes app on my phone, so they have to be. Where I’ve talked about a book in a post, I’ve tried to link to it. 

Peruse, and if something catches your interest I hope you enjoy!

2020 Reading List

Crazy Rich Asians series, Kevin Kwan (here)

Blackwater, Michael McDowell (here; pulpy horror and southern gothic in one novel; come for the monster but stay for the family drama.)

Fire and Hemlock, Diane Wynne Jones (here; weird and thoughtful, in ways I’m still thinking about)

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (here; loved it! I can see why people glommed onto it)

Swamplandia!, Karen Russell (unfinished, I could not get past the first paragraph; just....no.)

Rules of Scoundrels series, Sarah MacLean (an enjoyable romp through classic romancelandia, though if you read through 4 back to back you realize that MacLean really only writes 1 type of relationship and 1 type of sexual encounter, though I do appreciate insisting that the hero go down first.)

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (here)

Dread Nation, Justine Ireland (great, put it with Stealing Thunder in terms of fun YA fantasy that makes everything less white and Eurocentric)

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson (VERY good. haunting good.)

Tell My Horse, Zora Neale Hurston (I read an interesting critique of Hurston that said she stripped a lot of the radicalism out of black stories - these might be an example, or counterexample. I haven't decided yet.)

The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society, T. Kingfisher (fun!)

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell (some of these short stories are wonderful; however, Swamplandia's inspiration is still unreadable, which is wild.)

17776, Jon Bois (made me cry. deeply human. A triumph of internet storytelling)

The Girl with All the Gifts, M. R. Carey (deeply enjoyable. the ending is a bittersweet kick in the teeth, and I really enjoyed the adults' relationships)

The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories, Robin McKinley (enjoyable, but never really resolved into anything.)

The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley (fun, but feels very early fantasy - or maybe I've just read too many of the subsequent knock-offs.)

Mrs. Caliban, Rachel Ingalls (weird little pulp novel.)

All Systems Red, Martha Wells (enjoyable, but I don't get the hype. won't be looking into the series unless opportunity arises.)

A People's History of Chicago, Kevin Coval (made me cry. bought a copy. am still thinking about it.)

The Sol Majestic, Ferrett Steinmetz (charming, a sf novel mostly about fine dining)

House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune (immensely enjoyable read, for all it feels like fic with the serial numbers filed off)

The Au Pair, Emma Rous (not bad, but felt like it wanted to be more than it is)

The Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo (preferred this to Ghost Bride; I enjoy a well-crafted mystery novel and this delivered)

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin (unfinished, I cannot fucking get into Le Guin and should really stop trying)

The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo (enjoyable, but not nearly as fun as Ghost Bride - the romance felt very disjointed, and could have used another round of editing)

Temptation's Darling, Johanna Lindsey (pure, unadulterated id in a romance novel, complete with a girl dressing as a boy to avoid detection)

Social Creature, Tara Isabella Burton (a strange, dark psychological portrait; really made a mark even though I can't quite put my finger on why)

The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (slow at first, but picks up halfway through and builds nicely; a whiff of Gone Girl with the staggered perspectives building together)

Stealing Thunder, Alina Boyden (fun Tortall vibes, but set in Mughal India)

The Traitor Baru Cormorant; The Monster Baru Commorant, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (LOVE this, so much misery, terrible, ecstatic; more here)

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone (epistolary love poetry, vicious and lovely; more here)

The Elementals, Michael McDowell

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (didn't like this one as much as I thought I would; narrator's contemporary voice was so jarring against the stylized world and action sequences read like the novelization for a video game; more here)

Finna, Nino Cipri (a fun little romp through interdimensional Ikea, if on the lighter side)

Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (engrossing, even if I could see every plot twist coming from a mile away)

Desdemona and the Deep, C. S. E. Cooney (enjoyed the weirdness & the fae bits, but very light fare)

A Blink of the Screen, Terry Pratchett (admittedly just read this for the Discworld bits)

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (not as good about politics and colonialism as Baru, but still a powerful book about The Empire, and EXTREMELY cool worldbuilding that manages to be wholly alien and yet never heavily expositional)

Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (see my post)

Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (didn't finish, got to to first explicit sex scene and couldn't get any further)

Prosper's Demon, KJ Parker (didn't work for me...felt like a short story that wanted to be fleshed out into a novel)

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik (extremely fun, even for a reader who doesn't much like Napoleonic stories)

Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone (fun romp - hard to believe that this is the same author as Time War though you can see glimmers of it in the imagery here)

A Scot in the Dark, Sarah MacLean (palette cleanser, she does write a good romance novel even it's basically the same romance novel over and over)

The Resurrectionist, E. B. Hudspeth (borrowed it on a whim one night, kept feeling like there was something I was supposed to /get/ about it, but never did - though I liked the Mutter Museum parallels)

Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang (he's a better ideas guy than a writer, though Hell Is The Absence of God made my skin prickle all over)

Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (fun, very much a throwback to my YA days of fairytale retellings, though obviously less European)

Four Roads Cross, Max Gladstone (it turns out I was a LOT more fond of Tara than I initially realized - plus this book had a good Pratchett-esque pacing and reliance on characterization)

Get in Trouble, Kelly Link (reading this after the Chiang was instructive - Link is such a better storyteller, better at prioritizing the human over the concept)

Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips

Soulless; Changeless; Blameless, all by Gail Carriger (this series is basically a romance novel with some fantasy plot thrown in for fun; extremely charming and funny)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (got about 1/3 of the way through and had to wave the white flag; will try again because I like the plot and the worldbuilding; the tone is just so hard to get through)

Pew, Catherine Lacey (a strange book, I'm still thinking about it; a good Southern book, though)

Nuremberg Diary, GM Gilbert (it took me two months to finish, and was worth it)

River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (I wanted to like this one a lot more than I actually did; would have made a terrific movie but ultimately was not a great novel. Preferred Magic for Liars.)

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (extremely fun, though more trippy than Gods and the plot didn't work as well for me - though it was very original)

The New Voices of Fantasy, Peter S. Beagle (collected anthology, with some favorites I've read before Ursula Vernon's "Jackalope Wives", "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" "The Husband Stitch"; others that were great new finds "Selkie Stories are for Losers" from Sofia Satamar and "A Kiss With Teeth" from Max Gladstone and "The Philosophers" from Adam Ehrlich Sachs)

[myriadimagines]

Run From Me

Lucifer One Shot

Pairing: Reader x Mazikeen

Other Characters: Lucifer Morningstar

Warnings: alcohol consumption

Requester: —

Summary: Mazikeen already knows she doesn’t understand humans, but you confuse her more than than any other human she’s met. She doesn’t understand why you care so much — about the world, other people, and most perplexingly, her. Based on the song bury a friend by Billie Eilish.

Word Count: 1,236

A/N: this is my submission for @locke-writes’ intro to 2020 challenge!! i liked the concept better than the actual piece but :/

please reblog/leave comments, they’re very much appreciated!

Your name: submit What is this?

What do you want from me? Why don’t you run from me?

Mazikeen doesn’t need to tell others that she’s a demon for them to be afraid of her. From the dangerous glint in her eyes, all light disappearing in her dark irises, to her fiendish smile, red lips curled upward to reveal her grinning teeth, Mazikeen seems to be the epitome of terrifying. It’s only natural for people to run from her, an instinctual self preservation that drives everyone to stay as far away from her as possible, and it amuses her. It makes her laugh how a tiny little movement will make any human around her flinch, how pathetically scared they are of her without even knowing her true nature.

And she has no doubts you will be any different. 

She sees you at the bar, elbows leaned up against polished wood as you survey the scene. There’s a quietness about you that almost doesn’t seem to belong in the rowdy club, full of strangers drunkenly dancing, a mass of hot bodies pressed up against each other. Lux has always been a refuge, a go-to for people desperate to forget about the outside world, to drink their problems away and crush them under their heels, dancing until they collapse.

Mazikeen has seen them all. The sloppy drunks, the emotional ones. People who are fresh off a breakup, holding back their tears long enough to try and find a rebound. Others who are looking for a fling, someone to cheat with, anything to fill up the emptiness inside that’ll forever be hungry, gnashing teeth never to be satiated. 

She thinks she has you all figured out, defined and crammed into one of the various boxes that everyone else fit into. A quiet, shy type, probably at their first club, wanting to dip their toes into a wild scenery they’ve only ever watched from afar. It makes Mazikeen chuckle, watching you stay in the corner, not even having a single drink. You’ve picked one hell of a club to visit, one you’re no doubt unprepared for, and Lux is going to swallow you whole. 

You make eye contact with her when you finally turn around, and she made a point of strutting straight towards you, leaning towards you as she shoots you an expectant look, “What do you want?”

You smile at her. “Can I get a water?”

Mazikeen sneers at you, her condescending gaze sweeping over you before she snorts, “Seriously?” 

You don’t even flinch, she realises, don’t shy away and shrink under her gaze that would make anyone else squirm. It takes her by surprise, and she blinks at you and your unrelenting gaze, and she reluctantly reaches for a glass under the bar. She flips on the tap, refusing to break eye contact, a silent competition that neither of you seem ready to give up on. She slides the glass to you across the bar, and you catch it before it tips over the edge. Your smile widens, and you say, “Thanks. I’m y/n, by the way.”

Mazikeen’s nose wrinkles ever so slightly, perplexed at your unexpected boldness. She doesn’t like it, mainly because it feels defiant, as if your existence is an active challenge towards her very being. 

She’s so used to others running from her, she doesn’t quite know what to do when someone, for the first time, seems to be running straight towards her.

She spins on her heel, dismissing you as she finds another customer at the end of the bar. You grin to yourself, taking a sip of water as you can see Mazikeen cast a quick glance to you out of the corner of your eye, and you know both of you are thinking the same thing.

Game on.

What are you wondering? What do you know?

You mean nothing to her. At least, that’s what she tries telling herself, despite the fact that each and every night she finds herself revealing secrets to you she’d never even think of telling anyone else. It terrifies her, each time she lets her guard down, terrifies her that one day, it’ll be too much for you. That you’ll turn around screaming, running away from her darkness that no one else can handle.

You must be from Hell, Mazikeen decides, quite early on after getting to know you. There’s no other explanation, despite Lucifer firmly assuring her he’s never once heard of you before, decidedly ruling out the possibility. 

But there’s something about your smile, your taunting, teasing smile that makes Mazkeen feel like you know more about her than she realises. As if you can see right through her, leaving her a translucent body, her soul open for you to see. 

And she hates it. Hates the vulnerability, hates feeling exposed to the point where it could be used against her. She doesn’t understand how it feels like you know her, know every single detail about her life, and the very feeling alone is enough to unravel her. 

