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potatoplace · 3 months ago

Text

Labyrinth: Claws

C2 | C3: Claws | C4

Alpha!Feysand x Omega!Reader - A Backrooms AU

series masterlist | Poly!ACOTAR x Reader Masterlist | AO3 link

Summary: You attempt an escape that doesn't go quite to plan.

Warnings: moderately serious injury, horror elements, omegaverse, dub-con bathing + wound care (lemme know if I missed something)

Words: ~3.8k

Author's Note: I hope you guys like this one!! I had so much fun writing it, I've really been loving working on this series. Lemme know what you think! Can you guess what's happening towards the end of the chapter? 🤭

18+ only pls

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

Being nestled between two people was not how you’d expected to wake up, but then again, life the past few days had been anything but expected.

You managed to slowly wiggle your way out from between them - Rhys and Feyre, your mind supplied - without waking them, careful not to rub your palms on the furs below you. Once you were free of them, you stood and assessed your body.

Your feet were still sore, but not nearly as bad as the last time you’d been standing, and paired with the soft leather socks, you were certain that you could make it a good distance away from here before they started to ache terribly. The pain in your knees was nearly gone now, and when you gave them a quick glance, the skin was mostly healed already - a far cry from how they’d looked the last time you set eyes on them. The scrapes on your hands were only patches of pink, raw skin now, stiff but able to grab the doorknob that would lead you to freedom.

As you carefully opened the one door in the room, you risked a look back at the sleeping couple, the empty space between them sending a pang of… something to your heart. You turned away from them and to the room that lay before you, shutting the door behind you as quietly as you could. The same yellow walls greeted you, though this room had five doors, six if you included the one that you had passed through.

It was furnished well, with couches covered in furs and a low table between them in front of you, as well as a large wooden dining table with matching chairs and a nicely sized kitchen towards your right. Four of the doors in front of you were slightly cracked, with only one being closed completely.

Surely they would be more likely to close the door that leads to the rest of this place, right? You thought to yourself as you snuck towards the closed door, over to your left. The door swung openly silently, and you shut it slowly before looking into the hallways before you.

There were three paths that you could take. Three identical, endless hallways.

Seeing as you had no idea which direction they’d brought you from, you also had no idea which direction might lead out of here. A sigh left your lips, and you began walking to your right.

The hallways were the same as they had been before you’d been abducted, yellow walls with concrete floors, though as you went further from the relative safety you’d been in, more decay began showing in your surroundings. The concrete grew rougher, and cracks appeared in the wallpaper, whose color you knew would make you sick for the rest of your life, if you ever escaped from here.

With the state of the floors, you were grateful for the soft socks on your feet, though you did feel the tiniest bit bad for taking them with you, likely for them to be ruined by your journey. Your soft fur dress was a welcome comfort as well, its hem falling to your knees and sleeves reaching halfway down your forearms, keeping you much warmer from the chill of the hallways than your skimpy party dress had.

You were sad that you hadn’t looked for your heels, or something else that you would be able to use as a weapon if the situation called for it, but you’d had a feeling that taking any extra time in the couple’s den would have lead to you getting caught by them.

As it was, you carried on at a steady pace, though you knew you were still weakened from your previous days of having no food or water.

Water.

Oh, you would miss having water. But being free? That was far more important.

You took whatever turns you could in an effort to not be found by Feyre or Rhys, though you had a strange feeling on the back of your neck already, like you were being watched. Resisting the urge to look behind you, you trudged onwards, nose wrinkling when your stomach growled loudly.

Maybe you would stumble across something to eat soon, some berries that wouldn’t turn to ash the moment you touched them.

The hallways stretched on endlessly in all directions, each one so similar to the last that you thought you may be going in circles, if not for your newest discovery.

In front of you was a courtyard - well, below you was a courtyard, a large grassy area in the shape of a square, with a concrete pathway running through it diagonally. While the sight may have comforted you if you were able to run your fingers through the soft greenery, it had the opposite effect from where you were standing.

Ten stories above it.

All hope you had of finding your way out of here vanished with the sight, cold dread slithering down your spine. There was no way that you had merely tripped and fallen through a door in a drunken haze, even if you had disregarded the life you’d encountered in your time here.

But that left the question: Where were you?

You pulled your arms in around your waist in an effort to comfort yourself, with little effect. A few calming breaths later, you started on your way again, though at this point, you weren’t sure what the point was.

Maybe… Maybe if you tripped into here, you could trip out again?

But that would require you falling, and if you were going to get any more distance between you and the mysterious couple, you couldn’t afford to get hurt again.

You tossed your head back and let out a long sigh, resolving to try your theory once you felt you had walked far enough. But for now, you would keep walking at a steady pace and take whichever turns looked most promising.

Yellow hallway after yellow hallway, and with each one you passed through you felt the sensation on the back of your neck grow, a shiver running down your spine.

You’d been walking for at least an hour now, maybe two, and the feeling had grown to a gnawing in the back of your head, and you couldn’t ignore it any longer, especially not when you heard a scratching noise somewhere behind you, your head turning to look over your shoulder.

And then you broke into a run, a scream leaving your lips after your brain processed that behind you was another Attor, its mouth opening to let out a metallic roar that had your ears ringing.

No thoughts were in your head as you took the next corner, your feet screaming as the rough concrete poked through the leather on them. All you needed was to be safe, that’s all.

You risked a glance back at the decaying monster, your head getting light when you saw that the Attor had gotten closer, its bone white claws gleaming under the fluorescent lighting.

Ahead of you was a large room, yellow pillars placed randomly throughout it, with a hallway branching off from each wall. There was the slightest possibility that you could outrun the monster, or find a pillar to hide behind until it left.

But just as you passed the first pillar, the Attor had pinned you to it, deathly claws sinking into both sides of your waist. You let out a scream, white-hot heat spreading through your torso where your skin was pierced, your body twitching involuntarily and causing pain to lance through your sides.

The creature let out another roar, and your head was spinning as it leaned in. “Oh, she will be very pleased with me,” it cackled, its rancid breath washing over you. “She hasn’t had an omega in years.”

You didn’t have any space in your head left to think about what the Attor meant, not with the pain overtaking your every thought, the sight of the razor-sharp fangs in the beast’s mouth, so close to your vulnerable everything.

But suddenly its claws were tearing through you from left to right, leaving you altogether a moment later, and you sunk to the ground, clutching your sides as you moaned in pain.

A black mass shot past you and into the Attor, and as you turned your head to your right, you saw Rhys, flying towards you with his massive wings and black smoke gathered around him. The sight would have terrified you, if not for the way your sides and stomach were aching, hot blood seeping out of your wounds and soaking your torn dress. He flew past you in an instant, slamming into the Attor, who howled in pain in its metallic voice.

Your vision started to spin as you leaned back against the column behind you, heavy breaths leaving you as your eyelids grew heavy.

Cool hands met your cheeks, and when you opened your eyes, you were met with worried blue-grey ones. She took in a sharp breath when her eyes drifted down, landing on the torn sides of your dress, the blood seeping down you.

“I’ll have you patched up in no time, love, just stay still,” Feyre soothed, her hands lowering to your sides and gripping your waist and stomach gently, staying even when you hissed in pain. A soft glow came from her hands, and you felt a hot, itching sensation where your skin was torn. “There we go, that’ll keep you from bleeding much more until we’re back.” Feyre pushed herself up, then leaned down to scoop you into her arms with ease.

She began walking not a moment later, leading you away from the horrific noises the Attor was making as Rhys tore it apart, his dark laughter drifting after you through the hallways.

Once they were out of sight, you sniffled as the terror of your situation sunk in, how you had nearly died, and would have if not for Rhys and Feyre finding you. Without thinking, you buried your face in Feyre’s neck, taking in deep breaths of lilac and pear, the smell settling the fear in you to a quiet buzz in the back of your mind.

“I’ll save the lecture for when we’re safe, omega, just close your eyes, okay?”

You whimpered in her hold, but did as she asked without question. It was… More pleasant than you’d expected, being carried in her arms and pretending this was normal.

It took a tiny fraction of the time for Feyre to carry you back to their den that it had taken you to walk the distance, making you question just what the hell are these people?

She swung a door open and took you inside, revealing the large room that you had exited from earlier, two men, winged like Rhys, sitting on one of the couches.

Their eyes snapped to the two of you, grins spreading across their lips. “Find the stray omega, hm?” One of them asked in a playful tone, to which Feyre merely growled in response, setting you on edge as she quickly brought you into the room she and Rhys shared.

Feyre set you on your feet gingerly, her hands steadying you by the shoulders when you swayed for a moment. You heard a whistle, and saw the two men standing in the doorway, staring at you in your ripped up dress. Feyre growled once more before slamming the door shut in their faces, turning to you with fire in her eyes.

