#which i realize is a rather complicated way of doing something that is probably very easy

[bunnyinatree]

This might be an odd question, because I assume that most people already know how to do this... But how do folks listen to music on their phones?

My preferred method of listening to music on the go is to use a Tumblr audio post, because I can navigate away from the tab without the music cutting out. My backup method is to use YouTube, but I hate the ads and the inability to navigate away from the page/lock your phone mid-song.

Is there any way to download a song onto your phone so it's not dependent on wifi? For instance, I have MP3 files that I've edited using Audacity that I can open up on my computer and play, even when the internet is down. Is there something similar that allows you to listen to music on your phone, even while it's set to airplane mode?

[cheriladycl01]

I'm not scared! Colby Brock x MotoGPDriver! Reader Part 4

Plot: You made a tweet about Sam and Colby and were in a podcast and they brought up Sam and Colby where you talked about the paranormal and how it doesn't really scare you because you drive motorcycles at over 200mph.

Credit to misscalliopecruz for the GIF

You didn't realize just how easy it was for Sam and Colby to make calls to these haunted locations and be given permissions to film investigations.

You'd been set up for literally 3 days time which made you guys feel even more excited as it was such short notice. Colby and Sam spent the time charging all the equipment, booking hotels and doing all the admin stuff you'd offered to help them with but they'd refused saying you should try and get a few good nights of sleep while you could, so you stayed in your flat making sure you had a comfy enough outfit ready to go in.

Colby had practically begged you to wear their merch, so of course you took the hoodie he'd given to you. You'd planned to wear it with a pair of bootleg jeans as even though it was very clearly British Time you gathered in the middle of the night in an old creepy castle it would get cold. Which is why you were thankful for the hoodie rather than a top as the piece of merch Colby gifted you.

You kind of wanted to make Colby and Sam wear some of you Red Bull Merch but thought maybe that was going a bit too far so you left them packed away in the rucksack you were going to be taking with you.

You had a later night on the day before the investigation so you were able to stay up till around 4 or 5am, ending up waking up for around 11am. You did your morning workout before getting something to eat and had a slow evening before meeting up with the boys.

"Are you okay driving?" Colby asks as you all walk down to the car park of the hotel they were staying in.

"Any reason, or just because I'm the better driver?" you smirk, knowing full well you were the better driver.

"I just don't like driving in the UK, it's way more complicated than the US, those roundabouts... wild things!" he jokes, even though there was some truth to it.

"Yeah sure, I don't mind... but If I'm driving its my Spotify playlist on shuffle..." you reason and they both nod agreeing, not petty enough to start a disagreement over music, especially when you guys would probably have similar music tastes.

The drive to the castle was fun, you were all talking about the history you guys had researched and what was there.

When you pulled up, you got this zing of excitement down you spine.

"Guys, I'm really excited for this" you exclaim looking back at them getting all the stuff out the car while you were in awe of the building.

It was a huge location and you already knew that the boys would challenge you to go somewhere alone because of how big it was.

The boys got out their camera and you waited off to the side as they did their intro.

"What's up guys its Sam and Colby and today we are here a Dannamore Castle in the UK, one of the most haunted Castles in the world!" Colby says with that normal cryptic sort of look on his face.

"And as you guys probably expected from our recent trip to see out good friend, today we have Y/N Y/L/N here with us!" Sam introduces panning the camera round to you making you smile and bunch up closer to them.

"Hey!" you grin and the boys turn to you.

"Okay for those who don't know Y/N is a MotoGP rider to she basically rides motorbikes really quickly round race-tracks for a living and she's really good at it too. The reason she is here is because she said she wouldn't be scared to come onto one of our videos and we really want to put that to the test" Colby mentions and you blush at the praise, entirely used to but it still got you every time.

They cut the cameras after showing the outside of the area saying that they'd be filming a lot of the history out-takes in their studio at home and having watched their videos you knew what they meant.

Two men and a lady came out, one was the caretaker, another was a tour guide and the other a medium of sorts that worked with the place.

Sam and Colby started to talk to the caretaker that would help in showing you round later when you walked off.

You thought you saw something dash out the corner of your eye, Sam and Colby were too busy listening too all the ins and outs of the area, what rooms you didn't have access to which in this particular castle wasn't actually that many just the unsafe spaces where the wooden flooring had gotten too old and they hadn't rebuilt it yet.

"Where's your friend?" the caretaker asks seeing that the girl wasn't where she had been a minute ago.

The others look around trying to see if you were behind the car or near the entrance but you were nowhere in sight.

"Y/N?" Colby yelled out. Sam following with a shout of his own name.

"Yeah?" you ask walking from behind a stone wall that ran behind the castle into the gardens.

"Where did you run off to?" Sam asks and the caretakers also look intrigued.

"Something caught the corner of my eye and I wanted to see if anyone else was on the property" you shrug your shoulder making Sam look to the now turned on camera Colby had, as they had started to film the minute the group were aware that you were missing.

"You just left, because you saw something?" Colby asks and you nod, making Sam chuckle. They cut the cameras, giving you a small run down of the castle, which rooms you guys weren't allowed it and when you guys had to leave by.

They also further explained not having got there before that it would just be you guys in there tonight, the caretaker however stays in the barn that was technically 'on the property' but not inside the castle just for legal purposes.

"So this is the centre of the castle. Back in the day, all residents from the Dannamore family and their friends would have been around here as this was and still is a hub" the tour guide smiles as you all look around the expanse of the hall.

"Who was part of the Dannamore Family, I'm guessing we'll meet some of them tonight?" you smile asking intrigued.

"Well Drake Dannamore has always been the most present spirit we have here. He is the original resident of the castle" she starts and you all nod.

"Is he cool?" Colby asks making you turn to him in shock. How is he referring to a like 1000 year old spirit as cool.

"He's a kind spirit yes. Y/N you'll get most the activity from him, he's the protector of this house... practically the women" she smiles.

"Really? Why's that?" Sam asks.

"Well, Drake..." she starts and you guys hear a knock from the back of the room making you all look there and the guide and caretaker laugh a little.

"I think he's here with us!" she smiles looking around before continuing.

"He married Valisa Dupont a French Lady from a wealthy family. Their family gifted and built this castle as a sign of their gratitude for Drake protecting Valisa. However, Valisa did not love Drake and apparently she became very spiteful towards him. She would cheat on him with the bakers boy who worked and lived in the home. She neglected their children making Drake exhausted" she starts and you feel a sort of overwhelming sadness wash over you. Enough for you to reach up and hold you chest.

"Vasila attempted to kill Drake but ended up mistakenly poisoning his sister Darcey. He ended the relationship with her, and she was livid. He moved on and married Bianca, who mysteriously died one night after saying for years she felt like she was being watched. People working in the castle at the time reported that Vasila killed Bianca out of jealously. Drake was in anguish and after that refused to marry again. He tried to protect Bianca as much as possible thinking Vasila was terrorizing her. After that its said that Drake either pushed her or she threw herself from the east tower, falling to her death" she finishes and you all look in shock.

"So he protects females that come into the castle from Vasila, who i'm guessing remains here as a negative energy because he feels like he needs to do what he couldn't do for Bianca?" you ask and a creak or footsteps was heard from above making all your heads snap up.

"I'd take that as a yes!" Colby laughs making you laugh as well.

"So this is an active place for all the spirits?" Sam asks looking around.

"Not all, but most. Drake can be found here along with his children who are also protectors of the home. Bianca is also here who is a very friendly and kind spirit. But its not just people who have lived in the castle. There's portals here too" the caretaker answers showing the mirrors that were facing each other.

"Woah?" you say stepping closer to Colby where the mirrors are.

"So what do we need to be wary of?" Colby asks.

"Vasila, of course. She doesn't like any-one male or female. She's been known to touch and scratch and make lots of loud noises but she's only in certain areas of the house like the tower and the pantry room" she explains.

"Because of her relationship with the baker boy?" Sam asks and she nods.

"Y/N you'll need to be extra careful of the baker boy" she admits and you look off to the left.

"Why?"

"He doesn't like ... dominant women!" she exclaims looking down, making you frown with a small laugh.

"I'm a dominant woman?" you ask with a laugh.

"Just like your presence, the tattoos, biker personality and just your aura she means, your head strong which is something Madison didn't like" the medium says for the first time since being here.

"Madison?" Sam asks.

"The baker boy, that was his name Madison!" he answers.

This would make for an interesting night!

Taglist:

@richardsamboramylove55 @braveangel777 @rockwyu @jada-lockwood @itzdarling

[the-east-art]

Hi Thank you for coming to my TED Talk about how I dont like the Grid Method for drawing

I think most people in their life have seen the grid method for copying a piece of art - if you haven’t seen it you can probably at least get an idea of it pretty quick. The grid method for art requires you to break a piece into a series of equal squares, and then transfer those squares onto a blank piece of paper divided into the equal squares of the same ratio. Conceptually this idea is very sound - rather than biting off the entire picture, you focus on each section. Theoretically, if you can make square A1 look like square A”1, and so on and so forth, you should finish with an identical drawing to your picture. I, personally, have a strong distaste for this method. It teaches bad habits - especially to younger and newer artists. (If you are a big fan of this method please read all of my rant first or at least scroll to the end where I will reiterate some of the perceived positives of the method)

The best way to discuss this is to start with a general idea of how we go about drawing something - especially something from a reference! I will try not to riddle this rant with disclaimers, but not everyone will draw using the same or similar methods, but this is the way that I was taught and when discussing with other artists they usually follow similar ideas: When you draw you go from big to little - from general to specific. Getting too specific too early is detrimental. This is an art rant, so let’s chat about this with some pictures. 

Here I have a picture of a square and a circle. Next to it I have my blank piece of paper, and I want to draw it EXACTLY THE SAME on the paper. To do this - whether consciously or not - I will start taking mental ‘measurements’ of various aspects of this composition. How far are these objects from the edges? How much space do they take up? And I will compare these objects to each other - which object is bigger? Where do they connect - is their point of contact halfway up the square or a quarter ways up the square? In the previous questions I am specifically focused on circle in relationship to the square, so it’s worth noting that if my square isn’t placed correctly then everything else will be placed incorrectly as well. Early on in a piece you want to keep lines light, ready to be changed if need be. One of my professors used to say that you wanted to avoid falling in love and getting married to a line as long as possible, because once you fall in love with your lines you will be reluctant to change them. 

Here I have a square and a circle - although maybe these have a little more details going on in them than our previous square and circle. Now maybe this is overwhelming, but remember we want to start from general and then get specific - our process for drawing this should look much the same as our previous painting! Starting with the outline and general shape! This brooch technically isn’t a circle - it’s scalloped on the edges - but before we put that information in we want to make sure we have the placement of it correctly both on the paper and in reference to our other elements - the square. When we feel confident in those elements, we can start SLOWLY adding the other information. A lot of art is about training the eye - we’re looking between the picture and our drawing, trying to see visually what the difference is and correct it. 

Naturally, the more complicated the piece the more complicated this process becomes. If we, for instance, have a person, thats’ a lot more to deal with. We once again want to work outside first. My professor was very big on outlines and shadows first and details slowly after that - so I would likely want to work on the external form, and some lines, and then work in blocky shadows, and fine-tune it from there. Once again let’s ask ourselves what will happen if we just start with the eye - and we spend HOURS drawing the perfect eye - only to realize that it isn’t in the right place in reference to everything else. We’d either have to erase that eye and all our work, rework the entire rest of the drawing, or leave it to look offputting and wrong. When you start art you can get preoccupied with features, when in reality they should be one of the last elements you definitively put in. 