It takes her a while to realise how much time the two of you unintentionally spend together. Perhaps it was all planned from the start on your part, calculated moves that would always put the two of you together. You’re relentless, always showing up in the exact same spot at the bar again and again, refusing to talk to any other bartender except for her. It doesn’t matter how hard she tries to fight against you, she always finds herself drawn towards you by the end of the night, unable to fight the palpable magnetism that buzzes between the two of you.

You soften her, eventually, the two of you bonding over quiet conversations at the end of the bar as Lux begins to wind down, as the club begins to empty and the music begins to dim. Lucifer often finds the two of you still talking long after closing hours, unable to peel yourselves away from one another. Mazikeen hates the smug, pointed grin on Lucifer’s face each time he sees the two of you together, hates his insinuation that the two of you together means anything. 

You mean nothing to her. At least, that’s what she tries telling herself, despite the fact that each and every night she finds herself revealing secrets to you she’d never even think of telling anyone else. It terrifies her, each time she lets her guard down, terrifies her that one day, it’ll be too much for you. That you’ll turn around screaming, running away from her darkness that no one else can handle. 

Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me?

She doesn’t understand how you’ve managed to never once cower away from her, how you’ve continued to stay at her side after seeing the sides of herself that even she’s deemed ugly and terrible. Parts of herself that she felt nauseated to show you, parts she was sure you’d reject her for, but instead only makes you more fond of her. Each passing day seems to draw you closer and closer to her, and she knows she cares for you far more than she’d ever care to admit, just as you care for her.

So she finally asks you, finally confronts you with all the questions that have swarmed her mind ever since first meeting you, an unfinished puzzle full of holes and pieces that are lost into oblivion that only your hand can find.

You don’t reply, looking up at her wide eyes, and Mazikeen realises that perhaps she’s known the truth all along. A truth she pushed aside as an absurdity, and impossibility, because of the eternity she’s spent believing that she’s incabaple of being loved. A truth you don’t need to say out loud.

You love her. 

And Mazikeen has unknowingly fallen in love with you, too.

tag list: @melody-of-scream / @diansaprince / @inspiredbynewt / @belle82devart / @natalia-helena-alianova-romanov / @locke-writes / @ayanemoon / @fangirlsarah16 / @batfam16 / @ariagrillart

[ilovethetalkingclock]

A Not-Sew-Magical Sequel (LALALOOPSY CREEPYPASTA)

(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS CONTENT LIKE LANGUAGE, GORE, DEATH, PARASITES, DROWNING AND DARK COMEDY. IF YOU GET SCARED BY THIS, DON'T YELL AT ME FOR IT. YOU CHOSE TO READ IT.) 

(story under the cut, based on a dream I had)

(don’t worry, it’s not a screamer, i’d never do that.)

No matter how many years passed and will pass, I liked and will still like Lalaloopsy. All the characters and concepts were and still are very interesting (though Jewel was always my least favorite) and the couple episodes I saw of both the original show and the reboot of Netflix were cute and in the case of the reboot actually very emotional. I also watched all the movies and while a majority of them were slightly flawed one way or another, that didn’t stop them from being good. Hearing the toys being discontinued and the Netflix show canceled indeed made my heart sink.

But that’s not all what I wanted to talk about. Onto Lala-Oopsies.

If you don’t recall, Lala-Oopsies was a spinoff line. As the name suggested, the characters were in mixed rainbow colors and body proportions that deviated from the usual Lalaloopsy dolls, looking like, in my own words, mutants. They came as princess/ballerina hybrids and mermaids, with the ‘Littles’ (which in the original Lalaloopsy line, were the younger sisters) as fairies. They had one movie, “Lala-Oopsies: A Sew Magical Tale”. It was like all the others, cute, a bit funny, and a simple Lalaloopsy adventure with the Lala-Oopsies.

What I never knew was that they were apparently planning on a sequel.

I was at a garage sale of sorts (i know, very cliche) when I found a blank DVD case. Here’s what it read:

“LALA-OOPSIES-SEQUEL(UNFINISHED)”

“Is this a joke?”

“Oh, that!” The owner of the sale noticed me and casually went on “I worked at MGA Entertainment… they were making a sequel to the Lala-Oopsies movie… some guy decided to make that, apparently as a joke, and he was fired as it had quite a bit of… crazy stuff. We decided to cancel it altogether as we didn’t have any other ideas... We were handed copies of it from the guy who made it before he was fired. The footage is all there. There’s a lot more stuff that happened after that, but I don’t really wanna go into full detail. If you wanna know completely, it’s worth only a dollar. Not somethin’ I’d wanna watch again.”

Out of morbid curiosity, I agreed to buy the thing.

So I went home, made sure to get my DVD player on, and opened the case. There were two discs. One that read “MOVIE” and another that just had random scribbles on it. I tried to make out if the second one actually said anything, but I couldn’t read it for shit. I got out the one that read “MOVIE”, making sure it was the film itself, and placed it in.

Hoo boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

There was no menu or trailers, though that was kinda expected considering it was unfinished. It just went straight to the movie.

It all looked official one way or another. Some scenes were fully animated, others were simple animatics, others were in between. But I’ll just say before we get on that it was not at all the usual Lalaloopsy fare. There was no sign of anyone’s pets at all throughout the whole movie.  There wasn’t any music, like, at all, and that just made it a bit more unsettling.

Well, most of it wasn’t. It started off like your usual Lalaloopsy movie. Bea was walking down a path and singing a song about math to herself. A rather bad one, if you ask me. So bad, I have easily forgot about it. While walking, she finds the door that leads to Lala-Oopsies Land.

As the first movie took place in mostly a story that Bea was reading, she is surprised that apparently Lala-Oopsies are true. She leaves to find her friends, the rest of the Original 8 to be exact, and tell her all about it. This exchange from the conversation is what mainly caught me off guard.

Jewel: “So you just managed to find something from a story you read once in reality? I don’t believe it one bit.”

Spot: “Jewel. This is felting BEA SPELLS-A-LOT we’re talking about. The brains? The genius? The nerd? The know-it-all? She doesn’t seem to be making it up.”

Was felt their way of saying fuck? That was not in the other Lalaloopsy stuff I knew, as it was aimed at young children. I figured that was at least one of the reasons it was never finished. I decided to keep watching to find more reasons.

The Lalaloopsies were at the door to Lala-Oopsies Land, and as she didn’t believe it before as shown by the previous exchange I wrote about, Jewel was understandably dumbfounded. “Felt me, there really is a Lala-Oopsies Land…”

So of course they all opened the door and entered. Only as it turned out Lala-Oopsies land… wasn’t exactly as the story told.

The skies were orange like the original, but were more of a sickly shade of it. The ground was grey, rotted, and corpse-like. The mushroom ‘trees’ looked much more like actual fungi, and the strawberry-milk rivers and seas looked spoiled and curdled, and I could even make out a skeleton (presumably of a drowned Oopsie) in them. Bea probably put it best.

“Well… it seems the book apparently romanticized a couple details…”

The group decided to venture in and explore anyway. I couldn’t help but bring up the fact that a couple of them coughed quite a bit when they went in. Okay, scratch that, they were coughing violently, like they just inhaled smoke.

Pillow: “Felting seamstress, this place is polluted.”

As they were walking through, some sort of large insectoid jumped right on Peanut’s face Alien-style. Now I could really see why this movie didn’t make it. Obviously, everyone was panicking at the sight and trying to get the bug off. It wasn’t until like half a minute that Bea managed to find a stick on the ground and strongly swatted the insect away from Peanut’s face, though it seemed she also hit the face from this dialogue...

Peanut: “TRY AVOIDING THE FACE YOU IDIOTIC FELTING STITCH.”

...and stabbed the insect multiple times, pink-ish blood spraying from the body, gore getting everywhere. The other seven were so disgusted that Crumbs vomited right on-screen from the sight. Organs were coming out of the creature as Bea stabbed, and as I looked close enough the organs seemed rather human-like. That was pretty weird as the insect didn’t look human at all. 

Well at least I found another reason for this movie’s rejection.

Before Bea turned the monster into an unrecognizable bloodied mush, I could make the colors of the insect to be that of the Lala-Oopsies fairy Lilac, hot pink and sky blue. Nah, I’m pretty sure it was just a coincidence. And yet…

Oh, that reminds me of another scene that happened later on.

The eight were venturing on into the islands riding on some sort of old rusted boat they found, and then suddenly some sort of sea serpent or something like that i dunno with the same color scheme as the mermaid Water Lily rose from the rotted strawberry milk oceans. Bea tried to row the boat away, but the monster attacked and even picked Jewel up and devoured her. There wasn’t any doll stuffing or anything cute like that. Jewel’s remains actually spurted crimson blood and human entrails as she was being chomped down on and eventually swallowed. Screaming as if the actress herself was getting violently disemboweled.

I can still hear her agonized screams as I write this, so that’s pretty annoying. 

Pillow’s reaction perfectly described mine.

“HOLY FELTING SILK.”

My god... how the heck was a doll said to be sewn from a dress able to have human blood and guts?! Then again, it was a cartoon… a rather gory one if ya ask me.

In all honesty though, Jewel’s death was horrific yet satisfying for me. I never liked her the slightest.

During the attack, Mittens and Spot fell into the strawberry milk ocean as the boat was destroyed. It didn’t show the rest of what happened to them so I can safely assume they were either eaten or drowned. Or both.

So the ones left were Crumbs, Peanut, Dot, Pillow, and Bea.

They latched onto the boat’s remains as they headed to a large island.

The island’s inhabitants were all the princess ballerinas, both in the first movie and toy-exclusive, mutated to grotesque proportions, their hair all mussy and in tangles. Most of the princess’s faces were obscured by their hair, but the ones I was able to see were distorted in such a way I can’t really describe that well, though I’ll admit they looked pretty damn cool. Oh, their clothes were also a wreck too so yeah.

Crumbs became an idiot and decided to go up close to one (can’t remember which, i think it was Saffron?) to try and approach it friendly enough.

Saffron, like a wild animal, lunged at Crumbs and proceeded to violently rip her to shreds, and sure enough it was just as gruesome as Jewel’s death.

I remember just thinking to myself, “what the hell was this person on when making this?”

And yes, the remaining girls were horrified by that too and ran from the princesses as fast as they could.

Remember the scene I mentioned earlier with Peanut apparently getting attacked by that bug? Welp, they didn’t forget about that. Peanut immediately fell over, having a rather violent fit as she struggled for breath, her skin deteriorating as multi-colored insect larva ate their way out of her everywhere, some even lunging out like the chestbursters in Alien. (yes I know I already made that comparison before but still) They then proceeded to lunge at Pillow and devour her alive as she could only scream and the final two, Bea and Dot, could only watch.

As Pillow was honestly one of my most favorite Lalaloopsy, I just felt awful watching that.

Another princess, Anise, which I recognized full and clear with her pink and blue coloring, approached what remained of Pillow and grabbed some of the larvae, putting it in her mouth and devouring it, as her mouth was coated in a rainbow goo like that one My Little Pony episode with the zombies. 

