#Wait its more than 5 years. whats 5 (mortal) + 7(vampire) years

[blueiight]

theres this quote running around from jacob anderson where he talks about how historically black people have been removed from period dramas and how, as suggested by the interviewer (w/ blueiight embellishment ofc), the very few times black charas would show up in these period pieces theyd be side characters delegated to a raceblind narratively incoherent plot to placate an audience ashamed with / of the nuances of blackness. i rly like how he said louis’s character represents both a ‘black and very human story about a vampire… [Black people] do not usually have the opportunity to play such complex and fluent characters’. i think that brings to heart a lot of why this show has my heart, as an armchair historian and r.n. (dont ask what that stands for). u racebent characters in a way that coheres, situate ur black characters in a specific context, and the story never deludes us into thinking the mere existence of an interracial relationship is enough to end racism. in e2 louis literally says “fledgling sounds like slave, dont call me that” and e3 starts with louis telling lestat the history of dismembering runaway enslaved ppl & placing their bodies on the gates of of jackson square.. in his initiation to vampirism, louis is moved from the historically Black creole treme area he grew up in & is placed into lestat’s townhome in the very white, french, old quarter. vampirism as hes initiated into is a loving, powerful, cruel, and isolating existence for louis. bc of vampirism he is able to kill a racist person and not be lynched for it, hes able to echo the historical dismemberment on the alderman by placing his body on the st louis cathedral, but he is unable to kill racist groups & systems that initiate race riots. his connection to claudia in s1 is not so much by the oedipal, but by both their connection as lestat’s fledglings and as Black [creole] people placed in a part of the city largely alien to them both. this connection can be broken down even further. louis saw claudia as his joychild of sorts, ‘[his] redemption’ for his 5 years of pimping but a big part of her tragedy is that a child being made into a vampire cannot redeem anyone, much less redeem an individual from what was a historical inevitability. claudia is adopted into such a stature that she wouldve otherwise never reached by virtue of being made a vampire, but even then that is conditional. claudia is rendered inert from being anyone’s ‘wife’ forever trapped in the confines of immaturity as a ‘daughter’, only hoping at best to be louis’s ‘sister’ and isnt that resonant to bw.. she’s selectively infantilized both a child ‘meddling in the affairs of her parents’ , ungrateful, arrogant, and adultified - presumed powerful enough to ‘poison louis against [lestat]’ , taking on the role of louis’s ‘knight in vengeful white black’ .. the response lestat has to claudia is characterized by him continuing the cycle of abuse he once faced toward her and with a black claudia who was once a poor girl now adopted into this immortal luxury it takes on a racialized element. “bach is beyond you” and claudia bites back with “yes this french music is hmm. not made for these mongrel ears”. the absence of metaphor is striking!! literally the fact that this show does not shy away from the era its set in is why its so good.

[coffeebeanwriting]

The Consequence of Magic

Some magic systems become more realistic if there is a consequence brought onto it’s user. Sometimes this can be as simple as balance— if you heal a life, another life must be given. Here are some ideas to get your mind churning on what consequences your magic could cause to its user.

1) Pain. If the magic is brute and aggressive (fire, lightning, mind control in a negative manner) the user feels all of that same pain they exerted onto someone else.

2) Emotional disconnection. The more the user plays with their power, the less emotion they can feel. Eventually, this could lead to complete disconnection from everyone they love and a decay into pure evilness.

3) Headaches. If the user has a mind-related power, giving them headaches could be a simple yet effective consequence. The headaches could make their power unstable, chaotic and truly dangerous. 

4) Years off their life. Every time they use their ability, it slowly takes days, months and years away from their life. If they’re immortal, they risk mortality. 

5) Slip into madness. The power either gets to their head or it has an evil origin thus causing them to become mad and insane overtime.

6) Freedom. The power is actually an entity of its own and while the user thinks they have control over this awesome ability— it’s really controlling them. Over time, it forces them into doing things or hurting people and one day they just become a soulless puppet. (Makes me think of a parasite 🤢) 

7) Increased aging. The speed at which you age is increased, but the user doesn’t realize it until they start seeing grey hairs or wrinkles. 

8) Blood loss. The magic draws upon the users blood and they have to wait for it to restore before using their abilities— if they don’t, or use a large surge of their ability, it can drain them of blood.

9) Memory loss. The wear and tear on the users mind causes them to slowly forget their lives until they have nothing left to remember. Alternatively, maybe the power needs to use these memories as source of energy.

10) Decay. The users body slowly begins to wither. Nails rotting, skin peeling, eyes drooping, knees weak... mama’s spaghetti. 

11) Extreme exhaustion or tiredness. The power keeps them up at night and takes a ton of energy to use. This renders the user constantly exhausted which can lead to death either from exhaustion, or from making fatal mistakes because they’re so tired.

12) Sacrifices. The power requires some sort of sacrifice to the gods or else they take their power back. An animal, a conjuring of different herbs and items, blood... a life. 

13) Addiction. Similar to foods or drugs, magic can become addictive and deadly at high dosages. 

14) Bad luck. The magic brings upon bad luck. The more magic you use, the worse luck you’ll receive.

Some interesting power + consequence combinations (from the top of my head and from literature/movies): 

The healer who is constantly bleeding internally.

The rebelled servant who has finally gained his freedom but becomes slave to the magic itself.

A magical ring that brings someone back from the dead. Every time this person comes back from the dead, they lose their compassion and humanity bit by bit. (The Vampire Diaries)

A witch brings someone back from the dead and as a consequence, the person begins to see dead people and can interact with them. (The Vampire Diaries)

The power induces OCD— after using their power they feel a compulsion to do something. Sometimes it’s as small as drinking a beer and other times it’s as intense as breaking their own bones. (Darker than Black)

Magic gained from a celestial source (the moon, a star, etc) causes earth to become painful to the magic users. In extreme cases, they are pulled towards that celestial body and need to weigh themselves down/tether themselves to something or else they will drift upwards. (The Anubis Gates)

Pt. 2 — Coming Soon! Because it’s really fun to just sit here and brainstorm and research magical consequences! I feel like the possibilities are endless!

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

📖 ☕ Official Blog: www.byzoemay.com

[rainy-autumn-day]

10 Books to read this Autumn & Halloween🍁🍂🍁

1. Dracula  by Bram Stoker

This start of beautiful season off with something classic and a little scary.

The name of Dracula brings to mind visions of vampires, stakes, garlic, and crucifixes. Yet, when you read the novel, it becomes self-evident how twisted modern vampire fiction now is. The vampires in  this classic story are not meant to inhabit the roles of heroes. Instead you go back a few hundred years when men and women believed truly that the vampire was a real immortal, cursed to quench his undying thirst with a living mortal’s blood. The very idea of a blood drinker should, therefore, inspire the image of a villain and that is what the titular character of this novel is. A villan you can’t help but keep reading about. 

2.  And Then There Were None by  Agatha Christie

Another story that is perfect if you want something that will keep you up at night like it did for me when I read it last year.

There is scarcely any comfort to be found in this book, only an ancient, arcane horror. Ten people receive a mystery letter from someone they don't know that indicates they should come to a remote island. Why would they go????? After arriving, they try to figure out the connection between all of them while waiting for their mysterious host. After coming across a cute little poem about how ten little indians die, they decide they will wait it out until the next morning when the ferry comes back to take them home. But it will never come! Each guest suddenly dies matching the line from a poem. It really keeps you on the edge of your seat.

3.  THE BONE WITCH BY RIN CHUPECO

A story about a young witch just fits so well with this season, but this story is not about a teenage witch =just flying around on a broom. No it’s far darker than that. When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha—one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.

4. Night Film by Marisha Pessl

This story opens in October on a cool evening with a blood chilling scene, it’s really everything you could hope for on a autumn night.

Night Film opens on a cold, cursed October evening, when Ashley Cordova, a young women full of potential, is found dead in a warehouse. Police rule her death a suicide, but investigative journalist Scott McGrath isn't so sure. From that inception point, Scott McGrath enters the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley's life and death, and comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror film director Stanislaus Cordova--a man who hasn't been seen in public for more than thirty years. For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself. Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

5. Autumn by Ali Smith

Ali Smith's lauded Seasonal quartet, a series of four novels rooted in a different time of year, kicks off with Autumn there we watch as love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as they always do.

6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I can’t tell you how many times i have read  this beaful story in my life buti wants have it one my list to read at last once a year and i find it fits so well in to the amazing season that is autumn with   The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring

7.I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney

This story is haunting and it will stay with you after you read it.

It's dark, twisted and unpredictable until the very last chapter keeping me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. You are met with the unknown as you meet Aimee Sinclair, an actress who after coming home, she realizes her husband is missing and after that you are sent on a wild ride to find him.

8.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  

Another classic. I have always found that that reading about a world now gone is so very perfect for autumn, as we watch the leaves we had watch grow turn colors and fly away from us.

Little Women is a beauty told story with each of the sisters seeks out a different form of happiness: Meg wants to marry, Jo wants to be a writer, Beth wants to care for her family, and Amy craves material success. We get to live their world as we following the lives and loves of the four March sisters and their mother as they mature from youth through adolescence and adulthood.

9.Mexican Gothic  by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

If you love gothic horror, this one is for you. It has the same feeling as Jane Eyre but way creepier and set in 1950’s Mexico.

The atmosphere is perfect for the season, a debutante heads to a creepy countryside house, after receiving an ominous letter from her newlywed cousin, and finds the dark secrets that lie within the house and its occupants.

10.The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

A suspenseful and eerie mystery told via dual timelines all surrounding a rundown roadside motel and the secrets lurking that captivated a woman so much that she went missing in the 1980’s and now have caught the attention of her niece 35 years later. If you love a good mystery mixed with timeline jumping this a perfect one for you.

Bonus

11.The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Handmaid’s Tale meets Salem: Born of rebellious feminist resistance by a girl who is branded as cursed because of her mother’s sins and facing the dark powers to make definite and concrete changes at the dystopian, puritanical, secluded society consisted of hypocrisy, ignorance, illogical and unfair laws.

This is another terrifying, fist clenching, soul shivering, mind crushing, heart pounding, forehead sweating, edgy, spooky, bleak, dark journey take you to the dark woods to face the four witches are ready to haunt you in your dreams and place a quite irritating thoughts inside your brains.

[lubdubsworld]

Insatiable  ( Jungkook x Oc ) Chapter 9

Pairing : Jeon Jungkook x OC

Rating 18+

Genre : Vampire Au!!!! , DILF! Jungkook ! Bodyguard AU! Babysitter OC!   Age difference!!!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3   Chapter 4 Chapter 5   Chapter 6  Chapter 7

Chapter 8 

Chapter 9

“Fuck yeah....” Jungkook’s grip on my thighs tightened, tugging me closer as he slid into me, deeper and i spluttered a bit, spitting water all over him. 

“This is a bad idea. “ i choked, blinking the water out of my eyes as the shower overhead kept pouring a whole deluge on top of us and Jungkook frowned, glancing at me in annoyance. 

“I’m going to  gag you the next time we have sex.” He grunted, pressing me into the tiled wall of the bathroom and I winced when he pulled out fully and rammed back in, clearly pissed. 

I pouted.

“I’m not good with water. “ I whined, eyes still closed because the water, Christ. It dripped into my eyes and all over my body and i couldn’t even enjoy being fucked right now because I was mortally afraid that Jungkook’s hands were going to slip, he was going to drop me on my butt and i was going to break my tailbone.

Jungkook groaned, more frustration than pleasure and gripped my ass harder, holding me up at a better angle and fucking right back into me, slide made easier both from his cum from earlier and the water. 

“Sera, sweetheart...if you could just shut up for a couple of mutes, I’ll be done. And then i swear I will never try to seduce you in the shower again. Ever.” He begged. 

 “  Why can’t you wait till i finish showering? We literally had sex ten minutes ago, why are you so thirsty? ” I glared at him. Or tried to . But I couldn’t .

Because water. 

‘Okay that’s it,” He pulled out, and I hated that sudden emptiness and this was probably going to be a problem, me being used to having him inside me all the time.

He grabbed the back of my knees, prompting me to get down. But my muscles were still a bit too weary he was dripping wet so I slid down a little, panicking. 

 I gripped his shoulders hard, and he laughed, shaking his head at the look on my face. 

“ I won’t drop you, little one. Stop looking petrified.” He chuckled, before carefully unwrapping my thighs from around his waist and lowering me to the floor. 

“You alright?” He brushed the wet hair off my face and I nodded.

“Can we at least kiss in the shower?” 

I laughed. 

“You can kiss me anywhere you want.” i reached out to press my lips against his and pulled back to smile at him, tilting my head as he ran his fingers down my neck, fingers fluttering against my pulse gently. 

“And can I drink from you?” He asked softly and i froze.

The words made me pause. 

“Jungkook...” I whispered, staring at my feet.

 I couldn’t believe he wanted to. 

He knew my secret. Knew that nothing good would come from feeding from me. That my blood in his veins would do nothing but take away his will, and the scent and taste of it all was just a facade. 

That everything about me was a lie. The innocence, the beauty , the delicate build...all a distraction from what I truly was : a dangerous, manipulative being. Someone capable of doing a lot of damage. 

“Please. When I start courting you, I want to be able to feed from you,  angel... It’s how we vampires build our bond. ...”He said gently. 

I laughed without really feeling it. 

“I would never say no to you. You know that....but... you... you know .” I couldn’t finish. 

“What do I know?” He asked gently, running his thumb across my lip. 

“ you know what my blood does to vampires. You know that I can use it against you.”

“But I also know that you  won’t.”  He said simply and I looked up at him.

“I trust you. “ He said simply.  i swallowed.

“Besides, most women would be glad that their husbands are terrified of them.” He chuckled. 

I knew he was joking but I still felt tears sting. 

I couldn’t bear the thought of Jungkook being afraid of me. 

“I won’t ever do it you know. “ I choked out. “ Take away your consent... I’ve never done it on anyone who didn’t deserve it...even with those boys in college , I was just scared that they would attack me again... That they would bite me again and i was bleeding out and I felt so cold...and i was so scared so I just did the first thing I could think of... I never meant to hurt them... I was just so scared and...” I sobbed out and his arms came around me , pulling me into a hug and I felt the tears spill over, soaking his chest as i clung to him.

“Baby...no...please don’t cry...it’s alright.. I’m sorry I shouldn’t have joked about that...I’m sorry Sera....”

“I’m not a monster. “ I whispered. “ Please don’t be scared of me Gukkie... I’d never hurt you or Joowon.... I’m not a monster.. I don’t want to be. I just.. I just wanted to be normal. It’s not my fault I’m the way i am.... ” 

Jungkook pulled back to cup my face between his hands, I bit my lips, another sob building up when I saw how wet his lashes were. 

“Baby look at me...” He smiled, a watery smile , “ I would never think that. I have never for a second considered you as a threat to me or my son.... you’re...”He shook his head, “ Darling, You’re not normal. You’re perfect.” 

“Now you’re just mocking me.” I muttered, looking away. But he made a noise of protest. 

“I’m not joking. You are easily the most generous  person I’ve ever met, Sera... You give so freely of yourself to everyone, whether they are deserving of it or not... You play with the babies , you take Joo Won out on walks and play ball with him, you do things for me even when I push you away and....God,  do you not know how amazing and kind and generous you are???!! “ He kissed me on the lips, hard , before pulling back. 

I stared at him, laughing a little but he wasn’t done.

“ I’ve never seen anyone as selfless as you. . Just the fact that you’ve given me the privilege to be here, hold you like this, tells me how kind and forgiving you are... You gave a bastard like me a chance, even though I did nothing but hurt you, over and over again.... You’re beautiful , So beautiful, my angel..In fact I was going to wait at least till we were out of the shower, but to hell with it.”

I blinked , surprised , when he grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his waist before rushing out . I grabbed my own robe, surprised, tying it together before following him out to the bedroom. 

He was fumbling in his closet and I felt my heart drop when I saw the small red box. He opened it easily pulling out a glittering necklace with a pendant and a small vial hanging off it. 

“Is that....?” I couldn’t even say it. 

“My birthstone.  It’s a sapphire. “ He smiled. “ And this vial has my blood. You put this on and anyone who comes near you will know that you’re being courted. By me. “ 

“You ... really? You mean this? You really want this?” I asked , nervous and jittery. 

He hesitated, coming closer and gently pulling my hand up . 

Jungkook placed the necklace on my hand, gently curling my fingers closed.

“Whether you put it on, or not. it’s yours. There’s no one else in this world, I would ever want to give this to.” He smiled softly. 

“How dare you!” I bawled. “ I can’t even take a picture because we’re dressed like this!!” 

He laughed. 

“So, i hope that’s a yes?” 

“Yes, you infuriatingly beautiful, beautifully infuriating bastard....! Put it on me!” 

Still laughing , he plucked the necklace off my hand and moved behind me. I smiled as he locked it in place behind my neck, pressing a small kiss to my skin. 

“Thank you. For giving me the privilege to love you.” He breathed against my skin, wrapping me in a warm hug and i closed my eyes. 

“I love you, Jeon Jungkook. You’re never getting rid of me now.” I grinned so wide my cheeks hurt. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So...I was thinking... .” I began carefully glancing at Jungkook  who stood leaning against the bed post, fiddling with his phone while I ran a brush through my hair  before tying it up into a messy ponytail. He was already  dressed in jeans and a muscle t and I was ogling his nipples through the mirror. Last night, he’d finally let me bite them. 

“Yes, princess?” He smiled indulgently, looking up and running his eyes up and down my body as usual. I loved that. Being with Jungkook had taught me a lot of things about myself. Things I never knew I could enjoy. 

Like dressing up and being looked at . I’d spent a long time hiding in the shadows, wary of who I was, of letting someone see me for what I was. Feeling beautiful was a distant dream because I just didn’t want to be someone dangerous. Didn’t want anyone to look at me and see a monster. 

But standing here, in the comfort of my own room, dressed in a strapless yellow blouse and a flowy white skirt, with his eyes on me, I felt absolutely beautiful. I fixed the necklace around my neck so it shone bright . 

“ its Saturday. Not a lot of kids at the day care center so I don’t have to be there at all... Would the five hundred year old vampire be willing to spend a day indulging the twenty one year old human’s love for cotton candy and tandem bike rides by the river?” 

Jungkook laughed. 

“That’s something Joo Won would come up with. Are the two of you trying to play me again?”

Thwarted, I gave him a pout.

“It’s a beautiful day Jungkook!! Jo o Won loves the river... i took him there with Somi when you you were holed up with my father for two weeks and he had such a good time!! “

“You know...if you’re going to be the parental figure in his life, you need to learn to better resist his puppy dog eyes.” Jungkook said drily. “ Besides, I was hoping it could just be the two of us today. Celebrate  our courtship? “

I frowned. 

“I’m not leaving Joo Won alone... He’ll be bored.” I said firmly.

“Alright...how about you ask him yourself and let him decide?” He suggested with a smile. 

I hesitated , suspicious. 

Alright.

i followed Jungkook downstairs to the huge foyer and  then past the guards to the dining room for breakfast. 

To my surprise, Joo Won sat at the table with my father, both of them dressed in identical outfits. White t shirts, white pants and shoes , digging into toast and eggs. 

“Sera !! Sera!! Grandpa Hwang is taking me fishing!!!” Joo Won seemed to be vibrating out of his skin in excitement and i glanced at Jungkook in shock.

“you planned this.” I protested.

He shrugged.

“It was actually I who suggested it. i intend to get  to know my grandson better.” My father said with a bright smile and I felt the tears sting again as he looked at me, eyes warm and happy. 

“Oh, dad...” I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tight. 

“You’re glowing my dearest. And what do I smell?” He pulled back, eyes landing on the necklace. “ Ah. Finally plucked up the courage, have you my boy?” 

He gave Jungkook a wink and a grin. 

Jungkook bowed respectfully, smiling. 