It cooled in a instant, when she saw the fear in your eyes as you shivered in the cool air, soaked in your own blood.

“Oh, darling, let’s get you into the bath,” Feyre cooed, taking charge and stripping the dress off of you and tossing it into the bucket next to the bathtub. You held your hands to your chest in an attempt to preserve your modesty, whatever amount of it you still had left at this point. Rushing water sounded behind you, and when you turned, the tub was completely filled with steaming hot water.

How, you had no clue.

Feyre attempted to nudge you into the bath, and after you refused to budge she simply sighed and lifted you by your underarms over the lip of the tub and into the water, your feet stinging painfully when they broke the surface.

You whimpered as she gently pushed you down into the water, the stinging even worse on your still somewhat open cuts along your abdomen. “I know, ‘mega, but they need to be cleaned before I do anything else to them,” Feyre murmured as she grabbed a cloth and a small bar of soap. She scrunched her eyebrows together when you tried to move out of her reach, holding your hands out to take the items from her. “Just stay still, I will be bathing you today, Y/N.”

“Why?” You whispered as she gently worked the cloth over the streaks of blood that were stubbornly clinging to your skin, the water turning a light pink as she did so.

“Because you’re my omega, and you got hurt,” Feyre admitted. “I just need to take care of you now, so stop fighting me,” she commanded you gently, your movements stilling.

You let her finish washing you, cheeks flaming when she cleaned your breasts and lower half, though she did keep her touch light. Not that that changed much.

Rhys burst through the door as Feyre was drying off with a soft fur, your hands coming to clutch at it and hide your body from him. He let out a sigh when he saw you, his shoulders and wings relaxing as he turned to shut the door behind him.

You, however, tensed up at how he looked now - his leather clothing, skin, and wings coated in a thick grey substance, one that you had a feeling belonged to the Attor that he had been destroying while Feyre carried you away.

“I’m glad to see that you’re mostly fine now, darling, but if you pull a stunt like that again?” Rhys asked, deadly serious as he stood in front of you. “You will not like the consequences. Am I understood, omega?” It was impossible to keep from nodding your head under the weight of his stare, but the smile he gave you after had the pressure lifting from your chest a moment later. “Good, now let Feyre take care of your wounds while I get this gunk off of me.”

Feyre dressed you in a thin set of knit fur underwear, then guided you down onto the mound of furs you had slept on earlier. She grabbed the wooden jar they had gotten the salve from last night, her face disapproving when she turned back to see your legs pulled to your chest, preventing her from looking at your wounds.

The two of you struggled quietly while Rhys bathed, with Feyre managing to get salve on your re-injured feet, and a new pair of thin leather socks slipped over them.

Water splashing drew your eyes to the bathtub, giving you a good look at Rhys’s naked form. Your cheeks flushed bright red as you looked away from him and back to Feyre, who had a knowing smile on her face as she watched you.

“Rhys, would you help me with her? She’s being very stubborn,” Feyre chirped happily, grinning when Rhys came over, picked you up, and sat down where you had been, settling you onto his lap.

His naked lap.

You fought the urge to wiggle in his hold, knowing that you did not want any consequences from… that.

Rhys chuckled, his chest rumbling beneath you as he wrapped his arms around your chest, just above the cuts across your abdomen. “Go ahead, darling, I have a feeling she’ll stay still enough for you now.”

Feyre shared a smile with him as she set to work, her hands applying the cool salve to your broken skin gently.

Rhys kept himself occupied with your neck, his mouth switching between placing soft kisses along its expanse and hovering over the skin, just to take in deep lungfuls of your scent. Halfway through Feyre’s work a rumble came from Rhys’s chest, the vibrations making your body go pleasantly limp in his hold.

By the time Feyre stopped you were feeling sleepy and safe, which was weird considering the situation, but you weren’t about to turn away comfort at this point. You must have closed your eyes, because next thing you knew, Rhys was helping Feyre shimmy a different dress down your torso, loose enough to sleep comfortably in.

But then Rhys had you tucked against his chest against, one arm looped around your abdomen, his free hand idly stroking a pattern over your thigh.

“Open your mouth, love,” Rhys coaxed you, and your lips wrapped around the cool edge of a mug, water trickling down your throat. You opened your eyes to see Feyre holding said mug to your mouth, a gentle smile on her lips and her eyes softened.

“So good for us, Y/N,” Feyre cooed as she took the mug away once you’d emptied it, setting it next to the dish of food that she had, apparently, gone to grab. “Will you eat a bit before you sleep again, love? Since you lost so much blood, it would be the best choice.”

Between your rumbling stomach and her hopefully look, you were more than willing to let them feed you once more, especially if it meant you could get some sleep afterwards.

She slowly fed you a bowl of soup, though how they had meat here, you weren’t sure. But it tasted normal enough, and between it and another mug of water, you were absolutely stuffed by the time Feyre took the dishes over to the small kitchen on the far side of the room, while Rhys took the opportunity to slide down into a laying position, slowly rolling to place you on your side without hurting your wounds.

Feyre rejoined you a few moments later, now bare of her previous clothing as she laid down facing you, and both her and Rhys began pulling furs over the three of you, trapping in a wonderful amount of body heat. Paired with one of Rhys’s wings blocking out the light again, you were lucky to be awake for more than a minute, a wide yawn parting your lips as you settled in fully.

“Good omega, that’s it,” Rhys murmured in your ear as your breathing began to even out, one of his arms reaching over you to pull Feyre closer to both of you.

You couldn’t find it in yourself to care that you were nestled between two naked mostly-strangers, not right now, when their lovely scents were mingling around you, their combined warmth cocooning you so wonderfully.

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

When you woke, it was to an empty bed.

Which normally wouldn’t be a cause for concern.

But here? With what you’d gone through so recently? Being alone was hardly a good thing for you.

And it didn’t help that you were feeling restless, like something was wrong. So… It couldn’t hurt to check the other room, just to make sure that someone is still around?

You did just that, shimmying out from under the pile of furs that were covering you, leaving them behind even as you shivered in the cool air, mind set on finding someone.

The door opened silently, and you were met with the sight of Rhys sitting on a couch, shirtless but with a large, plush looking fur draped over his lap. Across from him on the other couch were the two other winged men you had seen before falling asleep, but you paid them no mind.

No, your body guided you to what you were needing, your feet taking you directly to where Rhys was sitting.

He looked at you, mouth parting as if to scold you, before you threw yourself onto his lap, your legs bending so that you were straddling him, your arms wrapped tightly around his back. In the next moment you had buried your face in his neck, breathing in the heavenly citrus and sea scent rolling off of him.

Your abdomen ached mildly as you pressed yourself against him, but that was nothing compared to the ache you felt when his arms didn’t immediately wrap around you, though you knew that was an insane thought.

You whined into the skin of his neck, huffing satisfactorily when he pulled you into him more tightly, his own face burying in your neck.

He pulled away quickly, though, causing tears to build in your eyes. Rhys gave you a sympathetic look before he lifted you up slightly to pull the fur from beneath you, letting it drape over you as his arm guided you back into his chest.

That was nicer.

You didn’t know what had gotten into you, but you were mostly comfortable as you went back to your previous position, enjoying the soft kisses Rhys was giving your neck as he talked with the other two, their words slipping in one ear and out the other.

The only thing that might make this better…

You yawned widely against Rhys’s neck. You weren’t sure what would make this better, but you would know it when you saw it.

So when you turned your head at the sound of a door shutting to see Feyre, you let out a loud whine from your spot in Rhys’s arms, drawing her attention instantly.

Her eyes lit up at the sight of you in his arms, and she made her way over to you quickly. “Awe, is our little omega sweetening up?” She cooed as she slid under the fur and right up to your and Rhys’s sides, one gentle hand coming to cup your cheek. “You just needed a bath and a warm meal, hm?” She asked playfully before leaning in to press her lips to your cheek.

You were, surprisingly, breathless when she pulled away, your heartbeat quickening as you tried to scoot closer to her without losing any contact with Rhys. When you couldn’t, a soft cry left your lips, to which Feyre and Rhys both shushed you quietly. Feyre managed to position herself so her head was near yours, and one arm was halfway over you - as close as she could get how you were laying, and right now you were unwilling to move any further than moving your left arm from wrapping around Rhys to wrapping around Feyre.

You heard one of the other men say something, but it didn’t register as you let yourself relax into the two of them, especially once Rhys made his chest rumble again, soothing you straight to sleep again.