I would say it was disgusting, but a mutant doll eating a worm was the least of my worries. 

She managed to speak words, which was strange because the princesses here were, again, mostly animalistic. Her voice was rather gravely, only vaguely sounding like the original.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING COMING TO A PLACE LIKE THIS?”

Okay, they weren’t even trying with that line.

Anise proceeded to grab Bea and beat her, but thankfully Bea was able to kick Anise right in the face, knocking her out before the grotesquely mutated princess could finish the job. Dot swiftly took Bea’s hand. Struggling to get up at first, the badly bruised Bea managed to get on her feet and run as Anise came to.

As they ran, Bea and Dot finally found the door where they came in. It tugged my heartstrings seeing the two tearfully look back, apparently reminiscing their friends, before leaving Lala-Oopsies Land for good.

It then cut to Bea in bed, very ill. She was apparently covered in radiation tumors and her hair was almost gone. Apparently the island was highly radioactive. Dot was next to her bed in tears, as Bea weakly said her final words.

“I’m sorry, Dot… sorry… for everything...”

Violently coughing blood, Bea finally kicked the bucket as Dot sobbed hysterically. The movie cut to black and ended there with, surprise-surprise, no credits whatsoever.

All I thought of was “How the hell did Bea get sick from radiation poisoning but Dot didn’t?”

So anyway I took the movie disc out and put in the one with all the scribbles.

It was a compilation of recorded clips, all of them surprisingly in the MGA Entertainment headquarters itself I presume.

One clip I remember was a Lala-Oopsies Princess Anise doll flying, chasing a random employee as said employee was in a panic. Yea it was a weird one.

Another consisted of another employee testing out a Princess Juniper doll. As they were squishing the head, (the Lala-Oopsies dolls had squishy foam heads) the doll suddenly started to bleed violently. Not gonna lie, I laughed at what the employee said.

“GOD DAMN IT GARY WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT MAKING THE DOLLS BLEED.”

Last one I remember was two employees talking to each other. One of them asked the other,

“What exactly was your motivation in making this weird-ass movie?”

The other employee just responded in a weird reverse demonic gibberish I didn’t have time to translate. The first employee’s only response was a flat “what”. Exactly my reaction too. I decided that was enough and took out that disc and put it away.

Where’s the case now?

In one of my shelves. I’m keeping it. I just think it’s pretty unique in a way.

Not like it’s cursed or anything.

The End

[kidgezine]

Requirements

Read these over carefully and please send us an ask if something doesn’t make sense, or if you have questions or need clarification.

Artist Application Writer Application

If you have questions/concerns about your work you can send an email to kidgezine@gmail.com or get into the discord server for more immediate help.

Participant Requirements (aka Rules)

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Reliability: This is a big project with a lot of moving parts that all depend on each other to get done. We will be as flexible as we can with deadlines but if you miss too many you will be replaced. Review the deadlines on our Tentative Schedule to get an idea of what’s involved. Some dates might be pushed back if too many fail to meet deadlines but none will be moved forward.

Communication: There will be a review process that requires communication between contributors and staff so you need to be willing to discuss your work with us. You also need to communicate if you have problems with anything. Whether it’s missing a deadline, difficulty meeting a requirement, or you wrote yourself into a corner and don’t know how to get out, just let us know. We are here to help so send us an ask anytime. If you get into a conflict with anyone, contact a moderator immediately.

Have Ideas: It is preferred that you have at least one idea when you submit your Contributor Application. It does not need to be fully thought out but you should be able to give us a few sentences explaining the concept. If you have a lot of ideas you may include them all in your application and we will help you pick the best one(s). At this point there is no limit on the number of works you can contribute but there may be one if we get a lot.

Content Requirements

Format: Most of the zine’s content should be fanfic or digital fanart but we could be open to ideas for other things such as: poetry/songs, journal entries, editorials, aesthetics, schematics, profiles, cosplay, etc. Send us an ask to see if your idea is ok. Whatever the format it will still be subject to the general requirements and those for either art or writing (whichever is closest). Example: a cosplay photo would have to follow all the art requirements while a journal entry would fall under writing.

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Mature Light: The vast majority surveyed were ok with at least a mature rating but we’re going to say keep it light. That means it’s ok to include adult things but not explicitly show them. So you could have a character that does drugs but not describe them shooting up, or sex could happen in the story but skip the juicy stuff. Explicit triggers (non-con/rape, heavy violence, abuse, etc) will need to be approved on a case by case basis so if you want to do that send us an ask with your idea and we’ll let you know if it’s ok.

Any Kidge Counts: There is some preference for romance but platonic Kidge is ok with the majority of our survey respondents so we will accept the pair as friends so long as Keith and Pidge are the main focus.

Setting and Theme: We’re not going to limit you on setting so go wild: the theme is “Fantasy” and there is a lot that falls under that umbrella. From traditional fantasy to steampunk to science-fiction to gothic horror, the world is your oyster. We look forward to seeing what you create!

Art Requirements

Links to art templates will be added soon.

Aspect Ratio: Pages will be 6 inches wide and 9 inches tall with a 6mm (about a ¼ inch) bleed but I recommend working at least twice that size (13x19). Since there will be text in the layout, we will allow ratios other than 6x9 as illustrations for written works. If you are doing a collaboration you may do a full page (6x9) of a single drawing or split your page up into 2 or 3 smaller drawings that will have text around them. Full spread layouts (art across two pages) will be allowed so long as there is room for words on at least one of the pages. If you do a full spread please be sure to have a quarter inch of unimportant space on either side of the gutter (where the two pages meet). See this post for more on non-standard ratios. If you have something unusual you want to try just send us an ask and we’ll see if it’s possible.

DPI and Color: This is for print so we need a minimum dpi of 300px preferably in CYMK color. I highly recommend drawing on at least a 13x19 canvas as you will get better detail in larger sizes. You can give us RGB color if that’s your preference but our staff will convert it to CYMK for print.

Bleeds: All art will be full bleed (printed to the edge) so include at least a quarter inch (6mm) around all edges where there’s nothing important in the image. This will give the printer some wiggle room when trimming. If you include a signature, put it at least an inch from the edge. I recommend keeping the image focus at least an inch from the edge as well.

Editor Review: All art will be reviewed at multiple stages of the process to ensure artists are on schedule and help fix any problems that might come up. Don’t be intimidated by that, this is just to help you. We understand that a lot of artists don’t like showing their work unfinished but we also know that progress reviews are essential to producing quality work. We promise to be gentle, just be willing to go through a review process.

Writing Requirements

Links to writing templates will be added soon.

Page/Word Count: We will only limit lengths for Print copy pieces. Digital copy works can be as long as you need. Print counts will be given on acceptance but will generally range between 3 and 8 pages. The pages will be 6x9 inches so about half a standard size page. You should be able to get around 300-400 words per page depending on how much dialog you have. Multiply your pages by 300 to get a rough word count. Page count will be determined by several factors but the word count you request on your application will be the main one so be sure to take that seriously.

Going Over Limit: Try to stay within your page limit but if you start to go over contact the mods and we might be able to work something out. However, we will only print a maximum of 10 pages for each writer no matter how good it may be. Anything over 10 pages will be cut and finished in the Digital copy. Keep in mind we have editors to help you fit the word count so don’t panic.

Beta Read: All writing must be fully beta read and polished to a high degree of quality. You may work with a beta of your choice (make sure to give us their information on your application) or we can pair you with one of our volunteers. Beta pairings will happen after you’ve turned in your outlines.

Editor Review: All writing will be reviewed at multiple stages of the process to ensure writers are on schedule and help fix any problems that might come up. Don’t be intimidated by that, this is just to help you. We understand that a lot of writers don’t like showing their work unfinished but we also know that progress reviews are essential to producing quality work. We promise to be gentle, just be willing to go through a review process.

[douxreviews]

Charmed - Season Two Review

"Our job is to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty."

In a lot of respects, Charmed's second season is stronger that the first. With no real "sophomore slump" to speak of, the series quickly settles into a fantastic run of episodes that make great use of the groundwork laid by the debut season. Spoilers and Gordon bashing ahead!

Season opener 'Witch Trial' is brimming with confidence. There's such an ease to how this season uses each sister, and how they interact has never felt more organic and fun than it does here. Following the previous season's finale, Andy's death is still causing ricochets through the Halliwells' lives, and Prue's struggle to get back on the “witch's saddle” is played really well. There's a heartbreaking monologue in the premiere in which Prue voices her struggles with her ability to do good, when she feels like she's responsible for her first love's death. Shannen was always one of the strongest cast members, and that scene always springs to mind when I think of how great she was in this role. The way Piper and Phoebe comfort Prue in this moment feels so right, too. I love these three gals.

The best of episode of the season (and a series highlight) is 'Morality Bites', an even more affecting hour than the premiere. It features the show's third major brush with time travel – this time to the future – where a decision to punish a guilty man leads to Phoebe literally burning at the stake. Though it relies on some simple ideas, there's a powerful lesson to be learned, with the sisters facing the hard truth behind why they can only use their powers to protect, not punish. That one line always hits me where it hurts: "The wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing.". 'Morality Bites' is also Alyssa Milano's best work; you can really feel Phoebe's pain throughout. There's a further brush with time travel later on in the season as well and although it doesn't resonate quite as much as 'Morality Bites', there's still a lot of fun to be had. 'Pardon My Past' toys with the theory of past lives and how souls can grow and evolve over time. The hour neatly ties into that recurring theme of Phoebe's latent dark side, a concept that was explored to great effect in last season's 'Woogy' episode. And who can resist an opportunity to dress up the cast in 20's garb?

Season Two also picks up where episodes like 'That '70s Episode' left off, delving further into the intriguing Halliwell family history, notably in 'P3H2O', a powerful chapter that reveals the girls' mother's affair with her former Whitelighter Sam (a twist that becomes quite significant – and very useful for the producers – come Season Four). The episode itself features some beautiful and heart-breaking moments for each sister: Piper falling into her mother's footsteps with Leo and eventually realising that she has to let him go; Phoebe being forced into reliving her mother's final moments in order to stop the demon who killed her; and Prue confronting her fear head on and eventually avenging Patty's death. There are some lighter episodes that make great use of the dynamic performances of the core cast, too. Despite some questionable examples of this ('She's a Man, Baby, a Man'), episodes like 'Astral Monkey' and 'Chick Flick' are a lot of fun, with the latter standing out as one of the best examples of how inventive and sharp the writing team could be when they really wanted to.