“Excellent. Once all this distressing stuff with Tae Kwan is over, we will celebrate your betrothal in a grand manner. For now, let me take my handsome fishing partner and get out of your hair, with the promise to bring you a delicious catch for dinner tonight. Perhaps together? As a family?” My father smiled wide, eyes trained on Jungkook and he went red.

“Yes, sir.”

My father harrumphed.

“That’s not what you’re supposed to be calling me...”

I laughed as Jungkook went redder.

“Sorry.. I.. yes father. We will join you for dinner. “ He smiled a genuine smile and my father beamed at him. 

“Excellent....now sit down and let’s eat.” 

We sat next to my father and I remembered the first time my father had invited Jungkook to sit for breakfast with us. 

“Honey, would you like a drink?” i teased, fluttering my fingers against my neck and Jungkook flushed. My father guffawed heartily, highly amused. 

“Ahh yes... that was the morning i realized my daughter was a complete fool for you, Jungkook ah. “ He chuckled. 

“She told me about herself, father.” Jungkook said softly and my father looked surprised. He gave me a smile .

“It is good be honest with each other. I’m glad she did.” He said softly. “You may be overwhelmed by it, Jungkook ah. We have never seen anything like her. I haven’t encouraged her to pursue it because I’m not sure how it would affect her. Her blood is magic....but she herself isn’t. I don’t want her abilities robbing her of her life, especially because we don’t know the true extent of them.” 

I bit my lips.

‘I won’t use them .” I said softly . 

“You shouldn’t. They take a toll on your mind and I don’t ever want to see you in that condition again.” My father said firmly. 

Jungkook gave me a curious glance but I shook my head. 

“Please don’t worry about me father . I have Jungkook now. He’s going to keep me safe. Even though you no longer have to pay him for it.” I laughed. 

My father chuckled. 

We finished breakfast, with Jungkook and my father talking about business while Joo Won told me all the fishes he could name and how their feeding habit varied. He had a great love for books and his birthday was coming up in a few weeks. I had already bulk ordered a bunch of his favorite authors for him. 

When we were finally done, we walked out to the driveway where two cars stood, one to take me and Jungkook out for the day and a golf cart for my father to drive Joo Won down to the lake. 

“We’ll be home for dinner then.” Jungkook gave my father a hug and my father looked positively ecstatic at the gesture. I knew he had always loved him deeply and as Jungkook moved away to tie Joo Won’s shoe laces, I could help but snuggle up to his side. 

“you knew.” I said gently.

My father hummed, ruffling my hair affectionately. 

“Knew what , my dearest?” 

“That I would fall in love with him. You knew and that’s why you brought her here. You love him deeply and you wanted him by your side. To keep him and Joo Won safe.” 

My father smiled.

“you are perceptive. Yes... I have always regarded Jungkook as my son. i wanted him here where I could protect him. And that’s why i brought him here. And i hoped that you would both grow fond of each other....  But it wasn’t because i knew you would fall in love with him.” 

“Really?”

“Yes. It was because I knew  he  would fall in love with  you.” 

I turned to look up at him and he pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. 

“ I told you dearest. i will never settle for anything but your complete happiness. And I think that is with Jungkook.” His eyes shifted away and I followed his gaze to where Jungkook was kneeling in front of his son, nuzzling his hair and hugging him tight. 

“They are your family now and I am at peace.” He said softly. 

Jungkook and Joo Won straightened and moved towards us, identical grins on their faces.

“He’s all ready .” Jungkook said softly. 

“Excellent. Come then young master Jeon...let’s go see what treasures the water fairy will bring us today....” My father took Joo Won’s hand and Joo Won’s eyes went wide. Giving me one last kiss on my cheek, my father led him away. 

“The water fairy?”

“Why yes, haven’t you heard of her? come... I’ll tell you all about it.” 

I watched the pair of them walk up to the golf cart on the driveway. 

I turned back to Jungkook smiling and holding my hand out.

“Looks like You get to have me all to yourself today, Jungk-”

The gunshot rang out behind me, right as my fingers brushed Jungkook’s. 

Terror as I’d never known flooded my veins as i froze, eyes trained on Jungkook who was already moving. My fingers shook, breath ripped right out of my lung, blood turning to ice in my veins as I turned around. 

The first thing that caught my eye was the commotion across the lawn, guards subduing a man into the ground, a shot gun lying by his side. 

And as my eyes finally saw the golf cart, I saw my father, slumped over the wheel, soaked in scarlet. 

The scream that got torn out of me was feral.

 My throat in agony as I raced to the vehicle. Joo won was on the floor, between my fathers legs and I realized that he had pushed the child down, covering him with his body right before the gunshot had rang out. 

Jungkook pulled his son into his arms but I could only crawl over to my father, gripping his face as he gurgled, blood flowing out of him in a torrent. 

“Daddy!” i whimpered... “ Oh God..no... Please...” I pressed my wrist to his mouth, but he was too weak to move, the shot gun bullet at such close quarters having left too much damage to his body. i saw the carnage, the blood and the mess and I sobbed in disbelief. 

“We need to get him to the clinic...!!” Jungkook’s arms came around me , pulling me away as men crowded my father, lifting him off the seat and onto a stretcher.  

“Se....ra...” My father’s broken voice made my knees buckle and I shoved Jungkook away, rushing to his side as they wheeled him to the nearest car.

“Daddy..I’m here... I’m right here... I’m going to fix this....we’re going to fix this...you’re going to be okay... Hang on... “ i begged and he chuckled weakly another spurt of blood dribbling down his lips.

“Wanted...to walk you...down ...”He closed his eyes, “the aisle...” 

‘I sobbed out in agony, the pain so heavy and all consuming that i felt like i was being torn to shreds on the inside. 

“You are...You are going to daddy...You’re the only one who can...the only one I have... Oh please God...no...” 

“I love you...”Take care of her, Jungkook-ah...”  He said firmly, eyes blazing red as he stared over me and i realized that Jungkook had followed me, was holding me up as he watched my father die. I saw him reach out and grip my father’s hand squeezing tight. 

“They’ll be fine father. All of them. Rest easy...” Jungkook whispered and I felt my heart crack clean in two. 

 I saw my father’s  eyes grow dimmer and felt hope leave my body leaving ice cold grief in its place. . No.. No...

“Dad...” I stopped crying, shock taking over me as i instinctively realized what was happening. 

He was dying. 

My father was dying. 

His hands went up, touching my face gently. 

“My favorite... “ He smiled weakly  and  I watched the light leave his eye forever. He slumped, softly, his hands falling away and I sagged. Jungkook caught me to his body. 

“I’m so sorry angel.” i could feel the damp of his tears as he cried into my neck. 

 I felt the cold in my heart as the bond between my father an I  pulsed and burned , really bright for one split second before fading abruptly, leaving icy cold behind. 

Screams rang out from all around me, from the windows over head and from across the estate. Somewhere I heard my sister’s roar of rage .

 Somi’s screams followed by Jimin’s sobs. 

Everyone had felt it.

Everyone in the clan had felt the death of the Hwang clan’s leader, shot dead on his own lawn by some traitor who had managed to break his way in 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note : I’m so sorry. 

feedback is loved. 

Taglist : 

@ladyartemesia        @veronawrites   @alpaca1612     @bonyg    @unseejuice21  @sppvjj     @ggukkieland     @tae-by-tae      @blr1004      @yoongichild    @stussyjeon  @jellybearo  @sumzysworld   @carolsummerlove@bunniechoon  @unicornbabylover @preciouschimine    @baekhyunatthehaunted-house @craztextae   @nikkiordonez12

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[toscrollperchancetomeme]

Lestat de Lioncourt - A playlist

So, guess who made a Lestat Playlist (like there aren't enough already) and decided to sit down for 4-6 hours to find some excerpt corresponding with each song? Featuring 80s and 90s music (clearly showing my age...) as well as many european songs and showtunes. Enjoy!

1. Cathedrals – Ramin Karimloo (Original by Jump, Little Children)

In the cathedrals of New York and Rome There is a feeling that you should just go home And spend the lifetime finding out just where that is

And that was not a good year for me. I was wandering aimlessly. I was sick of things. I was furious with myself that the „beauty“ of life wasn't sustaining me, wasn't making my loneliness bearable.

I wanted to join them. Always do want to join them and never do. „Go home,“ he whispered. - Prince Lestat

(I actually feel like there are quotes that would correspond to this song in every one of the books and indeed have not yet found any other song that captures the general spirit of The Vampire Chronicles as perfectly.)

2. Edge of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks

Well, I went today Maybe I will go again tomorrow Yeah yeah, well, the music there Well, it was hauntingly familiar Well, I see you doing what I try to do for me With the words from a poet and a voice from a choir And a melody, and nothing else mattered

He sat next to me, hugging me and asking me why I was crying, and though I couldn't tell him, I could see that he was overwhelmed that his music had produced this effect. There was no sarcasm or bitterness in him now. I think he carried me home that night. And the next morning I was standing in the crooked stone street in front of his father's shop, tossing pebbles up at his window. When he stuck his head out, I said: „Do you want to come down and go on with our conversation?“ - The Vampire Lestat

3. I ain't scared of lightning – Tom McRae

No I ain't scared of lightning And thunder never killed I was born in a summer storm and I live there still

I wasn't part of the world that cringed at such things. And with a smile, I realized that I was of that dark ilk that makes others cringe. Slowly and with great pleasure, I laughed.

And the labor that brought it forth was rapture such as I have never known. - The Vampire Lestat

4. Junge Roemer – Falco (Young Romans – Full Translation)

Don't ask for new old values See white light, see only feeling The night is ours till morning We play every game Don't ever let this journey end The doing comes only from the being Only from dimensions, that Are worth illusions and sensations Give me more, give me more, give me more...

... and again she laughed. „Ah, but we are splendid devils, aren't we?“ „Hunters of the Savage Garden,“ I said. „Then let's go into Paris,“ she said. - The Vampire Lestat

5. Running up that hill – Candy Says (Original by Kate Bush

If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, Be running up that building,

„Not even with Nicolas?“ „No, god, no!“ I looked at her. She nodded slightly as if she approved of this answer. „Why not with Nicolas?“ she asked. I wanted this to stop. „Because he's young,“ I said, „and he has life before him.“ - The Vampire Lestat

6. Florence – Notre Dame de Paris (Full Translation)

The little things always triumph over the large And literature will kill architecture The school books will kill the cathedrals The Bible will kill the Church, and man will kill God This will kill that

„I never lived in it. I push against the glass. But how do I get in?“ „I can't tell you that,“ I said. „You have to study this age,“ Gabrielle interrupted. Her voice was calm but commanding. He looked towards her as she spoke. „You have to understand the age,“ she continued, „through its literature and its music and its art. You have come up out of the earth, as you yourself put it. Now live in the world.“ No answer from him. Flash of Nicki's ravaged flat with all its books on the floor. Western civilization in heaps. - The Vampire Lestat

7. Go your own way – Fleetwood Mac

Loving you isn't the right thing to do How can I ever change things that I feel

If I could maybe I'd give you my world How can I when you won't take it from me

You can go your own way You can call it another lonely day

„Keep your promise,“ she said. And quite suddenly I knew this was our last moment. I knew it and I could do nothing to change it. „Gabrielle!“ I whispered. But she was already gone. - The Vampire Lestat

8. Désenchantée – Olympe (Original by Myléne Farmer - Full Translation)

If death is a mystery Life isn't exactly tender If heaven has a hell Then heaven can still wait for me Tell me how to handle this headwind Nothing makes sense anymore, nothing's fine

Laughter. That insane music. That din, that dissonance, that never ending shrill articulation of the meaninglessness... Am I awake? Am I asleep? I am sure of one thing. I am a monster. And because I lie in torment in the earth, certain human beings move on through the narrow pass of life unmolested. - The Vampire Lestat

9. A kind of magic – Queen

The bell that rings inside your mind Is challenging the doors of time It's a kind of magic The waiting seems eternity The day will dawn of sanity

And quite completely I understood that it was looking for me, this sound, it was seeking me out.

Blood like light itself, liquid fire.

It seemed beneath the roar of the flow he spoke. He said again: „Drink, my young one, my wounded one.“ I felt his heart swell, his body undulate, and we were sealed against each other. I think I heard myself say: „Marius.“ And he answered: „Yes.“ - The Vampire Lestat

10. La quête – Bruno Pelletier (French version of „The Impossible Dream“ from Man of La Mancha)

To try when your arms are too weary To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest To follow that star Ooh, no matter how hopeless No matter how far

I would remain in New Orleans if New Orleans could only manage to remain. Whatever I suffered should be lessened in this lawless place, whatever I craved should give me more pleasure once I had it in my grasp. And there were moments on that first night in this fetid little paradise when I prayed that in spite of all my secret power, I was somehow kin to every mortal man. - The Vampire Lestat

11. Wicked Game – Chris Isaak

What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you

Yet Louis gained a hold over me far more powerful than Nicolas had ever had. Even in his cruelest moments, Louis touched the tenderness in me, seducing me with his staggering dependence, his infatuation with my every gesture and every spoken word. - The Vampire Lestat

12. Do I disappoint you – Rufus Wainwright

Do I disappoint you, in just being human? And not one of the elements that you can light your cigar on Why does it always have to be fire? Why does it always have to be brimstone?

„And suppose the vampire who made you knew nothing, and the vampire before him knew nothing, and so it goes back and back, nothing proceeding from nothing, until there is nothing! And we must live with the knowledge that there is no knowledge!“ „Yes!“ he cried out suddenly, his hands out, his voice tinged with something other than anger.

And then I sensed it. He was afraid. Lestat afraid. - Interview with the Vampire

13. Ordinary World – Duran Duran

What has happened to it all? Crazy, some'd say Where is the life that I recognize? Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday There's an ordinary world Somehow I have to find And as I try to make my way To the ordinary world I will learn to survive

I do not remember when it became the twentieth century, only that everything was uglier and darker, and the beauty I'd known in the old eighteenth-century days seemed more than ever some kind of fanciful idea. - The Vampire Lestat

14. I'm still standing – Taron Egerton (Original by Elton John)

And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use And did you think this fool could never win? Well look at me, I'm coming back again

But after the third night up, I was roaring around New Orleans on a big black Harley-Davidson motorcycle making plenty of noise myself. […] I was the vampire Lestat again. I was back in action. New Orleans was once again my hunting ground. - The Vampire Lestat

15. Catch my fall – Billy Idol

I have the time so I will sing, yeah I'm just a boy but I will win, yeah Lost song of lovers, fellow travelers, yeah Leave me sad and hollow out of words

It could happen to you so think for yourself If I should stumble, catch my fall, yeah

I've survived, obviously. I wouldn't be talking to you if I hadn't. And the cosmic dust has finally settled; and the small rift in the world's fabric of rational beliefs has been mended, or at least closed. I'm a little sadder for all of it, and a little meaner and a little more conscientious as well. - The Queen of the Damned

16. I want it all – Queen

I'm a man with a one track mind So much to do in one lifetime (people do you hear me) Not a man for compromise and where's and why's and living lies So I'm living it all, yes I'm living it all And I'm giving it all, and I'm giving it all

It is not enough any longer that my little rock band be successful. We must create a fame that will carry my name and my voice to the remotest parts of the world. - The Vampire Lestat

17. Let me entertain you – Robbie Williams

Hell is gone and heaven's here There's nothing left for you to fear Shake your arse come over here Now scream

I'm a burning effigy Of everything I used to be You're my rock of empathy, my dear

So come on let me entertain you

"I AM THE VAMPIRE LESTAT!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I stepped way back from the microphone, and the sound was almost visible as it arched over the length of the oval theater, and the voice of the crowd rose even higher, louder, as if to devour the ringing sound. - The Vampire Lestat

18. La bien qui fait mal – Mozart l'Opera Rock (Full translation)

I can feel a violent urge I feel like I'm sliding towards the ground If I don't find out where this plague is coming from I adore having it under my skin Bewitched by mad ideas Suddenly all my cravings take off The desire becomes my prison Until I loose my mind

Yet I was in her arms in this chilling darkness, in the familiar scent of winter, and her blood was mine again, and it was enslaving me. When she drew away, I felt agony. - The Queen of the Damned

19. Tainted Love – Soft Cell

And you think love is to pray But I'm sorry I don't pray that way Once I ran to you Now I'll run from you This tainted love you've given I give you all a boy could give you Take my tears and that's not living, oh

„What do you think I am that I am so easily swayed? I was born a Queen. I have always ruled; even from the shrine I ruled." Her eyes were glazed suddenly. I heard the voices, a dull hum rising. "I ruled if only in legend; if only in the minds of those who came to me and paid me tribute. Princes who played music for me; who brought me offerings and prayers. What do you want of me now? That for you, I renounce my throne, my destiny!" What answer could I make? - The Queen of the Damned

20. Dancing in the Dark – Ruth Moody (Original by Bruce Springsteen)

They say you gotta stay hungry Hey baby, I'm just about starvin' tonight I'm dyin' for some action I'm sick of sittin' 'round here tryin' to write this book I need a love reaction Come on now, baby, gimme just one look

"I want you to put the book aside and come join us," he said. "You've been locked in here for over a month." "I go out now and then," I said. I liked looking at him, at the neon blue of his eyes.

"Do you love me now?" I asked. He smiled; oh, it was excruciating to see his face soften and brighten simultaneously when he smiled. "Yes," he said. "Want to go on a little adventure?" My heart was thudding suddenly. It would be so grand if- "Want to break the new rules?" "What in the world do you mean?" he whispered. - The Queen of the Damned

21. I want you – Savage Garden

Oh, I want you, I don't know if I need you But oh, I would die to find out

"You don't think you'll be back?" he asked. "I think you will, whether I call or not." Another little surprise. A little stab of humiliation. I smiled at him in spite of myself. He was a very interesting man. "You silver-tongued British bastard," I said. "How dare you say that to me with such condescension? Maybe I should kill you right now."

I thought of David Talbot's face, and that moment when he'd challenged me. Well, maybe he was right. I'd be back. Who said I couldn't come back and talk to him if I wanted to? - The Queen of the Damned

22. Lay your hands on me – Bon Jovi

I'm a fighter, I'm a poet, I'm a preacher I've been to school, oh baby, I've been the teacher If you show me how to get up off the ground I can show you how to fly and never ever come back down

I sat down on the bed beside him. And then I bent down and kissed his face again gently, as I had in New Orleans, liking the feel of his roughly shaven beard, just as I liked that sort of thing when I was really Lestat and I would soon have that strong masculine blood inside. I moved closer to him, when suddenly he grasped my hand, and I felt him gently push me away. „Why, David?“ I asked him. He didn't answer. He lifted his right hand and brushed my hair back out of my eyes. „I don't know,“ he whispered. „I can't. I simply can't.“ - The Tale of the Body Thief

23. 20th Century Boy – Placebo (Original by T-Rex)

I move like a cat, charge like a ram Sting like a bee, babe, I wanna be your man, hey!

