#you also know the concept of being thrown away by humanity is something-

[athenagc94]

Dear Daddy Long Legs

Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

A concept I've been toying with. Will probably post the complete fic to AO3 once I've got a few more chapters written, but though I would share some of the chapters here first to garner interest. This fic is inspired by the (musical mostly, but also novel) of Daddy Long Legs.

Warnings: Some angst and self-reflection, nothing too heavy yet.

Prologue

Taking the subway had to be the most mundane thing a person could do, and after the night he just had, Jason needed mundane.

He traded his uniform and helmet for a well-worn hoodie and a Wonder Woman cap that hid the streak in his hair. He sat with his shoulders hunched to make himself smaller, less imposing, but no amount of hunching could hide the broad planes of his chest. The stench of blood and gunpowder clung to him despite ringing off before he left the Outlaw safehouse.

It would have been wiser to stay behind and regroup. Everything that could go wrong with their assignment did, but he didn’t want to sit and stew in all the ways they failed—in all the ways he failed. Bizzaro let him without much fuss. Artemis had more to say.

“You can’t run from your failures like a coward.”

Leave it to her to keep him humble.

Their latest job took them halfway across the globe, and after facing metahumans, myths come to life, and sorcerers, Jason missed the psychopaths of home. This wasn’t the first time he’d been away. A month was nothing compared to five years, but he yearned for the familiarity of Gotham.

Nostalgia was a bitch.

Being back brought a well of complicated emotions with it. Anger, regret, but there was something else, something that tightened his chest and left his stomach soupy. He tried to ignore it, knowing he wouldn’t like what he found if he sat with it too long.

So, subway.

Mundane.

Human—he just wanted to feel human.

His knee bounced as lights rushed past, casting harsh shadows across the rubber floor. It was quiet, save for the slow grind of steel on steel as the car raced down its track. It was empty save for him.

Well, him and you.

He might have missed you entirely if not for the bright yellow jacket thrown over your button up and slacks. Unless your name was Robin or Signal, yellow was a bold choice for Gotham—especially this late at night. You chewed on the plastic end of the drawstring as you pored over the book in your lap.

Jason, despite every instinct telling him not to, craned his neck to identify the book. It might have been an effective strategy if you weren’t halfway across the car and facing him. You seemed to sense the weight of his stare and looked up. The string fell from your mouth as it tightened with the guarded look in your eyes.

An embarrassed flush burned his ears as he looked away. It was easier to pretend he knew how to socialize when compared to people like Bizarro and Artemis, who were far from the paragons of conservation. Charm was learned, and his was a little rusty.

But now that he had your attention, he might as well ask. “What’re you reading?”

Your eyes narrowed a fraction as you gave him a once over. When you found whatever, you were trying to ascertain, you lifted the book to show him the cover. The edges were frayed and discolored; its spine well-worn, but the words ‘Wuthering Heights’ popped against the taupe cloth.

Jason sat a little straighter. “First time reading it?”

You rubbed the page between your thumb and forefinger as a thoughtful deliberation creasing your brow. “Second time. I read it in high school, but I didn’t fully appreciate it. Now that I’ve dipped my toes into a few more classics, I thought it was worth revisiting.”

“And what’s the verdict?”

You were two-thirds finished, which was more than enough time to form an opinion. Jason had thoughts, but he wanted to hear from you first.

You considered him again, almost conflicted. “I appreciate it more than I did back then. I understand why people consider it a cult classic. It’s complex, and I like complex. Heathcliff is deeply flawed, Catherine too, but that’s what makes them compelling characters.”

He smiled. “I’ve never read a more complex, mutually destructive love story like Wuthering Heights in years. I mean, like, full-body chills every time I read it. There’s something thrilling about it.”

“Right,” you exclaimed, a passion igniting in your eyes.

“Now, Darcy, that’s a real paragon of romance.”

The car slowed, coming to a stop at an empty platform. The doors opened with a soft hiss as the automated voice announced the stop. Your gaze flicked to the door, then back to him. He half-expected you to make a run for it, but you stayed planted in your seat. He blinked.

Or maybe you expected him to leave instead?

He settled back in his chair to make himself comfortable. The doors closed once more, and the subway continued down its track.

You relaxed a little. “Well, Mr. Darcy, if you know so much about the classics, what do you recommend I read next?”

He choked on his laugh.

Jason was no leading man despite how often he dreamed of being transported into a regency-era romance novel. Throw him in a silk waist coat with a messily knotted cravat and call him a rake because he’d make the fictional women swoon.

Reality, however, was much darker and hung over his head like a thick smog that threatened to suffocate him. He didn’t exist on this earth to sweep ladies off their feet or duel for their honor. That, and he wasn’t nearly as suave in action as he pretended to be.

“And for the record, I’ve already read Pride and Prejudice.”

He rubbed his hands together. “Oh, boy. How long do you have?”

A small smile curved your lips. “I'm not going anywhere.”

Discussing books came easily to him—probably because he had a lot of opinions and not a lot of people to share them with. Artemis didn't read, Bizarro preferred movies, and Roy—well, Jason was still reeling about their last book-related discussion where Roy tried to convince him that movie was always better than the book. For both their sakes, Jason made a conscious choice to not discuss books with him after that.

You listened as he rambled, going off about his favorite authors Austen and Dumas. He should have been embarrassed by how much he was talking, but the quiet intensity in your gaze spurred him to keep going.

His chest tightened with every stop, believing the next would be the point where you two parted ways for good. From the way your gaze kept darting to the door at each stop, he had an inkling that the feeling was mutual. He decided not to ask, lest it break whatever spell had fallen between you two.

All good things must come to an end. When the door slid open on the Park Row exit, Jason stood, albeit reluctantly. You did the same, slinging a plain canvas bag over your shoulder.

He curbed his surprise. “Park Row, eh?”

“The lifeblood of Gotham,” you said humorlessly.

Jason laughed. You did not. It died on a grunt as he tried to appear more sympathetic.

You exited the car with him, zipping the front of your hoodie as the unseasonably cool air pebbled his skin. He stuffed his hands in his jogger pockets and followed you up the stairs that led out onto the street. It was dark, darker than usual given the city had yet to replace the shattered streetlamp on the corner. It might have been his doing, errant bullets were a hazard of the job, but he was mildly irritated to find it was still broken.

Calm washed over him as he breathed. It was good to be home, even with all the complicated emotions that came with that sentiment.

“You live nearby?”

Your dubious look made him cringe. That sounded creepy coming from him, a random guy you barely knew. Sometimes it was difficult to separate Jason from Red Hood, not that he believed for a second that it would change your reaction. If you lived here, which he assumed you did because no Gothamite in their right mind would willingly follow him onto the street lovingly dubbed Crime Alley, the name Red Hood held weight. For all the good he did for the citizens, there was plenty of bad stack against him. He didn’t expect you to trust him with or without the helmet.

“Forget I asked,” he said.

You stared at him a second longer before walking away. “Stay safe, Mr. Darcy.”

Your tone carried an edge of finality, like you never expected to see him again. Despite the disappointment purling in his chest, he agreed that was probably for the best. A brief conversation with you was a warmer welcome than he anticipated, but he wasn’t about to push his luck by asking for more.

He lifted his hand to wave, though you had already disappeared around the corner. “You too.”

[katyspersonal]

I feel like generally coexisting in the same location as The Rotten is very trying. He doesn't actively chase anyone who falls into the Gutter, of course, but it is endless psychological pressure nonetheless. His powerful soul beckons, and the closer someone is to him the stronger it gets.

After all, people (that aren't just corpses) are in the Gutter for a reason... They were unwanted and thrown away by humanity. You have to choose to struggle instead of seeking his "embrace" that can end the pain, all the time. And it feels like something always knows why you're here. It is like telepathy.

[ruskaroma]

omg omg (i really need professional help) i had this Vision of dark+DARK+mean!john wick learning about an asshole who bullied their bunny-really-the-nicest-human-being!reader back during her school years (the reader cluelessly mentions it during conversation). john is not just angry outraged etc, he is The Rage, The War, The Biblical Day of Wrath, so he finds that guy, beats/tortures the living shit out of him and then brings his absolutely clueless little pretty bunny so that she could finish him. john is behind the reader, his arms wrapped around her arms, his hands on her shaking hands holding a gun pointing at the barely breathing man tied to a chair. the reader is crying begging to stop, and john goes "he deserves it, honey <3. now, right kneecap. go, princess, don't let me down".

Oh my god I have something for you.

Let’s give it a very dark twist, shall we? We’ll stick to this concept, but let’s make it even darker.

TW: mentions of past sexual and physical abuse, blood and gore, graphic depiction of torture, john being a very very mean man like he is fucked in the head may god bless his soul, john is also forcefully making the reader kill the man so there’s that.

It was a slip of your tongue. You didn’t notice it, but John surely did. You were used to rambling your thoughts away, a habbit that John adores so much, hearing your voice and telling him everything that’s in your head, because it means you’re not keeping any secrets from him.

A supposed to be peaceful Saturday night ruined John’s whole week, but he didn’t let it show. He kept himself composed around you, smiling so softly when you’d share a random fact about the things you’re holding or whatever comes in mind. He’s a master in the arts of keeping his expression controlled despite his emotions practically clawing their way out of his fucking lungs.

Your head was on his lap as he brushed your hair with his long fingers softly. For a hand that’s killed too many people to count, it’s surprisingly merciful around you. A shitty horror movie was playing on the TV but your attention quickly diverted to somewhere else when you watched a rather familiar scene in the film.

“Oh, man, that sucks. I know how it feels, I used to get hit by my ex-boyfriend all the time.”

What the fuck, John thought. His fingers stopped their movements as he furrowed his eyebrows. You said it as a whisper too but he heard it. He heard it fucking clearly.

“What?”

“Huh?” You moved your head to look up to him. “You said something?”

“You did,” John pointed out. “About your ex-boyfriend. What did you say?”

“Ohhh,” you said in realization, but your tone was calm. Like it was the most fucking normal thing to say in a conversation. “Yeah, he was mean. He used to hit me every time I made a very small mistake, but he said sorry when we broke up.”

John didn’t know what to say. He was frozen, trying to comprehend the words that were being thrown at him all at once.

His baby – the love of his life, someone who cannot even hurt a fucking ant – just dropped a bomb that she was a victim of abuse.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” John tried to keep his voice leveled, soft, as he placed a large hand on your cheek and pulled you up so he could take a good look at your face.

“Well, you didn’t ask. And it’s not like it mattered anymore. I went to therapy and everything was back to normal.”

“No, that’s not –” he closed his eyes in frustration, trying so hard to keep his shit together. “Did he do anything else? Where is he now?”

“He’s–he’s doing fine. I don’t know where he is, it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten in touch.”

John could hear the tremble in your voice, like you knew what was going to come, like you knew what he’s going to do.

He didn’t answer after you said that. He looked away from you, put his attention back to the television.

You shrugged it off, hoping he would let it go.

*

He did not, in fact, let it go.

You came home one day after work to see him being rather... cheery than usual. It was unusual in itself. John being particularly cheery was not something you see in your everyday life.

He had already cooked dinner when you arrived, ate it beside you with an arm around your shoulders. He was also crooning at your ears, asking about your day if something special happened.

“I have a surprise for you.”

Your eyebrows flew up, curious yet amused. Is this why he was cheery all of a sudden?

He led you to his basement – a place where you’re never allowed to go, always bolted shut and completely restricted to you. You were getting a pretty bad feeling about this.

“What–what are we doing here, John?”

Again, he didn’t answer. You could see the grim, dark expression on his face as he opened the door. The face you only ever see when he was just coming back from a long, tiring day at work. The face you only see you know he just slaughtered someone.

Turns out, he did.

Not exactly slaughtered, but close enough.

The man who made you go through hell for years, tied up in a chair in the middle of the room, missing all his fingers on both his feet and hands.

“John, what the–”

Your boyfriend pushed a heavy pistol in your hand, and your heart is beating so hard inside your chest you couldn’t speak properly. You haven’t yet got the time to comprehend what was happening. It was all too fast.

“Pull it.”

“J-John, please don’t–”

“Pull it,” John repeated. He didn’t like repeating himself. You know this. He was standing behind you, his chest pressing against your back, warm and broad and his voice sounded so menice and fucking evil and– “Pull it, baby, before I do it myself.”

“Why are you–” your voice was shaking as well as your hands. You wanted to drop the weapon but you knew it wouldn’t do you any good, not when John was just behind you. “Why are you doing this, John? Please let him–let him go, it was a long time ago–”

“I don’t care,” he said simply, one large hand sneaking down to grab your wrist that’s holding the gun, pointing it directly at the man who’s – Jesus, was he still alive? You saw him move, he flinched, then let out a cough that made more blood from his mouth drip onto his lap. “I haven’t killed him yet because that’s your job.”

“N-No–” tears were forming into your eyes. The feeling of John’s hand gripping yours was already too much to bear, much worse pointing it to the man who abused and neglected you during your relationship, but why were you feeling bad? “John, I–I don’t w-want to, John, please, I don’t want–”

John sighed, disappointed, but he didn’t let you go. Instead, he leaned down closer to your ear and pressed a soft kiss there. His beard tickled, making you flinch and let out a shaky breath as you gulped hard.

“John, he–I know you’re doing this because you think it’s best, but I–I promise you that it’s not worth it–it’s in the past and, and–”

“Excuses, excuses,” John whispered, standing straight and taking a step away from you, positioning himself in front of the gun. “Here you are, begging for the life of the man who abused you in the past. Don’t you think that sounds absolutely ridiculous, baby?”