🤍🩵⛓️‍💥💜🤍

General Taglist: @daughterofthemoons-stuff @lilah-asteria @meritxellao @twismare @wrenisrad @icey--stars

Labyrinth Taglist: @kissesfromnovalie

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 1 year ago

Note

You know what would make the Lucky Charm more balanced? Make it so that there are times where other characters figure it out, not just Ladybug. That way, it doesn't make Ladybug hypercompent and makes it possible for other people to save the day.

I don't mind Ladybug being the one best suited to Lucky Charm. I don't think it makes her hyper competent because you don't need a Lucky Charm to save the day. It's just the way that she saves the day. The other characters should have their own unique talents that let them win fights. Generally speaking, that's how strong teams work.

For a random example, let's talk about the teenage mutant ninja turtles simply because I think most people know something about that franchise. The character Donatello (aka Donnie) is the team's tech guy. He makes all kinds of inventions that help them save the day. The show would not be improved if all four of the turtles were able to take on this inventor role. I'd argue that it would actually be lessened because the characters would become interchangeable. This is something that the franchise seems to agree with as each version of the show gives each turtle unique skills and personality traits that makes each of them indispensable in their own way, which is what I think Miraculous should have done with the temp heroes.

That being said, I do think that there's a way to make your idea work. I'd just go a slightly different, more lore balancing route since Lucky Charm is technically bad lore and you all know how I feel about bad lore. So let's talk about giving it a minor tweak and how I think that would actually improve things.

Tikki is supposed to be Creation, not Luck, so the Lucky Charm shouldn't have anything to do with Luck. It should just be pure Creation where the holder comes up with a thing they want and that thing then pops up. It could also have a give and take element where the holder gets what they asked for if they want something specific, but they could also just call the power as a hail Mary and Tikki would come up with something on the fly, leading to the occasional puzzle.

This leads me to my proposed changed.

I personally think it would be hilarious and honestly more fun for Marinette's character if she could summon anything she wanted, but the Lucky Charms stay exactly the same because that's just how her mind works. Even when Tikki is helping, it's still all wacky items because Tikki knows how Marinette is and just goes with it.

For example, in Copy Cat, Ladybug turns a spoon into a hook for a cobbled together fishing pole. Wouldn't it be even funnier if Marinette summoned a spoon on purpose because she was thinking of the makeshift thing she cobbled together in order to fish up something she dropped from her balcony? Then, post fight, Chat Noir praises her like always, only to then ask, "So why a spoon and not a fishing hook?" And Ladybug just stares at him because oh, right, those are things they make. She could have done that. Ooops.

And in Malediktator where she summons a sniper rifle to get a laser pointer? Well, she was thinking about this silly comic about a cat assassin! She totally spaced on the fact that you could just get a laser pointer by itself.

Eventually, her team learns to just go with it and not ask questions. Meanwhile, the general public thinks that the Lucky Charm is some random item that Ladybug has to figure out and no one bothers to correct this misunderstanding. You can even have a running gag of new team members learning the truth and going through the acceptance process of, "Hey, you try thinking up how to set a trap while a 5 meter tall lollipop is trying to crush you! Your mind goes to what it knows, not to the ideal solution, okay???"

If we go with this setup, then other people can wield the Ladybug and use Lucky Charm effectively, they'll just use it in a very different way from the way Marinette uses it. There will also be people who are just not suited to the Ladybug since that was initially how the powers were supposed to work and it made perfect sense. Kwamis should have ideal holders along with okay backups and terrible backups. I personally think Alya would be an okay backup since she's creative, but not creative in the same way Marinette is, leading her to be a lesser Ladybug. Adrien, on the other hand, should generally suck at the Ladybug as he simply doesn't have that style of creative thinking. Which is fine. Better than fine, even! You don't want your characters to be interchangeable! They should all have strengths and weaknesses!

This is one of the show's big flaws. Since everything is on Marinette's shoulders, the other characters rarely get a chance to shine and so they feel interchangeable. For example, if gift always shows the target what THEY want, then why does Rose need to be the one to wield it? Juleka could wield it just as easily. And if Ladybug is generally the one telling Marc and Nathaniel what to summon with their powers, then their creativity is not needed. Anyone could wield the rooster and the goat! The show has completely failed to understand what makes teams memorable and so we have a bloated, boring team whose presence I'm dreading because they had five seasons to set these guys up and yet here we are.

#anon ask #ml writing critical #ml writing salt

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stuckinmymind22 · 2 months ago

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On The Run (part two)

part one

🚨🚨🚨MARINEFORD SPOILERS🚨🚨🚨

shanks x afab! reader (she/her)

tags: lovers (intimate) to lovers (romantic)

tw: ptsd, past kidnapping, past drugging, panic attacks, celestial dragons and sabaody, death (including violent), gore, nightmares (the fucked up kind), survior’s guilt, overall trauma

wc: 8.1k

a/n: soooo..... this was less than a third of what i had planned for this part BUT i realized i could make the parts smaller, plus this way theres not as much emotional whiplash. this one's gonna be hard but the next one is cute i promise!!!! okay love you enjoy <3 💕💕💕

summary: trauma has a funny way of coming back to haunt you,

Big reader lore drop lol

Shanks wasn’t able to get any sleep that night. Far too much was on the man’s mind. Now, more than ever, the state of the future was full of uncertainty. Around two weeks had passed since the events at Marineford, and the consequences of Whitebeard’s death were finally being felt around the globe. The balance of power in the New World and the sea in its entirety had been disrupted deeply. Teach was finally becoming the problem Shanks had feared he would be, if he hadn’t already. Luffy’s condition was uncertain, while the yonko was certain the kid would pull through. The extent of the damage he’d taken (both physically and mentally) remained unclear.

Also, it upset him how mad you had gotten with him — something he was fully aware should not be on the same level as the other issues, but it weighed on his mind nonetheless. Why it had bothered him so much he couldn't quite say.

At the smallest sign of daybreak, Shanks decided sleep was a lost cause. It marked the third night in a row with little to no sleep, and while the other two nights had been fun, this one had only been restless. Without a plan of what to do so early in the day, the captain aimlessly walked his ship.

While mindlessly wandering, the man nearly tripped over a pair of legs. He turned around, expecting to find one of his men passed out on deck, but instead he found you.

Shanks let out a sigh. He had come to realize how stubborn you could be over the past twenty-four hours. Propped up against an exterior wall, you were out cold. Speaking of cold, you were visibly freezing. Overnight, the ship had entered a new climate zone, and the temperature had dropped significantly. Without much thought, Shanks took off his cloak and draped it over your sleeping form. Immediately, your shivering stopped, and you snuggled into the warmth of the fabric.

The emperor didn’t know what to do with you. He debated waking you up — you really shouldn’t stay out in the elements like this, especially when you were so injured. Ultimately, he decided against it. He wasn’t sure if you would want to see him first thing in the morning after being so angry with him the night before, but you still shouldn’t be out on deck. Shanks knew from plenty of experience how unforgiving the wooden slats of the floor could be.

If he wasn’t planning on waking you, he should at least move you. After your refusal to go to the medical bay the night before, he knew he ran the risk of you being upset with him, or more upset with him, but it was a risk he would take considering the alternative.

Gently, careful not to wake you, he looped your arms around his neck before sneaking his arm under you. In your sleep, you instinctively clung onto him as you left the ground. He left you at the infirmary, instructing one of Hongo’s assistants to let you be so you could sleep while also keeping a close eye on you, seemingly unaware of how those orders contradicted each other.

After dropping you off, Shanks returned to his pointless stroll. Nearing the sole office on the Red Force, which was his in name but not in practice, he noticed the light escaping under the door. The captain remembered, to his delight, that Beckman was certainly awake. It had been his turn for night duty — as a precaution, at least one senior officer (or the captain himself) would be awake at all times in case a problem arose.

As predicted, his first mate was in the office. The man had been reviewing a stack of documents with his reading glasses so low on his nose that they were one rough wave from falling off. Per usual, Beck was sat at the tiny desk on the edge of the room, which was littered with papers. Shanks never understood why he did that. His refusal to use what was technically the captain’s desk, which, by all accounts, was the better option, with more surface area and a chair that was far more comfortable.

Beckman didn’t seem at all surprised to see Shanks at such an unusually early hour. It was almost as if he had expected it, and he truly might've — the man's ability to know things could be frightening at times.

“Whatcha got there?” Shanks asked while entering the room with the intent to pester the poor man. Beck ruffled through the several piles of papers as he responded. “Got some of what you’re looking for,” his voice was gruff from the hours of disuse. Unfortunately for Shanks, talking to Benn Beckman always ran the risk of turning into business. Nevertheless, Shanks shifted into captain mode as if a switch had been flipped. The emperor sat down at the larger desk and nodded for the man to continue.