He drew back with a speed that astonished me, cleaving to the wall. „Don't do this, Lestat.“ „Don't fight me, old friend. You waste your effort. You have a long night of discovery ahead.“ - The Tale of the Body Thief

24. Way down we go – KALEO

Oh, Father tell me, do we get what we deserve? Whoa, we get what we deserve And way down we go

„In chains, to my friend and my scribe, I dictated these words. Come with me. Just listen to me. Don't leave me alone.“ - Memnoch the Devil

25. Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

Reach out, touch faith

"Don't tell me," Gabrielle said slurringly, "that it's a matter of faith." She sneered and shook her head. "You come like doubting Thomas to thrust your bloody fangs in the very wound." "Oh, stop, please, I beg you," I whispered. I put up my hands. "Let me try, and let him hurt me, and then be satisfied, and turn away." - The Vampire Armand

26. Papillon – Editors

Darling Just don't put down your guns yet If there really was a God here He'd have raised a hand by now Now darling You're born, get old, then die here Well that's quite enough for me We'll find our own way home somehow

"And if I spill my blood down into this coffin now," Lestat asked her, "what do you think will come back? Do you think it will be our Louis that will rise in these burnt rags? What if it's not, chérie, what if it's some wounded revenant that we must destroy?" "Choose life, Lestat," she said. - Merrick

27. Sunday Light – Choir Boy

Why, why, why, are you silent on the ride home? I'd love to see the temple with you Heavenly and bright, golden angel twisted scathing You were one of us, one of us, one of us, you were one of us

"Then come, Little Brother, take me to where you want to talk," he said, and I felt the soft squeeze of his fingers on my arm. "Why are you so kind to me?" I asked him. "You're used to people being paid to do it, aren't you?" he asked. - Blackwood Farm

28. Für mich solls rote Rosen regnen – Hildegard Knef (It should rain red roses for me - Full translation)

It should rain red roses for me All wonders should encounter me The world should rearrange itself And keep its worries to itself

I want to be a saint. I want to save souls by the millions. I want to do good far and wide. I want to fight evil! I want my life-sized statue in every church. I'm talking six feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes- Wait a second. Do you know who I am? - Blood Canticle

29. Constant Craving – K. D. Lang

Even through the darkest phase Be it thick or thin Always someone marches brave Here beneath my skin And constant craving Has always been

I was hunting, thirsting though I didn't need to drink, at the mercy of the craving, the deep agonizing lust for heated pumping human blood. - Prince Lestat

30. Kalte Sterne – Jan Ammann (Cold Stars from the musical Ludwig² - Full translation)

Get up, ride home, on your horse, through your land Across the morning with your reins trailing behind you Build a castle like a dream, build it with mighty hands And it shall be named „future“

Build a castle like a dream Up from the ashes and close to the heavens Build a castle like a dream And realise the future as king

If we wanted to survive, if we wanted to inherit the millenia […] then we had to meet the future with respect as well as courage and count fear and selfishness to be small things. - Prince Lestat and the realms of Atlantis

31. C'est une belle journée – Mylene Farmer (Full translation)

I'm going to bed To bite eternity With my mouth wide open It's a beautiful day

And I felt the cold numbing shell of alienation and despair which had imprisoned me all of my life among the Undead – I felt that shell cracked, broken, and dissolved utterly into infinitesimal fragments. - Blood Communion

32. Princes of the Universe – Queen

Fly the moon and reach for the stars With my sword and head held high Got to pass the test first time, yeah I know that people talk about me, I hear it every day But I can prove them wrong 'cause I'm right first time

„I know that you meant full well to bring Rhoshamandes down, of course you did. But you had no way of knowing that you could. And no one would have predicted that you could. And with the willingness to die, you gave yourself over into his hands... and you disarmed him and destroyed him.“ – Blood Communion

And finally, because I can, a bonus track:

33. Primadonna – MARINA

And I'm sad to the core, core, core Every day is a chore, chore, chore When you give, I want more, more, more I wanna be adored

[chibimyumi]

Hello Chibimyumi! This isn't Kuro-related at all, but I wanted to ask if you are watching the current series "MARS RED," as, from how you've described your tastes, its content/presentation seem like something you'd enjoy. It adapts stage readings, so its visual vocabulary is steeped in the theatre, & the writing is pleasantly subtle with a lot communicated through nonverbal character "acting"- much different from how exaggerated most anime is. If you are watching, I'd love to hear your thoughts

【Related post: Furukawa in MARS RED Super Sound Theatre】

Dear Anon,

My apologies for the late reply! When I received your ask I hadn’t watched MARS RED yet, that is why I decided to wait for a bit before answering you. Your ask reminded me to watch this anime which I had shelved for a bit.

Now I am watching it, and I am enjoying it very much. So thank you for reminding me (*´▽｀*) I am also really happy that you not just guessed, but even pin-pointed what makes this series my taste! (*≽ω≼*) Flattered.

So, what do I think of the series? Like you said, I really like how subtle this series is, AND YET HAS ITS CAMPINESS!!! I mean, steampunk vampires? Yes.

The world is very mesmerising, and I can just feel like I’m in the Taisho Era. The world feels alive, and that is very important to me. The way the world is drawn and animated brings this incredible atmosphere to it, I think just a few screenshots can give anyone a sample-taste of it.

Save for a few, I think the characters in this show are very likable (I will come back to this a bit later). I don’t see one clear main character; it is just a main character team. And I love that. I like how each character has their own anime-quirk, but most of them are more than just that. In particular I came to like Defrott a lot. He really is what the makers were making him to be. An ancient being trapped in a child’s body. Very often in series I see such character concepts, but I just never quite buy how truly old they are. With Defrott however, I can very clearly see the experience and solitude that has built up inside him from over the centuries, and I love it.

On the downside, the supposed main character is quite flat in the series: Kurusu Shutaro. To me, he is the main “culprit” of the “save for a few” I mentioned above.

The anime adaptation and the Super Sound Theatre share their cores, but otherwise they are quite different. The anime is more world-centred, while the theatre is character-centred. And when I first met Kurusu, it was in the character-centred theatre version. In the theatre version, Kurusu is in his own right the main character, whereas in the anime (so far!) he is a bit delegated to the sidelines, making me wonder: "is....he going to become the main character? If not, why is he in the centre of every poster?"

In the theatre version, Kurusu makes his entrance with a mental breakdown and panic attack, so you immediately get a good glimpse of who he was, what changed for him, and what was at stake. In being turned into a vampire, Kurusu didn't lose his literal life, but he did lose his "life". He can no longer walk under the sun, and he can no longer meet anybody he knew and loved.

In both the anime and the theatre version, an important side-character dies. Without spoiling too much I shall call them "X" for now. In the anime X dies because they tried to lift the debris from character Y who was mortally wounded in a sudden earth quake. In moving the debris, character X was exposed to sunlight which killed them.

In the theatre version, the death of character X is way more meaningful than its animated counterpart. In this universe, vampires come in S, A, B, C and Unranked class. The higher the class, the stronger the vampire, but also the less resilient they are against anti-vampire elements, such as “sunlight”.

The enemy army had a lot of lower ranked soldiers, so they were disadvantaged against the Japanese Vampire Unit which had Kurusu, an A-rank vampire. (One A-rank vampire is the equivalent of an entire unit in power). So in order to gain the upper hand, the enemy strategy was to drag the battle out as long as possible to force the A-rank Kurusu to stay until dawn and let the rising sun take care of him. Character X noticed, so they sacrificed themselves to preserve Kurusu, for Kurusu is the Japanese army’s best weapon.

Upon X’s death, Kurusu let out a terrifying roar of grief......and it was beautiful (´；ω；`)ｳｯ… You just saw the aftermath of what this sacrifice of X did to Kurusu, and how he gradually lost even more of his “humanity” now that he lost his only friend on top of just being preserved as “the best weapon”.

So far I have only seen the 7 episodes that are available of MARS RED anime, but I have yet to see ANYTHING to make me actually care about the supposed main character. It’s not even that Anime!Kurusu doesn’t do anything that makes me care, it’s that he hasn’t even taken any memorable action at all, or even actively partakes in the series.

In the first post from last year linked above I inserted the tag: “....Studio PLEASE don’t make Kurusu a whiny boring self-insert character... I beg of you”......Well... I guess they didn’t do just THAT..... but they just didn’t do ANYTHING with him. BUT, we still have 5 episodes to go! Better late than never!

On net balance, I really, really am enjoying MARS RED anime a lot, and I can’t wait for more!! If I just forget that Kurusu is supposed to be the main character and pretend/accept that in this version the other characters are the focus, the anime is entirely fine!

A definite recommendation for sure! Thank you for that, Anon!

[thunderpot]

-  Meta

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4.2 | 5 | 6 | 7 “It is said that a long time ago in the age of heroes — when Mother Earth was awake and the Gods walked among mortals — there was once a beast created by the Sun that fell in love with a great warrior.

Distressed that they could never be together as he was, the beast pleaded to the Moon, the guardian of lovers, for a body so he could properly court the warrior. The Moon, touched by the creature’s feelings, gave him what he wanted: it was marked by the magic, still retained a few of his feral features and, once a month, when the Moon wasn’t in it’s throne in the sky, he would return to his original form. It wasn’t perfect, for the Moon did not reign over Sun creatures. Still, they felt happy. 

An evil spider, jealous of their love, cursed the warrior’s soul, rendering it fragile: if they bonded, her soul wouldn’t handle the guardian’s and she would disappear. Desperate, the guardian searched for the Moon once more, and this time he was bestowed a second gift that would spare her. But he was too slow, and came back to find out the spider, hearing about such gift, killed the warrior.

The ever loyal guardian waited for the warrior to be reborn, travelling around the world, gaining new names in each place he visited, only to find her. But years became decades, and decades became centuries, and she never came back.  And thus, the creature was forgotten, cursed into an eternity of loneliness.”

Rin would end the story with a dreamy sigh.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing to know someone out there loves you even before you’re born?? Like destiny” She looked at the sky and took a sip of her tea.

“I heard variations of that story in many places” Kaede said simply, looking at her own cup briefly before looking back at the younger girls. “Some say it was actually a giant white dog destined to fight an evil spider and there was never a love. Others have him be a fae or a demon, too.”

“Having various names doesn’t look like a good tactic to find someone if you ask me. Where even is this myth from, anyway? I heard many renditions of it from various countries.” Kagome chimed in “Even gramps had one of his own. He loved that thing. Said he even saw the beast when he was young, a huge white dog with a bark loud and scary like a lion’s roar.”

Kaede shook her head.

“folklore that show up collectively around the world - like vampire-like creatures, I suppose. Back home we would call it Inuyasha’s tale. He even had his own forest where people would claim to have seen him..There’s a temple there, now.” the old woman finished her cup and got up “Come on, let’s go back inside. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

The two girls agreed and quickly finished what was left to go back into their tents and call it a night. Rin was soon asleep, but not Kagome. Five years ago, after getting accepted into Kaede’s program, she had been blessed with various opportunities to travel around the world to find and study new plants, and this time the team had travelled to the other side of the world in this pursuit.

Now, after two weeks stationated at a small camp near a friendly tribe, she saw herself turning around in her sleeping bag, restless. Dinner had been nice and they kept alive their little tradition of sharing tales around the fire before going to bed, but now It felt like all her senses were heightened somehow, and the forest’s music was almost unbearable. She could hear the crickets, nocturnal birds, an occasional shuffle in the vegetation somewhere or the wind blowing nearby, whistling the way almost as if daring her to follow.

It was too hot inside the tent to sleep, she rationalized, so better do something useful and walk a little to tire the body. She wouldn’t even venture that far - she wasn’t that stupid to get deep inside a dense forest full of apex predators and with not many man-made paths in the middle of the night, after all.

Being mindful not to wake Rin up, Kagome put the cargo pants over her shorts, hair in a ponytail to keep it out of her face and a strong flashlight in hand before silently venturing out of her tent. Looking around, she could see the friendly tribe not so distant and looking deserted. The sound of the wind was a lot stronger and the air a lot colder outside, and she felt adrenaline building inside her chest once she looked where the wind was leading: the pitch black forest. 

It was expected, she thought, they were many miles away from the nearest city, and the only light available was that of the full moon in the sky, but the forest was just too dense and too stubborn to let any rays through the treetops. Swallowing, she started walking. Her brain was screaming for her to go back, lay down and try to sleep like a normal person, but her body apparently had a mind of it’s own. The more she walked towards the forest, the more she wanted to get inside. And so she did.

As soon as she was engulfed by plants and her eyes had adjusted a bit, the adrenaline seemed to peak and then disappear enough to become a lingering feeling. She new that path — the natives had been teaching her the comunal herb path for weeks now — and she knew the plants and frogs showing up. Maybe it wasn’t that terrible after all. She would just walk around the camp’s vicinity a little bit and go back; she knew a few of those plants only bloomed during the night. 

Turning her flashlight to the minimum setting, she couldn’t help but feel weird at how peaceful everything felt. One or two bats got scared from the light while she walked around taking mental notes of the plants, and a solitary owl made its presence known somewhere, but other than that it was just the occasional cricket. Until, she noticed, everything went quiet.

Maybe a little too quiet. 

Even the crickets had gone completely silent. Freezing in place for a few seconds, Kagome took a deep, silent breath before turning around to analyze her surroundings. Everything seemed normal, except…

“Where am I” she thought to herself, looking back to the tree in front of her: she most definitely recognized it, but not anything around it. Everywhere was pitch black, and her flashlight revealed to her no returning paths whatsoever.

[alonely-dreamer]

The Valuable Sun | Chapter 18

Summary: Sookie comes to learn her little sister’s got her life together while she has to rebuild everything.

Pairing: Eric x OC

Warnings: 18+

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Words: 2254

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17

Spending the entire night with Jason and Sookie, cuddled in blankets, drinking hot coco with marshmallows… all of it seemed like a distant dream. A dream Brooklynne had had multiple times in the past year, once she thought would never happen again.

It was as hard for Sookie to get back to real life as it was for Brooklynne. Everyone in Bon Temps was so happy to not only hear about her return but also to see her again. The excuse Bill gave the police was very useful to shut anyone who was a little too curious. Of course, not everything was easy, and now that Sookie was back, it was a hard adjustment for Eric and Brooke to have a new roommate. So hard, in fact, that after only one day, Eric suggested they get a place of their own. A suggestion which, to her own surprise, she didn’t find uninteresting.

“Anywhere but Bon Temps,” Eric whispered so close to her hear she managed to hear him despite the terrible and terribly loud music playing in the club.

“You mean Shreveport,” she chuckled as she slid a hand in his hair, gently bringing his face to hers.

As per usual, she was sitting on his lap, on his ‘throne’. She had learnt to ignore the dozen pair of eyes, human or vampire, that were fixed on them for the entirety of the night. They were different, depending on their species. Mortals envied her. The undead judged him. Silently, of course. They knew what would happen if their sheriff caught them talking ill of his human.

The humans outside, however, weren’t so quiet or discreet about their judgmental ideas and hate. Steve Newlin’s following only grew bigger every day, ever since Russell went crazy on live TV, and a portion of it from Louisiana reunited every night in front of Fangtasia to spew their hatred all over its customers, be they vampire, or human. It did scare away most of the mortal clientele, though Fangtasia had been around for a while, and had, fortunately for business, loyal customers.

“What’s wrong with Shreveport?”

“What’s wrong with Bon Temps?”

He smirked. He liked it when she was challenging him. Always reminding him how perfect she was for him.

“We’d be close to Fangtasia. We wouldn’t have to fly here every night.”

“I like to fly,” she shrugged.

“Oh, I know you do,” he said with a grin.

“So, what do you want? To build a home under the club?”

“I would hate that as much as you would. I had an apartment in mind.”

“An apartment?”

He nodded. “UV protected windows, with a view…”

“Mmh… that doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Wait until you see the view.”

“I don’t care about the view. As long as we’re together.”

She pulled him to her, his lips crashing onto hers. That was how the night almost always ended, except when a dumbass decided to get into a fight with the other dumbasses outside.

“Eric.”

The Viking chose to ignore his progeny, hoping she’d get the hint and leave them alone.

“Eric.”

“Not now, Pam,” he said between two intense kisses.

“We have a problem.”

Brooklynne moved away, both annoyed and frustrated, making the vampire growl.

“What is it?” he snarled.

“Some idiot outside got into a fight with the other idiots outside.”

“Can’t you handle it?”

“It’s Hoyt, Eric. Jessica’s human? The King’s progeny? Rings any bell?”

Eric sighed as he tried hard not to roll his eyes.

“Go, it’s fine,” Brooke told him, not even trying to hide her disappointment.

“I’ll make it up to you,” he said before he stole another kiss from her.

“Oh, I know,” she smirked, not wanting him to leave in such a bad mood.

He chuckled as he got up, letting her slide gently onto the chair. Oh, how it made him feel to see her sitting there. She was never sexier than in his chair. She watched him leave, wiggling her fingers as he turned to her one last time. Left alone, she looked around the room, still feeling the eyes of the people there, humans still wishing they were in her position, vampires unhappy about their mortal queens. But as unhappy as they were, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind, that she was, indeed, their queen.

 ***

 Wrapped in Eric’s large grey shirt, Brooke was sound asleep in their bed, in the cool of his arms. She couldn’t remember the last time she got up before noon, but she was always awake before Eric, who only opened his eyes at sundown. She awoke particularly early that afternoon and she would usually stay in bed and go back to sleep but since Sookie was back she had been getting up sooner to spend as much time as possible with her before she had to leave for Fangtasia. She rubbed her eyes as she yawned, another hour of sleep wouldn’t have been so bad.

She didn’t bother dressing up and climbed the ladder carefully. She knew she could make all the noise in the world and it wouldn’t wake the vampire up, but she always tried to be considerate. Human habit.

She shielded her eyes from the sun of the early afternoon as she opened the doors of the fake wooden wardrobe. She heard voices coming from the kitchen and wondered who Sookie could’ve been with as she knew Jason was working. Besides, it sounded like a woman’s voice. It sounded like…

“Tara,” Brooklynne smiled as she stepped into the kitchen. “What are you doing here?” a laugh escaped her as she went to hug her old friend.

“Hey Brooke, you’re up late,” Tara chuckled as she hugged her back.

“Or early, considering she went to bed at 6,” Sookie said with a grimace.

“Don’t tell me you spend your nights with that vampire,” Tara scolded the young telepath as she saw the logo of Fangtasia on her shirt.

“Her nights and her days,” Sookie informed her friend, “he lives here now.”

“He what?”

“Eric moved in months ago,” Brooke said as she made her way to the fridge.

“Are you telling me that psychopath who kidnapped and tortured Lafayette for weeks lives in this house?”

Brooklynne paused.

“First of all, he apologized for that, he even gave him a car. Second of all, yes, Tara, my boyfriend lives with me… in my house.”

“Lafayette’s terrified of that motherfucker, he can give him all the cars in the world it won’t change a thing!”

“And… this is still my house,” Sookie said.

“Actually… it isn’t,” Brooke wrinkled her nose. “The deed’s in my name now… I signed the papers and everything…” she continued as she closed the fridge, a bottle of orange juice in one hand.

“What?” Sookie breathed out as if she had just been punched in the heart.

“Legally I had to… since you were gone for so long… I’m sorry,” she shrugged. “But it’s still your house. It’s always gonna be your house. And Jason’s.”

“Great,” Sookie threw her hands in the air, “good thing I came back or you’d have sold my car next.”

“That’s not fair,” Brooklynne replied, offended. “I took care of your car, I took care of all your stuff.”

“I’m not staying one more second here, I don’t want your boyfriend to think I’m his dinner,” she said as she practically jumped off her chair and made her way to the back door.

“Tara, wait!”

“He’s not gonna hurt you,” Brooke called after her, but Tara wasn’t listening.

Sookie gave a disappointed and disapproving look to her sister before she went after her friend. Brooke shrugged, walked up to the shelf where they kept the glasses and poured herself a full glass of orange juice. She mumbled something as she brought it to her lips.

“And a good day to you to.”

 ***

 Sookie was obviously mad when she came back. Tara had just come back from New-Orleans to see her and they had already been in a fight. It all made Brooklynne seriously reconsider Eric’s offer to move in that apartment in Shreveport, the one with the great view. Fortunately, the two sisters didn’t get the opportunity to argue about Eric again, as the phone rang as soon as she came back in the house, having failed to convince Tara to stay a little more.

“Who was it?” Brooklynne asked before taking another sip from her glass.

“Andy,” she sighed. “Jason didn’t come to work this morning and he’s not answering his phone.”

“Did he check his house?”

“He asked me to do it,” she answered as she took her car keys from the counter.

“Want me to come with…”

“No.”

Brooklynne silently watched her sister exit through the back door and quickly get into her car. After Sookie was gone, she washed the dishes, then took a long and cold shower, wondering what she should do while waiting for the night to come.