There’s one last part about this that is relevant to my dislike for the grid method, and it’s the idea that when we’re looking at a piece we find commonalities along lines to help guide our art. For instance here we can see that one eye lies horizontally on the same plane and the back of the dogs head matches with a place on the coat - these can help guide us in making sure things are looking right! The grids may help us to see these things, but not necessarily.

Okay, back to the grid method. As I’ve stated earlier the grid method can be used well and the principles behind it are good - our neat squares provide an easier visual way to do the exact same stuff we were doing earlier - how far is the object from the edges and from each other etc etc. However these squares actually can encourage the artist to focus too closely - again either a square at a time or a feature at a time. In addition they narrow the focus of the artist away from the whole - instead of seeing how everything lays on the entire page, you focus on how things are lying in that specific tiny box. Art is usually a dance of in and out - close and far. Taking a step back. The grid method discourages this. 

I say this again aware that many people are extremely successful using this method - young auteurs who draw a giant portrait hyperrealistic. Leyendecker would use a grid to make his smaller drawings bigger (although I would argue he first had an understanding of the previous methods for the intiial drawing, and used the grid more for enlargement of the previous piece). People do this method and do it well… just more people learn bad habits from it that they have to fight against to progress. 

The last thing I want to say is about how the flaw, always, with the grid method is that it has to be something that you can place a grid on - you become confined to the paper and ruler. While the earlier method was taught to be through still life drawings, measuring with a stick, it was clear that this eye training and method was versatile, and could be used for anything you placed in front of me, the grid method becomes a shackle. And I know I know I know, but other artists have found ways around such a block - the perspective frame for painting has been used by many artists over the years, including Vincent Van Gogh - places somewhere to make the process of copying the real world easier - but why let yourself be confined willingly? If you are a big grid believer I would beseech you to AT LEAST try and expand your studies in addition to the grid formula - a healthy diet of many different kind of studies and practices and eye trainings is what we do to hopefully, one day, be able to put the designs in our head down onto paper accurately. 

Additionally, using the grid method provides no room for your to be using your instincts to help. I’ve been reading through ot3’s personal philosophy of composition and I found the line in the introductions where they discuss the idea of following your instincts very important. Part of my philosophy firmly believes that people understand art ephemerally without the need of words first, and overtime the act of art is becoming more aware of the words and phrases of certain concepts, so that we gain the ability to use and manipulate them purposefully. 

Anyway there ya go! Let me know your thoughts!

[robininthelabyrinth]

Team Up - ao3

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Nie Mingjue/Wen Ruohan Summary:

“Tell me, Mingjue,” Lan Qiren said. “What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?”

Note: adult content

-----------------------------------------

“What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?” Nie Mingjue read aloud, then grimaced in disbelief. “Teacher, is this a joke?”

“I assure you that it is not.” Lan Qiren did not quite shrug, but his expression conveyed the feeling regardless. “You were the one who wanted to look at the students’ essays answering a philosophical question of their choosing. I trust your curiosity has been adequately assuaged.”

“What does that even mean?” Nie Mingjue complained. He’d mostly wanted to see Nie Huaisang’s essay, while also very much not wanting to; he hadn’t realized it was possible that other students could be just as ridiculous. “The ‘outer limits’…what outer limits?! Naturally you should put in your utmost effort to act morally.”

“I think the essay in question was more focused on a cultivator’s ethical duty to take affirmative steps to prevent harm,” Lan Qiren said. “For instance, if you see a man who is drowning, rescue him.”

“That seems obvious.”

“Is it? Do not be facetious. What if the man is your worst enemy, the man who killed your father?” Lan Qiren paused. “Forgive me. That is the typical next question in the example. I did not mean…”

“No, it’s a good point,” Nie Mingjue said, forcing himself to move past that old pain. “If I saw Wen Ruohan drowning, do I have a moral duty to act to save him? I think that I probably would.”

“Even if you know he will only commit more atrocities in the future?”

“Well, I’d like to think that saving him from drowning would win me a few points towards convincing him to stop that,” Nie Mingjue said, meaning it as a joke, and Lan Qiren smiled, taking it as such. “That would certainly complicate the morality of the situation, I agree. But it can be my duty to save him as a fellow man and my duty to kill him for his crimes at the same time.”

“Hm. What about the scenario in which you saved him from drowning and successfully used those ‘points’ that you’d won to actually convince him to refrain from enacting any of his more gruesome future plans – would you still be obligated to kill him for his past crimes then?”

“I find that scenario highly unlikely,” Nie Mingjue said dryly.

“Nevertheless,” Lan Qiren said. He was stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Indulge me.”

Nie Mingjue thought about it, then shrugged. “If he genuinely repented, in such a way that I believed he would not commit further crimes, and furthermore had adequately and sincerely apologized and sought to make up for those he had committed in the past, morality would be best served by forgiving him, not killing him.”

“Interesting.”

“Why?” Nie Mingjue glanced at his old teacher, now his peer and maybe even friend. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Nothing, really. Just a passing thought – a foolish one, and irrelevant as well.”

Nie Mingjue raised his eyebrows. It was rare for Lan Qiren to admit to being foolish. “Tell me anyway.”

“Well,” Lan Qiren said hesitantly. “You may not know too much of this, it being largely before your time as sect leader, but Wen Ruohan was not always – as he is now.”

“I remember,” Nie Mingjue said. “He would visit the Unclean Realm sometimes, back before everything. He was quite charming, once, and not nearly so mad.”

In fact, as a child, Nie Mingjue had been rather swept away by their witty and clever visitor.

“That accords with my memory,” Lan Qiren said. “I sometimes wonder if it is possible that, given the immensity of the changes, that the cause of his behavior could be…well…”

“A qi deviation?” Nie Mingjue asked, his interest involuntarily piqued. For obvious reasons, it was an area of profound interest for his sect. “I’d never thought about it – it is rather irrelevant – but now that you mention it, it’s certainly possible. It would be pretty far advanced by now, though. Drastic measures would need to be taken if you wanted to try to reverse it.”

Lan Qiren looked surprised. “There are ways to reverse a qi deviation of such severity? If anyone would know, it would be your sect, of course. But I would have thought…surely, by now…?”

“The severity and ability to reverse it depends on whether the cause is hereditary or an issue with cultivation, or both,” Nie Mingjue explained. “In our family, it’s both – everyone always thinks that it’s our sabers that kill us, but in actual fact, as long as we can keep pace with them, we’re all right. Not cultivating at all is much worse, we just die even faster. From aneurysms and strokes rather than qi deviations, to be sure, but the effect is still the same in the end, and it’s a bad death either way. No one has figured out a way to stop it from happening. But that’s just the Nie; there’s no such hereditary instability in the Wen family, so it’s probably just a cultivation issue.”

“I see. Is there something that could be done for him at this stage? Assuming it was only incorrect cultivation to blame?”

“At this stage? I think you’d be limited to –” Nie Mingjue paused, then coughed.

“Limited to what?” Lan Qiren asked.

“Ah,” Nie Mingjue said, valiantly attempting not to turn red and painfully aware he was likely failing. “Well. That is…”

“What is it?”

“…the most effective way to shock someone out of a qi deviation is dual cultivation,” Nie Mingjue said, staring at the ceiling above his old teacher’s head. “Ideally with two powerful cultivators –”

“Two? Why two?”

“Having two cultivators involved reduces the risk that the qi deviation spreads from the deviating individual to the rescuing one, rather than the correct method winning out over the deviated one. It also reduces the burden on the spiritual energy of the assisting parties, splitting the strain among two people instead of keeping it with just one…unfortunately, for someone like Wen Ruohan, given his strength, you’d have to find some very powerful cultivators to do the job. They’d have to be either exceptionally talented, with limitless potential, or else exceptionally steady, with an incredibly firm foundation. Nothing else would stand a chance against him.”

“Hm,” Lan Qiren said. “Limitless potential like yours, you mean? An exceptionally firm foundation, like mine?”

“Yes, like that,” Nie Mingjue said, nodding. “Exactly so.”

Then he paused.

“Uh,” he said. “Teacher. You’re not suggesting that…that we…are you?”

Lan Qiren smiled at him.

“Tell me, Mingjue,” he said. “What are the outer limits of a cultivator’s moral duty to act?”

-

Wen Ruohan woke up groggy, which was the first sign that something had gone wrong.

He was also not in his own bedroom, which was the second, and, for the third and most definitive indication, he was currently tied up.

This was not as unusual as it might have been – Wen Ruohan had had a bad habit of getting kidnapped when he’d been a young man, in large part due to his stubborn tendency to go wherever he damn well pleased regardless of any well-meant warnings and cautionary signs. Even after he’d become sect leader, it had happened a fair number of times, though that was more to do with the fact that he’d locked away all the sect treasures behind arrays that only he could open, requiring anyone who wanted to assassinate him and take his position to first try to take him captive…which usually turned out to be a mistake. For them.

It certainly hadn’t happened in a very long time, though.

Also, his cultivation wasn’t bound, which seemed…unwise, as far as kidnappings went.

In fact, the only part of him that was magically bound, as opposed to physically bound, was his mouth –

Huh.

The Lan sect silencing spell?

That puzzle was enough to get him to pause and take stock of the situation, rather than simply rip free at once. Wen Ruohan wasn’t sure what was less likely, that he’d been kidnapped by a Lan or that somehow someone had managed to learn the spell despite all the rules the Lan sect had against teaching their secrets to inappropriate people. Either way, there were interesting implications of all sorts involved.

Worth at least investigating, at least.

Wen Ruohan opened his eyes.

“Oh, good. You are finally awake.”

…was that Lan Qiren?

“Mingjue, he’s woken up.”

“Oh.” That was Nie Mingjue. Why was Nie Mingjue here?! Wherever here even was. “That’s – good? Ah, that is, I mean, that’s good.”

Why was Nie Mingjue stuttering?

Wen Ruohan made an inquiring sound, which made both men, now standing above the bed where he was bound, frown down at him. This was probably because his ‘inquiring sound’ had the same sound as his ‘I’m going to murder you both’ sound, even when it was unintentional.

It was often unintentional these days. He couldn’t seem to stop overreacting to everything…not that he’d admit that, of course. Better to simply pretend he’d meant his actions all along than admit to the fact that he was losing control.

Even to himself.

“I think he’s wondering why he’s here,” Nie Mingjue finally said, and Lan Qiren nodded in agreement.

“We wish to get your consent,” he said to Wen Ruohan, who gave him his best ‘what the fuck are you talking about’ look. “You have been otherwise unreachable – you no longer sit with us during the discussion conference, but far up above where we cannot speak with you causally.”

“And then you left as soon as the archery contest was done,” Nie Mingjue added, with a scowl. “Treating yourself like an emperor, too high and mighty to talk with anyone…”

“Quite rude,” Lan Qiren agreed. “And when we tried to make an appointment with you, your son informed us that you were far too busy to meet with the likes of us –”

…Chao-er had done what?

Stupid, useless, irritating boy, with no grasp of politics whatsoever! These were the leaders of Great Sects, not some useless hanger-on that could be trampled at will…and worse, to be so rude to Nie Mingjue, with his notoriously short Nie temper and equally infamous inclinations to meet disrespect with violence – did Wen Chao have a death wish? Was he dead even now?

“Fortunately for him, I was able to restrain Sect Leader Nie.”

So just scared shitless.

Fine. It was probably good for him.

“However, without an alternative method, we were forced to find other methods by which to approach you.”

No kidding.