What lets the second year down is the introduction of the series' first truly sucky characters: Dan and Jenny Gordon. The latter's brief run of episodes seems to serve very little purpose other than to throw in a younger person's perspective into the series and force Dan into the Halliwells' lives. Her barely explained disappearance after just a handful of episodes seems to indicate some sort of an awareness of how grating a character she ended up becoming. As dull as he is, Dan isn't necessarily as problematic as the storyline he represents; the show's worst love triangle. He's a total bore, but I feel like he's more of a victim of circumstance than anything else, primarily serving as a c*ck-block between Piper and the then well-established Leo, who were clearly the end-game couple of the series. His hasty exit at the close of the season is probably the only reprieve where his arc is concerned, allowing Piper and Leo to properly pursue their love affair, which leads to more threatening, and subsequently more interesting roadblocks in Season Three. I do feel obliged to point out how awful Leo is for a significant portion of this arc. He's unfair, judgmental and forces Piper into some very uncomfortable situations just to prove a point. Give a girl some room! Leo's struggles with his temporary transition back to human form are mildly interesting, though they don't last very long and are drowned out by the melodramatic hoopla of the love triangle.

An unfortunate amount of this season’s run time is spent on Piper's conflicting feelings for Dan and Leo, but we do get some great character work elsewhere. Piper's professional life sees a major overhaul following her decision to quit her job at Quake last season, as she transitions from restaurant manager to club owner. Said establishment, P3, is a fun hub of activity for the girls, and a handy way for the network to parade a multitude of musical guests onto the show. It also feels like the right move for a character who's starting to really come into her own and take control of her life. Prue's deconstruction from the uptight matriarch of the family continues this season, with episodes like 'Ms Hellfire' playing with her wild side. In that regard, her decision to leave her by-the-numbers job at Buckland's to pursue her actual dream of becoming a photographer makes total sense, though it still baffles me how an inexperienced photographer like her managed to worm her way into a job at an established magazine. Phoebe's arc weirdly feels like it's bringing both Prue and her back to some kind of middle ground; just as the eldest sibling starts to let go of her inhibitions, Phoebe makes the decision to start becoming more responsible and actively pursues her unfinished college degree. Gone are the days of the hotel lobby psychic! Like Prue and Piper's arcs, Phoebe's also feels natural and right for her character, and is satisfying for those who have been following her journey since the first episode.

Potions and Notions

Darryl is brought in on the magical secret in 'Ms Hellfire', which thankfully curbs the risk of any repeat of the antagonism the girls faced from a frustrated Andy last season.

Prue is the first sister to develop a whole new power this season; Astral Projection. It's actually a fairly cool advancement and it's used really well.

The Source, the leader of the underworld, is mentioned for the first time in ‘Give Me a Sign’.

Spells and Chants

Phoebe: "The wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing."

Prue: "I know someone who can see anything." Phoebe: "Oh, no. Wait a minute. You tiptoe around the subject of Mom, you deny looking like her, you can't even go to the end of that dock because you're afraid to walk in her footsteps and now you want me to relive her last moments? How is that fair?" Prue: "It's not. None of this is. Mom's death, Sam's guilt. But I'm asking you to help me end it."

Piper: "Wait, Phoebe, you enrolled? This is huge!" Phoebe: "Hugest thing I've done since I came back home. I mean, aside from vanquishing demons and saving the world from evil, of course."

Billy: “Don’t you just hate exposition?” Phoebe: “Tell me about it…”

Best Episode: Morality Bites.

Honorable Mentions: Witch Trial, P3H2O, Ms Hellfire, Pardon my Past, Murphy's Luck, Chick Flick, Astral Monkey.

Worst Episode: They're Everywhere!

The show's second year is permeated by some drab and drawn out love-life drama, but it's largely a solid follow-up to the show's charming opening season, one that ups the ante and includes several episodes that are among the series' best.

8 out of 10 magic monkeys.

Panda

[tryagainmv]

ad nauseam (part two)

part two: two lonely people we were

➷ you had never known the meaning of lovesickness until you had crossed paths with na jaemin.

part one: strangers in the night ❧ part three: up to the moment we said our first hello

warning: cursing, violence.

you’ve been in this town for one day, and you’re already dreading the concept of spending a summer like this.

in a town where everything mirrored the life you had just left, with the exception of the familiar storefronts and neighbourhoods and faces strolling down the sidewalks. you had worked yourself up, your oh-so-big jump, to leap a puddle and land in the corner of the muddy water. you still had the same coast, but different shops. you still had the same red brick buildings lining the main streets, but different names. you still had the same loft apartments over every single business, but with different numbers. you were living in a strange, but parallel universe.

you didn’t know if it was because you had built up your first taste of self-sufficiency, your first taste of the freedom of living away from parents and from the same cracks in the road you had caught your shoe toe in, or if it was because you had unfinished business from the night before, if you can even call that business. it felt more like comfortable anarchy, the wild beat of your heart against the steady beat of the drum fighting the smooth beat of your lips against his.

you didn’t deny that whenever you closed your eyes, you could almost picture yourselves, his arm holding you against him, your heads cradled together, silhouetted against the raging sunset orange fire, blending into one shadow as the orange flicker outlined you. between the crackling of the fire behind you two and the connection of your hearts, you didn’t know what created the sparks that floated in the night sky among the stars. however, you refused to admit that when you had driven past the cliff on your way out, you had spared a glance towards the field where your softly swaying feet had worn another sparse patch into the rocky earth.

you refused to admit that the boy named na jaemin held anything over you but a memory.

but you felt yourself wanting to reverse time and catch him before he slipped away, before he sent you that last glance and molded into the night crowd so seamlessly that made you wonder whether the boy was a human or a figment of your imagination. a guilty conscience trying to hold you back in the place that you had been so relieved to part from.

whoever jaemin was, you refused to admit that the stranger in the night had put another pair of shackles on your rubbed-raw wrists.

but for now, you’d make do in the parallel universe you lived in.

as your feet crossed the threshold from sidewalk to linoleum, you felt the cold push of the frozen air and the sweet wave of ice cream collide with your senses. you inhaled the cream-filled air and walked up to where your new coworker was waiting, his brown hair visible over the cash register as he made eye contact with you and gave you a soft wave, beckoning you to the false countertop which he swung open.

“you came ready in your uniform! i have your apron and name tag in the back, they’re folded just beside the cooler room door,” he said, pointing you down the narrow hallway lined with extra cones and napkin containers. “i’m renjun.”

he pointed to his green and pink name tag, wiggling it and shooting you a toothy smile. he had a small snaggletooth, and you felt yourself smiling back at the soft boy.

“i’ll be y/n, once i get my name tag,” you laughed back, walking past him to grab your apron and name tag and put them on, renjun coming up behind you to tie the top strap of your white cloth covering.

you thanked him and slid the pin of your lacquer name tag onto the thin white cloth, and you presented yourself to a renjun who gave you a thumbs up and another smile. he showed you the ropes quickly, the cleaning of the scoops and how to work the new electronic register. you learned that his dad owned the shop and that him and his older brother ran it now that his father was getting older. his older brother was named kun, and he was the manager that only worked the night shifts while renjun worked the days. it was obvious how much he knew about this shop and the way it had been run for years, that it was both ice cream and blood that flowed through the sweet boy’s veins.

“one more thing,” renjun says, only after he’s decided your scooping is satisfactory.

“yeah, shoot,” you respond, taking a bite of your final cone product so that the ice cream wouldn’t go to waste.

“uh, because of our… location beside the beach, we draw a pretty sketchy crowd around the early afternoons. don’t let them phase you, okay? they’re harmless, mostly.” he rubs the back of his neck and you smile, biting the rest of your sugar cone and throwing the paper shell into the trash below the counter.

“renjun, don’t worry. i’ll be okay,” you smile, giving him a thumbs up as you go to open up the shop.

renjun had told you that it was the newbie’s initiation to flip the paper ‘open’ sign and officially start their first workday at green rose ice cream parlour. you appeased him, despite your complete disinterest in the small rituals that he seemed to value so highly. you didn’t want to make your boss think of you as flippant, as disrespectful or uncooperative, and you didn’t want to make the soft looking boy upset. so you flip the open sign as the clock hits ten and immediately spot a few groups of people make their way towards the cute shop perched a street away from the tourist-filled beach.

you slipped into your place back behind the glass walls and tubs of ice-cream and took your position at the cash register, ready to ring up the first customers of the day while renjun crafted his beautiful cones. you fell into a rhythm for a while, the soft jingle of the radio a backing track as you called out order after order to the boy who whipped the cream into the wafer and passed it to the waiting customer, over and over again.

until the next ring of the door’s bell signified something so much more than another customer you’d have to serve.

they didn’t come to the register or browse the flavours, not even take a peak at the menu. they slid into a table that had remained unoccupied, almost as if they owned it, and burst into a jubilant conversation. they looked so out of place in their dark attire amongst the green tables and pink chairs, yet they blended into the scene as if they had been placed there purposefully by a hand designing a piece of art, so stark of a contrast, so different of people from who you would see in a parlour with twice playing from the loudspeakers. and yet here they were.

you stared at them, black paint splotches on a pastel canvas, until one of them flicked his eyes to you and you averted quickly, staring at the green and pink background of the desktop cash register. you didn’t even notice the single jingle of the bell echo through the shop, the racing of your thoughts creating a maelstrom in your head that blocked out the small sounds.

“uh, hello?” a voice called out, and you could have sworn you had heard that timbre before.

you flicked your eyes up and your mouth gaped. you quickly shut it and took a breath in through your nose. na jaemin, tattoos clear as day against his tanning skin, stood in front of you, gaze hooked on yours and his eyes the width of someone who was shocked yet trying to bury that surprise under a layer of confidence and nonchalance. you scoffed and plastered a thicker version of that on your face, a version of that meant for someone who had screwed you over without even knowing he had done anything, who had caused a snag in your heart that you refused to acknowledge as more of a fondness for a memory.

he’s just a stranger, after all.

you owed nothing to someone who treated your heart like it had strings.

“hi, what can i get for you?” you gritted out, shifting on your feet and starting a new order on the screen.

“a single scoop of pralines and cream on a sugar cone, please?” he asked musingly, drumming his fingers on the top of the glass.

you nodded and hummed, inputting the order and hovering over the ‘complete’ button.

“will that be all for you today?” you responded, not wanting to bring your eyes up to meet his again, not after the first time.

“no, actually. i know it’s not on the menu, but i would like a fresh order of ‘explanation’,” he laughed out, and you leaned back and crossed your arms, bringing your gaze up to his again.

“what do i need to explain to you, na jaemin?” you spat out, huffing. “it’s not like you really were interested in what i had to say about anything.”

“what are you doing here?” he pressed, and you laughed dryly before completing his order and calling it out to renjun, who watched you two interact, enrapt.

“i’m working. now, if you’d go collect your cone down with renjun, that would be swell,” you grumbled, gesturing for him to move along.

he simply looked at you and leaned further over the table, and you caught the roman numerals along his collarbone when his tank top dipped further down.

“i thought you lived a few towns over,” he questioned, more suspicion climbing into his voice than before.

he was cracking.

“yeah, well, a lot of things can change in such little time,” you shot back, tilting your head and nodding towards renjun. “your cone is melting.”

renjun hadn’t even taken the cone out yet.