 ***

 Brooklynne’s denial of Jason’s situation unnerved Sookie more than anything. Though Eric acted as usual, detached from any feeling and showing no particular worry, he did find it strange too. Maybe it was too hard for Brooklynne to even imagine that another one of her siblings was missing again out of nowhere with no clue as to where to find them. Or maybe it was just as she said, optimism and trust. Jason would come back. Like Sookie did. Eric didn’t dare say aloud what both he and Sookie thought: hopefully, it wouldn’t take a year.

“He’s probably with a girl,” she said to her sister. “He’ll be back in a week.”

Jason’s disappearance had one positive effect, at least, Sookie and Brooklynne weren’t arguing about Eric anymore. Especially since Eric had said he’d order some vampires to look for their brother. Sookie appreciated it, even if she wouldn’t say it aloud. But there was something else that bothered the eldest telepath, something that had been bothering her ever since she had come back from Alcide’s.

“Wasn’t he happy to see you?” Brooklynne asked as she put a plate down on the table.

“He was very happy to see me,” Sookie answered as she handed her the cutlery. She was cooking Adele’s famous sausage recipe, Jason’s favorite.

“Then what?” she insisted as she finished setting up the table.

“Debbie was there.”

“Yeah. They got back together a few months ago. She’s clean now.”

“Wait… you knew?”

Brooke shrugged. “Alcide helped us a lot when we were looking for you. We spent a lot of time together.”

“He kept whining about that V addicted werewolf who left him,” Eric said as he appeared from the living room.

“She needed help getting clean. Needed support,” Brooke continued as she gave a reproving look to the vampire. Eric ignored it and kissed her temple, a gesture she took as an apology. That was the best she’d get from him anyway.

“We’re out of Tru Blood,” Sookie informed the vampire.

“I know,” he told her as he slid his hands on Brooke’s waist, gently bringing her back to his chest before placing a kiss on her neck, where two puncture wounds could be seen.

Sookie grimaced as she turned around and got back to the stove where the sausages were about to burn. Brooke smiled before she put a kiss on Eric’s lips. She meant to get the glasses from the shelf, but Eric had something else in mind. He didn’t let her go from his arms and captured her lips, tightening his hold on her.

“Could you not?” Sookie sighed. “We’re about to eat.”

“I’m about to eat too,” he smirked, making her roll her eyes.

“Stop it,” Brooke giggled, wiggling out of Eric’s arms. “I’m not your dinner,” she playfully punched him in the arm.

“No?” he asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

She smiled back, bit her lower lip, then tiptoed and wrapped her arms around his neck before whispering in his ear.

“No, I’m your dessert.”

“Mmh, I like that.”

“Ew, stop it,” Sookie begged.

“You didn’t even hear what I said,” Brooke told her.

“I can read your mind, remember?”

“Then stay out of my head.”

As Sookie put the pan in the middle of the table, dinner being ready to be served, Eric’s phone started to ring.

“I thought Fangtasia was closed tonight,” Sookie said as she sat down.

“Fangtasia is never closed,” he told her before putting another kiss on Brooke’s forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

Brooklynne sat across from Sookie and started eating, every bite reminded her of her grandmother, even the smell, as if Adele was right there with them.

“You’re the only one who can cook it perfectly.”

“It’s just sausages,” Sookie chuckled.

“Nothing new from Jason?”

“Afraid not… Andy said he’d file a missing person report tomorrow… I said he should have already done it but…”

“You know Jason… he’s just fooling around with a girl.”

“He hasn’t answered his phone in two days, Brooke.”

“So, it died,” she shrugged. “He’s too busy to notice.”

“I hope you’re right,” Sookie whispered, more to herself.

Eric stepped back in the kitchen with an annoyed look on his face. Though Sookie noticed, she didn’t bother asking him about it, she didn’t really care about his problems.

“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked.

“We have to go.”

“You can deal with your problems on your own, Eric,” Sookie told him. “Or ask Pam.”

“It’s Bill,” he said. “He has a job for us.”

**********

Tags: @thepoet1975 @nerdysandwichqueen @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @raegan-hale @colie87 @heavenly1927​ @abbey7103​

[aion-rsa]

The Best Thanksgiving TV Episodes

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Halloween and Christmas are objectively the two best American holidays. One allows for us all to indulge in our gothic, spooky side, while the other comes along with family and cheer (forced or otherwise). There’s another holiday between them, however, that is at constant risk of being overlooked.

Thanksgiving doesn’t have candy like Halloween or presents like Christmas. What it does have, thankfully, is television. Just like its Halloween counterpart, Thanksgiving comes along in the fall at an important time in the TV schedule. Traditionally, the last week of November is when many network TV shows are looking for a quick boost of creative and commercial energy to get through the Christmas break. And what better way than to do so than with a Thanksgiving episode, where all characters are basically culturally required to get together?

Though Halloween and Christmas specials often get the most attention, there are many fascinating Thanksgiving-themed episodes of popular TV shows. Here are just some of our favorites. 

Bob’s Burgers

Season 3 Episode 5 – “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” 

Fox’s beloved animated series has staked its claim to Thanksgiving as its holiday of choice, which makes sense given that the Belcher clan takes their food quite seriously. Of the many Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving specials, season 3’s “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” is likely the best.

This episode finds Bob reluctantly agreeing to “rent out” his family to landlord Calvin Fischoeder (voiced by Kevin Kline) to pose as his family for Thanksgiving dinner while Bob poses as the family chef. While this is a strong enough set up to begin with, the episode excels at escalation and goes to some wild places – even indulging one of the series’ favorite recurring gags of Bob losing his mind and befriending an inanimate object. Of course the inanimate object this time around is none other than a Thanksgiving turkey.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 5 Episode 7 – “Two Turkeys”

“Two Turkeys” is a prime example of what makes Thanksgiving such a creatively rich holiday for sitcoms and other serialized TV endeavors to exploit. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had already long established that both Jake (Andy Samberg) and Amy’s (Melissa Fumero) respective parents were crazy. All that was left to do was to get them in the same room together.

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That’s just what “Two Turkeys” does. The whole family, including Jake’s dad Roger (Bradley Whitford), Amy’s dad Victor (Jimmy Smits), and Amy’s mom Camila (Bertila Dama), decides to have Thanksgiving at Jake’s mom Karen’s (Katey Sagal) house. Quickly, dueling Thanksgiving turkeys are set up, competitive juices start flowing, and a thumb or two is lost. “Two Turkeys” is Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s best Thanksgiving episode but “Mr. Santiago” in which Boyle intends to behead a live turkey certainly gives it a run for its money. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season 4 Episode 8 – “Pangs”

Most TV Thanksgiving specials ignore the complicated origins of the holiday…and perhaps wisely so. For a long time, most sitcoms and network dramas lacked a real capacity to carefully discuss Thanksgiving myth-making while also addressing Native American genocide. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however, had no such misgivings and dives right in. “Pangs” is technically the beginning of a Buffy/Angel two-hour Thanksgiving event. It’s got all the usual Thanksgiving episode trappings: food, friends, and family. It also has an army of Chumash Indian Warriors coming back from the grave to punish Sunnydale for its colonial sins. 

Chuck

Season 4 Episode 10 – “Chuck Versus the Leftovers”

This is cheating a bit as “Chuck Versus the Leftovers” technically takes place on the day after Thanksgiving. But Black Friday shopping and turkey leftovers are certainly a part of the Thanksgiving experience. 

This episode finds Chuck’s mom Mary (Linda Hamilton) and international arms dealer Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) coming over to Chuck’s place for a day-after-Thanksgiving leftover feast. Meanwhile Chuck’s friends at Buy More have to contend with the Black Friday shopping crowd. This is the definitive Chuck Thanksgiving episode as it highlights what the show does well. It balances the high-octane drama of Chuck’s spy life with his supposedly tranquil home life. Getting to enjoy Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton going head to head is just icing on the Jell-O salad. 

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Season 1 Episode 12 – “Talking Turkey”

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air features a few Thanksgiving episodes over its six season run but its first attempt remains the best. Will’s mom Viola makes one of her rare series appearances here when she joins the Banks’ household for Thanksgiving. 

After the parents see how the kids mistreat everyone’s beloved butler Geoffrey, the gang is forced to cook a Thanksgiving meal on their own. Predictably it doesn’t go well. This is a big episode for all involved but for Viola and Aunt Viv in particular. It’s fascinating to watch through a modern lens, given original Aunt Viv actress Janet Hubert’s steadfast lack of involvement in all future Fresh Prince reboots and reunions. 

Friday Night Lights

Season 4 Episode 13 – “Thanksgiving”

So many of the best moments in Friday Night Lights happen at the Taylor family dinner table. How then could the show pass up an opportunity for a good-old fashioned Thanksgiving episode?

“Thanksgiving” is an excellent episode that also serves as its respective season’s finale. This hour concludes Coach Taylor’s first year with the East Dillon Lions in truly satisfying fashion. Before that there’s still plenty of time for a heart-to-heart with QB Vince Howard and Buddy Garrity’s attempts at frying a turkey. 

Friends

Season 5 Episode 8 – “The One With All the Thanksgivings”

Perhaps no series on television took the responsibility of Thanksgiving episodes more seriously than Friends. Friends has so many Thanksgiving-themed episodes that the entire list could essentially be made up of them. And that makes sense given the show’s premise of friends as a found family in the big city.

For the purposes of this list, however, let’s go with the aptly-named “The One With All the Thanksgivings.” In this fifth season episode, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Joey, and Chandler flashback to all of the Thanksgivings they’ve shared together. Consider this a Canterbury Tales of Thanksgiving … that just happens to feature Monica with a turkey on her head.

Gilmore Girls

Season 3 Episode 9 – “A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving”

Stars Hollow, Connecticut on Gilmore Girls just looks like a town itching for a good fall holiday. The New England hamlet is the kind of place that absolutely lights up with some fallen leaves and the warm aroma of turkey in the oven. Thankfully, the show agreed and rolled out a Thanksgiving-centric episode in its third season.

“A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving” adopts the tried and true “accepted too many dates to the ball” trope as Lorelai and Rory are pulled among four competing Thanksgiving dinners: Lorelai’s parents, Sookie, Luke, and Lane. It’s a jam-packed (and tofurkey-packed) episode that still somehow finds the time to introduce the beloved Cat Kirk.

How I Met Your Mother

Season 3 Episode 9 – “Slapsgiving”

In many ways, How I Met Your Mother was the natural sitcom successor to Friends. Like its NBC forefather CBS’s comedy followed a group of friends living their best lives in New York City. Another area in which HIMYM picks up the Friends ball and runs with it is with its appropriately respectful treatment of Thanksgiving.

How I Met Your Mother loves itself a good Thanksgiving episode. None of them, however, are better than the season 3 installment “Slapsgiving.” This episode finds the gang gathering at Marshall and Lily’s house for their first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Meanwhile, Barney is living in mortal fear of the third slap Marshall owes him due to losing a “slap bet.” That countdown to The Slap imbues an already excellent episode with a real fun sense of urgency. 

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Season 9 Episode 10 – “The Gang Squashes Their Beefs”

Dennis, Dee, Charlie, Mac, and Frank have made a lot of enemies during It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s very long, very creatively lucrative run. That’s why for the show’s ninth season finale, the gang decided to gather several of the folks they wronged together and get to squashing some beefs. And what better way to do so than with a nice Thanksgiving dinner?

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This installment is a one big setup to a dinner table with the gang’s rogue’s gallery at the end and it is all well worth the wait. Some dry turkey and even dryer conservation is nowhere near enough to make nice with the McPoyles, Hwang, Cricket, Gail the Snail, or Bill Ponderosa, but bless the gang for trying anyway.

Mad Men

Season 1 Episode 13 – “The Wheel”

Not many Thanksgiving episodes can lay claim to being their respective series best hours, but then again AMC’s all-time classic Mad Men isn’t just any other series. Season 1 finale “The Wheel” is certainly among the best Mad Men installments ever and it just so happens to take place during the week of Thanksgiving 1960.

The Thanksgiving timeframe serves as an elegiac backdrop and Mad Men viewers are forced to confront what kind of man Don Draper really is. Don delivers the pitch of his lifetime to Kodak executives as he urges them to imagine their latest photo wheel creation not as a sleek, dispassionate time machine, but a carousel that can bring families back home to all the most important times of their lives. Then when Don returns home for Thanksgiving, he discovers what he probably already knew – those times are gone and no carousel can bring them back.

Master of None

Season 2 Episode 8 – “Thanksgiving”

OK, we know we just said that not many Thanksgiving episodes can lay claim to being their respective series’ best but here is another contender. “Thanksgiving” is the eighth episode of Master of None’s second (and thus far, final) season and it’s a perfect example of everything the show does well.

This episode takes a break from Dev’s (Aziz Ansari) storyline in the present to delve into the past of his friend Denise (Lena Waithe). Over several Thanksgiving meals throughout the years, Denise comes to realize her attraction to women, processes it, and does her best to communicate her identity to her mom (Angela Bassett). It’s a touching saga made possible by the Thanksgiving season. It also serves as many viewers’ introduction to the storytelling dynamo that is Lena Waithe. 

This episode takes a break from Dev’s (Aziz Ansari) storyline in the present to delve into the past of his friend Denise (Lena Waithe). Over several Thanksgiving meals throughout the years, Denise comes to realize her attraction to women, processes it, and does her best to communicate her identity to her mom (Angela Bassett). It’s a touching saga made possible by the Thanksgiving season. It also serves as many viewers’ introduction to the storytelling dynamo that is Lena Waithe. 

The O.C.

Season 1 Episode 11 – “The Homecoming”

Mid-2000s teen drama The O.C. always paid proper respect to holidays. Who could forget the Cohen family’s dutiful observation of “Chrismukkah?” But the series’ first Thanksgiving installment in season 1 might just be its best holiday offering ever. 

“The Homecoming” is a wonderful example of everything that The O.C. does well. The plot splits itself in two with Ryan (Ben McKenzie) and Marissa (Mischa Barton) heading back to Ryan’s hometown of Chino to meet Ryan’s brother in prison. That sets up a ludicrous crime arc that would make even the Riggins brothers of Friday Night Lights jealous. Meanwhile, back at the Cohen household, Seth’s (Adam Brody) inelegant juggling of the two women in his life comes to a chaotic head.

Orange is the New Black

Season 1 Episode 9 – “Fucksgiving”

Orange is the New Black’s Thanksgiving episode debuted all the way back in 2013, when Netflix was just proving itself to be a spot for original content. So imagine viewers’ surprise that in the streaming world, you can include the F-word in episode titles.

As is the case in every OITNB episode, a lot happens in this hour-long installment. But with Thanksgiving as the backdrop, there’s a real festive air to the proceedings. Perhaps it helps that Taystee (Danielle Brooks) is set to be released and returned to the real world or that Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) is praying for the rightful end of said real world. In any case, “Fucksgiving” passionate conclusion makes a convincing case that Thanksgiving is among the sexiest of holidays.

Riverdale

Season 4 Episode 7 – “The Ice Storm”

Riverdale’s Thanksgiving episode is about just as insane as one would imagine a Riverdale Thanksgiving episode would be. “The Ice Storm” (which borrows its name and concept from Rick Moody’s 1994 novel of the same name) finds Jughead and Betty stranded at Stonewall Prep due to an ice storm on Thanksgiving while Archie hosts a Thanksgiving dinner at the community center.

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Of course this episode features cartoonish levels of scheming, but it also takes the responsibility of the holiday seriously. Riverdale spends the episode’s opening once again addressing the tragic death of Luke Perry and his character, Fred Andrews. Amid all the plot twists, the show still excels at putting family first. 

Seinfeld

Season 6 Episode 8 – “The Mom and Pop Store”

Many episodes of Seinfeld feature dense plotting, but even by those standards “The Mom and Pop Store” is a very busy episode of television. These 22 minutes feature Jerry getting tricked by a mom and pop shoe store, George trying to find Jon Voight, and Kramer having some major nosebleed problems.

But the Thanksgiving portion of the episode is what stands out as Elaine gets the invite to Jerry’s dentist’s (played by none other than Bryan Cranston, beginning his fruitful arc of Seinfeld guest appearances) Thanksgiving. Jerry is unsure if he himself is invited, but when dental issues begin to pop up, he decides that a Thanksgiving dinner full of dentists might be a useful place to stop by.

Smallville

Season 6 Episode 7 – “Rage”

While it was cruel for Smallville to wait until after the Jonathan Kent era to hold its first Thanksgiving episode, it’s nice that it got around to it all the same. Granted, Thanksgiving doesn’t factor much into “Rage.” Instead much of the hour deals with Clark assisting his good friend Oliver Queen with his mysterious addiction.

But when the Thanksgiving table moment finally does arrive, it’s a real winner. In terms of pre-Arrowverse WB/CW warm and fuzzies, it’s hard to top a dinner featuring Clark Kent, Martha Kent, Lionel Luther, and Green-freaking-Arrow. And of course the presence of NXIVM’s own Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan just adds a strange glow over all.

The Sopranos

Season 3 Episode 8 – “He Is Risen”

Many classic Sopranos scenes take place around the Sopranos family dinner table (mostly so Tony can yell at the insufferable A.J.). It’s only natural then that the show would feature a Thanksgiving episode at some point during its classic six-season run.

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That moment comes midway through the excellent season 3. Granted, Thanksgiving doesn’t play a major role in this hour, aside from Janice’s creepy elderly boyfriend muttering “he is risen” during dinner. But this episode is filled with classic Sopranos moments all the same: the introduction of Gloria Trillo, the death of Gigi Cestone on the toilet, and Ralph’s continued seasons-long efforts to dig his own grave. All of those events will factor heavily in the episodes to come, for now, however, The Sopranos is happy to just pass the gravy (actual gravy, not red sauce).

South Park

Season 15 Episode 13 – “A History Channel Thanksgiving”

Over the span of its staggering 23 seasons (plus one Pandemic Special), South Park has revealed a real affinity for holiday episodes, particularly the Christmas ones in which the show can feature longtime characters Santa Claus and Jesus Christ.

In this season 15 episode, however, South Park turns its satirical eye to Thanksgiving…or the History Channel version of it more accurately and weirdly. After the boys are assigned a paper on the history of Thanksgiving, they watch the History Channel to discover that the holiday’s origins are far more extraterrestrial than expected. Soon, Stan and company are involved in an interdimensional Thanksgiving adventure involving wormholes and Natalie Portman.

The West Wing

Season 2 Episode 8 – “Shibboleth”

A “Shibboleth” is a long-standing tradition or custom (often a phrasing or even a single word) that distinguishes one group of people from another. The best episodes of The West Wing seek to understand what the shibboleths of this strange country are…and “Shibboleth” is undoubtedly one of the series’ best episodes.

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It’s the night before Thanksgiving at the White House and the West Wing staff are all facing decisions. CJ has been tasked with choosing between two turkeys to pardon; Toby, Josh, and Sam must figure out how to watch football on Thanksgiving day; and most seriously: President Bartlett has to decide what to do with a boat of persecuted Chinese evangelical Christians seeking asylum. It’s a typically hectic day in the West’s most powerful executive office, but the show explores how one holiday can bring all the chaos to a halt. For a little bit at least.

The post The Best Thanksgiving TV Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/32LNlrE

[imbumkyung]

I Saw It In A Movie One Time (ch 6) - Digging

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Kai whispered to herself. One glance out the window and she knew— it was obvious. The Cullens got the wolves involved in the situation and now they were guarding her outside her store. She didn’t recall their faces from the movies, but the tattoos spoke loudly enough.

“I swear. They’re just trying to show off at this point,” she thought. Anyone in the real world who saw this would probably agree. One was in a gray tank and the other in a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, exposing the mark on their upper arm.

Kai formulated a plan to get them away. Luckily, there was no one in the store and by the looks of the parking lot and the cars that drove by— or lack thereof— nobody would be coming in anytime soon. She pushed the door open with her two hands and looked up at the two of them who were a whole foot taller and two inches or more taller than her.

“Boys, if you aren’t planning on purchasing anything I’m gonna have to ask you to leave the storefront and our parking lot. Sorry,” she said, avoiding eye contact by looking past them or at the floor, then turned right on her heel back into the store before they could say anything to her. But she heard a “sorry” on her way inside.

