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gothgirlmahi · 5 years ago

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All That’s Best (Chapter One)

Dark!Steve x Reader

Masterlist

So this is Chapter 1, I’m making a part 2 and 3 to my story Selfish so the second part of that will probably be my next update. If you wanna be tagged in all my stories or just this one please send an ask and enjoy reading :)

Chapter 1

The process of taking you and getting you in his car was easier than it should have been. Steve recalled that you liked to open your window during the morning as you cooked breakfast. He also recalled that he never saw you lock it. As luck would have it, that was the only window you had that was unlocked. And it was his way in.

When he stepped into your apartment he could hear your soft breaths coming from your bedroom. You were asleep. He crept in silently as not to wake you.

He had only been in your apartment twice, the first time was while you were at work. He installed a few cameras and mics for audio. Just so he could be sure you were okay when he couldn’t physically be there. The second visit was after catching you having some personal time with a bullet vibrator. You hand was down your panties as you held it to yourself and the other was groping your breast. He wondered what you were thinking about as you came and hoped it was him. After you were done, you threw your panties in the hamper and he snuck in to take them. They smelled like you and definitely helped him curb some of his more carnal urges towards you.

Your bedroom was a bit Spartan. Very basic and not many hints of the exuberant personality you had shown him. He knew you had moved in rather recently but he had to wonder why you never decorated more. There was a cute little elephant figurine on your nightstand that he remembered seeing you buy at an open air market in the city.

That was okay. He’d let you decorate however you wanted when you moved in together. Hopefully the process of it wouldn’t be too hard. Of course he expected initial resistance but he could get you to love him. You had to.

The idea of sedating you pained him so he did it quickly, jabbing the needle in your arm and letting go. Your eyes shot open for the briefest of moments before your body went completely slack and unconscious. Steve placed a quick kiss on your forehead before pulling you over his shoulder. He was an expert at stealth so getting you into the car and into his house was no issue.

He smiled to himself. It was all coming together.

Your mind was alight with worry as soon as your eyes fluttered open. There was the memory of...something happening. You weren’t quite sure what, but you woke up in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed so something had definitely happened. Your skin was damp with sweat and your head was banging. Your wrists were sore and bound to the headboard with rope. Instinctively you tugged at them and realized they didn’t have much give.

Panic set in.

You had obviously been kidnapped. For reasons you couldn’t even speculate about. It didn’t make sense. The fact that you were tied to a bed didn’t exactly quell your fears about your captor’s intentions.

The door swung open and you blinked in surprise.

Steve Rogers.

Steve Rogers was standing there looking nonplussed with his hands casually in his pockets as he looked over you. Any relief you felt at first seeing him vanished when you took in his body language. Then confusion set in because this didn’t make sense.

“Untie me. Please.” It was worth a shot. He just chuckled and sat next to you.

“I’m glad you’re awake, sweetheart. I know this is confusing for you. I brought you here because I love you. I can protect you. I’ll provide for you. I’ll be a good husband. You’ll never have to work again. All you have to do is—“

You tugged on your restraints again and Steve’s face fell.

“Calm down, you’ll hurt yourself like that.”

“What the hell is going on?!”

A flurry of theories went through your head along with your fear and paranoia. Steve Rogers has kidnapped you. He was absolutely deranged. Maybe he was some kind of blood psychopath and wanted to kill you. Maybe a cannibal? He was definitely looking at you like he wanted to eat you. That train of thought normally would have made you giggle to yourself but you were too scared to find any humor in the situation.

You weren’t sure if the truth was worse than him being a killer or a cannibal. Steve Rogers had convinced himself he was in love with you. And he wasn’t planning on letting that love fade or taking things slow. He wanted to be your husband. You barely knew this man. You had gone on one date and now you were chained up in his house.

“I’ve been thinking. I came to the conclusion that the only way I can keep you safe is if you’re with me. I know this is sudden, but it works out well for both of us. I’m devoted to you. More than you could possibly know. One day I want you to be my wife. I want you to have my kids. I’ll take care of you. We’ll be a family and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”

You didn’t know what to say. You didn’t want to set him off but he was also looking at you waiting for a response. A little whimper left your lips and you tried to stretch your arms as best you could in their increasingly uncomfortable position.

“Steve, I don’t know what you want me to say.” There was definitely an attempt on your part or remain calm. Or to, at the very least, look calm.

“That’s okay. You’ll learn. Now let’s talk about rules. You—”

“Rules?”

“One of the rules is don’t interrupt me when I’m speaking. I’ll give you a pass this once because you didn’t know yet. If you don’t follow the rules I give you, you’ll be punished. On that note, when I speak to you or ask you a question I expect a response. It’s only polite.

“You do what I say, when I say it. I don’t want any back talk. This is my house and what I say goes. Do not attempt to leave this house. Even on the off chance you could escape, I would just find you and you won’t like what I do when I bring you back. So let’s not have that happen. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” you affirmed, shaking in your restraints. The sight of you made Steve sigh, looking a bit sad. He ran his hands through his hair.

“I didn’t want to do this. I just need to know that you’re safe. I know you’re scared, but I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to take care of you.”

You stared at him for a while. He inched closer to you and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“Steve, my hands are going numb,” you said. He looked up at the restraints and back to you.

“If I untie you, will you be good? No kicking, fighting, screaming?

”You nodded. What could you do anyway? It wasn’t like you could beat up Captain America. Steve reached and loosened the ropes, letting your numb wrists fall limply to the side. A quick glance around had you noticing the lack of windows and stifling air in the room. You were probably in a basement. The bedroom was well furnished. Paint smelled a little fresh.

There were three doors. Hazarding a guess, you could assume one was probably a bathroom, at least one of them led to the rest of the basement and one might have been a walk in or another room. In the corner there was a vanity with makeup and beauty products out on it. Next to it was a rack of shoes of various types, pumps, tennis shoes, ballet flats, even a pair of black Mary Janes. A very familiar painting was hung on the wall. A simple scene of a field of flowers that you saw during your gallery date. It had cost a good bit of money but you had really liked it and you said as much to Steve. So why was it here?

Steve couldn’t have meant it for you. There had to be something else. Maybe a female roommate could explain all the products. But that didn’t make any sense either. If he was really as devoted as he claimed, maybe it was all for you. After all, he did intend to keep you here.

You turned away from the objects in the room and looked back to Steve. He was staring at you, face blank and unreadable.

“Do you like it?” he asked evenly. You didn’t know how to reply. You didn’t even know what was going on. When you hesitated in your response, Steve grabbed your thigh in warning.

“I don’t understand,” you sputtered out eventually. He nodded and smiled.

“Your room. Do you like it?”

“I—what? Steve, that painting was fifteen thousand dollars.”

“When you told me you liked it, I bought it immediately. I want you to like your room. When you move upstairs maybe we can put it in the living room.”

“Upstairs?”

“After you learn to trust me and love me and after I know I can trust you, I’ll take you upstairs and we can be a normal couple. For now I need to keep you here. Until I know you won’t make a break as soon as you get a chance. Hopefully soon. Are you hungry? I know it’s been a while since you ate.”

The room felt like it was closing in on you. Steve meant to keep you here. Long term, locked in his basement until he made you love him.

“I’m not hungry.” Your stomach was doing flips and you didn’t need to add vomiting to your list of problems. Steve looked disappointed.

“I’ll bring you something anyway. Just try to eat. I may have gone a little overboard with the sedatives, I didn’t mean to make you sick.”

Now that he mentioned sedatives you realized how weak your body felt. Even if you tried to get out of bed, you weren’t sure you could. Although you were literally laying down, you were still dizzy and slow in processing what was happening. It was past time for you to start screaming and crying but all you could do was lay there and resist the urge to dry heave. Steve got up and pointed to each of the doors.

“Bathroom, closet and this is to the rest of your space. There’s a TV you can watch and some books. I got you a desk and lots of paper for you to write. I’ll try to run out and get you some more books soon.”

You just stared at him. What was there to say? This was unbelievable. Your brain was foggy and you felt like you weren’t processing quickly enough. It was high time that you started screaming and attempting to fight your way out. That’s what kidnapped people usually did right? You could barely muster the energy to move let alone fight so you laid there staring at the wall, staring at Steve and trying to understand what the fuck was going on.

Steve was conflicted. Since you woke up you were mostly calm and compliant. Your eyes were a bit glazed and unfocused as he talked to you. He could tell the sedatives were still in effect because you could barely move your arms or legs. You launched yourself from the bed with a surprising strength and he went after you until he saw you were headed for the bathroom. Your knees hit the floor and you emptied the contents of your stomach into the bowl. Steve grimaced.

He could hit himself. This was not going according to plan. Ideally he would have brought you here, explained the rules, dealt with whatever resistance you had and fed you dinner. He had been prepared for you to yell and scream and hit him. Now you were just in the bathroom throwing up. You couldn’t even cling to him as he carried you back to bed, just weakly grasped and pawed at his shirt.

He looked at you, helpless before him. It would be too easy. He could take you right now and there would be nothing you could do about it. It wasn’t like you could win a fight against him on any other day either, but now you wouldn’t be able to resist at all.

Steve didn’t want your first time to be like this. He wanted you reactive and lively even if it was due to your resistance. For now he would just take care of you, get you healthy again so he could properly make love to you. The way your wet skin clung to your tank top only tempted him but he swore he would hold back.

Against your better judgement, you fell asleep. Whatever he had given you was still hitting you hard.

Your eyes fluttered open to a darkened room. A small lamp burned dimly in the corner. You were propped up against a warm mass and you panicked, remembering where you were and what happened. When you turned to look down at him Steve was already awake and smiling at you.

“Hey, sweetheart. You okay? Feeling any better?”

“I don’t know. I’m so tired.”

“Go back to sleep, baby girl. I’ll be here when you wake up, okay?”

You blinked and your eyes went down both of your bodies until your eyes were on Steve’s erection which was pressed into your ass. He pulled you closer to him and grinded against you slowly.

“Go to sleep,” he demanded. You looked up at him with wide eyes. His hand came up to squeeze at your breast and you tried to wiggle out of his grasp. He held you firmly in his arms.

“Steve, what are you doing?”

“Shh.”

You knew it was risky and you knew there was no way to get away from him at the moment. He was stronger than you but you were determined. Mustering all of the limited strength you had, you pushed yourself away from him and only managed to roll to the other side of the bed. Steve pulled you back, pushing you on your back and kneeled between your legs.

He held your arms down with both of his hands.

“I told you to go to sleep.”

“Steve, let me go! You fucking psychopath!” You screamed and thrashed around as best you could which wasn’t much. It only served to make Steve more angry.

“Oh, I’m a psycho? I brought you here to keep you safe. You want me to hurt you? Is that what you want?”

“I want you to let me go!”

“I can’t do that, sweetheart.”

He let you go and ripped your tank top off, throwing it across the room. You screamed and hit against him to no avail. Steve groaned, reaching down to bite into the side of your breast. He ground his clothed cock into your flimsy panties.

Steve quickly undressed, still managing to hold you down with his weight. He resumed grinding against you and you screamed for him to let you go. He angled himself to move against your clit and kept going until he felt a wet spot on your panties. You were mortified, knowing that you shouldn’t be reacting like this but here you were absolutely dripping for your captor and Steve thrived on it.

He let out a low chuckle before pulling your ruined panties off of you.

“I want our first time to be good for both of us. If you start fighting me, I won’t hesitate to tie you down and fuck you like that. Do you understand?”

You nodded with wide eyes. Steve smiled.

“Good.”

He flipped you to lay on your stomach and pulled your hips toward him. The quick movement made you dizzy and you grabbed onto a pillow to bury your face into. Seconds later he was slamming his entire length into you, until his hips met your ass. You whimpered from the pain and he leaned over you, petting your hair.

“I know it hurts, sweetheart. I’m sorry, it’ll be over soon.”

Steve knew the pain was subsiding when you weren’t shaking as badly. He gave a few shallow thrusts, brushing against a spot that made you moan and tighten around his length. He pulled back and aimed for it again. The noises you made spurred him on and he was picking up a quick rhythm within seconds.

You couldn’t help the way your body was reacting to him. He knew that and counted on it. With his sweet little doll face down and ass up on the bed for him, he was in the perfect position to do exactly what he wanted. Dominate you. Humiliate you. Prove you were his. Prove that you needed him.

“That’s it, sweetheart.”

You had lost all fight and laid there pliant while he used you. His hand between your legs had you shaking and pushing back against him.

“I love to see you enjoying yourself. Being such a good girl for me.”

Your moans were muffled by the bed sheets as you grasped at them mindlessly. The loud wet noises of your coupling filled the room. Steve held you in place as your legs shook, pulling you close to get as deep as he could.

“That’s it, baby girl. Is daddy making your pussy feel good? This is what happens when you let me take care of you.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“Are you gonna come for me, sweetheart?”

Your vision went white as you spasmed around him, pulling on the sheets underneath you. The entirety of your body trembled erratically as you came, pushing your hips fervently against his thick cock. The wetness on the inside of your thighs dripped onto the bed and you bit into the pillow trying to stop yourself from screaming. Even after you came down a bit, you were still delirious for him, moaning mindlessly.

“Ah, fuck.” He growled and leaned over you, his mouth to your ear as he pushed deeply into you.

”I’m gonna put a baby in you. I’m gonna make you a mommy. My pretty girl is gonna give me a baby.”

You squirmed around again, trying to get away. Steve held you tightly and pushed you further into the bed.

“You’re fucking crazy,” you said, but your voice was mostly muffled by the mattress. Steve kissed your neck.

“I know. God, I know.”

The bed creaked and hit the wall with how hard he was fucking you.

“Ah, fuck. I won’t last much longer. You’re gonna come for me one more time.”

“I can’t. Steve, stop, I can’t.” The pillow you held onto was now stained with your tears as you approached your climax once more. Steve was relentless. Your legs were numb and useless at this point so Steve’s strength was the only thing keeping you from collapsing into the mattress.

He put his lips to your neck and smirked.

“You will.” He had an arm firmly around your waist while he fucked you and the other one playing with your clit. It was more pain than pleasure but you could feel your orgasm coming whether you wanted it or not. Your legs shook as you came, screaming your orgasm into the humid air. Steve moaned above you and pumped a few more times before his hot seed exploded inside you.

He pulled out of you slowly. You could feel his cum oozing out of you and his your face further into the sheets. His fingers were suddenly in you, stuffing it back in and you yelled out from the overstimulation. You reached back to stop him but he pushed your hands against your back roughly.

“Uh uh. Bad girl. You’re mine. This pussy is mine and I do what I want with it.”

Steve pulled his hand out of you and laid on his back, pulling you against him. Before you could try to pull away, he pressed a kiss into your hair.

“Now go to sleep.”

Taglist

@xoxabs88xox @princessdancingonthesunshine @sllooney @americasass81 @shippers-heart @villanellevi

Masterlist // Chapter Two

#dark steve rogers #dark!steve rogers #dark fic #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x reader #dark steve x reader #dark!steve x reader #dark!steve rogers x reader #dark marvel #marvel x reader

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travllingbunny · 4 years ago

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The 100 rewatch: 5x04 Pandora’s Box

Another excellent episode, maybe a little less action-packed than Sleeping Giants but still fast, full of tension, new information, and many warm reunions and nice character moments - which are important to see before all these characters start having conflicts and many of these relationships get strained to the point of almost breaking later in the season.

This one picks up immediately after the last scenes of both 5x02 (the bunker - cliffhanger with Kane as one of the fighters in the pit) and 5x03 (Eden with Bellamy, Clarke and the prisoners after Bellamy has negotiated with Diyoza, Raven and Murphy on Eligius 4), brings everyone together*, as the prisoners open the bunker and Wonkru finally gets out - and ends with the conflict that means that war between Wonkru and the Eligius prisoners is imminent. The Pandora’s Box has been opened, to use another one of Bellamy’s Greek mythology references. (Oddly enough, he makes that reference in the next episode, not in this one.)

(*Well, not everyone - Monty, Harper, Emori, Echo and Madi are MIA this episode. hiding somewhere in Eden, before they also reunite with the rest of Spacekru plus Clarke plus Wonkru in the next episode.)

If I hadn’t seen season 5 before, I’d be thinking “Will this be the best season of the show?” It is by far the season with the strongest beginning - before the plot starts to drag, building conflicts within both camps. so that war would not happen until the two-part finale. Strong beginning, strong ending, poor middle part.

After the epic Bellarke scene at the end of 5x03, this episode delivers their actual reunion, with another one of those incredibly intimate and intense hugs that Bellamy and Clarke are known for. They tend to grow in intensity, and I’ll just say this: when Tumblr flagged gifs of this hug as “explicit”, well - for once I could see why poor Tumblr bots were getting confused:

A reunion after 6 years, during which Bellamy believed Clarke to be dead, while Clarke didn’t know if Bellamy was alive but still called him on the radio and talked to him every day for 2199 days, has to be pretty epic, and this scene delivers. It seems almost like Clarke - who had been badly tortured - wasn’t entirely sure if that was really Bellamy who emerged out of the darkness to save her, of if she was imagining it, with the way she says “You are really here!”, while crying out of happiness. The intimacy in the body language and the way they look at each other is also reflected in Clarke telling him “And now you’re home!” This goes way beyond how platonic partners and non-romantic best friends interact with each other. The scene is not just acted but directed and shot in such a way that anyone who would see it without knowing Clarke and Bellamy’s actual relationship status, would get the wrong (?) idea. For a moment, they even look like people who have been caught making out, like they don’t want these strangers to witness such an intimate moment.

Even if she did not see this scene in particular, it’s no surprise that Diyoza assumed Clarke and Bellamy were a couple (“the hostage taker and his girlfriend”) after what she saw of their interactions. Really, who wouldn’t?

Bellamy quickly updates Clarke on how everyone is - Madi, Spacekru, acknowledges that Clarke has saved them all (something multiple people do in this early part of the season) and that all of the people who went to space are safe. (”Murphy, Monty, Raven?” “Echo and Emori”. - But why the Harper erasure? This is one of the very few lines in this episode that feel wrong. She’ one of the Delinquents both of them have known since they landed on Earth and Clarke would logically care about her more than Echo, who, she barely knew and who was her enemy 90% of the time. )

Another beautiful reunion happens by radio - Murphy and Raven learn that Clarke is alive. Murphy smiles the moment he hears her voice, and Raven, teary-eyed, thanks Clarke for saving their lives. The Spacekru have been criticized a lot in the fandom for not appreciating Clarke’s sacrifice, but it has to be said that, right after they learned she was alive, they all acknowledged it and expressed gratitude. (Some of them were just later angry at her and not so ready to try to understand her perspective after living isolated for 6 years.) This is one of the very few moments of happiness in season 5 (whenever I see that screenshot of Clarke and Bellamy’s big smiles, I mistake it for a moment for a BTS photo. That’s how rare it is to see characters looking happy on the actual show.)

…………………….

Meanwhile, over in the bunker, no one is happy. and everything is dark, sad and disturbing. Octavia is full Blodreina and acting like a Roman Emperor, deciding if gladiators get to earn their freedom or not. because even being “the last” doesn’t necessarily earn you freedom now - it all comes down to the Queen’s whim. Kane is forced to fight in the pit again tomorrow. I suppose they already have the next batch of fighters ready - it would be a bit weird if she expected a bunch of new “crimes” tomorrow. But things must have gotten progressively worse if they’re now having death matches every day. If they had been condemning people to the pits at that pace throughout those 6 years, even more than 1/3 of the Wonkru would be dead.

One thing I had not noticed before - there is a singer, singing an anthem or ceremonial song before the fights start, and it is the same woman who sang the Coalition anthem in 3x03. This somewhat changes my views of the way Grounder clans chose 100 people to survive the bunker. At least one of the clans was smart enough to include a musician, rather than a bunch of warriors. There should have been even more musicians and other entertainers (you’d expect a culture like Grounders to have some sort of epic poetry!), as that would’ve helped the life in the bunker much more than warriors (and there could have been entertainment that does not include killing). But this was probably an exception, because this person probably had a high status as a ceremonial singer.

Our first look at Abby after the time jump - and she is obviously in a bad state and pill-addicted, and both she and Kane look tired and worn down. He is protecting her and taking the guilt for her crime - stealing pills, since Abby is obviously in no state to fight - and on her part, Abby wants to confess and spare him. But Indra - who has been helping them and is clearly unhappy with the way Blodreina is ruling - is more rational and knows Kane winning is the only way to save them both. Kane, however, is choosing to take a stand and refuse to fight.

Kane and Abby got a lot of flak from the fandom and were accused of hypocrisy for their attitude to Octavia later in the season - with the argument that Abby was the one who persuaded Octavia to go through with cannibalism and killing people for refusing to ear, and that Kane knew Abby’s role in it but blamed Octavia. All these arguments presume that they were blaming Octavia for the cannibalism and everything else that happened the Dark Year. But in fact, there’s zero indication that this is what they blamed her for, and it’s pretty clear that the reason why they - and others - have issues with Blodreina is that she’s been ruling by fear and throwing people into fighting pits for all sorts of reasons, and generally being a scary tyrant/leader of a cult of death and violence. Yes, as we learn later, Abby was a crucial part of how Octavia turned into that person, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is that person now, that she has absolute power in the bunker, and people have been living in fear of her.

Kane tries to plead with Octavia when she comes to tell him he has to fight, and at this point, he seems to still believe she could change and start making better decisions. What feels a bit off to me is that he says he’s been silent for too long - this can’t be the first time he’s tried to change her mind? He would have probably had a lot more chance to succeed if he tried much earlier. We get the first mention of the infamous “Dark Year” (this is also the episode where we first hear “All of me for all of us”) and see Octavia getting upset at its very mention (a reveal will be dragged out for 6 more episodes). It’s interesting that Jaha and Kane both mentioned Aurora Blake’s fate in their speeches to Octavia, but they used it to say completely different things. Jaha was saying that this is what you have to do, execute everyone who is the “enemy” because they endanger your survival in any way, even if it’s having one more child. Kane was saying that’s what they shouldn’t be doing anymore, she shouldn’t be doing what they did on the Ark, but do better. Octavia ended up taking Jaha’s advice, which shaped her as leader, for better or worse. (Mostly worse, IMO.) She could have maybe taken Kane’s advice years ago, but now it’s clearly too late.

If anything, Kane’s refusal to fight makes her more determined than ever to break him - she doesn’t want to condemn him to death, she wants to break his resistance and his stubborn insistence on morality. I don’t approve of all of Kane’s later actions in season 5, but it’s really not hard to see why, after these experiences and everything in the bunker, he thought Blodreina’s rule was the worst thing that could happen.

And then - like a Deus ex machina, the bunker door opens and Bellamy is literally coming down from above, into the darkness of Octavia’s underground realm, as the savior, bathed in light, It’s the second episode in a row where he comes as a Big Damn Hero in almost dreamlike scene, from a POV of a woman in his life, this time his sister. For a moment, Blodreina is Octavia again and hugs her brother. Clarke comes down a moment later (but she is not bathed in light - she looks at the Blake siblings from the shadows.)

Instead of hugging, Clarke and Octavia greet each other with a forearm handshake - which is quite an interesting choice, particularly since (thanks @jeanie205) this is apparently a type of greeting associated with Roman generals greeting each other. (But only in Hollywood movies, It wasn’t a thing in actual Roman history.)