“It’s not–it’s not ridiculous, John, I promised! We–we talked one time after our breakup and he–he apologized for everything, I swear–I swear, John, it was all in the past–”

John cut off your rambling with an evil stare, and it was so unlike him that it scared you right to the very core. “Pull the trigger or I will. I’ll put a fucking hole in his head, saw it off and send it to his little wife and children back in Vegas.”

“John–” you sobbed. “John, please–”

“Did you know that I made him confess every diabolical shit that he’d done to you every time I chop off one of his fingers?” John said it in such a calm and steady tone that it made you only afraid of him even more. “I chopped all his fingers, and he still won’t stop confessing more. Can you believe that?”

“I already forgave him–I already forgave him, John, this wasn’t necessary–”

“It won’t be the same if I’m the one who pulls the trigger now, would it? It wouldn’t be fair, because I’m not the one who suffered under his hands,” John pushed even further, walking back to his original position behind you, gripping your arm and pointing the pistol directly at his head. “If you don’t pull that fucking trigger in the next five second, I’ll let you use a chainsaw to do it and trust me when I say you wouldn’t want it messy.”

You gulped, feeling yourself grow more and more afraid as John stood behind you. He was radiating anger, but he was keeping it at bay, though his swear words might be some of the leakage of his emotions he couldn’t contain any longer.

“I don’t want–don’t make me d-do this, John–”

“One...”

“John, please–”

“Two....” His voice was scary. Deep and level, and the grip on your arm tightened. You felt suffocated.

“I’m gonna throw u-up if I–”

“Three...” He was getting agitated.

The man’s head rose up from his position earlier to meet your eyes, and you swore you felt your stomach churn. His eyes were fucking gone.

The man opened his mouth to speak and a weak voice came. “D-Don’t–”

You pulled the trigger.

“There’s my little bunny.”

You dropped the gun as soon as his brains flew against your face and onto the wall, painting it red. You couldn’t bear to watch any further. You turned with a sob and buried your face in John’s chest, crying hysterically as he soothed you calmly by petting your head.

“Good girl. You did so fucking good, I’m so proud of you.”

[cryscendo]

Hi, how about an abrupt,  heated kiss during the middle of a fight for Klaine?

i bet you didn’t think i would ever respond to this!! well i will say that i kinda ran away with this plot a bit. does it fit the prompt? only vaguely. BUT it’s another thrilling installment to my angel/demon au with a bit more lore thrown in. dedicating it to you as well as @porcelainvino for their various art pieces for this au <3 hope you love it and sorry for the wait!!

Paring: Kurt Hummel/Blaine Anderson

Word Count: 2030

Rating: T

AU: Angel/Demon AU

fic can be read under the cut <3

There were a lot of things that turned out to be just as unpleasant about falling, not including the actual falling part.

For one, he was weaker than he used to be. He did suspect that would happen, but it still hurt his ego a bit. He used to have so much power that he often didn’t even know what all to do with it. Not that he really could do much with it anyway; the big men upstairs never allowed much fun to be had. More time was spent existing as a militant entity than was spent actually basking in the alleged splendor that was heaven.

If given the option between going back to that or experiencing the pain of falling all over again, Kurt would choose to fall every damn day.

Besides, angels don’t get to play with humans like they’re Barbie dolls. And that’s way more fun.

The man before him, unsuspecting and ignorant, saw Kurt at a bar and thought he’d be an easy target. Kurt knew he perfectly looked the part of a young man getting his first drink at a bar as a twenty-one year old. Aging was such an earthly concept and Kurt was not burdened with it. But to an older man, the illusion of wide-eyed innocence was all too compelling.

Kurt claimed he ‘knew a spot’, which was just as cliché as it sounded, but it was effective nonetheless. Apparently intelligence didn’t always come with age.

It wasn’t long after he got the man to the abandoned storage facility that he knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. Not soon enough, though, for Kurt had already made quick work of knocking the man out and handcuffing him to a chair. When he came to once more, it was in a fit of panic.

“Look, I didn’t sign up for this kind of crazy! So just let me go, okay?” The man pleaded with Kurt and it was charming if nothing else. Kurt leaned over him, one knee braced against the chair in a way that could be seen as provocative in any other circumstance.

“What, am I too old for you?” Kurt asked in a mocking whine. “I swear, I’m only twenty, maybe thirty centuries old!”

“Whatever game you’re playing here, kid, I’m not interested so just let me-”

“Let him go, Kurt,” a voice spoke up behind him. Kurt grinned as he straightened up. Of course he would show up. It was impossible for him to stay away. He made a bit of a show of turning around to face the new arrival — his favorite little angel.

He turned towards the voice, maintaining his flirty tone. “Just can’t stay away from me, can you?”

“You could say that,” Blaine replied and that’s when Kurt saw it — the glint of a blade held discreetly in his palm. He recognized the weapon, as it was a piece from Heaven’s arsenal. See, a regular knife couldn’t kill Kurt.

But that one could.

Kurt’s grin dropped as he backed away from the man strapped to the chair, and subsequently also away from Blaine. “What do you think you’re doing with that?”

“You attract too much attention to yourself.”

“Well, I can’t help but pull focus,” Kurt responded in a rather clipped manner. The man in the chair began to panic even more upon being approached by Blaine.

“Listen, man,” the guy began quickly, “you don’t need to kill him or anything! Just let me go and I’ll be on my way!”

Blaine’s eyes flickered down to the stranger, eerily calm. “You don’t need to see this,” he said simply and before the man could even begin to reply, Blaine rested his palm to his forehead, immediately knocking him out. Putting a human to sleep rather than killing them; that was so painfully just like Blaine to do.

“Why do you have that thing?” Kurt interrogated the second that the man was unconscious.

Blaine turned the knife a bit in his hand as if observing it. “Come on, Kurt, you know exactly what this is.”

Kurt maintained a semi-safe distance. “Why do you need that thing to kill me? You’ve never needed that for a demon before.” It was true. Blaine could take down a demon easily. It made them cruelly unmatched. Blaine had never threatened to kill him before, but it would be undoubtedly easy for him to do so should he want to. For Blaine, a demon is an easy target. He was an easy target.

Unless…

Kurt’s grin returned. “You can’t kill me, can you?” He asked coyly.

Blaine remained serious, but Kurt could see a crack in his expression letting on that he was nervous. Kurt seemed to always have that effect on him. “Not at my rank, no,” he said simply, but Kurt knew what he meant. He wasn’t strong enough to take out Kurt. An ordinary demon, he’d have no problem. But as luck would have it, Kurt wasn’t an ordinary demon.

Kurt took a risk. He moved a few steps towards Blaine and the weapon he possessed. “You’re not going to kill me.”

“I could.”

A few more steps. “But you won’t.”

“I might.”

“But you won’t.” Kurt was directly in front of him now. He knew it was a dangerous game, but he had a point to prove. “Because if you were going to, you would’ve done it already. So tell me angel, was this a direct order from one of your bossmen, or are you just simply that obsessed with me?”

“Don’t push your luck, Kurt,” Blaine spoke, gravely serious.

“Or what?” Kurt challenged. He could feel Blaine’s steady breaths from just how close they were. Blaine’s gaze met his evenly. “If you’re going to kill me, then do it. I’m wide open.” Kurt tilted his head a fraction, his eyes alight with the rush that comes with toying with Blaine. His tone shifted into something devilishly flirtatious as he spoke again. “So, y’know, take me, I’m yours and all that.”

It was then that Blaine sprung into action. With quick work, he managed to securely grip onto the collar of Kurt’s shirt, using his strength over the other to force Kurt backwards. There was a time where Kurt may have been stronger than him. But Kurt gave all that up, and he still refused to regret it.

That didn’t mean he loved Blaine constantly using that fact against him.

Blaine got him against a wall with one particularly rough push. Kurt felt the brittle wall crack slightly behind him. Fuck, Blaine was strong.

Blaine was strong.

Once Blaine has Kurt pinned defenseless against the wall, he brings the blade down. Kurt doesn’t know whether it was thanks to adrenaline, or his own sense of speed in the face of self-preservation, but he reached up and circled his fingers around Blaine’s wrist before he could manage to connect the weapon.

The blade stilled, suspended in the air between them. Kurt imagined the scene was almost picturesque in a way — him pressed between Blaine’s firm body and the unforgiving wall, his long fingers locked around Blaine’s wrist. Angel and demon. Lovers. Enemies.

Blaine really was going to kill him.

Their shared breathing revealed the exhaustion that their overexertion had caused. Kurt knew, given his current position, he was fully at Blaine’s mercy. The mercy of an angel who just tried to kill him.

That gave Kurt little other choice. Slowly, he tugged at Blaine’s wrist until the blade was sitting just above his throat. He leveled Blaine with a steely look, deathly serious. “Well, go ahead, angel. Do what you gotta do.”

“I don’t want to kill you, Kurt,” Blaine clarified, but didn’t pull the blade away.

“Could’ve fooled me,” he bit out before he could even think to check his tone. This was, in large part, his own doing. He opened the door for Blaine to corner him, he really had no right to be upset about it actually occurring. Even in his current position, Kurt couldn’t refrain from looking down his nose at Blaine, hoping to properly demonstrate his distaste from his present circumstances. “I’m guessing you got assigned a job from one of the big men upstairs?”

“You’re lucky that it’s me and not someone else.”

“Oh yeah, I sure feel lucky.” Kurt’s fingers twitched around Blaine’s wrist as he continued to hold the blade close to Kurt’s throat. But hasn’t pressed in yet, and Kurt cannot fathom why. He has the perfect opportunity. Kurt is basically giving him a free pass, so why isn’t he going for it? “Well?”

Blaine’s grip on the weapon slacked just a bit. “Nothing is ever easy with you.”

“So why don’t you take care of the problem?”

Blaine said nothing, did nothing. He only stood and continued to watch Kurt in silence, and Kurt could practically see the flurry of thoughts swirl around in Blaine’s head. Kurt almost felt bad for the guy; he knew that he didn’t make Blaine’s job simple, and admittedly, does very little to combat that fact.

Eventually, though, Blaine shakes his head. “You’re right. I won’t do it.”

The sound of the metal blade clattering to the ground reverberated discordantly off the walls of the warehouse.

Kurt took no time to ponder Blaine’s decision to spare him. Instead, he kicked the weapon away from the two of them and then, in quick succession, flipped their two positions. Blaine didn’t put up any fight with being pushed up against the wall himself. He could break free if he really wanted to. He chose not to.

“Do you still love me, Blaine?” Kurt asked, not ready for the words to fall from his mouth before they did.

“Are demons even capable of love?”

Kurt wasn’t sure. Maybe demons who never experienced love aren’t. Love is formed from soul, grace, and humanity, of which demons have none.

But Kurt wasn’t always a demon, and he still didn’t really fit the mold of one. Fallen angels are different from regular demons. They still possess morality, at least to some extent. It was just like Kurt to never really fit in anywhere.

“Do you? Still love me?”

Honey colored eyes gazed at Kurt with something akin to sympathy, which would burn his blood if it weren’t for the fact that he so desperately needed a response.

Blaine nodded.

Kurt kissed him. He didn’t even hesitate. With Blaine pinned up against the wall, it was easy for him to leverage a searing, bruising kiss against soft lips. Blaine always tasted the same, like coffee, — such an earthly pleasure that he achieved no benefit from and only chose to indulge for its luxury — and something else a touch more divine. Kurt couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but it tasted vaguely familiar from the holy kingdom that he was no longer welcome to.

Kurt pulled away with a sigh. Blaine panted quietly, a faintly pink blush forming under tanned skin. Kurt was right about one thing, Blaine was an angel — in every sense of the word.

“I don’t suppose I can convince you to disappear for your own safety?” Blaine eventually asked.

Kurt smiled. “Not a chance in hell.”

Blaine nodded in understanding, as if he already anticipated Kurt’s response. “You always were stubborn to a fault.”

Blaine wasn’t wrong. And as much as he would love to stand here with Blaine forever, it wasn’t wise to hang around angels for too long — even if the angel in question was Blaine.

He finally stepped away from Blaine, allowing the man some space. Kurt glanced over to the man tied to the chair. He had forgotten that guy was here. He was simply a means to an end, afterall.

“You may want to wipe that guy’s mind, angel. Or else he’s going to be a real problem when he wakes up.”

Kurt headed towards the exit of the building, but not before Blaine called out to him. “Suddenly not so keen on sticking around?”

Kurt grinned, if not mostly to himself. “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll find me again. And who knows? Maybe you’ll actually have it in you to kill me next time.”

[yandere-fics]

♡ Dark AU Runa ♡

(Once again, incest time. You know the drill people. Also cannibalism.)

Soulmates where amongst one of the most sacred concepts for the elves, along with don't live where the dead rest, sending their bodies to the human villages to be entombed in the crypts, for entirely practical reasons, they weren't sure where monsters came from only the supernaturals and monsters were related and so bodies were sent where the elves could keep an eye out just in case but not so close that they would have to be near the crypt. That's why you were sure the other elves would forgive you for keeping your soulmate dreams hidden from those around you, they'd surely be okay with you never going to your soulmate if they were aware your soulmate lived in a crypt. Your older sister, banished from the community and sent to live in the crypts for murdering your mother for not allowing her to see you, when you heard the story at first it had seemed like an overreaction, but then you had your soulmate dream and you finally discovered why her reaction had been so aggressive. Luckily she had also never told anyone why she'd done it, otherwise they might have sent you to the crypts along with her. For this small thing at least, you were grateful, that still didn't exactly solve the gross feeling you got every time you dreamt as you watched your soulmate tend the bodies before turning around to look at her, her face disgusting and decayed, you almost assumed she had just always looked like that. There was no fucking way you would ever enter the crypt, hopefully if you just never entered it then your dream wouldn't come true.