Paul and Seth stared at her until she was inside, thinking the exact same thing— though Pauls’ expression gave it away too easy, “dude. She’s short,” he snickered.

Seth’s eyes moved from the entrance door to his pack mates’, “yeah say it louder I don’t think she heard you. Let’s go before she calls someone else to chase us away,” he advised his superior with a light push to his shoulder.

The two ran off into the woods and phased. Two hours had passed anyways and she happened to only catch them five minutes before they were to switch off with Embry and Jacob.

“She’s still there?” Embry asked through his thoughts

Seth let out a huff, “Yeah, but she saw us and told us we can’t stand outside the store,” he explained

“We’ll just stay in the woods in this form,” Jacob decided for himself and for Embry. With a nod, all four wolves went on their way.

Seth didn’t mind that this was the only thing Sam would let him do. Since he became a wolf, Sam would only allow him to stay home and study. No wolf duties. He remembered the girl they had to protect, and reminded himself to do a good job so Sam would possibly allow him to take on some more exciting wolf duties, All the while Kai’s face lingered in the back of his mind.

“Got a crush or something?” Paul teased Seth, nudging him a little bit.

“No! I’m just... reflecting. I wanna do good I mean— when’s Sam gonna let me do all the wolf stuff next?” Seth defended

Paul gave him nothing more than a huff in disbelief. It was normal for an 18 year old to have a crush but the whole world know how shy Seth could be

Kai almost felt bad for having to tell the two shapeshifters to leave, but she knew that in the movies, none of this happened. Her blood boiled in frustration at Edward who didn’t listen to her pleas. For the next hour she stood behind the counter, occasionally looking outside for any other suspicious activity that might involve the wolves. Other than that, she pretended to scan the store every once in a while— though it was pointless because there were usually no more than five to ten customers at a time.

The three-hour shift that seemed to stop the clock every time had finally ended. Kai walked urgently to her car leaving no time for conversation if anyone was going to try to stop her.

—

Kai managed to avoid them for the rest of the week, until Saturday. Her heart had been racing at the thought of Victoria coming around like Edward warned her. Still, she payed no mind to it and went to work anyway. She figured the wolves would be keeping watch anyway.

It was 1:30 p.m. and as soon as Kai opened the door to leave, with a few huffs of frustration because she forgot item after item, remembering each one as she was just about to leave. Finally, after checking and double checking for everything she opened the door. There stood Alice unexpectedly. Her heart stopped and she let out a yelp.

“I’m so sorry!” Alice apologized, her hands out to help her— only she didn’t know how so she could only watch as Kai recollected herself

Kai put a hand over her chest and looked up at Alice, clearly trying to get her heart back to normal, “Do you need something?”

“I need you to stay at home,” she said brightly, extending the “I” in her sentence.

“Yeah, not happening. I need to pay the electricity bill and 18 hours this week isn’t gonna cut it. So, if you’ll excuse me,” she said, trying to push past her. That’s when something clicked in Alice’s head.

“Do you know who I am?” She asked her, curious to see just how much this girl knew. This was their first meeting, after all, and it seemed Kai already had an idea that Alice’s appearance was related to Edward somehow.

“Uh... yeah you’re Christina,” Kai lied. Of course she knew who Alice was but she wasn’t actually planning on telling her. She’s not even supposed to be talking to these people.

Alice rolled her eyes, “I think you’re thinking of someone else,” she countered, “I’m Alice.”

“And I’mma be late for work. Excuse me,” Kai attempted to push past her once again.

“I called your boss and told him you were sick,” Alice said, trying to keep her home once more, “We really don’t want you to be in danger. We know Victoria’s coming and so do you,” she said, her tone switching to one of urgency.

“My boss is gonna be glad to see me,” she pushed with all of her force past alice, “not sick, and doing just fine,” she stalked to her car and drove quickly.

Alice sighed, “she’s stubborn,” she thought.

-

Victoria snarled upon the scent of Kai. It was a bitter taste to her that a small, meekly little human could do so much to infiltrate her mind. It drove her absolutely mad. The best part of the game to her was when people would ask, “who are you? What do you want?”. But when Kai whispered Victoria’s name— it was sickening to her.

Victoria crept through the woods just across the street where she caught sight of Kai.

“pity,” she thought.

Kai was beautiful with golden tan skin, raven black and tinted indigo hair, freckles adorned her face especially around her nose and underneath her eyes. Vampires were known to be beautiful, and Victoria felt almost envious of the life Kai carried through her irises.

She planned to make this quick. Use her inhuman speed to take Kai, drag her right back out into the woods then kill her for a meal. She took a step that unfortunately for her landed on a twig with a snap. Her eyes flicked to the left and instantly was met with a giant merciless claws of the shapeshifter. She took off running across the treaty line where the Cullens were waiting.

-

“Are you sure this is where you saw her?” Carlisle asked Alice.

“She probably would’ve been here by now if Kai stayed home,” Rosalie hissed. Everyone stood patiently, undoubtedly trusting Alice.

“She’s near,” Alice said.

“On your left!” She directed.

The chase was on. Carlisle and Jasper made a start for Victoria, each coming so close to catching her but she escaped every time. Even as she hopped over to the wolves’ territory, she was able to escape every time. Emmett risked it all to catch her by jumping off his land and into theirs, and was violently blocked by Paul. The tensions between the two sworn mortal enemies were high enough for Victoria to make a satisfying escape.

-

Kai pulled into the driveway after one hell of a shift. She shut her eyes and lolled her head back in furstration upon seeing Edward and Alice in front of her house, “If I see you outside of my house ever again, I’m calling the police. Or jumping off a bridge. Honestly, I don’t know but please,” she begged desperately, “just leave me alone!”

She just got back from an exhausting six-hour shift at work, her shitty manager had a bone to pick with her every move, and more than five irritated customers angry at her for just doing her job.

Alice felt sympathetic toward Kai. It was obvious how tired she was. Edward grimaced as well, hearing her thoughts reflecting on the events at work. But he had to do what he had to do.

“We can’t do that—” Edward began.

“Don’t!” She exclaimed, palms toward Edward to stop him, “Please don’t. I’m fine, see? Victoria didn’t get to me,”

“The wolves stopped her,” Alice explained.

Kai let out an exasperated sigh. They were getting involved in her life and she was in theirs. At this point, there was no coming back from it.

“Fine. What are you here for?” She asked, defeated. She unlocked the door to her house and the duo followed her in.

“I just—,” Edward stopped himself, collecting his thoughts, “We wanted to know you were okay,”

“Shouldn’t you be worried about Bella? Where is she anyway?” Kai shot back.

“You know Bella?” Alice asked, but it came out as more of a statement.

Kaileia cursed to herself and chose not to answer her. Dammit.

“You can clearly see that I’m okay,” she offered to Edward, “if that’s all you needed, I’m sure you know where the door is—”

“I’d like to know how you know everything,” Alice interjected with a small smile, “Its just— Edward said you knew about him being a vampire and how he reads minds. When I came to the door the other day, you acted like we’d met before. And you know about Bellas’ and Edwards’ relationship,” she explained with a light voice. Kai almost felt bad that she couldn’t tell them anything and took this as her cue to start yelling in her head so that Edward couldn’t read anything.

“I can’t tell you that,” she stated bluntly.

Alice ducked her head, still giving her effort into finding out, “can you tell us when or how you got here?”

Kai shook her head, “No.”

Alice sighed. She was starting to feel the defeat that Edward did.

Edward stood, “is there anything that you can tell us?” He asked her

“Only what I told you before, that talking to me any longer than you are right now could cost lives,” Kai explained imperatively, “I really think you guys should go,” she pleaded, desperation all across her face.

Alice sighed, “whatever you were trying to avoid— it’s here. It’s now. You can’t keep running from us I mean,” she shrugged, “I know you didn’t mean to, but you drew us in. I’m sure you knew the wolves and that’s why you kicked them out of the store, didn’t you?”

Kai nodded. In her head, she was debating on whether or not it would be good to tell them the truth. The pros and cons sorted themselves out in their heads.

“I kicked them out because they were soliciting,” she lied.

“It���s a public area,” Edward countered.

“ ‘Kay well they were annoying me,” she finished.

The three of them stayed silent. “You’re not gonna leave till you get whatever it is you want, are you?” Kai asked

“I’m not. I’m actually supposed to stand watch for you— you’re welcome,” she said with a smile.

Kai shook her head, eyes half-closed in annoyance, “I didn’t asked to be stalked.”

“You didn’t have to,” Edward smirked.

“You ever get tired of being a shithead?” Kai asked, half joking. She didn’t know what clicked, but some...(in)human contact that wasn’t her boss was refreshing in a way. After all, she avoided every single person with every single conversation since she woke up in Forks seven months ago.

Edward let out a small laugh, “I have too much time to ever be tired.”

Kai’s expression dropped, “you can’t be sure of that anymore.”

Edward and Alice looked to each other questionably. When they attempted to ask her to explain, she waved them off or chose not to answer. The two eventually gave up on questions and invited her to dinner instead, to which she rejected.

Alice was getting desperate, “Well it’s either you come to us tomorrow night, or we come to you,” she proposed, a smirk on her face upon seeing Kai’s visible defeat, “you choose.”

“Alice. You don’t understand what you’re doing,” she was begging them to stop their advances. It was worrying her how involved she’s become.

“Then help us to,” she replied

“I can’t.”

“Then we’ll have to help ourselves,” Alice said, “Will we see you tomorrow?”

Kai was beginning to feel discouraged. There was so much more at stake than Alice realized. Edward stayed silent for most of the conversation, trying to find loopholes in Kai’s mind that could give him some answers but— nothing. He drew in a sharp breath as her thoughts seemed to cease to exist. There was nothing. Edward couldn’t hear anything from her.

“What was that?” he asked Kai, still in shock

“What was what?” She asked him

He looked up at her, his eyes wide, “I can’t hear your thoughts, only Alices’”

Kai’s eyes widened. Things were starting to change just through the conversation they were having. She shook her head fearfully, “You two really need to go. It’s getting dangerous.”

“I’ll be here to pick you up tomorrow at 7. Don’t be late,” Alice said. With that, the two left her house and Kai stood alone in her kitchen.

Did that change something? Edward can’t hear her thoughts. What’s next? The wolves don’t shift? Alice doesn’t see the future? Holy shit.

She continued to stand in the kitchen, cup of water in hand. She did nothing, just stared. Her thoughts ran faster than they ever had in her life and a tear rolled down her cheek out of fear. Things were changing and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

-

Edward and Alice went home puzzled, “May— maybe we shouldn’t be involved,” Edward proposed.

“What do you mean?” Alice asked.

“She keeps on emphasizing that it could mean life and death if we keep talking to her and I mean—” he shook his head in disbelief, “It’s proven. I stopped hearing her thoughts.”

-

Whoop whoop heres ch 6 i think i’ll have ch 7 up tonight as well^^

Tags: @sunflowerspectre @rosalies-hale @coffees-and-constellations

[aaronmaurer]

TV I Liked In 2019

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

The era of “peak TV” has never been more apparent to me than the past year. I am very aware of the many shows I have not seen (don’t have Amazon Prime, for example), and yet I expanded my list from a top 10 to top 15 and still had to leave out A LOT of stuff I really liked! These picks include my legitimate favorites, ranging from truly important looks at the criminal justice system to ensemble comedies that I couldn’t wait to return to. In another year I may have been able to include the latest seasons of Barry, Stranger Things, Queer Eye, Bojack Horseman, Glow, or the finale seasons of Legion, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Veep, Silicon Valley and The Deuce, all of which I’d still recommend. But these stood out even more.

14 (tie). Chernobyl (HBO) / The Hot Zone (National Geographic)

Two limited series focusing on real-life disasters in the 1980s: the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and an Ebola outbreak outside of Washington DC. Chernobyl is an incredibly harrowing account of humanity’s inability to believe things that don’t mesh with their interpretations of reality and the destructive power of lies and cover-ups. The Hot Zone adapts the non-fiction Richard Preston book, a revealing look at pandemics, the power of fear and human resolve. Taken together, they raise interesting questions about governmental gatekeeping, professional competence and personal sacrifice.

13. Mindhunter: Season 2 (Netflix)

Joe Penhall and David Fincher’s look at the early days of the FBI’s criminal profiling department goes broader and deeper in its second season. There are still chilling interviews with incarcerated serial killers and criminal minds (including Charles Manson this time out), but the season really revolves around the Atlanta child murders. This focus provides a compelling look at who the justice system helps and who it ignores, and the investigative – and bureaucratic – work it takes to put together a case.

10 (tie). A.P. Bio: Season 2 (NBC) / The Last O.G.: Season 2 (TBS) / Schitt’s Creek: Season 5 (Pop)

Three great hangout comedies that really came into their own in their most recent seasons. A.P. Bio transcended its first-season preoccupation with revenge and leaned into its fantastic supporting cast – one of the best comedic ensembles around – to become a show I loved spending time with each week. (Thank goodness it’s coming back via NBC’s upcoming “Peacock” service.) The Last O.G. has had a lot on its mind since it began, but its second season covers privilege and the opportunity gap among other issues, ending with a note-perfect homage to Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, making it an unexpectedly resonant comedy. Schitt’s Creek is obviously having a moment right now, and Season 5 (the first season I watched as it aired) was perhaps its best yet. While the whole cast is great, as a big fan of Best In Show and A Mighty Wind, I love seeing Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara share the screen again.

9. Crashing: Season 3 (HBO)

The first two seasons of Pete Holmes’ show made my list in previous years so I’d be remiss not to include the final one, which may be its finest. Pete spends the season making a lot of mistakes – saying yes to things (gigs, relationships) that he probably shouldn’t – and although they provide growth, he doesn’t come across as the “good guy” in how he deals with all of them. This adds additional nuance to the show, questioning its straight white male protagonist’s actions rather than merely rewarding him for following his passions, while still leading to an uplifting and fitting finale.

8. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 4 (Netflix)

Netflix split the final season of Kimmy Schmidt into two parts, so technically only the final six episodes premiered in 2019. Those alone warrant a spot on the list, as the show concluded by following its idiosyncratic bliss to the end. The final group of episodes includes a (pre-movie) takedown of Cats, a Sliding Doors homage and an unexpectedly moving series finale. If this one fell off your radar a few years ago, it’s worth revisiting and seeing through.  

7. What We Do In The Shadows: Season 1 (FX)

Based on the horror-comedy film of the same name, this series follows a different crew of vampires who live together on Staten Island. I was initially skeptical because I love the movie and couldn’t see how a television version could do anything but dilute its charms. On the contrary, the show broadens the universe in hilarious ways by introducing characters like “energy vampire” Colin Robinson and the incredible Vampiric Council (with so many incredible cameos!). The core actors are all wonderful, but the MVP has to be Matt Berry’s louche and libidinous Laszlo whose line readings are simply hysterical.

6. Les Misérables (BBC/PBS)

Although it aired in the UK in 2018, the BBC/PBS production of Victor Hugo’s epic didn’t grace American screens until early 2019 so I’m including it here. I am a big fan of the musical adaptation and find it quite successful at cramming so much story into a three-hour runtime, though it obviously has limits to how much of the source material it can explore. This (non-musical) adaptation’s six episodes allow for more of Hugo’s tale of forgiveness versus retribution to live and breathe. The terrific cast includes Dominic West as Jean Valjean and David Oyelowo as Inspector Javert, as well as Lily Collins as Fantine whose backstory is more fully realized here than the format of the stage show allows.

5. Our Planet (Netflix)

Essentially a sequel to the Planet Earth documentaries, with the same production team and David Attenborough narration, this Netflix series presents another stunning collection of nature footage that showcases the incredible diversity and beauty of animal life on Earth. Each episode includes a haunting reminder of man’s impact on the featured habitats and serves as a rallying cry in the fight against climate change.

4. The Good Place: Seasons 3-4 (NBC)

The Good Place has been high on my list since its first season and shows no signs of dropping in quality or esteem as it enters its final stretch of episodes. 2019 encompassed the end of Season 3 (including the hilariously imaginative visit to the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes) and the beginning of Season 4 (with its crew of new characters and just as many reversals and rug-pulls as you’d expect). The final episode before its winter break was “The Answer,” a touching spotlight on William Matthew Harper’s Chidi, which might have been enough to make this list all on its own. (And given the surprise cameo/quasi-crossover in its first episode of 2020, I wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up here again next year too.)

3. Unbelievable (Netflix)

The true story of a serial rape case adapted from journalism by ProPublica, The Marshall Project and This American Life, Unbelievable is one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking and satisfying procedurals I have ever seen. As crushing as it is to watch the initial investigation completely mishandled and devolve to gaslighting, it is powerful and inspiring to watch compassionate public servants and actual good detective work be carried out as the series progresses. Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette are uniformly excellent here (as they also were in their respective film roles in Booksmart, Marriage Story and Knives Out this year).

2. Watchmen (HBO)

Showrunner Damon Lindelof (LOST, The Leftovers) takes some incredibly bold swings in his limited-run sequel to the groundbreaking 80s graphic novel that deconstructed the ideas of vigilantism and superheroics. Picking up in the same alternate reality as that story but in present day, the main action is shifted to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the central theme is race relations. It could have gone way off the rails in a million different ways, but I found it to be incredibly successful. Each episode is a captivating work of art and it somehow seems to top itself with each subsequent installment. While I appreciate the book, I don’t love it; this series takes that source material seriously and, to me, completely transcends it.

1. When They See Us (Netflix)

As compelling as it is devastating, this miniseries from Ava DuVernay (who directed and co-wrote all 4 parts) dramatizes the lives of the wrongly convicted children the media dubbed “the Central Park Five.” Even with some familiarity of the story from watching Ken Burns’ documentary years ago, I was utterly gutted by the depiction of the injustices and systemic racism that stole these childhoods. Everyone in the cast shines, but Jharrel Jerome’s portrayal of Korey Wise (the only one of the group played by the same actor as a child and adult – and so convincingly) is truly phenomenal. Not a comfortable watch but an essential one. 

Bonus! Musical Comedy Specials:

The Unauthorized Bash Bros. Experience (Netflix) – This “visual poem” from the Lonely Island presents “an album of raps” recorded by Jose Canseco (Andy Samberg) and Mark McGwire (Akiva Schaffer) at their steroid-fueled 80s peak with the Oakland A’s. Your likely enjoyment is probably about equal to your reaction to that description. The songs are great, catchy and hysterical on their own, but the videos take it to another level, parodying everything from 80s infomercials to Enya to Beyonce’s Lemonade. There is no 30 minutes of TV I rewatched more in 2019.

John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix) – Debuting on Christmas Eve, this children’s television homage/parody snuck in just under the wire. The words of the day could be fear and mortality, as the group of kids Mulaney interacts with reveal their personal phobias and several skits revolve around existential angst. By the end of the first musical number I was sold, by the time David Byrne showed up I was committed, and by “Mr. Music’s” madcap finale I wished it could last forever.

[sseanight]

Min Yoongi Fics Recommendation

Recent update 200125

[ ❥ ] = Favorite

Kim Namjoon  — Kim Seokjin  — Jung Hoseok  — Park Jimin  — Kim Taehyung  — Jeon Jungkook

[ ❥ ] Does This Makes Sense; smut, drama, angst, romance part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 finale

You meet the mysterious Yoongi at a house party and no matter how uninterested you tell yourself that you are, you can’t say no to him. Can you end up changing his playboy ways, or will you just end up getting hurt?

[ ❥ ] Aguiver; idol!au, smut, angst, fluff part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 finale

Yoongi can’t remember the last time he was able to successfully bring himself to the point of orgasm, then Namjoon gives him a business card advertising ‘Healing Hands’, and that’s where he meets you; pretty and innocent looking, who gets paid to provide hand jobs for a living.

[ ❥ ] Wildest Moments; smut, angst, romance part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 finale

Min Yoongi is forbidden territory. And although you both know better, the two of you just can’t seem to stay apart.