In addition to all the reunions, some characters meet for the first time - such as Octavia and Diyoza, who are about to become rival leaders on two sides of the war. Who could have known what their relationship would turn into in season 6 and season 7?

I love the way that everyone - Bellamy, Clarke, Diyoza and the rest of the prisoners - have the “WTF is this” look when they see the fighting pit (which is all covered in blood - apparently, they don’t wash it. It’s an aesthetic, I guess.) Bellamy soon asks Octavia what the heck she’s doing (and guesses exactly what inspired her: “Someone must have read Ovid one too many times). It’s an experience she hasn’t had in years - to have her decisions questioned by someone who’s not one of her subjects and not afraid of her.

More reunions follow: Clarke and Abby, Bellamy and Miller (another relationship that will turn sour in the rest of the season), Clarke and Kane.

Meanwhile, on Eligius 4, Raven finds more info about Diyoza backstory - Colonel Diyoza was "something called Navy SEAL" (it makes sense that Arkers wouldn’t know about such things), decorated for valor three times, before turning into a rebel/terrorist, and leader of a movement called United Liberation Army. As we see in these articles, civilians died in these attacks, which is something Diyoza regrets in season 7 - even if her cause was right, her means were wrong.

Raven and Murphy have some fun playing soccer, but they’re also worried about the fact they may need to murder 283 people. Raven finds it hard, so Murphy offers to do it to spare her. It’s typical for their relationship that Murphy tends to see Raven as someone better and more moral than himself (in spite of the fact that she once tried to sacrifice him instead of Fin), while Raven often says disparaging things about him, even though she is fond of him.

One thing I found a bit odd that Murphy at one point says: “Why do you have to always be the one to sacrifice?” - even though this was just the second time Raven has decided to sacrifice herself, and he wasn’t even around for the first time - trying to blow the bridge in 1x10. But Murphy seems to have a somewhat idealized view of Raven, driven by his guilt over crippling her and his self-loathing. Or maybe he meant the others in the group in general. as he sees himself as the selfish cockroach as opposed to them. (Note: I initially wrote this in my 5x03 review, before I realized it was actually said in this episode. That’s what happens when you finalize posts after having seen two episodes ahead.)

Raven and her future love interest Shaw try to outsmart each other in hacking (Raven even kind of flips a bird at Shaw at one point - it’s like they are having a digital meet cute without having even met.)

But when Diyoza finds a way to outsmart Spacekru by suffocating Raven and Murphy - Raven tells Murphy to pull the lever (usually Clarke’s job) and kill the prisoners; and when he hesitates, she goes into her fierce/ruthless mode and goes “Fine, I’ll do it”, before Murphy comes up with the smart solution that prioritizes survival and also doesn’t include mass murder - a win-win, except it also takes away Bellamy’s leverage.

I wonder where the standoff between Wonkru and the Eligius prisoners would have led after Diyoza took Abby and Kane with her and announced her people were taking over Eden? Would war still have been inevitable? I can’t see Octavia giving up on Eden so easily. In any case, the war here was started by an idiot who shot an incredibly destructive weapon at Octavia just because her arrogant Blodreina grin pissed her off. (This guy, called Szybunka, is a part of McCreary’s faction, and here we first learn that they are preparing a rebellion against Diyoza, though McCreary thinks it’s still not time for it.)

A lot more deaths were prevented by Shaw, Major props for him in this episode both for that, and because he is the first person to finally make the point that there are so few people left of the human race and that it is incredibly stupid to kill more of them

Octavia immediately blames Bellamy for everything - even though he was the reason why she and Wonkru got out of the bunker instead of being stuck there forever/ And this time, I’m sure this was 100% meant to highlight that she has a habit of unfairly placing blame on Bellamy whenever something goes wrong in her life.

Body count: I haven’t been doing these for a while, but now I’m doing the body count for the entire season 5 so far:

Wonkru - we learn in this episode that, out of the 1200 people in the bunker, there are 814 remaining. So, 386 - almost a third - died during those 6 years. That includes 3 people who died in the fighting pit. An additional Wonkru member is killed by the idiot Szybunka while protecting Octavia, leaving 813.

Eligius prisoners - two of the party on Earth were killed by Madi and Clarke in 5x01, Four more were killed in 5x03 - one shot by Clarke, another one mercy killed by Diyoza after getting into one of Clarke’s traps, two more shot by Madi to save Bellamy, Monty, Harper, Emori and Echo. On the ship, Kodiak, the big guy Diyoza activated as a weapon (”activate Kodiak!”) was killed in self-defense by Bellamy with help from Echo and Raven. And in 5x04, Szybunka is killed by McCreary for his stupidity. This leaves 282 prisoners on the ship and an unknown smaller number on Earth.

Rating: 8/10

#the 100 #the 100 season 5 #the 100 rewatch #pandora's box #the 100 5x04 #bellamy blake #octavia blake #clarke griffin #charmaine diyoza #marcus kane #abby griffin #raven reyes #john murphy #bellarke #indra #indra kom trikru

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soulvomit · 4 years ago

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I’m realizing what some of my writing block is. This is why I’ve decided to only write *adult market.* I can’t write YA. I can’t even write for people who want to read YA. The narrative demands of an audience that wants everything to be Young Adult, are like handcuffs. I can’t write within those boundaries, I just can’t. I can’t even write for people who read Adult then get mad that it’s not YA. I can’t write even for younger readers of erotica. I can only write for people with roughly my same level of social experience who are coming from the same place, who don’t require their characters to be moral paragons, or who want to read something that is coming from a different place emotionally, or... for that matter... young people who prefer to read older work. Long winded diatribe about some of my more difficult, culturally incorrect romantic narratives I’ve written, as an example of this problem. In case you’re not going to read behind the read-more, no, I don’t write incest or pedo. (Doesn’t mean I won’t write a character who has experienced this if it comes up, I haven’t yet, but who knows. But I don’t write positive portrayals of it. I feel I need to write this disclaimer here.)

Looking at my writing - I have some scenes I’ve written that are very passionate. It’s basically an OC fanfic type of scenario, it’s writing I did that spun off of a game setting my characters were in for a very long time, about two characters who later ended up married. (And I often do this when game groups fall apart, I start writing about my characters.) It’s some of my best writing, and I’ve often thought about filing the serial numbers off and cannibalizing this for some totally original setting. In the piece I’m looking at, the characters haven’t jumped each other’s bones yet, but there is a strong attraction between two lonely, unattached coworkers that is growing into... outright longing. These are middle aged divorcees with children. They have navigated love and lust before. They have been adults at this point for a long time. They are both sexually experienced (her, in fact, much more than him). It’s clear that they utterly want to rail each other from dusk to dawn until neither one of them can walk. Much of this is from the point of view of the male character. (And I LOVE writing het from the male point of view; it’s one of my favorite love/sex dynamics to write.) They’re definitely conscious of this attraction and in their private thoughts that I’ve written, before the attraction is consummated, there’s definitely “strong crush” energy. These are experienced, sexually mature, middle aged people who are both divorcees with children and they definitely are guessing correctly about the other person’s attraction and interest. They’re imperfect people: they’ve made bad life choices in the past. They’re equals, but it’s never *explicitly pointed out.* He’s a hypermasculine (but not toxically) and badass warrior type, she’s an engineer. She is older than he is, but that never matters and never comes up any more than the fact that I’m 6 years older than my fiance, ever comes up in our relationship. All four of us are *middle aged people* and it is just not a topic of conversation. Another thing that’s “eh” by YA standards is that The thing with how I portray and read erotic or romantic stuff, is that I am an older, experienced person, and I like stuff about older, experienced people. People who already know how to navigate these situations and don’t necessarily need everything spelled out. The thing is, I almost feel like - because of changing sexual mores - I can only write for people over 40 unless I totally rewrite the way everything goes and even the emotional temperature of their early relationship. Even though it’s very clear that my characters are absolutely mutually into each other, and it would be clear to any experienced person who navigates body language, I would have to navigate a whole new set of mores around having to outright spoonfeed my audience - we are really into tell don’t show now, we are really into long winded prefaces to everything explaining how everyone involved is really a good person, and I notice that there’s so little comprehension of nuance or subtlety now, things have to be spelled out, one character reading another person’s body language and flirting at a subtler level would be considered gross and against the present day’s mores around consent. My characters ultimately end up making out and going to bed and they never, ever talk about it and they never process it. The establishment of consent is very, very brief and amounts to one middle aged horny person basically saying “wanna fuck” to another middle aged horny person (personally, my absolute favorite way to start a relationship, that’s how my current and best relationship started, 10/10 highly recommend) and, 12 hours later, the other person pulling them into their hotel room. It’s the kind of establishment of consent that you would’ve seen in an older work and it’s not a particularly complicated dance. I didn’t write this work for public consumption outside of a handful of people and perhaps if I did, maybe I would have written it differently because I’d have to assume that “show don’t tell” doesn’t work on audiences who don’t read nuance, I don’t know. Also, in the lead up to the two characters doing the do, they totally sexually objectify each other in their heads. They think about how much they’d really, really like to pounce on each other. And this is... objectifying, or something. I always portray consent but there’s never a complicated ritual around it. I don’t enjoy writing that. Also, I really enjoy writing and reading stuff with spontaneous passion. I LOVE stuff where it’s even a little over the top.

But the big thing that seems to have changed? The big social more? It feels like you’re not really allowed to show your characters crushing too hard, or desiring too much. They’re certainly never allowed to have frustrating desire or one-sided attractions. (I’ve written lots of those. How the character acts on it or doesn’t, is going to depend upon what type of character I’m writing. I have a couple of one sided best friend crush types of dynamics that I’ve written, usually it’s same sex and incompatible sexual orientation.) Characters are not really allowed to be horny and there seems to be a general disgust with horniness. Which is difficult to navigate because I love horny work, about horny people. I love stuff about crushes and frustrated limerence. Also? I even love forbidden romance and forbidden sex and sometimes, and even characters doing things they’re Not Supposed To Do. (I think this is why so many people in my age group are into crime fiction, stuff about illicit affairs, etc.) I have the standard legal and moral limits, but yes I will even read about characters cheating on their spouses. It doesn’t mean I condone what the character is doing or want to do it, and it’s satisfying to see how the situation resolves. (It has to have consequences or it’s just not believable.)

But even age differences between grown ass adults and massive social differences don’t bother me. I love reading and writing common and royal, rich and poor, people from forbidden and different social worlds.

I’m presently writing something in which a young (but adult) witch is married to an immortal god, and finds out she’s one of millions of his brides through history, and hundreds in the present time. And she is going to stay married to him because that’s part of, in my world, being the type of witch she is. OF COURSE there’s a power difference because HE’S A GOD. The story also spends a lot of time with her as a child, because I write CRADLE TO GRAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. I love to spend a character’s entire life with them, from the time they’re born to the time they die. But leaving that aside. The sweetest and most tender romance I’ve ever written, involved a sad 50something man and a 25ish year old woman. I was in my 20s when I wrote this. I had lived with the male character in my head for a long time and knew him inside and out. I was delighted when I realized that sparks were flying between him and another character, I’d lived through this character’s life story and its long history of unhappy self-sacrifice, and I decided to follow to see where it led... and it was delightful! I decided to let him have the happy ending. He deserved it after all of this time. She was the initiator of the relationship. She’s in love with him. He is a widower who’s lost everything and now he has a chance to rebuild his life and start a family with this new person. She has other suitors but wants him. She gets pregnant. But it’s narratively a blessing. She wants him, she wants their child, and he’s delighted (especially since his late wife and child are dead), it’s a matrilineal culture, she and the child will stay on the land with her family after he dies. This is a blessing for him. They’re on her family’s land and he’s an exile with no home. She is NOT a Literal Child; she is a grown-ass adult with her own agency, who is sexually experienced, and who has born a lot of responsibility, and is in a prominent social position. His existence is at the mercy of her family, though they keep him around because of his knowledge and abilities. He is the one who doesn’t initiate the relationship, because he’s conscious of the age difference and feels like an old fool, and worries she’ll tire of him one day. Who has the power? Also, he’s a “fish out of water” from another (completely fictitious) culture who ends up totally living among, and assimilating into, this new culture, and basically living out the rest of his life among them, with his bride and their children. And that’s something that isn’t supposed to happen, right? (Writers whose characters just show up in their heads, will relate to this. I don’t even pick my characters’ love interests.)

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its-jijii · 5 years ago

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bsd character traits

howdy. idk how to start this. okay recently have been analyzing characters and,, i realized that most characters in bsd have traits (mainly one) that are blown rlly out of proportion. no spoilers below the cut i just don’t want to spam dashboards with longass posts 😩

so. a lot of bsd characters can be incredibly simplified and easy to explain. most characters that i can think of have a certain personality trait or something that makes up a lot of their character? for instance, i can say some of these traits and you’d be able to point to a certain character. childish and arrogant. happy and optimistic. obsessive and stalkerish.

ranpo, kenji, and higuchi. it’s like that for most characters, though. most of these traits are normal, or their causes are normal (such as higuchi’s “obsessive” behavior likely being a result of some mix of anxiety and idolization). anxiety and idolizing is okay and normal and moderation, but those traits are combined and amplified, which makes up a large portion of higuchi’s characterization. being optimistic is pretty normal,,, but kenji’s character is centered around being incredibly happy.

now this isn’t to say that this is a flaw in character design, or that it makes characters flat or boring. rather, i think it’s a pretty neat and interesting writing on asagiri’s part. y'know that post that’s like “if you can recognize a character by their outline, you know that it’s a good character design” or something like that,, yeah i think it's kinda like that but in writing instead of drawing? if you can write down a list of traits and think of certain bsd characters, then you’ve got a lot of the character covered already.

that isn’t to say that these traits are all that a character is, but mainly how they’re characterized and viewed. of course there is more to these characters, but if you were trying to summarize something, it’s very easy to simplify things to those traits. i think of this kind of like taking a character at face value.

looking at a character’s dominant trait(s) and mainly associating that with them seems like taking their (entire) character at face value. and i don’t think that’s necessarily always a bad thing! but i think it’s also important to look past those fronting traits and see smaller parts of the character, or the reason characters are that way. looking past dazai’s intense suicidal character and secrecy, you find that he can be manipulative. looking past alcott’s intense anxiety, you’ll see that she is actually very intelligent and capable, but those traits are mainly covered up by her “face value” trait.

then, there’s the matter of how strange or abnormal these traits are. honestly at first, tanizaki or kenji didn’t stand out as “extreme” anything,,, that i think is bc asagiri does a good job at making some things subtle and weave perfectly into their character. some stuff, like akutagawa’s intense desire for approval and determination, can’t really be missed. tanizaki may seem like an all over kind of moderate character, but i think that it just happens to be that his “extremes” are more normalized or hidden.

for instance, tanizaki seems pretty anxious. mainly noticed this in his first appearance where he was pretending to be a bomber- bouncing his leg, apologizing thoroughly afterwards and making sure atsushi was okay, etc. seemed like he was having some anxieties over the matter. this stuff is pretty normal given the situation, and in smaller amounts is normal. the situation definitely made those actions seem more situational and less like a part of tanizaki’s character.

there’s also tanizaki’s hidden extreme, which is his obsession and protectiveness of his sister (which i also wrote about a bit). again, loving and being protective of someone, especially a sibling, is pretty normal. but with bsd, it seems like these normal traits are just,, blown out of proportion? suddenly they’re very intense, very extreme, and you tend to associate those traits with the character afterwards.

kenji’s “extreme” would be his optimism and happiness, which again doesn’t seem like an extreme, likely cause it isn’t bad. unlike negative traits like possessiveness or being gloomy, happiness when amplified doesn’t stand out that much. extreme possessiveness or antisocial behavior definitely stands out more. kenji’s happiness is simply a part of his character, and it seems like it's more like “him” than an attribute he has. he doesn’t have happiness, he is happy. really fuckin happy. kind of alarmingly happy?? i’m scared of him but that’s for another post.

anyway uhhh now that i’ve kinda talked about the traits and why they do or don’t stand out, i’m gonna just. do a list thing. with everyone’s traits. yes. i’m sorry this is gonna be rlly fucking long,, this is everyone’s “extremes” and maybe why. also this order is coming straight off the wiki sorry in advance 🥳 not including smaller side characters (office assistants, elise, and herman melville)

ada

atsushi - he’s kind of complicated but atsushi seems like a mix of extreme anxiety, desire to prove himself/do good, and babey. he’s absolute babey. most of this is due to past abuse in the orphanage. some of his smaller traits include fear of pain/death, bravery, and kindness. sometimes these traits contradict each other which is why i say he’s complicated. while afraid of pain and death, his desire to prove himself pushes him into brave and risky acts. while he is generally kind and he wants to do good for others, that sometimes means being brutally honest or pushy. (see: interactions w/ aku, especially in cannibalism arc)

dazai - extremely suicidal and fake (fake happiness/outgoingness). mainly, though, is his over the top suicidal ideation. he is incredibly suicidal, and if asked to point out the most suicidal character in bsd, there’s a very clear answer: the suicide maniac. dazai is also one of the incredible geniuses in the series, which surfaces quite often. some of his smaller traits that i said earlier would be that he’s manipulative, a liar, and insensitive. personally i think these are some of his most intense traits, but it also seems like he’s one of the characters taken at “face value”, with these other traits overlooked due to his excessive suicidal ideation/being eccentric. i could ramble more but i will save my dazai shit-talking for my other analysis. oh and i say that his faking expressions is different from lying. one is purposefully being deceitful for personal gain, where faking an emotion/reaction is simply to hide one’s true feelings.

kunikida - extremely strict and idealistic. heavily imposes his standards on not just himself, but everyone around him. can make him easily angered. some of his less evident traits are fear of failure and sadness over not being able to save people. his fear of failure can be hidden by his strict and confident nature. he also tends to act very neutral and unaffected when discussing past failures (usually people dying), which gives off an uncaring attitude. contrary to that, though, kunikida cares a lot! while it’s somewhat unclear as to why kunikida is so set on his morals, it may be his way of dealing with perfectionism issues and fear of doing things incorrectly. if all that is supposed to be done and all of his beliefs are written in his notebook, it is easier to stay to a strict schedule.

ranpo - childish and arrogant. i could leave it at that because that's 90% of him but i won’t. ranpo’s inflated ego was likely born from some kind of entitlement (im sorry that sounds mean let me make amends). with him being a great detective and the ADA being founded for him likely contributed to him having a great feeling of importance and intelligence. honestly that’s understandable though, he is a respectable genius. underneath those domineering traits are strong desires for praise, to fit in, and some motivation issues. ranpo really wants to believe that he is gifted, as he would feel like the odd one out if he didn’t have one. he will do anything for fukuzawa’s praise, which is probably linked to some childhood issues. lastly, his motivation- it’s connected to his tendency to find everything boring, and if something is boring, it isn’t worth his time.

yosano - sadistic and dominant. this sounds like weird bedroom shit but i swear it isn’t. mainly, the sadism comes to light when she’s using her ability or when she’s fighting- both which include her using weapons on other people. her domineering personality is also not always evident, as she is able to talk with a calm front if the situation needs it, mainly in civilized ADA meetings. otherwise, yosano will get intense and competitive, with an underlying desire to win. to some degree i think this aggression comes from wanting to stay in her position in life- she worked to get there, and she won’t back down from anything that may challenge or disrupt that.

kenji - overly happy and trustworthy. this is pretty clear from looking at him, but again doesn’t stand out that much,, it’s an extreme, but it’s an extreme feeling rather than mindset/goal. his happiness also doesn’t hurt anyone, so it’s less noticeable when he’s working with others- it often won’t affect them, aside from perhaps encouraging them or cheering them up. kenji is also, as we have seen, too trusting. he believes that trusting others is a good thing that will always lead to a good outcome. since this is an extreme belief rather than a feeling, it’s projected on his surroundings a bit more. i can’t explain any of his underlying traits or causes as we don’t know a ton about him :<

fukuzawa - kinda tough to say, but i guess extremely calm and protective? i wanted to say emotionless but he definitely has emotions, he just conceals them very well. rather, he tends to stay calm in almost every situation, no matter how bad it looks. he is also very protective of the detective agency and yokohama as a whole. underneath the mask, fukuzawa is caring- he literally never shows it, but i’ve never seen him scold someone, get mad, or punish someone (except post-cannibalism, but that wasn’t bad). he often looks angry but isn’t really, nor is he super strict. his past is still a bit too unknown for me to guess at why he’s like this.

tanizaki - extremely..... protective......... i just wrote about this ik but yeah uh. tanizaki is protective to the point it’s scary and he’s a danger to others. aside from that, tanizaki often seems very anxious, though he’s usually quite subtle about it. like i said earlier, it usually blends into the situation- if he’s in danger, of course he’s anxious. but, it seems that even when the danger has passed, he has lingering worries about whatever just occurred (getting scared at the mention of yosano’s treatment, desperately trying to find a way around punishment for disobeying fukuzawa). i feel like there’s more but my mind is blanking sorry y’all 😰

kyouka - emotionless? again she definitely has emotions, but similar to fukuzawa, rarely ever shows them. mainly what i mean by this is that she has a very underwhelming reaction to everything. if in danger, she won’t hesitate to do whatever, even if it’s violent, all without an expression. when bad stuff happens, she also doesn’t react much, unless atsushi is in danger or smth. one underlying extreme fear she has is being “evil” i guess? or just fearing the mafia. she absolutely doesn’t want to go back to the mafia, would rather die than kill again, and often has openly fearful reactions when faced with mafia members. her lack of fear and blank expression is probably a result of being desensitized to violence and also bad trauma from the mafia B(

katai - tired and isolated. seeing as how katai literally works from his futon, it’s safe to say that he enjoys sleeping and to some degree is lazy. he doesn’t really do anything, which also is a part of his isolation. i wouldn’t say antisocial behaviors since he isn’t aggressive, but basically he avoids social interactions like the plague. he never leaves his house, is horrible at talking to people, and is completely fine being cooped up in a small space for a week with no human contact. i’m sure people enjoy their alone time and sitting in bed.... but uhhhh....... yeah literally living in bed for a week with the only human contact being having take out dropped off? kinda extreme. his less evident trait goes hand in hand with social isolation- anxiety, or more specifically, social anxiety. what we mainly see of katai is during the small pre-cannibalism arc, which also shows his social anxiety. had the chapter not included going outside and interacting with girls, it would likely be unnoticeable. he is comfortable at home and doesn’t have that much of an issue with facing people and talking to them. however, he was very awkward in his interactions with higuchi (talking to her and pointing another way), as well as not knowing how to confess his love for gin.

akutagawa - i’m so sorry in advance, akutagawa’s is rlly long bc he is kinda just. extreme. so uh, desire to get praise/prove himself, and few but extreme emotions. akutagawa’s most defining trait is his obsession with being acknowledged by dazai. unfortunately, it doesn’t end there- his very character extreme, a constant black and white fluctuation with no gray in between. there isn’t much of a spectrum with him, as it will be all or nothing. this applies to his view of others, view on the world, himself, his emotions, and actions.