He’d have to figure out how they managed to kidnap him. A hole like that in his defenses…

“You’re talking around the point, Teacher,” Nie Mingjue said abruptly, apparently losing patience. “You haven’t even explained why we wanted to talk to him – and you said you’d be the one to explain it.”

“And I will,” Lan Qiren said, even as Wen Ruohan’s interest in the reason abruptly spiked: was Nie Mingjue blushing? “Sect Leader Wen, we have reason to believe you may have suffered a qi deviation.”

Bullshit.

That was impossible. Wen Ruohan was way too talented to make some sort of mistake in his cultivation. Everything he’d done had been him, all him, nothing else; there were no outside influences, no errors, and certainly no deviation. How dare they suggest such a thing?! Were they looking down on him?

“We wish to assist you with purging the deviation –”

Hah, as if he’d ever permit such a thing! Firstly, there was no deviation to purge – he was fine, he had always been fine, and he would continue to be fine, whatever slander the two of them chose to believe –and secondly, even if there was, he’d never accept their help! He’d never let anyone look down on him like that. Not now, not ever. Absolutely no way, no how –

“– which we proposed to do through dual cultivation.”

Wen Ruohan paused his mental ranting.

He must not have heard that correctly.

“Dual cultivation with both of us,” Nie Mingjue added. He was definitely blushing now. “It’s the most efficient method.”

…perhaps he had heard correctly.

“Naturally we will not force you,” Lan Qiren said primly, as if that was the only issue one could find in their frankly ridiculous suggestion. “We require your consent before starting. What say you?”

Wen Ruohan was a bonafide genius, not an idiot.

He wasn’t going to say no.

Even if he wasn’t being offered sex with two extremely attractive and extremely powerful men, he’d say yes just for the potential amount of spiritual energy that they would be able to generate through the act, spiritual energy that would turn into power that he would be able to use to get even stronger.

Besides, since there wasn’t any qi deviation, it wouldn’t matter if they were doing it to try to fix him.

In fact, if he thought about it a certain way, he was practically tricking them into doing it.

Justification obtained and ego appeased, Wen Ruohan nodded.

“Excellent,” Lan Qiren said, sounding satisfied. “Mingjue, why don’t you demonstrate your skills to Sect Leader Wen?”

Skills? Wait, had they done this before? Had Nie Mingjue demonstrated the skills under discussion to Lan Qiren in advance of –

That was about when Nie Mingjue finished getting rid of Wen Ruohan’s clothing and put his mouth on his cock, and also when Wen Ruohan decided that thinking – or overthinking, as the case might be – was overrated.

Also, Nie Mingjue really was…surprisingly skilled.

Wen Ruohan snapped the silencing spell with a thought and said, “Should I offer my compliments to the teacher?”

His voice was a little hoarser than he’d expected it to be.

…because of the spell, of course.

“Mingjue has always been an exceptional student,” Lan Qiren said, denying nothing, which…huh. Now that was a very fascinating set of images that were going to live in Wen Ruohan’s brain forever, ready to be plucked out at night when he had some time to himself. “He has always exceeded expectations.”

Nie Mingjue lifted his mouth away – Wen Ruohan had to quickly bite his lower lip to avoid letting out a thoroughly undignified whimper of denial – and said, more than a little hoarse himself, “It’s all credit to Teacher’s thorough education.”

Fuck. They really had no business saying things as enticing as that. Wen Ruohan wondered when the two of them had been getting up to this ‘thorough education’, and for how long. And in what positions –

“Would you like a demonstration?” Lan Qiren asked. “Sect Leader Wen.”

“You can call me by name,” Wen Ruohan said, casually. Well, mostly casually. “Under the circumstances.”

Lan Qiren smiled and put his hand on his hair, weaving his fingers in gently…and then tightening them until very nearly the point of pain.

“That’s nice,” he said. “You can call me Teacher.”

…huh.

-

“Are you feeling any better?” Lan Qiren asked.

“Obviously he is,” Nie Mingjue said, rolling his eyes. “Look at how he’s scowling.”

“I will admit that there may have been an – improvement,” Wen Ruohan said. It looked like it pained him to admit it, though his expression still had some of that softness that had come upon him about halfway through the previous evening’s activities and which hadn’t left him since.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t sure exactly what that signified, something he’d communicated to Lan Qiren through meaningful looks and raised eyebrows, but Lan Qiren didn’t seem to know what it meant either, other than the obvious lassitude brought on by a very enjoyable series of orgasms.

“I’m glad you are feeling better,” Lan Qiren said.

“I’m glad you admit it,” Nie Mingjue muttered, then yelped when Lan Qiren pinched him. “What?”

“Remember your manners.”

“I don’t know, I rather like it when he’s being a bit rude,” Wen Ruohan remarked, and reached over to pat the affected area, his fingers lightly tracing over the reddened flesh. “Though I also enjoy him when he’s being accommodating. Hard to pick.”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes.

“I will say that it makes for a rather interesting change.”

“Change?” Lan Qiren asked, and Nie Mingjue propped up his head on his hand, looking over at Wen Ruohan in silent question.

“The change in perspective,” Wen Ruohan clarified. “There was no apparent change in my thinking over time, each step appearing completely natural and related to the one before, each new thought seemingly based on the ones that preceded it. Even when I was acting in a way that now, in retrospect, appears irrational –”

“You mean completely insane,” Nie Mingjue proposed, then scooted away before Lan Qiren could pinch him again.

Now it was Wen Ruohan’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yes, well, describe it however you wish. Either way, in contrast to that, I now have an unprecedented sense of clarity.”

“That’s good.”

“Mm. Certainly, looking back at some of my previous actions, it appears that they are – exceptionally unfortunate. Particularly as to you, Mingjue: highly unfortunate.”

“Not unfortunate. Insane,” Nie Mingjue insisted, then glanced at Lan Qiren warily.

“No argument from me,” Lan Qiren said mildly. “Killing his father was indeed an act of insanity, and of tremendous cruelty. Wen Ruohan, the term I believe you are looking for so unsuccessfully is ‘regret’.”

Wen Ruohan scowled again, though he also reached out and pulled Nie Mingjue towards him, settling his head on his chest and starting to stroke his hair. “Yes, well,” he said. “You’re not wrong. I regret it. Tell me, Mingjue: shall I make it up to you somehow?”

“Just don’t commit any more crimes in the future,” Nie Mingjue said gruffly, averting his eyes. “I don’t need more than that.”

“I’ll make it up to you anyway.” Wen Ruohan smiled. His expression was still soft. “I think I will enjoy doing so. Tell me, did either of you know me before the qi deviation?”

(“Oh, he finally admits there was a deviation,” Nie Mingjue muttered, just for the principle of it.)

“I’m not sure,” Lan Qiren said. “Mingjue likely did not. As for me…I’m not sure. I knew you as being better than you have been recently, but I cannot say for sure if that was prior to the initial deviation. It likely started as some small flaw in your cultivation, likely having a relatively minimal impact at first and then escalating over time – that was why you did not notice it, and why each thought appeared logically connected to its predecessor. The deviation increased slowly but steadily over time, only eventually becoming noticeable.”

“I think that’s probably right,” Wen Ruohan said. “I think it must have started – rather a long time ago. Longer ago than you might think.”

“Is that relevant?” Lan Qiren asked, reaching up to stroke his beard. “Do you think the treatment was insufficient? Do you need it repeated?”

“Not now,” Nie Mingjue said, vaguely horrified. His stamina had limits!

“Definitely not now,” Wen Ruohan said quickly in agreement, eyeing Lan Qiren warily, as if he were a serpent ready to bite. “Though I wouldn’t object to a repeat performance eventually. After all, now that I know I can fall into qi deviation like that, it’s only reasonable to start taking prophylactic measures early on.”

“What did you mean, then?” Lan Qiren asked, ignoring the hint. “What’s the relevance of knowing you before the qi deviation?”

Wen Ruohan grinned.

“Oh, nothing much,” he said, curling one hand around Nie Mingjue and reaching out to wrap the other around Lan Qiren’s wrist. “Just wondering how much you knew about my reputation for possessiveness. It used to be quite notorious.”

Lan Qiren frowned. “When you say notorious –”

“Don’t worry about it,” Wen Ruohan said soothingly. “I already promised no more atrocities, didn’t I? It’s easy enough to grant such a thing. After all, they’re no longer necessary to get what I want.”

[gunnrblze]

IM BEGGING YOU TO DO ONE FOR THE OLD MEN GHOSTS, ‘they are secretly in love with y/n’ PLEASE

Oh say less (I was gonna include them in the other post but decided against it but still want to write for them because…hnnndhsjaj)

Merrick- secretly in love Merrick feels like the frog in a pot of boiling water metaphor. he’s fine at first, the water is room temp. he can largely overlook his feelings, used to it by now. the water heats up and you’re constantly on his mind, he tamps it all down but it keeps getting hotter and hotter and suddenly he’s being snippy at work, needs more time to cool off, etc

He lets (personal) stuff build up before he can think to resolve a matter, he doesn’t even realize how deep in love he is with you, and when he does try to hide it, I think he’d fail pretty miserably. He’s one of the ghosts whose attraction i honestly think would be the most obvious to others, despite trying to pretend otherwise. This man’s unspoken devotion would escalate slowly, it’d feel like a presence rather than a set of actions/words.

Elias- this guy doesn’t trust his own emotions around love/attraction sometimes after his wife died, so if he spawns a secret crush on you at his big age, he’s most definitely going to pretend otherwise and knowingly let it eat at him. Tells himself he doesn’t have time for you, which is odd considering the way he’d always make sure shit is taken care of for you, whether he admits it was him or not. checks in on you, even if it’s just in a professional or friendly manner, quite literally makes time for you and then tells himself it’d never work.

I think he may consider himself “done” with relationships at this stage in his life, and it’d only drive his avoidance. I don’t necessarily think he’d be obvious, other than the “please god love me back” eyes he’d unintentionally give you, but I think others could probably tell something’s up with him, whether the issue is identifiable or not. If any of the ghosts could go the rest of their (short) lives without confessing to you, it’d be him imo.

Rorke (pre fed)- for starters, he’d absolutely be thrown off when he realizes he’s in love. Such a career focused man, I imagine the idea of love/marriage/family for him would be put on the very back burner, he’d be surprised. I think he’s one of the ghosts that is most likely to start avoiding you. For a long while his logic is out of sight, out of mind, until he realizes you’re still never out of his mind. He’d start being short with you, not rudely so, but just enough to distance himself. The type to divulge his secret to a close friend (Elias tbh) on a drunken whim, and then turn around and act like it meant nothing.

I also think he’d have a hard time letting himself even entertain the idea of “having you”. He’s too busy, he doesn’t deserve someone so special, he’s a bad man that does bad things, etc. Like Elias, he’s playing mental gymnastics to justify his own avoidance. I think depending on your proximity to him, he’s also the type to just blurt it out to you one day (sober). He’d make it so complicated but he’d be so up your ass all the time after that, there’s no way that’d be the end of the matter.

[hysteriaww]

would kai have saved bonnie if damon left her ?

The simple answer imo is yes - the complicated answer would be his *reasons* for saving her.