Or so you had said but here you were, entering the disgusting crypt, thrown out of your village because they found out you had lied about not having a soulmate dream, and so you were doomed to spend your eternity with the corpses and your long rotting older sister, you weren't sure which part of it was worse if you were being honest. You had no choice to reveal your dreams though, in the last dream you'd seen her eating a corpse! They had to know that their crypt keeper was eating the dead. Turns out they didn't care as long as she stayed down there and left the humans alone. You'd have to break out the next time elves from other villages came past, surely they would punish your village leaders for being okay with the cannibalism.

"Y-you've come for m-me! M-my love is here, I k-knew y-you w-wouldn't just leave me to r-rot down here forever. W-we're soulmates!" Her face had begun to rot, aging and decaying unlike other elves, most likely do to her doing one of the most forbidden acts known to elves, the consumption of corpses, flesh in general was not well received, only consumed amongst the elves of the sea and only ever fresh, rotten decaying meat however was not something any elf consumed unless they wanted their life span to be significantly reduced and their youth to fade away. Best case scenario was becoming extremely ill and needed to recover for a long time, worst case scenario was... you were looking at her. Her body looked relatively intact except for the rotting smell coming off of her until you noticed her hands, the finger replaced with knifes thought those likely could detach otherwise she'd never be able to touch the mate she'd probably been waiting for down here, or maybe she wanted you to fear her for leaving her down here like this, you weren't really sure if she was the vengeful type or the forgiving type, seeing as she killed your mother for separating the both of you, you imagined she leaned towards the former.

"C-come, I p-prepare a bed for us, I h-haven't slept on it y-yet. I was w-waiting for you." The mattress had been here a very long time, perhaps it was brand new at one point but now it was disgusting like water had dripped onto it and dried a million times over, with a thin blanket to keep the both of you warm at night but that too looked old, with white patches on it that had dried and she had only barely attempted to wash, you really didn't want to know what she did with that blanket. Maybe if you complained the elves would bring your bed and blanket from your old room, you doubted it though, they'd probably already gotten rid of your stuff for being a traitor and hiding from your mate. Making sure you had nothing to return to except your crypt with your sister. You were sure even an actual coffin had to be better than whatever this was.

"Disgusting." You said it without even really meaning to, but it didn't matter, Runa had been on top of you in a second, pining you to the bed, her knife fingers narrowly avoiding cutting into you, she still had some restraint, if you weren't careful though, that restraint would very easily break.

"I-it would h-have looked b-better if you'd b-been here s-sooner. I w-wanted to m-make it nicer b-but you l-let me be down here a-alone! B-but it's o-okay now c-cause you're here and y-you've learned your lesson right? Y-you won't be a b-bitch to your sister again!" She hopped off of you, convincing herself of her own words somehow, leaving you to shake on the mattress as she skittered off somewhere, most likely to find food, definitely corpse meat. You now realized it was very likely that was what you'd be eating from now on, it was either eat corpses and do things with your own sister on her crusty bed every night or make a break for it and get killed by her or the monsters in the forest, you preferred death so despite how much you were shaking you ran to try to find the exit to the catacombs before once again being tackled by an angry Runa.

"W-why a-are you acting like y-you d-don't love me, w-what did I d-do wrong?!?" She grabbed your wrist, dragging you back to the bed, tossing you at it as she started to break the pillars and walls around you in a fit of rage, exposing the dirt and only making it an even worse place to live.

"I don't want to eat dead bodies!"

"O-oh, y-you thought I'd make you eat the r-rotten stuff didn't you? D-don't worry, I'll save the fresh meat for my baby s-sister. There's always m-mushrooms too if y-you need a p-plant. N-now that that's b-been taken care of... tell me you love me." She hopped on the mattress with you in joy, her fingers pawing at your shirt to try to get it off. "P-please s-say it, I d-don't want to be m-mad at my l-love a-again."

"I-I love you." She let out a small giggle as you realized up close just how dead her eyes looked.

"Aww you're s-so g-gross, being in l-love with your s-sister and everything!" Her heads moved to your legs, pinning them apart, her head coming down to sniff your crotch over your pants. "Y-you're not horny y-yet? W-why d-don't you w-want me?! You should w-want me, w-we've been separated f-for so l-long!" She glared up at you, her grip tightening and hers eyes looking like they could just pop out of her head in anger.

"I uh, I'm just hungry!" Her grip released on you and she got up with a giggle.

"Oh! I-I need to f-feed my l-little sister, I'll be back!" And with that she got off of you likely to go find some fresh bits of meat. Hopefully after you ate she'd forget about consummating your love, you weren't sure if you'd be able to fake wanting her.

[purplesoulcollection]

Unnatural Love

Part 14 Synopsis : Name has being transmigrated into the world of I'm Not That Kind Of Talent without ever reading the novel. She's not being reincarnated as a human but as a devil as well. Hi There! I want to let you know that this fanfiction story isn't solely my creation. I borrowed the concept from @quqiwo2. I haven't actually read the novel either, just some spoiler to the end.

I hope you'll excuse my spelling and grammar mistake, because English not my first language.

What Adele saw when she opened her eyes was the pitch black of the darkness.

This scene really reminded him of the first day she transmigrated. Moved from the last place she woke up, really not a nostalgic scenario.

The cold air in the darkness of this night felt very tense to her.

'Looks like it's nighttime...'

But nobody have to worry. She is not a human who can die from cold, she is a demon itself who can live in even extreme situations.

She is also not a person who is blind to darkness, in fact his eyes can see clearly in this darkness. Darkness is the living habitat of a demon.

But all Adele could see from her view were trees,

Am I thrown into the forest? More importantly, where am I!!!

Why am I here anyway?

Adele forgot for a moment about her previous situation before she remembered Dan admitting that he was an indirect follower of the disaster.

"Dan, you damn!!!" she shouted in annoyance until his voice echoed in the foreign forest.

After she screamed as hard as she could, she said quietly but sadly, "I'm just trying to make a good ending for Deon so I can go home... why do I have to be like this..."

It felt like he wanted to sulk at this world which had given him a trial that was very difficult for him to overcome.

And he really did, he lay down again on the dirty ground and rolled around in annoyance.

Besides, he's been dirty since he woke up.

SRAK!!

A rustling sound echoed into Adele's ears.

Who? is it a person or is it a monster?

He activated invisibility and remained silent when he could see an orc demon monster coming and looking around him. When he saw nothing to attack he left.

Did he come because of my scream earlier? Apparently Dan not only thought I would freeze to death but was also attacked by a demonic monster.

If this was a forest filled with demonic monsters, there would be no point in me maintaining my human form.

I activated the camouflage skill and finally felt relief before finally feeling sad.

I was relieved because I could finally take off the disguise that covered me from head to toe perfectly. This camouflage sensation is like there is skin covering me. It's a suffering I'm willing to endure.

But it's sad because I'm not a beautiful human anymore. I became a devil again with my abstract beauty. I wonder what Deon saw in my demon form that made him fall in love with me when I couldn't like him myself.

I kept thinking about it before I finally realized the current situation.

Why am I daydreaming now? I have to get out of here right now!! My life is currently in danger... But I have no idea where to go??? As far as the eye can see there are no directions to get out of here???

Finally I walked randomly. It doesn't matter if I walk anywhere, I can't get any more lost when i already strayed.

I walked in the woods in the dark. No sound of insects or living creatures really made me shiver and scared myself.

I didn't expect that one day I would go into this dark forest alone and it would be filled with monsters that could finish me off. But shouldn't I be even more surprised if I imagine myself transmigrating...

I was tired of feeling alert all the time, until I unconsciously ran wild with my imagination without realizing the time before I finally saw something from far behind.

Something very similar to the silhouette of a person.

Who's that? Is there a human who is willing and brave to enter this place alone?

I didn't dare to get close but I also didn't dare to move away from that human silhouette, because i still want to be with someone.

but when i approach it more, the silhouette becoming more unlikely like a human. The silhouette becoming so big the more i approach it. So i stopped and back away, but that silhouette seem like knowing my presence and start to move.

even if i backed away, the silhouette can close our gap so fast and then i saw it. The giant demonic monster, its so big like two story building. He looking down at me

My body is frozen and trembling, and I lack the strength to stand, so I’m forced to sit down and gaze at the sky. My thoughts are a chaotic whirlwind, contemplating how this might be the end of my life and the painful goodbye I must say to the world.

I'm scared to death, but I'm also helpless to escape.

It’s no surprise that escape feels impossible. With a monster of that size, I have no chance of leaving this place alive. I don’t possess any special skills to fight back or create a miracle for my survival. It seems I’m destined to meet my end here.

Then, I thought of Deon, the one I loved.

Memories of our time together flooded my mind, and his face brought forth a wave of emotion. It felt like I was reliving those moments just before my demise.

Deon, I’m so sorry. Please don’t worry too much when I’m gone. I hope you can defeat the demon king and find happiness in this world.

I don’t ask for much; I just want you to be happy, even if it’s without me.

Its hand reached out to me from below, stretching so long that it made time feel like it was slowing down. But my fear only grew as that hand drew closer.

I shut my eyes tightly. If I have to confront death, I prefer not to witness it approaching. If I must die, I hope it’s a death without pain.

When i saw only darkness suddenly i hear the scream, and someone calling me. I opened my eyes and appeared Deon in my eyes. He stabbed that hand.

"Deon?!"

"Are you okay?"

"Why you're here? This place is dangerous! Go back immediately!"

"I can't go back without you. So i came to save you."

My face might have seemed angry at him, but inside, I was actually feeling happy despite the seriousness of the situation. And in the outside of my vision, the giant that Deon had stabbed wanted to attack us with the punch.

Deon notice it and make the two of us avoid it. But the impact is so big for human to escape it. So we rolled around in the land.

So i urge him to escape, this is the last chance to save his life.

"Deon, go back! I'll handle this thing no matter what!"

He looked at my scared eyes for the while. Looking at my desperateness.

He fall silent and shouted at me, his voice filled with anguish. "I can't go back; I've become so isolated alone. My parents are gone because of me, and Cruel isn't easing my loneliness at all. I need you too, Adele." The desperation in his eyes was unmistakable, mingled with deep sadness.

"I just want to be happy, but this world keeps snatching my loved ones away. If I return alone, I don't know what I'll do!"

He sank to the ground, his body trembling and struggling to hold itself up. Despite the pain from his injuries, he managed to stay upright. he let out his knife

"I want to fight back! I want to defy this feeling of powerlessness and this cursed weak body of mine, and become strong enough to protect what I have!"

"So if the god is up there, there's no chance left to give me the power i need or let me die in this place!"

As Deon speaks, the knife in his hand begins to glow unexpectedly. The warm yellow light shines like a treasure in the surrounding darkness, radiating a sense of holiness that seems capable of cutting through the shadows. It feels as though a divine presence has responded to his call.

I look at him in a shocking way, he obtains the power he needed when he asked him, even I do not have this privilege, maybe I will not be a cup to become protagonist.

He can avoid its attacking with his new fastness and agility, attacking his leg and succeeding in bringing it back to earth.

And then Deon attacks it with a glowing knife in his stomach. When the glowing knife touches its stomach, it pierce the stomach and makes it a hole and the giant is dead.

I caught the air from this point of view. He practically obtains the Super Buff in his body to improved himself to make him became this powerful. Is he a hero now?

I go to him, he stands there and sees the corpse he already killed with both hands. It looks impressive even for he himself. He was probably amused by his new strength, since he was born so weak and had no idea he had become so strong.

As I got closer to him, I could sense an invisible force trying to pull me away. I fought against it for a moment and wrapped my arms around him. He broke free from his trance and turned to me. I planted a kiss on his cheek and said,

"Congratulations, Deon! You've finally become this powerful. I wish I could say more, but I have to leave now…"

And just like that, I vanished from his embrace.

And here i am, in front of the demon king who is being smiled at me. It's looks like he amused with my coming. With his wicked and amused smile i seeing.

"You are Adele, right?"

I hesitant, but having no choice to swipe to servant mode. "Yes demon king, is there any help i can do for you?"

"Yes, you can help me."

BRAK!

I was pushed down to the floor, and someone grabbed my hand with a strong grip. The sudden movement made my head spin, and I felt a sharp pain in my forehead from hitting the ground.

As I looked up, I saw the demon king, his smile stretching wider than before. "You can help me become a hostage for Deon to ally with the demons."

I gasped, realizing that if I was the trump card the demon king had in mind, it meant he was aware of my connection with Deon. My shock was evident, and the demon king noticed. He explained to me kindly,

"I've observed the two of you having such friendly conversations, and Deon has been unusually kind to a servant demon. This piqued my curiosity about your relationship. So, I decided to make you his servant. Who knows, my little scheme might just lead to you two dating."

"So when he become a hero for human world, why not use you to have Deon in my side?"

I panicked and my logic is being spinning so busy to processing information.

So now I'm became the key to make Deon betray the human side. Is that mean he know that Deon know is a hero because he saved me and activate the hero power. Is he watching us in human world?

"Ashlid, bring her to the jail, only give her enough food to survive!"

"I understand, Demon king!"

Ashlid, the third commander of the demon army, treated me as if I were a criminal deserving punishment. He made me lower my gaze and compelled me to walk forward.