his emotions have been stated to be none at all, or intense anger/hatred and deep respect. his view of others seems to also be on opposite ends of the spectrum. either he likes them & respects them deeply, or he despises them. i can’t think of anyone who is in a neutral zone with him,, maybe he’s indifferent about some people, but i believe the majority of people fall into those two categories. then there are his actions, which are overly brutal even in the mafia. he uses excessive force and slaughter, aiming for flashy crimes to get dazai’s attention.

his view on the world doesn’t fluctuate as much, instead seeming to be fixated in one view- the world is cruel and harsh, and there are weak people and strong people. to him, the natural order of things is that the weak must die to make way for the strong. he also applies himself to a similar belief- either he is stronger, better, and more capable than everyone else, or he is weak, a failure, and would rather die than face defeat. extreme!

mori - lack of impulse control and being an organized mess. by organized mess i mean that he thinks a lot, is smart, and leads the mafia,, buut he also seems not the best at some tasks (darts. professionalism. being a doctor?? didn’t he lose his medical license?) mori’s bad impulse control can be tied into his disarray kinda. this is hard to word but it’s kind of like when he’s presented with an issue, he immediately and casually defaults onto an extreme solution (three way war? okay let’s kill the president of the ada!) while i’m sure these things have been thought out beforehand, it’s his sheer wack presentation of things that make him look immature, irresponsible, and kinda bad at his job.

chuuya - loyalty and irritability/aggression. while i do not believe we have seen the extent of his loyalty, it is worth noting that even after four years he trusts dazai with his life, despite dazai being a dishonest and irresponsible bastard. not trustworthy imo, but chuuya’s lingering feelings of loyalty do hold out. though not full trust and likely expecting something to go wrong, he still ends up trusting dazai. otherwise, chuuya is shown to be very loyal to the mafia, going measures to make sure dazai wouldn’t frame him to get kicked out. then there’s his irritability and aggression,, he’s shown to easily get angry and start fights with little provocation. some underlying(?) traits are his confidence (and sometimes arrogance), and his uhh,, diplomatic abilities?? idk what to call it, but if needed, he will calm down and focus to talk things out and make deals. most of these traits i believe can be linked to his old gang and possibly how they treated him due to his status as a powerful ability user. some of these also don’t seem extreme- he’s not extremely diplomatic, after all. buut these traits strongly contrast each other to make the switch more evident and dramatic.

higuchi - obsessive and stalkerish behaviors. personally i believe that this behaviors are rooted in a mixture of anxiety, loyalty, and idolization. i don’t know that higuchi has explained her infatuation with akutagawa, but it’s likely that she just admires him a lot. she also is shown to have a crush on him, which leads to the ideas that she’s obsessive and stalkerish. while i don’t deny those behaviors, i think that they’re mainly loyalty and anxiety dependent on idolization- except blown out of proportion and so extreme that she seems like a stalker. as she is loyal and deeply respects akutagawa, she also cares for him and his well-being considerably, as shown by the many times she interjects when his health is at risk. she is very, very anxious about his health, which likely is the cause for some of her obsessive behaviors (following him everywhere, trying to assist him constantly even when he says no, risking her life for him, etc). however, some isn’t all, so some of her stalkerish behaviors are genuinely rooted in a crush. but again it seems like this crush is just rlly fuckin extreme which is why she’s so persistent and radical in her attempts to help him/win him over.

kajii - curiosity. idk that this one needs a lot of explaining? his main focuses of curiosity are of god and science, but alone i don’t believe those things are extreme obsessions- he isn’t shown to praise god religiously (haha) like a certain someone, and obsession with science is already a kind of fixation on learning and curiosity, even outside of bsd. the entire concept of science is the study of the unknown. curiosity is a necessity if you are to be interested in science; its basis is observing, creating hypotheses, designing experiments, and then testing said hypotheses several times before compiling results and data into a conclusion. kajii’s fascination with experimenting is rooted in his desire to observe what happens, gather results, and learn from the experience. he is inherently curious about many things, but yes, most notably science and god. as for why..... no clue tbh.

kouyou - it’s kind of a control thing, whether it be with controlling/leading people, or being in control of tasks/responsibilities. there’s also a protective nature displayed, most notably of kyouka. in that sense, kouyou demands an amount of control over people and situations to execute action. her appearance also gives the impression that she is very specific and selective with her attire and how she presents herself- choices she has made, not mandated by anyone else. kouyou holds the position of one of the mafia’s five executives, and there’s nothing really to suggest that she is a bad leader or that she abuses her power.

while sometimes misguided and blinded by her own experiences, kouyou’s intentions are often to protect, help, and teach, which are not bad at all. her execution of these could be worked on, but at heart she is trying to do good. currently this intense protective nature is fixed on kyouka, though it is alluded that there may have been a somewhat similar relationship with chuuya. as for why she is this way, she has already explained it with her past relationship in which her lover was killed while trying to escape with her. she doesn’t want that to happen again to those she loves.

q - he’s a mix of stuff, but mainly intense switches in mood/mindset and chaos. there’s also an underlying desire to be loved and to be not used, or “cursed”. q holds the belief that his ability is a curse that he never asked for (understandably), and has expressed that he wishes that he wasn’t forced to use his ability. paired with this wish to not be used is his wish for love- while never explicitly stated by him, he reacted very badly to being told that god is real but doesn’t love him. however, he probably wishes for more than just god’s love. q’s intense loneliness and wishing for someone to care for him can likely be attributed to the fact that he is only 14, has no friends, and seemingly spends all of his time locked up somewhere in the port mafia dungeons because he’s too dangerous.

on the more evident side, q has extreme mood switches; he can bounce back and forth in between not wanting to hurt anyone or use his ability and then hating everyone and cursing everyone. his expression of these emotions are usually extreme, too- crying, sobbing, and begging can morph quickly into screaming, howling, and cursing others. these mood swings and hatred for others can also be attributed to his status in the mafia. it’s only natural for him to hate people when he only sees himself being used. his ability also is on the extreme side. both in what it is (mind control) and how it’s triggered (someone hurting him) speaks lengths of exactly how extreme his ability is. another smaller extreme that just occurred to me is his pain tolerance. he can be seen joyously causing intense injuries to himself which indicates that smaller and self-inflicted injuries are completely manageable for him.

oda - oda is weirdly like the opposite of what this post is about. there’s nothing really extreme about oda, unless you want to say he’s extremely bland? (i’m sorry hear me out) the entire thing with oda is his lack of emotions or opinions, and while i’m certain he has them, he very rarely expresses them. fun fact but he literally never smiled the entire dark era?? even with the kids 😭 okay but other than his extreme... lack of expressing feelings and opinions.. i think he’s very protective/concerned for others. he of course cares extremely about the orphans in his care, and he also cares for ango and dazai. i think that it can be said that oda’s main extreme is his fucking uh,, adopting orphan children. cause if i’m not mistaken he adopts like 15 kids in beast. he’s a serial orphan adopter. as for why, i don’t rlly know. i can guess that his stoic nature is some mix of trust issues and desensitized reactions to death/killing. under all that he’s strongly dedicated to his goals and future (caring for the kids and writing his novel).

hirotsu - honestly. not sure. he’s actually not that extreme. but, to me, his “face value” traits would be that he’s uptight and overly dedicated to tasks, though not to the extent that kunikida is. he was shown to harp on tachihara for being a few minutes late, killed an entire warehouse of people for stealing from the mafia, and tended to take successfully playing dazai’s video game a bit too serious, as he very formally apologized to dazai for his failure. he also seems to be dedicated to the task of supporting yokohama as best as he can, as he stays loyal and productive in the mafia even at his age. i would say that he’s loyal for staying that long (and he is), but he’s not extremely loyal, as he is shown doing random favors for dazai. however, these favors are usually to help support yokohama, so i guess he’s extremely..... uh supportive and trusting?? idk man hirotsu is just not that intense. intensely mysterious and cryptic maybe.

gin - though not exactly a character trait, gin is selectively mute. selective mutism, though normally a childhood anxiety disorder, can persist in late teens and adulthood. most likely, gin is mute by choice- and selective mutism is on the more severe end of the anxiety spectrum. while normal anxiety could cause someone to be shy, anxiety around others that’s so intense that the person can’t speak? yeah. there are, of course, other causes, but based on her interactions with others, it can be inferred that she chooses to stay silent out of fear or anxiety. she is capable of talking in select situations, and she can talk normally to some people. otherwise, she stays silent mostly, which makes her most outstanding trait her muteness. otherwise we haven’t seen enough to say if she has any other extremes. i also don’t have a definitive reason for why she’s mute.

tachihara - tachihara is another character with not many extreme aspects. what stands out most to me is probably his punk and carefree attitude. while he does easily get angry and violent, he can be just as quick to dismiss it if the situation calls for it. he is shown to be a bit more relaxed than his fellow mafia members, and he seems more into having fun with his job than being proper about things. his appearance also gives off vibes of a punk kid with an attitude, probably a mixture of kinda-spiky light hair, loose shirt, and weird fluffy cropped jacket. his attitude and appearance screams laid back to me. plus he dual wields in a weirdly casual way? he doesn’t have two guns to make his shots count and take on more enemies, he has two guns because he’s trigger happy and doesn’t care how bad his aim is. with two guns you don’t need good aim, you’ll eventually hit your target 😎 not enough known about him to say why he’s like this.

ace - not a lot is known about him since he existed for like two chapters BUT. ace is shown to be very greedy and ambitious. he frequently lies and plots to backstab others. if he’s an “extreme” anything, he’s an extreme snake, liar, and manipulative bastard. he also has extremely slimy vibes but that’s probably just me associating all liars and manipulators into super slimy feels. as for why,, yeah no idea? he’s just extremely greedy and willing to step on whoever to get what he wants. that seems to be it though.

the guild

fitzgerald - extreme greed and determination. fitzgerald, while already wealthy, seems to seek more wealth at all times. even if it looks like he is bargaining, offering a large amount of money for something, or even randomly gifting people, he has an ulterior motive. fitzgerald is a businessman and would not strike deals unless they were ultimately profitable for him in the long run. his greed can sometimes be subtle or played off as something “good”, such as when he confronted that one businessman. the businessman admitted to the crime, attempted to pay off fitzgerald into silence, but was backstabbed in the end as fitzgerald provided evidence against him to the court despite the money given.

another one of fitzgerald’s biggest traits is his persistent and determined nature. he is shown to not give up on his goals, no matter what the cost is. he wants to revive his daughter and help his wife? then he has no issues invading a foreign country, waging a gifted war against their gifted organizations, and willingly cursed ⅕ of yokohama with q’s ability, despite the fact that they were all innocent bystanders. as he stated, he was willing to raze yokohama to the ground to get the book. when defeated, it took a bit to convince him to try again, but once he decided to go for success again, it was almost simple for him to regain his status and wealth.

as for why he is so greedy, that isn’t really touched on or explained. his determination and independence can be chalked up to his “rules of success” or whatever. some of his underlying extremities could be social incompetence/ignorance, which honestly kind of makes up a lot of his character? beneath the absolute rich boy is an absolute ignorant rich boy. he seemed to struggle to understand why nathaniel felt responsible for mitchell. he also talks to alcott very flippantly despite her nervous reactions to him (and frequently ignores her warning to not follow dangerous plans). he doesn’t know what it’s like being poor, seen when he just walked into another person’s room in a hotel, thinking that he also owned that room.

montgomery - extremely playful and eager. the eagerness and playfulness kind of go hand in hand, as she is very excitable and loves to use her ability to mess with people and play games. this is evident in how over the top her speech is and how emphasized her actions are (the creepy big smile, her gesturing & clapping, etc.) her eagerness is mainly focused on winning and catching people in her game. these actions tend to blend into her character more than an intensified trait. an underlying strong desire is her desperation to fit in and have a place to belong, which is tied into her over-eagerness to win and do well. this is a result of her upbringing in an orphanage where she was unwanted. having no place to call home, she has fixated on creating a place where she can stay and fit in with others; particularly with other ability users, as she was outcast for having an ability when no one else did.

steinbeck - though not as extreme as some other traits, steinbeck is above average in attributes like determination and a lack of empathy for strangers. his determination, for lack of a better word, will be used more as an umbrella term for his loyalty, thoroughness, and efficiency in his work. when needed, he will finish tasks assigned quickly and without skipping details. he is good at sticking to plans or an order and does his job well. despite disagreeing with fitzgerald’s ambitions and methods, he stays with the guild and even plans to lead it after its fall. his motivations are also rooted in his love and loyalty to his family. however, his intense thoroughness and determination also seems to lead to decreased empathy for others. he willingly went with the emergency plan, despite his ability causing q to curse ⅕ of innocent civilians in yokohama. he was also ready to sacrifice haruno and naomi for the purpose of fulfilling his mission. an underlying (and not as intense) trait is how laid back and casual he is. despite his jobs being cruel and sacrificing others, he does it easily and with a smile.

lovecraft - very very tired. being tired sometimes is normal if you didn’t sleep well, but lovecraft is constantly exhausted and on the verge of falling asleep. basically every scene with him includes him talking about how tired he is, or how much he wants to sleep. there were also instances of him briefly falling asleep in inappropriate scenes, such as when kunikida shot him and during the fight with dazai and chuuya. after the guild fell and his contract with fitzgerald expired, he immediately jumped into the ocean to sleep. aside from being incredibly tired, lovecraft has a few other feelings (though not as severe): being hungry and feeling anxious. hunger isn’t mentioned as much as being tired, nor is his anxiety; however, lovecraft has expressed that he feels anxious around people, as he never really interacts with them or goes out in public. before he was in japan with steinbeck, he apparently hadn’t been outside in four years. another extreme shut in! a bonus thing that we don’t know much about, but lovecraft seems to be bound to contracts he makes; even if he wants to do something else, he must “fulfill [his] contract”. assuming that he has no choice but to do what the contract requires, once he signs a contract, that’s a very powerful thing going on.

hawthorne - well uh. incredibly religious, and extremely dedicated/loyal. the religious part is arguably the biggest part of his character; he is a pastor, dresses like one, carries around a bible, and uses his rosary to activate his ability (which takes the form of verses from the bible). his purpose in life, and in the guild, is to pass on judgement to sinners and punish them. it is his strongest motivator, and he mainly spends his time speaking to god, reading the bible, and deciding how to use his ability to follow god’s will. all religion related- he’s incredibly dedicated. he is also loyal to margaret mitchell, to the point that it diverted him from god. his desire to save her and help restore her honor was also a big thing for him; eventually, this goal overtook following religion, which is a considerable achievement. i say that it overtook religion because he began working with fyodor in order to help mitchell- that was a mistake, as he currently is brainwashed into following fyodor’s orders without ever thinking on his own. he is no longer using his ability to follow his life’s work and to follow god. more underlying traits of his include arrogance and a lack of expressions. basically, doesn’t express much, though his tone tends to be arrogant a lot of the time.

mitchell - with much unknown about her and little screen time, it’s a bit difficult to peg any extremes she has; however, she does possess a lot of arrogance that affects several aspects of her life. first and foremost, this arrogance tends to interfere with her relationships. mitchell is quick to start fights over petty things, automatically placing herself above others and asserting it quite forcefully. secondly, her arrogance disrupts how she acts and perceives others. as stated before, she believes herself to be above everyone else. however, beyond simply stating that, mitchell complains about having to do work when she believes that she is above that, too. she thinks that everyone else should be doing the work, and was shown to get angry at hawthorne when he wasn’t giving orders on the ship. another instance of this arrogance is her severely underestimating enemies, and becoming in critical danger as a result. a less noticeable trait is her honor, sort of? though it seems similar to her arrogance and inflated ego, mitchell is obsessed with restoring honor to her family, to the point that she would risk her life for it.

poe - hoo boy. poe has a few extremes: severe social anxiety/isolation, competitiveness, and a self esteem issue (sort of). poe faced ranpo in a battle of wits some time in the past, and when defeated, apparently fell into a deep depression. normally, someone would accept their failure and move on, but poe instead gained a lot of self-doubt and negative emotions. to recover from that fall, he became obsessed with facing off with ranpo again and winning. he is extremely dedicated and competitive, as he prepared to face ranpo again for six fuckin years. he is stated to be reclusive and shy, talking quietly and hiding his face with his hair. his profile says he dislikes noisy crowds and “being invited to a party and ignored by the only person he knows”. in short, he is not one for socializing or being the center of attention.

some of his underlying traits are his mood swings or conflicting feelings about others. though they aren’t super severe, it is worth noting that it happens quite frequently- he was confident when facing ranpo, then switched to a very depressed and sullen mood when ranpo didn’t recognize him. he was happy when he believed he beat ranpo- again, quickly transformed to intense disappointment and feeling of defeat when he realized that he lost. his conflicting feelings of others is mainly evident in his weird relationship with ranpo. he appears excited and overjoyed to watch ranpo use super deduction, but when asked if he was a fan, replied that they were rivals. when he trapped chuuya and ranpo in the book, he laughed in delight at potentially trapping and winning against ranpo in this way. immediately after, he was struck with the possibility of ranpo actually dying in the book, to which he got quiet and a bit scared about.

twain - another character with a lot of arrogance? but also a lot of excited reactions and constantly looking to mess around and have fun. he is shown to be very laid back and casual about his job, not getting disappointed when faced with defeat; rather, he laughs in excitement about someone being talented enough to escape his sniping. most scenes with him include inappropriate bouts of jokes and requests to engage in silly activities. however, he dislikes being ignored or left behind, so he tends to go with the flow anyway. more regarding his arrogance; twain believes his ability and talent to be great. his last appearance includes him commenting on how he is going to go home and finish writing his autobiography. not much is known about him, so it’s unclear why he is significant enough to write a book about. plus, his likes list himself and praise as the first two. a less evident trait of his, referenced in his likes and dislikes, is what he likes to do. sniping, of course, seems to be his favorite- this is likely because he likes adventure (and probably dangerous tasks/jobs), and dislikes plain or boring work. he likely gets bored easily, similar to ranpo, and needs an engaging and interesting task to entertain him.

alcott - most obviously, alcott has severe anxiety, though mainly it’s related to the social aspects of her life. this timidness and fear of talking to others dominates most of her character, and when thinking of alcott, the first thought that comes to mind is “oh, that really anxious and shy tactician.” alcott, for an unknown reason, relies heavily on approval from others, mainly fitzgerald. she has low self esteem, which also contributes to her fear of talking to strangers; she will run and hide if other people confront her. she only seems to feel more comfortable with fitzgerald, her boss, and poe, her fellow shy writer friend. other than her anxiety, alcott is also incredibly intelligent. it’s overshadowed by her “face value” trait, but is still very prominent. her work as a tactician means that she plans, but even her plans are the epitome of intense. using her ability allows her to write packets of potential outcomes to situations she really has no way of predicting. she also writes what to do should certain problems arise, though her cautious nature appears again as she often strongly recommends that fitzgerald does nothing.

the rats/decay of angels

fyodor - fyodor is another kind of tough one, but i’d say that it’s a mix of intelligence and composed attitude. another character with a very limited range of emotions- iirc there was one time he looked surprised, occasionally looks annoyed or confused, sometimes smiles, but mostly has no expression at all. he has dulled reactions to external stimuli, similar to kyouka, and likely hides his reactions or feelings like fukuzawa. one thing that is known, however, is that he is one of the genius characters and that he is constantly plotting and thinking. while he may not react to things happening around them, i am sure he notices them, takes them into account, and sometimes incorporates them into his complex plans. his ability to predict things rivals alcott’s, to the point that he predicts what everyone will do, how to trick them, and how to exploit the mistakes they will make. unlike alcott, his ability does not allow him to maximize his genius and complex plotting; all of his thinking and planning is done in the moment or before his plans are set into action, which is still impressive on its own. as for why he is like this, completely unknown. he also has a god complex, different from kajii and hawthorne’s religious beliefs. not only is his entire motivation to “cleanse the world of sinners” (ability users), but he has called himself god before. his religious beliefs seem to go beyond simply believing in god or following god’s word; no, he is god, and his job is to kill all ability users.

goncharov - goncharov didn’t show up much, but from what we saw of him, his main extreme is his dedication and loyalty. specifically, goncharov is very dedicated to fyodor- he underwent surgery to have “[his] unhappiness removed”, which makes him appear constantly smiling and declaring how happy he became with fyodor’s help. he is almost obsessive in his loyalty to fyodor, calling him “master” and apparently having similar interests (likes classical music, implied to have tea with fyodor, etc.)

pushkin - again, didn’t show up much, but from what little we saw, he is very ambitious. he found joy in the way his ability was used in the cannibalism arc, stating later on that it was a genius technique and he would find it fun to do it again but with prominent world leaders. ambition is one thing and desiring to cause chaos similar to the cannibalism arc but with world leaders… yeah he must get really bored.

mushitarou - though not quite a character trait, mushitarou is extremely… clean? particular? just by looking at him, you get the impression that he is self absorbed, probably grooms himself a lot (look at his HAIR), and that he is confident. he is also shown to be very demanding, which is where his “particular” thing comes in. he requires everything to be done a certain way, with very specific and high standards. with his ability, he also believes himself to be unbeatable, though this cockiness may have led to him being caught by ranpo. fr if he’s sitting there yelling how he’s gonna get away with it, does he expect to still get away with it?? anyway. i don’t really know why he’s like this or other underlying traits, as our info on him is still pretty limited. i guess he cares about his friend a FUCK TON.

gogol - oh boy. gogol really likes freedom and being a clown. now, being a clown seems like a weird kind of extreme we’re talkin about… but i think that this trait is mainly just emphasized with how outgoing and excitable he is. he dresses like a clown, loves playing weird tricks and games, and frequently gives people “quizzes”. his body language also characterizes him as moving around excessively. overall just a mega clown. then there’s his love of freedom. his recently released character profile states that he dislikes “brainwashing, subordination, being unfree”. all his dislikes are tied into each other and definitely tied into his odd obsession with being free- hell, he even died saying, “this is a prison break! over the innate brainwashing known as morality, i choose the freedom of my soul!” basically, a reality where he must follow what others want is too confining and he would rather die to free his soul than continue living that way. pretty extreme!

sigma - uh my boy has only existed for like 7 chapters but. we’ll go with he’s extremely secretive and also babey. so, with the secrecy, it’s more like he has very bad amnesia and most information is unknown about him. real name, backstory, age, birthday, weight, height, ability name- none of that is clear, so he is either keeping it secret or doesn’t remember (possibly a combination of both.) from what we have seen of sigma, though, he is very kind and considerate of his customers and other people. he is formal and protective of not only his casino, but those staying at his casino. he has spent a lot of time memorizing everyone’s names and info about them for the sake of maximizing their safety and enjoyment. for being a member of a terrorist organization, sigma is a sweetheart. his kindness and innocence are more traits that blend into his character more, so it isn’t as evidently an “extreme”- but i do want to say that he has extreme memory issues and for being in a terrorist organization, he is incredibly sweet, which seems somewhat out of place.

others

ango - ango is very, very hardworking. another dedicated madlad. in dead apple, ango was shown to have willingly pulled several all nighters writing reports on the incident. when we were first introduced to him in the mafia, he was shown to be going above and beyond with his job; rather than writing a list of the people who died, ango wrote out a biography for each person, basically. he was uptight and against slacking in his job, attempting to refuse dazai and oda’s offer to go drinking, and very against being hugged by them when they stank of death. a bit of a clean freak with how uptight and orderly he was. he held a high ranking position in the mafia as an informant, where he handled much of their sensitive information and deals. his job also required him to work as a triple agent- initially in the special abilities department, then sent to infiltrate the mafia, and then in the mafia was sent to infiltrate mimic to work as a double agent. overall, his job(s) required a lot of him and he gladly overworked himself in all of them.