I feel like if Kai saved Bonnie in 6x22, it would be VERY different from when he saved her in 6x13 on her bday. In 6x13, saving Bonnie was a huge sacrifice Kai made bc of his newfound guilt and other growing feelings about her. But if Kai saved her in 6x22, that man would do it out of SPITE lmfao. Like sure, maybe a *tiny* fragment of leftover post-merge Kai would save her bc he believed she deserved better, but at the mental state that he was in by 6x22, i think a larger part of him would actually be looking to save her out of this petty urge to make bonnie suffer, bc dying would be too easy for her according to his thought process 💀

In canon, remember how Kai got annoyed by damon seemingly deciding to let bonnie die and choosing elena over her super quickly? He complains, saying smthg like "This decision was supposed to torture him," bc he wanted damon to agonize over the bonnie vs elena choice for a long time. Similarly, i think bonnie dying just like that would eliminate a lot of the angst, pain and tension of the situation, so Kai would save her life *just* so bonnie and damon would be forced to live with the uncomfortable reality of damon choosing elena over her and deal with the emotional fallout of that instead of pretending they have the world's best friendship, as they'd been doing for all of S6 (bc Kai would enjoy watching that mess).

Ofc, that would probably result in Bonnie aiming a lot of her resentment towards Kai for forcing her to face those hard truths, but maybe, after an initial explosion (and a lil nudging from Kai), she might realize that targeting kai is just shooting the messenger rather than addressing the root problem (her toxic friends). If it hadn't been kai, then somebody else would've made bonnie see the truth but either way, that's something she needed to see.

Realistically, even after this realization, i don't think bonnie would've suddenly warmed up to kai, but i think it might've pushed her to ditch damon instead of sticking around Mystic Falls to help him all the time (which would've consequently made Kai suddenly lose interest in Mystic Falls too xD). If Damon then chose to seek her out to beg her (read: force her) to defeat the town's new villains-of-the-week, or if he found her w his humanity off and tried to kill her to get elena back, i think kai might've surprised them all by appearing out of nowhere to get damon off bonnie's case (bc kai being kai was prob keeping tabs on bonnie's whereabouts as soon as she skipped town).

And maybe Kai's sudden appearance would've led to a bonkai confrontation with Kai realizing he may have saved her out of spite in 6x22, but there is no explanation for why he saved her from damon this time besides.. *wanting* bonnie to get her life away from her friends. And maybe that would've also led him to unsubtly point out that an elena-free existence had actually made bonnie's life better, thanks to kai.

Bon would probably kick his ass halfway across the world after a comment like that but i think it would stick with her, making its way under her skin as it sinks in that the horrific thing Kai did really did end up working out for her in the long run. Bc as we know, even at his lowest, there was always some part of Kai that begrudgingly wanted bonnie's attention and validation and rly resented her friends getting that from her while walking all over her. It would take a long time, but slowly and surely, i think Bonnie's intuition would eventually pick up on that tiny part of Kai that saved her life to show her that she deserved better. It would be very uncomfortable for her to realize that Big Bad Kai could no longer be an easy scapegoat for all her problems, but that might be just what she needs to finally see Kai as a person, rather than a monster. And from there? Well, looots of opportunities and potential would open up from there 😏

[jamneuromain]

Allright my sweet Jam, listen about this. How about a reader who is new at her work and Meet our dear nerdy boy Jensen, Who happens to be in a very bad relationship with a mean girl. He doesn’t leave her because he thinks nobody would date him again , however there comes our reader girl being a badass, sort of friendsxlovers cuties🤭.

Im loving thiiiis!!!! 🙈

Hi nonnie😌❤️

😩soft boi Jakey is always going to have a special place in my heart - the golden retriever look on his face is so damn adorable-

Bad B*tch

Jake Jensen x Reader (you)

Summary: Jake is in a tough spot with a terrible person around. You choose to be the bitch and snap him out of it.

Warning: Swear words.

"I'm so fed up!" Hush-yells Clara, who shoved Jake away from her close proximity, "Leave me alone!"

Storming off from the coffee room, she didn't look back.

If anyone other than people from your department is seeing this, they would think that Jake, who had been pushed and shoved, must have done something wrong to piss off the pretty lady who ran away.

From your point of view?

Clara was obviously manipulating her boy toy again.

It was unfair to call Jake "boy toy", however, with his weirdly cute goatee and the round spectacles on the bridge of his nose, you understood why Clara would want him around. He was undoubtedly good-looking, and practical regarding computers, phones, and anything linked to the power strip.

In fact, your laptop was what connected you and him in the first place. On the first day in your office, you were completely bewildered by the complicated authorization process to make amendments to some files. After some help from the only guy at IT - Jake - you were lucky to gain the authorization from the IT department twice as fast. You had been friends since.

Now, after two years working for your company, you knew too well of your co-workes, Jake included, but especially Clara from the same department where you came from.

Clara was the notorious slayer of hearts, keeping a few men around the tips of her fingers, and manipulate them to do her work for her, occasionally rewarding them by blowing a kiss (or screw them in an empty office, you had the unfortunate experience of walking in Clara and another men fucking each other's brain out) and making their sanity scrambled into mush.

Jake, as it seemed, has fell into the hands of Clara since six months ago.

Jake met your eyes from where he was standing. He managed a small smile, which looked sad rather than happy.

"What is it with this time?" You asked quietly.

It has happened so many times after Jake was determined that Clara was willing to be his girlfriend. Clara would scream and yell whenever something didn't work out the way she expected to, and Jake would hastily apologize for something that wasn't his fault.

"I ... got upset when she got too close with Felix." Jake scratched the back of his head, stepping out of the coffee room and gesturing towards the terrace, where he'd be more open to conversation without eyes and ears close by, "It's ... it's my fault, though, I'm insecure, I'm ..." Jake repeated what Clara had hissed at him, shutting his eyes, he could still hear her words ringing in his ears.

"Sorry about dumping this on you." He hastily apologized. He noticed that you were awfully quiet, probably because that you didn't want to hear about his yet-to-be relationship drama.

"It's okay." You shrugged.

It was not. But last time when you told Jake that Clara was manipulating him into doing her biddings, Jake broke into a large fight with you.

Even though he apologized the next day, but stating the fact that Clara was nothing like you imagined her, you realized some topics were better staying in the dark.

Topics like Clara and her ways with men.

However, it didn't mean that you couldn't wiggle your opinion into his mind.

You turned to him, your voice flooded with sympathy, "You must feel that you are out of her league, I get that a lot."

Yeah sure, Clara didn't deserve him.

Jake took a deep breath, before continuing, "It's just that ... none of the girls finds me attractive." He casted a small glimpse in your direction, "I'm the nerdy IT guy, and they are always ... hot. " Licking his lower lip nervously, Jake huffed, "Clara is different. She has a bad temper, but I think she likes me. She really does."

You were not going to dwell on the case of Clara, because you knew no matter what you say, he was going to defend her. So you changed your approach, "Rewind to the last thing you said - you're not a nerd."

Jake pouted, blinking his puppy eyes.

His whole demeanor was expressing one simple idea. He knew you were trying to sneak by with a white lie.

You laughed. "Okay! Okay, you are. But you're cute. Don't girls dig the cute nerd type?"

"You'd be surprised." He sagged his shoulder, looking depressed, mumbling, "Thank you, anyways. You must have something better to do, and yet you chose to stay and listened to my miserable love life-"

"Don't." You instinctively stopped him from saying more, "Look, Jake, you've been my friend ever since I got to this place, and I know you. I chose to stay because my friend is in need because of a-" You swallowed the B-word, with difficulty, "a really bad person broke his heart, over, over and over again. Not because of anything else, and certainly not because my dear friend 'doesn't deserve' some comforting when he needs it."

Jake stretched his arms over the terrace railing, looking into the city's concrete walls and iron jungles.

"Jake, look at me." You whispered.

He gave no reply, simply letting out a long sigh.

"Jake." You raised your voice, only by a little, and he still did not answer you.

"Jake-" You squished his cheek between your palms, finally made him turn your way, with his adorable lips protruding, "You're better than this - sulking over that bitch - okay?"

A pit of fire rolled in your stomach.

Why couldn't he see the truth? That Clara was playing him, that she never meant to be his girlfriend, not to mention the new boytoy she had, Felix, who was in the accountant and that she needed Felix to check the books for five dozen purchases in your department - on top of, the purchase checks were supposed to be Clara's work, because she messed up with her data entries.

"She wants me." Jake repeats stubbornly. If he had puppy ears, they'd be dangling to the floor, "She likes me."

God, enough with Jake and his bullshit-

You stood on your tiptoes quickly, and smothered Jake with a kiss. The hands on either side of his cheek helps. The fire in your stomach fueled to the kiss, urging you to nibble on his lips, regardless that you were on the terrace of the company building, that you could be seen by almost anyone who stepped foot into the second floor, while the only thing that separated you from the building was see-through glass doors.

"Jake, I need you to help me with-" Clara rushed over, pulling the glass door open, was stunned at her spot, and then, "YOU BITCH!" She screamed at you.

"Guess I am." You smiled coyly, letting go of Jake's reddened lips, "need anything?"

Clara turned to Jake, stomping like a teenager, "Jake, please, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I really need your help."

"I-" Jake hesitated.

"Jake pleaaaaase, you can't help her like that." You mocked her voice, fingers exploring his chin and his stupidly cute goatee, "Oh wait - sorry, forgot I was a bitch. Now why don't I live up to that name - " You made the most impressive bitch face in your entire life, not that you did it before, but with you narrowing your eyes, and twitching your lips, and the "Fuck off from my boyfriend", you made Clara scatter.

You were crossing your arms in contempt, satisfied with your tactics, when a small gasp from Jake made you aware of his presence.

"For the record, I'm not saying sorry." You pursed your lips into a thin line, "Even if you don't want me to be your friend anymore."

Jake gulped, and gulped again, and calling your name hesitantly. Thin sheet of sweat emerged from his forehead, before the goofy grin curled up onto his lips.

"No. No." He murmured. Cheeks pink, biting the inside of his lip, staring into the ground so hard as if studying tile patterns, he added, "You're not asking me for help at work, are you?"

You huffed out a laugh. You could not believe his first concern of your announcement.

"Yes." You cleared your throat.

His eyes looked up in disbelief.

"And asking you to come to our house for New Year's dinner. And asking you to teach me how to play Overwatch. And asking you to be my date at my cousin's wedding. And such and such." Your hand sneaked to his side, secretly interlacing his fingers with yours, "What'd you say?"

"Yeah." He breathed, "Yeah that sounds ... great. As long as I get to be Sombra."

"Who?" You quirked your eyebrows.

Jake giggled, holding your hand tightly in his, "You have so much to catch up on Overwatch! Sombra is the most badass one of them all - well, not as badass as you, it seems..."

Find Jammy's 500 Follower's Celebration here 👈

Questions? Comments? Requests? 👉Send them to my inbox 👂

[alpaca-clouds]

Let me talk about Women in Refrigerators

You know what? This is a thing that is kinda annoying me in the Castlevania fandom. How everyone is screaming about Women in Refrigerators, while folks so clearly do not understand what the trope actually is about and why it is a bad trope.

Like, there is not a single death of a named woman in Castlevania, that not at least someone has called "fridged". Alright, maybe Drolta. But other than that... yeah, folks definitely have called Lenore and Carmilla fridged. And... No, people, you misunderstand the trope.

The name of the trope was coined based on Green Lantern vol. 3 #54 (from the 90s), in which Green Lantern finds his death girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator - mostly for shock value in the reader. Mind you, this was the 90s, when superhero comics were really, really edgy and stuff. And in fact the kind of story happened a lot of times during this time. Female characters being killed, raped and tortured for pure shock value, with the story not featuring any idea of what this did to the female character, but rather focusing on what this does to the male characters. (And mind you: Yes, a woman can be considered fridged and still survive the ordeal. A lot of folks do consider Barbara in The Killing Joke fridged as well.)