I was then shoved into a room, and he locked the door behind me. It became clear that I had no option but to remain here until Deon caused a distraction, giving me a chance to escape this confinement.

As I glanced at the meager meal before me, I saw just a single piece of bread. The demon king was serious when he said he would only provide enough food to keep me alive, not to satisfy my hunger.

I took a bite of the cold bread and swallowed it without any water to help.

I couldn't help but worry about whether Deon was truly alright in that forest alone…

To Be Continued

[fruitwave]

grow by choosing how you react to setbacks.

"well, it's not like panicking will make the bus come any faster."

when it comes to the lifestyle of bettering yourself, a large growth-related element of this practice often flies under the radar, & that is the choice of how you react to unexpected/unwanted obstacle that are thrown your way.

these could be drawbacks thats are within your control, or out of your control. life is unpredictable; even outcomes/decisions/events that we seemingly have control, over may not go our way due to various reasons— including human error.

even so, that's okay.

this clip from "skip to loafer" displays a brief lesson regarding this idea, and it's presented in such a simple manner that you might not think twice about it.

notice how both of the characters are met by the same inconvenience. while it is unfortunate and "time-wasting", the difference in which they process this obstacle is contrasting.

Both are students with remarkable academic success, but one lives a life of hyper-obsession of time, structure, and intense self-pressure. She sets high expectations of herself, and beats herself down when she does not reach them. She struggles socially, and is unable to live a life of balance.

The other character managed to create a balanced lifestyle of academic achievement, social success, kindness, and self-love. while she has expectations for herself, what enables her to thrive is how she reacts to negative emotions, and to the natural setbacks of life—such as disappointment and failure.

as humans, we spend a lot of our time and energy wallowing in our negative emotions, because it is easier to live in a state of cynicism than a state of optimism.

the statement "it's not like panicking will make the bus come any faster" can be easily overlooked, but it's a quote that personally, comes to mind when I find myself having anxious thoughts, or am feeling unhealthy stress.

indulging in your negative emotions will not change the outcome of your situation. it sounds like a pretty obvious statement, but not when you're stressing about getting that exam result, or feeling anxious waiting to get a text back, or if you're worried about being perceived during that presentation.

ask yourself this: can I do anything about this?

If it's no, just let go of the negative feelings you've attached to it. stressing over the exam results won't make the results come out any quicker. being anxious about being on delivered won't change the moment the text is read. worrying about being stared at during a presentation won't make the audience go away.

recognize the moments you find yourself in these negative states of mind, and use the time to indulge in more favourable concepts— such as gratitude, curiosity, acceptance, and mindfulness.

not only does the mindfulness of your reactions benefit yourself, but you'll also notice how your reactions will uplift and inspire the people around you. It is a notable trait of natural born leaders, to accept an outcome at face value, and proceed accordingly. not letting the negatives of the situation infiltrate the positive goals & aspirations they've set for themselves.

Here are some methods you can use to develop controlling your reactions as a habit.

using metacognitive activities as a form of self-reflection.

metacognition is a form of introspection; essentially self-analyzing the way you learn. knowing what you do & don't know, accepting and being aware of that. It is used with intent of expanding one's knowledge, being curious about oneself and how/where you can excel, and how you can learn in a more effective way. If you aren't too familiar with it, I highly recommend looking into it— Especially if you’re a student.

2. creating goals and objectives, without expecting.

no one knows you better than you. while it is good to set goals for yourself, it is entirely possible to create unhealthy goals for oneself that lead to inevitable self sabotage. It's something that's situational, and only you will be able to tell when something is too unrealistic for yourself. work on identifying that. become aware of what you're capable of and more, and it will eliminate most of your self-doubt. this will allow you to be able to understand what the best ways are to continue pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in ways that work for you.

3. seeing the silver lining & practicing gratitude

no matter what, there is always a silver lining to a situation. things could have gone worse, and you always have to be grateful for that. make sure you really feel it. maybe things didn't work out how you think they should've, but usually when one book closes, another one opens. the world didn't end, nobody died(unless they actually did.. again, this is situational, so apply these methods where they can be applied), and you're okay.

4. acknowledging time permanence

sometimes, looking at the big objective picture (which is somewhat morbid and depressing to think about) can help put things into perspective. in life, there is not a thing that is permanent. we come into this world alone, and leave this world alone. our time overlaps with our parents, pets, peers, and our world— but no two will leave and enter the world in the same moments. right now, the moment you are reading this, will pass, and your life will go on. This is quite a long read, and even so, eventually, you will forget you ever read this. a moment will happen, and then it will leave us. no matter how significant the moment is, it'll come and go. even the scary and daunting ones will become something of the past, so just do it!

5. optimistic nihilism

adopting some viewpoints of certain philosophic ideologies can help remove some of the gravity we put onto life itself and make us realize, it's not all that serious. "optimistic nihilism is a philosophical standpoint that blends nihilism, which asserts that life lacks intrinsic meaning or purpose, with optimism, which embraces the potential for joy and fulfilment despite this absence of inherent meaning. optimistic nihilism is based on the premise that life lacks objective meaning or purpose. cosmic plans, divine will, ultimate goals, moral laws, and inherent value hold no sway over the fabric of existence. every event within the universe occurs due to natural laws and “random” occurrences, devoid of any significance beyond the subjective interpretations we assign to them."

If this is too much to digest, here is a rulebook of how I live daily to keep it simple and easy.

don't take myself too seriously

take my work and health seriously

be kind

if you feel this post applies to you, I hope you've found it helpful in some way or another. Have a lovely day/night, and take care!!

[toastandjamie]

Sometimes I think about the way Tuon and Mat’s relationship is set up before Tuon is introduced. We are introduced to the Seanchen, and they are active antagonists and then Rand drives them from Falme back into the sea. Then one book later we get the Aelfinn prophecy “to die and live again. To marry the daughter of the nine moons. To give up half of light of the world to save the world.” And it’s sandwiched in between these two very frightening prophecies of danger. Mat treats the marriage aspect as just as much of a threat as literal death and that’s utterly fascinating to me; but we as an audience are also alarmed by this prophecy, not for the same reasons as Mat but because the title “daughter of the nine moons” isn’t exactly the most friendly sounding name. We spend the rest of the book wondering who she is right alongside Mat and as we get closer to meeting her we are given more distinctly threatening foreshadowing. First we learn about the Court of The Nine Moons which confirms that Tuon is Seanchen and right on its heels Egwene receives a prophetic dream vision of Mat being wrestled to the ground and collared by a Seanchen woman. The Seanchen remain as a threatening antagonistic force at this time with the only allied characters from Seanchen we’re introduced to are desenters like Aegenin. Then there’s the way Mat talks about his future marriage, discussing with equal parts curiosity and fear and saying things like “the daughter of the nine bloody moons will walk in to take me.”. And finally the Seanchen invasion of Ebou Dar, where Mat is knocked unconscious by falling building and the reveal of the daughter of the nine moons arrival. We don’t yet know what life under Seanchen occupation is like for those not actively fighting it since we’ve only seen the violent occupation of Amadicia and Tanchico.

Even if we as an audience aren’t conscious of it RJ sets up this expectation that Tuon will “steal” or “take” Mat by force. That Mat is going to be captured by her and forced into this marriage by fate. Only to have our expectations subverted when Tuon is- well, not quite the towering and evil figure that we expect her to be. That Mat is being kept in Ebou Dar not by the Seanchen who have done nothing to restrict the coming and going of civilians but by Tylin who has only grown More abusive and possessive since A Crown of Swords. Then Tuon asks Tylin if she can buy Mat and for moment you might think that things are back on track but then Mat kidnaps her and we’re once again thrown for a loop. Over the course of their courtship we see the push and pull of their dynamic, as they play their own mini version of daes da mar to see who holds the power in their relationship and it remains constantly influx. This subversion of what we expect Tuon to be mirrors Mat’s own surprise over who Tuon is. Mat has always been endlessly human to the audience, we’ve seen him struggle and grow as a person, we’ve seen him fuck up and we’ve seen him succeed. He was always human to the audience and to the people who perceive him in universe. Tuon conversely, is set up as almost an omen of doom, an ever present and impossible to escape fate that the audience and the character fear. We see her as the world sees her, she’s inhuman, a concept, something to be looked upon with curiosity and fear. Then as Mat learns about her, so does the audience, we peel away the layers of mythologizing that Seanchen and the foretellings have placed upon her to see that she is just as human as Mat. Just as curious and scared of a fate she can’t escape, of a man she knows shes destined to marry but knows nothing about. The prophecy she receives about Mat is just as threatening as the one Mat receives and she reacts similarly with anger hiding her fear. Both believe the other will steal them away and in the end they both DO steal eachother, for Tuon in the literal sense and for Mat the metaphorical.

God I’m so feral about them

[iniziare]

Kafka crossed my thoughts tonight at random, and so I wanted to re-post a little something here, with some minor edits thrown in. I just think it's often overlooked how... many human elements they've tied into her. A hungering sense of curiosity, the inherent sense of longing that clings to her being like a fever, and how she's caught (very humanly so) between the belief of we are tied to fate and thus it shall be, and the insistence on choice and how the Trailblazer seems to be inherently representative of its existence. And then I think of what being 'human' entails, and one could argue that it represents the experience of life, before one's end by the hand of destiny/fate. Is that... why she's so enthralled by all these human concepts? Because she's so firmly tied to fate? Yes, I still linger in the thought that she bears strong connections to fate, there are too many hints at the Moirai to me to ignore. But it's not even that, it's her Spirit Whisper, it's that her wanted poster made by the Devils that she used to hunt on her home of Pteruges-V, had to describe the ability and what it does— which tells ms that it's not native to there. But— I'm getting sidetracked, this isn't about any kind of potential nature that is far from humanity, it's about the evidence, even if she may turn out not to be inherently human at some point in the future of HSR, that she is drawn to, portrays and in some form, lives, very human concepts. And one of the ways I tried to make that clear before, was by talking about her in relation to her violin— or more specifically: the presence of its absence, the latter being which I will always firmly believe to be the eternal overarching narrative of Kafka's character. Any way, onto the babble:

I'll forever remember looking into the notes of someone's playthrough of HSR's first scenes, which is just something I like to do because you never know what kind of little treasures you might find. And there was a violinist tucked away in there, who I'd also seen in the notes of her main trailer, commenting on the intense accuracy of the movement of her fingers. And then on top of that, how they've usually been let down by the details when other games have tried to simulate it as well, but it was more so done to iterate how intentional this must've been for Hoyo to have focused on its accuracy so much.

So in that sense, I think it's close to a given that she knows how to play it, similarly to how I believe that she is someone who also plays or has played the piano. Where I differ however, is that I don't believe that she actually owns a violin at present, nor is she seeking to obtain one by her own means. Moreover, what and where I think the 'mimicking' comes from, actually, is from her memories and the emotional attachment that she once held for these instruments in them. Kafka's character, to me, revolves around and thrives within two concepts, that of intimate longing and that of loss (the pearl earring, the broken winged butterfly pin, and Blade's character story to name some) which plays intricately into the former. Now for me, her connection to the violin and the piano (primarily the former) play wonderfully into representing both of these, and thus can be drawn into these prevalent topics across the board for her incredibly easily. In simple terms, I think that there is a sense of longing to play them. Now, I feel confident in noting that Kafka does not come across as one who, if she had access to (in this case) a violin of her own, that she would crave to play it so intensely all the time, that when drawn from it for even the briefest of time, that she would enact the part of playing one during her separation from it. No, I think she's actively choosing not to obtain one, for one reason or another. Perhaps it's a memory that plays into the loss that her character seems to stray towards, or perhaps it's a lack of something else; I don't quite yet dare say. But there's something oddly wistful about it, if you look past the surface. All in all, I think her little moments of mimicking and humming, makes for an incredibly interesting "little" tidbit to me. It reminds me of something I wrote in an older post last year:

(...) And yet, and yet, I actively think if she were to find herself in a hotel room, even on her own, and there would be a piano right there— I can see her fingers tracing over the keys so very clearly, even as if she were touching the keys to play and yet she would never press down.

I still stand by this to this day. It's the ache to do something again, and yet for one reason or another, you can't bring yourself to do it. Whether it feels wrong, or there's something missing, something or someone; it doesn't matter, it's a longing of some kind. It really is the overarching topic and/or concept that I see in her character, and the fact that she's tied to such an inherently fragile instrument, only further solidifies it in my brain. But in that, I also feel a deep sense of melancholy when I think of her and that violin. And it plays into all of this, of course, but also the fact that I genuinely see no evidence in canon at present that tells me that she has one, and we know she could obtain one if she so wanted to,but she doesn't. Which tells me, on some level, that she doesn't want one. Which then has me entertain the concept of... if one were gifted to her, would that be different? Would that offer the person who gifted it to her a glimpse that no one else could ever get? The answer is a very likely yes, but I can't see it being gifted by most by any means; it'd need to be by someone who could come to grasp the significance of one, put in the appropriate research, who would know where to go, who to speak to, where to find the significance. And that, isn't most people.