“y/n, listen, if you’re mad about —“

he used your name.

he knew.

“i’m not mad about anything,” you gritted out. “i’m just swell. go pick up your cone, thanks for coming.”

“y/n!” he hissed out as you turned around, slamming his fist on the top of the glass.

you spun around, and you saw the hurt in his eyes. but you also saw two of the boys from the table behind him slide back in their chairs and climb to their feet. one of them pulled off jaemin’s baseball cap and tossed it to you, and jaemin’s carob locks flopped down in a haphazard pool on the top of his head.

the other boy grabbed his shirt and yanked him forward, leaning in and pushing him closer and closer to the wall.

“leave the girl alone,” the first boy grunted. “or i’ll make you.”

he sneered. the other boy did too.

“she’s obviously not into you and whatever you guys did together, and honestly? looking at you, shrimp? i can’t blame her.” the second boy laughed and placed his hand on the first boy’s shoulder as he held jaemin in an iron grip. “she’s cute, right? the way she stands is so confident, so detached, i’d like to tame her for a night. i’d treat her so good, she’d forget anything you two did toge—“

you absently let out a cry as you watched jaemin’s fist swung up and connected with the first boy’s nose, the crack filling the tense air of the room. you heard renjun drop the cone in his hand, and jaemin didn’t stop. he swung up and hit the second boy, jab after jab until the other two boys from the table were on him too and he was kicking and grabbing collars and snapping noses. you couldn’t bring yourself to do anything but watch as the boy you had kissed two days ago beat the ever-loving shit out of four grown boys. when the first punch was landed on his face, he snapped back and the tables turned. the boys launched themselves on top of him, and he was swallowed by a pile of flying arms and kicking legs and brutal sounds of broken skin breaking skin. you screamed again and slid out under the counter, hearing renjun’s cry of dismay and fright, and you yelled out at the top of your lungs for this to stop, stop, stop.

it only stopped when you put yourself into the fight, pulling one of the boys off of a bloody jaemin who was curled on the ground, who spit out a shot of blood as the other boys backed off slowly. you slid yourself in between jaemin and the retreating boys, and you wiped off the smudge of blood you had gotten on your hands.

you stared at your hands, then up to the four boys with bloody noses and bruised eyes. they all stared back, some with confidence, some with fear and all of them with mirthless contempt.

you imagined you looked the exact same, your hands balled into fists at your sides and your eyes set in a glare.

“get out!” you yelled, and the boys didn’t move.

“get the hell out, you creeps,” renjun shouted, voice enthusiastic with a slight twinge of adrenaline. you didn’t expect that.

that’s when the boys nodded and picked their bloody faces up, running one by one out the door, taking the jingles of the little silver bell with them.

you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and dropped your head into your hands, sighing shakily before turning back to jaemin who was pulling himself to his feet.

“uh, y/n, do you — uh, do you want to patch him up in the back break room? i have a lot of first aid stuff, there was an accident with a scooper and someone’s eye a while ago that we don’t talk about,” renjun asked, and you heard the concern in his voice.

you looked back to jaemin, who was on his feet and limping to the table where he rested his body weight on his leaning hand. his eyes were already bloodshot and swelling, and you felt your heart climb in your throat as you catalogued every visible injury on the boy’s body.

he was defending you, your heart called out. he fought the creeps because they talked about you.

he was violent, your mind called out. he was impulsive, but you knew that already. he was just like you.

no matter how many times you tried to repeat it to yourself, you knew. when your heart spiralled, so did your head, and you had always been irresponsible when your feelings and thoughts didn’t sync up. you had always been impulsive, always been someone who had never totally understood your heart and your head. you’d always had one foot in love and the other in logic.

your feet were getting further and further apart.

you nodded to renjun and grabbed onto jaemin, pulling his arm over your shoulder and bringing him back into the break room. renjun followed and opened the first aid cabinet, and you thanked him as he ran back out to the front to go greet customers. you set jaemin down on the foldable chair that sat beside a matching table, and he laughed as you pulled down a kit from the cupboard.

“why are you laughing?” you asked, dragging another chair beside him to rest on as you began to dab a cotton ball with peroxyde on it onto his open cuts.

“i don’t know,” he laughed out, and you huffed as he continued to laugh when you put bandaids and steristrips on his face cuts.

“then stop,” you growled.

he stopped, raising a hand gingerly to tilt your chin up and meet his eyes.

“i really fucked up, didn’t i?” he said, more to himself than you. “i really fucked up when i walked away, i fucked up when i didn’t ask your name. to be honest, i didn’t think i’d see you again, and i was so ready to have my heart broken by you if i had asked. but i didn’t, and that was so smart of me, and i felt so bad that i was weak and told you my name, because now i’m someone to you, and i disappeared and i hurt you. so i really fucked up not asking anything, but i think i’ve fucked myself over so much more now that i know, now that we’re not strangers in the night.”

you didn’t dare break eye contact, and you dropped your hand from where it held the cotton ball on his shoulder back to your lap. you felt the rough skin of his knuckle turn under your chin as he rolled his lips over his teeth and sighed.

“just tell me how i can make it better,” he asked, and he pulled your head a bit closer with the crook of his finger under your head.

you weren’t going to stand down, you weren’t going to admit to anything, you weren’t going to admit a boy who was a stranger in the night became someone who you know. someone who you allowed to know you, someone who you allowed in past your walls and into your head with the reckless, destructive, confused thoughts that filled it. you would not let the boy who disappeared into the fog of pot and cigarettes and god-knows-what to have any say over what you felt, not when he turned his back on you.

one foot in logic.

“can i make it better? can i fix this?” he asked, and you let him.

you let him move closer to you and press his lips to yours, and you let the cotton ball that was pink with his blood drop to the floor. you let his lips find that rhythm again, let him cup your jaw and tilt your head to slot your noses together, and you let him kiss you and map out every corner of your lips. you didn’t stop him, and you didn’t want to, your heart didn’t want to remove your lips from his in fear that he’d turn his back on you again.

one foot in love.

you kept your hands in your lap, you twiddled your thumbs and ran your fingertips over the ridges of your nails, you kept them everywhere but on him. you thought that if you had kept your hands off him, had kept your hands away from the smooth feeling of his skin and away from the ink of his tattoos that you felt you could rub off with the pads of your fingers even though you knew that wasn’t true, you wouldn’t get yourself connected to him. you wouldn’t let a boy with a bloody taste on his tongue leave that on you, that memory, that imprint, if you didn’t let your hands wander or climb the stalk of his neck and trace the bumps of his spine like you had already. if you didn’t let him hold you by the waist and run his fingers where your shirt had ridden up and your soft, warm skin had hit the air, you wouldn’t connect yourself to the boy who had turned his back on you.

things didn’t work that way, not anymore, because it didn’t take one kiss to fall in love with someone. it took two and you had so foolishly stumbled into his trap, his lips and his gaze and his charming voice pulling you into him and refusing to let you go.

you broke it off a few seconds, minutes, hours later and drew back, standing to pick up the soiled cotton ball and walk it over to the trash in the corner of the room.

you had a pit in your stomach, because you knew that if you turned your back on the boy, you might never see him again. you might never feel him again. you might never taste the iron on his lips again. but you turned. you turned your back on the boy who was watching you from the foldable chair and you walked away, walked to the corner instead of throwing the ball. you turned your back. this time, you turned your back.

why did you turn?

when you spun back around, na jaemin had taken a handful of bandages, the cotton balls and hydrogen peroxide, and he was gone, chair empty and the air he had occupied empty. the baseball cap that you had brought in and set on the cabinet ledge was gone too.

you were convinced na jaemin was no more than a shadow who haunted you, a figment of your imagination.

was he just a stranger?

if only you could predict the future, read the cards it held. you’d be so much more worried. you were already sick to your stomach.

a/n: grammarly won’t LEAVE ME ALONE (this is a let down)

[aion-rsa]

The New Mutants and Its Nightmare on Elm Street Influences

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This article contains mild The New Mutants spoilers.

The New Mutants is an odd duck. The writing was on the wall back in 2017 when 20th Century Fox first pushed the film off its original 2018 release window. Apparently the delay was the result of the studio wanting to make it more of a horror movie via  reshoots… reshoots that then never happened.

Even so, those horror elements are still on bonkers display in Josh Boone’s final cut of the film, now available on  Blu-ray and VOD. Even without knowing Boone was vocal that the  Nightmare on Elm Street movies were cornerstone influences, it’s clear his mutant mayhem wants to live on the same block.

To be sure, these aspects are more muted than they should be, which is the result of the film’s biggest problem: tonal inconsistency. New Mutants veers wildly between young adult drama, youthful hijinks, and a nigh ‘80s slasher sensibility where very few characters actually get slashed. If reshoots had actually upped the horror quotient, this could fit nicely as a continuation of the Elm Street Kids’ travails. But even in its bizarre current form, there is something there to appreciate, particularly for fans of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

Nearly 40 years after Robert Englund first growled his way through a Freddy Krueger movie, many fans still think of the first Wes Craven-directed A Nightmare on Elm Street when they look back on that series. But for horror fans of a certain age, 1987’s Dream Warriors was the only Nightmare on Elm Street movie that mattered. It’s the one where Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy Thompson returned, and a gang of street-wise ‘80s teen movie archetypes found themselves locked in a mental hospital with Freddy picking them off one pun at a time. And as these victims found ways to fight back in their nightmares, they became the “Dream Warriors,” just as their film turned into a superhero movie with a body count.

The high concept of a monster fighting the Breakfast Club inside of Nurse Ratched’s hospital is still incredibly appealing today. And it’s emulated from top to bottom in The New Mutants. Not that Boone and his stars have exactly been coy about this fact; Dream Warriors has been name dropped by the filmmakers ever since the first trailer introduced us to the movie’s versions of Rhane Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton), Roberto da Costa (Henry Zaga), and Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt).

Even way back in 2017, Boone told Collider that Dream Warriors was one of New Mutants’ big influences. “I do love Dream Warriors,” Boone said at the time. “I loved the first [movie] as well, but this is very much a rubber reality horror movie for the first about 75% of the movie and then it becomes something else.” 

And unlike many X-Men adjacent films, the characters from early New Mutants comics are more or less recognizable in their live-action forms here. Nevertheless, how they’re introduced is pure Dream Warriors.

After a dubious opening sequence in which Hunt’s Dani Moonstar survives a “tornado,” the young girl is committed to an isolated sanitarium along with other teenage mutants. Their chaperone Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) swears they’re being groomed by an unseen benefactor who we’re led to believe is Charles Xavier… but her evasiveness about the details suggests something more sinister.

All the while, each of the kids is plagued by nightmares, both when they’re asleep and awake. And the waking terrors are of their worst fears come to life. So, yes, this is basically a Freddy movie without Freddy. That in itself could be viewed as damning, both to horror fanatics who want more thrills and superhero fans who like their popcorn buttered the same way every time, but even with its (many) foibles, there is charm in New Mutants’ rough edges. Here is a movie decidedly not a product of the all-too-familiar blockbuster assembly line.