“I asked ‘round a bit and overnight got some responses back. ’S not too much more than what we already knew, but there’s a couple things you might find interesting.” Beck continued to sift through the documents as he talked. For all the things Benn Beckman was good at, personal organization was not one of them. It hadn’t helped the man that he’d been searching for multiple pages.

Finally, the gray-haired man collected everything he’d been looking for. He approached the desk Shanks was at, setting a page down in front of the man. It was a copy of your missing poster. Something that had been issued well over a decade ago. Shanks had no idea how Beckman had gotten his hands on it so fast while they were out on the open ocean, but he had long stopped asking questions. The man could just work wonders; his methods hadn’t really mattered.

“She was a princess, went missing, then managed to piss off the World Government,” he laid down a second poster next to the first. They were nearly identical, but had vastly different messages. Both were signs looking for you, but while one said “missing,” the other had “wanted” in bold letters. The same image was in the center of them, some sort of royal portraiture. The issue was it looked nothing like you — and not in the “you’ve aged” sort of way. It bared virtually no resemblance to you. Shanks had to examine it closer to be certain it was even you in the photo. That explained how you had been able to slip through the cracks for so long.

“Well, no shit, they never found her,” Shanks commented, putting down the flyer. “Did they not have another picture? Why’d they use that one?” Beckman, ever prepared, had another poster at the ready. “Couldn’t tell ya. It’s probably why they updated it.” The new poster was slid over to the captain.

“See, this makes sense for a bounty poster,” Shanks said, barely looking at it. He’d only caught a glimpse of a large fire behind you before making his point. Returning his attention to the image, a small frown carved itself onto his face. You looked so small. And sickly, you were pale and had deep bags under your eyes. But above all else, you looked terrified.

The picture as a whole was you running away from a burning building looking over your shoulder. The flames had been so intense that it was impossible to distinguish anything of note about the structure behind you other than it was large and on fire. Against his wishes, the yonko’s eyes kept slipping back to the panicked look on your face. He’d had enough. Shanks flipped the flyer upside-down and held it firmly against the table as if it would turn itself over to haunt him.

“What else?” The captain asked, firmly redirecting his gaze to his first mate.

“Specifics remain unclear, seems even the marine didn’t have it together,” Beck plucked out another page and handed it over. “Got an ex marine find send the internal report.” Shanks took a moment to scan the report, which was short and had very little information — surprising considering how much of a threat you had been deemed with such a high price on your head. All it boiled down to was an attack on a warehouse crucial for operations, nothing on the casualties, only a note on the worth of the damaged goods.

The remaining stack of papers in Beck’s hand were placed down in front of Shanks. “Same guy sent in a detailed personal account. Claiming the report was almost entirely fabricated.” Oh… that stack was one thing. If even Beckman found it to be too detailed, then Shanks was really in for a treat. He paged through the account — it was fucking double-sided.

“This is…through,” the redhead said. Beck let out a deep laugh. Both men knew that had been an understatement. Every minuscule thing the person could recall had been included, including irrelevant information like burning their tongue on the morning’s coffee. Shanks set it down, making note to come back to it later. It was far too early for him to be reading all of that.

“So… the internal report was bullshit, but that’s all we got? Other than this picture at the scene?” Shanks asked, holding up your new bounty poster away from him. “Pretty much.” “Damn,” the captain muttered under his breath.

“I’ll keep looking Cap’t. ’S been less than a day, more’s gonna come in,” Beckman paused to look the red-head in the eyes. “But if you’re really interested, it might be better to get it from the source.”

He should talk to you.

“Good idea,” Shanks stood up and left without so much as a goodbye — a behavior that didn’t phase his second in command at all.

~~~~~~~

You woke up in the same sterile environment that you had fled the night before. This definitely was not where you’d fallen asleep. Someone must’ve found you and brought you back to this dumb room, and you had a sneaking suspicion of who’d been the one to do it. If the familiar coat covering your body was any indication, it seemed that you were on the right track. At least the comforting, familiar scent undercut the harsh smell of sterilization.

Hold on. Comforting? It rubbed you the wrong way that you found his scent comforting, but there was no other way to put it. You sighed and decided to worry about that later.

With a groan, you sat up in bed. Aches echoed through your body at the action. Your first priority was to get the hell out of the godforsaken room as soon as possible. Being confined to “bedrest” or whatever it was felt too much like being trapped. And you were not going to be in that position ever again, even if it went against “doctor’s orders.”

Before you could leave, Hongo walked in and halted your progress. You froze like a kid who’d been caught sneaking out (your situation was not that much different) and offered him a sheepish smile. He shut the door behind him, looking disappointed but not surprised.

“Sit down. Let’s change your bandages,” he said. Reluctantly, you listened, knowing full well that it was what was best for you. Sat on the edge of the bed, you watched the doctor move around as he gathered his supplies.

“Why am I here? Who brought me?” You asked, wanting confirmation. Hongo exhaled and looked you dead in the eyes. “Who’d ya think? You know who.” He was right, you already knew exactly who had done it. The first time the man hadn’t listened to you with something, and you were pissed. “That fucking man,” you muttered. Deep down, you knew it was unfair to be as upset as you were, but that didn’t stop you.

“He did it with your best interests in mind,” Hongo said, coming to the defense of his captain. “It’s not good for you to be out in the cold, sleeping on the deck like that.” You snorted. “Neither are bullets.” The corners of the doctor’s mouth upticked at your retort while he brought what he needed over to you.

“‘M just saying he’s only tryna to look out for you.” Hongo clarified. “Yeah, yeah,” you dismissed him while raising whoever’s shirt you were wearing to take it off, ignoring the buttons.

As if on cue, Shanks came walking through the door following a weak knock. “Get out,” you told him flatly as you let the shirt — his shirt he quickly recognized — fall back to your body. “Yes, Ma’am,” the emperor said, understanding the situation he had just walked in on. “I’ll be outside.”

“Wait,” you said, stopping Shanks. “Take your coat,” you said, tossing the garment at him. “And, uh — thanks.” Although you felt awkward, the gesture was appreciated. “Anything for you, Doll,” Shanks winked before finally exiting the room. You rolled your eyes at the remark, desperately trying to control the heat that rose to your cheeks.

“I’ll get you out of here soon as I can,” Hongo promised. In silence, he assessed the injury for any signs of infection as he redressed the area. Only once he had finished did he speak. “I doubt you’ll be coming back here without a fight or listen to me when I tell ya to take it easy. So, stop by twice a day to get the bandages changed, yeah?”

Grateful he hadn’t tried to push or guilt-trip you into anything, you agreed — on a caveat. “You have to be the one to do it. Nobody else.” It was bad enough that Hongo knew about the brand on your back; you didn’t want to risk anyone else finding out. “I know,” the doctor said with a tight-lipped, sympathetic smile.

With nothing more to say, you eagerly left the damn hospital room — only to nearly run into Shanks on the way out. You had forgotten he’d been there. He held himself differently than he had minutes before; you could count on one hand the amount of times you’d seen him serious. “What’d ya need?” You cut to the chase, hoping to make it quick. “We gotta talk.”

You shifted your weight uncomfortably. That could mean many things, and right now, none of them sounded good. “’S nothing too bad,” Shanks offered with a reassuring smile. “I know you can understand now that you’re gonna be staying with us, I got a few questions.”

A part of you wanted to clarify that you weren’t staying for long, only until the next island, but you held your tongue. He was right. He’d been so helpful to you already, with no benefit to him. You felt like you owed the man some answers at the very least. “I understand.”

“‘M glad. Now, let’s go talk somewhere else,” the captain said, and you followed his lead.

~~~~~~~

Shanks brought you to what was clearly an office. He offered you a seat, and you tried to hide how eager you were to take it. You would never say it, but the walk had hurt like hell and sitting had sounded like heaven. Sensing another presence in the room you went on high alert.

“Beck’s gonna join us,” Shanks informed you. You sucked in your lips, unsure how to feel about that. You weren’t dumb, you knew the conversation that was coming. While you trusted both men, almost innately, sharing anything about the period of your life in question was something you were highly cautious of.

The two times you had confided in someone about it had both ended very, very badly. The first time, in your early twenties, you’d lost who you’d thought would be the love of your life. Only in hindsight could you see the foolishness in such a dream. The second time had nearly killed you, and you had the scars to prove it.

“I’m gonna be real honest with you, Y/N,” Shanks started, noticing your unease. “He’s gonna find out either way. Might as well cut out the middle man,” he said while he sat across from you maintaining eye contact. “But, if you would like him to leave, he can go.”

You looked over at the man in question, who nodded, reaffirming the offer to leave. You sighed. “’S fine, just wasn’t expecting an audience,” you tried to joke, but it had come out stiff — in fact, everything about you was stiff. It looked like you were one wrong step away from entering flight or fight mode.