gide - he’s kinda weirdly obsessed with a specific goal? so less a personality trait or even mindset that is amplified, but a strange goal where he, as the leader of mimic, was determined to lead himself and his men into battle with worthy opponents who could kill them. their sheer determination to fight others with the goal of dying, basically a suicide mission, was what stood out. plus, gide was willing to go to horrifying extremes to provoke oda into fighting him. he believed oda to be the only one capable and worthy enough to kill him in battle, and once he realized oda refused to fight him, kidnapped and killed oda’s orphans, essentially angering oda into fighting and killing hm, also killing oda in the process. so still pretty extreme, but also extremely specific.

shibusawa - shibusawa’s extreme traits are boredom, intelligence, and collecting. intelligence is actually kind of dubious, as we don’t know to what extent his intellect is, but it is implied that he at least believes himself to be a genius and in some way or another, superior to everyone around him. he thinks of everyone else as boring, life as boring, and as such is constantly searching to cure his boredom. this boredom is probably his strongest motivator for most things, such as conducting the dragon’s head conflict. this boredom also might be an influence on his collector tendencies, as i believe they work in tandem in his ability use. bored of everything, he finds it interesting to collect things- his ability allows him to separate ability from ability user, so of course he finds it entertaining to watch people duel their abilities, his reward being another ability gem in his large collection. his collection is massive, and seeing as how all of his gems are from getting ability users to kill themselves with their abilities,,, yikes shibu that’s really intense and hardcore 😰

and with that, i think that’s about the end of this post (thank god). i decided against including the hunting dogs in this, as there is not enough known about them to determine what their extremes are and why. also its 5 am and im kinda lazy :( i wanna say that this post is also kind of like a spectrum. almost every character has a trait/goal/mindset/habit that’s intense and kind of characterizes a lot of the character; but, some characters are less extreme than others, particularly characters that don’t convey a lot of expressions. and like i tried to explain earlier, some traits don’t stand out that much and seem more like they’re a part of the character. not every “extreme” written here is the level of extreme that akutagawa’s obsession is, for instance.

a last note to end on is that i wanna talk about intelligence in bsd. it seems like a pretty all-or-nothing situation for the most part; either a character is of average intelligence or they’re a fucking genius. now, most “average” characters are still witty, innovative, and capable of basic detective skills, but there is still a large difference in say, kenji and fyodor. both are pretty dangerous and extreme in their own aspects, but in terms of intelligence, fyodor has kenji far outmatched. i’m gonna rank the different geniuses of bsd and their intelligence type. this is entirely personal opinion btw

ranpo- on top of having amazing intuition and deduction, ranpo is excellent at analyzing small details in a short amount of time. his sheer speed at completely solving impossible cases, even with little evidence, is what makes him so remarkable. he also is pretty good at being a tactician, though his strength mainly lies in solving mysteries.

a tie between dazai and fyodor. maybe fyodor a bit smarter tho. both are incredible tacticians, and their strengths lie in analyzing what their enemies are plotting. they are good at reading people and figuring out how to best use them, and lying/faking their way to get what they want. dazai is also a pretty good detective.

i am sad to place alcott at third bc tbh she might be a two or tied with ranpo. alcott is fucking brilliant as a tactician and her ability allows her to create complex and detailed plans, correctly able to plot out every possibility her enemies may take. she hasn’t been shown to have any particular skills in reading people or crime solving, which is why she is placed third.

the debatables: don’t actually know the extent of their genius, but they’re apparently pretty smart and capable. mori, shibusawa, and ango?? i feel like im bsing my way now im sorry LMAO

honorable mention: katai

alright that is all im out. thank u for reading this hell i didn’t mean for this to be 8,000 words but its fine. probably. originally was gonna do shorter explanations for everyone and then reblog with more in depth but fuck it, its all here.

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yourdeepestfathoms · 5 years ago

Text

Candy Crush

New AU

———————

“You come here often?”

“Well, I work here, so I’m gonna have to say ‘yes’.”

Anna did her best not to frown when her attempt at flirting completely missed its mark. The girl standing on the other side of the counter is staring at her with the big, deep blue eyes that made Anna fall head over heels in love with her the day she first walked into Sweet Thrills. She tilts her head a little, as if she were a confused puppy, and that simile makes Anna’s heart melt inside of her chest.

“Ma’am?” The worker says, concern growing on her features. “Ma’am, are you alright?” Her voice, toned with an accent Anna believes is Italian, maybe Ukrainian (YES she KNOWS those two are two entirely different accents but with the slight British undertone from life in London, it was hard to put her finger on the exact tone), is as sweet as the drops of honey being sold on one of the counters a few feet away.

The rainbow fairy lights strung up around the sweets shop illuminated this girl’s soft, young features. The glow casts a multi-colored halo over her head, which then spills down the sides of her long, slightly scruffy, but silky-looking black hair. She’s got hands like wolf paws, minus the menacing claws, but the frame of a sun bear- moderately well built and small (Anna has to look down at her, actually). Bangs fall into those jewel-like, haunting blue eyes, swaying with her movements and occasionally falling into the orbs of sapphire that bring out the rest of her pale, but pretty face. Glasses top it all off, balanced on the bridge of her cute little nose.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes,” Anna said quickly, “Yes, I’m fine. Just dozed off a little.”

The worker nodded, smiling softly. It doesn’t really meet her eyes, which Anna notices holds a deep sadness and pain in, but it’s genuine nonetheless.

“Alright,” She said, “Have a good day.”

“You too!”

———

When Anna returns the next day, she smiles at the girl over the counter as if to say, “Yes, I’m here again.”

So, here she is, again. Walking towards the peppermint creams, her devil candy, again. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices the girl take off her glasses and dutifully clean them with her shirt.

She looks very cute without them on.

Soon enough, Anna’s standing in front the counter again, gently placing the peppermint creams in front of the girl to weigh. She’s smiling sheepishly.

The girl grabs the candy, weighing it with an amused eyeroll. She doesn’t think Anna would have caught it, but she does.

“No judgement, miss sweet clerk. A woman needs her snacks.” Is what she ends up saying.

Anna watches as the girl’s head short-circuits, seeming to be simultaneously anxious, embarrassed, and guilty.

“Better than liquor, I guess.” She finally replies, not managing to make direct eye contact with the customer. She’s so awkward- it’s adorable, yet sad at the same time. How could someone be so anxious?

“I suppose you’re very much right.” Anna nods, handing the girl the money to pay for her snack. She watches her fumble with the change before adding, “Keep it.”

“What?” The girl looked up.

“Keep it.” Anna said again.

“A-are you sure? This is a lot of change-”

“Of course,�� Anna smiled. She takes the candy, watching the girl stare at her, stunned, “See you later!”

———

Anna returns two days later and is ecstatic to see the pretty girl was working.

When she walks in, said girl smiled and greeted her with the usual phrase workers said to new patrons (not that Anna was new...this was probably her sixth trip to the shop within the month).

After picking out her usual candy, she goes to pay and starts to script what she was about to say to the girl.

“Will that be all?” The girl asked.

“Yeah,” Anna replied.

The girl hums and rings Anna up. After saying their goodbyes...Anna leaves.

Goddamnit.

———

It’s a week later this time. Rain is pelting from the sky, but Anna still makes the journey into the candy store. She thanks the lord when she sees that the cute girl was working, so she didn’t just almost get pneumonia for nothing.

When she walks in, the girl, who appears to be the only one working (and also isn’t wearing her glasses, Anna’s useless gay brain notes), perks up, her eyes widening in alarm and concern. The fact that she seems to be worried over Anna makes Anna’s heart flutter.

“You must really like sweets if you came here in that weather,” The girl said, easing herself back down onto her stool behind the counter. She brushes the papers she was working on aside and stands up to get ready to ring up Anna, who was setting her umbrella by the door.

Not as much as I like you.

“You could say that,” Anna said instead, which her gay brain grumbles at her for. She probably could have ended her miserable pining by saying that. Maybe.

After getting rung up, the girl glanced anxiously over Anna’s shoulder, watching the rain come down harder. Her eyes bulge a little when lightning struck nearby and the sky becomes an uproar of crashing thunder.

“I don’t think it’s safe to go back out there.” She said, “You should stay in here. I’ll go grab you a stool.”

She got up, stumbling for a moment when she must have stepped wrong, pawed for her glasses, put them on, and disappeared into the back of the store. Before she returns, Anna glances at the papers and spiral notebooks stacked beside the cash register and saw notes and work on...she squints at it...murder cases?

Notes on Richard Chase, Jeffrey Dahmer, Harold Shipman, Ed Gein, were scribbled on the pages in great detail about what they’ve done, which included a lot of cannibalism, necrophilia, torture, and even skinning people to make furniture and clothing out of their flesh (god that Ed Gein guy sounds horrible...thank the lord he’s in America! And dead).

When the girl returns and notices that Anna was reading her work, her cheeks blazed so red the blush reached up to her ears. She hunched her shoulders around her neck, clearly embarrassed, and quickly scampered around the counter to put the stool down for Anna before returning to her own seat.

“I-” She tried to say, but couldn’t quite find the words. Her blue eyes cast down, dulling slightly with shame. “You probably think I’m crazy.”

“No, not at all.” Anna said quickly, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snooped.”

“No, it’s okay,” The girl said, “I shouldn’t have left my things lying around in the way.” She nervously rubbed her palms against her pants. “Um- I’m majoring in forensic science in college.” She explained. “That’s- that’s why-”

“Oh!” Anna said, “Oh, that makes sense!” She smiled at the girl, relaxing her slightly. “Do you like it?”

“Totally,” The girl smiled a little, “It’s fascinating! We’re learning EVERYTHING there is to know. Entomology, toxicology, trace evidence, fingerprints, blood splatter analysis, DNA- everything. It’s so,” Her hands flutter as she tries to find the words, “-it’s incredible. There’s a case-” She plucks up her journal and flips through the pages until she comes to a specific one and shows it to Anna. Notes on a case about a dismembered torso is scribbled on the pages. “-on this unidentified torso that was found and the pathologists were able to find out who it was by using the HIP BONE. Nothing else! Isn’t that incredible?”

“Yeah,” Anna agreed.

“Oh- I’m sorry.” She’s blushing again, but this time it’s a shy blush, equally as adorable as the one from before. “I’m babbling.”

“No, no, it’s alright!” Anna said, “You love what you’re learning. That’s great!”

The girl smiled. “What about you? What are you majoring in?”

“Music,” Anna answered. “I don’t have much to say about it, though. Not as much as you.”

The girl giggled and her eyes glitter in a way that makes Anna’s heart thump wildly.

“Sounds fun!” She paused, “You know, I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh, right! I’m Anna.” Anna said, “Anna Cleves. I’m twenty. Moved from Germany to here in London two years ago after high school to go to college.”

“Ah,” The girl nodded. “Germany, huh? Is it nice?”

“Oh yeah,” Anna said fondly, remembering back to her home. “What about you? What’s your name?”

“Elizabeth Blount,” The girl said, “But I go by Bessie.”

“Bessie?”

“Yeah,” She seems a little shy. “I know there’s a lot of other better nicknames I could go by- Eliza, Lizzie, Liz, Beth, Ellie- but, umm...” She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, “I really liked cows when I was little. Like- REALLY liked cows. And when I found out that Bessie was a stereotypical name for cows I was like, ‘Oh my god I have to go by that!!’ So I did! And it’s just stuck over time. But you should have seen my mother’s face when I first told her!”

Anna didn’t think she could fall for this woman any further, but that was just proved wrong.

“Oh my god,” She said, “That is absolutely adorable!”

Bessie smiles bashfully. She seems much more relaxed now.

“Really? I thought it was kinda weird.”

“No way!” Anna shook her head, “That’s so cute.”

“Thanks,” Bessie said shyly. “Oh, and I’m nineteen, by the way. I moved here from Italy when I was fourteen.”

So it was an Italian accent she had, then.

Anna nodded and leaned forward, propping her elbows up on the counter. She and Bessie basically began to do icebreakers, sharing things about each other, and by the time the rain slowed enough for Anna to go home safely, they seemed to be the closest of friends.

“It was really nice talking to you, Anna.” Bessie said. “Will you..” Her shyness returned, “You will come back, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

And Bessie genuinely beamed.

———

Three days later, Anna returned.

When she walked in, she saw that Bessie seemed a little...upset. Her eyes were dull as she stared blankly at the counter, not paying much mind to the customers inside unless they were paying. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice the woman standing near the display of fudges, calling for her.

“Excuse me!” The woman finally roared, startling Bessie to awareness. Her annoyance didn’t diminish when Bessie turned to her with such a frightened, pitiful expression. “I’ve been waiting for you for TEN MINUTES!”

“I’m sorry,” Bessie whispered, dipping her head low and scampering over. She could definitely feel the prying eyes of the other patron’s burning into her. “I’m very sorry, ma’am.”

“You should pay more attention,” The lady growled. “Stupid girl. What could be so important that you couldn’t do you job?” She scoffs, “I’m sure you were thinking about getting with one of your male coworkers behind the store.”

Bessie paled. She’s paralyzed in her spot, eyes widening.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

Bessie doesn’t answer. Her bottom lip is trembling slightly.

“Of course.” The lady sneers, “I bet you aren’t even wearing an underwear under those pants. So ready to get knocked up, aren’t you? You dirty s-”

“HEY!!”

Anna practically charges the woman, shoving her so hard she stumbled backwards into the display glass for the fudge squares. Her fists are clenched, ready to strike and bust open the head of this middle-aged Karen like a jawbreaker, and her eyes are alight with rage.

“Excuse me!” The woman yelped from being pushed. “What is your-”

“Leave her alone.” Anna seethed, “Don’t fucking talk to her like that, you fucking bitch. You have no right.”

“And you have no right speaking to ME like that!” The woman barked.

“What do you mean? Unlike what you’re spewing, what I’m saying is true.” Anna said, “Get the fuck out. And never talk to her again!”

With a final glare and a huff, the woman storms out. Once she’s gone, Anna releases the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and turned around...but Bessie wasn’t there.

Anna looked around, then dared to step behind the counter and go into the employees only section. There, she hears crying and finds Bessie in the bathroom, hunched over the toilet. This sends Anna to her side instantly.

“Oh, Bessie...” Anna murmured, trying her best to not look into the toilet, as she was sure the girl has already exhausted herself by emptying her stomach into it.

Bessie let out a strangled whimper and heaved again. Anna quickly grabs her long black hair and holds it out of the way, rubbing her back comfortingly with her other hand.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Anna murmured, “Just get it out, darling...it’s okay.”

After a moment, Bessie finally pulled back, panting heavily.

“Done?” Anna said softly.

Bessie nodded and flushed the toilet with a shaky hand. She uses her other to press the heel of her palm to one of her eyes, which are spilling out tears.

“I’m sorry,” Bessie whispered, hiccuping softly. “God, I’m- I’m so sorry. This is so gross. I shouldn’t have- You- I-”

Anna’s heart broke at how scared the girl was. Gently, she brushes a lock of hair out of her pale, tear-stained face and had the overwhelming urge to kiss her forehead, but managed to restrain herself from doing so.

“Shh, shh,” Anna hushed her. “It’s alright, darling, I promise. It’s alright.”

Bessie’s ears glow red like licorice when she’s referred to with the pet name. She ducks her head a little, clearly flustered.

“Okay,” She said quietly. “I just- What she said...it...”

“Was horrible.” Anna said for her. “It was horrible, Bessie. She had no right.”

Bessie just shrugged.

“Wanna know why?” Anna said, and Bessie looks up at her a little. “Because,” She cups either sides of her cheeks and lifts her chin so their eyes meet, “You’re a wonderful, beautiful young woman. You aren’t anything she said about you.”

The blush creeps onto Bessie’s cheeks and fresh tears spill down her face. She collapses into Anna’s arms, sobbing into her chest and thanking her over and over again.

Anna holds the weeping girl protectively, rubbing a hand up and down her back and rocking her gently. Right then, she vows to protect Elizabeth Blount. No matter what.

———

Two days later, Anna strides confidently into Sweet Thrills with a present bag dangling from her wrist. However, she deflates when she doesn’t see Bessie. Rather, a woman her age with her brown hair done in space buns is standing behind the counter. She looked as if she spoke in the verbal form of italics all the time.

Anna looks around with a disappointed expression and is about to make her awkward exit (she didn’t buy anything, after all) when she notices the worker at the counter grinning widely. She watches the woman crane her neck around and shout over her shoulder.

“Hey, B!” She called, “Your stalker is here!”

Anna wrinkles her nose, but her expression brightens when she sees Bessie’s pretty little head peek out from the employees only doorway. The girl matches her expression, beaming when their eyes meet, and she’s immediately walking over. The two of them actually hug, and it makes Anna’s heart beat wildly inside of her chest.

“Hey, lovely,” Anna grinned down at her, daring to brush some hair out of Bessie’s pretty eyes. She can’t help but smile even wider when Bessie leans slightly into her touch. “How are you?”

“Better, now that you’re here.” Bessie said, a soft smile curving perfectly on her pink lips, like arcing a Twizzler.

“Awww,” Anna cooed. “You sweetie.” She pokes Bessie’s shoulder, causing her to squirm away with an adorable giggle.

“I’m not the sweets, Anna.” Bessie said.

“You’re right,” Anna nodded knowingly, “You’re sweeter than the sweets.”

Bessie raised a hand to hide her blushing face and to muffle her flustered giggles.

“Reel it in, B,” Comments the worker at the counter.

Anna turned to her, ruffled and slightly defensive, ready to protect the girl at her side if she’s rudely spoken to again. She settles only because Bessie gently touches her arm and looks up at her, her eyes basically saying, “It’s alright. Calm down.”

“This is Anne,” Bessie said, nodding at her coworker. “Anne, this is Anna.”

“So, you’re the mystery girl Bessie has been telling me about.” Anne props her elbows up on the counter, resting her chin in her hands. She squints, “You are pretty.”

That doesn’t make Anna blush, rather just tilt her head.

“What? Not cute when I say it?” Anne shrugs, “Alright.”

“Anne, don’t you have to stock the sweet jars?” Bessie said, punctuating her sentence with a sharp, but pleading arch of her eyebrows.

Anne blinked, then smirks. She titters, stepping back.

“Right,” She said with way too much emphasis. “Just remember: The creams are over there.”

“ANNE!!”

Anne laughed loudly and went to the back to get the candy she was “supposed to restock”.

“I’m sorry about her,” Bessie said quietly, “She’s great, I swear.”

“Great at parties, I bet.” Anna chuckled. “Are you alright? That comment didn’t...” After seeing Bessie puke over just a few words about her being accused of being a slut and not over her gruesome major, Anna was able to put the pieces together that Bessie must have had a sensitivity to sexual subjects. Any reason for it that her brain went to made her stomach twist up.

“Yeah,” Bessie nodded. “It’s- it’s different when Anne does it. She knows not to but sometimes she forgets and I understand that.” She steps back, moving to return to the counter when she notices the gift bag hanging from Anna’s wrist. “What’s that?”

“Oh!” Anna remembered the exact reason she was there and proudly presented the bag to Bessie, who seems shocked. “It’s for you.”

“F-for me?” Bessie stuttered. She notices Anne’s head shoot out from the aisle she was working in, but dismisses it for now.

“Yeah.” Anna smiles widely, “Open it!”

Bessie hesitates, then plucked away the paper sticking out of the bag. What she pulls out is a stuffed cow.

“Her name,” Anna said proudly, “is Elizabeth. Because she really likes humans and when she found out Elizabeth was a human name, she HAD to go by it.”

“That’s why Bessie goes by Bessie!!” Anne cried from her aisle. When Bessie and Anna both look over at her, she yanks her head out of sight and goes back to restocking.

“Anna...” Bessie murmured, staring down at the fuzzy thing’s black and white face.

“Do you like it?” Anna grinned.

Bessie doesn’t say anything.

“You...you don’t like it, do you?” Anna’s grin falls.

She knew she was pushing it. She knew she was stepping too far- how could she do this? Especially after her revelation about Bessie. How could she do this to the poor girl? She’s probably so scared. She probably doesn’t want to speak to her ever-

“I love it.”

Anna’s head popped up in hope.

“You do?”

“Anna, I love it.” Bessie just said again. She cuddles the cow close to her chest, lowering her head to nuzzle her nose into the fur between its ears. She didn’t care how childish it looked. “I love it so much...”

Anna’s grin returned. She pumps her fist in victory and her elbow nearly jabs Bessie when the girl flung herself into her arms.

“Thank you, Anna,” Bessie said, hugging Anna with one arm and the cow- Elizabeth- with the other. “She’s perfect.”

Anna hugged her back tightly, swaying her ever so slightly. She hears Anne go, “awww” from her aisle, but ignores her because Bessie was much more important.

“You’re welcome,” Anna said. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I really, really do,” Bessie said. She pulled back and quickly wiped her eyes.

“Oh- don’t cry.” Anna said, going to thumb away Bessie’s tears as well.

“Sorry,” Bessie laughed slightly. “This is- this is just so nice of you to do for me.”

“Anything for you.” Anna said.

“God, you two are SO CUTE.” Anne yelled from her aisle. When her comment is met with silence, she knows her direction is being stared at without even seeing the unamused eyes, so she adds, “SORRY!”

———

The next time Anna comes in, Anne is working at the counter again. The space bun girl jumped around so fast her hair nearly comes out of their seemingly trademarked buns and yelled, “B!!” Then, Bessie is hurrying out with a small, potted banzai tree in her hands.

“Anna!” Bessie smiled widely.

“Hey, sweets,” Anna smiled back. She casts a curious look at the tree, “Is that a new candy?”

Bessie giggled and lightly swatted at Anna’s arm.

“No, silly!” Bessie said, then held up the awkward, lanky, zig-zagged banzai as if it were the most magnificent tree to ever grow on God’s green earth, “His name is Herman.”

“Herman?” Anna echoed, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. Herman.” Bessie nodded.

Anna raised her hands and sets them on top of Bessie’s so they’re both holding the pot (really, Anna just wants to touch Bessie’s hands- they’re quite a bit smaller than her own and she thinks it’s adorable).

“Do you like him?” Bessie asked, looking up at Anna. Her eyes are holding the cutest expression ever- almost childlike or puppy-like. “He’s our tree. Since you come over so often. We can water him together.”

Oh my god we have a tree together.

“I love him.” Anna said and Bessie beams.

And I love you, They both think.

And Anne’s thoughts mused, GAY!!!

———

It’s late when Anna returns. After closing time, to be exact, but she still parks. She walks to the entrance, finding it open, so she thinks it wouldn’t be a bother to walk in since she was so close to one of the workers.

Speaking of Bessie, the girl is in the far left corner, restocking the American candies. She doesn’t notice Anna, despite the little golden bell that chimes when the door is opened, and Anna is about to say something when she realizes something.

Bessie was singing.