For instance, Boone takes his Dream Warriors aesthetic and runs with it via multiple visual references and plotting echoes, all of which feel unnatural for its superpowered fantasy. In one early scene, a  character briefly entertains suicide while standing atop a menacing Gothic tower, not unlike how Freddy forced Phillip (Bradley Gregg) to throw himself from one in Dream Warriors, earning the label of “suicide” by other characters; in a more overt fashion, New Mutants’ Roberto sits in a wheelchair in another scene, just like the one Will (Ira Heiden) used in Dream Warriors; and the character is later seduced into a watery illusion by a dream girl who is not what she seems, a la Joey’s haphazard “wet dream,” as Freddy coins it, in the direct Dream Warriors sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988).

All of these knowing nudges from Boone and his co-screenwriter Knate Lee are there for Freddy’s Children to catch. Yet they can also both improve and hinder New Mutants. In the plus column, they feel unusual and original for a movie about comic book characters; on the other side of the ledger, few of these “scares” actually go far enough to be frightening. Thus the movie feels strangely unfinished, even after spending years on a shelf. In fact, there are several scene transitions where you know something is missing from pickups that were never filmed.

And yet, that low-fi messy quality may add to its rough hewn, uneven charm for a certain set. Like all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, this isn’t high art. But the fact it goes for these horror moments with complete sincerity is kind of refreshing. Like Dream Warriors, New Mutants and its cast take their plight seriously, probably too much so. But after a decade of most superhero movies relying on a smug self-deprecation—a persistent invisible smirk at the camera which promises we know it’s nonsense—New Mutants’ emotional earnestness will appeal to a smaller cult audience.

In this vein, the strongest aspect of the film is likely any scene involving Williams’ Rahne and Hunt’s Dani. The former has the benefit of being played by the lone actor to nail her thick accent, as well as the rich horror trope of being a hard-believing Catholic. Like many a teenager from a religious home, Rahne fears Hell, which Bone and Lee’s screenplay embrace in the thematic sense with Rahne also being a glorified werewolf who fears her “evil” mutation.

In the more literal sense, Rahne also struggles with her attraction to Dani. It’s  a romance that doesn’t feel tacked on by a studio note or an afterthought for social media; like Boone’s earlier work, it’s presented as a sincere puppy love story. But even that has echoes in the Nightmare on Elm Street saga, with the second film, Freddy’s Revenge (1985) attempting to tell a subtextual gay love story–one full of shame and literal self-mutilation where the main character transforms into Freddy when he’s attracted to his buddy.

New Mutants does this element better by removing the “sub” in “subtext,” and the shame. Rather it commits to a sweet romance just as earnestly as it commits to a sequence where Rahne’s dead priest returns to haunt her with a demonic voice that sounds a lot like Freddy’s warble. Yet this, too, mirrors a locker room attack in Freddy’s Revenge. 

Despite the tonal dissonance between these two elements both aspects embrace the LGBTQ+ undertones in X-Men comics better than most actual X-Men comics, and in their own way are reminiscent of how goofy ‘80s slasher movies could become comforting outlets for marginalized groups.

Read more

Movies

Is New Mutants an Ending for the Fox X-Men Universe?

By Gavin Jasper

Movies

New Mutants: A Horror Version of The Breakfast Club

By Don Kaye

That New Mutants tackles these delicate aspects as brazenly (or some might say as tastelessly) as those ‘80s slashers is kind of wild. It also ensures that New Mutants will eventually find an audience. Perhaps not the audience who superhero movies are so methodically engineered for in the 21st century, nor in the mainstream commercial audience Fox almost quaintly thought this approach would appeal to. It certainly isn’t critics with the movie’s ungainly, batshit tendencies.

But as with Dream Warriors before it, here’s a film in which young people use superpowers to fight the man and topple authority while seeing each other in a way they, nor any superhero movie, has before. It gives this bloody mess teeth… and claws.

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[lwbluedice]

Masterpost for my Stories and Ocs!!!

A spoilerfree list of most of my Ocs and stories (reuploaded here on my main blog)

Includes:

- Name of the story and state it’s in

- short summary/facts

- Character names

If you want more information abt any of them(like a description or a pic) or abt the stories, just message me/ ask me!  Also feel free to ask me to draw them ( for example in the color scheme thing or sth)!

Note: The stories are all written in german so if you don’t speak that language i can’t send you the original documents but i can try summing them up for you!

I bet this is not everything and i will add stuff but yeah!!!!

Hotaru (first draft is finished)

- Abt two men that are linked through a surgery called “synchronisation”, which basically connects their minds and bodies, so they are forced to work as a team. Ea is an ex-soldier and Cain was a hacker, but due to the fact that they can’t stand each other, they also didn’t share their pasts with each other. To pay someone to unlink them, they become bounty hunters and kidnap the girl Ai and her robot Subaru, which is one of the old military robots, called Hotarus (high technologised, operating, transforming, artificial intelligence, ranger units). They are connected to a human ranger and can transform into what the ranger wants them to transform into.

The Hotaru headquarters exploded 10 years ago and since then the Hotarus are super rare on the black market.

The two men plan on selling both the girl and her robot and let’s just say it all doesn’t work out that well.

Ai Hoshino

Ea

Cain Bishop

Subaru

Dr. Chandra Natarajan

10 A

10 B

and other synced pairs

George Watton

Asha Watton

Elaine Bishop

Christopher Bishop

Haruto Hoshino

Shiori Hoshino

The Pleiades. A Hotaru Unit.

Atlas/ Emmett Hunter

Maia/ Ilya Neverwinter

Elektra/ Hailey Gray

Taygete/ Daiyu Ghou

Alcyone/ Charlotte Gryffith)

Caelano/ Sora Aurora River

Merope/ Imogen Harrington

Sterope/ Elizabeth Bresley

Additional Characters for the (maybe Sequel) in which the grown up Ai will try to find out who attacked the Hotaru Headquarters

- Skya

The day the world turned white ( first draft is finished, working on it)

To stop global warming some scientists basically caused a new ice age. On the long run this might be very effective but the former countries, now sectors, are hit by strong ice storms, called snow white. To stay safe huge bunkers, the Safe Cities, were built and the local fauna and flora were stored in Arks, to preserve them.

Usually an alarm sounds before all citizens are brought into the SCs, but this time Reese and her best friend Yuki dont manage to get to the vehicles on time and are left behind. They seek shelter in a private bunker outside of town that Yuki found out about recently. Suddenly a group of boys their age knocks on the door, because they were also left behind and followed the girls.

Al, the brothers Eli and Isaac, Gil and Henry become the new bunker-mates and the group has to survive one year in the bunker, until the storm is over.

( I have a blog for this story, just search for The day the world turned white! There are pics and some posts for example abt which patronus/spirit animal the charas have!)

Reese/ Therese Wells

Al/ Alexander Glover

Yuki Sarah Brooke

Eli Green

Isaac Green

Gil de Santos

Henry Summers

The Sun will always rise (The sequel, probably forever unfinished)

About a group of rebels, the Sun Children, that are sworn enemies to the government and its ways to cope with Snow White.

Takes place abt one/two years after Tdtwtw.

Lucy and Aidan are kicked out of an underground organisation that stays in the cities underground system during the storm phases and the two wander around in the snow until Michael and Rin pick them up and bring them to the Sun Children. From looking into the snow directly to maneuver, Lucy has turned snowblind.

Yeah the plot is… not 100% existent.

Characters:

Lucy

Aidan

Michael

Kate

Gil

Bo

Finya

Rin

The XII Games ( First book is finished, i started the second one, unfinished)

A story abt spaceships that let slaves fight in games, if they win a certain number they are “free”. Cassidy makes it and is sold to a women, Trisha, that takes her home onto her home planet, where Cassidy lives a nice life and learns abt her heritage. One year later she meets Tobias again and she and Trisha are brought to a planet that is basically the universes capital. Cassidy has to take a more important role in the uproar of a war, than she ever imagined.( The cast members are mostly human looking but are other, non human, races)

Cass (Cassidy ) E’ Alandril

Tobias

On the slave ship:

Neala

Sam ( Samuel)

On Anterra:

Trisha  Willowrish

Max ( Maxwell)  E’ Alyndral

Lukas

Tori

Khorr

Keri

Wil

Quinna

On the Space sparrow:

Zach ( Zacharyas) Gryaan

Benj ( Benjamin) Bottledom

Rashka Hyrelian

Oreadh Urunna'ur

Butcher

Kagrim

Kyluur

Irian Ashcott

On Capital Estellar:

Galea ( Galeandrih Fiyur’ Ihal)

Iyal

Wren Fawell

Luasia  

Luminor the Shining

Fallen Angels ( A trilogy, one and a half books were finished, reconcepted)

We don’t talk abt this but it was one of my first stories i truly wrote.

Abt fallen angels saving the world or sth. It’s super clichee and just ugh.

The newer version would cancel some charas and make it abt rebalancing Darkness and Light in the worlds. With a more diverse cast and also different magical races. And a way less creepy Adam.

Eve/Evelyn White

Adam

Peregrine/Perry

Ray/Raven

Sera

Colin

Robin

Raphael

Ky/ Kyron

Gabe/Gabriel Frost

Bree/ Gabriella Frost

Indigo ( haven’t written it yet and i don’t know if i ever will, but have drawn stuff. I lowkey wanna see this as a comic)

A story abt a clan of shapeshifters, called Indigos. They are basically human that can shift into dolphins and their clan lives on an island near Australia. Its a modern story and the gang consisting of our local gay dolphin girl Keerie, her cousins Akash and Arjuun (younger brother, older sis), and Ky ( adopted as a child, japanese heritage, a different breed of dolphin idk) lives their “normal lives” with lots of shenenigans and drama.

Some day Keerie falls in love with Navy, the daughter of the owner of the local Aquapark (that the clan suspect also does illegal stuff like snatching wild animals).

Keerie

Arjuun

Akash

Ky

Navy

“Neo Alcatraz” ( reworks of a very old story)

To put it simply, there is a pack of scientists that bionically enhance children and send them off to different countries to basically be local superheroes. Our gang was kinda left behind bc the countries rather took the newer, better versions and here they are now, a bunch of supernatural teens facing the (not so) everyday struggles of life.

Atalanta

Chi

Callie

Lee

Victor/Konrad

Gemsona (just art)

Larimar

- has water powers and her backstory bases on my private/old Squads life story and a lot of me thinking of drawing music videos for her but never doing it

Anthea (art and headcanons)

- my Dnd Oc

The Bender Girls ( art and headcanons)

- basically some Avatar the last Airbender Ocs i made once

Daiyu

Hotaru

Yura

Sündenfall / Sinfall (short story)

A short story i wrote for a competition which is basically every crime series but magic.