So, what does "Fridging" in terms of the trope mean? Basically it means that a female character suffers a horrible fate just so that another (most probably male) character can be motivated to do something and react to this thing happening, setting in motion a character arc for the surviving character - or even setting into motion the plot.

In many examples it should also be noticed that at times the female characters mostly just exist to meet their horrible end. Supernatural as a show is really bad in this regard. Like, within the first episode of the show THREE FUCKING WOMEN get fridged, just so that the brothers can travel together and start the plot.

So, let's move back to Castlevania.

Lisa is fridged. There is no way around it. Yes, it does not feel like it, because they still managed to make her a character of sorts, but yeah, she definitely is fridged. She dies a horrible death and that death is what motivates the plot, as well as what motivates both Alucard and Dracula. That is very classical fridging no way around it.

Carmilla and Lenore, though? Yeah, they are not fridged. They are characters who just die. Their death is not used to motivate another character. Their death is also not random, like most fridging deaths. Especially Carmilla is basically asking for her death, of course. She is a villain and gets the same death as all other villains. And while it is a bit different with Lenore, she definitely is not fridged either, giving that she literally dies in the last episode with no plot or development happening because of her death.

In Nocturne it gets a bit more complicated. Is Julia fridged? In a way, I would argue, she is, mostly on the value that she exists as a character to die and for her death to be the basis for Richter's character arc, giving him the trauma he needs to overcome.

Esther meanwhile does not feel fridged to me. Because Annette's trauma is not deeply linked to her death, rather than the entire slavery experience in general.

Tera? Well, for Tera it is too early to tell. I still assume that her change into a vampire is going to be used to have the characters realize, that vampires are not inherently evil, and to give us a view into what vampire society looks like. At least that is what I assume.

By the way: The fridging of female characters is my big issue with the PS2 Castlevania games. Like, in Lament of Innocence both Sara and Elisabetha are getting fridged to motivate Leon and Mathias. And the same is true for Rosalie in Curse of Darkness, who as a character only exists to motivate Hector. I mean, she is so replacable as a character, that Hector fucking replaces her by the end of the game.

[wrinkly-walls]

The Woodsboro murders as a movie

A (probably unnecessarily long) meta post about how, in universe, the killings were thought of and concieved throught the lens of a movie rather that, well, serial killings (in MY OPINION). This is borderline incomprehensible but bare with me ok :)

DISCLAMER! Same as my last post, this is only taking into account what we're told in the first movie. I don't think that what they tried to do in Scream 3(by this I mean Roman, not the movie set which I do think is cool) is interesting and I prefer to mostly ignore it :) Ok that's all.

As we all know, one of the main reasons why Scream (1996) is such a great movie is it's meta aspect: the self awareness and self referential nature of the film, that works both as a horror movie and as a horror movie parody (accomplishing both things beautifully I may add), is what makes it stand apart. I don't think I need to explain why Scream "Do you like scary movies?" is very meta, so I won't.

What I want to get into is the movie inside of the movie, the movie that Billy and Stu thought they were making, and basically why I think that was the case (the fact that rather than simply being serial killers they created a narrative). By doing this I also want to try to explain why they failed in-universe and why it could've literally never worked the way they were thinking about it.

Let's get started!

So, first there is the why. Like why even would they do that, you know? We don't know whether everything was planned before they killed Maureen, or if after the fact they decided to keep going, but either way I think that it was always going to happen. By that I mean that, as I mentioned in my motives post (which you should check out ;) ), I don't think that murder in on itself was enough for Billy. As I said, I think that the feeling of regained control, of making everyone unwilling actors in his movie after his mother left, was even more important that the murder in itself. Something that I noticed on a recent rewatch that I had totally forgotten about is the scene where Sidney is in the bathroom and a cheerleader is talking about how she thinks that Sidney is actually the killer. The girl says something along the lines of "she felt so bad but she realized teen suicide is out this year and she decided that murder is a much more healthier form of expression". Ironically, I think that this kind of applies to what Billy went through mentally. Obviously, he didn't not kill himself because "teen suicide is out", but I do think that the notion of murder as expression, one that aligns with his interests (horror movies) is one that resonates with him. The way they do it, the murders are as much creation as they are destruction, you know? After his mom left, it's likely that he did what he could to cope with that fact, and in this case this would be to parallel himself with the many (many, like there's so many wtf) horror villans that don't have a mom, or otherwise have a complicated relationship with her (as Sid would put it, mommy issues).

With this we have Billy simultaniously embodying two figures of power in movies, on outside of the movie as writer and director; and one inside, as the unnatural unstoppable force of the slasher (I'm not even going to get into the slasher as a figure of power in slasher films because that's very long, but I recomend reading literaly any sort of analysis of gender in slasher because it's very cool). This is basically the biggest expression of power one can achieve: he both decides the "genre", what role people play; and literally who lives and dies. By being what are probably his role models both in and out of the screen, he manages to sucessfully be put back into a position where he feels comfortable.

To go off on a tangent, this is also why I feel that any analysis of Scream that doesn't consider the concept of Stuilly at all is missing some of the complexities of the characters, because while it is clear that by doing all of this Billy hopes to reclaim lost power, he also willingly decides to share this newfound power. Something that I love about Billy and Stu is that they aren't killers, they're slashers. Or more accurately, they're a slasher. And no matter what some people say on the internet (it makes me so fucking mad free my boy Stu he gets miscaracterized in all fucking directions) Billy also lets Stu be writer and director. We are explicitly told that Stu "though up the ending" (another way in which they themselves present their spree as a movie), an ending Billy himself praises, and if that doesn't say something about their relationship I don't know what does. Not to mention the literal stabbing. The only way I can really see the situation play out like this, by which I mean Billy deciding to share what the killings mean with someone else, is if there was affection of some kind. One could also say that it's just because he couldn't do it alone, or to having someone to take the fall; but that would also mean admitting to not being powerful, admitting that he alone cannot neither plan or go through with his movie, and that's a huge admission of weakness. All this to say they were gay.

Going back to the main thing, the narrative is not that of normal killings. As is established pretty clearly in the movies by the fact that Sid is the main character, the way the the killings are planned are also done with her very clearly at the center. The plot of Scream is that, a plot, one that is (at least at the start) not really that different from other slashers. You have a murder in the past, in this case the main character's mom; which establishes some stakes and just makes the character more interesting. Then, the new murders start, and at first it's just two people who don't really matter: they are killed, on a narrative level, just to start things up again, to get Sid (and the, for them imaginary, audience). After that, a violent attack, complete with taunts about Sid's mother; and then- the boyfriend! He gets arrested, Sid feels completely crazy, just to then be taunted again about how she gets innocent people in prison. Then the party happens (I skipped the bathroom scene because to me that was not them, it being them makes no sense to me), classic final act. And that's certainly a great movie plot, but it's a pretty stupid murder plot. It's way too complicated and risky, Billy could've not been released; and the party is way too ambitoius. To many things could (and actually do) go wrong.

Another important thing that I sorta already mentioned is the way they talk about it, both before and after the reveal. Before we have the scene at the video store, where they talk about "suspects", and they mess with Randy saying that according to movie logic (which he himself follows during the movie: he actually thinks in a very similar way to Billy and Stu), he could be the killer. Then there's Billys creepy-ass "it's all a movie", and I don't think that needs to be explained. And in the third act-well, it happens a lot with the "ending" and the virgin thing.

But again, as is said in the movie and I sort of said on my motives post, the way that it is a "movie" is not a "crazy" way. By this I mean that they absolutely knew what they were doing, and if they didn't do it like that they would've done it some other way. Billy himself says that "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative!". So the "artistic" side of the murders is just how the violent thoughs they surely had before manifested in this specific case, with this specific characters.

So, I've established that the murders are thought of like a movie, and why they would even do that (or why Billy would, as I said in my motives post Stu basically did it for funsies and 'cause he's in love, I don't think to him it was that deep. Though of course he still benefited from the control aspect, and maybe that paired with the murder of Casey and Steve...). Now what's left is why I think that this conception of what they were doing is actually the reason why they lost.

The main thing is obvious: in-universe, they are actually killing people with a movie plot. That is stupid behavior, because well, in real life things don't have "narratives". In real life it's not that you can't pick your genre, is that there are no genres to pick. In real life, there is no way you can control as many things as they were trying to (as they needed to for the plan to even work.)

One of those things, to me, is the fact that Dewey and Gale were not characters in their murder movie. Why would they be? They literally have nothing to do with the plot. They are outside the friend group, in a different age range, and if you narrated Scream from Billy and Stu's pov they would only appear at the end, and maybe as background characters before that. So when these two show up at the party, it's a real fucking problem. You can even see Stu a little bit after they show up, and for a second he doesn't look happy at all. We have no way to know how much they had to rework the "third act" to fit with this, but ultimately, it is because of Gale their plan fails. Gale, this random fucking reporter they see on TV sometimes.

There's also the "slasher immortality" thing. Stu himself talks about "the sequel", and in slasher franchises you basically have two ways to do that: either the slasher is the same, or the final girl is the same. The first is obviously much more common, and it's clearly what they were hoping for. The slasher can't die, so they can't die. (what they don't realize, and what makes the scream franchise sort of work even if I don't like where they took it, is that ghostface is the slasher, not the literal killers in each movie. By making their costume so obscuring of who's behind the mask, and giving ghostface a personality of their own, they are separating themselves from the slasher. You can have a sequel with different killers, because like the victims in so many slasher franchises, they are completely replaceable.)

Another reason they fail is very well known, and that's the goddamn stabbing. It's really the most stupid thing they could've done at that moment, but- knowing how things are structured for them, can we really blame them? I mean, they had to do it while Sid was alive, otherwise it wouldn't have been in "the movie". And according to the way they behave, they are so fucking sure they've won. They aren't worried at all, because in their narrative, this is the end. Everything that they accounted for is on it's place. Nothing can go wrong, right? It's a perfect ending.

And just the ending in general. As I said, the party is way too ambitious. Before that, we know they've killed four people successfully, but in all those cases they didn't have to really try that hard. Maureen was just one against the two of them, and she didn't expect it. They had total control of what happened. And the same happens with Casey and Steve: these people had no idea they could even be in danger, and there were few. Even Casey and Steve were taken care of separately. Same with the principal, and even later with Tatum. What they wanted to do with the party is, logistically, a huge jump in difficulty. But they think they can get away with it because that's how slashers work: of course there are higher stakes at the climax! It'll work out anyway, because that's what they wrote!

This overconfidence in their movie logic (ie the fact that Sid has to die because she's no longer a virgin) is what ultimately kills them, but it's not the only "movie thing" that does. Because when she ends them, Sid is literally dressed in their slasher costume, using the same lines they did before. She takes their movie and runs with it, but as she herself says, she doesn't like scary movies, so when Billy wakes up for one last scare she doesn't hesitate. She doesn't give a fuck about the so-called rules, or the narrative, or anything.

And that's why, in her movie, they fucking die.

[pesky--dust]

I love Chiyoh, but I feel like in a lot of fanfics she is portrayed as horribly cold, emotionless and she doesn't like Will and would do everything to protect Hannibal from him. We don't know much about her, practically as much as nothing, but I'll allow myself an amateur analysis of her person. 

(I spent too much time to read scripts of episodes with her). In inverted commas I placed dialogues and italicized the descriptions from the script. I also added screenshots of scripts, if I felt the need to. In bold letters I wrote the titles of the episodes I discussed and the summary of the whole post, because it turned out to be much longer than I expected. 

Secondo:

We meet Chiyoh in Secondo when Will went to Lithuania to better understand Hannibal. She is an excellent shooter and has a very good intuition — being watched by Will while hunting, she realizes that something has changed on the property (Something is off in this place she knows so well.). 