[hellofeternity]

Black & White & Color in ORV (6.9k words)

Yin and yang as a concept is rife throughout orv, black and white aside, it makes the basis of almost the entire book, "life and death companions" - "unstoppable sword and unbreakable shield" - "war of Good and Evil" every stroke and arc of this book deals with dualities, this is of course not rare nor exclusive to orv, this is a staple in any form of writing, there is a push (good) and a pull (evil), but in a lot of those stories the basis of this yin and yang tends to be simple, one triumphs over the other, there is a balance until there isn't and vice versa a very well done example of this is the legend of Korra and the avatar franchise - where the balance gets disrupted and Evil (vato) reigns, until the first avatar locks him away, locking him away has Consequences for the plot the balance is disrupted, the spirit world and the human world are separated and we get the philosophy of the legend of korra as a whole, which is a story where the world is thrown into a metronome for our consumption from one imbalanced side to the other.

for there to be a plot there needs to be an imbalance, but because of that not many stories tend to explore the intertwined nature of these opposing forces in their balanced states and furthermore less stories go beyond it into weaving them into the philosophies the stories are exploring we all know black and white as yin and yang, as push as pull as good and evil, but ORV looks at all at that and tells us, what if its is text and paper too? what does that mean then? to be part of one singular whole, to contain both the unfathomable evil and the unfathomable good and its all in our hands in the book we are reading, the black text against the white paper, the black text is no less than the white paper, you cannot read a blank page, just as like you cannot experience ink - they are intertwined into a single whole and because this is ORV, it never stops there, if black is text and white is paper, what is the cover that holds this book? what is the world around these bound papers? what is being described by the black and white? if yin and yang is to exist it needs to be painted with the world around it, for there to be a balance of parts there needs to be a chaos for balance to define itself against it, and that is in itself a duality - white is a reflection of color and black is an absorption of color in this post I will be going through not just how black and white is defined in the story but also more importantly how color exists in them, in between them and around them, highlighting and defining them I will be using the webtoon as a reference to ease the transition into explaining the colors because I find it is very well researched and very respectful to the color theory in the book you might find some contradictions in the things I say, ill try to touch and explain why ORV might break the rules it establishes as best as I can when I can but of course this is all just my observations from a text that is translated, if you can explain something yourself in a different way I encourage you to, ORV is a very well written text most often than not if there is a contradiction there is a reason

so starting off - ORV posits Black as text

what does that mean? well it means the closer your relationship is to black the more proportionally closer you are to the text and what that means, ie the plot elements, the writing, you are the character, you are wielding the story, you are being wielded by the story you are the black against white, the blemish, the focal point you are the black against white. I repeat the black against point twice, to emphasize the matryoshka effect of being the text, you cannot be defined as black without the white as such you see a lot of characters play with that duality in the story Black as Text like a lot of things in ORV is a gradual build up with many quotes illustrating it, however to give a blatant example in CH255 "Entrance as a character" Dokja has been cast outside the story post the demon king arc, and has gone through a lot to enter the story once more and be defined by text, but its not until he looks deep within himself that he finally starts allowing himself to be defined by black, aka the story

My coat and other clothing were charred black. I couldn't believe that the coat with the automatic restoration function was damaged like this… The ceiling of the office looked like it had been hit by a meteorite. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine. Of course, I'm fine…" Rather, I felt lighter. It was impossible. My body was burnt like this but my spirit was clear. The power of my stories felt fuller. [The effect of the exclusive skill 'Reading Comprehension' has increased understanding.] I saw the message and a previous memory emerged. That's right. I had obviously seen such a message. [Your understanding of the character 'Kim Dokja' has increased.] The message marked me as a character. It was something that never happened before. Cool energy filled a corner of my chest. I had seen the presence of 'characters' many times'. They were those who came from outside the original novel but was eventually assimilated with the original. They were mostly those who stopped reading the novel.

That white coat of his, is black for the first time, in a blatant showing of him finally accepting that he IS part of the story. Spoiler end--------

where the black is described and located also matters in explaining its function, wearing all black has multiple meanings, it is the literal effect of "wearing the story" using it as armor, or being deeply affected by the story, being defined by it etc

[img id: yoo joonghyuk, yoo sangah in a black suit, han sooyoung holding crystals, the first apostle] I use these examples because they are the most notable/ show case this most easily yoo joonghyuk: all black almost never defined by any other colors and if he is they tend to be in small amounts, the white around his neck (a collar around his neck), his sage eye golden etc he is completely swallowed up by the story and by black, he likes black, its where he feels most comfortable a fish in water, the text is his domain, but he is also constrained by it yoo sangah: yoo sangah notably starts out in a brown suit, and then transitions to a full black body suit, she is often compared to a heroine by both dokja and han sooyoung, when we next see her wearing that suit there is a remarkable shift in her abilities and the lengths in which she exerts herself on the story, wearing the black gave her the agency because she has started using the story, but also she is being used by the story (the constellations) to further their own goals, however she isn't as defined by JUST black as yoo joonghyuk is, gold and brown and later on more colors are part of her (SPOILERS CH 291) han sooyoung fragment: the han sooyoung we meet early on is just starting out her life, she is a character first a person second, not within the designs of the world and dokja's interpretation but within the designs of herself, this is not the han sooyoung with the most memories, she is a fragment she left behind, we can argue on how much han sooyoung she is (I like to think she split herself like dokja 49/51 for the story telling symmetry) but the han sooyoung we meet is "lesser" at the start, and when han sooyoung crafts characters they are almost Always wearing black clothes, and this fragment is no exception, she is wielded by the story and wielding the story, and I dont find it surprising that one of her first proper appearances in the book/webtoon she is holding all the colored crystals - holding all the meanings of the story, but when she tries to wield them they are empty, the sword doesn't work etc first apostle: I added him to strengthen the han sooyoung fragment example, whenever han sooyoung makes alter-egos they are wearing black the more important they are, she cloaks herself in the story with the first apostle and the advisor character, its akin to a visual way of showing us she is "writing" the characters into existence Spoiler end-------- honorable mentions: Uriel wearing black lace, lee jihye wearing black hoodies, the abyssal black flame dragon (he is to me the character most defined by black, due to specifically me seeing him as a personification of all the stories that people use for survival, he is the personification of every child's discovery of story as self expression, but also the overwhelming reliance on stories to give us purpose and never finding our own purpose, losing ourselves in the abyss)

wielding black weapons and items also is very significant, because it means you are wielding the story most notable mentions: han sooyoung wielding black flames that burn her hand, she burns herself to write, her black flame ability eats away at her for her to wield the story etc CH246 dokja giving yjh the black heavenly demon sword, as a symbol that he is giving him the ability to "wield the story" before he leaves him and kimcom - the significance of the duality in the name in the english translation also makes me think its also akin to wielding salvation? and then again in CH442 when yjh's black heavenly demon sword given to him by dokja, cracked after fighting secretive plotter and losing dokja to him - 999 gives yjh his own sword and we find out that 999 to the surprise of yjh wasn't wielding splitting the sky sword, but instead wielded the black heavenly demon sword, it emphasizes the heaviness of that sword, the agency it gives yoo joonghyuk, the salvation in his own story, his own form of wielding the story, he was relying on dokja because he was afraid of his own self, but he always had agency, he didnt need it from anyone else Spoiler end-------- another thing of note is that almost every enemy that dokja fights in the early chapters is wielding black weapons and or black is mentioned somewhere in the scenes but in Small ways, some examples the monarch of small fries sponsor:

Knuckles shining with a black gloss—they weren't ordinary iron knuckles. Did he receive it from his sponsor?

kim namwoon post zombiefication

My thigh was scratched by Kim Namwoon's overgrown black fingernails.

Black ether and the dark keeper that impregnates Myungoh

The dark keeper's tentacles rose. "Ooooof!" One of the tentacles entered his mouth and Han Myungoh turned black

I especially like the last example, instead of saying Myungoh was turning purple or blue, they specify Black, a lot of moments like this where other colors could suffice but instead they use black specifically and pointedly in general I think this is to ground the story in dokja's view of it, which is that its fiction, it is text, it is a story, all the wild enemies that are out to get them that are evil have black somewhere, and it appeals to our sensibilities as readers too, it feels right for the evil to have blackness to it

White on the other hand, is the gaps between the text

it is what exists outside the story, what is undefined, its what we need to read between the lines for, or the completely unknown, as long as its grounded in the text first, just like black, it cannot exist without being defined in some vague form by the text

[img id: lee seolhwa, kim namwoon, bihyung, 41st shin yoosung]

Obviously I should use kim dokja here too, but I think orv explains it better than I ever could

The texture of the soft paper touching my fingertips. The black letters blooming on a white field. The texture of the page I folded with my hands. 「 It isn't important to read the letters. The important thing is where the letters lead you. 」 My mother, who loved books, used to say this. At least for me, it wasn't just a saying. The gaps in the black print. My own little snow garden lay in between the letters. This space, which was too small for someone to go into, was a perfect place for a child who liked to hide. Every time a pleasant sound was heard, the letters stacked up like snow.

dokja is as defined by black as he is by white, however he finds comfort in white, like yjh finds comfort in black, even though like dokja he is also defined by outside interpretation

like black, I used these characters in the image specifically for ease of explanation, you'll also note most of them have a close relationship to death but death in ORV is not death as we think of it - as such white here has multiple meanings too, in orv "death" is to become unreadable/unconsumable/not a story, but Death also, is just a different kind of story too, one that we can create and add on and this is why white is defined against black lee seolhwa: personally, I find her to be the character most defined by white in orv, yes more than dokja, in the sense that dokja has a lot more going on, but lee seolhwa ONLY has white and some red to define her, and that's on purpose by the writers I truly adore how lee seolhwa's character is presented and then thereby later handled by the writers, in that there is a SPECIFIC and stark lack of character, dokja only knows her in a very specific setting in very a specific moment, as Yoo joonghyuk's previous lover read through a book, stripped of that setting she is unknowable to him and therefore to us, but she still plays a role around him, one he never bothers to examine or to get closer to her for moments where she is mentioned she is a backdrop faceless doctor, actually here is one of my favorite moments where she ISNT mentioned that illustrate why she is "the whitest character" (no race jokes intended)

spoilers ch141 novel - ch157 webtoon

So, in the book right before dokja gives his depression bandaid speech on top of the rooftop to yoo joonghyuk

"Hey, Yoo Joonghyuk." Yoo Joonghyuk turned to look at me. I didn't know exactly what scenery held value for Yoo Joonghyuk. As I said every time, reading Ways of Survival didn't really tell me about this person. After all, I was only understanding the text, which had been processed and transmitted to me. Some things couldn't be read because they were unreadable. "Let me talk to you for a bit."

and in the webtoon, they cut out his thoughts which are about not being able to understand him and missing context and things being unreadable (the definition of white against black) in the webtoon what they do instead is they show lee seolhwa in the scene right before this

making you remember her and go "oh yea, why don't we ever get to know her?"

and then furthermore in the book

"Kim Dokja, you don't know." This might be my misunderstanding. Yoo Joonghyuk could give up at any time because he was still in the midst of his regressions. In the end, Yoo Joonghyuk's purpose was to prevent the 'destruction of this world'. Paradoxically, he could give up on this world at any time. His essence was regression and this fact would never change. "No, I know," I replied. "What?" "The fact that you can regress at any time means that death is meaningless." I looked down at Lee Seolhwa caring for the injured. Lee Seolhwa was feeding her boiled soup to an unknown person. Despite her efforts, there was a high probability that the character would die. Even if they lived now, they would die tomorrow. If they miraculously survived tomorrow, they would die the day after tomorrow. It was the same in the fourth regression and the fifth regression. There would always be 'death' in the world of Yoo Joonghyuk, even after passing the 100th regression. "If there is no sense of death then the value of life also disappears." "What do you know…" "Yoo Joonghyuk, wake up. Don't think things will improve if you repeat them a few times."

lee seolhwa plays a VERY important absent part in both the lead up to this scene and in it specifically, in how she is the personification of an unknown character, this scene, like many scenes in orv boils down multiple of its messages very succinctly, you can never truly know a person, you can still try your best to reach out, lee seolhwa reaching out to someone she doesn't know who is injured, dokja reaching out to yoo joonghyuk

we never truly know kim dokja, and we never ever truly know lee seolhwa she is always at the edges of dokja's story, nothing beyond "doctor" and I think that they handled the concept of her character brilliantly

Spoiler end--------

Kim namwoon: like I said Death is just a different form of a story, and white is to be written out, banished between the space in the sentences - kim namwoon within the first chapter is both marked for death and marked to be written out, we never get to know kim namwoon outside of dokja's perceptions, like lee seolhwa, kim namwoon is a tool to highlight dokja's biases (and subsequently the texts biases)

bihyung: his color scheme is actually one of my favorites in the webtoon, his fur being white, as a being intrinsically outside of the story, a watcher, a voyeur and a director, wearing black, being under the confines and control of the story and the viewers (has to keep them happy), with tiny gold horns

41st shin yoosung: someone who lived most of her life outside the story, banished and lost and imprisoned, and when she finally thinks she has hope to be part of the story in a kind way, she dies, her soul/story golden and then white

white seems to appear commonly in hair and clothes, it is used both as a shield (kdj) but also as a wall/prison too (41st sys) the only instance of a white weapons I can remember is blade of faith and also jung heewons "white flames" both used in ways that change the story for the better, kinda like "white out" or an editor burning and cutting away at the story, white space (outsiders) fighting the author back, pausing their writing to deliberate on the next words most notably white appears as a location often, white fields, snow, white sand, reinhart von djerba's house, actually when we get to paradise I wont be surprised if they depict it with a lot of white in the webtoon, bonus points if its an inspired tunisian-greek style based on the actual djerba

one of the hurdles of separately explaining black and white like this is that you might lose sight of their intertwined nature in all of this. Rather than looking at them as "black" and "white" its "black against white" and "white against black" for example, in the webtoon characters change clothes a lot, lee jihye doesn't always wear ONLY black in fact she wears white, gray, black, blue rather than looking at that and being "she isn't defined by black" its best to look at that and ask "'what are they trying to tell me in this moment" this allows for more flexibility in analysis, and a broader view when looking at these characters, none of them can simply be described with one or two colors, or even a lot of colors as ORV explains, we never can truly understand someone, but what their function here is to direct your eye and to help in easing the pieces together when you are reading.

black and white are the clearest and easiest to keep track of but ORV utilizes other colors in a very similar fashion all around them, but in a lesser, less obvious amount, a lot of these I am still not certain on to their meanings, its much easier to connect threads together and sit here looking for meanings after the fact, ill start from the ones I am most confident about to least confident. --------------------------------------

Blue This color I think is the most frequent after black and white, its every where in the webtoon and in the book, in fact one of its first mentions should explain it

A character from the novel had appeared. Now I really had to acknowledge the situation. "Soldier-nim! What is happening?" "I have been trying to contact my unit, but…" "The Blue House! What is the Blue House doing? Please contact the president quickly!" "I'm sorry. I am just an ordinary soldier and don't have a hotline to the Blue House." Lee Hyunsung explained.