Harvey is immortal, he dies and is revived, and solves crimes through it. Paige is basically his assistant and the case they are on is abt a person that kills magical beings and “arranges” the victims fitting to the seven sins.

Ilya Winter

Harvey

Paige

Delphi

Sphinx

The concept charas, that had a different storyline ( they were basically a team of magical beings that would solve cases… rather unconventional.) I considered reworking them into the new Fallen Angels concept:

Ilya

Harvey

Timothy

Worth mentioning:

Project Alpha (script, some art):

The script for a shortfilm i once made with my friends. A school class has a plane crash and only a few students survive, they all embody a different character archetype (the sunshine, the soziopath, the smart one etc.) They try to survive and are put through weird psychological mind experiments like the trolley problem.

To be honest, the concept had and still has a lot of potential and we just hadn’t the opportunities to rly set it the way we anticipated. The shooting day was super fun, though! Still laughing about the outtakes

Astral Chronicles (some art and a few chapters, unfinished)

A story Idea i still like but probably wont write like this because of copyright problems. Its basically a giant Crossover.

Its abt people who have an Astral( mostly a literature figure) they embody when they are dreaming. Their body stays in bed and is vulnerable but the Astral can basivally run around and has special powers. If the Astral dies, the person wakes up but i think when the body dies the person dies too? idk.

The Protagonist embodies Alice and there are also the White Rabbit, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell usw.

There was also some kind of conflict? I dont remember.

If i would ever rewrite it the Astrals would be embodiments of the Zodiac signs.

(does this even fit?)

The Fanfiction thing i wrote abt Peter Pan/ Jack Frost

- like i have tons of short drabbles and the start of a fanfiction and honestly i liked the ideas i had a lot

The ones we better not talk abt:

Part Hunter

Basically there was a being named eternity/aeterna that was shattered into oarts (like in TRC)

and chosen ones have to reclaim them.

The ones that basically die are turned into guardians, like Time and Space ( they had animal companions they were fused with i guess)

Melody is the current part hunter and has a tragic love story, her animal is a tiny horse thing??????

Idk

basically a long story in which i used my dreams as base for the episodes

The nameless story

Actually super interesting but too many charas and a too tiny will to draw action scenes or write them.

Like its based around a super popular game in huge spheres/buildings and the teams wear some anti gravity outfits and shoes and can walk on the walls and shit and can basically attack using elements/illusion/ conjure monsters idk.

And the main team had an opponent team that basically specialized in the 25272 other elements and some day they just fused teams idk.

There also was some prophecy shit abt the anchors, ppl that can control all elements the same???? Idk

Element guardians

- basically four teens that control the elements and do shit together

- at some point i gave all of them dragons

- still thinking abt this sometimes

- The originals:

Luna: the shameless self insert , earth, pony girl, bland blonde i think

Katy: Air, best friend, bubbly

Dan: The jock. Fire

Nick: The emo. Water

At some point Katy became Skye and Dan and Nick got other names but yeah-

Talent Academy

The story thats basically a ripoff of Alice academy. Like a school with hierachie between the students and ranks and shit and different houses and the students have powers IDK

If you read through all of this, bless you for showing interest in my stories ;) And hey, if you want me to rant about any of them, just send me an ask or a message!!!

[thomasroach]

Oninaki Preview – A Soulful Adventure

The post Oninaki Preview – A Soulful Adventure appeared first on Fextralife.

Oninaki is the upcoming action JRPG from Tokyo RPG Factory. This sombre tale follows the story of a Watcher as he tries to guide lost souls to a peaceful passing, as those who remain trapped by their own torment, can cause monsters to swarm endangering the living. I tried out the demo to see how this story about the beyond pairs up with it’s unique Daemon combat, and whether it’s worth the venture past the introduction.

Oninaki Preview – A Soulful Adventure

Genre:  action-RPG. JRPG, hack ‘n’ slash Developed by: Tokyo RPG Factory Published by:  Square Enix Release date:  August 22nd Platforms:  PC, Playstation 4 (Demo Preview Platform), Nintendo Switch Website: https://oninaki.square-enix-games.com/en-us

Story & Setting

The story Oninaki is quite sad, but honestly it’s more intriguing than depressing. The story follows a newly orphaned Kagachi who struggles with the passing of his parents. His friend’s father consoles him but also explains that he shouldn’t grieve as his parent’s spirits will not be able to move onto their next life. While you might be kind of surprised that children in this universe are given such a serious explanation, the world of Oninaki doesn’t shy away from the afterlife, in fact, death and what happens next is well known.

But the adventure begins with a now grown up Kagachi who has become a Watcher, a role which helps guide lost souls to continue onto their next life. Kagachi must contact souls in the Beyond and help them cross over by finding out what unfinished business keeps them in the Living World. But there is also danger that ensues as their anguish seems to attract monsters.

As much as I want to go into more scenes that were experienced in the demo, as there were some really touching and also dark beautifully animated moments, I don’t want to spoil too much.

Gameplay

There are two modes in Oninaki, Story Mode and Battle Mode. Story Mode offers the full story, quests, exploration and combat. While Battle Mode puts you right into the action, letting you face off against monsters, one after the other.

Story Mode

The demo allows you to experience a portion of the story, and it’s quite a bit, which was surprising. I maybe played for 30 minutes in Normal difficulty, watching the story unfold and getting to grips with the Daemon system as well exploring the world. This game doesn’t follow the usual RPG structure where you level your character’s stats directly, but rather let’s you choose different Daemons to put your points into. This creates a lot of room for flexibility, as each Daemon features their own weapon type and a number of moves that you can choose to learn from their Skill Tree.

Daemons

Since the demo only allowed you to try out two Daemons in Story Mode, I tested out Aisha and Zaav. These two have very different movements, Aisha can move quite speedily, zipping forward at a moment’s notice and can perform some fancy sword moves. While Zaav is more slow paced, but with a two-handed spear that deals some mighty damage. He does have a movement skill but it’s much slower with his jumps. I found this method of abilities to be really different, swapping out Daemons depending on how you want to deal with enemies. It’s quite fun not having a settle on just close range or long range, but having the best of both worlds.

While combat provided some fun abilities with each different Daemon choice, the standard attack is pretty much all you have as you wait for abilities to cool down. You don’t have resources such as stamina or mana to determine how many abilities you can use, but rather you have to watch a cool down bar to find out when you can make your next move. This was a little annoying at times, it made combat feel a little slow, however there are nodes on the skill tree that can help increase speed of abilities reoccurring. As you level you will gain more abilities for your Daemons, which you can then work into fights.

That being said, combat felt quite slow in places, it’s not quite as fast as I was expecting it to be. There are three levels of difficulty for each mode, and Battle Mode is suppose be much more fast paced but we’ll get into that next. Don’t expect any block or parrying, it’s straight up slack ‘n’ slash from what was shown in the demo. Killing enemies at times only respawns more enemies, it was a bit repetitive at times. There is an Affinity meter which when it hits 100%, can unleash a sort of rage mode with Manifest which reminded me of Kingdom Hearts 3, you have higher damage as you take out enemies while Manifest is active.

Enemies

There are number of enemies known as the Fallen, each have their own attacks which include abilities to slow you down. There are also bosses that are a lot larger and possess powerful moves which you will need to counter, these ranged from quick smash down movements to firing projectiles. As you battle them they get added to your Memories which will give you a breakdown of their strengths.

Battle Mode

This mode is completely void of story, if you just want to go beat up some enemies and test out your combat prowess with up to four chosen Daemons, this is where you do it. Providing an onslaught of foes to fight, you can see how far you can make your way through the map. The area you explore is similar to places you visit as you travel from area to area in Story Mode.

As I said before, killing enemies causes new enemies to spawn, and this also happens in Battle Mode. So you will find you will need to kill a bunch of foes in one spot before you can move on. You can even create more of a challenge for yourself by choosing Manic difficulty which sets to provide harder hitting enemies but better loot. It’s suppose to be faster paced, but found it not that different from normal difficulty in Story Mode.

You can switch between Daemons mid-battle if you decide to try a different tactic, this makes fights quite versatile as you can suddenly switch from close range to long range if you wish. Is does take a few seconds to switch, which feels a little slow in my opinion but this could be to stop you spamming Daemon abilities and use more strategy for your fights.

The Living and The Beyond

This core concept of being to able to travel through the living world and the spirit world is really what makes this title stand out. Not only are you given some beautiful surrounding, but the Beyond provides inverse colours, making it seem otherworldly.

Sometimes you will need to venture to the Beyond to track down a lost soul or to simply be able to move from one place to another, when there are gaps in the living world. This creates almost a puzzle challenge in some places and I hope this carries on throughout the whole game.

Each world holds their benefits, the Living world you can interact with barrels and other breakable items, while I didn’t come across any items in the demo, hopefully these will give players something to loot in the full game. You will find monsters lurking in both dimensions, which gives you plenty to fight.

Audio & Visuals

The art style of this game is done in an anime style and it also reminded me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild but with a simpler design. The cel shaded characters are cute which really contrasts the serious subject matter. The surroundings while not overly detailed, the city is pretty to look at and has plenty of NPCs to interact with. I really liked that the Beyond is done in inverse colours, which helps to show contrast between the planes.

The soundtrack is quite laidback in places as you venture through the town or world, but the battles against bosses are more upbeat and are just as enjoyable.

Voice acting is in Japanese with English subtitles, cinematics are voiced, but you’ll notice later interactions with NPCs will only have a few words voiced and then remaining are just grunts or sighs. I don’t think this takes anything away from the experience and just kind of adds to the charm.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, what made Oninaki shine is it’s story mode, the whole concept is really intriguing and the characters you meet are heartfelt. I can tell there are going to be some moments that really hit you in the feels in this one, as one particular scene stood out during the demo, which you just have to experience for yourself. The story is bleak as it deals with death and the passing of loved ones, but it’s really different how it deals with grief.

The Battle Mode however felt a little lacklustre, but I should mention the demo was limited in the abilities you could choose for Daemons so maybe there are some extra features that are available in the full game. In my opinion, story mode is where it’s at, but I could see Battle Mode as a good way to blow off steam with just taking down enemy after enemy.

If you enjoy an interesting storyline, enjoy a title with some cute visuals and just want to kick enemy butt with a number of fun abilities to choose from, this could be a game for you. This demo really has me curious of where they will take this story and to find out what other abilities other Daemons will possess.

Oninaki releases on PC, Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 on August 22nd. You can pick up the demo on all platforms.

For more previews be sure to read next Remnant From The Ashes Preview: Sci-Fi Cooperative Mayhem and Night Call Preview – A Gritty Noir Murder Mystery. You can also find out what other titles are arriving this August in Top 5 Upcoming RPGs Of August 2019 (Remnant, WoW Classic, Black Desert And More!).

The post Oninaki Preview – A Soulful Adventure appeared first on Fextralife.