When she finally meets Will, who tells her he's Hannibal's friend, Chiyoh dips [shotgun’s barrel] slightly, either in hesitation or relief., but when he tells, he is looking for him, she raises the barrel again. She is apparently surprised that Will knows about Mischa, which shows the fragment of the script:

Chiyoh also asks Will how he knows Hannibal and when she hears his answer, she comes to the right conclusion:

Then Chiyoh asks Will to tell his story. We don't know exactly what Will told her, but he must have said something that made her react that way:

Finally she comments his story with: “Hannibal took someone from you, are you here to take someone from him?”, so I guess it's safe to assume Will told her about Abigail, but probably without details about complicated relationship between him, Abigail and Hannibal.

She tells she can understand Hannibal, because he is doing what has been done to Mischa. So she rather knows about killing and cannibalism, however I guess she has no idea about the fact that Hannibal ate his own sister, but about that a little bit later. In my opinion she sees Hannibal's actions as a coping mechanism to deal with what has happened to Mischa (and it wouldn't be wrong, people deal with trauma in different ways).

As I mentioned before, Chiyoh has perfect intuition and realizes that Will is similar to Hannibal (“You're nakama. Aren't you alike?”) and that he thought about killing and eating her (“You've given that some thought.”). Here is a script of that moment:

Will tells her also infamous: “I've never known myself as well as I know myself when I'm with him.” and Chiyoh’s reaction is: She considers that, recognizing the feeling.

Choyoh tells Will her story — she didn’t let Hannibal take the life of Misha's killer, so he left the prisoner's life in her hands. There is a dialog:

Not only Hannibal is curious if Chiyoh would kill the prisoner — Will is also curious, so he frees the prisoner. Prisoner, overwhelmed by the freedom he regained after twenty-five years (Outside for the first time in twenty-five years, the man shivers with terror.), returns to his cell and attacks Chiyoh, when he gains an opportunity to do so. Feeling life slipping away, Chiyoh drives a pheasant bone into the man's neck, eventually killing him, which results with: She does what she has always resisted and deliberately kills the caged man. He slumps and falls off her. She lies still for a moment, then lets out a SCREAM.

She knows Will is responsible for that and tells him that, but the shock of what she did caused also dialogue, in which she begins to wonder if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to his sister:

She decides to help Will to find Hannibal, because she had no reason to stay in Lithuania after killing that man.

Contorno:

On the train, Chiyoh tells Will how she came to meet Hannibal, how they played together as children and Hannibal was, “charming the way a cub is charming, a small cub that grows up to be like one of the big cats.”, with Will commenting, “One you can't play with later.”.

Will talks to her about the prisoner she killed. He asks if she sees herself killing that man, to which Chiyoh responds she does not see herself, but him:

When they are getting ready to bed, they are also talking and the dialogue I'm pasting in the next paragraph, makes me think that Chiyoh, despite living twenty-five years in solitude, can read people like Hannibal like an open book. Will says that violence can be used to control behavior, and Chiyoh notices that Hannibal is affecting Will and wonders if Will is also affecting Hannibal. She also realizes that Will wants to kill Hannibal because he fears otherwise he will become like Hannibal, so she comments with the words, ���There are means of influence other than violence.”.

Later she repeats words, “There are means of influence other than violence.”, followed by:

(I really wanted to use that fragment of the script)

Dolce:

In this episode, Chiyoh introduces herself to Bedelia as Hannibal's family. She also tells Bedelia that they are like birds and that Hannibal puts them in cages, wondering what they will do.

When Bedelia asks her what she wants, Chiyoh answers, “I want to cage him.”. Bedelia tells her that she thought that the biggest Hannibal's mistake was Will Graham but maybe it's Chiyoh.

The next time we see Chiyoh, she shoots Will. While treating Will's gunshot wound, Hannibal tells Will that Chiyoh has always been protective of him and is delighted that she, not Will, killed the prisoner.

Later Chiyoh gets into the elevator where Jack is. Realizing that Jack is going to the same floor as she and that the man is watching her suspiciously, Chiyoh tells him, she has mistook the floor and leaves.

Digestivo:

This is the last episode where Chiyoh appears. It is also the episode in which Chiyoh meets Jack Crawford. After Hannibal and Will got kidnapped and Jack is about to be killed, Chiyoh rescues him by killing corrupted police officers, because she thinks she should have done it (“I ought to. I should. Therefore, I must.”). 

At the same time, she apparently realizes that Jack must know both Hannibal and Will. She understands that when she's talking about Hannibal, she apparently must also talk about Will (“You're sitting at Hannibal's table. You know him. You know Will.”).

Jack sees that Chiyoh can be violent, when the situation demands it and being asked, to where Hannibal and Will were taken, he tells her, he will tell her that information if she take his IV away, so she does so. He tells her where to find them and assures her he won't interfere.

To save Hannibal, Chiyoh travels to the United States, to Maryland. There, on the Muskrat Farm, when Hannibal carries Will half-conscious in his arms and is followed by Mason Verger's employees, Chiyoh kills them to keep Hannibal safe.

Next time when we see Chiyoh, she is on the porch of Will's house, where she finally meets Hannibal again. Hannibal asks, if she will go home, if she can go home, to which Chiyoh replies, “No more than you can.”, which is followed by the dialogue:

Much of this dialogue did not end in the episode, but despite everything, Chiyoh has changed her mind and does not want to see Hannibal in the cage anymore. The words “I see the best of you and the worst with steady hands and a slow heart.” I understand as the fact that Chiyoh knows Hannibal, she knows his good and bad traits; she's not afraid of him, but she knows she should be careful and not put her gun down.

I come back also to the topic of her knowledge about Hannibal's actions. As I wrote, she rather didn't know about the fact that Hannibal ate Mischa and it's pretty clear in that moment. She asks him about it and is actually relieved he only ate and didn't kill his sister.

Hannibal’s words “The most stable elements, Chiyoh, appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver. Between iron and silver. I think that is appropriate for you.” mean to me that even though she killed a man, she's still the same Chiyoh he knew, since she is violent only when situation demands is and she's still going to protect him. Despite what she did, she didn't betray herself, as he did after Misha's death — she's better than him.

The last time we see her is when Hannibal surrenders. She's pointing a rifle at the officers and Hannibal, ready to fire if the FBI wants to kill Hannibal on the spot. Eventually she goes into the woods. It's the last moment we see her, the last moment we hear about her.

Summary (tl;dr)

All in all, Chiyoh is an excellent shooter. She also has great intuition, because — even though she barely met Will Graham — she practically immediately realizes how similar he is to Hannibal. She knows Will and Hannibal must be close if Will knows about Mischa. She also knows Hannibal took away someone close to Will. However, she says she accepts Hannibal because he does what has been done to Mischa, his sister, whom he loved above all else. She sees herself as Hannibal's family, but cries, realizing that maybe Will knows more about Hannibal than she does, because she asks him if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to Mischa.

She had a strict rule not to take a human life, but she's forced to do so in order not to die herself. She wants to protect Hannibal, because he's probably the only family she has.

Her words that there are other means of influence other than violence and her kissing Will, I understand that seeing how identical he and Hannibal are and that Hannibal influences Will's behavior and Will influences Hannibal's behavior, Chiyoh wants to convince Will that he doesn't have to kill Hannibal because violence is not the only means of influencing people's behavior — it can be also love. In my opinion, that's why Chiyoh doesn't kill Will when he pulls out a knife to hurt Hannibal. She shoots him to simply disable him, to give him a chance to reconsider his decision to take Hannibal's life.

She also realizes that apparently when talking about Hannibal, she must also be talking about Will, because in a conversation with Jack, she points out that Jack knows both Hannibal and Will.

At first, she wanted to put Hannibal in a cage, but: 1) after hearing from Bedelia that she thought Hannibal's biggest mistake was Will Graham, and yet maybe his biggest mistake was rather Chiyoh; 2) and after the massacre at the Verger farm; Chiyoh changed her mind.

I think it might have something to do with Jack's words, “I know them. They are identically different, Hannibal and Will.”, and with Bedelia's statement that she thought Will was Hannibal's the biggest mistake, and with the massacre at the Verger farm itself, as everyone Chiyoh has met tells her about closeness between Hannibal and Will; she also saw Hannibal rescuing and carrying Will, taking care of him at his home. 

She realizes that all of this can't be the result of violence. I think she sees that both Hannibal and Will are beasts, but they can control each other to a certain extent. She promises Hannibal that she will continue to protect him, but not in a cage, as some beasts are better not be caged. However, seeing that Hannibal decides to let himself be locked in a cage, she allows it, because it’s his decision.

I believe that after these events, Chiyoh remained in the United States to keep her hand on the pulse in case Hannibal needed her. Given that Chiyoh herself said she can’t go back home for the same reason Hannibal can’t (bad memories) and that, according to Bryan Fuller, she was the one who took care of the house on the cliff, I think that theory makes sense.

[odyssean-flower]

After playing thru the archon quest and his story quest, how do you feel about Neuvillette as a yandere?

Ok this is a bit difficult to answer bc neuvi is a pretty complicated guy but i will try my best!

- so i think he would be overall pretty soft and hands off kind of yandere. He wouldnt do all the classic yandere techniques like imprisonment (unless he feels there's no other way to keep you safe)

- first it will probably take a while for him to understand and come to terms with these unfamiliar feelings. It will take a lot of research, soul-searching, and maybe a few bouts of rain when he sees you with someone else before he realizes that what he feels for you goes beyond mere affection. These feelings are strange and he thinks maybe being near you will be the key to solving them

- i dont think he would approach you himself. He's pretty self-aware about his position and would rather watch you go about your day from a distance while he figures himself out.

- he would unconsciously memorize the places you frequent and show up there when he has time. He would stand in the shade to avoid drawing a lot of attention (not realizing that he made himself look even shadier). He would also probably ask the melusines to tail you for "protection" (and find out more about your likes and dislikes)

- since he can taste feelings from water i think he would visit the fountain sometimes to specifically find your feelings and try to find out how you feel towards him

- if you talk to him first he would see that as permission to get involved with you more, sorta like a verbal vampire. He would probably start greeting you himself whenever he sees you, trying his best to hide his rising heartrate. Will remember every comment you make

- tbh i can see him just never making a move and keep pining forever until something drastic happens that forces him to make underhanded moves (like how he tricked us into eating the cake to send us to prison)

- e.g. if you're getting married to someone else, he would be going through your partners life trying to find anything that will warrant sending them to prison. He will come up to you and comfort you afterwards of course

- e.g. if you get injured or something dangerous happens to you he would keep you under house arrest (his house of course) for your "protection" while he deals with the "danger". He's treating you so well during that time that you might forget that this is a temporary arrangement (which is what he's hoping for)

- very scared of something happening to you bc he's seen enough bloodshed in his time to know that no one is truly safe from danger

Ngl its really hard to think of yandere stuff for neuvi bc he's such a green flag

[pinene]

Idk maybe I've just interacted with true weirdos but I swear to god there's an unfortunately significant percentage of gayboys who regularly crank it to the most hairy bearded juiced up bear porn and lust after str8 men but have like "keep your 'masc' bullshit away from me thx" in their bios. I reckon that rightful criticisms/rejection of guys in the 20teens using "masc[4masc]" to mean "i am homophobic" got overcorrected into "gay men can't be genuinely masculine, it's either a costume or self-hatred"

Which is kind of a really effective way to get a str8 guy fetish if you're attracted to masculine men..? So that's unfortunate. And then subsequently it's become gauche to declare yourself as masc or butch. If you do so, these guys will absolutely look for and subsequently point out anything you do that's effeminate, which is in itself very homophobic and weird. presumably it's because they are assuming you operate on the toxic masc wavelength and so are trying to give you a taste of your own medicene, but if you aren't, they're just... being fucking rude

But then it gets very complicated by the fact that you have other gay guys saying shit like "Hey it's okay if you're just masc, you don't have to be fabulous to be gay" and that's just a crazy ass thing to say. I understand where they're coming from, but being picked on by insecure gay dudes is nowhere near being oppressed lol. There's also often the complaint about being stereotyped when you're just a "normal" dude, and I definitely resonate with it being impossible to be taken seriously when you're a gay guy-- but they make a grave error in assuming the pain comes from not fitting the stereotype. Rather, being stereotyped sucks whether you fit it or not, and honestly, probably sucks more when you DO!