Your subconscious had already begun building up walls, your brain fortifying itself in preparation for a deep dive into the most traumatic period of your life. You had never fully dealt with the experience, and if you had it your way, you never would either.

Crescent shapes began to form on your palms from how hard you clinched your fists, and your jaw was clenched so tight your teeth could shatter. Focusing on your breathing, you shut your eyes; you weren’t going to let yourself fall apart before you had even begun. Reopening your eyes, you nodded as a sign to start, as ready as you would ever be.

“Where’d ya learn to fight like that?” Shanks asked. It was an entry-level, merely testing the waters — you were aware of that, but you were grateful for the soft ball, even if it hadn’t helped ease your nerves.

“My father.” Your short response was met with a prolonged silence. Both men were seeing if you would elaborate if given the space to do so. It took a few moments for you to cave, when you saw how you could stall for time. Clearing your throat you continued.

“He was hell-bent on us, me and my siblings, being warriors that never saw war. The man had us training in damn near every type of combat you can think of.” Your hands unclenched, resting on the arms of the chair. When you reminded yourself where this was all heading, your shoulders tensed back up and any sign of progress vanished. “To get where you’re going, I got cocky. I thought I was untouchable, really. I also had a habit of sneaking out to go drinking. I didn’t quite understand my limits, and that’s what bit me in the ass. I was so far gone I couldn’t do anything when they, uh… took me…” Your words dwindled out. You couldn’t keep going.

Shanks was recognizing that this might not get them anywhere — if you were unable to talk about the basics of the situation then there was no way you’d be able to answer actual questions. The yonko filed the little nugget of information you had shared away for later, for now, he needed to make sure you were relaxed. Luckily, he was good at that.

“Tell me about your family.” Admittedly, the inquiry had come with ulterior motives. You’d been the most relaxed when you mentioned your family, which made it a good place to embark from. There was the added benefit that Shanks was actually interested in your answer. After yesterday, he had realized he really didn’t know much about you.

You opened and closed your mouth. That surprised you. Instead of asking about the kidnapping or what had taken place the night you earned a bounty, he wanted to know about your family. That didn’t make sense. But you had to admit, you missed talking about your family. You had been really close, but due to your situation, you hadn’t been able to talk too much about them for years.

With hesitation, you answered with only the basics: the only daughter in a family full of sons, the third child out of five, even an honorable mention of the family dog. It took a while for you to give answers longer than what would answer exactly what was asked, but you got there when asked about how your training worked.

“Soon as I was old enough to join the military training, my older brothers were so much better than me. They’d been at it for a couple of years, and I was only — I think nine— but they wouldn’t go easy on me. It made me so mad. I hated losing. I tried so hard to catch up, spending all my time and energy training, but I could not compete. I was so frustrated, so my dad told me to pick one thing and focus on it. From a young age, like too young, like toddler, I had an interest in blades — the stories I’ve been told about my founder self, ’s a surprise I got all my fingers and toes.” You shook your head with a genuine smile. You had been a real handful as a kid.

“Anyways, cause of that I picked sword fighting, it was my dad’s favorite too and he was excited. He’d give me one on one lessons in the dead of night— to hide it from my mom mainly, there’s a whole story about that — Those lessons were so fun. I was such a daddy’s girl growing up. With his help it took less than a year to defeat both of my older brothers.

“My oldest brother, [NAME], was so mad when I won. I thought I was a sore loser. But imagine being a teenager, damn near an adult really, next in line for the throne, and you get your ass beat by your little sister who still had her baby teeth. Repeatedly. Poor guy. Least when I left he gotta be on top again.” The hint of dark humor didn’t really land with anyone lol.

After you had mentioned the line of succession, it hit you that your brother was not the king — your father had died unexpectedly less than a year ago. In a sense, he had long been dead to you, along with everyone else you had known back then. Trying to see or even contact them would never be safe, for either of you. If they could only ever be memories to you, how far off was that from death?

Your face fell, and your hands fiddled with the hem of your shirt. It felt like you had shared too much. On one hand, it was nice to talk about your family again; sharing memories was what kept them alive, but on the other was your long, lingering sense of apprehension when it came to discussing your past on any level.

Letting your eyes scan the room for something to distract you, you spotted your old missing poster. Now that was something you hadn’t seen in years. Reaching over and grabbing the image, you looked at it closer. You still remembered the day it had been taken. You’d been so resistant to the entire process, but if you could go back, you would’ve complied. The entire day, your mom had spent fussing over you. If you had known it would be one of the last times you’d ever get to spend with her, you would’ve acted differently. However, the regret attached to the memory didn’t change how you hated the portrait. “I fucking hate this picture,” you said, flipping the image over to display it. “I look awful, like I lost a look-alike contest of myself.” That comment won you a little smile from Shanks, who had been awfully inexpressive for most of the conversation, well inexpressive for him.

“You see the new one?” Beckman asked from the side. He’d been so quiet you had nearly forgotten he was there. “There’s a new one?” Beck dug back out your recently reissued bounty poster from the pile of papers on the desk and handed it to you.

Your blood ran cold, and a wave of nausea hit you. The hand that held the paper fell into your lap, and you were stuck staring at the image.

“I don’t remember most of that night,” you admitted, not speaking to anyone in particular. Your voice was so incredibly weak it barely qualified as a whisper, but it was understood. “Or most of what happened after I was taken.” The words tumbled out of your mouth before you could stop them from starting. “It’s all so cloudy. They kept me so drugged up for so long, I’m pretty sure I went through withdrawal after I escaped.”

Shanks’ gaze hardened and his nostrils flared out, but you didn’t see it. He wasn’t naive; when you had revealed that you had been kidnapped he knew nothing good occurred during that time, but knowing specifics made him feel murderous.

“That fucking man.” You remembered the devil fruit user who could put you under with just a touch. The worst was when he would incapacitate you but leave you in a state of relative consciousness. Your kidnappers had found some sick and twisted satisfaction in toying with you, trying to pull the fight from your soul. They never laid their hands on you — bar one incident where you were slapped — but that hadn’t stopped them from treating you like a stray dog. “I could’ve escaped if it wasn’t for him — I almost did too.”

Memories from your time in captivity had started to come back to you in sharp fragments. Specific incidents that you would rather not think about tried to resurface, and you did everything in your power to not let them.

A tear drop fell onto your hand — you hadn't been aware you'd been crying. Unconsciously, you crumpled up the paper in your hands as you wiped away your tears. It had been years since you had thought in depth about it, even longer since you had cried about it. Pretending that it had never happened was a hell of a lot easier than accepting that it had. You probably would have chosen to live the rest of your life in denial if it hadn't been forced back into your mind.

“Fuck,” you whispered harshly. Looking to the side, you tried to blink the tears away. You hated crying, but you preferred it to the all-encompassing dread you sometimes got. Both outcomes sucked, and showing it around others was worse. After a moment you had managed to collect your breathing.

Unfortunately, emotions do not just disappear. Once the waterworks had stopped, a newfound rage blossomed inside you. You had to make them pay. You would make them pay. There had been so many times you had fantasized about getting your revenge, but you had always backed out in fear of the price. However, now, you had nothing left to lose.

The thirst for blood you had suddenly exhibited unfazed the pirates. They both had blood on their hands. Violence was a fact of life with the way they lived it, and they couldn’t blame you for wanting to get your revenge. Shit, Shanks would probably drop everything and help you if you asked, but that wasn’t in your nature.

As quickly as the fire within you had been ignited, it was extinguished. It was scary how fast you reverted into your old form, or rather a significantly more guarded version of yourself.

You cracked a smile, one that was almost believable. “Anything else I can do for you, gentleman?” You hoped it was over, all you wanted was to be done talking and go back to a state of normalcy. Beckman opened his mouth to speak, a question clearly on his mind, but Shanks cut him off. “Think we’re good for now.” He did not want you to push yourself more than you needed to, and if you truly didn’t remember much, like you had said, your answers wouldn’t fill in the gaps.

“Alright.” You stood up, hoping that the old of pain you felt in your abdomen didn’t show on your face. “You know where to find me,” you paused — you wouldn’t know where to find you. No fucking way would you be heading back to the infirmary and the only other place you knew on the ship was the damned captain’s quarters, which was another no go.

“Actually, we got a room cleared out for you if you want,” Beck informed you. “Why don’t you go show her, Captain?” He grinned at the man. Shanks wasn’t about to object but, but he raised an eyebrow, curious of his first mate’s motive. “I’m still on duty or else I would do it. I trust you know can handle him.” The last part was directed towards you.