“Girls, we do, whatever it will take

'Cause girls don't want, we don't want our hearts to break in two”

Her singing voice is like smooth, warm caramel, oozing steadily from her lips. Husky, yet warm at the same time, and her accent adds a whole other chilling undertone to the words. It draws Anna in almost instantly- a haunting melody that slithers up her neck like a candied snake and coils in her ears.

“So it's better to be fake, can't risk losing...”

Anna steps quietly over to the counter where Herman is displayed. She notices that his soil isn’t damp, meaning he has yet to be watered that evening, so she plucks up the miniature indigo watering can with red roses on it (when Anna saw it at the grocery store, she knew she HAD to get it- when it was brought into Sweet Thrills, Bessie teasingly had said, “You spoil him too much!” to which Anna went, “Yes, I do. I’m TRYING to be his favorite mum, after all!”) and sprinkles some water into the pot. After patting Herman’s round hedge of leaves (“That’s his afro. Our son has an afro.” -Bessie), she turned her attention back to Bessie. At that point, her singing was all she could hear.

“In love again, ba-abe”

After that, the beat dropped and Bessie did the most adorable thing: She jumped. She jumped with the beat and began dancing in her spot as she sung.

“This is how to be a heartbreaker

Boys they like a little danger”

Bessie was bouncing on her heels and swaying back and forth and bobbing her head- and Anna was nearly on her knees because this girl was absolutely perfect. She was completely smitten with this sweet shop, forensics major, and she wondered what she had done to make God so proud, because Bessie was perfect- she was a blessing.

“We'll get him falling for a stranger

A player, singing I lo-lo-love y- AAHHH!!!!”

While twisting around on her heels, Bessie had finally noticed that Anna was inside with her, watching her.

She must have leapt ten feet off of the ground, and when she landed, she landed right into the box of candies she was putting on the shelves, causing her to slip and fly backwards. Her head thumped horribly against the shelf behind her before she crumpled into a shivering ball, keening in pain.

“Bessie!!” Anna cried, racing to her side. She kneels down and reaches for the curled up girl below her, eyes wide with fear. “Oh my god, oh my god, Bessie! I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Bessie!”

“Ow...” Bessie moaned against the wooden floor. She pried her eyes open, panting for a moment to catch her breath after the fright that overcame her. She reached back to rub her head and pushed herself up with her free arm. “A-Anna?”

“Yeah, darling, it’s me. It’s just me.” Anna said, her hands hovering, ready to catch Bessie if she keeled over. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I just- I heard you singing and I couldn’t get myself to interrupt you because- God, what am I doing? I shouldn’t be gushing right now. Are you okay? Should I call 999?”

“You heard me singing?” Bessie blushed shyly, not answering the question asked of her.

“Well- yeah.” Anna nodded. “But are you okay? Are you bleeding?”

“No,” Bessie shook her head, wincing slightly. “It hurts, that’s all.”

“I’m so sorry,” Anna said. She reached out and gently cupped Bessie’s cheek, which she leans into like a kitten seeking affection, using the other to reach around her head and carefully feel for a gash. When Bessie whines softly, she knows she’s found the injured spot- there’s definitely a bump forming, but no blood and no open wound. She sighed in relief. “Can you stand?”

Bessie nodded and stood up. She stumbled a little, but Anna quickly catches her, and that ends with Bessie pressed close to her chest. She looks up at the taller woman with big eyes, cheeks dusted with red.

“Hey.”

“I watered Herman.”

“He missed you.”

“Did you?”

“Of course.”

Anna smiled widely.

“I’m glad.”

Bessie pulled away and turned back to the box of candies she had been working on. She clearly seems conflicted- she wanted to spend time with Anna, but had to finish work.

“I’ll help you.” Anna said, sensing her dilemma.

With that, they began tag-teaming the rest of the work Bessie was supposed to do. As they did so, Bessie asks, “If you don’t mind me asking...why come to a sweet shop so often? You could be at clubs or frat parties or a sorority...but you don’t.”

She paused.

“Is..is it because of me?” She whispered.

Anna looked up from the Milkyways she was putting into their specific bucket and met Bessie’s deep blue, gorgeous eyes.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “Well,” She went on, “And Herman.”

Bessie giggled, and they both looked over at their banzai son. Then, their heads craned up when a familiar, iconic piano tune began to play from the speakers overhead. Anna smirked widely and stood up, extending a hand to Bessie.

“Care to dance?”

“Heart beats fast

Colors and promises”

“I would love to.”

“How to be brave?

How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?”

Bessie takes Anna’s hand and was pulled to her feet. The two of them got into the proper position and began to slowly dance.

“But watching you stand alone

All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow”

Bessie started to sing along to the song, blessing Anna’s ears once more. She giggled lightly in between the lyrics when Anna twirls her.

“One step closer...”

They picked up the pace a little, swaying with more energy, but kept their synced movements careful and smooth.

“I have died every day waiting for you

Darling, don't be afraid...”

Anna was not afraid.

Dancing in a sweet shop, under the rainbow fairy lights strung about the building, with the most beautiful girl to ever exist, Anna could not be any happier.

She now knew for a fact that Bessie did come here often.

#candy shop au #this is a lot longer than I meant for it to be #I just got so wrapped up in this au!!#and the gays!!#and their meet-cute!!#im in love with this au #six the musical fanfiction #six the musical #six the musical fanfic #anna of cleves #anne boleyn #bessie on the bass #banna #bessie x cleves #tw: vomit #tw: emetophobia #tw: throw up

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malarkiness · 4 years ago

Text

Finished Nier Automata, and I have many.... many thoughts.

I just want to start by saying that this game is aggressively bleak once you hit Routes C/D. Endings A/B are really the last bright spots in the story, and then it's just tragedy after tragedy from that point forward, and the worst part of it is that none of these tragedies result in anything good or even decent or even narratively satisfying. They just happen, and you're left thinking "wow, that fucking sucks" before you shake it off and proceed with the game.

Despite that, I kept playing because I thought all these tragedies would eventually result in something that would've made the characters' suffering worth it because that's just how a good story works, right? But that never really happens (at least, not within the context of the story itself), so when I finally got to Endings C/D, I honestly felt like I'd spent ~27 hours playing a game just to watch the leads die terrible deaths. It just felt really hollow and pointless.

But then I got Ending E, and that kind of changed my entire way of looking at this game.

So this ending shows the PODs deciding to try salvaging the androids' data rather than deleting it all as ordered. The game warns you that saving the data is risky and unlikely to work, then says "Knowing that, do you still wish for them to survive?" Choosing yes turns the credits scroll into a hacking minigame that is UNFORGIVABLY!!!!! difficult, but each game over screen reels you back in with something like "IS IT ALL POINTLESS?"/"DO YOU WANT TO GIVE UP?"/etc.

Now if you're connected to PSN, you'll also get little encouraging messages from players all over the world on each game over screen, but I wasn't connected for my first playthrough lmfao, so I just suffered through it for like 20 minutes and was starting to think the whole thing was deliberately impossible just to give the player one last kick in the teeth and show that yes, it really was pointless and that they're wasting their time trying to fix something that can't be changed. With the way this game's storyline played out, that really wouldn't have surprised me.

But then I restarted the segment and connected to """The Network""" when prompted, then died a few more times before getting a screen asking me if I'd like help. And I really wish I'd screencapped that prompt because that was when I started noticing all the little messages that other players left. There was one from someone in China that really got to me for some reason, and I can't even remember what it was lol, but it made me tear up. Once you restart after that, a bunch of other players' cursors will join in the fight to help you and the solo singer turns into a chorus, and I just.

😭

Every time you lose a player, though, you're told that "[name]'s data has been lost," which I thought was kind of sad, but it wasn't until I finally beat that segment that I realized what they all had actually done. After the credits wrap up, you learn that all the players who helped you finish the game gave up their save data to do it, and then you're asked if you'd like to do the same to help someone else. And while I've since learned that all this actually does is let you leave an encouraging message for other players and have your username show up during the ending sequence for someone else (sort of like an arcade game's scoreboard), the game presents it as an opportunity to really help other players finish the story, so of course I said yes. It wasn't a hard decision at all, and making that choice after playing through the credits was easily the most rewarding part of the entire game, or really any game I've ever played.

And I know I've spent like... 75% of this post talking about a credits sequence lmfao, but that really did change how I look at this game. When you finish the storyline with Endings C/D, the answer to this game's whole thematic question of "What's the point of living?" seems to be "There ain't one, chief." But finishing with Ending E, the answer leans more toward "The point is hoping for and working toward something better because you believe it's there." Add in the fact that you're given the option to "sacrifice" yourself to help someone else continue, and that the game makes this such a painless decision despite what an actual pain in the ass it is for you as a Gamer™, and it actually makes for a more satisfying ending than the in-story ending.

SE could've just had that one sequel-hook scene play at the end of the credits without the minigame at all, or just gone the typical RPG route and made that scene unlockable if you got 100% or whatever. But instead, they took this really creative meta approach that not only pushes you to do a task that's seemingly impossible, but also asks you to sacrifice something you've worked hard for just to help someone else get through that same task. And the fact that so many other players made that choice is just really sweet and honestly kind of touching. Like I'm sure plenty of people just got around it by saving their data on a usb lmao, but still. It's a nice thought. And for the record, my username is Larkey, and my message was "I bet you're having a tough time right now. But we've got this!"

Anyway! Other things about this game:

2B's history of killing 9S over and over or A2's backstory with Anemone and the YoRHa troops definitely should've been given actual screentime, and not just stated in the last 2 minutes of the story or shoved into some optional text. Watching 9S's grief-turned-madness was fascinating, sure, but 2B and A2 deserved just as much focus on their grief (which would've been way more interesting, just for the record. 2B purposefully distancing herself emotionally from someone she has to repeatedly kill, and A2 feeling betrayed by her own creators after watching her friends die needlessly, are storylines that would likely have a lot more emotional weight than "angry teenage boy goes on murder spree before finally getting his revenge only to fall on his opponent's sword and die like a dumbass." I know the Nier franchise has approximately 93 trillion pieces of supplemental material that fill in the gaps from the games, so it's possible that some of those cover 2B and A2 more, but come on. These characters are just as important to the story as 9S; They should've gotten actual in-game screentime devoted to contemplating their existences/grief/etc.

I talked about how bleak this game's storyline is, but the real kicker for me was the scene where all the children in Pascal's village commit suicide. That just seemed so needlessly cruel, and the fact that it happens (depending on how you play) maybe an hour after A2's shown to have warmed up a bit towards the machines is just... cheap? It really did feel like emotional string-pulling just for the sake of it, like the kind of silly edgelord shit I wrote when I was 14. It's so over-the-top that I almost couldn't take it seriously. And if all that wasn't 3edgy5me enough, Pascal then asks you to either wipe his memory or kill him because he can't live with the heartbreak. Fuck's sake. I think what really annoys me about this whole scene is that... This game introduces us to A2 by having her kill a defenseless baby machine, right? So you'd think there'd be some kind of reflection from her after Pascal loses all the children in his village. She fought an insane battle to protect them, too, and she's clearly horrified when she finds out what happens to them, but... that's kind of it. This incident is never brought up again, despite the huge impact it should have on her character. The only thing this scene really does for the narrative, I think, is set up a parallel between Pascal and YoRHa troops like 2B and 9S. And in that way, it does fit into game's overall theme of finding meaning for your life, especially after you've lost what you were living for in the first place (so Pascal's community, and YoRHa's "god worth dying for"). But like I said, the game never really seems to resolve that thematic question within the context of the story itself. And even if that parallel was the point, you could've accomplished it by just having everyone in the village die during the cannibal machine attack and Pascal + A2 failing to save them, no baby suicide needed. I dunno, I've gone back and forth on how I feel about this scene, but honestly, more than anything, it just comes off as a try-hard, eyeroll-worthy way for this game to earn its M-rating. And the fact that A2 gets 0 character development out of it just makes it seem lazy.

Characterwise, I'd definitely say A2 is my favorite. Her ending on the C/D routes was probably the most satisfying just because she essentially gets the only thing she's really wanted ever since she lost her friends, and I thought her unusual relationship with 2B was interesting (and again, deserved more screentime). 2B's also great, especially on the second playthrough when you know why she purposefully tries to get 9S to shut up anytime he innocently wonders something out loud. And I like 9S too just because he's so endearing in Routes A/B, making his stark personality shift in C/D that much more jarring. I'm a little annoyed that he never finds out why A2 killed 2B, though by the end of C/D, he's probably too far gone to actually take that in. I liked most of the NPCs, too. Anemone and Jackass are my favs, but 6O and 21O have some good moments, too. And while a lot of the female YoRHa designs are just... embarrassingly male, there are some really creative character/boss designs here and there. Simone's corpse dress is probably something I'll never forget.

The soundtrack is incredible. "Weight of the World/End of YoRHa" is a standout track not just because of the ending it plays through, but also just because of how cleanly it blends together the 8-bit sound from the hacking minigames and the English and Japanese versions of the song, and how it ends with the game's fictional "Chaos" language (which is apparently meant to be a futuristic blend of English, Japanese, Gaelic, and a few others). I definitely want to check out more of Keiichi Okabe's work, and that of the singers for all three languages. Some other favs are "Vague Hope," "Wretched Weaponry," "Alien Manifestation," and "The Tower."

I enjoyed most of the gameplay. The hacking minigames could be a little tedious sometimes, but overall, I found myself enjoying 9S's gameplay more than the other leads' because of it. I also actually liked most of the sidequests, too, and I normally don't like those all that much in other games (well, okay, I mainly just hate them in FF7R). I think I liked the machine quests the most because so many of them were just silly and low stakes, which was a nice change of pace compared to the main story. I remember the Father Servo one making me laugh a few times. And as for the androids, I liked 11B's memento quest and the Amnesia one (partly because 2B and 9S bicker so much through it, and partly because it's the first we hear about execution models).

I loved the voicework in this game, especially A2 and Anemone's. And whoever voiced 9S did his job perfectly.

I was crying through that whole Ending E sequence, but the part where the POD asks you something like "You put all that work into unlocking Chapter Select. Are you SURE you want to delete all your save data?" made me crack up. I'm doing a replay now, and Chapter Select is probably what I miss most from my original save data lmfao.

So... yeah? Overall, I liked it. I really do think that credits sequence was what sold me on this game as a whole, as weird as that sounds. I'd say the game's biggest faults are the unbalanced focus on the leads and its tendency to throw in pointless angst here and there, and I really wish those two things could've been smoothed out to make a good story even better, but eh. I'm enjoying my replay now, and I'm taking my time doing more quests and exploring areas. I'm going to try to get more of the joke endings, too.

#sometimes i play things #nier automata

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captiancap · 5 years ago

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Man eater (pt3)

Mastiff is waiting by his warehouse when you arrive. You walk up to him, silent. He looks down at you, also silent. It's like that for a little bit and then he sighs.

"Are you comfortable being alone with me?" He asks. Fuck him for being so considerate. You tell him not really but it's the only way to move forward so you'll do it. He doesn't like that answer.

"You can walk away right now. I won't blame you for it. I won't contact you ever again if that's what you want." He says sternly.

You groan and say that you're not leaving. It's a closure thing.

He pauses but goes and unlocks his warehouse door. He holds it open for you as you walk inside. The motion sensors make the lights turn on. Great, you'll be able to see your death coming now.

Mastiff shuts the door, looking at you for a few seconds. "What do you want to see first?" He asks.

The question catches you off guard and you're not how to respond so you just say 'whatever'.

He sighs, face palming softly, he takes a deep breath and moves his bangs out of his face. His eyes are round and pitch black. As you stare you notice that he has more then two. There's another set on his temples and as he pulls his hair back and out of the way you see two more pairs going along the sides of his head.

They all blink and you shiver a bit.

He takes off his shirt next. You're familiar with the front. Solid chest, soft belly, lots of hair. It's when he turns around that you audibly gasp.

There's a vertical deep black laceration on his back along his spine. Dark veins spread out from in like a spider web. He takes a breath and then the cracking starts.

Oh god the cracking...

You can see his bones move and shift as his spine snaps and these large black appendages emerge from his back. There's 4 of them, all slick with a shiny clear substance, they form a sort of cage around Mastiff. He turns to see your horrified face and stops to contemplate this whole thing.

You can see the wheels turning in his head so you clear your throat and tell him to continue. He looks at you, unsure. Funny, you don't think you've ever seen him look unsure. You wave your hand in a 'carry on' motion.

He cracks his neck and opens his mouth. You see the fangs from before so you thought you were prepared. Well you weren't. His jaw stretched past what a normal persons could and began to slit along his face as rows of similar black fangs fling out like switch blades.

Two more appendages come from the back of his mouth. Like pincers. He also seems to be making these unintentional clicking and hissing noises. With a mouth like that there was no possible way of any human communication.

You stare at him. He stares at you. After a few second he shifts back to normal and reaches down to grab his shirt from the floor. "So," he says "That's me." He puts his shirt back on. His cheeks are bleeding slightly from being tore open but they heal quick.

"I'm an arachnosapien. Not sure what kind so don't ask." He says, looking at your face, reading your reaction.

You... you don't know how to feel. On one hand that was absolutely terrifying and gruesome. On the other hand it's Mastiff and he trusts you enough to show you this and it was a little bit hot and god just fuck him for being so easy to love.

He sniffs slightly and obviously tries to hold back a chuckle. You glare at him, asking what's so funny. He shrugs, "I was hoping you'd accept me but I didn't expect such a... positive reaction." He mused while looking down at your crotch.

He always said he could smell when you were in the mood but you thought it was a joke. Apparently not. You scoff and cross your arms. He takes a step closer to you, reaching for you, but stops. He sighs.

"Theres... more. I'm sure you're wondering about the whole 'eating people' thing..." He looks reluctant but you insist that yes that was something you were hoping to get some explanation on. "My kind need to eat alot. Our bodies function fast and we use up energy fast. We're also carnivores mainly, so we need a large about of raw meat, and in a place like this... the most available source is people." You open your mouth to say something and he stops you. "Yes I've tried other things but my father was stupid and once my kind grow up eating something it's hard for our systems to process anything else. I can eat normal food but it doesn't do much in the sense of sustaining me. I'm one of the lucky ones, if my brother eats anything except raw flesh he gets severally sick and close to death." He looks down. "I don't eat innocent people though. Muggers, rapists, abusive partners, pimps... they are my main diet."

Your mind can't help but conger up the image of your boyfriend as some vigilante stalking the scum of the city like they were easy prey. You're a bit proud of him for it. Just a bit.

You take a step closer to him. Then another, then another, and before you know it you've closed the distance between the two of you and you're wrapped in his arms. You can feel in his back that things are still settling back into place.

You sigh into his chest, look up at him, and ask if there's anything else you should know.

"Other then the fact I sell the organs I don't eat on the black market, not really." He states bluntly. You think you now understand what other types of things are in the containers he keeps replacing and why he has one of the few air conditioned warehouses in the whole district. Honestly that's not the craziest thing you've heard today so you intentionally tuck it away for later.

"Also... I love you." He says.

You blush and nuzzle into his chest. You take a moment to think about your life. Everything you've been taught about right and wrong. You come to the conclusion that being with Mastiff feels right no matter how wrong the way he eats is.

You tell him you are officially the biggest idiot in the world. He seems confused. You look up at him. Into his eyes. His dark, clever eyes. You ask if you can go home.

He seems sad for a moment before you kiss his weird, disgusting, probably-ate-a-pedophile mouth. "Our home." You clarify. He agrees immediately.

It feels good being back in Mastiffs apartment. You flop on the bed and revel in how much the sheets smell like him. He joins you on the bed, caressing your head as you snuggle against him.

"We're still together right?" He asks.

You chuckle slightly and nod. He sighs in relief. You drift off to sleep in his hold.

No dreams. No warehouse. Just peace.

When you tell your friend the next day about how you and Mastiff got back together she is estatic. She doesn't ask any questions and you're thankful for that. Mastiff also thanks her for keeping what little she does know as a secret. Her reasoning is 'Hey sometimes cannibalism is hot.'

You scoffed when she said that but soon found that, sometimes, yes, it was hot. You were woken up at 1 in the morning a few weeks after fully moving in with Mastiff. You found him in the living room, gloves and shirt stained red and his mouth just beginning to close. He looked satisfied but still buzzed with energy. His multiple eyes easily spotted you on the stairs.

You squeaked and rushed back upstairs. He followed you, chuckling darkly. His sense of smell was too good sometimes.

He caught you by the ankle as you tried to hide under the blankets, hoisting you up so he could see your face. The excitement in your eyes, the small smile at being caught, it was different from his other prey. But you were always different from other humans to him.

He made you scream alot that night. Some out of terror but most from pleasure. You began looking forward to that small period of time when he was just coming down from the thrill of the kill. Happy, with his hunger fulfilled but still aware and dangerous. Still a predator. Your predator.

It was even better when you found out that the first week of January was a very special "heat" season for him. But that's a story for another time. You were happy with your spider. He was happy with you. You loved your big scary man eater more than anything and maybe that makes you crazy, but you're pretty sure you're fine with that.

#monster boyfriend #monster lover #tetrophilia #exophilia #my wriring #tetro #x reader #spider boyfriend #original species

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753398445a · 5 years ago

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I think I’ll start liveblogging Harley Quinn now

Maybe before I start I should say what I want to see this season? Definitely no more Joker - I’ve never found him a particularly compelling character and don’t think there’s much more they could do with him in this without either retreading story beats they’ve already covered or giving him his own storylines. I’d like to see Clayface developed more, and wouldn’t say no to the other members of Harley’s crew doing the same. And just like everybody else I’d love to see more Jim.

The episode is called New Gotham, and I’m guessing that means its establishing the new status quo. I’d make more predictions, but I’m pretty sure the promotional material has already told us what’s going down in the first few episodes.

We’ve got No Man’s Land confirmed, though I doubt anybody didn’t see that coming - the show was telegraphing it hard (I’m 90% sure that the earthquake being an 8.6 was lifted directly from Cataclysm, even).

I’m surprised by the lack of the show doing anything overtly political with the opportunity of the president being relevant for the first time - this show’s gone out of its way to espouse politics in the past and I’m pretty sure I heard that some of the writers of this are the same ones who worked on Powerless which would make them the same ones that called Trump a supervillain that one time. I’m not complaining, just because I don’t like the guy doesn’t mean I want shots at him shoehorned into a scene that’s meant to be dramatic, I’m just surprised.

It looks like season two has the same intro as season one, and I still love it.

That moment with the severed arms was great, and in fact it seems designed to establish the show’s comedy to anybody who didn’t watch season one (which would be a weird thing to do, but maybe the writers didn’t know what format the show would be presented in when they started making it and wanted their bases covered?).

I thought she was presenting the dude as food as well, and my only feelings on the matter were surprise that they’d resorted to cannibalism so quickly and curiosity about how enthusiastic/resistant each of them had been when the idea had first come up. Also I feel like something either unpleasant or very strange is going to happen to that llama or whatever it is.

I don’t know anything about sushi, so that joke about the spider roll was lost on me. Oh, its actually been three weeks. I assumed from the fact that water was still flowing from that hydrant that things had only just gone wrong. I also don’t know what Vietnam was like after the US left, but at least I don’t need to know anything I can’t glean from context clues to get the joke in this case.