♠  Punch Drunk; boxer! au, smut, angst Min Yoongi talks with his fists, and the only language he knows is one of anger and pain. He’s damaged, untouchable, a boxing underdog with something to prove. You are the sister of Yoongi’s rival - Jeon Jungkook, the number one elite boxer in your prefecture - and as Yoongi soon discovers, you are also his one and only weakness.

[ ❥ ] Playing with Fire; smut, angst, romance part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 finale After breaking up with you, you decide the only way to get back at your -now ex-boyfriend and avoid public humiliation is by making a deal with resident bad boy Min Yoongi: you’ll give him money as long as he pretends to be your new boy.

[ ❥ ] Ink; tattoo artist! au, fluff, angst He’s a tattoo artist, and you’re a student who is working towards getting into your favourite universities. Two very different people, and two parents who think Min Yoongi is nothing more than a bad influence. How will you ever make it work?

♠ Forget Me Not; idol! au, fluff, angst You and Yoongi are in a private relationship. So private, that Yoongi has to deny it. What happens when you can’t take the denying of such strong feelings any more?

♠ I’ll Protect You; angst You and Yoongi were the most unlikely of pairs, which was why you decided to keep your relationship on the down-low for now. Whilst Yoongi and you basically ignore each other during school hours, Yoongi is left in the dark about the struggles you’ve been dealing with whilst he is pretending not to know you.

♠ Too Late to Apologize; angst You were dating for three years and what you wanted most was being able to take care of him. But Yoongi was too busy with his job to realized that he was losing you.

♠ Let You Go; angst part 1 | part 2 finale Having a boyfriend who cares is every girl’s dream. But is it still every girl’s dream when he doesn’t care about you as much as he cares about his friend that he was in love with? No, not really. It was more like a nightmare.

♠ Leaving Her Behind; angst part 1 | part 2 finale He would do nothing but push you away. He would push you away everytime you were too close. He would shut you out everytime you thought that he had opened up for you. He never trusted you enough to let you know him. He didn’t let you know his problems, even if you knew that something was bothering him. Even if you had been together for years and you’ve been beside him through it all, he never saw you as someone he could tell his secrets or his problems to. It was never you, it was always someone else.

♠ Suga Daddy; smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 Yoongi gives you an offer you can’t refuse.

♠ Dead Leaves; angst, romance You wants to give up the relationship because you aren’t sure of it anymore so Yoongi does his best to salvage your relation.

♠ In Heaven; angst, romance Can Yoongi turn back the time?

[ ❥ ] Two Faced Lovers; angst, drama part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 finale He leaves her and she starts sleeping around to fill the void.

♠ Heartstrings; angst, drama part 1 | part 2 finale You want to be together but Yoongi thinks he’s not enough.

♠  Remains of April; angst, drama You get into an accident that causes you to forget everything from the past few years and still believe that you and Yoongi are dating but he doesn’t remind you about the break up because he thinks this is his chance to start over.

♠  Safe Haven; angst, drama You came from an abusive relationship and one day you and Yoongi are fighting badly.

[ ❥ ] Tainted Love; demon!au, romance part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 | part 15 | part 16 | part 17 | part 18 | part 19 | part 20 Demons are merciless, demons are ruthless, demons can’t hold nothing dear  to them. Yoongi is the leader, the king of the demon world. He is feared as he is respected, no one expected him to bring a human girl as his lover, you. You fell in love and now you are in the midst of adjusting to the demon world, its custums, and its dangers. But everything is worth it if is for him, the demon king that lives between shadows and that would turn hell apart to protect you.

[ ❥ ] Somebody Else; angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | epilogue Your husband found solace in somebody else’s arms.

[ ❥ ] Heart Haunting; angst, romance You’re in love with Min Yoongi. You are sure of this. So why does your past lover still haunt your memories?

[ ❥ ] Destruction of a Muse; underground rapper!au, angst, smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 finale You’re in your last year of uni doing literature and lose your motivation, and it’s not till you meet a talented musician you get your ambition back.

[ ❥ ] Same Old Love; angst, smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 finale In which your long-term relationship with Yoongi starts to lose it’s spark, and the love of your life grows complacent.

[ ❥ ] To be Without; angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 finale Funny how the world can shift in an instant. How you approached your bedroom with excitement only to walk away with a life forever changed.

♠ Self-Control; ceo!au, smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 It’s harder than Yoongi thought when you keep confront him.

[ ❥ ] Wrong (ft. Kim Namjoon); smut, angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 finale You should’ve stayed away. You should’ve fought harder. You should’ve done  anything but fall for the player Min Yoongi. Especially since you were already taken.

[ ❥ ] When War Runs Deep (ft. Jungkook); angst, implied smut, vampire/war!au prologue | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 Min Yoongi knew that the General’s daughter, engaged to Lieutenant Jeon Jungkook, was the one human being he shouldn’t target. His single role during the war was to kill the enemy, and protect the homeland. But what’s forbidden always is the most enticing.

♠ Studio Cuddle; fluff, idol!au Tired from work, you went straight to Genius Lab in the hopes of being able to cuddle with Yoongi. You did not hesitate to press the passcode of his studio, knowing he might get pissed off for interrupting him from his work.

♠ Matched; fluff, idol!au When you tried to offer Yoongi a small present, the anticipated disinterest or rejection to your offer was downplayed by his unexpected proposition.

[ ❥ ] Workaholic; smut Yoongi needs to relax and Hoseok has many tricks up his sleeve to make him. None of them Yoongi thought included hiring a hooker to pay him a visit one stormy night. You were only trying to escape a crazed man chasing you down on a stormy night. Never was your intention to end up in an attractive man’s house. Definitely not one who thought you were a hooker.

♠ Small; angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 finale He suddenly realized the consequences of his words. His girlfriend must have felt so insecure, so belittled. How could he make his own girlfriend feel like that? She should feel protected, safe when he’s around. Not insecure, and not belittled or small. He was supposed to build her up, like she built him up, but instead he was tearing her down.

♠ Sated (ft. BTS); heavy smut Sin. There’s nothing more.

♠ Moan Wars (ft. Jungkook); smut, a little fluff After being forced to listen to Yoongi and his girlfriend fucking loudly in the room next to his, Jungkook decides that two can play that game.

♠ Doesn’t Define You; fluff In which you fail an exam you worked so hard for and he comforts you.

♠ Hello Paradise, My Name is; greek myth!au, slight angst, smut Buried in the Earth where seasons did not exist, where all prosperous life perished, and Helios’s blinding light could not touch; you slept soundly in the arms of darkness.

♠ Mint; greek myth!au, smut You find yourself back in Hades when Spring turns to Fall, but this time you’re less than thrilled to see your husband after learning of his ex-lover, Minthe.

♠ Aidoneus, My Love; greek myth!au, smut Yoongi believes the mortal, Adonis, has stolen your heart, but he will never share his love with anyone else for as long as he is king of the underworld.

♠ I Don’t Wanna Love You; fluff, angst, smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 finale Just because he had fallen out of love with you, didn’t mean you had with him.

♠ Gone; angst, fluff part 1 | part 2 | part 3 finale You were young & foolish, he was not.

♠ The End; angst Life is a whole plot twist.

♠ Where Does Your Heart Lie; angst part 1 | part 2 finale Where did his heart lie?

♠ Inevitable End; angst part 1 | part 2 finale Was the foundation of the relationship that weak? After all, he felt that it was a hopeless house of cards.

♠ Service; smut “I can’t believe you brought me here.”

♠ Sex Tape; smut When Yoongi came home with Namjoon holding a camera, you knew he wasn’t joking at all.

♠ Waiting; angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 finale Fourteen. That’s how many nights he has come late.

♠ Gift for You; fluff, angst Yoongi has many sides to him which is what attracted you to him in the first place. He’s been doing a good job as a boyfriend these past few years until on your birthday he doesn’t give you the usual attention you’re used to.

♠ Love or Love; angst part 1 | part 2 finale Yoongi is the love of your life. You thought he felt the same until he pushed you away before you could tell him surprising news that you were pregnant.

[ ❥ ] Like Father, Like Son; parent!au, fluff You let Yoongi take your son to the recording studio to spend time together but when they stay there past his bed time you decide to see what’s take them so long.

♠ Little Angel; angst For the first time in your life you felt hatred toward him. He was the reason why you were lying here.

♠ Unkept Promises; angst “Have you ever, even for a day, even for a moment.. loved me?”

♠ Too Little Too Late; angst “I don’t think I can do this anymore, Yoongi..”

[ ❥ ] Why Am I Not Being Praised Like Them; fluff The title says it all.

♠ Burning Paradise; ceo!au, angst, smut Loving Yoongi was chaos - unpredictable with reason, excruciating with misses and hits from the both of you. But the flames that warms you in the love he provides is your home and no matter how many times you run away, you know you’ll always choose to be with him, burning and aflame, breathing and fully alive.

♠ Fight; dad!au, fluff Yoongi gets into a really idiotic fight with his rebellious teenage daughter due to him being a slightly overprotective father.

♠ The Failed Track (ft. Jung Hoseok); smut As you moan louder the door swings open and Hoseok stands in the door.

[ ❥ ]  3:27 AM; smut, fluff Yoongi wakes up in the middle of the night to your phone ringing like crazy so he checks it and sees it’s your ex. So he answers the phone only to prove that you’re taken.

♠ Everything to Him; drama, romance Your ex wants you back and Yoongi doesn’t know about it.

♠ Milk; hybrid!au, fluff, smut part 1 When trying to deal with your hybrid’s sudden obssesion with milk, you would have never guessed that things would turn out so differently.

♠ The Bonnie to My Clyde; bonnie and clyde!au He saw the darkness in her beauty. She saw the beauty in his darkness.

♠ 3 AM; angst It’s 3 AM and you are crying – great big sobs that shake your entire body as you hold the phone close to your ear to hear his drunken voicemail again and again.

♠ Dream; angst, fluff You had picture the exciting reactions that you would get from him when you tell him that you’re pregnant. But you soon realize that you shouldn’t have get your expectations high because you would only have it crashed down in front of you.

♠ Mirage; angst, fluff “Choose. Is it me or her?”

♠ Ants; fluff, angst Get you a man who makes you feel bigger than the world itself.

♠ Money Shot; porn star!au, smut “Don’t look so put off. Min Yoongi’s indisputably one of the best in the industry. He’s extremely professional and experienced-and handsome to boot. You’ll be in the very best hands. He rarely works with newbies, so consider yourself special.”

♠ Overwork; angst, fluff You tried to help min yoongi take a break from work.

♠ Forgotten; angst, fluff You forgot your anniversary dinner, and yoongi is furious.

♠ Enigma; mafia!au, angst, romance part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 finale After the death of your father leaves you in a lot of a debt to Bangtan - Seoul’s most nefarious crime syndicate - you are offered a way out:  marry Min Yoongi - Bangtan’s most elusive member-  and produce him an heir and your father’s debt will be forgotten.  Without a choice, you are soon tied to a man who you are absolutely terrified of.  But you cannot ignore the part of you that is thrilled by Yoongi.  And what scares you the most isn’t the blood on his hands, or the gun he always carries in his pocket.  It’s the things he’s capable of doing to your heart.

[ ❥ ]  2.1 Out of 5.0; nose dive black mirror!au, angst, smut part 1 You were a 4.9 and he was a 2.1, and that fact alone should have made you realize that the two of you were never meant to be. But as the saying goes, “the heart wants what it wants”.

♠ A Mess (ft. Jeon Jungkook); smut, fluff Maybe it was a good thing you lost that bet to Yoongi. The punishment was cruel, but it lead you to a threesome with him and your crush so… yay for that.

♠ Divorce; angst part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 | part 15 | part 16 | part 17 finale In which you have to go through a painful process of your own family shattering.

♠ Suddenly, It Was Love (ft. Kim Namjoon); angst + sequel The saying that love is an unexpected visitor was right. you never intentioned of falling in love with the best friend of your boyfriend.

[ ❥ ]  Tied Together; divorce lawyer!au, angst, fluff part 1 | part 2 finale The last thing you needed when you had a demanding daughter and job was a divorce made difficult by your husband. Luckily for you, Min Yoongi—Seoul’s top divorce lawyer—stepped in to save the day. Well, more or less.

♠ All Too Well; idol/make-up artist!au, angst, fluff, smut part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | epilogue You and Yoongi shared a loving relationship with one another until you both agreed to end things and pursue your separate careers. but two years later, Yoongi is a member of the ever growing Bangtan Boys, and you are a new makeup artist for their upcoming tour.

♠ Weary Night; fluff “You know, I never thought that tonight was going to be like this.”

[ ❥ ] Heartbeat (ft. Jeon Jungkook); angst, smut part 1 | part 2 finale You fell in love with a boy who was in love with music, and you weren’t sure if he was capable of loving you the same way. This thought should’ve caused you to move away from him; but, if anything, it just drew you closer.

[ ❥ ] Before I Ever Met You; angst, smut You are no fool to the ways of life. You might be the love of Yoongi’s life now, but there is his whole past—before he met you—to account for. The number of people that traversed in and out of his life carried a significance, and you want to know who they are.

[ ❥ ] Cut Me Open; surgeon!au, fluff, angst preview | part 1 | part 2 finale This job makes great minds. Literally. Each patient that walks through the doors of the hospital into the Neurosurgery ward need to leave with the best service and help the country can offer. But a 300k salary, 1400 hospital workers, and 14-hour work day can’t make a marriage work.

♠ Away From You; angst, fluff part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 Trying to divorce Yoongi might be harder than you thought it’d be. Especially when you’re having a two year old toddler.

[aspia-leif]

Because I'm completely unoriginal, I'm gonna ask you the same questions you asked me XD Lunar mist, bird of paradise, marmalade skies, lavender dream, heliotrope, creams and sky, tulip, angel's face, caramel kisses, queen anne's lace, sunflower, lilly and finally blazing star.

Really?! Damn. Alright… soooooooo

Lunar mist: Do you like wearing other people’s shirts/jacket?Well… I would like to… But I am fatter than my friends and my last gf so… However, I share some clothes with my mom 🤔

Bird of paradise: What was the best thing that happened to you this month?Hard to say… I’ve had a bad month… I think the best thing was that even if was really depressed, I didnt need to go to the hospital again. I survive by myself.

Marmalade skies: Do you plan your outfits?Absolutely not. Not even for parties like christmas and everything… doesnt mean I dont dress well enough in those occasions… just, I dont plan them until I have to get dressed.

Lavender dream: turn ons/offs? -> Ons: respect, humor, sweetness, when someone cares about me, when someone plays with my hair, respect (yes twice), not a lot of makeup (for both man and woman) and some originality. -> Offs: Bad smell, being mean, being shallow, being bigot/intolerant, poor hygiene.

Heliotrope: Have you ever been in a castle?Yes, but I was too young to really remember… maybe being exposed at ghosts so soon in my life explain why I can feel/see/comunicate with them 🤔

Creams and sky: Whats the craziest/bravest thing you’ve done?I’ve done 2. When I was 9, I’ve dance with a snake around my neck, a female boaconstrictor… really big! And when I was 14, I’ve hold a baby lion in my arms for several minutes. Best memories ever.

Tulip: name 5 facts about yourself.1) I have 3 piercings around my mouth2) I am 5 foots 7 tall (170cm)3) I have a huge library in my bedroom and 2 others in my living room4) I am an asperger asexual lesbian5) I am obssessed by cats

Angel’s face: What was your favorite bedtime story as a child?My mom never read for me… I learn to read at 3 years old so… I used to read Mr Men (Monsieur Madame in french) before falling asleep… and I was in love with Ariel (not the character, but the idea of becoming a mermaid) so I used to read it a lot too.

Caramel kisses: Would you want to live forever? Why/Why not?Hard question… a part of me would to live forever! To see everything, to travel the world, to see the evolution… But a part of me wouldnt… being alive forever? Alone? In marge of the society by default? Idk… seems… sad. Tempting but sad

Queen anne’s lace: Who do you trust the most?No one. Not even myself.

Sunflower: Share a favorite quote.Oh boi. I have so many!! 🤔🤔🤔 here is my top ten (and only from one fandom):1) I dont care! I dont care! Giles! I’m only sixteen years old… I dont wanna die… -Buffy Summers, who just learn that a prophecy predict her death in 2 days. 2) Passion…it lies in all of us. Sleeping. Waiting. And though unwanted, unbidden…It will stir…Open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love…the clarity of hatred…and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms: shuttered and dank. Without passion…we’d be truly dead. -Angelus, after killing the soulmate of Giles, Buffy’s protector.3) I don’t understand. I don’t understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she’s… there’s just a body! And I don’t understand why she can’t just get back in it and not be dead any more. It’s stupid. It’s mortal and stupid, and, and Xander’s crying and not talking, and I was having fruit punch and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever. And she’ll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain to me why! -Anya after Joyce’s death, Buffy’s mom.4) Dawn, listen to me, listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles…tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I’m okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world… is to live in it. Be brave. Live…for me. -Buffy Summers, sacrifing her life for her sister.5) Tara: Things fall apart. They fall apart so hard.Willow: Tara?Tara: You can’t ever put ‘em back the way they were.Willow: Are you okay?Tara: I’m sorry, it’s just…You know, it takes time. You can’t just have coffee and expect…Willow: I know.Tara: There’s just so much to work through. Trust has to be built again on both sides. You have to learn if… if we’re even the same people we were. If you can fit in each others lives. It’s a long and important process, and can we just skip it? C-Can you just be kissing me now? -Tara Maclay, after a coffee with her ex Willow, 2 days before her death.6) The first day of kindergarten, you cried because you broke the yellow crayon and you were too afraid to tell anyone. You’ve come pretty far. Ending the world — not a terrific notion…But the thing is…yeah, I love you. I love crayon-breaky Willow and I love scary, veiny Willow. So if I’m goin’ out, it’s here. If you wanna kill the world, well, then start with me. I’ve earned that. -Xander Harris, to Willow, after the death of Tara.7) Why does a man do what he mustn’t? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev— To be a kind of man. And she shall look on him with forgiveness and everybody will forgive and love…and he will be loved. So everything’s okay, right? Can we rest now? Buffy, can we rest? -Spike, after getting his soul back by love. 8) They’ll never know how tough it is, Dawnie. To be the one who isn’t chosen. To live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody’s watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You’re not special. You’re extraordinary. -Xander Harris, after Dawn realise that she wasnt a slayer like her sister.9) So here’s the part where you make a choice: What if you could have that power…now? In every generation, one slayer is born…because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power…should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer…will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power…will have the power…can stand up, will stand up. …every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong? -Buffy Summers, who chooses to give to women the power than the men stole from them centuries ago.10) I’ve been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I’ve seen things you couldn’t imagine, and done things I’d prefer you didn’t. I don’t exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn’t exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there’s only one thing I’ve ever been sure of. You. Look at me. I’m not asking you for anything. When I say I love you, it’s not because I want you, or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try…I’ve seen your kindness, and your strength, I’ve seen the best and the worst of you and I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman. You’re the one, Buffy. -Spike, after Buffy was betrayed by her friends.

Lilly: What’s something you love watching/reading but you are too embarrassed to admit you do?Oh boi. Do I have to?? 😖😖 I love vampire diaries (tv shows and books). Its so bad its good!

Blazing star: share a secret.🤔🤔🤔🤔 a secret…. hmmm… do I have one?! 🤔🤔🤔 My IQ is 135/100 (100 is the average) but I am clearly stupid 😆😅

[vrenaewrites]

CRAVE by Tracy Wolff thoughts: Chapter 0 - 21

Full video here.

In which a mortal girls goes to her uncle’s boarding school after the death of her parents, and finds it full of creatures.