“Boy do I,” the double entendre slipped out before you could stop it. Immediately when you realized what you’d said you grew flustered. It was the first time you didn’t stand behind something suggestive, at least around Shanks. But if playing that way was gonna take your mind off of things, he was game. “That still on the table, Love?” The red haired man cheekily asked while he held the door for you. “No,” you said too fast. “Alright,” Shanks drew the response out as if he didn’t believe you, but you didn’t even believe yourself — not that you’d admit that.

“Thank you Beckman, see you later,” you said, ignoring the captain. With that you walked down the hallway like you knew where you were going. From behind you, you heard your sentiment being echoed in a mocking tone and the faint laugh it got from Beck and rolled your eyes.

“Hate to break it to you, Doll, but you’re going the wrong way,” Shanks called out to you with humor in his voice. “I’m taking the scenic route.” The man caught up to you, falling into stride. “Ahh, is that what this is? Gonna be a little bit difficult ‘cause this is a dead end.”

As you turned the corner, you saw the end he’d been referring to. You bit your lips to hold back a smile; you didn’t have to look at him to know his expression.

Stopping in your tracks, you turned to the man, trying to stay as serious as possible. “Have you considered renovation?” He grinned at the question. “Wanna head that up?” You laughed at his offer. “That’ll take far longer than to the next port. I fear you’ll get sick of me,” you said playfully, as if the thought cut you deeply. “I don’t envision that happening,” Shanks countered honestly.

This was what felt comfortable. In such an unfamiliar setting in an uncertain time, stupid banter felt like a lifeline. The conversation continued as you kept walking (this time with Shanks leading the way). You started to recognize where you were — and it wasn’t near the medical bay. “Luckily for you, my room is right down the hall. In case you need anything.” Although it had started that way, his statement didn’t end as an innuendo — he had meant it.

“And, Doll? I wanna ask,” Shanks said, turning serious again as he looked you in the eyes. “Are you alright?” You did not know how to answer that. You had been shot, had your life turned upside down, were actively being hunted down, and were a hair away from a breakdown. In short, you were not alright. But that wasn’t for him to know.

“I’m fine, Shanks. Thanks for asking.” Your tight-lipped smile proved the opposite, and the emperor had seen the debate going on behind your eyes, but he wasn’t going to press you on it. He couldn’t force you to talk, and he didn’t want to.

Before you could excuse yourself to go sit alone in the dark with your thoughts, a bell rang. You looked around, checking for the source. The captain of the ship was unbothered by the noise; instead, he smiled your way. “You hungry, Darlin’?”

~~~~~~~

Late that night, Shanks was happy to finally be on his way to bed. He hadn’t been sleeping well for the past several nights, and the lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him.

The extensive amount of paperwork he had done had left his eyes stinging. Shanks never would have thought that being a pirate involved so much paperwork, but it came with the territory, quite literally.

Bleary-eyed, he walked past your door only to hear a scream from inside. Suddenly, the emperor was much more awake. His protective instincts kicked into overdrive, and he burst through your door with his hand on his sword. There was no one in the room but you. Of course there was no one but you. The fact that he had thought there might’ve been an intruder or something was ridiculous — it would be damn near impossible for that to have happened with no one noticing. Knowing it was only you in the room calmed his nerves. His hand left the hilt of his sword as he relaxed.

In hopes of finding out what had happened, Shanks shifted his focus onto you, and his stomach dropped. Oh no. You were vigorously wiping tears from your eyes, and your knees were curled into your chest. “What happened?” Shanks asked in a soft, but noticeably tired voice. “Nothing,” you sniffled. “It was just a nightmare, nothing you need to worry about.” You tried to offer him a smile, but it was far from convincing. Still, you hoped he would accept the answer and leave. You didn’t want him (or anyone else for that matter) to see you in this state, especially when he’d already witnessed you cry earlier that day. You were not weak and refused to be seen as such. This was something you could handle on your own.

The man nodded, but hung around the doorframe as if he were weighing his options. “You know where to find me if you need.” It hadn’t been explicit, but you understood what he’d meant — it was an open invitation for you to talk to him. “I appreciate it, but that won’t be necessary.” He should have known that you would decline his offer. “Something to keep in mind.” “I will,” your fake smile made a reappearance. It was obvious you were lying through your teeth.

“Goodnight,” Shanks said. He was slightly hesitant to leave, but there was nothing more he could do. Besides, he was exhausted, but a lingering sense of unease kept him at the edge of consciousness. He had meant what he’d said.

~~~~~~~

Everything was fuzzy when you came to. You were greeted by a red hot iron and a sadistic smile. An overwhelming panic rose in your gut. Restrained and unable to escape you screamed. To your horror people dropped, their bodies set ablaze. A wall of prison cells materialized through the flames. There were people inside, screaming for your help, but you were completely frozen. You caught a glimpse of your hands — they were covered in blood. Blood continued to pool in your palms until it was spilling out of your grasp and —

You awoke with a start. The previous nightmare along with the conversation that morning must’ve opened the floodgates. Memories you had managed to suppress for the most part had started to resurface as mangled versions of themselves. In truth, you should have been expecting this. Every time you had been reminded of your past, the ghosts of all those awful moments would gather around to haunt you in the form of vicious nightmares. They would lurk until your all consuming guilt was satiated for the time being.

Mistakenly, you had thought you were in the clear. The night before and your sleep during the day had both been dreamless so you had hoped that, for once, you would be spared. It had been naive of you to think. Your body’s desperate need for rest (along with whatever pain killers Hongo had given you) had probably been the reason for the deep and dreamless sleep.

Like the last one, tears streamed down your face as you were confronted with what you had done. Unimaginable survivor’s guilt gnawed at your insides. Everything was too much. You clamped a hand over your mouth to dampen the sobs that escaped while your shoulders shook violently. You couldn’t remember the last time it had been this bad.

When several minutes had passed and you were still unable to calm yourself, you remembered Shanks’s earlier offer. It sounded tempting. In this state, your pride was quickly being turned into dust.

You hated to admit it, but you couldn’t be alone right now. Asking for help was such a foreign concept to you. From the beginning, you had been undefended, but once you had been forced to go on the run, self-sufficiency became absolutely crucial. It was embarrassing to turn to others.

It’s just Shanks, you reasoned to yourself. He’d already seen you fall apart, so might as well double down on it. What he thought about you didn’t really matter; come the next island in however long, he would drop you off and you would never see each other again. That thought stung a little bit, but the reassurance pushed you to leave your room.

A moment later, you found yourself at his door. You knocked lightly, unsure if you truly wanted him to hear you. If he answered, you prayed that the cover of darkness would conceal your undoubtedly tearstained face and hide the way you couldn’t control your shaking. Just when you were about to turn back and suffer through the rest of it on your own, the door opened.

You had absolutely woken him up. Voice thick with sleep and eyes half-closed, Shanks greeted you, stepping aside to let you in and shutting the door behind you. The last time you had been in his private quarters had been under much more favorable circumstances. That night, only two prior, flashed briefly in your mind before it was drowned out by the horrible images that had been keeping you up.

“Sorry for waking you.” Your voice was scratchy from all the crying. “I couldn’t be alone.” You’d taken care that he hadn’t gotten the opportunity to get a proper look at your face — as if that was the only tell of how fucked up you were. “’S ‘kay,” he mumbled, taking turns to rub his eyes.

Instead of going to bed or standing in the middle of the room, like he had expected, you moved to the desk in the far corner of the room. As if you couldn’t get far enough away. You practically collapsed onto the chair once you met it.

“Give me a couple of minutes and I can be out of your hair.” You tried so hard to sound steady. You hated that you even needed to be there and hoped that setting a time limit would make it easier somehow. If you had been of a clearer mind, you also would have thought to do something similar, to avoid bothering the man too much. You were sure that your being aboard the ship was enough of an inconvenience, you didn’t need to make it worse by disturbing the captain’s sleep.

Shanks took a few steps forward to get a better look at you. You were so much more shaken up than you had been. Despite the weak lighting, the puffiness around your eyes was glaringly obvious. Being backlit showcased your quivering silhouette. This was worse than he’d imagined.

Running his hand through his hair, Shanks sighed. “Go lie down.” He left little room for argument, but that didn’t mean you didn’t try. “You go lie down.” Even actively distraught, you maintained your stubbornness. He almost found it charming. Almost.

“‘M not the one who was shot,” he countered.

“What’re you doing?” You questioned when he tossed a pillow to the floor. No way in hell. “Shanks,” you said firmly, capturing his attention. “I’m not gonna kick you out of your own bed.” You couldn’t believe he’d do something so ridiculous; you weren’t that selfish.

“Okay, fine. We’ll share,” the man compromised, picking up the pillow and flopping onto the mattress. He scooted to the wall, giving you plenty of space to join him, but you didn’t move a muscle.