Blue is government, Blue is systems that govern the world, where do we see blue the most in the webtoon? its in the quest logs, its the structures that keep the story going, its the printing press and advertisers and a publishing house and the store front, its capitalism and money

Its the title card.

[img id: Omniscient reader spelled out against a white background, the text is colored blue and black]

I also specifically like how when you are reading the book, blue doesn't jump at you as being used a lot, sure its here and there, but in the webtoon its suffused everywhere, a product of the capitalist consumption of stories

[img id: lee sookyoung in a blue mask and blue prison uniform, han sooyoung in blue body suit with black and white on it, lee hyunsung in a blue shirt] prison uniforms being blue, yet lee sookyoung still masking herself in blue, hiding behind the systems ( a different way of dokja's face being blurred by the system) how han sooyoungs body suit is only ever described as blue in the book but in the webtoon they interweaved black and white into it elevating its original intent, she is in control she exploits the systems, she wears the system, she is the system how lee hyunsung is defined by his military past and his utter reliance on systems

dokja specifically "wields" blue a lot, blade of faith has an attribute that turns it blue which he did a couple times, his lightning is often described as "blue-white" --------------------------------------

Red

[img id: screenshot from early in the webtoon where dokja tries to wipe away blood from his face but he finds that its on the glass, not on him, also wearing a blue tie] (I know im supposed to be talking about red, but dokja's tie being blue <3 noosed by the capitalistic system he used to work for a parallel to yjh's collar being white) red, and subsequently where it pops up the most as, blood, is reality and truth but also a lie, a lie specifically because this is dokja's worldview and he views reality as a lie, its actually very interesting because this color pops up a lot within the view of "fiction" too (example: gong pildu's turrets) but its most present moments is specifically when it comes to the truth about trauma and the reality of is this a "story" or "fiction" that dokja struggles with

[img id lee sookyoung with the blue mask, the blue mask has a red circle in the middle, asuka ren who has red hair, min jiwon in red formal wear, lee jihye holding her sword with a red tassle, jung heewon amidst a blaze of fire with a red tie being mind controlled, anna croft her left eye is a red demon eye] lee sookyoung's mask just having a red circle in the middle of it, a reminder to dokja, an emphasis on reality, on not being able to run away ch133 book ch145 webtoon spoilers asuka ren's entire storyline culminating into "what is a writer's responsibility when writing a helpless abused world? and what does reality mean when fiction is real? who remembers a story after the writer forgets? was the story ever the writers?" these questions that blur the line are where red exists to dokja, its not the blurred lines between black and white, its the blurred lines between black against white and reality, its "does fiction affect reality" but also "does reality affect fiction" an ouroboros

Spoiler end--------

min jiwon holds a similar place to asuka ren in the story, she is there to make dokja question reality, he knows her as a character purely, but she is a famous actress and he uses her as a backdrop to understand if this is fiction or real, the other apostles forgetting she is a character blurring her in their minds lee jihye's red tassle is a visual detail in the webtoon that I don't quiet remember if it exists in the book, but its an important one to me, because it raises questions, specifically with how much it stands out in the webtoon, and I think its tied to her trauma, her past and her friend, it being in her sword she uses it as a tool, her reality is one she wields, she has bloodied her hands killing her friend, none of this is fiction to her but it feels like it is from how absurd it is

jung heewon is interesting because she often suffers from an over abundance of red, she is controlled by red with that red tie around her neck, and while a lot of characters have trauma in this story, red is almost always reserved to people acting as characters or are viewed as characters by dokja, so for gilyoung and yoo sangah who both have a lot of trauma each we never see red define them because dokja views them as "real-ish" furthermore she is the only one who acts on that trauma, whenever she is mind controlled or reliving her past she starts attacking, and I think specifically why red defines her is that who does she have to blame? the story writer? the people who have harmed her? she along with dokja are one of the few characters that wield white They are both trying to carve out a kinder existence in the story for themselves, wielding subtext because the text has no place for them, she was written off and dokja gave her a second chance, what is her reality then? destined to die and suffer in obscurity in every iteration? except for this one that gave her meaning? also just as an aside lee hyunsung is MOST defined as blue when he is next to her in the webtoon, its a visual thing because red and blue next to each other are good, but also its also interesting from a story telling perspective, lee hyunsung relies on systems the most around her

anna crofts great demon eye lets her see possible futures, possible realities, half truths unrealized I am not as confident of my reading of red as I am of blue, because I feel like there are also a lot of examples that are harder to fit in this definition of it, mainly gong pildu's turrets ngl😂 also red is heavily emphasized with the demon kings also, so red does have as heavy of a space in fiction as it does in reality, its just a versatile color --------------------------------------

Gold/Yellow

[img id: prisoner of the golden headband, yoo sangah with gold aura all around her wielding golden weapons, painting of 41st sys looking at 3rd round sys, while she is holding biyoo, the painting is infused with gold, painting by renibet_ on tumblr]

gold/yellow is an extension of black, gold/yellow is a well loved story, and more often than not a well loved story is a popular story, and a popular story is a strong story in the world view of orv, you can be a strong story without being popular of course, too, usually by being an old story. a lot of the strong constellations have gold in their presentations, Olympus and Eden as examples, but gold is also control, a prison

prisoner of the golden headband is the strongest incarnation in ORV his story 'journey to the west' is one of the oldest, most well loved, most adapted stories and orv emphasizes that, but it also emphasizes how the great sage is trapped within this "love" he has had so many adaptations of himself, his own story traps him with the headband being his prison. in CH444 for example he joins the sides of the yogoe, the side of the story that is never understood because who is he? what is his story? what does it mean to be understood? Spoiler end--------

yoo sangah also starts having a heavy emphasis on gold when she joins up with Olympus who are a very well loved story, she fights with it, its all around her, entrapping her, but also she loves stories and that gold in her is also a manifestation of that the shin yoosung industrial complex of stories

sorry I had to phrase it like that, but I am trying to encompass all shin yoosungs at once biyoo included and thats why I used art instead of the webtoon, she is a strong story, as 41st shin yoosung she has spent immeasurable time trapped in time, and we know time in orv is proportional to the strength of a story, so thats why 41st sys is gold, but furthermore 3rd round sys is well loved, her story is one all of kim com cultivate slowly with love and care, she is young, but her story is bigger than her and she inherits it slowly, biyoo specifically only has a golden horn, and I KNOW there is a significance to horns, and their colors, but I haven't figured it out, if anyone does feel free to add it honorable mentions of gold: nirvana, the golden throne that gets destroyed, the young gold dragon heart, yjh's sage eye, jang hayoung and most importantly,

my favorite instance of gold in the story CH294

Yoo Joonghyuk still didn't answer and the Fourth Wall laughed like it knew everything. The letters of the Fourth Wall started to increase. Gold letters soon filled the room. Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the letters drifting around him and reached out for one of them. The letters seemed to respond to his hand and started to speak. 「 "My name is Dokja." 」 「 I usually introduced myself to people like this and then the following misunderstanding would occur. 」 It was the story of a world he had never experienced. The Fourth Wall giggled. 「 Very in te res ting. 」 Yoo Joonghyuk quietly listened to the story.

Spoiler end-------- like red, there are a couple of instances that are outliers to this, mostly due to how loosy goosy the translation is with yellow/gold being interchangeable, for example I'd like to add anna croft as an example here for "strength of the story" but I cant tell if that is the actual intent of yellow in her hair and the yellow eye that follows her around, in contrast there are a lot of moments where they describe yjh's transcendent as yellow, when clearly they are emphasizing his strength of story --------------------------------------

Brown brown is past trauma, trauma that still defines a person, actually brown and red get blurred/mentioned together a lot in the book so maybe I should've just combined them like I did with yellow and gold, but there is still enough of a difference that I want to make a distinction even if they do overlap heavily conceptually, brown is more "realer" or rooted in "reality" as dokja sees it, things that happen outside the time from of the start of the end of the world and cant be attributed to a writer but to life

this color isn't actually mentioned a lot alone in the book, and is more prominent in the webtoon - there is only one specific instance in the book that I can think of where it meets how its used in the webtoon

CH489

This intense stink of the brown coal, the sight of his father and mother lying on the ground like dead cockroaches – memories of him poking on the cold, unmoving flesh. A funeral without portraits came to an end, and the fatigued eyes of his relatives looking at him.

[img id: gilyoung in a brown shirt, dokja in a brown school uniform with a red tie being bullied, dokja in a brown suit that looks like the old uniform getting his shit kicked in by his bully, lee sookyoung in a brown coat, yoo sangah in her brown suit]

lee gilyoung, very early on in the story has hints of deep rooted trauma that he is struggling with, mostly seemingly centering around his mother

kim dokja, for him I was mostly going over his outfits in the webtoon and their significance in my head, and I couldn't come up with a reasoning behind the brown suit till my friend pointed out it looked a lot like his brown school uniform, and to cinch the deal further the chapter where he gets that suit in the webtoon, CH69 (nice) the title is brown

yes, the chapter titles change colors, yes it seems to track with my insane color thoughts, yes the webtoon artists pay a HUGE amount of attention to details like this so far the only colors the title has been is black and white, blue, red and brown off the top of my head

but yea self explanatory trauma around his highschool bully brown uniform+ brown suit lee sookyoung's coat is a mirror to dokja's, she uses her trauma as a shield and a cover, she wears it like armor and hides behind its lies

yoo sangah's office job was hell, sexually harassed by her superior to the point that he'd steal and hide her bike, it pushed someone who is generally nice and well mannered to the point of retaliating and then we find out how her job is an escape from a life her parents built for her

this isnt to say only these characters suffer trauma, on the contrary but the closer their relationship is to the story and the trauma being under the story, the redder the brown gets, for example I assume yoo joonghyuk's hell of eternity will be depicted in red's the only thing that fudges with this which is admittedly a bit of a wrench, is lee hyunsung, he is often depicted in blue, gray, green and brown, brown is actually pretty prominent in lee hyunsung, I dont know how he fits in against everything, I assume its because his trauma is older? so the relationship between brown and red is simply just trauma before the end of the world and trauma after? --------------------------------------

Grey

okay we are entering the territories of colors I can barely explain but I know there is something going on with the symbolism because its too consistent, Grey seems simple enough to explain at face value its what lies between black and white for example theoretically it would be something between good and evil, neutrality, but have you ever seen grey in yin and yang? ever read a book that had a portion of gray text?

grey has a LOT of uses in the story, it muddies the relationship between black and white, it fades away the intent of the story/character, a half way point to white, a halfway point to black, but its also just..used a lot? especially in the webtoon characters wear grey a lot, I assume its because they are background characters in the instances where they are present, it seems like a filler dokja especially ping pongs a lot at the start between grey and black and white in his outfits in the webtoon, and so does jung heewon but its brief

the Biggest prominence of grey is around CH365

in the great war of saints and demons, when the relationship of good and evil is under examination and subsequently that means dokja's relationship to the text and his morality is also under scrutiny, grey plays its biggest role

in it we meet an angel called Michael who is the embodiment of satan, an angel who ate the forbidden fruit and who became a demon and has a contradicting modifier "Saviour of the Corrupted" like dokja, but unlike dokja who defines himself in stark black and white, Michael is defined with greys and purples

grey as such is also a form of corruption, when things lose meaning or struggle to define themselves, Michael is constantly buffeted by forces greater than him, used as a pawn

Good' and 'Evil', in conflict against each other for eternity itself. And Metatron's face, the one who had managed to endure all those years, continued to carry the exact same smile for thousands of years. – You need to be careful about one thing. When using this power, you must never… [The power of 'Fruit of Good and Evil' is going berserk!] All of his memories were swept away in one go; Michael was enveloped in horrifying pain akin to his head being ripped to tiny shreds. Aaaaaaaaah-!!!! All 'Good' in the world cried out in sorrow. From the blades of grass to trees; from small insects to every type of 'Good' living in Creation fell into a state of sorrow and cried out in grief. [You have directed a fatal attack at an opponent on the side of Absolute Good!] [Story, 'Evil that Destroys Evil', is roaring out in bitter sadness!] [You have broken the taboo!] [You have been handed a terrible penalty!] A grey-coloured angel covered in blood was smiling at Michael.

what disables Michael here is the lack of clarity, by being grey he isn't capable of being either black or white

grey is a difficult one to explain specifically due to the amount of use it sees, and then you have ch365 with a very specific usage of grey, so I assume its just a flexible multi use thing --------------------------------------

Purple

okay so the best I can explain the relationship of purple is this, its like the inverse of gold, in that it has a deep relationship to black, just like gold, but in the opposite direction

I dont want to say its "hated" stories because honestly its not used like that, the most prominence it sees is in regards to corruption in general and also han sooyoung and ABFD, strong stories that are difficult to stomach I guess? the intersection between blue and red? traumatic fictional stories? best I can do. I also find it funny that han sooyoung is often depicted in a purple hoodie when its never mentioned in the book that she wears purple, she wields it though! --------------------------------------

Green

[img id, lee gilyoung wearing green hoodie, lee gilyoung in brown shirt holding green grasshopper box, lee hyunsung with a green glow around him, nirvana in a green sari, uriel winking, one emerald eye open, the jade from the demon king arc as illustrated by manadream] these images are all I have, I literally have ZERO explanation for green, I just know lee gilyoung and nirvana are heavily defined by it, lee hyunsung is also defined with it slightly, mostly old military uniform and when he is protecting people

I've been thinking about green in orv for a long time, the only thing I can kind of guess is that it might have something to do with philosophy? a frame of thinking?

if you have any guesses feel free to share in this post --------------------------------------

anyways I hope this was an entertaining read, I know there is a lot more I've probably missed but I hit on all the big things I've been thinking about, I'd like to reiterate that pointing out the function of the colors in the story isn't meant to pigeon hole these colors into one single function, a lot of them do a lot in the story beyond these descriptions, these are just common threads I picked up on and wanted to share, that I felt made reading the story richer to me

and I also wanted to emphasize paying attention more to the webtoons artistic depictions because more often than not I find them elevating the already existing story, and they really do put a lot of thought into it, to the point where I wonder if they have singnsong on speed dial to get approval or opinions

if there are any glaring mistakes, feel free to correct also, Ill edit the corrections in

[innytoes]

Dark fantasy AU?