CH 0 for some reason: if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space

“Try my hardest not to freak the eff out” - if you’re gonna use expletives, use them

Immediate info dump of “if you’d told me two months ago i was gonna be in fairbanks alaska to get a puddle jumper to denali, the highest mountain point in north america” 

CH 1: landing is just throwing yourself to the ground and hoping you don’t miss

I thought these quotes were weird self help quotes but then i realized they were probably the chapter titles

The fog is referred to as “civil twilight” - this weirded me out because civil blood and twilight, idk if this is a real thing? Will look it up if i remember: it is the brightest of the 3 twilight phases and it is ABUNDANTLY clear that she added the civil part to not make it straight up twilight because this book is unwitting twilight satire

He tells her it’s a short runway “because it’s hard to keep a long one clear of snow or ice for any amount of time” HE’S IN THE MIDDLE OF LANDING A PLANE ATM BRO WE DON’T NEED ALL OF THAT INFO ATM

Grace is kind of funny if not a little cheesy

“Textbook landing” - maybe if that textbook is a horror novel he’s reading upside down and backwards - i don’t know if by listening to this i’m missing the line breaks and short sentences that would make this funny, so if i am lemme know but if she didn’t break this up it’s clunky

Her uncle is headmaster of the boarding school she’s being sent to

“Despite being a year younger than my own 17 years” - did you not read this out loud? Did no one hear how redundant that was?

“According to wikipedia, heeley - hailey? - has only one major road” she’s mentioned google and wikipedia at this point and idk if i’m the only one who finds that type of thing annoying af

“In weather that’s 20 degrees below freezing, if the app on my phone can be believed” THIS IS SO ANNOYING

“The insulated helmet will keep you warm as well as protect your head if we crash” yes macy we know what helmets are and also insulation, again the redundancy

CH 2: Just because you live in a tower doesn’t make you a prince

“Is that kadmere academy?” i shout - not, is that it? They’re on a snowmobile, with helmets on, and macy understood her...and she understood macy saying they’d be there in five minutes

She couldn’t google the academy

“I half expected quasimodo to be waiting for us when we got there”

It may be a castle but at least there’s no moat or dragon

Macy has short rainbow-colored hair

She’s wikipedia’d and googled her life away but didn’t expect to not be able to breathe since she’s coming from sea level and is now up in the mountains - i’m from florida and even i know what altitude sickness is

She sees a flash of red in the window “i don’t know who it is or why they even matter” ...what does that mean?

But she doesn’t see them when she looks back and she’s disappointed, which she acknowledges makes no sense…

“I should be bowing and scraping right about now”

It’s a castle with an xbox and giant flat screen, and they have wifi AND cell service up in the desolate mountains. I went to cossayuna - 476 feet above sea level, 7 miles from a town - and NONE of us had cell service the entire time

She picks up a chess piece and it’s a carved vampire, then a dragon

Then she comes face to face with the most intimidating guy i’ve ever seen, not just because he’s hot, there’s something different and powerful though i don’t have a clue what it is”

Face too intense to be beautiful, skyscraper cheekbones????, red lips, stone-cutting jaw, bottomless obsidian eyes, obscene lashes

Trapped by his stare, hypnotized by the sheer magnetism rolling off him in waves

“Annoyance flashes through me”

He’s blocking her view of anything else - did he step between her and the chess board?? Confusion, but because of this she has to look at his long lean body

“Double-wide shoulders” gross

“Nothing to do but admit that this boy is sexy AF - a little wicked, a lot wild, and all dangerous”

“Seriously, when exactly did i become the heroine of some YA romance? The new girl swooning over the hottest, most unattainable boy in school?”

CH 3: vampire queens aren’t the only ones with a nasty bite

He quotes hamlet to her, and she corrects him for fucks sake

“I warned your uncle you wouldn’t be safe here, but he obviously doesn’t like you much”

“Welcome to alaska?” “more like welcome to hell, now get the fuck out”

“Ignoring the pterodactyls flying around in my stomach” - this is a great line if it didn’t take you completely out of the action, which it does

This whole exchange about big bad monsters is soooooo fucking cliche

And he’s talking about the chess pieces the whole time????? Am confusion.

She’s so horny for this insane man screaming at her and cornering her

She says she’s lost everything that matters and he changes, his agony visible behind “layers and layers of defenses he’s erected”

It’s calling to her own agony

They're soooo connected and staring at each other

He pulls on one of her curls and it makes her super horny

“Five minutes ago he was being a total douche to me”

Pushing him is like pushing a wall of granite

He’s got a scar down half his face that she didn’t notice until now????

“A fallen angel with a bad boy vibe for miles”

She’s touching his scar…

“I don’t understand you”

AND SHE QUOTES HIM QUOTING HAMLET IN RESPONSE

CH 4: shining armor is so last century

“Mr. tall dark and surly” would be more snarky and cute if she didn’t just have an ~earth-shattering moment of connection~ with him over their agony or w/e

Some weird instinct i don’t understand tells me not to mention that guy - the amount of times this girl has acknowledged something she doesn’t understand is so redundant and weird.

She keeps referring to the guy she spent half the last chapter basically falling in insta-love with as “tall dark and surly” as if that didn’t happen, as if he was just a dick and then he left without all the insta-love shit

Uncle finn and flint is a student...couldn’t pick any other name?

“A smile in his eyes that’s as different from the other guy’s iciness as the stars just outside the windows are from the endless midnight blue of the sky” and i’ve fallen asleep while she was spinning this long unending heavy-handed metaphor

His eyes blaze with sympathy

He offers to give her a piggyback up the stairs…

“You’re so little i won’t even notice” not lyk other girls guyz

Four guys open the door and they’re all sexy AF, tall dark and surly is among them ofc

“I couldn’t help but wonder why the icy guy made me hot and the one lending me his warmth left me cold” WE GET IT WE FUCKING GET IT WE DIDN’T NEED YOU TO SPELL OUT THE ALLUSION

“I want a name to go with his insane body and even more insane face”

CH 5: things hot pink and harry styles have in common

Macy is a cinnamon roll i love her

His name is JAXON VEGA...JAXON. G2G

Macy was so nice to her that she finally starts crying because macy is the BEST

Grace puts on a harry styles t-shirt and macy is dancing around to watermelon sugar when she comes back. This book already feels dated and it came out last month

CH 6: no i don’t really want to build a snowman

She wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about jaxon and almost has a panic attack

I hope in the actual book there is a tw for panic attacks because when i see / read about the symptoms of one or a description of one it triggers one for me

She goes exploring the castle in the dark to avoid the attack

Some guys come in wearing like concert tees and ripped jeans and she wonders if they’re ghosts, like how hogwarts has ghosts

I could swear he was sniffing me which was totally bizarre and not ghostlike behavior at all - this was cringe except i was listening to it at like 2x speed so when you hear it fast it’s actually funny

The guys corner her

They say something like “show us what you can do” and they seem to smell something about her…? They’re werewolves maybe??

CH 7: Something really freaking wicked this way comes

Hate these titles sfm

“With my thin california blood, i won’t last in the snow”

Jaxon saved her ofc and makes the guys apologize

“The moon is doing its thing” they’re totally werewolves

She thanks him and he’s like “i just made you a pawn in a game” and she’s like dude what but he’s staring at her and it’s making her hot and bothered

He wipes blood of her bottom lip and sucks it off and she finds it SUPER sexy

“This isn’t like your old high school”

He whispers in her ear “you have no idea what i know” and i’m like..okay dis kinda hot or whatever

She wonders when she’ll see him again and why it matters so much to her - bitch because he makes you horny!!!! Just say that!!!!!!

CH 8: Live and let die

It’s at this point that i stopped for the first round, and i had to ask: why the FUCK didn’t macy or the headmaster tell grace that this was a school for - obviously - vampires and werewolves? Is macy one? Is it genetic? Grace is a mortal according to the back of the book.

Grace tells macy what happened minus jax

She mentions to macy the boys didn’t have cold weather gear on and macy’s like hmmm weird idk anything about that

And they’re going to a party tonight and grace is like i don’t wear makeup i only own makeup and lip gloss and i’m like...did i accidentally re-download AFTER because here we go with the NLOG syndrome

The party is a welcome party for grace - and it’s actually a high tea??? Tf?

“I’d die without netflix”

“Have you seen this show legacies? It’s about a bunch of supernatural creatures that go to a boarding school! Isn’t that silly??!”

And then macy says, “who can resist a hot vampire?”

Guys….are we SURE this isn’t satire?

“I can’t help remembering what those guys said about the moon doing its thing when i see the werewolf on the show…”

CH 9: Even hell has its factions

Omg her dress is showing off too much of her big boobs, maybe the jeans she originally wanted to wear will be better

Macy calls her beautiful and then we get a full “with my curly hair and freckles and this color eyes i’m so not beautiful, i’m wallpaper next to macy”

“We could be fashionably absent” lol

The beads on the door don’t shock grace but they shock everyone because she is NOT LIKE OTHER GIIIIIIIIRLS

This castle is goth chic baybeeeeee the light fixtures are downturned thorny black roses where can i cop these

“The pterodactyls in my stomach are now butterflies”

She says FML. did a 50 year old woman write this. Edit: i looked, i cannot find how old this author is

Velvet wallpaper, wall sconces shaped like dragons, LET ME IN

“Self-imposed isolation” lol little did she know what a phrase in the lexicon this would become in 2020

Cliques include muscular people near the windows, soft flowery delicate people in the back of the room which are macy’s friends, super-tall literally hot people in the middle, and the black-or-white money people that seem to be more formal

She says “basketball anyone??” re the tall people lol

I am going to guess: werewolves, witches, dragons??, and vampires

Macy keeps having coughing fits?

Hot redhead - simone, hot dark girl - lily, hot asian girl - gwen

“Simone’s just bitter all the guys are looking at you”

Grace loves dr. pepper so i fuck with her

Macy’s boyfriend is cam and his friend is james, who looks at her like she is food?

“I’m just not that interesting”

CH 10: turns out, the devil wears gucci

Would i have probably picked this title as well? Yes. did it make me cringe nonetheless? Fer shure.

“Do i need some jerk trying to make me his afternoon snack?” huh???? As far as you know these are normal boys...make it make sense

Jaxon makes his ENTRAAAANCE BABY

Dressed all in gucci black - she can tell from across the goddamn room

“Jaxon is anything but regular, anything but ordinary, even here among the blatantly extraordinary”

Icy blank stare soooooo much

She calls his voice low wicked and wild

She can’t stop thinking about “running my tongue over the perfect bow of his upper lip, dragging is lower lip between my teeth”

Idk where these thoughts are coming from!!!! Baby you 17 c’mon now

I try to think of anything else, snow!

She takes a drink and it goes down the wrong pipe lmaoooo

“At least if i find a bathroom i can die in peace” lol

But he touches her and she stops choking and she’s like “he couldn’t have stopped that, i know, but…”

He stares at her as he bites the strawberry and she takes it as a threat

CH 11: in the library, no one can hear you scream

“His moods change more quickly than my bffs instafeed” I -

Oh so NOW she’ll say “the fuck you in his eyes” but she was saying freaking and eff before...did her publisher tell her only x amount of fucks per book?

She goes into the library and her body is like RUN, but she ignores it…

There are beautiful gargoyles and ornate shelves and...stickers fucking everywhere?

The gargoyle is pointing to an secret room that says students needs permission, but she hears chanting and decides to check it out since it might be one of the native languages spoken in alaskaaaaaaaaaa

“Especially because some of them only have less than 4,000 speakers left in the world” okay gracie-pedia tf?

CH 12: it’s all fun and games until someone loses their life

She meets a girl named Leah - who was the one chanting

Okay but i do fuck with the horror movie quote pillows…

Damn leah’s boyfriend died…

“Tea from homemade leaves” again...read this out loud before you put it in a published novel...do you mean loose leaves? Do you mean homegrown leaves?

Is she gonna poison her????

“What do you guys have to lie about that’s so important?” “Everything”

CH 13: just bite me

“Lol jk”

“Finish your drink” BITCH IT’S POISON

Macy and leah are being soooo weird about what could have happened to grace on her own

Apparently leah is super popular and secretive so it’s weird she took to grace so fast - is this a NLOG sitch or a “come into my web little fly” sitch?

She pukes because of “altitude sickness” aka poisoning i bet

CH 14: knock knock knocking on death’s door

This theme of bastardization of guns and roses songs is really....something.

Grace takes a mental health day because she’s still feeling weird

Flint comes to check on her and invite her to a snowball fight…?

If your character’s name is grace, i feel like you can’t use gracefully as an adjective, the same way you wouldn’t say Rue said something ruefully.

Flint kisses her cheek and i’m already waiting for this Great Value Edward/Jacob triangle

But he makes her feel ~nothing~ compared to jaxon

CH 15: so hell actually can freeze over

Macy likes flint, uh-oh

But the different groups don’t mix

“What is this, mean girls alaska edition?” - stfu

Omg her uncle checks on her and he reminds her of her dad and :(

We get sooooooo much detail about how to dress to go out into the wilderness...here is one thing i was able to find out: tracy wolff lives in texas. So i feel like she did ALL this research and then was like y’all gonna LEARN ABOUT THIS I SPENT TOO MUCH TIME!

As a girl who has never ever seen snow, i felt this fascination

She finds a gnarled up weird tree guarding a trail

“A weird sense that i should turn around - like the feeling in the library - came over me but i knew i was just being silly”

The lack of survival instinct henny

She comes across a gazebo where leah and jaxon are sitting

CH 16: sometimes keeping your enemies close is the only thing that prevents hypothermia

That’s not a chapter title, it’s an entire sentence…

Ooh they’re having an angry, intimate convo

And leah slaps him!!

“They’re looking at me like they’re the predators and i’m the prey they can’t wait to sink their teeth into” we get it, first of all. Second of all, what is with the long-winded metaphors

“Every time i catch sight of him i feel something tug at me i can’t identify, something i have no ability to explain” it’s horniness.

Then she just leaves but he catches up to her

With his sexy af hair blowing

“Trying to run away from all the thing he makes me feel when really i just want to grab on to him and hold on tight” - so what is the truth?! You keep acting like you don’t know what the feeling is but clearly, YOU DO.

“Everyone answers to me, eventually.” - we found the line used in the adverts guys!

Oh my god, what an asshat. Asshole, i would have laughed. Asshat is stupid.

It’s annoying af

Doing my best dory impression: just keep walking

“Making friends with a dr - a guy like flint” CALLED IT, he’s a dragon

Leah’s boyfriend was jaxon’s brother

Neither leah nor jaxon was wearing a jacket. BOOM

CH 17: it’s discretion, not diamonds, that’s a girl’s best friend

Not only cringe but grammatically incorrect…she coulda just said “discretion is a girl’s best friend” and we woulda got the reference….

Grace mentions jaxon in front of macy and she’s supes weird and grace is FINALLY like wtf is the secret you’re hiding from me

“She looks at me like i’m a few snowflakes short of a snowball” SOMEONE. READ THIS OUT LOUD. WHERE IS HER EDITOR I JUST WANNA TALK.

The order?! “Just a nickname for the popular boys” bullSHIT

Macy FREAKS OUT when she realizes grace has been alone with jaxon

She says he was interesting and “macy looks at me like i said i wanted to bodysurf the alaskan tundra”

Macy “We’re talking about jaxon right? Arrogance of a rock star?”

She didn’t mention “the scar that turns him from to pretty sexy af, and scary af”

“He’s not the one who tried to kill me” “you’ve only been here a few days, give it time” get her MACY!

HE WAS LISTENING!!!!

CH 18: how many hot guys does it take to win a snowball fight?

Ooh jaxon mad that grace is going to flint’s snowball fight

“His breath is so warm and soft that i can feel it everywhere, even deep inside” okay you horny bitch!!!!! Was this cringe or did i like it or both?

“The orange and dark water scent of him” ...what? Dark water is a cologne? Or does she literally mean like the dark water of the ocean? What in confusion

Her throat is always tight and dry around him, all the time, every day

Flint pops up and he is wearing a dragon beanie…

The rest of the order shows up and “For the first time the phrase got your back makes sense” to grace...are you kidding me? You never understood a very simple common phrase til now? Sure jan

SEXUAL TRIANGLE TENSIOOOOOOOOON

But she only has eyes for Jaxon...they both reach to touch each other.

“Grace” it’s barely a whisper but i feel it all the way inside myself BITCH

“Something tells me this boy and his world famous disappearing act is going to be the death of me”

CH 19: we came, we fought, i froze

Civil twilight AGAIN.

“I didn’t think screwed up and obnoxious was your type” me-OW

The snowball fight happens

Sounds like fun, the designer faction isn’t there

“Did she just do parkour against that tree?” re: Macy so close to being funny. I did exhale through my nose. Then “did you just parkour that tree?” i DID laugh

Flint climbs the tree with grace over his shoulder ‘like spider man’ and all i can think is “you better hold on tight spider monkey”

The wind is so strong it knocks her out of the tree…

CH 20: there’s never a parachute around when you need one

Flint catches her in mid-air...this man… #teamflint2020

“You’re heavier than you look” dead

He has shame in his eyes? Why?

Because JAXON IS THERE AND HE IS MAD!

And flint is SUPER MAD!!!!!!!

Jaxon puts himself between grace and flint so grace can’t touch flint

“Can i just say i’m feeling a lot like alice in wonderland here? Things get curiouser and curiouser.” stfu

I was laughing because she was like “so much for fitting in, now i might as well be painted biohazard orange” but then she said fml. Stfu

Jaxon picks her up

CH 21: I like standing on my own two feet, but getting swept off them feels surprisingly good, too

If it takes up more than one line of a google docs page IT’S NOT A FUCKING CHAPTER TITLE!!!!!

Ooh and his arms feel really good around her, REALLY good

Now he smells like orange and snow and it’s making her crazy

Macy looks at them like she’s getting punk’d

“Grace.” “what?” “shut up.” i’m dead

“I sprained my ankle, i’m not dying of consumption” “yeah well, the night is young” this made me lol despite it being more of macy’s voice than jaxon’s

Jaxon is blaming grace for falling? “You don’t see macy falling out of her tree” is he negging her rn?

She’s called him super-sexy twice in a paragraph

Macy goes to get ice bc she’s scared of Jaxon and grace says, “Et tu, brute?” lmaooo

“I can do it myself” “maybe i wanna do it for you” and macy squeaks LMAO

His scar makes his smile a crooked little smirk...who else had a crooked smirk...the vampire this is 1000% based on, maybe?

“I find myself relaxing despite myself” guys. Reading is power. Read your work out loud so you can hear when you use the same word twice in a sentence, like this.