I was hoping for a scene of Harley leading some sort of Goon (and now also Hench, I guess) Uprising back in episode three, but now’s good too. I feel like its not gonna go well because if it does that map scene becomes a lot less plausible. Okay, that went surprisingly well. I feel like that wouldn’t be how broadcasts work, but I’ll admit I don’t really know for certain.

God, Freeze just made a cool entrance. That pun was unintentional, and I don’t really have anything else to say about that scene but when I paused it had just switched to a view of Gordon so at least I’m about to get more of him like I said I wanted. I also enjoyed the comedy of that scene, but didn’t really have anything to say about it either. I did guess that the silhouette would be Robin just like in episode four, but I feel like that probably isn’t notable - like I said, the show did it already.

I hope ...Takeshi? becomes a member of the crew, I think just having a regular person around when all the comic book bullshitery happened would offer a lot of comedic potential. Or actually, just a little bit of comedic potential. The more I think about this the less funny it seems, and now I don’t want him to join the crew. Also when Freeze fired his gun I expected vines to block the blast because I forgot that in comic-land people can be frozen/thawed harmlessly (which is dumb, by the way).

Cheryl is disgusting.

(That deserved to be its own paragraph) Is the music that played when Jim was shooting the same as what played on the precinct's rooftop in episode six? I think it may have been, and if so that would probably mean its like, Gordon’s theme or something. Either way I like it. Also Twoface (Two Face? Two-face?) has good taste.

Jesus that was a sad moment (also of course Cheryl would work for Bane :P). At first I thought the waiter was poorly trying to do a french accent to appease Penguin, but the inflection on 'taking back' tipped me off. Now that I know to look for it, it seems he kept his normal teeth for some reason. Did King Shark just do the hand gestures when Dr. Psycho used his power? Because if so that’s adorable but also implies a lot of unnecessary planning went into some way of coordinating that.

Harley’s having a lot of fun as a pinball. HOLY FUCK I FORGOT THAT SHE WAS GONNA BITE HIS NOSE OFF! Joshua’s probably gonna come after her in revenge - you gotta end the bloodline, Harley. More seriously, I’m surprised they killed off The Penguin because I’m used to the iconic villains having plot armor, but I guess that a lot of them have actually died already and I just forgot (in my defense Scarecrow was the only one whose death didn’t happen offscreen). I wonder if by the end of season two Harley will have offed the rest of them? The only remaining scene with any of them in it that I can remember is the one of Mr. Freeze being mistaken for Beyonce. Also I suppose Joshua might’ve been in the Legion HQ when it blew up, we know he was there in Bensonherst and it seemed like he had made himself at home.

Ivy’s “Cool” was great. I haven’t said it on this platform before but I think it was a clever decision to have her as an audience surrogate instead of having the main character fill that role. Seems like the sort of thing that wouldn’t normally work, but it certainly did here. Also yes, apparently Harley is going to kill the other villains.

And it looks like we’re going to see more Bruce Wayne this season, which I’m not opposed to. All in all a pretty good episode, the only thing I’m not satisfied with was the lack of Frank and Kite-Man (hell yeah!), I feel like the former’s absence was pretty noticeable.

#harley quinn #harley quinn the animated series #harley quinn 2019 #harley quinn spoilers #liveblog #harley quinn liveblog #tw: politics #tw: death #tw: guns #Harley Quinn Season 2 Episode 1 – New Gotham

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szopenhauer · 4 years ago

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it seems that the average survey-taker is a white american female, aged 15-19, who has a car, a cell phone, and an extensive social circle. is this true for you? I’m a white female but not from America and I’m much older, have no car nor friends, just cellphone

have you seen any silent films? I love Buster Keaton

would you rather be an actor, director, or soundtrack producer? actress and director

have you seen nbc’s ‘hannibal’? thoughts? (if you haven’t, do you want to?) no and don’t want to, yuk

on websites where you’re permitted to change your username, do you do so often, or do you keep the same one for long periods of time? I usually change after a few months

does your computer have a name? I didn’t call this annoying piece of shit anyhow but maybe if I had a better computer...

are you eager to see how far science + technology will advance, or do you prefer an older way of doing things? do you think we are better off with these advancements, or not? I wish we had choice, I would like the world to be balanced, a bit of this and a bit of that, some advancements are necessary, some are cool but some are awful

what is your favourite comic book or graphic novel? does your favourite novel come in comic-book form? (if not, would you like it to?) I don’t read comics but from those I ever tried my fav manga was Doubt, webcomic (those I saw several but I forgot most of the titles by now) - Lackadaisy and I am fan of Aldebaran and Betelgeza

Any friends who are constantly venting about their boyfriend?: it was common - me listening complains about my crush’es exes or current boyfriends/lovers/crushes

Have you ever been ice-skating?: once, in high school, didn’t like it

Does the sound of rain at night help you sleep?: yeah

Did the end of Public Enemies make you sad?: I didn’t finish the movie

Do you obsessively apply lip-gloss or lip balm?: ewww, not at all

Do you think you’d have what it takes to shoot someone if you had to protect yourself?: I believe

What’s your most noticeable flaw?: ugh...

Have you ever walked into a massive cobweb? yes and that was awful because it was full of dead bugs

When you can tell that someone’s lying, do you call them out on it?: often

How many other blogs do you follow on Tumblr?: more than 300

Does it ever scare you how fast time can go by?: could say so

Have you ever replied “OK” when someone confessed they liked you?: possibly :x

What does your grandma call you?: sigh...

What would you do for immortality and infinite youth?: dunno, definitely wouldn’t sell my soul or kill an innocent person but I would do some stuff for immortality

Would you rather have a pool or a hot tub?: neither

Have you ever worn a nipple tassel?: haven’t

Ever played hide and seek in the woods on horseback at night?: wow, that’s weirdly specific and now I want this somehow :o

Have you ever held a baby chick?: wild bird’s babies and I regret that because it’s not helfpul for them actually

Do you think wine tastes like rotten fruit? yep

Have you ever felt the need to hide something about yourself?: sometimes, from certain people, I should be myself most of the time tho

Do you think pearls are attractive?: umm...

Have you ever wished you had a different name? Which name would you choose? but I like male ones more or non polish

Have you ever customised an item of clothing? I designed and my mom helped me, made changes for me

Do you prefer drawing or painting? prefer to draw but look at paintings

Are you saving up for anything right now? What? if I could/had money to save then I would save for a bike, laptop, my own apartment etc.

Do you own any figurines? cats, dogs, elephants, clowns, horses and others

If you have any siblings, how much rivalry is between you all? it’s complicated

When did you last have itchy eyes? recently

Is it dark outside right now? it’s getting darker

Do you prefer framed photos or just sticking photos straight onto walls? I prefer them in an album, takes less space

What’s your favourite type of cake? used to love sękacz the most

Have you ever woken up from a dream and believed it to have been real? I was confused

If there’s a bug in your room, can you sleep or do you need to get it out? it depends on how annoying/dangerous it is

Do you prefer travelling alone or with people? I like to travel with my dad

What was the last baby animal you saw? pic or irl?

Do you give people high fives or hugs more often? hugs

How long have you known the last person you kissed? I knew her 10 years ago for awhile then we lost contact until this spring

When angry, do you get loud or quiet? depends

What do you currently hear right now? my parents talking

Who of the opposite sex has seen you at your worst? dad

Last person you saw? parent

Did you have a nap today? nope

Are you easy to get along with? am not

When was the last time you were told you were cute? recently my gf called me cute and I’m like Catra about it

Have you ever forgotten to put on an oven mitt before you took something extremely hot out of the oven? not over, just hot pot

Do you own one of those airwick things that automatically sprays every few minutes? hell no

How many light bulbs are on in the room you are currently in? 3, one doesn’t work

Have you ever had your phone taken away at school before? almost, teacher heard it calling but before they found out who’s phone that was it stopped ringing and I was safe

Do you look better with or without glasses? I’m always ugly

What is your favorite type of bird? chicken, owl, flamingo, crow, barn swallow...

Did you go fishing a lot when you were younger? Do you now? I hate fishing, never been nor will go

Do you like more flowery scents or more clean scents? no scents, thank you Do you own a manual or electric toothbrush? manual, electric are horrible Preferred brand of toothpaste? m current is Meridol Piece of make-up you cannot live without? I can live without it

Do you prefer heels or flats? flats are more comfy but I know how to walk in heels, just don’t like to

Do you eat meat? yep Do you still watch cartoons regularly? I recently started watching She-ra with my gf but before that I didn’t watch any animated shows for a long time (just fragments/episodes maybe) Do you leave the TV on and sleep to it? never Ever considered cannibalism? r u serious?... this is scary, I’m gonna puke :x Ever licked a battery? I’m not stupid What does your name mean? lily which was also going to be my name Do animals go to Heaven? hope so Babies are… irritating

When was the last time you saw a doctor? it would be easier to say when I didn’t because I see them too often Do you know anyone who is a firefighter? used to What was the last wedding you went to? my sister’s

What’s your favourite alcoholic beverage? blergh... Do you “binge-watch” tv shows? two episodes a day max What is your opinion of clowns? love Did you wear a necklace today? not today How old are your parents? about 60 What’s something odd you do when you’re anxious or nervous? personal Have you ever received a compliment from a stranger? I have, more than one time Is your wardrobe big enough for all your clothes? it’s not Do you plan ahead when it comes to your outfits? nah Have you ever shaved your face? I shaved my eyebrows (not whole) What colour is your front door? silver with white paint coming off Do you take the stairs or the elevator? stairs Would you ever try herbal medicine as opposed to conventional medicine? I tried Do you wear open-toed shoes? I despise those Have you ever been to a petting zoo? yeah, I was petting a raccoon <3 and chinchillas are so surprisingly fluffy When was the last time you wore a button up shirt? weeks ago How many times have you consumed alcohol? once Do you often forget what you were just about to say? ocassionally when interrupted What’s your opinion of Australia? wouldn’t go there Do you own any striped sweaters? absolutely :) Have there ever been any forest or grass fires in your area? as every summer, also trash burn quite often

What color is the trash can in your kitchen? yellow What does the cover on the last book you read look like? it has two people sitting in front of each other Do you wear green on St. Patrick’s Day? I don’t celebrate this holiday, I dislike it Are you even Irish? not even partially Have you ever gotten a wig? What did it look like and what was it for? I have a bunch of wigs How often do you use a shower cap? What does yours look like? I don’t own any If you wanted to get a cat, would you adopt from a shelter or buy from a breeder? Why? but I don’t want a cat What’s the shortest you’d be willing to cut your hair? almost bald? What do you do when you find a spiderweb in your room? leave it be or clean it

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stormyskies-and-darklies · 5 years ago

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SPOILER ALERT: The Walking Dead Seasons 1-5 + New Viewer Thoughts

so i started watching the walking dead last month and i have so many thoughts, so i decided to compile them into one place so far. i might forget a few moments and i might forget a few character names so, sorry 🤷🏽‍♀️ this isn’t in chronological order, but i’ll try my best to do that, but i’m writing these as i remember the moments. if you haven’t watched it, you’ve been warned !

even if Rick was dead, it’s still really messed up for the best friend and wife to get together

i think Rick had every right to hand cuff Myrle to the pole. there’s no time to be disrespectful for no reason. you can’t be an ass to someone and then expect them to help you. i did slightly feel bad when they left him on the roof but it’s what he deserves

when Rick met up with the group, i honestly thought Lori didn’t really love him anymore during the rest of the time

i miss the farm a lot. it was nice and cute :/

Sophia wouldn’t have died if Rick told her to stay instead of run back 🙊

the build up to finding Sophia was longer than it needed to be

Maggie flipping out on Lori and yelling her business out loud was a little uncalled for. yeah, she almost died but she should’ve known the risk and even if she was mad, she still didn’t have to yell it out loud for people to potentially hear

Dale was always trying to get into everyone’s business, it was sad when he died but idk how i really felt about him

they really should’ve let Andrea die early on if she was going to continue to be whiny. if she really wanted to die, she could’ve done it by runing off and getting bit or by shooting herself at any time. i didn’t like Andrea much, especially in the third ? season (the one leading up to her death)

Shane and that dumb face whenever he was mad 🙄

I liked Shane at first but then he got annoying. What part of you can’t love your best friend’s wife don’t you understand ??

I feel bad for that kid that Shane tricked and killed in the woods

I also feel really bad for Otis. Who knows if they could’ve made it

The prison was okay but it made sense as a good shelter. It’s unfortunate how much supplies they lost.

I’m so glad Rick killed the leader of that prison gang!

I understand Lori’s death, but her body didn’t have to be eaten :/

T-Dog :((

Justin ? (The guy who set off the alarms) is an asshole. Like you really think of the walkers killed everyone you were going to make survive out on your own ??

The war between the prison and the governor is Myrle’s fault. He didn’t have to kidnap them, he could’ve just secretly followed them

It’s not the group’s fault that some Woodbury’s people died. If you have one of their people in capture, obviously they’re going to kill some people to get them back. The governor destroyed everything because of someone else’s fault 🙄

I did not enjoy the governor. I’m glad he died but he did not get a good enough death in my opinion. It would’ve been more satisfying to see Mishoan (sorry if it’s misspelled) to kill him, and definitely not by a bullet to the head.

If those two sisters at the apartment let the governor leave when he wanted to without them tagging along, then who knows if his climb back to power would’ve happened

Martinez? shouldn’t have saved him after what he witnessed. he knew he was a threat. should’ve saved the girl and left him and told the truth to the sisters

The governor’s other henchman, that black guy (I don’t remember his name at all) what was the point of him?? The camera kept focusing on him as if he was going to do something or be important but in the end he just died

i felt bad for Milton at the end :/ he finally came to his senses and it was a shame that he died

Andrea should’ve sucked it up and killed him the first time when she was supposed to. Also, idk why she thought she had the power to save everyone like this is war ?? saying “stop and make up, these are my friends” isn’t enough honey lol. She wasted too much time looking at Milton while she was trying to free herself bc it distracted her focus and time

I don’t know why Lori was so mad that Rick killed Shane, like ???

Poor prison :/ i couldn’t stop thinking about all the supplies they lost

I never understood whether the sickness in the prison was random or it was started by something else, like the infected rats? everyone got sick then they just moved on, like it seemed like too big of a plot element to move on so quickly

I’m surprised Hershel never caught the sickness after literally getting coughed in the face

Hershel did not deserve the death he got :/

I’m not surprised that Myrle was killed and turned, but I think it’s good that the person who finally killed him was Daryle bc it gives closure. If Myrle originally stuck with the group with Rick around, i don’t think things would’ve worked out

I’m glad Mishoan joined the group, she’s a great addition and she’s badass with that sword

At first, I didn’t catch on to the fact that Tyrese and Sasha were siblings so i genuinely thought he was cheating on her and was so confused when Sasha never got mad lol

I understand Carol wanting to stop the spreading of the sickness but at the point with so many other people sick what was the point? How are you going to secretly kill and burn everyone was is sick ??

It was sad seeing Rick banishing Carol but in a way I understand because you can’t just secretly betray a group like that

The group getting separated was so sad :/ but I liked the story build up of seeing how certain character pairings were together, and learning more about them. For example, Daryl and Beth :/

The part where Daryl and Beth come across the dead body debris and the camera focused on the boot, it never showed who the boot belonged to to make Beth hysterically cry. Yes, they showed the other group dying in the same spot before Carol ran into Tyrese but the way Beth reacted made it seem like someone from the group died. Unless she was just crying from the thought of someone in the group getting killed?

When Daryl and Beth ended up in that church and they noticed the supplies were fresh, meaning whoever lived there was still around, I wonder who it was supposed to be. At first I thought priest when he said he had a church, but then we found out it wasn’t the same one so I wonder who was there

Rick really bit off a man’s neck 😳 gotta do what you gotta do though

It made me nervous when Daryl joined that group because I thought he was going to be forced to stay or I thought the group was going to be the next big guys, but i was relieved when they died quickly.

I can’t believe Lizzie killed Mika :/ some kids don’t understand, I get it but if one of them were to survive I wish it was Mika. As sick as it sounds, if Lizzie got bit maybe she would’ve realized the seriousness of the walkers or maybe she wanted to be one of them. Carol had to do what she had to do afterwards.

I applaud Carol for how much she’s grown. Despite her abuse, she never stopped being kind hearted and grew into this strong woman who can protect herself and others, and also stands up for herself more

Terminus did it’s purpose by reuniting the group but it was so short lived. Like they managed to escape cannibals but run into them shortly after, but then kill them altogether and then that’s it, they move on to the next group?

Why did they have that moment with Rick, Carol, and those two people from the town, Rick giving him his watch, just for the guy to disappear and then randomly show up at Terminus and die?? Like what was the point? I was expecting more.

Glenn used to be the sensitive, nervous guy but now he’s grown into the strong, hard man and while his silliness is gone, i’m happy about his character development bc he does what he needs to to survive

Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene are an interesting group and interesting addition to the whole group. Not much to say about them (except Suzie Crabgrass 😍)

Sasha and Tyrese were an interesting addition too. I like Tyrese better

Tyrese is a sensitive, nice man, I like the fact that he’s not overly aggressive and kills everything living thing in his path. He’s like a big teddy bear, the protector and it gives a nice balance. Yeah, it unfortunately cost him his death but his character was needed :/

Bob was the most random character addition. Even after it showed what he did before he met them, i still don’t understand what his purpose was. He got a young man killed because of his alcohol issue. He tried to sneak a second bottle but then didn’t do anything with it. Why mention the alcoholism twice to not do anything more with it? Even after he does it doesn’t affect the group besides Sasha being emotional.

The addition of the priest is kind of random too. He was alone; they helped him and gave him shelter, but what else? He even tried to escape and got the others in trouble trying to save him so?? At the new community, I haven’t seen him much so what happened with him?

Beth’s death was really sad. I wanted her to make it but i understand that if Dawn didn’t accidentally kill her, Rick wouldn’t have killed Dawn and Noah would’ve been forced to stay. If Noah stayed, then they wouldn’t have had a reason to move up north.

The hospital seemed like they were genuinely trying to help people but why they were so forceful and strict didn’t sit right with me.

The doctor wanted to leave but I don’t know why he didn’t go with the group?? He would’ve been useful for them.

I like Noah so far (though i might be biased bc i did watch everybody hates Chris lol) i’m guess he’ll be more useful later on

Tyrese’s death was the moment that finally made me cry :/ specifically the moment they showed his beanie 😭😭

Rick went from trying to do right and trying to save everybody to not taking anymore shit and I love it

I miss Georgia already.

Season 5 has been slow for me. As of right now I haven’t finished the last 3 episodes yet because I don’t understand the point of the new community that they’re in. It’s too good to be true. I don’t trust anybody except Aaron bc he seems niave. Trouble is going to happen with the woman’s husband, I can tell him and Rick are probably gonna fight until the husband dies. The wife will freak out. The leader of the group seems suspicious. The whole area doesn’t sit well with me. I’m constantly waiting for something to happen bc the whole time they’re being watched & they know what Carol and Rick are up to.

that’s all for now. once i finish season 5, i’ll add to this

#spoiler alert #spoilers ahead #spoilers #the walking dead #rick grimes #my thoughts #review

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head-and-heart · 7 years ago

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The 100 Highlights - “Acceptable Losses” (5x07)

Hey guys!

I’m back to do my highlight recap of episode 5x07, “Acceptable Losses”, written by Jeff Vlaming. I am really happy to say that I enjoyed this episode a significant amount more than I did the previous one, and I’m really excited to dig into it with this post.

If you would like to view my other highlight posts you can do so here.

“She was shot, Marcus. Octavia Blake killed her - not me.”

^ Okay so I want to start of this post by talking about this line from Abby because I honestly think its really important. The fact that Kane was sort of implying that Abby was responsible for that girls death was really rubbing me the wrong way because, like, yes: maybe, if Abby was well, she would have been able to save the girl. But you can’t get a drug addict to fix themselves just by asking them to. And you can’t expect them to be able to fix other people too. As much as Abby may want to stop, that’s not how it works. I don’t think anyone should be blaming Abby for the death of that girl. It shouldn’t have even been Abby’s responsibility to treat her, to be honest. Jackson is a doctor, too. And he’s in a way better condition to handle that kind of situation at the moment. Obviously they wanted Abby because they can use drugs to get her to do what they want, but it doesn’t seem right for Kane to put that guilt on Abby’s shoulders.

It just reminded me so much of Abby saying to Raven in 4x03 that the radiation wasn’t killing that child - she was. It’s not true. Raven didn’t kill that girl, and Abby didn’t kill this one. It was Octavia.

Also I know everyone’s having fun hating on Kabby this season but I must have missed the memo cause I don’t really know why y’all hate it so much

Anywayyyyy

Harper SPOKE

“Funny, that’s the same thing we said about getting back down to the ground. And then we found you.”

LISTEN. I don’t know why y’all were hating on Bellamy for “shooting Octavia down” in this scene. The way she was talking to him in this scene absolutely SCREAMED manipulation to me. I was so happy when he said this to her - like, we’ve been waiting for seasons for him to stand up to Octavia, and finally he is. It’s a lot better than him just sitting there in silence, taking whatever she was probably about to throw at him once she had his sympathy and compliance.

Also, WHAT A DRAG. This writer has all the one-liners, damn. There was so much sass in this episode - I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Okay, I REALLY love that they brought back Jasper’s suicide letter again in this episode. It was just SO important. So easily they forget about characters who have died on this show and what they meant to the people who are still alive, and I’m happy that that doesn’t seem to be the case with Jasper and Monty. Jasper’s presence in this episode felt like the callback this season needed - it helped me feel a lot more connected to the show, and to the characters. It was a well-needed reminder of the heart of this show and what it’s about.

Also, it is absolutely necessary to give ALL the kudos to Tree Adams for the work he has done this season (and especially in this episode). It’s crazy how much that man has managed to emote with his music. His presence on the crew of this show has served to elevate it in every single way. When I heard “The Awakening” being played over the scenes revolving Jasper ... it was A Lot fam. I think it is the most tragic and beautiful song that they have done on The 100 and it is also very deeply linked to Jasper as a character and everything that he went through. I love that, even though that song is from Season 3, they have continued to bring it back for both Season 4 and 5. It shows that they remember where they came from, and the journey that has brought us to this moment.

It Just Means A Lot.

Actually, everything to do with Monty and Clarke in this episode was INCREDIBLE. Man, I really felt their dynamic. They connected so well and it just made me really emotional. They used to be such a team ... Before. It’s nice to see that they can click back into that place so quickly again. Them teaming up ... it almost felt like old times.

“Monty, you can’t pick a lock with pruning sheers.” “Ye hath little faith.”

Thanks to this post here I am now aware that this is exactly what Monty said to Jasper in 2x07 when they were trying to unlock another door and Now I’m Sad (and yet also really happy that they put so much care and detail into this episode?).

Monty was just amazing this episode - like damn he’s so smart. He’s such an undercover badass. We don’t appreciate him enough.

I have to hand it to the writers with this one cause I really did NOT see that worm thing coming lmao. I was SO sure that we were about to get a cannibalism reveal and I’m pretty sure the writers are well-aware of that. They were having fun with us.