-In hindsight, as he's being chased through the forest, hunted by mythical creatures is not where Reggie thought he'd end up when his folks told him they were moving to Los Angeles. Honestly, considering how he used to roam the woods and fields near his Meemaw's farm, the fact that he'd stumbled into a fairy circle near the beach was almost insulting.

-It's not even that he manages to outrun them. It's that one night (he thinks it's night, though time moves differently here and light and dark are all tangled up and is the purple haze of the sky supposed to be dusk or dawn or just a dark stop of the forest?) he'd decided to just... give up.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been running, running from the pounding of hooves and the yapping of dogs that did not look anything like what a dog should look like. He couldn't remember a time where he wasn't hungry, or thirsty, or tired, but something inside of him just kept making him run and run and run

-But he'd had enough. So he just sat down, with his back towards the noise, and hoped they'll kill him quickly. And to comfort himself, he sang the lullaby his Meemaw used to sing when he was scared of the thunder.

-That's what saved him. One of the fae, Caleb, was so charmed by the song that instead of doing whatever it is they did with their prey, he bundled Reggie up and took him to his... castle. Dwelling. Domain.

-He was dressed in finery and made to sing as Caleb and the other fae danced and ate and did things that Reggie very much had not wanted to see, thank you very much. But eventually, they slept, and Reggie met... the other humans who were trapped here.

-Luke, a young boy who had run away from home to become a musician in 1875. He was distraught to hear Reggie tell him it was the nineties now. Even more distraught when Reggie clarified it was the 1990s.

-There was Alex, who had been cast out of his village for reasons he did not want to share, but that Reggie figured out pretty quickly when he saw the way he looked at Willie. He'd fallen asleep near a fairy circle, and the promises he'd been made had been so tempting, he'd said yes before he fully understood the deal.

-And then there was Willie. The boy who had been stolen from his parents, a changeling left in his place. Who had grown up here, a part of this world yet not really. Who did not know what the other boys meant when they talked about years, or America, or really the whole concept of 'family'.

-Luke's the one who tells them of their escape plan. Alex is worried they can't trust Reggie not to rat him out to Caleb, and Reggie is like: um excuse me I was just hunted for sport for who knows how long you think I wanna help that guy?

-But before he can Willie just tilts his head and says: his heart is pure.

-Which is very sweet but also a little creepy.

-Anyway, they do manage to escape Caleb's clutches somehow, and end up back in the human world.

-Being yeeted out of a little ring of mushrooms in the soil of a plant Ray overwatered in the big plant wall of the Molina studio was not particularly pleasant, okay. Considering a real human should not be able to fit through that. But Willie explained that as soon as a fairy portal grew, it was only a manner of time that the fairies would notice it and stake it out to see what they could lure to their realm.

-Somehow, Luke and Alex get thrown clear across the room, Luke slamming against the door, Alex dropping onto the concrete floor.

-Reggie's not sure if him crashing against a pretty wooden piano is better or worse. The sound it made was definitely worse.

-Somehow, Willie ends up sitting crosslegged on the little piano bench, and he turns and quickly crushes up the mushrooms to destroy the portal.

-Julie, of course, is screaming, Alex and Luke and Reggie are screaming. Willie is trying to explain to Julie she over-watered her fern and pouts when she runs away.

-No they're not ghosts but they are changed and they all have weird powers. Luke nearly cries with joy that he can still summon his guitar. Alex is really not okay with this whole 'walking through walls' thing. Reggie is sad he cannot summon a puppy or a pizza.

-Willie can teleport short distances and is shocked to learn humans can't just do that? You have to walk everywhere? Or ride a horse. What's a car? What's roller skates? He needs to see one of these skateboad things immediately, let's summon the human girl back to ask for one. What can they trade for a skateboard?

-They're kind of freaked out at the whole 2020 thing, but hey, Reggie's like: at least it hasn't been a hundred years like when I told Luke about the 90s.

-Queue canon but it's even worse and more chaotic.

[eldritch-spouse]

Hi! I was wondering how the Clergy folk would react to someone who looks like a regular human, but something is… off. Basically, eldritch horror in disguise!

More specifically, who would immediately know that they’re not human (whether that be prior knowledge, vibes, or anything else), who wouldn’t know exactly what is going on but is off-put because everyone else is off-put, and who has no clue and is going to try and mess with them just to get thrown against the wall by a giant tentacle? Or anything else you see fit

Basically this is just an OC concept I got, and who knows, maybe I’ll make more content of them? Get them a design, all that. Also, they don’t necessarily have to be a romantic interest/a YN but do whatever you see fit!

Of course, you don’t have to answer this, and you don’t have to pick everyone (Though if you do decide to answer this, I would like to see Fank-E, Santi, Belo, and Krulu’s reactions for sure) but add anyone you see fit!

Thank you! I uh, I guess I’ll be spooky anon?

- Spooky Anon!!! 🕸️

Again, I'm not big on monster readers, and a decent portion of these guys have a preference for humans.

Those who'll sniff you out faster are:

Krulu just knows. There's no fooling him about this, ever. He's part of the species that made humans, and you aren't one.

Sybastian is a mimic. If there's someone good at sniffing out disguises, it's this guy. You won't fool him a mile away, but he appreciates the attention to detail.

Nebul, Gallon and Patches are keenly observant. They'll keep an eye on you because they can sense something's off but it takes a bit before they can confirm to themselves that you're not human.

Fank-e can tell in little time by reading certain signals organics possess. Maybe you have a body temperature that isn't standard in humans, or your breathing/blinking rate is inhuman, perhaps the way you move or your reflexes. He'll catch on very fast but won't let it show.

Belo is a celestial, and this type of being has worked closely with siadar since their roots, they've acquired a pretty good radar for fuckery. He'll know.

The others will take some more time to put two and two together, and since you are human-passing, you're going to get fucked with not just by the staff, but by clientele too probably.

The ones more likely to target you out in the open are:

Morell. You just look like an escaped piggy to him, he's going to try to snatch you up and drag you into the kitchen. It's almost reflexive, he sees you out the warehouse and gives chase like a raging bull.

Santi. Fresh meat, what can he say? He doesn't really care where you escaped from or if you're going to be passed around as a free-use toy, he wants a piece and he'll try to get his claws on you.

Vinnel will instantly try to pluck you from the air. You're easy prey and would make a great prop for his shows. Maybe a nice pincushion too. Finders keepers.

[memberment]

DOES ANYONE WANNA PLAY A GAME??? (This is the post I was just yapping about.)

So we’re playing a game! Perhaps, if anyone wants to play! 

For reference, we have all gotten pretty used to me having one fic per day of the week, with exclusion of Sundays, bc I gen hate posting on Sundays. (I don’t wanna talk about it!<3) 

But. As of more recent months, I’ve shackled myself to behemoth fics that realistically, y’all would be waiting for new shit for millennia if I start posting shit in the order I’m writing it. So that’s just not gonna work! (I also do not want to be shackled to ao3 forever, but I cannot just write shit and leave it to rot in my google docs because I am not evil. Sharing is caring.) 

So without saying any more than that (bc I gotta leave y’all with some mystery), I would like y’all to help me narrow down this list of twenty to ten. (These are all of my open concepts that I’m willing to touch at the moment. There are a few more sprinkled about, but I don’t even wanna think about them rn.) I have listed titles, if I have them (if not, it's noted) and brief either descriptions or yaps. Literally just throw numbers of shit you wanna see or specifically think I should not be working on first at me. Do not care. Whatever floats your boat. <3

-

A Girl and Her Dog - Bebe runs into a lunatic and a dog while trying to complete a task (there’s actually a leak for this in my test fic).

Ca$h4Cultz - The main four accidentally manifest a god after starting a cult. (Again, leaks are in my test fic. This one might not be super long, but whenever I think about it, it makes me laugh really hard.)

Tweek’s Eclipse?? - I don’t have a title for this yet. It is literally Tweek’s story from Eclipse. Including the shit before. I’m not super invested in it yet, but the first chapter I did write kinda hits. There’s leaks for it somewhere in my slew of posts on here.

What Are You? (not sold on this title) - Tweek meets an imp after spending his whole life alone. He doesn’t really care if the imp takes his soul, but for some reason, he can’t. This aggravates the imp to no end so now he’s just dragging Tweek along to figure out exactly why he can’t take Tweek’s soul. (The imp is Craig. I personally think what I have written so far is fucking funny. It’s not gonna be good, but I stand by it.) 

Son Of Satan - Craig meets an imp. Or at least, that’s what the imp’s calling himself. (This is probably gonna be a fun nonsense piece with no legitimate plot and will probably get thrown on the trashfic pseud, but it will be fun. The entire fic is concepted off of one single piece of fanart I saw, if I can find it again, I will gladly share.) 

Untitled mind reader fic - I do not have a set title for this because I’m only two chapters deep. Basically, Tweek has to deal with some shit after someone starts reading his mind and decides to speak up. 

Untitled Horror Duo- Okay, so neither of these have titles yet, but basically, it’s two fics. There is the main story and the prequel. They both line up though in the way that I have the guides structured. These are so old, but I have like 30k between the two of them and I kinda don’t want to just leave that to rot, y’know? The main storyline follows Tweek who just entered high school after being locked away his entire life. He’s possessed by something, making adjusting to normal human life ten times more difficult. But still, he manages to find friends that care about him and want to help him, despite everything. And the prequel actually follows Kenny who’s had some close encounters with the something that’s possessing Tweek in the main story. I think this could be really fun. I remember being very deliberate about weaving these stories together when I was working on it and it was fucking ANNOYING!!! But it might also be really bad (I haven’t touched what I have since around March so I gen don’t know???), so I may assign it to  the trash psued. BUT IT’S AN OPTION!!! 

Three Kings Of Chaos - Chaos Inc. has three leaders. General Disarray, Major Mayhem, and Professor Chaos (of course). But being super villains can be complicated. Especially when their angel donor decides he wants to join in on the fun. (This will realistically probably not be very good. But, I find the concept to be very entertaining.) 

Then We Won’t (I’m not sold on the title) - When a kid gets outcasted for his powers, he makes an unlikely alliance. (This entire fic got concepted around the saying ‘The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.’) 

Untitled Civil War Fic - Basically, C&F are all evil. The Freedom Pals are just trying to get their friends back. Just about every ship in this winds up getting thrown in enemies to lovers territory. Except for Butters and Bebe (and I personally think their storyline is fucking hilarious). 

New Beginnings Rewrite - I HAVE VERY LARGE IDEAS FOR THIS. THE OLD ONE IS STILL UP SO I WILL NOT BE ELABORATING.  

Human Island - (no set title) After the world is destroyed, humans are limited to a small chain of islands. But what happens when a scientist threatens to destroy the harmony they’d worked so hard to build? (This is loosely based on something and if someone were to catch it if I were to write and post this, I would lose my fucking shit. Like, I think I would be so happy I would, like, throw up.) 

Vents - (no set title) SOMEONE gets thrown into a psychiatric facility. Involuntarily, of course. They assume they’re just abandoned there to die until someone starts calling out to them through the vents. 

I might actually finish Stalkers (this is not the title but I’ve been referring to it as such since it got concepted). Heads up though. This one is trash. Like out of everything I’ve ever written, this is thee trash. It was actually the precursor for Leap Year in the sense that I wanted to write something problematic for the sake of being problematic. It will be on the trash fic psued. Like, I genuinely find it funny because of how bad it is. But I can’t recommend telling me to work on this, because it genuinely isn’t good and I stand by that. 

My Love Letter To You - There are not one, but two Professor Chaos’ in this story. How fucking wild. Wonder how that happened. This story is basically the set up to them fighting it out and what led them there. (I’ve been eyeing and fiddling with this for a while and if you read my end notes you can prob figure out when I started messing with this concept). 