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[ricardosousalemos]

Neil Young: Trans

It’s the end of the world. The sky is an ominous shade of red, and the air is thick with poisonous fumes. Some people are silhouetted with an eerie glow while others are dying of radiation poisoning. “It shoulda been me that died,” Neil Young says, riding a bike alongside actor Russ Tamblyn. Tamblyn shrugs him off, and the two make plans for the evening. Tomorrow may never come, but tonight they’ll take their dates to the drive-in, where Tamblyn begs Neil not to play his ukulele or to sing “in that high squeaky voice.” So goes the opening scene of the 1982 film Human Highway, an apocalyptic comedy written and directed by Neil Young under his long-standing nom de plume Bernard Shakey. It’s a muddled and paranoid work, filled with forced slapstick humor and wild jams with Devo. In one scene, the members of the Ohio new wave group haul toxic waste in a flatbed truck down a lonesome highway. “I don’t know what’s going on in the world today,” Devo’s Booji Boy says to himself as images of skulls flash across his bandmates’ faces, “People don’t seem to care about their fellow man.”

This is where Neil Young’s head was at the top of the ’80s. Human Highway—Young’s third picture, following the psychedelic Journey Through the Past and his quasi-concert film Rust Never Sleeps—shares a title with a song from 1978’s Comes a Time. “Take my head, and change my mind,” he sang in its chorus, “How could people get so unkind?.” With its gentle acoustic guitars and fantasies of misty mountains, “Human Highway” plays like a eulogy to a specific type of Neil Young song. The Canadian hippie who sings in a high squeaky voice about packin’ it in and buyin’ a pick-up is only one side of Young. In fact, a decade into his solo career, Neil Young had developed a reputation more like an actor, someone remembered more for the parts he played than the unifying presence behind them all. After Comes a Time, he stepped away from his role as a ’70s folk singer, with 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps introducing a decade of restless exploration. The world was getting meaner, and Neil Young was tired of being typecast as merely an observer: He wanted to take part in the madness.

Although they both speak to the increasingly uneasy state of Young’s mind, “Human Highway,” the song, never appears in Human Highway, the film. Instead, the movie is mostly soundtracked by a record called Trans, released that same year. In the film, Young gets into character by contorting his face, wearing a pair of dorky glasses, and slapping motor oil on his cheeks. On Trans, he transforms himself by setting his songs in a distant future and filtering his voice through a variety of synthesizers, most notably (and infamously) a vocoder. The warped new wave of Trans suits the movie’s otherworldly (if endearingly chintzy) backdrops. You believe that this is the music that would play in the film’s shoddy roadside diner, where Dennis Hopper cooks sausage patties and swats at radioactive, laser-pointer flies. In fact, the movie might be the best context to hear Trans—an album that’s often treated more like a symbol (for artistic reinvention, for failed experimentation, for creative self-sabotage) than an actual entry in a body of work characterized by prolificacy and versatility.

Part of what makes Neil Young’s discography so rewarding for new listeners is that it’s filled with great entry points: the classic rock radio staples with more depth than you imagined (After the Goldrush, Harvest); the intimate passages that, even after all these years, feel like uncovered secrets (Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach); and the bizarre left-turns like Trans that inspire cult fandom just for existing. And while Trans sits comfortably along with Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music and Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait in a lineage of puzzling-if-fascinating failures, its mythology is only part of the appeal. Reed and Dylan always felt like provocateurs—for Dylan, even finding Jesus felt like a means of snapping back at critics. But Young’s transformations have always felt less divisive, more natural and earnest and instinctual. Even when he followed Trans with Everybody’s Rockin’, a slight collection of anti-capitalist rockabilly songs, he held the latter record in high esteem: “As good as Tonight's The Night, as far as I'm concerned,” he’s said.

Young has made similar claims about Trans. “This is one of my favorites,” he said grimly, holding the album art to the camera during a 2012 interview, “If you listen to this now, it makes a lot more sense than it did then.” Even if Trans is still confusing, it’s a point well taken. In the context of Young’s discography—rich with remakes and sequels, major reunions and minor pet projects—Trans has only grown more triumphant and singular as it’s aged. He would do new wave again, he’d mess with his voice some more, and he’d even return to the idea of full-on concept albums. But he would never make anything quite so conceptually confrontational—a challenge to even his most ardent followers’ understanding of what a Neil Young album sounds like. “If I build something up, I have to systematically tear it right down,” he’s said, referring to his penchant for moving quickly from one project to another, carrying with him few traces of the previous work. It’s remarkable, then, that Trans—an album ostensibly designed to “tear down” a specific image of Neil Young—ends up standing for exactly what’s great about him.

Like so many of Neil Young’s albums, Trans is filled with mysteries and unanswered questions (Why is his 1967 Buffalo Springfield song “Mr. Soul” on here? Why is a track called “If You Got Love” listed in the lyric sheet but not on the actual album?) It’s hard to think of an artist with as many classic albums who has wrestled so constantly against the medium: even his canonized work has a raw, unfinished quality to it. “If anything is wrong, then it’s down to the mixing,” he’s said about Trans, “We had a lot of technical problems on that record.” Fittingly, much of Trans concerns man’s fight against technology. A song called “Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)” details a team of rogue computers robbing a bank, with Young’s voice zapped down to a digital squelch. In “We R in Control,” a choir of robots lists the aspects of daily life—traffic lights, the FBI, even the flow of air—in which humans no longer have a say. Thematically, these songs—with their dystopian images of a world run by screens and numbers, where humans have everything at their fingertips but remain unhappy—have aged pretty well.

It’s the sound of the record that makes it more of an ’80s relic. No matter what format you listen to the album on (and it’s still never been released on CD in the U.S.), you feel as though you’re hearing it from the tape deck of a passing car. Even with longtime collaborators like producer David Briggs, guitarist Ben Keith, and drummer Ralph Molina, these songs sound very little like Young’s timeless ’70s work. The goofier, beat-centric tracks from his previous release, 1981’s shaky Re-ac-tor, certainly set a precedent. But despite its reputation for being aggressive and inscrutable, Trans is, at its heart, a pop record. It’s filled with hooks and beats and synths informed equally by krautrock and MTV. In “Sample and Hold,” guitarist Nils Lofgren—whose solos added an element of bluesy desperation to Tonight’s the Night but would soon light up football stadiums on Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. tour—points to future hits like Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science.” When the Trans Band played “Sample and Hold” during the album’s comically over-the-top tour—an endeavor that Young claims in Jimmy McDonough's authorized biography Shakey lost him $750,000 (“And we sold out every show,” he adds)—Neil and Nils stalk the stage with rock star charisma, trading solos and bleating into their talkboxes. In the sweet, melodic “Transformer Man,” Neil’s vocoder actually adds an element of purity to his voice, as layers of wordless choruses shower him. Listening to these songs, it’s not impossible to imagine that Trans could have maybe, possibly, in another world, been a pop hit.

But that world is in a galaxy far from this one. While the critical reception to Trans was not nearly as harsh as legend would have you think (Rolling Stone compared it to Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy; Robert Christgau gave it a higher mark than Harvest), it was a commercial dud—a rough start for the fledgling Geffen Records label, who also released Joni Mitchell’s adult contemporary turn Wild Things Run Fast the same year. Trans wasn’t the album that convinced David Geffen to sue Neil Young for making uncharacteristic records—that would be its follow-ups Everybody’s Rockin’ and Old Ways, the country record that plays like a made-for-TV adaptation of Harvest. But the idea had to be floating through David Geffen’s head when he first heard this record. At once Young’s coldest sounding album and his most vulnerable, Trans makes its flaws immediately apparent as soon as you press play—from the murky production to the mixed-bag tracklist.

When you listen to Trans, you’re really only hearing two-thirds of it. Only six of the album’s nine songs were intended for the actual project. The other three came from a different album entirely, one that concerned young love and ancient civilizations. It was to be titled Island in the Sun, and Geffen Records quickly steered him away from the concept. Album opener “Little Thing Called Love” stems from those sessions, and it’s the record’s clearest connection to Young’s more celebrated talents. Its chorus riffs on the title of one of his most beloved songs (“Only love,” he barks in a chipper tone, “Brings you the blues”) and the ensuing chord progression would eventually find a new home in the title track of 1992’s Harvest Moon. While demonstrating the fluidity of Neil’s catalog, the song also makes for a striking introduction in its own right: a singalong before the apocalypse, when human connection would become as archaic as LaserDisc copies of the Solo Trans live show are today.

The Island songs also help highlight a major theme of Trans: it’s an album about affection. At the start of the decade, Neil Young and his wife were enrolled in intensive therapy with their son Ben, who had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The program’s long hours slowed Young’s hectic work schedule and opened him up to writing about fatherhood. His struggles to communicate with his child and the technology that connected them inspired the lyrics of Trans and even informed the way he recorded his vocals: “You can’t understand the words, and I can’t understand my son’s words,” he explained in Shakey. In that context, Young’s naked voice in respective side-openers “Little Thing Called Love” and “Hold on to Your Love” represents the catharsis of an emotional breakthrough. You understand the words he wants you to understand—and most of them just say, “I love you.”

Even with Human Highway serving as a vehicle for the album, Trans was originally conceived with a different film project in mind. “I had a big concept,” Young said in Shakey, “All of the electronic-voice people were working in a hospital, and the one thing they were trying to do is teach this little baby to push a button.” That metaphor pops up a few times throughout the record, most squarely in “Transformer Man,” a song Young's openly dedicated to his son. “You run the show,” he sings to him, “Direct the action with the push of a button.” The Trans film might not have moved the album to the commercial heights Neil and Geffen imagined, but available evidence suggests that it would have at least made its digital world feel warmer, more grounded and productive—the qualities fans had come to expect from Young’s work. Instead, the songs would have to stand on their own, their meaning buried inside them, like a constellation of stars you have to connect based on your own perception.

Near the end of Human Highway, a concussed Young enters a long, inscrutable dream sequence in which he, among other things, gets bathed in milk, attends a desert ritual, and becomes a world-renowned rock star. When Russ Tamblyn wakes him, they celebrate the mere fact that he’s alive. For the film’s final 10 minutes, Neil lives with a newfound sense of purpose and ambition (“We could do it,” he says, “We could be rhythm and bluesers, we could go on the road!”). Even with the fiery explosion on its way to squash his dreams and reduce the world to a pile of ash, it’s a brighter ending than what Trans leaves us with. In the lost paradise of “Like an Inca,” Young envisions himself in the aftermath of a nuclear bomb, crossing the bridge to the afterlife, at once happy and sad and totally alone. It’s a fitting finale for a heavy album, one whose only brief glimmers of hope come from our connection to one another. “I need you to let me know that there’s a heartbeat/Let it pound and pound,” Young sings in “Computer Age.” His voice is masked beyond recognition, but the pulse—steady and wild—is unmistakably his own.