“Come on. You know I don’t bite… not without permission.” His cheeky smile was laced with sleepiness. It was adorable, and that was annoying. It was odd, how being around him took the edge off, but that wasn’t something you were going to explore at the moment.

Fully aware that Shanks would continue to pester you, you caved. You climbed onto the bed but stuck close to the edge of the mattress. With his eyes already closed, Shanks sighed. “You’re gonna fall off all the way over there.” He waited for you to heed his warning, but, of course, you never did. “’S gonna hurt like hell if you fall off and land on your side.” That managed to get through your head and with a huff you complied.

Lying still as stone next to him, you damn near glared at the ceiling. The panic was doing its best to resurface, but you wouldn’t let it. Your inner turmoil worked to maintain all the tension in your body. “Wanna talk about it?” Shanks offered, breaking the silence after a few minutes. He’d known you hadn’t so much as closed your eyes. “No,” you said simply, but somehow the offer itself helped ease your mind. “Alright.” After the short exchange and with the understanding you didn’t need him awake, the man next to you practically passed out.

The warmth of his body was something you found comfort in. His light, rhythmic snores gave you something concrete to concentrate on. With time, you felt yourself coming down from the verge of a panic attack.

Feeling like you had calmed down to a reasonable level, you decided it was time to go. But when you made a move to leave, an arm draped over your torso, landing in an unnatural position to avoid the bullet wound in your abdomen. Somehow, despite barely being awake, Shanks had managed to not only sense you leaving but be mindful of your injury. You didn’t like the way it made your heart skip a beat.