Untitled Cartman and Kenny FP fic. - Okay, so this was actually one of my first fanfic concepts. Basically, Cartman spends a good amount of time blacked out. When the other Freedom Pals find out, they try to intervene. And of course, Kenny has something to do with it. 

Cntrl: Escape - I think this might genuinely be my favorite out of all of these. A group of people get elected to escape their “perfect” world. (There is a tyrannical ruler and AI involved. Also the opening scene rn is artist Tweek trying not to lose his shit over the AI art contests surrounding his block. I love it. This one’s prob Tweek centric, but there are six(?? I’m not checking my notes. Approximately six???) mains in this.) (There is also a tiny leak of this on my test fic.) 

Untitled Kyle Supersomething Fic - As states. Human Kite’s either gonna be a supervillain or a vigilante who does not fuck with the rules of hero society and does things his own way. Could be fun. Oh also, from the jump I have decided the bad guys (Kyle) win in this. Like, I feel like villains winning is severely lacking and I need to contribute to what I want to read because that is the entire reason I started writing fanfic. 

Untitled Evil Shed Fic - And our favorite gadgeteer superhero is not a superhero anymore. He’s much worse. Stan is irredeemable in this, or at least that’s where it’s taking shape in my head right now. This is prob gonna border on horror if not be straight up horror. I do have plans to make all of the people I really focus on character wise (that isn’t Butters, obviously) have their own villain fic at some point, but rn all I have buzzing around my little idiot brain are Kenny (which is done), Stan, and Kyle’s. (Wendy’s is also starting to take shape in my head, but not enough to concept it out yet.)

New Kid - A small town (South Park, obviously) falls into chaos when an alien stumbles upon them. This is New Kid centric without it actually being New Kid centric. I have been giggling about this concept since the idea graced me back in March when the warm weather first popped around and I heard the song ‘Trailer Park Alien’ for the first time. Which is exactly what this fic is based on. 

[maleyanderecafe]

10:16 (Visual Novel)

Created by: catsket

Genre: Fantasy

I've actually been waiting for a while to do a review on one of @catskets's games since they also made a bunch of other games, and now I can! 10:16 is a game made for the #yanjam and it connects a bit to the other universe of Art without Blood (it has a reference for it, I'm pretty sure). Catsket always has a very ephemeral feeling in their games, so they're always fun to play.

The story starts with a cool intro (and very nice music) before watching the main character (Angel as a default name) going to down an elevator into Hell. They reach one of the floors to be greeted by a graveyard and meet a muzzle wearing long haired person, who welcomes us to heresy, the sixth circle. He introduces himself as Dorian and talks to them about their trip down here, how it was strangely pleasant to talk to the other keepers on the other floors. The sky starts to grow dark and rain ashes, so the two head inside of the library (which looks like a cathedral)for cover. Dorian tells Angel that he collects books of different types of heresies and offers a drink to Angel. Angel seems to be going down the seven rings of hell to make a plea with Satan, believing that they were incorrectly brought to hell, as they are a devotee for the Lord all of their life. We learn how Angel died, while going to mass, they were trying to help with something on the roof, but a bird startled them and they fell to their death. Dorian takes a pendant from Angel to find out why they were sent to hell in the first place. The two start talking and we learn that Dorian was once human a long time ago. He was burned for leading some Romans astray, believing that religion was selfish thus the reason he became the keeper of heresy.

Dorian is able to point out a specific point in time that caused Angel's downfall, specifically when Angel laughed at the idea of feeding the 1000, which is an act of heresy. Despite all this, Dorian asks if Angel still wants to go down to make their case with Satan.

There are about five different endings to this, ranging from going to meet Satan (and presumably failing their case, thus running back to Dorian), staying with Dorian without knowing the truth, running away and nearly dying from the ashes with Dorian coming to rescue them. Or being thrown into the elevator and presumably being torn apart by the rest of the levels of hell.

The ending that reveals everything is when Dorian reveals that he was the cause of Angel's death. Dorian fell in love with Angel the first time he saw them, visiting as a raven outside of their house, knowing that they would end up coming to this ring of hell. Dorian wanted to see them as soon as possible and was the bird that ended up causing Angel to fall to their death. Dorian asked the other keepers to play nice, all so that he could see you. Dorian confesses his love, promising that they have eternity to figure out what to do- just the two of them.

Like I said earlier, I generally really like catsket's games because they all have an ethereal feel to them. They generally focus on religion or a higher being (like a god or the personification of a certain concept) and they are always interesting. 10:16 is no exception to this. The sixth ring of hell as described in this game is very much of a godly air (so to speak) and it feels outerworldly. I like the MC, Angel in this too. I think I stated this before, but I do prefer having MCs that have more character to them since I can better picture why the yandere might like them. So it is fun to see Angel have this kind of devotion only to be sent to Hell despite being a devout person. I suppose regardless, their fate was sealed, either forced to stay in hell for a minor sin they committed and because of Dorian's interference which lead to their death. I think it was good that the yandere ending was the last one I played because it really does tie everything together pretty neatly.

Dorian as a yandere is pretty cool. Though his reason of falling in love with Angel is pretty plain, I do like the efforts he goes to in getting them to stay with him, from killing them early in an accident, to getting all of the other rings of hell to be nice to them and even giving the reason of heresy to convince them to stay (its possible he could be lying about it though since he is the keeper of heresy but who knows). In a lot of endings, Dorian will let Angel go, either letting them run away or going down to hell knowing full well they will fail. Plus, I think his design is pretty neat with the muzzle that's on him. There are some references to casket's other games as well like Limerence or Art without Blood that are sprinkled in there.

I think the funniest (unintentionally) moment in the game is when Angel asks why he has a cathedral in hell to which Dorian essentially responds "I just think it's neat!"

Overall, like I said, it's a pretty fun and nice for a spin off game. If you do like this style, then the Art without Blood series does have another yandere in it, which is always nice. Plus the intro song is pretty nice and I love listening to it.

[undergroundbillions]

Reblogged the post again about people wanting to make a new Raggedy Ann show, and boy do I have more thoughts!

I will. I admit. Sort of vague posting about specific ideas I've heard but at the same time I mean this to be a general statement and not criticism of anything in particular. It's just a trend that frustrates me.

What I see in a lot of suggested adaptations is a wide departure from not only superficial ideas of the characters and plot, but core themes that made up the very idea of the franchise. They were always, from the beginning, a little girl's toys brought to life with the imagination of her and her father, and when I see many concepts removing Marcella or any form of family from the story altogether, it makes me sad.

Because it marks the shift from the Raggedies as dolls who are alive, to the Raggedies as characters who also happen to be dolls.

In my personal opinion, that is one of the main issues plaguing the raggedy media that released post-70’s. People saw the two siblings themselves as the marketable entities, and the rest didn’t matter. It contributes to the flanderization of the characters and the stories as a whole, each generation of media getting us farther and farther away from the original concept as they pick only the most marketable bits. Natural selection via capitalism. Diluted into abstraction. Raggedy Ann is a franchise running on fumes at this point, all it has is that vague sense of nostalgia that gets fainter and fainter each passing generation.

It’s a similar thing to what has happened to the Winnie the Pooh franchise, they completely removed Christopher Robbin and most portrayals of the characters don’t go to any lengths to show that they were originally stuffed animals. But at least Pooh and his friends live in their own little fantasy world where removing the humans doesn’t make much of a difference. Raggedy Ann lives in our world.

And I’m not someone who thinks things always have to be exactly the same, I’d love to see new adaptations that play around with the setting!!! And the characters!!! And designs!!! And sure, the later books are more fantastical and usually take place outside in the Deep Deep Woods. But most people don’t even consider them in their plans.

It's clear many people's idea of the franchise is based on the movie, which is fair!!! The movie is in my opinion one of the better adaptations which manages to get the feel and charm of the characters being dolls and follow the themes of Camel With the Wrinkled Knees while still being it's own thing. Just like Gruelle's book it's wandering and nonsensical and goofy and the siblings get thrown from one wacky interaction to the next. It's a piece of raggedy media through and through, but I don't see much attention towards what makes it that way.

And I have to say, unfortunately, that many of these proposals remind me of one infamous piece of raggedy media, the 80's CBS cartoon. And I know the CBS series is bad for other reasons, of course. The writing sucks, the animation is worse, and the voice acting is grating. But. On top of all that, it doesn’t feel like a piece of Raggedy Ann media to anyone familiar with Gruelle’s work. There’s nothing that connects it to any of the franchise besides the existence of these characters, you could just swap them right out and it wouldn’t make any difference.

Same with the Chuck Jones specials. Sure, there are personality traits that follow, but they aren’t anything unique. You could put any characters in there.

Making a piece of raggedy media with no knowledge of what made the original books so timeless, I feel at best, you're going to make something like the Chuck Jones specials, and at worst, the CBS animated series. And to quote mod wowf: "and you're not Chuck Jones".

So. Idk. If you're going to make a proposal for a new piece of Raggedy Ann media, I think one should ask themselves why Raggedy Ann. We've had plenty of adaptations where the answer to that question was "they're popular", and I don't put much more trust in "I like them". It's not a criticism of anyone's specific ideas, I just don't think anyone is going to bother if the thing you're giving them is what they've already grown tired of. The siblings go on silly adventures, sure, but wasn't this originally about a little girl and her poppa who loved making up stories about her dolls? Is that not compelling anymore?

-𝕸𝖔𝖉 𝕲𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖑 𝕯.

P.S. I say this out of affection. I want people's projects to succeed and I want them to be well appreciated by people outside the fandom and I want them to change the public perception of Raggedy Ann for the better! And that's why I have Opinions.

P.P.S. This is about efforts to make an honest-to-goodness licensed Raggedy Ann TV show or similar media. Not fanworks. Make more fanworks always and regardless and don't listen to me.

[haleigh-sloth]

I was wondering if you could help me understand this writing decision in the new chapter. I sent this message to a My Hero discord and was wondering if you had anything to say about it.

So, I’ve put my thoughts to the page a little and I think I’ve figured out why this turn on Tenko’s backstory bothers me so much. It’s because it’s twofold…it makes him into too perfect of a victim and also washes society’s hands of the blood it has on them for not paying attention to him when he was wandering the street. I’ll address each of these in its own paragraph.

First, most abuse victims are not “perfect victims.” They often have unhealthy coping mechanisms that are wrong and unhealthy in themselves, and they do bear partial responsibility for that. It’s harder to relate to Tenko’s struggles with self hatred when they’re completely divorced from reality - he only exists because AFO wants him to exist and only destroys because AFO wants him to destroy at this point. He also doesn’t have to wrestle with those feelings in himself to overcome them. I just don’t think a situation where a victim has no unhealthy coping mechanisms they chose for themselves is realistic to how this issue often plays out irl.

Secondly, Tenko only existing because AFO wanted him to exist absolves society of their sin of ignoring Tenko as he wandered the streets. These leaks make it sound like AFO would have groomed him regardless of whether someone reached out a helping hand, meaning it was of no consequence whether someone helped him or not. This makes every problem in Tenko’s world AFO’s fault, instead of AFO being a trigger pressed on a loaded gun (that loaded gun being the idolization of heroes and treating them as superhuman as a guise for complacency).

I’d appreciate if someone could help me make sense of this writing decision because I’m struggling to understand why it’s here.

I really want to accept this direction for Tenko’s arc, and truth be told I do see some upsides to this development, but I’m having a hard time getting past the perfect victim* + the absolution of hero society.

*To further expand on this point, I also think that Tenko’s turn being inevitable causes people’s worldviews to be challenged less. Both the audience and the characters in series are meant to be challenged by the idea of Tenko being both a perpetrator and a victim, rather than just one or the other. AFO being involved in his life literally since conception pushes him so far into the “victim” category that people don’t have to wrestle with the concept of his salvation and humanity anymore. I see this as only a negative but I’d like to know what you think.

Also sorry for bugging you so much with asks lately, i can be really annoying

I don’t think Tenko is anywhere near what could be described as a “perfect victim”. He takes his anger out on the space around him and damn near everyone in it. He’s killed a lot of people who had absolutely nothing to do with his misery and suffering. He’s targeted Izuku and Bakugo (for like, very distorted reasons) but they had nothing to do with his life sucking so bad.

He is far from perfect. If there is one in MHA (doesn’t rly exist tho) it’s Eri, I guess.

It seems like what you’re thrown by is AFO being implicated even further. But this really changes nothing. AFO didn’t make people ignore Tenko on the street. And society’s flaws are emphasized in more than one place.

Tenko learning the truth doesn’t take away the sting of being ignored on the street. It just makes the death of his family way worse because it wasn’t just a freak accident, it was forced upon him. It just turned into something that was done to him. It’s horrific, no matter how involved AFO was from the get go. Everyone who was responsible for their part in his pain, still is. Nothing really changes.

Tenko was always helpless from the start. And he still is, he always has been, he never stood a chance. That doesn’t change with this new revelation.

He’s not a victim that has 0 reasons to feel conflicted about (although, I don’t lol). He’s done a lot of damage to other people. He’s perpetrated the cycle of violence, very much actively participated in it. It is obviously from a place of pain and revenge and hopelessness, but still people who weren’t involved ended up being involved whether they asked to be or not. Not that we’re supposed to care about off-screened people, but that’s what makes him an antagonist, after all. He’s not a black and white antagonist. If you’re feeling less conflicted about him being saved, then Horikoshi’s writing accomplished its goal. You’re supposed to want him saved by this point because that’s how the protagonist feels, and the writing tells you it’s the right thing to do and the right direction for the story.

I don’t think anything about Tenko’s victim status changes. Everyone’s responsibility is still the same. It’s all the same, just AFO sucking more and more.