It does seem like this era is ending though. I think we're all starting to finally realize that gender is silly, and fun, and sexy, not something you need to earn or be born with, and you can explore any and all axes of it as you please. I don't wear big boots cuz I think I'm better than fem queens. I wear them cuz they make me happy

[paxopalotls]

RAHH i just read both your tue danny / phantom / dan centric works, and how does it feel to be so correct and compelling and correct? more seriously - what about TUE / TUE Danny do you find most interesting to explore? do you have any characterization / headcanon that isn't necessarily canon compatible? and free space (please ramble about them as much as you want)

Sorry it's taken me so long to go through my inbox! I hope you don't mind the long text; TUE is one of my favorite episodes and Dan is a character that I find very fascinating.

Thank you for the kind words aahh! I don't often write so it means a lot that you liked my works. For context if anyone else is reading this, I wrote a couple IB fics about Dan/Phantom, and my thoughts about him, which I'll elaborate on here.

I have a lot of feelings about Dan, especially since he as a character is so tragic. It's strange to me that no one ever mentions the fact that when Vlad performed the removal of Danny's human half, it was Phantom that betrayed Vlad, not the other way around. I always thought that meant there was something wrong with Dan after the accident also. I delve into it a little in my fic, but I do have more thoughts about his attitude. It's interesting to me that the comic portrays his actions as being motivated by Vlad's self preservation and selfishness, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I do think it's more complicated than that. I personally believe his actions have a very complex motivation, more than just "Vlad is evil so fusing with him made Danny also evil".

It's difficult to deal with grief, and from the few scenes shown, it seems Dan dealt with it by shutting down. I also think he had a lot of conflicting feelings of grief and rage; Danny was the one who regularly defeated the ghosts, but he was also the one protecting them from the human ghost hunters, releasing the ghosts back into the GZ rather than allowing them to be taken for experimentation. I think it would anger him that his lenience towards the ghosts was taken advantage of, leading to the deaths of his friends and family. Vlad never showed an inclination towards abusing the ghosts, so this is what I believe caused him to do such uncharacteristically violent things like paralyze Johnny 13 from the waist down, permanently damage one of Box Ghost's eyes and one of his hands, and destroy Ember's vocal cords.

Something I touched on in my fic too is that I believe Danny has a weird relationship with death, due to the fact that he managed to come back from it, and also due to the general existence of ghosts in his life. AGIT states that all ghosts are people who've died, as well as that some lose their humanity over time. Due to this, I have a belief/theory that Dan expected his friends, if not family, to come back, and when they didn't, he dealt with his loneliness through anger. In TUE, he acts like he doesn't care about any of them, but I think he actually cares too much. He is caustic and taunting towards them, his parents especially, because his anger at them for hurting him is compounded by his grief at their loss.

In addition, the interference of Clockwork probably also contributed to his anger; there are two timelines that exist, the one where Danny lost and the one where he didn't, and the only reason that he won was because of the interference of Time himself. I think this is a lot of what motivates Dan's actions in TUE; he's trying to prove to Danny that the timeline is "inevitable" because he's trying to prove it to himself. His loved ones have already died, and he's angry that this alternate Danny gets a second chance. The only moment of true vulnerability we see in him during TUE is when he realizes that Jazz, his Jazz from his timeline, had always known who he was. It's obvious that despite his efforts to seem unemotional about everything, all of his actions are due to his turbulent emotions, and this is even more evident in canon due of AGIT confirming that ghosts are beings of emotion.

I do think Vlad's emotional state also compounds with this, since Vlad as a character is more prone to hiding his hurts than Danny, which is a large part of what makes up Dan's personality. In addition, Vlad's character is largely driven by a desire for family and affection, but he responds to this insecurity with a need for control and self-aggrandizement. Vlad's goals throughout the show are to amass power, largely to prove himself to those he cares about - Danny and Maddie - as well as to spite those he hates - Jack. His feelings for Jack seem more complicated than that, however; he is upset at what he sees as a betrayal by someone he obviously cared about; the two of them were best friends and roommates before Maddie was in the picture.

I think both Danny and Vlad center a lot of themselves on the people they love, though it's more evident on Vlad's side, and Dan as a combination of them does as well. His tendency is often similar to "splitting" in BPD, where he responds to a perceived betrayal or personal weakness with volatility, which is something Vlad does as well, with Jack, Maddie in some ways and especially with Danny. Dan as well responds with hostility towards people he is attached to who he perceives as hurting him, something that is complicated by the fact that part of what he blames them for is the fact that they died. He is especially ruthless with people he sees as betraying him or his lenience, like Valerie and the ghost rogues gallery; this is also a combination of Vlad and Danny's personalities. Vlad's hatred tends to be more long-standing than Danny's but he also tends to be more methodical with his actions. Danny on the other hand responds to his own anger with immediate aggression, but lets go of slights relatively quickly. Dan, as the combination of the two, holds grudges for a long time, but tends to rely on brute force rather than long term plans like Vlad would have.

He also has a lot of self-loathing, which he projects onto Danny and Vlad from this timeline, Danny especially. As I mentioned earlier, a large factor in this is Clockwork's direct involvement in the current timeline, which superseded his. In addition, I think that Danny and Vlad's interpersonal dynamic might have fed into this; both of them can't bring themselves to permanently harm the other but they do both hold some level of resentment for the other, Danny more-so since Vlad has an attachment to him. Danny's hatred for Vlad especially seems to derive in part from his own fears about himself and his selfishness, and I think that influences the way Dan interacts with both of them.

TLDR: Dan's specific concoction of mental illness derives from both Vlad and Danny, which affects a lot about how he acts and feels. There's a lot to explore about his trauma and how that relates to his new place in the current timeline, and I have a lot of feelings about him. (He makes me sad!!)

[shineonyoucrazyyandere]

Bad Horsie - Yandere! Johnny Joestar x Reader x Yandere! Gyro Zeppeli

Reader’s horse has a stand and of course is protective of their owner, both Gyro and Johnny fume over this as this animal blocks them at every move. This was supposed to be a joke post for April fools awhile go, less comedic than I was intending so it’s not gonna be right on April fools. Horse’s name : Bastille

Stand : Bad Horsie (Namesake ; Steve Vai - Bad Horsie)

You and Bastille probably had one of the strongest bonds one could possibly have with each other. Even Mountain Tim himself made an observation of this, which made you proud. Your father had given him to you a few years prior to entering the Steel Ball Run. A horse that was supposedly stubborn with other riders, just happened to click with you. So, you made sure to treat him right, give him the love he deserved and the both of you could communicate with grace.

Something that came heavily in handy in this arduous journey across the United States. Though it wasn’t just the two of you alone not like you thought it would have been. You wished it was that way, but life had thrown you a terrifying hardball consisting of two racers. The British born Johnny Joestar and Italian Gyro Zeppeli, who you only had considered allies to get you through this disaster of a race.

Bastille was your rock keeping you sane around those two, their romantic interest suddenly blossoming in a hell-scape of stand users. Your lovely horse knew this, the nervousness in your heart as you handled the reigns. He’d always eyeball the two of them when they were camping down for the night or when you hit a checkpoint. So he made it known to you to give as much pets as you wanted.

However as the trek went on, the atmosphere became suffocating. Bastille could feel it even as the two of you kept in sync, trying your best to either ride behind or in front of those two men. As much as there was to worry about venomous snakes or other apex predators, they seemed easier to deal with in this scenario. Perhaps this horse couldn’t get the complete situation down, but if you were in danger it would help instinctively or otherwise.

You knew your lovely companion had a stand but never divulged this to the men you were traveling with. You felt rather guilty relying on your own horse for protection, but if he wanted to you knew there wasn’t stopping him. Just retroactively planning things carefully so you and him could cross that finish line.

While you tried to keep your distance from these two, as much as they would allow they would take advantage of this to talk about your horse. This was literally the only reason for the past few weeks that you managed to get any kind of break. They knew for certain your furry friend knew this even if you didn’t consciously realize.

“The way their horse acts it’s interesting isn’t it?” Gyro said breaking a small silence the two of them.

Johnny’s blue eyes glanced over briefly “It’s not too hard to differentiate, horses do have emotions but I can tell there’s something more to him”

Gyro nodded along “How long have you been suspecting him being something more?”

The blond admitted he couldn’t shake a certain feeling from the very start of the race. Gyro’s eyes in turn widened a bit before resettling.

“Tch…so I’ve been getting dirt flung in my face on purpose by that cheeky prick for a little while now” The male smirked with a small gleam of his teeth.

Joestar himself sighed, he was frustrated by Bastille himself. He never really counted on being on the defensive against a horse of all things. Considering they were chasing corpse parts, this should hardly be any surprise to either of them. Johnny would never hesitate in taking a humans life to keep you to himself, Your horse complicated things for the race at least.

“Think it has a stand?” Gyro tossed another question out “If he wants to protect them that bad, I can’t rule that out as an impossibility”

“Wouldn’t be surprised, y/n loves that horse to death and of course they wouldn’t bother telling us about it”

“Damn, that’s true…” He clicked his tongue in annoyance, not for the potential fact your horse could’ve helped during certain face offs. Or the fact it was only focused on you and vice versa stung his heart. You’re cute trying to hide everything from him and Johnny though. As for Bastille, he wasn’t about to let a damn horse of all things keep him away from his darling.

The two of them decided to stitch together a timeline of sorts of your mighty steed’s actions. Johnny recalling a few times during the night he’d see your horse move it’s pitch closer when it could tell when he was staring at you during the night. Not to mention the close proximity of blocking his view of you by the morning. Or it pulling back when if felt your discomfort at him getting close to you while running.

Biggest thing Johnny had happen to him was almost having his head crushed in. He’d admit he was being nosy in attempting to get a hold of a diary you had, just to see if you were trying to write something to a potential significant other. Which he’d promptly burn without care if you had one if he had actually gotten a hold of it.

Gyro on the other hand had as he said dirt flung in his face various times. The intense flirtatious comments he’d make occasionally would sometimes occur. Almost getting knocked off balance if you tensed up enough. Or his belongings on Valkyrie getting strewn about, to distract the Italian from being in your presence. Or somehow slipping into a waterhole even though he knew for certain he had good balance and grip.

Johnny wouldn’t lie, he kinda chuckled at that last one at the time.

In literally any normal scenario anyone would take a hint. But Johnny and Gyro didn’t quite see it as protecting you. They were pouncing for more attention from you than they already greedily lapped up.

That evening when you all decided to pitch up camp for the night however would unknowingly unravel everything.

That evening you were the one to start the fire, the wood and kindling already gathered. You felt nervous that you weren’t able to catch another respite from these two. Keeping you right in their line of sight. Sighing you informed Gyro the fire was ready and he decided to start dinner with steadfastness. However he insisted you help him this time around.