But on another note, I’m actually really happy that they brought the worms into the story. Otherwise, 5x05 would have pretty much just been a filler episode with no real significance. But, in doing this, they’ve made it so that episode is even more relevant than we thought. AND WOW WHAT A FUCKING TERRIFYING WAY TO DO SO.

BELLAMY AND MONTY AND CLARKE HAVING A CHAT JUST LIKE OLD TIMES WOW I’M EMO

We can’t forget they were the OG murder trio of 2x16 i love three pals bonded through the blood of their enemies

“Be diplomatic.” “Get out.” “Real diplomatic.” I LOVE TWO (2) COMEDIANS WOW BELLARKE REALLY HAS ME SHOVED STRAIGHT UP THEIR ASS HUH

“Clarke, he was there when Pike shot her and killed 300 of her people.” I know everyone is really mad about this line but on rewatch I noticed that they changed this line from the script so that it puts the blame for the massacre on Pike’s shoulders rather than Bellamy’s and while I do think it was a bit of an awkward placement, I appreciate that they changed the line so it didn’t feel like such a punch in the face.

Also, Clarke’s pause and then “I’ll go with him”? Peak comedy. I love a woman.

“When I was a kid, after the battle of San Francisco, I watched the evacuation on TV. Thousands of refugees being packed into aircraft carriers. I remember seeing soldiers pushing helicopters overboard just to make more room, and Diyoza was there. She was the one giving the orders. The machines were expendable, but the people weren’t. But up in space, when we reported that the miners were getting sick, Eligius saw it differently. Order Eleven came down: ‘Bring home the Hythylodium, leave the prisoners.’ Like they were garbage. Captain Stevens agreed and I didn’t.”

There’s something so compelling about the way Jordan Bolger delivers his lines. It reminds me of him talking to Clarke in 5x03 - I could listen to him talk about his backstory for hours. When he speaks he just has a way of captivating the audience. And also CHARMAINE DIYOZA WAS A MFING WAR HERO AND I WON’T HEAR ANYTHING ELSE. Damn, she continues to be the absolute best.

“So you see, Diyoza’s not as bad as you think and I’m not as good as you hoped.” WHAT A FUCKING LINE.

I am living for Zeke’s character and his relationship with Raven is so intriguing. Jordan and Lindsey have such great chemistry.

“An honest spy is either incompetent or working an angle. Which are you?” CHARMAINE TRULY CAME FOR HER LIFE GOD SHE’S SO SAVAGE I LOVE A WOMAN

“Karina died because her doctor was too high to operate.” “Really? And here I thought it was the bullet.” THANK. YOU.

The way Charmaine calls Kane out in this scene really just made me want to like, pump a fist or something, lmao. When he’s like “maybe it would be a good way to get rid of some of these ...” and she says, “What, Kane? Undesirables?” I. FELT. THAT.

“Kind of like sending 100 juvenile delinquents to die on the ground. Or abandoning 300 prisoners on an asteroid?” You know, I really didn’t expect Charmaine - of all people - to bring back this old argument from Season 1 but I WAS SO HAPPY THAT SHE DID. Say what you will about Diyoza but she’s nothing if not loyal. She’s not here to abandon her troops and she’s not willing to discard any of them - just like she wasn’t willing to abandon any of those refugees. The fact that she’s so open to allowing defectors into the camp at all, that she is feeding them, giving them shelter, actually sitting down to have chats with them is just so ... uncharacteristic of a “villain”? And I love it.

“Trust her? She’s a drug addict. ... Too soon?”

Literally me, every time Diyoza opens her mouth:

Got to take a short second to say again how interested I am to see how this whole Gaia/Madi plotline is going to play out, now that we know that she is actually here to keep her safe. It’s such an interesting dynamic, with her being so close to Octavia.

I know a lot of people are annoyed that the flame is still part of the show but honestly, I think it makes a lot of sense (considering Madi’s position as a nightblood) and plays a lot more interesting of a role now that the time of the Commander’s is supposedly over and their faith has been destroyed ... almost. In any case, I’m pretty sure that the flame will be gone for good by the end of this season because I think that whatever happens with Madi and Octavia’s reign and Wonkru is going to lead to its destruction, but in the meantime I really don’t mind it being part of the story.

I have to talk about the scene where Gaia shows her the flame because I LOVE how it was filmed. The music was so eery and fit the mood perfectly, and the fucking whispers??? We’ve never actually seen how a real, living nightblood reacts to the flame and I think it’s actually super cool that Madi can feel a bond to it - it was literally beckoning to her. It was giving me major Lord of the Rings vibes.

And wow, Lola really killed that scene. You can clearly see the way her emotions are creating inner turmoil for her. She’s been hiding from the flame since birth and yet she also cannot deny the draw that she feels towards it (again, like Frodo with the ring). Lola has such a potential as a little actress - I’m really excited to see where she goes.

Side note but ... who’s going to tell these writers no one actually refers to their sibling as “big brother” just casually?

“There are times in war where you have to do the wrong things for the right reasons.” And I’m sure this is exactly how Echo justified every single thing she did pre-Praimfaya too. I have to admit that I actually liked what they did with Echo this episode just because it shows that she still has areas that require growth. Her priorities and loyalties changed up on the Ark but she has yet to be truly tested. This is her test, to see how much those six years really changed her. If this episode is an indication, her instinct is still to fall back into old habits during times of war. I’m optimistic that what this means is we are going to get to see Echo have real development, on-screen, this season.

Monty reading Jasper’s letter ... I Am Not Okay.

Again, loved all the callbacks to Jasper in this episode. It’s really interesting that his character arc has carried over from Season 3/4 and seems to have reinvented itself in Monty now. I’m hopeful that Monty isn’t going to go down the self-destructive path that Jasper went down, but that he might actually use Jasper’s memory to pave the path towards real change. We rarely get characters who want to end the fighting rather than continue it - I’m interested to see where Monty’s character arc goes as the season progresses.

“Jasper was smarter than all of us [...] If the war is the only way to have the last survivable land on Earth, then maybe we don’t deserve it.” He’s not wrong ...

Octavia throwing a skull at her mirror in rage ... I just have to laugh

“If we lose, [you helping Kane escape] will be why. How does that make you feel?” “Awful, and I’d do it again.”

LISTEN INDRA THIS SEASON IS EVERYTHING. She’s one of the few characters who is not afraid to call out Octavia on the way that she is leading. She can see so clearly through Blodreina’s bullshit and yet she loves Octavia despite it. That’s Strength.

“I miss him, too.” Lemme just go roll into my corner and CRY MY FUCKING EYES OUT because Bellamy and Jasper was one of my all time favourite dynamics and I miss it so much

“Make algae, not war. That’s cute.” IT IS FUCKING CUTE BELLAMY ALL RIGHT

“If the early batches don’t kill them like they nearly did us.” “That’s before I got the recipe right, and you know it.” I STAN

Seriously, though ... Monty is just SO (so) underrated.

BELLAMY BLAKE HAS A FUCKING DIMPLE ON HIS RIGHT CHEEK AND I WAS NOT EVEN FUCKING AWARE OF THIS FACT BECAUSE IN ALL THE FOUR AND HALF SEASONS THAT CAME BEFORE THIS THE CAMERA HAS NEVER FOCUSED ON HIS SMILE LIKE THAT BEFORE SO YEAH I AM SALTY BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED OF THIS CUTENESS GOOD NIGHT

“75% of your people are dying.” “Well, that’s good . . . For Octavia.” The casual way she delivers this line askqiakdksansks i stan a comedian

LISTEN. The reveal of Diyoza being pregnant LITERALLY made me gasp. Out loud. I literally jumped off of my couch and cheered. I am SO excited about this reveal. I didn’t think they were going to actually use the fact that that Ivana was pregnant during filming in the show because they had her taking tequila shots in 5x05 (*sigh*) but I’m really happy that they decided to. It just adds a whole extra layer to Charmaine. She’s not just a leader - she’s a mother. And I do wonder at how that might affect Abby’s and Charmaine’s dynamic, because that’s one thing they both have in common.

Another reason I really liked that reveal was because I think Charmaine being pregnant gives her a higher chance of surviving this season. She still may die, but it’s a lot darker to kill off a character when they are carrying a baby inside of them than when they are not, and I know the CW has regulations on that kind of thing.

That being said, Karina was heavily implied to have been pregnant and she still died ... Although they did cut out the lines that explicitly stated she was pregnant from the script so maybe her death was why?

Anyway, I’m really excited about this plotline.

Raven looking at a beaten up Shaw with tears in her eyes ... this is the angst I live for. Man, I could get invested in this relationship. Not to mention, Zeke becoming one of the prisoners is SUPER intriguing. His role within Eligius is what kept him conflicted before, but if Eligius has rejected him too now, who will he become? What will he do to help Raven and the others? Right now, I’m sure he wants nothing to do with her but I know that won’t last forever and I’m really excited to see what they do with his character.

I know that Madi beating Ethan in that fight was a TERRIBLE idea but I’m really excited about it. Madi has surprised me as a character (in a good way) because she has so much of her own agency outside of Clarke. I think the story of her struggling with her hero-worship and glorification of Octavia versus her love and loyalty to Clarke is super interesting. She may be fucking everything up but she’s doing it on her own terms, and that’s exciting, because Madi easily could have been written in as a plot device to cause conflict between Clarke and her friends as well as within the Grounder system. Instead, the writers have given her flaws and strengths in her own right. She is way more fleshed out as a character than I was expecting going into Season 5 and I think this story with her and Octavia will be really interesting.

Also, I 100% predicted that Madi would be Octavia’s second in my spec masterpost months ago. In fact, a lot of my spec about Madi and Octavia has been taking shape pretty nicely so I’m really interested to see if the rest of my spec regarding that relationship follows through too ...

Clarke taking the radio and calling Diyoza just like she called Emerson in 2x16 ... damn. DAMN. Nice to see the return of “you may be the Chancellor, but I’m in charge”. She’s So Powerful.

BELLAMY AND CLARKE STARING DIRECTLY INTO EACH OTHER’S EYES DURING THE ENTIRE RADIO SCENE UNTIL BELLAMY COULDN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE AND TURNED AWAY AM I SENSING SOME TENSION HERE

But seriously, he knew exactly what she was going to see even before she said “That’s why we’re going to take her out.” Even after six years Bellamy can read her so well

I’ve been waiting all season for the turbulence I was promised and OH BOY AM I READY FOR THE ANGST

HAKELDAMA 2.0 HERE I COME

BOOM. Out.

That was a KILLER episode. It took me forever to get through this recap because there were so many aspects of the episode that I really, really enjoyed. It hit all the right emotional beats, the music was on point, and the plot was super intriguing. It really feels like the story is picking up and I am SO excited to watch 5x08.

It’s going to be harder for me to keep on top of these recaps for the rest of the season as I’m going to be very busy (and I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to watch most of the episodes live) but I’ll do my best to get them all done. I can’t promise that they will all be completed in a timely fashion (before the next episode airs), as I have been doing them thus far, but I’ll try to get them done when I can!

Thanks for reading!

#the 100 #the 100 highlights series #monty green #clarke griffin #posts by moi #jasper jordan: more than a drunken idiot #monty green: not your average cinnamon roll

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octannibal-blake · 7 years ago

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How about a bellarke something where one of them is way too emotionally invested in pumpkin carving

i loved this prompt, nonny. Also, side note. This Hocus Pocus drinking game exists. My friends and I do it every October and I strongly encourage others to participate! PSA over.

If there is one thing you should know about Clarke Griffin,it’s that Halloween is her absolute favorite holiday. The moment Septemberfades into October, something unexplainable comes over her. She’s wearing herburgundy sweaters over her black cat t-shirts (and yes, she has quite a few ofthose) and she’s consuming all things pumpkin related. She also pulls out allthe stops on Halloween decorations, even if her apartment is small and therereally being no rhyme or reason for having ghost lights everywhere remotelypossible. She fucking loves Halloween, okay?

It’s something her friends have gotten used to, thankfully, becausehonestly her obsession can be a little overwhelming at first. The firstHalloween she ever spent with Raven in college she forced her roommate to sitdown and watch Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf and then proceed to watch the entirety of the Evil Dead series (includingthe T.V show because she’s fucking thorough, okay?). Raven was a bit freakedout, especially when Clarke laughed as a zombie thing got maimed by a chainsawhand, but she learned to love it. Just like the rest of her friends. ExceptBellamy – he’s still getting used to it.

It’s the first Halloween they’re spending together sincebecoming an official item almost six months ago. They had friends for a while,though friends from a distance. As in they seemed to always have at least oneclass together each semester and found themselves sitting next to one anotherin each of them. And then studying together outside of class. And then runninginto each other at a party. The rest, really, is history.

Once an anti-Halloween extremist, she’s only just begunconverting him to other side. She had thought dating someone who was so adamantlyagainst Halloween was against her moral code, but then he smiled at her andmade some nerdy history joke and, well, she was a lost cause. She’s been tryingto ease him into it. Last weekend she and Raven had their annual Hocus Pocus night,during which they play a drinking game and get shit-faced drunk. They followthat by drunkenly watching all the Halloween episodes of Boy Meets World. It’stheir thing. Bellamy joined them along with Raven’s new “friend” Luna. It wasawfully double-date like, though Raven refuses to admit it. Bellamy seemed toenjoy the movie, even enthusiastically joining in the sing along versions of IPut A Spell on You. When she was left wearing the witch hat (rules say whoeverhas the witch hat at the end has to chug a beer), he cheered her on as shedrank from her can of PBR. It was quite a bonding experience.

Deciding he was ready for the next step in the Halloweencelebration, she convinced him to come over and carve pumpkins with her.

“Isn’t that something really cheesy couples do?” he hadasked.

“Well, I don’t know if you know this, but we’re a prettycheesy couple.”

He hadn’t been able to argue that. She had picked out the perfectpumpkins at the farmers market yesterday, perfectly rounded. She has newspaperlining her coffee table with the necessary tools. Bowls for the seeds,included. She likes to roast them. She is quing up the new season of StangerThings when there is a soft knock on her door. She runs to open it, the fuzzysocks on her feet causing her to nearly slide into the door. She pulls it openand he’s standing there with a bottle of wine and grin.

She yanks him in and gives him a quick kiss. That’ssomething else she’s noticed about being with him – she could see him every day(and she pretty much does) and still gets excited to see him. He returns herenthusiasm with a laugh.

“Nice sweater,” he comments, nodding his head toward theembroidered pumkin on her chest.

“It’s festive!” she tells him. He moves to the kitchen andmakes quick work of opening the bottle of wine. He pours them both a glassbefore joining her on the couch.

“I’ve never done this before,” he says as she slides her ownpumpkin towards her, “Be gentle.”

“You’ll be fine,” she says and pats his leg. She grabs theknife and begins to saw off the top. Bellamy watches her carefully before shehands the knife over to him and he tries it on his own.

“Don’t stab yourself!” she worries when the knife puncturesthe side of the pumpkin. He sets it down and tries more carefully. She triesnot to get distracted as his bicep flexes naturally with the pressure of theknife. She’s well aware of how lucky she is, after all, he’s a very attractiveguy. Sometimes it’s still hard to believe that he chose her, of all people, thequiet art major who trips over her own feet. She’s definitely lucky.

She reaches into her pumpkin and begins to scoop out theseeds. This has always been her favorite part. When she was younger, she andher dad would carve pumpkins together and she loved to get her hands dirty.There was something so fun about scooping it out and making a mess. Maybebecause her mom hated it and would fuss over it when they were finished, andher dad would give her a funny look to make everything better. She misses him,a lot. But she’s happy to continue the tradition with someone she cares about.

“Earth to Clarke,” Bellamy’s voice brings her from hermemory, “You okay?”

She gives him a soft smile and hands over the spoon, “Yeah,I spaced out for a second. Time to get your hands dirty, Blake.”

She finishes cleaning out her pumpkin first begins to usethe pencil to draw the outline of what she wants. She can’t just make a simplejack-o-lantern. No, she’s an artist. It has to be more. She loses herself inthe sketching, making sure she gets the angles right and won’t be cutting intothe pumpkin the wrong way. It has to be perfect.

She finishes up the sketch and picks up the knife. Shesneaks a glance at Bellamy, who is still trying to get all the seeds out of hispumpkin. It had a lot more than hers did.

“It helps if you just stick your hand in there,” she encourages,and he sets the spoon down with a frustrated sigh before dipping his hand intothe goopy mess. He sticks his tongue out in disgust.

“Don’t be a baby,” she teases and glares at her for dramaticeffect. She laughs and turns her attention back to her own. Somewhere along theway, she gets lost in it. She moves the knife up and down, tracing theintricate design and ensuring everything is perfect. She isn’t sure how long ittakes her, but when she finishes, she’s grinning triumphantly as the creepyforest looks back at her.

“You couldn’t just be a normal person and do a face witheyes?” Bellamy asks incredoulously as she shows him her design. He only has onetriangle cut out of his own and it’s alopsided one. Poor guy.

“Just wait,” she smiles, standing up with the pumpkin inhand, “It’s going to look badass when I put a candle in it.”

She never gets to see it. As she makes her way to thekitchen, her sock gets caught on something, causing her to trip forward andlose her grip on the pumpkin. It hits the ground. She manages to catch herselfon the counter top. It lands faces down on the wood floor and based on theorange mess coming from the sides, it’s not good.

“Dammit!” she yells. Bellamy is by her side in seconds.

“Jesus, Clarke,” he grabs her elbow to help her stand upstraight. She just keeps staring at the pumpkin, her hard work all a smashedmess on the ground. She bends over and turns the pumpkin face up. The beautifulflowing forest is still there, it’s just dented in. And looks more like one sadlittle tree. Before she even realizes it’s happening, she finds herselfsniffling.

“Clarke?” Bellamy’s voice is full of concern, his handtugging on her elbow to make her look at him.

She’s embarrassed. She dropped her pumpkin and now she’sfucking crying over it like a baby. But seriously, she worked so hard on it.And now it’s all ruined.

“Are you…Clarke, are you crying?” his voice is soft when heasks her and tries to avoid his gaze. He places a hand under her chin andgently pushes her up to look at him. When she meets his eyes, he actuallycracks a smile. She pushes away from him.

“It’s not funny!” she says moving away from him, upset thathe seems to think her emotional reaction is humorous. Now she’s pissed. And shetends to also cry when she’s pissed.

“No!” he says immediately pulling her back to him, “It’s notthat. It’s…”

He looks contemplative then. Afraid even. She’s never seenhim look like that, which is strange, “What?”

He sighs, defeated, and returns his brown eyes to her blueones. They’re filled with something new. Something very intense. Something like…

“I love you.”

Oh. She blinks at him stupidly, trying to process the words.She just slid on her own floor, dropped her intricately made pumpkin on theground, and then cried about it like a child. And he…loves her?

“Shit,” he says when he takes a look at her face, which sheimagines looks something along the lines of shock, “Too soon, right?”

He tries to back away from her, but her body finally kicksinto gear. She wraps her arms around his waist and buries herself into him. Heloves her. Even when she cries over pumpkins. What a guy,

“No,” she says finally pulling back and giving him a waterysmile, because now she’s just happy. Happy that he chooses her, even when she’scrazy about a silly holiday. He chooses her when she acts like a fool. Happybecause she’s been in love with him since the day she met him, basically, “Ilove you too.”

When he kisses her, it’s easy to forget about the smashedpumpkin. In fact, she forgets about the smashed pumpkin until they wake up thenext day and she trips over it on her way to the coffee maker.

He tells her he loves her then, too.

#liz answers #bellarke fanfiction #bellarke prompt fill #plot what plot #just some good ol' bellarke fluff #my writing

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solarwindandcosmicash · 8 years ago

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priority: anhur (part ii)

prev | start | next

Now that the party has gotten the password and eliminated Delta, supposedly one of the leaders of the rebellion, the party moves on to the rebel headquarters. There they encounter Zeta, Delta’s half-sister, and convince her to help them eliminate the rebel leaders. Zeta eliminates Quincy handily with the party’s help, and after and a tough fight with Kany and Nyeck, the party finds themselves ultimately successful, though Zeta had died in the conflict. They return to the Apricity soon after.

summary

With Delta eliminated and the password in hand, and once Phos has hidden Delta’s body, the party moves on to the rebellion’s headquarters. Aster had plotted a route for them and informs them that there is a front and back to the headquarters building, though he doesn’t know which would be better. The party decides to enter through the front after lively debate; in trying to do so, Beetle tries to pass tea as drugs in order to get inside, which fails, and after Vekar gives the password Zeta, the five of them enter the headquarters

Inside the headquarters, the party finds themselves in a wide hallway. At the end of the hallway is the back entrance to the headquarters, with two guards standing there; inside is deserted, oddly enough, with six doors spaced along the walls, three on each side, and a staircase leading down. The party sets to work to open the doors, all of which are locked; inside some of these rooms, Kate and Phos find credit chits valued at 1000, and Vekar finds some cryo rounds in a safe. Vasir and Beetle hack a disabled FENRIS mech but promptly forget to tell it to heel.

When they enter the last room, the party encounters Zeta T’Pavis, Delta’s half-sister. Phos, with Beetle’s help, convinces Zeta that one of the rebellion’s leaders, Quincy Lorraine, was responsible for the death of her sister and, seeking vengeance, Zeta ropes the party into helping her eliminate him. She leads them down the stairs, where she explains that while Nyeck had been cleaning up the Reaper creatures on Anhur, they had actually been keeping them here in cages, for use whenever they saw fit. The party learns that there are husks, marauders, and cannibals around, but Zeta bypasses them all and heads straight for a room down a hallway, instructing the party to intervene at the signal.

The signal ends up being a gunshot, and when the party bursts into the room, they find Zeta grappling Quincy on the ground. Upon request, Phos walks over and stabs Quincy with her cleaver, causing enough damage that he would eventually die, but slowly. Kate, in a moment of compassion, kills him quickly, much to Zeta’s displeasure, and from there, the party convinces Zeta to help them eliminate the rest of the rebellion’s leaders. Zeta warns them that this will be difficult, given that Kany and Nyeck are almost always together, but eventually comes up with an idea.

The plan is thus: Zeta will distract either Kany or Nyeck, separating them from each other and sending them towards a trap the party will have laid out. From there, the party can eliminate that person before proceeding to Zeta’s location to help her. Zeta lets the party choose who they want to target first after providing some information on who Kany and Nyeck are; the party decides to eliminate Kany first, and after a few fail-safes are put into place, Zeta moves off and the party heads over to the husks’ cage, with Beetle placing a grenade on the door in order to blow it open on Zeta’s signal and the rest of the party moving to hide in the observation deck nearby.

The signal comes through Vasir’s omni-tool, and Beetle triggers the grenade by shooting it. A few moments later, Kany makes her appearance by biotically charging in and then dropping a nova at the escaping husks, killing all of them instantly; however, she notices the party hiding and Kate takes the opportunity to biotically charge Kany, knocking her briefly off-balance before the battle begins. Kany is very powerful and wreaks a lot of havoc before the party successfully takes her down, and soon after, the party rushes to where they think Zeta is, knowing that she is alone with Nyeck.