“My whole body lights up like the aurora borealis i’m still dying to see”

They almost kiss but don’t bc macy comes back

~~~

[thechroniclesofdaraliss]

100 Dungeons & Dragons Campaign/Session Ideas

While I have always been fond of RPGs, my first encounter with tabletops was Dungeons & Dragons. The iconic platform was created in 1974 and has served as one of the greatest contributions to the gaming world. While there are many great systems out there in tabletop format (Mutants & Masterminds, Shadowrun, Vampire: The Masquerade), none of them would have been possible if D&D had not paved the trail first. Of course, the pioneer of the tabletop RPG world can be intimidating to try out. The technical aspects can be difficult to navigate, it’s the most enduring tabletop, and you may be wondering what you can make that hasn’t been done already. However, one of the best parts of this system is that if you have ever dreamed of going on an epic adventure, being the hero of a magical world, or wanted to battle the forces of evil with friends, this system gives you the freedom to do all of this and more. It’s for this reason that I have made a list of campaign or session ideas I’ve either field tested or always wanted to try out. Enjoy!

1) Slaves are rounding up captives on every continent. Some believe it’s to diversify the types of slaves sold, but it’s really a plot to find the legendary Gatekeepers. There is said to be one from each race and the Slavers won’t stop until all of them are captured 2) A Holy War has broken out between two rival Gods. While both sides go to war with promises of salvation, there’s something much more sinister lurking under the surface 3) In an attempt to save his wife, a young Necromancer gets a ritual wrong at the Tomb of Uther, and has instead summoned hoards of the undead. They are rampaging all across the continent, and only you can stop them. 4) The Queen has been assassinated and the king has hired you to find out who among her many enemies carried out the contract on her life. 5) A Thief Guild has taken a step out of wanton crime and into overthrowing governments. You must either assist these anarchists in their goals, or join the nobility and try to stop them 6) The party encounters a coliseum, and they are offered a chance at profit if they win. But there are sinister elements at play in this world where murder is a sport. 7) A terrible Plague has swept its way across the kingdom, but the source is most unnatural 8) You are tasked with storming an ancient crypt riddled with traps in order to collect parts of a map. However, the map leads to a multitude of new locations, each with a miraculous treasure and a harrowing obstacle 9) A local Barbarian Tribe has kidnapped a noble’s son. You have been hired to bring him or his body back. Only it seems that the Barbarians have accepted the young lad into their ranks by the time you arrive. 10) The party is tasked with finding a legendary creature in a safari. However, the Goddess of Nature deems this the last straw and wages a war on the civilized world. 11) A city ahs lost its inhabitants overnight, and it seems that otherworldly forces are at play 12) The party must retrieve an artifact from an ancient bandit tribe. But when they make contact, they learn that the bandits have a terrible secret. One that grants them immortality and makes them a danger to the entire world. 13) A massive portal has been ripped in the center of the kingdom, and the royalty has tasked you with discovering how and why this has happened 14) A demented Gorgon has been harvesting people and animals for her “Garden of the Dead.” You must find a way to rescue them all and not become a new addition to her collection 15) You encounter a graveyard, yet the rumors of a Necromancer being at large are debunked by the presence of moving statues that are gifted with great combat finesse 16) An ancient Lich has waged war against the Elfish Kingdom. Yet the reasons are more personal in nature 17) A series of enchanted objects have appeared, and it’s up to the party to collect them all and return them to the Tower of Secrets before they fall into the wrong hands 18) An ancient race of Giants invaded the kingdoms after they were believed to be long dead. After they were defeated, it’s revealed that they’re not the only ancient race that has resurfaced 19) A dark figure arrives at a hanging ordained by the nobility. He claims that this corrupt system is going to be replaced with a new one. One that is even more terrible and awe inspiring 20) A series of dark crystals are found in your world. What’s more is that touching one gives you access to a shadowy reflection of your world, and it’s filled with a wilderness of horrors 21) An ancient artifact is revealed to have belonged to one of the Bard Kings. It soon goes missing and it’s up to the party to find it and return it to the proper heir 22) A Ranger arrives at a tavern, and he is full of life and charismatic. Only when he takes his first sip of ale, he is found he is found dead some time later. The catch? The ale isn’t poisoned 23) A series of Ogres charge through the countryside and are casting spells with greater finesse than trained wizards. What’s most troubling is that Ogres shouldn’t be able to use magic. 24) A God has issued a contest to the mortal kingdoms. He has dropped a blessed object on Earth and encourages all of them to fight in order to obtain it 25) The most oppressive of the Kingdoms has outfitted their armies with incredible weapons. They have the ability to cut through the hardest armor and its available to each of them. There can only be one explanation, one of the legendary blacksmiths has been enslaved! 26) Despite centuries of transgressions and unprovoked wars, the Orcs are attempting to come to peace terms with the other nations. Is it an honest attempt at peace, or some kind of trick? 27) The forest has been producing a series of insidious and bloodthirsty creatures. Local mages claim there’s only one explanation, the arcane center of the forest has become corrupted 28) There is an “Arcane Olympics” taking place at the capital 29) A series of “crimson cuts” have formed in the sky, and they are spilling monsters onto your world that are unnatural and extremely intelligent 30) You must clear the name of one of your party members, who has been framed for a crime. This is likely the doing of your party member’s rival, a noble who has lusted after your friend’s bride/husband for years 31) The God of Death ahs discovered a way to turn the souls of the departed into fuel for a ritual that will change the course of history 32) Monsters have been ravaging the wilderness, but it turns out that they are children that were contorted into these awful shapes. They are simply trying to communicate or defend themselves from hostile people. It’s up to you to either rescue and reform them, or to put them out of their misery 33) The Dwarf Kingdom has shut its borders. Yet the Council of 40 Clans protests against this. Perhaps the conflict lies with the King himself. 34) The Elves are suffering severe persecution and are being hunted within their own nation’s borders. You must decide whether to aid the hunters, or to resist and keep the Elves safe 35) A group of mercenaries claim they have a mission vital the safeguarding of the kingdom they need you to deliver a message to them and persuade them to help. Is it a scheme by the mercenaries, the negligence of the nobles, or something else entirely? 36) A massive lake that was once the center of the Halfling way of life has now been frozen in the middle of summer. It’s up to you to return the lake to its original glory 37) The entire party is turned into animals and they must find a way to return to their original humanoid forms 38) You happen upon a village an find that it’s teeming with beauty, peace, and pleasure. But upon realizing that it’s too perfect, it’s actually a village of murderers and manipulators. 39) The animals are suddenly attacking a local village. But what could anger them so intensely? The village doesn’t even hunt. 40) After a strange cosmological event, thirteen new islands have surfaced in a sea that was entirely deep water. You have been tasked with investigating each new island and reporting what you find 41) You happen upon a seaside church where many sailors have been taken in for injuries. What’s more is that the monks refuse to let you bathe in the water. They claim that something terrible lurks beneath the waves 42) The party is knocked unconscious and awakens in a village at the peak of the trees, all resting on chutes of bamboo and in the company of Monkeyfolk 43) You enter a town where there are no children. The mayor gets the party in a room alone and reveals that twisted alchemists are stealing all of the children to unlock the secret of immorality 44) You encounter a tribe of Gnomes that have turned their mountain village into a mobile mountain. It’s a marvel of engineering that could either bring the Gnomes from the brink of destruction from the last war, or it could make them the initiators of a new war 45) A Vampiric group known as the Red Fang is acting in opposition to local Clerics. They claim that it’s wrong to have the public live short life in fear when there’s another life waiting where they can be free and do as they please. The chief one of these new rights being the right to kill in order to feed 46) A family of four nature spirits has been separated so that corrupt mages can exploit their arcane potential 47) A witch that lives in a hollow Elder Tree promises knowledge in exchange for services. Simple as it seems on the surface, she is masking truly vicious intentions 48) A war is about to break out between Bandit Clans because the “perfect heist” was foiled 49) A family of Kobolds occupies a nearby mine. The nobility insists that these Kobolds are vicious and untrustworthy. But the Kobolds have a different story. They are looking to start anew 50) A series of murders are being committed inside the city walls that mirror the methods of a killer that was publically executed a week ago 51) The Council of Wizards and the Circle of Druids are in opposition. A marriage from one member of both parties has driven both of them off the deep end 52) Mysterious runes form at the front of a town hall’s door and reveal a riddle 53) A n ancient witch is trying to bind three royal sisters in an attempt to absorb them in a spell to give her Life, Form, and Magic. She will then return from the grave with all the power to exact revenge on the people that wronged her in life 54) The combination of magic and industry has created a massive rift where the laws of nature have no meaning 55) After years of researching, you discover a tree that has the ability to turn you into any race. Some believe it can turn you into a God, while others will not consume it because it can turn you into a Demon 56) You encounter a group of merchants that deal in items of emotional value rather than monetary value 57) You have been tasked with recovering artifacts that contain six of the most ancient Gods that scriptures of any religion can record. Some are benevolent and cooperative while others are hostile and manipulative 58) You must find a way to break out of a prison that is run by your sworn enemies 59) You must rescue a young warrior who is trapped in a mysterious forest. What’s more is that you must defeat a Demonic Insect Queen before getting this warrior free 60) A noble family has been thriving off of the exploitation of minorities in their jurisdiction. It’s up to you to find a way to take this family down in the name of justice 61) A council of mages has designs on becoming the most powerful group on earth. They have numerous arcane plots afoot that will shake the world as you know it to the core. You must find each member and defeat them before their plans can be completed 62) In a botched attempt to claim vengeance on a Dread Pirate, you must enter his service in order to survive on the high seas 63) A horrific creature has been attacking the Mead Hall every full moon. It seems entirely immune to weapons, both conventional and enchanted 64) You encounter clues that the legend of a city in the clouds is true. You must reach the city before the Human Nation does, as they want to use the weapons it holds for world domination 65) An ex-thief has teamed up with the nobility. In exchange for taking down Thief Guilds, his children are guaranteed a future 66) As a Beast Hunter, you must collect the five Grand Trophies, Razorfish, Manitcore, Kopru, Thraal, and Necronaut 67) Lovecraftian priests from another realm have invaded the physical plain, possessed humans, and are now manipulating the most powerful people on earth. They hope to bend the entire world to their will before the year is out 68) Magic has entered a state of flux. Mages of the world have come to the conclusion that the only way to return it to normally is by reaching the Fountain of Divination. 69) People have gone missing in the Forest of Dark Dreams. You go there and discover that an infestation of intelligent spiders have been keeping people a live and feeding off of them piece by piece 70) Nine of the most gifted warriors to ever assemble are forced into exile after the last way. Yet with them gone, crimes and wars have gone up in all of the kingdoms. It’s up to you to find each of them and to return the world to normal 71) An inventor is crafting items that are far ahead of your time (pistols, rudimentary tanks, primitive flying machines, etc) 72) As you travel with a group of Bards, trouble is following them like ticks on a dog. Yet it’s not simple bar fights or pranks amongst themselves. Assassins are trying to reach them wherever they go, and everyone from thrones to gutters is after them. But why? 73) An ancient mine ahs had its workers going missing. Many believe it to be a mining accident, but you hear rumors that it could be “her.” 74) A network of smugglers and murderers has overtaken the sewers. As long as they maintain this place as their hideout, not even the Royal Guard can keep them in check. Either smoke them out, or join their ranks. 75) An ancient castle has been discovered, but the landscape has been turned into frigid cold and the entire structure has fallen onto its side. The entire castle remains intact, but you will have to crawl through this dungeon from a different perspective 76) A volcanic tribe of Dwarves has lost contact with the outside world. You investigate to find that insects have infested this tribe’s homeland. What’s more is that they seem totally immune to heat and lava 77) Your ship is caught in hurricane winds along the high seas. Your entire party falls overboard, and you awaken to find that you are in an undersea dome where a pocket of air holds a legendary kingdom that has faded out of history books and into obscurity and myth…until now 78) You encounter a temple that is at the center of a natural anomaly. The seasons are at full strength in different directions, with the temple as its center. Winter to the North, Summer to the South, Fall to the West, and Spring to the East 79) A string of island nations have been overcome with horrible water known as the Crimson Tide. All creatures that swim in it are overcome with rot and ships deteriorate when they sail in it. What’s more is that the ring of destructive water is closing in on the islands, as though it going to devour them all. You must find a way to relieve these kingdoms of this curse before a genocide occurs 80) After all of the High Kings and Queens have been poisoned at a feast, every nation is at each other’s throats. You must find who is responsible, or the world as you know it will be torn apart in an endless war 81) You are welcomed by some of the wealthiest nobility for miles around. Yet for all the rumors, their home is dark, the villagers are terrified to speak the family’s name, and they eat from empty plates and drink from empty glasses 82) Toward the end of his life, an Alchemist created an “Ultimate Dowser.” It was first regarded as junk but was used to help prevent cosmic catastrophes. Now the time for using it has come again, yet it only works in one person’s hands…yours. 83) You walk through a forest and find that the trees are bleeding and that moans form with no wind to produce them 84) A handsome man has been seen in multiple towns and cities. He courts only the most wealthy and beautiful young girls. Yet for all his promises of keeping them safe, they always end up dead. He is now hunting an Earl’s daughter, and he pleads that you protect her from this horrible man. His presence has already been confirmed near the estate 85) A Barbarian boy is left for dead when his tribe has suffered a beating. He claims that with the death of their current leader (which is now inevitable, given his age), they will surely unleash the monster they’ve been keeping hidden for so long: the Mountain Troll 86) The King has had dozens of legitimate children and even more illegitimate ones. With his dying wish, he pleads you bring his true eldest son, Alan. The boy doesn’t know that he’s the son of a king, but you must protect him from his knifing siblings or else the kingdom will be in ruins 87) A terrible drought is sapping the earth and forests of their vitality. Most don’t know what to do, but all of them suspect tha the new Archmage is involved 88) At the center of all nations lies a mountain range known as the Eye. It is one of the wildest portions of the world. Some caverns go deeper than any recorded mine, and the peak goes well beyond the clouds. It’s up to you to find out what wonders this natural marvel holds 89) A master spy has lost contact with her lover. She pleads that you find him before he is tortured into giving information up or before he’s dispatched. In exchange, she will give you the chance to live any life you want 90) A mother has lost her son to the horrible plots of a coven of Witches. In an attempt to get revenge on them, she too begins practicing sorcery and enlists your help in exacting her revenge 91) A routine exterminator job turns out to be a dungeon crawl. You enter a woman’s pantry, and you find a passage that leads to a historical marvel of a site. The rats soon grow to enormous sizes and you see the ruins of a great battlefield that extend for miles beneath the surface. It’s your job to find out what happened. 92) After losing himself to madness, Kai-Von the Swift (mightiest of the Barbarians) has issued a decree to all other tribes: surrender or see true darkness 93) Corrupt Paladins have been tricking their apprentices into delivering young sacrifices to them so they can conduct rituals to Pagan Gods. 94) A blackmailer has been harvesting the so did secrets of all nobles in the kingdom 95) A clever Countess has arranged for a ball where she can delight her guests and kill her enemies 96) You are tasked with delivering a small chest to the next kingdom, but you are forbidden from looking inside 97) An ancient grove reveals itself. You see there are several figures appear, each claiming to be a guardian spirit that was once human 98) A child is kidnapped by their uncle for ransom. But this isn’t a normal crime, the commoner child has aspirations of killing the heroes 99) The party is caught in the throes of a terrible storm, and they must find a way to escape from the pale-faced creature that chases them relentlessly through the rustling trees 100) The Grand Forest is more expansive than any sea and more dangerous than any battlefield. Yet the crown has decreed that you must investigate it. You can bring any allies or friends you wish, but when you go out there, you are both at your most free and your most vulnerable.

[btwnseaandsun]

50 Bookish Questions Tag!

Thank you @midnightinkspill for tagging me!! Super long post incoming!!!

1. What is your favourite book and/or book series of all time?

Favorite series would have to be Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. It’s a steampunk Victorian-era book with supernatural characters.

2. What is the longest book you have ever read? How many pages?

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. It had 1,177 pages.

3. What is the oldest book you have ever read? (Based on its written date)

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin I think.

4. What is a book series that everyone else loves but you do not?

I’d have to say The Mortal Instruments. I started it but it didn’t hold my interest.

5. What book or book series would you like to see turned into a film/ TV series?

Defiantly Six of Crows and Throne of Glass but only if they’re cast right.

6. What is your favourite stand-alone book?

Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney. Super cute book that I remember always loving.

7. What is a book that you feel glad for not reading?

Those Grey books.

8. What is a book that you feel guilty for not reading?

My entire physical TBR pile honestly. Especially when I buy and read new books.

9. What is a book you have read that is set in your country of birth?

I’ll go one better and say one that is set in my state of birth: Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Brown.

10. What is a book that you own more than one copy of?

Twelfth Grade Kills by Heather Brewer. One came in a boxed set and the other is signed! 

11. What horror book made you really scared?

I believe Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann spooked me but I also remember Project 17 by Laurie Stolarz being spooky as well.

12. What book do you passionately hate?

I don’t think I hate any books.

13. What is the biggest book series you have read? How many books are in it?

I haven’t finished it but The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine is the longest series I know of. I got to book 10 out of 15 so I may finish that series out...eventually.

14. What book gives you happy memories?

The Internet Girls series. I read these with a close friend in middle school so I always remember her when I see them.

15. What book made you cry?

Every book I have ever read. I will cry at least once, no matter the book.

16. What book made you laugh?

Bloodthirsty has to go here since I remember laughing a lot during it.

17. What is your favourite book that contains an LGBTQ+ character?

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour is the first book that comes to mind

18. Have you read a book with a male protagonist? What is it?

I guess Kaz from Six of Crows would be considered a male protagonist.

19. Have you read a book set on another planet? What is it?

Yes, The Martian by Andy Weir. It’s on Mars.

20. Have you ever been glad to not finish a series? Which?

I don’t remember if I have. Most of the series I haven’t finished were due to the book not being released.

21. Have you ever read a book series because you were pressured?

Oh, the Game of Thrones books and the Lord of the Rings books. Although I never actually finished either one.

22. What famous author have you not read any books by?

A lot. Mainly the ones that are famous in non-fiction.

23. Who is your favourite author of all time?

Nina LaCour is the best author of all time I don’t care who you are!!!!

24. How many bookshelves do you own?

Two? One is for books and was handmade, the other is store bought with knick-knacks on it.

25. How many books do you own?

Oh geez, counting books I also digitally own? Like 385? But more along the lines of 200 physical I think.

26. What is your favourite non-fiction book?

I don’t think I’ve read a non-fiction book...

27. What is your favourite children’s/middle-grade book?

Oh! The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt! It’s so adorable!

28. What is your next book on your TBR?

Next in line is The Sandcastle by Kayla Olson but it’s probably not the next one to be read.

29. What book are you currently reading?

I just finished Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers! I highly recommend it!!

30. What book are you planning on buying next?

There is a whole list of books but I’ll be on the look out for Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers, the sequel to what I just read.

31. What was the cheapest book you bought?

Geez I have clue I wanna say one of the used books I got from Amazon or ThriftBooks but I honestly don’t know.

32. What was the most expensive book you bought?

I probably spent $25 on a brand new book because I couldn’t wait. I honestly don’t keep track of how much books are :/

33. What is a book you read after seeing the movie/ TV series?

Maze Runner by James Dasher. I saw the movie then had to get the book to compare.

34. What is the newest book you have bought?

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich. I try to buy my books used but I went on a buying spree at Books A Million.

35. What three books are you most looking forward to reading this year?

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake, and Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault by Candace Robinson. I think two of these are already out but I havn’t gotten them yet.

36. What is a book you love that has a terrible trope? (Love triangle, etc)

idk if this counts but the whole “brooding male” character. I’d die for Kaz Brekker.

Ok honestly I’m stealing this because same. Also I can’t think of a better one.

37. Have you read a book in a different language? What was it?

I have not which is something I would like to change.

38. What is a book you’ve read that is set in a time period before you were born?

I’ll give this to Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers. It’s set in 1485.

39. What book offended you?

I don’t think I’ve ever been offended by a book before.

40. What is the weirdest book you have read?

Gossip from the Girls’ Room by Rose Cooper. I don’t remember much of it, just that I was confused the whole time.

41. What is your favourite duology?

The App duology

42. What is your favourite trilogy?

I have to give this to the Rainbow Trilogy by Alex Sanchez. If I remember correctly it was my first series with LGBTQ+ characters and plot.

43. What book did you buy because of its cover?

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I actually choose a lot of my books based on what the cover looks like tbh. Of course I have to read the summery to know if it’ll be worth buying.

44. What is a book that you love, but has a terrible cover?

None that I can think of, they’re all really beautiful.

45. Do you own a poetry anthology? What is your favourite poem from it?

I do not. I actually don’t read poetry although I probably should.

46. Do you own any colouring books based off other books?

I have Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses. I actually have two of each so I can color in one and save the other.

47. Do you own any historical fiction?

The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak is the only one that I know of.

48. What book made you angry?

I don’t think a book has ever made me angry.

49. What book has inspired you?

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia, Alex Approximately by Jean Bennett, and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

50. What book got you into reading?

The Junie B. Jones books are actually the first books I remember reading. I had like this box set of them and I would get excited whenever my mom gave me another one.

This is my first time answering a bunch of questions and being involved in a tag game, so I’m so excited! I’ll tag a few people since it’s my first time. @addictedtobookss, @the-book-ferret, @books-tea-and-magic and, @persephonelovesbooks. You totally don’t have to do this and I apologize if you’ve been already tagged!