“You know, that horse of yours sure does love you” Gyro abruptly brought up while tending to cutting up something with his knife.

“uh yeah I’d think so?” You do your best to shrug off the comment

“Something seems interesting about yours behavior wise” He responded cryptically.

“What’s your point?”

A smirk rises on his face, his green eyes cutting into your own.

“I’m just saying your horse seems to act on things with purpose”

You could feel your heartbeat race a bit faster than usual, this wasn’t the first time but this was a little different. A snort came from the distance, Bastille looking to your eyes clearly disgruntled. Shortly after you saw Gyro pointing towards him.

“There’s only so many times something could be an accident, and you know it don’t you?”

You swallowed nervously when Gyro projected his voice a bit louder. You knew who he was referring to, and when his eyes settled down back to yours you went cold.

“It’s not very nice keeping things from your lovers you know” Your eyes darted over to Johnny whose own stare was ice cold.

“Now, I’m a little more forgiving than Johnny is…Bastille would probably be dead by now if we weren’t searching for the corpse parts or were in a race” Something you absolutely took to be true when you saw the blond facing down an enemy.

Out of the corner of your eye you saw something pierce the ground, causing Bastille to move erratically in dodging. Quickly rising to your feet to attempt to assist him. But the sensation of a steel ball on your leg made you twist in a way you never felt before. Gyro quickly sought to catch you and hold you back into his vice grip.

“Bastille stop! Stop!” You shouted as he stomped his hooves aggressively, knowing he would try to attack Johnny. Gyro too if he hadn’t been so preoccupied. It pained you to say such a thing when you knew for certain they started this on purpose.

“You could give it up all right now and try to fight Johnny and I off, abandon the race completely” The Italian man stated with smugness.

“But I’ll make sure you’re unable to run in anyway I can” He hummed “I can hurt you just enough that I need help you like I do Johnny~, but not enough to disqualify you from the race”

You bit your lip as he squeezed his arms closer around your body.

“So what’ll be? Can’t wait to hear your answer”

[seineko]

i had no idea about the journey that i was about to get aboard on when i started attack on titan after literally going in blind.

i admit, i was one of those who taught that it was another mindless shounen anime which is all about flashy fights and over the top ass whopping. and i'm glad i gave season 3 another chance after my friend begged me to watch it.

and yea, i'm probably writing this with very emotional head after all the videos youtube recommended to me.

this show was with me when my life was at it's lowest and also at some of the highest. i can't thank it enough for the memories both in anime and out in the real world.

regardless of what you feel about the ending, be it love or hate or a complicated mess of emotions, no one can deny the fact that it had one if not the biggest impact in the anime industry. something that isn't easy to forget.

to annie leonhardt, to reiner braun and to bertolt hoover, thank you for showing that there is never a world where everything is black and white. to keep living on with the guilt eating you from inside but also cannot help but do what was told to you is a life i wouldn't wish upon the worst of my enemies.

to hange zoe, thank you for pushing forward in pursue of your knowledge and showing how important the smallest of researches are. thank you for pushing forward not for revenge, but for the pursuit of knowledge you so admired.

to erwin smith, thank you for being the greatest commander ever known to people. whether you pushed forward for entirely selfish reasons or the sake for humanity, you were the commander that humanity needed at it's lowest and you were the one who dug out the path for your successors.

to levi ackerman, thank you for bearing the burden of being the humanity's strongest. what good is being as strong as an entire brigade if you can't save those dearest to your heart? you fought despite losing everyone who meant something to you just so their deaths would have a meaning. that is what makes you humanity's strongest.

to jean, thank you for being the breath of fresh air in between, somewhere deep down, everyone is a suicidal maniac. thank you for being honest about how you feel at every turn and sticking with everyone despite how dire things turned.

to connie, thank you for being the most relatable. in this world not everyone can be extraordinary and you fought despite that. thank you for showing your fear, your cowardice and your embarrassment and that they are emotions too. it is okay to want to live inside the innermost wall and enjoy comfort and it is also okay to decide to want to do something bigger than yourself because someone else inspired you.

to sasha braus, thank you for making the world so much more bearable and so much more humane. thank you for stealing that potato that day and pushing forward to fight against all odds despite the sheer dread you felt. thank you for making me laugh when i felt like there was no option but to cry. thank you for teaching kindness in a world where cruelty is seeped deep into the bones of almost every person.

to armin arlert, thank you for teaching me that you can't change your life if you refuse to change yourself. that there's always something you need to lose to win. thank you for showing that strength isn't only physical, that that kind of strength means nothing if you don't have the means to utilize them in an efficient way. thank you for being empathetic when it's the hardest to do. empathy is simultaneously one of the biggest curse and boon humanity has ever known.

to mikasa ackerman, thank you making me realize the importance of loyalty and love. thank you for showing me that i am not alone in the struggle of emotions, that emotions can run just as deep in someone who shows out indifference as in someone who lets theirs out easily. to the one that introduced me to the concept of 'still waters run deep', mikasa ackerman, thank you for showing that love isn't one where you watch someone destroy themself but rather one where you gain the courage to stand up against when you know they're wrong. thank you for always being a home to eren.

to eren jaegar. thank you for becoming the devil to let your loved ones live without a tag of one. i haven't felt this conflicted about a character, to want to cry seeing someone i grew up with change with the war waging around him. but also not help but feel the anger at the way in which you went about to do what you said was inevitable. i hope you find your best friend in the hell you both promised to meet in and i hope you get to love mikasa in another life as you wished you could.

to every character of this absolutely cruel but beautiful story that i want to talk about but am not in a headspace to even think much, thank you for playing a role that connected to at least one person in this world.

to isayama-sensei, thank you for continuing on with attack on titan despite everything stacked against you. it is now not just a story but an emotion that an entire generation cannot help but feel in them. thank you for giving what you thought was your best even against the fear of regrets.

to attack on titan/shingeki no kyojin, thank you.

[lusthurts]

sebastian and blaine for the character asks <3

ahhh hi bestie im so excited to yap about these two <333

sebastian smythe

how I feel about this character

Sebastian is the love of my life <3 I'm obsessed with writing this character and reading this character and consuming any and all content related to this character.

I have sooooo many head canons about him, and the way I feel about him/his backstory/his personality has evolved a ton over the years, even since I've been writing about him. He has that snark and edge that I love to a character with a clearly very interesting past that we have complete creative liberties to explore. it's so fun and I love him !

all the people I ship romantically with this character

BLAINE! seblaine is of course my otp, and no ship will ever come close to them for me in terms of the extreme brain rot obsession I have because of them - I love that they sort of balance each other out and have this undeniable chemistry that's pretty monumental for both of them and leaves a lot of room for us to explore

I don't think anything will ever come close to them for me, and I fully cannot bring myself to get behind kurtbastian no matter how much I love enemies to lovers as a trope (though when my mutuals write kurtbastian I still try to read it lol)

I did enjoy writing jeff x sebastian in how bright we burn (totally snuck up on me on accident - he needed to be with one of the other warblers for plot reasons and I picked Jeff because they're always in shots together in canon) but that's not something I think I'd ever be super into on like,, a bigger scale - I love it as a platonic ship though

my non-romantic otp for this character

honestly, the warblers as a whole - I really like the idea of Sebastian not really fitting in anywhere/never feeling at home anywhere before dalton and being very reluctant to get close with them at first which resulted in him coming on a little strong/trying to take control rather than trying to develop meaningful friendships, but then by the end he's found he really cares about them and wants them to succeed and finally feels like he's found a home and core group of friends

OH and i ADORE his friendship with cooper in the I'll be there for you series - their dynamic together is fantastic and I think probably the best written friendship for Sebastian that I've ever read

my unpopular opinion about this character

I'm not sure if this is unpopular or not, but I do really like that he's an imperfect person who clearly has a lot of growing up to do. He acts like an asshole and he is one kind of a lot of the time, but even the things he does maliciously aren't meant to be that harmful, and there's clearly a complicated person beneath the surface. I love slutty Sebastian and snarky Sebastian and bullying/blackmail/assault Sebastian so so much

I also don't like the idea of him being "soft" or immediately comfortable in a relationship with blaine just because he's the person he's meant to be with - a lot of my head canons about him revolve around him having a kind of unhealthy relationship with love/relationships, and I don't think it's realistic that they'd just immediately be in a happy relationship. I love fluff as much as the next person, but I definitely don't think their problems end when they get together.

one thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

obviously seblaine - even if they'd just given us a little bit behind the scenes (what were those phone calls and texts??? they were clearly good friends!!)

I wish he'd been around more after season 3 - I realize because of real life reasons this was impossible, and he probably would've been back quite a bit if it wasn't for the flash, but I would've loved to see him develop friendships and plots and sing more songs and maybe have a relationship or two

blaine anderson

how I feel about this character

he's one of my first favorite glee characters and one of the main reasons I still love this show

I think I relate to him more than I relate to any of the other characters in the show - he has that passionate, overachiever, ruthless drive for success thing that Rachel has but he's also clearly very anxious about things and experiences depression and has some attachment issues, and I think all that makes him a much more complicated character than he's given credit for

all the people I ship romantically with this character

Sebastian ofc - see above lol

I used to be a huge blam fan - I haven't read or written them in a long time but I still think this is probably my second favorite blaine ship - they have a lot of chemistry together with a lot of fantastic scenes and development in season 4 specifically, and I think this would've been a cool path to go down during their senior year in the post-kurt/mercedes era

I also used to love klaine (prior to realizing how toxic that relationship was lol) - they were def cute in season 2, and they were probably one of the first queer ships I saw on tv that I felt that attached too. I think if handled better in the later seasons they could've been great, and I think if they're written well they can be a lovely ship - I played blaine in a glee rpg during covid (dark times lmao) and I found writing klaine with a person who really cared for writing Kurt's character well to be super fun

my non-romantic otp for this character

definitely sam & tina! blamtina is my favorite trio in the show, and I think their friendship felt very realistic and well-developed, especially for something that really only existed to that extent for one season

a close second would be rachel - I think blaine and rachel definitely get each other in a way the other new directions don't really, and I enjoy their dynamic a lot, especially in the beginning of season 6

oh and the warblers. he referred to that group as a brotherhood and then just,, left ? makes it hard to believe they were as close as he said, but I also will die on the hill that he must've had strong relationships with those guys if they got him from how he must've felt post Sadie Hawkins to the guy that was confidently singing the lead at every performance

my unpopular opinion about this character

while I do think he was occasionally too whiny and treated as a caricature in the later seasons, I also think a lot of that was the natural progression of his character given the circumstances he was dealing with. I think it's very natural for insecurities to come up when you go from where he was at in season 2 (star/lead vocalist of the warblers, admired and beloved by his peers, confidently helping Kurt through the bullying and trauma of McKinley) to season 3 (ignored/disregarded by ND's leaders like finn, only getting the occasional line or two in performances, treated almost exclusively as Kurt's boyfriend)

he was more interesting in seasons 2 & 4 when he was single than he was at any point during his relationship with kurt

one thing I wish had happened with this character in canon

seblaine !

or honestly getting to see him in any romantic relationship with someone other than Kurt (karofsky doesn't count lol we all collectively pretend that didn't happen)

why do we know like nothing about his life !! he's one of the major characters in the show (second in solos only to Rachel I think?) and yet all we get are a few one off and very concerning lines about his dad??? then his mom randomly shows up at the wedding??? and cooper's there but only for an episode and then never brought up again??? girl what I need to know his lore