The party arrives in time to see Nyeck kill Zeta, and then Beetle throws a grenade and Kate sets it off by shooting it; the party avoids damage by closing the door to the room where the grenade explodes. Moments later, however, it becomes apparent that Nyeck is no easy target, either, almost killing Vekar before Vekar freezes them and Beetle takes a killshot with the sniper rifle she’d foisted from a human earlier that day. Once Nyeck has died, and once Beetle has named her new sniper rifle the Cold Shoulder, the party collects several documents under Aster’s direction before booking it back to the LZ, calling for pickup and being brought back to the Apricity soon after.

notable lines + interactions

DM: So last time... last time on this campaign, I forget the name, sunlight and stardust, y’all broke into a tea shoppe and killed a dude. Actually a lady. So. GG.

Phos, OOC: Ideally, we find an incinerator or something so we can burn the body and everything else. DM: Maybe roll a twenty on perception next time.

Beetle, OOC: Beetles takes a free action to dab. DM: You - you don’t need a free action to do that, you’re not in combat. Beetle, OOC: It’s still a free action. DM: Uh, okay, you, uh, you dab. It - it looks like a dab. [pause] Yay.

Vasir, OOC: Your dab did not destroy my internet, I’m offended you think it’s that bad. Beetle, OOC: Okay, that’s fair, but it’s still pretty powerful. Vasir, OOC: You didn’t roll for it. It was a free action, you said so. Beetle, OOC: Goddammit, you’re right. I’ll roll for it next time.

DM: As you get closer, Aster says - what does he say. [pause] This is not the right word document. [pause] This is also not the right word document. Beetle, OOC: I believe in you.

DM: Phos intimidated some people so now you don’t have to fight. Congratulations.

DM: [Beetle and Kate] were playing rock-paper-scissors to see who was the scary one. But you both lost, like, you both played scissors too many times. Beetle, OOC: Yeah, we kept tying, and then we gave up. It was really sad. DM: It was really sad.

DM: We are not making this The Adventure Zone!

DM: Okay, it’s not from The Adventure Zone, it’s actually from outofcontextdnd. I just forgot in the heat in the moment.

Beetle, OOC: We have two lines of attack: one in the back posing, and one in the front attacking while everyone is staring at the ones who are posing. Party: [laughter] DM: Wouldn’t that be the other way around? Like - like posing in the front, attack from the back? Beetle, OOC: Look, this is tactics, okay.

DM: Need I remind you of the first rule of D&D? I’ve had to every session so far.

Vasir: Let’s see if the front door and the password work before we use the violence, how about? Phos: Hmm. Beetle: This sounds fake, but... okay. Vasir: We can’t start attacking the people we’re supposedly with. Beetle: Supposedly we can’t start attacking people. Phos: Supposedly we didn’t just kill one of their leaders and steal tea from her shoppe, but sure. Vasir: Is the concept of sneaking that hard for you all?

Phos, OOC: Right before Phos opens the door, she uses fortification - DM: Shh shh shh. Shh. Shhh. Shhhhh. Phos, OOC and sheepish: Sorry.

Phos, OOC: [Phos]’s not dealing with this tall-ass turian. Vekar: Fine. Next time I’ll let you get shot. DM, whispering: Oh snap.

DM: So how was everyone’s day today? Vasir, OOC: I actually got up as a reasonable time. Went out and did stuff. DM: Hell yeah. Productivity. Phos, OOC: I played games. Thanks to [Vekar’s player], the savior. DM: Hell yeah. All hail.

DM: So Beetle... Beetle. Oh, Beetle. There’s no corners for you to get lost in. But there is a wall, and you walk towards this wall. And you realize, suddenly, that all you can see is this wall, and that you are hopelessly lost. And everywhere you look, all you can see is wall. And you are just lost in this single wall. Beetle: This room only has one wall and I can’t leave! DM: Exactly. You are a two-dimensional thing now. There’s no escape.

Beetle: Holy shit, Phos! You did it! You rescued me again! Again!

Phos, OOC: I’m wearing armor! DM: You didn’t get any damage, you just looked stupid. Phos, OOC: Oh, god. Vekar, OOC: Psychological damage.

Beetle, OOC: It took me two years but I did it! DM: So you unlock that door. GG. Plus one experience. There’re four other doors remaining.

Beetle: The wall got you, too? Vekar, having just walked into a wall: Sadly, it did. It’s a trickster wall, it is.

DM: You’re really fascinated with the desk, I guess. It’s a really nice desk. Beetle: I like this. I’m into it.

Beetle: Can we take this desk apart and take it with us? [quietly] I really like it.

Beetle: You know, Vasir, you really loosened the lid on this good, good - mech. DM: Nice save. I knew what you wanted to say there. Beetle, OOC: Yeah, Beetle didn’t want to force gender on it.

DM: So Beetle and Vasir, you manage to open your doors, but there’s nothing in the rooms they open to. They’re trash and trashed. Beetle, OOC: [posts this in discord]

Beetle, OOC, unnecessarily: It’s trash. DM, exasperated: Thanks, McElroys. Where would we be without you?

DM: And roll perception for me. Vekar, OOC and desperate: No...

Beetle: We’re invested in helping you avenge Delta. Phos: Yes, she was very kind to us. Zeta: Yes, yes, she’s - she was always like that. DM: You guys are terrible people, you know that? Party: [laughter] Vekar, OOC: We try our best. Phos, OOC: The power of a nat twenty, baby!

Zeta: [kills two guards very quickly] Beetle: Good execution! DM: She does not respond to that. Beetle, OOC: But it was a good execution! DM: ... Ahaha, hahaha, haha, ha, anyway.

Phos, OOC: [leaves to make themselves hot chocolate] Beetle, OOC: I’m just imagining Phos going back to the shop to make herself a nice cup of coke-co. DM: Coke-co? Beetle, OOC: Yeah. DM: Goddammit.

DM: Yeah, Kate’s just watching you guys hack this, like - Vasir, OOC: She’s thinking, “Ha ha, nerds.” DM: And she’s like, “Godspeed.”

Phos: Are we playing ‘hide and husks’?

DM: I don’t want to make you roll stealth checks, but at this rate...

Someone’s mic: [picks up the sound of a car horn] DM: Beeeeep.

DM: Yeah, it’s a miracle [Beetle] hit at all. And by miracle, I mean a nineteen.

Phos: Which door do we think there would be the boss of this place? Vekar: Probably the biggest door. DM: This isn’t a Zelda title.

Beetle, OOC: ‘Oral’ could mean her mouth. DM: I said ‘aural’, A, U! Fuck off!

Beetle, OOC: Can I roll to have Beetle stand real casual? DM: You don’t have to roll that, she can just do it, she - Beetle, OOC: Like, I’m not with these nerds, like, chillin’. DM: Okay, yeah, you can - you can just stand there, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, looking really cool. Beetle, OOC: Nice. I’m into that.

DM: And then you just hear some tussling - tussling? Tussling? Wrassling? Wrestling? Just fighting noises, basically. Vekar, OOC: Fisticuffs. DM: Yeah, you hear fisticuff noises, that’s it.

Vasir, OOC: Roll to find a chair, [DM]! Beetle, OOC: Rolls a crit fail.

DM: Phous? Phos, OOC: Phohs. Beetle, OOC: Phoosaphone. DM: Phoosaphone. [quietly] Goddammit.

Phos, OOC: How bad does Nyeck look? DM: He’s fine. [incredulous silence] Phos, OOC: He’s not even bleeding? DM: Nope. Vekar, OOC: Shields, man. Vasir, OOC: That armor class. Phos, OOC: Shit.

DM: [Nyeck] just roll out of the way. They’re really not feeling this. Beetle, OOC: They’re just McCree rolling out of way. DM: They are! They are indeed. They’re also reloading and - just kidding, they’re not doing that.

DM: You’re lucky [Nyeck] didn’t hit you twice. This would’ve killed you. Vekar, OOC: Thanks, that’s so kind of them.

DM: Top of the order. Vekar, you’re up. Vekar, OOC: Alright. Well, shit.

DM: And that’s the end of your turn. Let’s see if you wombo-combo.

DM: You just did 26 damage. Party: Party: [collectively loses their shit] DM: This person is dead. This person is very, very dead.

DM: This sniper rifle is your new best friend. What do you name it? Beetle, OOC: Uh. Phos, OOC: Headshot. Vekar, OOC: The Cold Shoulder. Everyone: [loses their shit]

technical notes

The party finds a place to hide Delta’s body. Investigation roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Phos → 14 + 3 → 17 Vekar → 16 - 4 → 12 Kate → 8 + 1 → 9 Vasir → 8 - 1 → 7 Beetle → 1 + 3 → 4

Phos finds a place to hide the body (a dumpster).

The party intimidates others into leaving them alone. Intimidation roll. 1d20 + knowledge modifier.

Phos → 15 + 0 → 15 Vekar → 6 + 3 → 9 Kate → 4 + 0 → 4 Beetle → 4 + 0 → 4

Phos intimidates a group of batarians into leaving the enemy alone. Kate and Beetle play rock-paper-scissors, but end up tying so many times that they give up and let Phos be the scary one.

Beetle tries to sell the rebel guards tea, passing it off as a drug. Persuasion roll. 1d20 + knowledge modifier + proficiency bonuses → 14 + 0 + 1 + 1 → 16

The guards contest. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Guard 1 → 20 Guard 2 → 17

The guards successfully contest.

Beetle does not convince the guards that she is a business partner, as the rebellion is not involved with drugs in any way.

The party looks around the headquarters’ main floor. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Vasir → 17 - 1 → 16 Vekar → 16 - 4 → 12 Phos → 5 + 3 → 8 Kate → 5 + 1 → 6 Beetle → 1 + 3 → 4

Beetle gets lost in front of a wall. Vasir notes all possible exits and doors.

Vasir and Beetle go to unlock two of the doors. Decryption roll. 1d20 + technical modifier + proficiency bonus.

Vasir → 18 + 4 → 22 Beetle → 14 + 4 → 18

Vasir opens the door easily. It takes Beetle a bit longer to accomplish the same feat.

Kate, Phos, Vekar, and Vasir check out the room. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Vekar → 18 - 4 → 14 Vasir → 15 - 1 → 14 Kate → 12 + 1 → 13 Phos → 1 + 3 → 4

Phos walks into the doorframe, stubs her foot on the desk, and then stumbles into shelves. Everyone else sees the FENRIS mech in the room and notes the locked drawers of the desk.

Kate breaks the lock on one of the drawers of the desk. Strength roll. 1d20 + strength modifier → 14 + 2 → 16 Kate breaks the lock on the drawer, finding a credit chit valued at 1000.

Vasir hacks into the FENRIS mech. AI hacking roll. 1d20 + technical modifier + proficiency bonus → 3 + 4 + 1 → 8 Vasir finds the firewalls on the mech too frustrating to hack and gives up.

Vekar breaks the lock on one of the drawers of the desk. Strength roll. 1d20 + strength modifier → 11 + 1 → 12 Vekar opens the drawer, but it’s empty.

Vekar breaks the lock on the last drawer of the desk. Strength roll. 1d20 + strength modifier → 11 + 1 → 12 Vekar opens the drawer and finds a slip of paper with a combination of numbers on it. He pockets it.

Beetle unlocks another door. Decryption roll. 1d20 + technical modifier → 18 + 4 → 22 Beetle opens the door easily.

Kate, Phos, Vekar, and Beetle check out the room. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Phos → 19 + 3 → 22 Kate → 11 + 1 → 12 Beetle → 2 + 3 → 5 Vekar → 1 - 4 → -3

Vekar walks into a wall again. Beetle is fascinated with the desk. Phos notices a safe underneath said desk.

Vekar opens the safe. Vekar opens the safe using the combination he had found in the previous room.

The DM determines what’s in the safe. 1d6 → 1 Inside the safe are cryo rounds and a credit chit valued at 1000. Vekar takes the rounds; Phos takes the chit.

Beetle hacks the FENRIS mech. AI hacking roll. 1d20 + technical modifier → 14 + 4 → 18 Coasting on Vasir’s previous attempt, Beetle successfully hacks the FENRIS mech.

Beetle, Vekar, and Vasir hack into another two doors. Decryption roll. 1d20 + technical modifier + proficiency bonus.

Vasir → 17 + 4 + 1 → 23 Beetle → 13 + 4 → 17 Vekar → 6 + 1 + 0 → 7

Vasir and Beetle manage to open their doors, but there’s nothing in the room beyond.

Vasir opens the remaining door. Decryption roll. 1d20 + technical modifier + proficiency bonus → 12 + 4 + 1 → 17 Vasir opens the door to the last room.

The party tries to mentally place the asari in the last room of the headquarters. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Phos → 19 + 3 → 22 Beetle → 11 + 3 → 14 Vekar → 17 - 4 → 13 Vasir → 13 - 1 → 12

Phos realizes the asari looks strikingly like Delta.

Phos opens the message Kate sent over omni-tool. Technical roll. 1d20 + tech modifier → 7 - 2 → 5 Phos is unable to read the message Kate sent, which read simply: “Wasn’t Zeta supposed to be a hostage?”

Phos convinces Zeta that Delta was killed by Quincy Lorraine. Beetle corroborates her story by showing Zeta the tea she had stolen from Delta’s shoppe. Persuasion roll with advantage. 1d20 + knowledge modifier → 11 + 0 → 11, 20 + 0 → 20

Zeta contests. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier → 12 + 2 → 14 Zeta fails to contest.

Phos successfully convinces Zeta that Delta as killed by the rebel leaders.

The party listens to the sounds in the basement. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Beetle → 18 + 3 → 21 Phos → 15 + 3 → 18 Vasir → 10 - 1 → 9 Kate → 6 + 1 → 7 Vekar → 7 - 4 → 3

Beetle and Phos hear the noises down the hallway and immediately ID them as husk noises.

Zeta grapples Quincy. Strength roll. 1d20 + strength modifier → 15 + 1 → 16

Quincy contests. Strength roll. 1d20 + strength modifier → 11 + 3 → 14 Quincy fails to contest.

Zeta wrestles Quincy to the ground.

Phos stabs Quincy. Damage roll. 2d8 + damage bonus → (5 + 3) + (4 + 3) → 8 + 7 → 15 Phos’s krogan cleaver cuts deeply into Quincy’s neck. He’s not dead yet.

Kate kills Quincy. Kate mercy-kills Quincy with her omni-blade.

Phos convinces Zeta that Nyeck Slatojor and Kany Canard were also implicit in Delta’s death. Persuasion roll. 1d20 + knowledge modifier → 18 + 0 → 18 Phos successfully convinces Zeta to both tell them about Nyeck and Kany as well as help kill them.

Zeta assassinates the two guards. Stealth roll. 1d20 + dexterity modifer → 18 + 2 → 20 Zeta stabs both of the guards in quick succession, killing them instantly.

The party looks for a place to hide. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Phos → 18 + 4 → 22 Kate → 18 + 1 → 19 Vasir → 19 - 1 → 18 Beetle → 15 + 3 → 18 Vekar → 9 - 4 → 5

The party notices a little observatory room where they could hide. The door is locked.

Beetle, Vasir, and Vekar work together to unlock the door. Decryption roll. 1d20 + technical modifier + proficiency bonus.

Vasir → 15 + 4 → 19 Vekar → 17 + 1 → 18 Beetle → 13 + 4 → 17

Between the three of them, Vasir, Vekar, and Beetle make quick work of the door.

Kate braces at the door. Kate draws her pistol and braces.

Beetle shoots the grenade. Attack roll. 1d20 → 16. Beetle manages to shoot the grenade, exploding the door of the husk cage and allowing the husks to escape.

Kany charges the husks. Attack roll. 1d20 → 18 This is sufficient to do damage.

Damage roll. 1d8 → 6 Kany hits all husks on impact.

ADDITIONAL ACTION: Kany throws a Nova down. Attack roll. 1d20 → 13 This is sufficient to do damage.

Damage roll. 2d4 → 3 + 4 → 7 Kany kills all husks.

Kany looks around the room. Perception check. 1d20 + perception modifier → 16 + 1 → 17 Kany notices the group hiding in the observatory.

Kate charges Kany. Attack roll. 1d20 → 7 This is not sufficient to do damage. Kany is thrown off-balance.

Everyone rolls initiative. 1d20.

Vasir → 20 Kany → 19 Vekar → 16 Kate → 12 Phos → 9 Beetle → 7

Vasir uses Energy Drain on Kany. Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. (17 - Kany’s armor class) x 3 → 2 x 3 → 6 Vasir steals 6 of Kany’s barrier.

Kany attacks Kate. Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 2d4 → 4 + 1 → 5 Kate’s barrier takes 5 points of damage.

Free action. Kany moves into the husk cage.

Vekar takes cover by the cage’s door and shoots. Free action. Vekar moves to the cage’s door and takes cover.

Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 3d4 → 1 + 2 + 3 → 5 Vekar deals 5 damage to Kany.

Kate shoots Kany with her sniper rifle. Attack roll. 1d20 → 15 This is sufficient for a body shot.

Damage roll. 2d6 → 6 + 3 → 9 Kate shoots Kany for 9 points of damage.

Phos uses Fortification. Free action. Phos moves to block the doorway of the cage.

Phos uses Fortification. Phos adds +2 to her AC, bringing her AC up to 18.

Beetle takes a shot at Kany with her sniper rifle through Phos’s legs. Attack roll. 1d20 → 19 This is sufficient, but because of her positioning, she does not get a headshot.

Damage roll. 2d6 → 4 + 3 → 7 Beetle shoots Kany for 7 points of damage.

Vasir delays their turn.

Kany charges Phos. Attack roll. 1d20 → 19 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 1d8 → 7 Phos takes 7 points of damage.

ADDITIONAL ACTION: Kany drops a Nova. Attack roll. 1d20 → 20 Crit.

Damage roll. (2d4) x 2 → (2 + 2) x 2 → 8 Kany hits Phos, Beetle, and Vekar for 8 points of damage. Additionally, she sends them flying. Phos, Beetle, and Vekar are now prone.

Vekar stands up. Vekar stands up and moves away from Kany.

Kate takes a shot at Kany with her sniper rifle. Attack roll. 1d20 → 13 This is not sufficient to hit.

Kate takes a shot at Kany, who deflects it with her biotics.

Vasir jumps back into the order and uses Incinerate. Attack roll. 1d20 → 3 This is not sufficient to hit.

Vasir messes up the Incinerate program and it doesn’t manage to leave their omni-tool.

Phos stands up. Phos stands up and moves in front of Beetle.

Beetle uses her Marksman ability. Attack roll. 1d20 → 16

Damage roll. 4d4 → 2 + 2 + 4 + 2 → 10 Beetle shoots Kany for 10 points of damage, killing her.

Beetle investigates Kany’s body. Investigation roll. 1d20 + perception modifier → 14 + 3 → 17 Beetle doesn’t find anything on Kany’s body.

Phos listens to her surroundings. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier → 14 + 3 → 17 Phos hears nothing out of ordinary, excepting the Reaper sounds.

The party chooses between going left, right, or forward. The party goes left.

The DM chooses which direction was correct. Random number between 1 and 3 → 1 Left is the correct direction.

The party listens in at Nyeck’s door. Perception roll. 1d20 + modifier.

Beetle → 20 + 3 → 23 Phos → 15 + 3 → 18 Vekar → 17 - 4 → 13 Vasir → 12 - 1 → 11 Kate → 6 + 1 → 7

The party hears talking, but can’t make out the words. Beetle knows that the conversation is civil.

Nyeck and Zeta notice the party. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Nyeck → 15 + 2 → 17 Zeta → 8 + 1 → 9

Nyeck notices the party, Zeta doesn’t.

Nyeck melees Zeta. Nyeck stabs Zeta in the neck, causing fatal damage.

ADDITIONAL ACTION: Nyeck shoots Phos with a shotgun. Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 2d8 → 4 + 4 → 8 Phos takes 8 damage.

Everyone rolls initiative. 1d20.

Vekar → 20 Beetle → 15 Vasir → 11 Kate → 12 Phos → 9 Nyeck → 3

Vekar uses First Aid on Phos with his Medicine talent and medi-gel. Effectiveness roll. 1d20 → 3.

Roll healing. (2d4) x 2 → (1 + 4) x 2 → 5 x 2 → 10 Phos regains 10 points of damage.

Beetle throws a sticky grenade at Nyeck. Attack roll. 1d20 + dexterity modifier + proficiency bonus → 11 + 3 + 1 → 15 Beetle lands her grenade on the desk behind Nyeck.

Nyeck notices the grenade. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier → 2 + 2 → 4 Nyeck does not notice the sticky grenade.

Kate detonates the grenade by shooting it. Attack roll. 1d20 → 19 Kate shouts “bomb’s away!” and shoots the grenade.

Free action. Kate slams the door shut, preventing the party from taking damage.

The grenade explodes. Damage roll. 5d4 → 2 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 1 → 13 Nyeck takes 13 points of damage.

Vasir uses Overload. Free action. Vasir opens the door.

Attack roll. 1d20 → 10 This is not sufficient to hit.

Nyeck dodges the Overload with a roll.

Phos melees Nyeck. Attack roll. 1d20 → 15 This is not sufficient to hit.

Nyeck dodges the cleaver with a roll.

Nyeck shoots Vekar with their shotgun. Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 2d8 → 8 + 4 → 12 Vekar takes 12 points of damage.

ADDITIONAL ACTION: Nyeck shoots Phos with their shotgun. Attack roll. 1d20 → 18 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 2d8 → 6 + 6 → 12 Phos takes 12 points of damage.

Vekar shoots Nyeck with his cryo rounds. Attack roll. 1d20 → 17 This is sufficient to hit.

Damage roll. 3d4 → 4 + 3 + 3 → 10

Nyeck contests cryo. Strength saving throw. 1d20 + strength modifier → 5 + 3 → 8 Nyeck fails to contest.

Nyeck takes 10 damage and is frozen.

Beetle shoots Nyeck point-blank with her sniper rifle. Attack roll. 1d20 → 20 Crit.

Roll damage. (3d6) x 2 → (6 + 4 + 2) x 2 → 13 x 2 → 26 Beetle says, “Don’t try and give me the cold shoulder,” and shoots. Nyeck takes 26 damage and is killed instantly.

Beetle checks to see if there’s ammo in the sniper rifle. Perception roll. 1d20 + perception modifier → 2 + 3 → 5 There might be ammo in the gun. There also might not be. Beetle is sure, however, that this sniper rifle is her new best friend.

Beetle names her sniper rifle. Beetle names the stolen sniper rifle the Cold Shoulder.

Phos takes Nyeck’s shotgun. Kate takes the shotgun and gives it to Phos.

Beetle takes back the pouch of tea she had given to Zeta. It’s covered in blood. It’s a little gross.

The party checks out Nyeck’s office. Investigation roll. 1d20 + perception modifier.

Kate → 18 + 1 → 19 Phos → 14 + 3 → 17 Vekar → 12 - 4 → 8 Beetle → 4 + 3 → 7 Vasir → 3 - 1 → 2

The party finds some documents that Annos wants, as well as the button that will release all the Reaper creatures, but nothing else of interest.

Phos reads the meme Beetle had sent to the group on her omni-tool. Technical roll. 1d20 + technical modifier → 7 - 2 → 5 Phos fails to read the meme in her messages.

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#session #session 3 #summary #priority: anhur #the dm

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