“Stay,” he mumbled, not opening his eyes. After a second of thought, you decided to follow his suggestion, and eventually, you slipped off into sleep.

~~~~~~~

A while later, Shanks was pulled back to consciousness by something. He didn’t know the time, but the moon seemed to be high judging from the beams shining through the small window. A light whimper to his left caught his attention. It’d come from you.

Your face was contorted into a grimace, the rise and fall of your chest irregular. Another nightmare, no doubt. Under your breath, you started mumbling words that sounded like pleas. Without really thinking about it, and still half-asleep, Shanks stroked your hair, trying to comfort you.

“No, don’t,” your words clarified slightly, awakening the man to your side further. He blinked away some of his lethargy and focused his gaze on you. Your brow had furrowed more since the last time he checked. The sight prompted him to caress your face, soothing out the harsh lines. It seemed to work for a moment, but it didn’t last. Tears started to sneak past your lash line. Shanks hadn’t realized he’d been wiping them away until he felt you stir and he was far too tired to read into why he’d thought to in the first place.

“Stop!” Even unconscious, an aura of power radiated around you.

Panting, you jolted upright. You curled your knees close to your chest, mimicking the fetal position. Your hands went to your head and wove themselves into your hair before you tugged on the strands. Gently, Shanks called out your name as he sat up with you, but you didn’t hear him. No noise made its way through the panic. You couldn’t calm down. You clung to yourself, closing yourself off. Your nails dug into the flesh of your arms and you held yourself tightly, the stinging barely teetering you to reality. The thought of where you were didn’t even cross your mind until the tears slowed drastically.

Shanks hated seeing you like this. What was worse was knowing there wasn’t really anything he could do. He couldn’t join in on the battle in your mind or pull you out of it; all he could do was be there. Shanks pulled you into him and brought you both back down onto the mattress. Instinctively, you settled into the man. While you weren’t by any means better, you had stopped trembling and your hyperventilation had scaled back to ragged breaths — it wasn’t a lot, but it was something, and Shanks would take something.

You placed your hands on his chest, pushing back to create some space. Craning your head up to look the yonko in the eyes to find that he already had his trained on you. His eyes were filled with concern, but that worry was entirely lost on you in your state.

“I did it —“ you started, interrupted by a sob you couldn’t hold back. Shanks, of course, had no idea what you were talking about. He had his suspicions, but they meant nothing in the moment. Your troubles being unknown to him didn’t change how you were struggling. Whatever you had been confessing to, whatever you had done, or thought you’d done, was crushing you. “—I-I— F-fuck.” You couldn’t get a word out.

The dam officially broke, the tears you had tried so hard to hold back forced their way out. Your hands clutched tightly onto the fabric of Shanks’s shirt as you pressed your forehead into his chest. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t fucking breathe. It had never been this bad before, but you were too far gone to think of what could have changed.

Bringing you closer, Shanks rubbed your back as you cried. For your sake, he tried to suppress the anger he felt, but it had tripped since this morning and was still growing. Someone had done this to you. You had gone through something that left you deeply traumatized — if you weren’t currently falling apart in front of him, the yonko would search the ends of the earth to find the people who’d hurt you… as he would for anyone else on his crew (lie)… even if you weren’t on it yet.

“I killed them.” That information hadn’t surprised the man; you had hinted at as much before. Your body went right as you forced yourself to continue. You stared and spoke directly into Shanks’s chest, muffling your already hard-to-decipher words. “I…hear the screams. I couldn’t do anything. I tried to help them, I really did… couldn’t find the keys. The fire grew too fast.” A string of sobs, more violent than the last, cut you off. Shanks tightened his grip on you.

“I can still smell it,” you sniffled with more composure, but it was obvious you were hanging on by a thread. “I can feel the heat.” Your voice was still unsteady, but your words were more defined. “I feel the heat. I-I told him to stop and he did — but he dropped it. And the fire,” you pulled back from the security of his chest to look at Shanks. Your eyes were dangerously glassy. “They begged me for help and I let them die.”

There was no other way to describe it — you looked broken. He watched you try to continue talking only to devolve into weeping. You didn’t have the presence of mind to be embarrassed about what was happening, so, for the time being, you’d let Shanks hold you as you cried.

Whispering words of comfort, Shanks intermediately placed kisses on the top of your head as you continued to cling to him. He felt his shirt grow damp from your tears, but that was the least of his concerns. He couldn’t help but feel partially responsible for your distress, like if he hadn’t asked questions, you wouldn’t’ve been hurt. He had seen the way you’d reacted to light questioning. You had probably been struggling like this all day, the thought made his heart clench.

He listened to you as your breathing gradually grew soft and steady, eventually evening out. Shanks sighed when you finally fell asleep. Luckily, you slept through the rest of the night, but he couldn’t say the same. As tired as he was, sleep never came to the man. He held you throughout the night, the image of you breaking down burned into his memory.

A new day would bring a fresh start but this ran deeper than that.

a/n: should we (royal) be worried how easy writing the panic attacks came to me? should i talk to my therapist or something lol

good news!!! the next one is going to be even more fun (actual fun) and this time we actually have a plan (and over 10k written for it so far so 💀)

thank you for reading!! i hope you enjoyed it 💕

part three | more from me

#sorry this took so long #shanks x reader #one piece x reader #x reader #canon post

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stxrrynightskies · 1 year ago

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𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄

✩°｡⋆ 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: m. fushiguro x reader

⋆｡° ✮ 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒: you pull megumi out on a particularly rainy day, and end up soaked

‧₊˚✩ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒: canon universe but isn’t related to the plot, fluff, a little kissy kiss, dancing in the rain, established relationship, megumi being a sweetheart, cuddling, megumi’s divine dogs are just really cuddly puppies

ೃ༄ 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 1.5k

⋆ ˚｡⋆ 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: i wish i lived somewhere where it rains more frequently so i could dance in the rain with someone (oh and my requests are open)

You look out of the classroom window and notice the rain pouring down on the street. The class seems to be going very slowly and Gojo is rambling on and on about something. Everyone is on the verge of falling asleep, especially Itadori and Kugisaki. You glance at Megumi to see that he is already fast asleep with his head down.

“You’re all free to go.” Gojo swung his legs off of the table and simply walked out of the class, completely disregarding the four of you.

“Finally.” Kugisaki followed closely behind, most likely heading towards her dorm.

You watched as Itadori did the same, stretching his arms and waving goodbye to you as he left the room, leaving you alone with Megumi, who was still sleeping.

“Megumi.” You poked. “Come on, class is over.”

All you got in response was a soft hum as Megumi shifted slightly, turning his head to face the other direction, a low grumble escaping as he did so.

“Five more minutes…” He waved you away.

“Fine, I’ll just leave you here then.” You shrugged, standing up and slowly making your way towards the exit.

Before you could fully make it out of the room, Megumi was right beside you. His looming figure staring down at you with a hint of annoyance.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He scoffed.

“Anywhere that’s not in there.” You shrugged. “Class is over and I’d rather not spend the rest of my day in the classroom.”

You began walking in silence down the hall, occasionally sneaking glances at each other and linking fingers as you went. As you got closer to the front of the school, you were suddenly reminded of the fact that it was raining outside. The sound of the rain hitting the ground drew you in as you stopped to look outside.

Megumi stopped as well, his eyes switching from you to the weather outside. His eyes narrowed as if he knew what you were thinking. And he was right. You turned to look at him with wide, mischievous eyes.

“No.” The boy stopped you before you could suggest some stupid idea.

“But.” You pout.

“Absolutely not.”

You let out a dramatic sigh, looking up at Megumi with pleading eyes. He already knew what you wanted to do without the need to say anything.

But when he looked away with a stern resolve, your fake sadness started turning into disappointment.

“Alright…” You feigned innocence before stripping off your jacket and shoes.

If he wasn’t going to join you, you might as well have a little fun yourself. You toss your jacket to Megumi and kick your shoes to the side.

“What are you doing?” The boy eyes you.

“Enjoying the weather!” You yell as you rush through the door into the courtyard, quite literally soaking up the rain.

Megumi just watched as you began splashing around the puddles, a small smile ghosting his lips. You were in your element, happily spinning around and the rain as it dotted your face.

As your excitement began to fade into something more serene, you thought it would be a good idea to lay down, looking up at the sky and the rain continued to pour, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. You stared up, admiring the clouds that filled the sky before eventually closing your eyes to focus solely on the feeling of the water.

It wasn’t until you felt a presence approaching that you opened your eyes to see a pair of dark eyes staring down at you.

“I thought you weren’t coming.” Your face splits into a grin.

“Shut up.” He mumbled, helping you stand up.

You take his hand, pulling him to a large puddle forming in the middle of the courtyard, jumping straight in without a second thought. And because you were holding onto his hand, he had no choice but to follow.

Despite his dislike for the rain, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of comfort wash over him as he watched you smile, drenched hair clinging to your face. He was absolutely smitten with you, even if he would never admit it to anyone.

His thoughts were abruptly stopped when you took his hand with yours, placing your other on his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” He looks down as your feet start to move, guiding him back and forth.

“Dance with me!” You continue to move, pushing him back and pulling him forward as you smile.

Megumi couldn’t help but return your expression. Your smile was just so contagious. His body moved on its own, leading you, spinning you, smiling when you would step on his toes. He completely ignored the dizziness that followed once you stopped moving.

You stared into his eyes, taking in his soaked form. Hair sticking flat on his face, clothes dripping with water. His gaze flicked from your eyes to your lips, a certain look on his face. A begging look. For permission to kiss you. Not because he’s afraid you’ll reject his affections, but because he wants to make sure you want it too.

His silent question was answered when you leaned in, pressing your lips together. He was quick to wrap one hand around the back of your neck, the other finding its way to your waist, pulling you closer. Once you pull away, you notice he was shivering. Which also led you to start shivering.

Megumi was quick to notice your body shaking as he started pulling you back towards the school entrance. “Come on, you’ll catch a cold.”

“‘Kay.” You follow him.

When you walk in, you’re immediately greeted by Megumi’s divine dogs, quietly watching over your belongings. Once they spot you, they immediately abandon their sitting position and run over to the two of you, tackling you.

“Hello, my little cuties! Did you miss me?” You happily begin playing with the pair. Megumi usually doesn’t call upon them unless they’re necessary when fighting curses, but sometimes, you get lucky and he summons them for you.

As you continue showering them with affection, you can hear Megumi grumble from beside you. Even after the past few months of dating, he still can’t believe that his divine dogs always choose you over him.

“Don’t be jealous, Megs. I’m just that lovable.” You flash a sly smile.

“‘m not jealous.” He quickly refutes.

“Sure you’re not.”

With a quick roll of his eyes, Megumi retrieves your belongings and starts walking back to your dorm rooms, already knowing you’d follow. You get up and trail just behind him, his divine dogs on either side of you.

Once you finally arrived in front of Megumi’s dorm, you stopped, fully prepared to say goodbye and walk back to your own room. But Megumi had other ideas.

“Aren’t you coming in?” He asked once he noticed your figure standing outside the door.

“Huh? Oh- I was just gonna go back to my room-” You started.

“Just come in.” The boy was quick to cut you off, gesturing you inside.

Before you can protest, you feel one head nudge you into the room, while the other closes the door behind you. Megumi sets all of your stuff down by his bed and gestures to the shower.

“You shower first.” He points.

“Shouldn’t you shower first? It’s your room.”

“Not the point. I don’t want you getting sick.” You hear a slight grumble in his voice.

Megumi didn’t look like he was going to give it up, leaving you no choice but to step into the washroom and shower.

Once the two of you finally warmed up thanks to the shower (and an oversized sweater that Megumi so graciously threw at your face to wear), you settled on his bed, wrapped up in his blanket, his divine dogs nestled on top of you.

“I like this.” You smile.

“You like my dogs.” The dark-haired boy rolls his eyes. “You always beg to see them.”

“They’re adorable! Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because they’re meant for combat against cursed spirits? And besides, you should be wanting to see me more than them.”

The last part of his statement made you laugh. Though it came out as more of a mumble, you were still able to hear it quite clearly.

“I knew it! You are jealous of them.” You poke the boy’s cheek.

“Am not.” He swats your hand away.

“Are too!”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

Your playful banter continued going back and forth until Megumi finally decided he had enough, grabbing your face with both hands and placing a firm kiss on your lips. One that you happily reciprocated.

He pulls away, a triumphant look on his face. “There.”

If the flush on your face wasn’t a telltale sign of defeat, your reaction was. You buried yourself under the covers with an audible grumble. A small “I hate you,” to be exact.

“Yeah, yeah, I love you too.” He said softly.

You couldn’t help but appreciate moments like these. Where it was just the two of you, loving each other without others watching. You wouldn’t have it any other way.

𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃

#✮⋆˙ jade writes #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jjk #jjk x reader #jjk imagines #megumi fushiguro #megumi x reader #megumi x you

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maybe-boys-do-love · 3 months ago

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SOTUS S: The Secret Four-Act of Love Between Us

Five episodes into SOTUS S, I wanted to cry. Nothing tragic had happened. The major plot climaxes were nowhere near. If I'm honest, I had felt pretty indifferent to the sequel series up to that point. Its more expensive production elements, relaxed pace, comedic sound queues, broader characterizations, and blatant callbacks to the original series seemed more akin to cash-grabbing commercial projects that followed in SOTUS's wake. Some were fun and some fell flat, but those series lacked the show's layered writing or direction. By the end of episode 5, however, something shifted. It continued to surprise my narrative expectations from there on out, offering new ways to appreciate many other BL series due to the clarity of its formal structure. This review is my attempt to understand how and why.

SOTUS S doesn’t primarily operate by the most prominent Western storytelling rules—the three act or five act structures that build toward a culminating conflict for a climax before an exhaustive resolution. Nor does SOTUS S make as much of an attempt to blend its structure in with the Western storytelling rules as its predecessor did. Instead, it’s a striking example of the Four-Act structure (from hereon: 4Act) that developed in China and spread to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia as noted by @kimyoonmiauthor. It’s prominently used in Japan by manga, anime, novelists, and game creators under its Japanese name Kishotenketsu. If you’ve heard about “the three episode rule” in which you have to watch the first three episodes of an anime before passing judgment, that’s often unknowingly related to the principles of the 4Act structure.

Rather than refer to the Kishotenketsu model here, however, I’d like to use the four parts as defined by the original Chinese poetic form in Adeline Bindra’s explanation for the Savanna Post:

Qi– Bringing into Being

Cheng– Understanding

Zhuan– Changing

He– Drawing Together

I’ve found these definitions more helpful for understanding than the Japanese terms and their English translations, like “introduction,” “twist,” “development,” etc, which have meanings in the Western tradition that differ from they’re use in the Asian narratives.

Some caveats:

1. I’m an American just trying to figure this out from my own experiences with Asian media and others’ writings about the structure and cultures that utilize it. There’s a ton of Orientalism in writing about the subject of the 4Act structure, and I try my best, but I can’t promise I won’t accidentally slip into some of that rhetoric.

2. No single culture’s a monolith, so not every writer in the cultures will use these structures the same or at all, and the different cultures referenced here—Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean—also differ dramatically between one another, and so do their approaches to the 4Act.

3. Cultures have been interacting and changing forever. Shakespeare included a reference to a Christianized translation of the Buddha’s story in Merchant of Venice, for one example. Asian influences have been a part of Western writing for a long time and vice versa. Western media’s pervasive throughout the world. Inevitably, you’ll see shared aspects from intermingling as well as convergent development. My goal is not to essentialize any people, culture, or story, only to isolate in this instance the feature of the 4Act in SOTUS, which has well-documented Asian roots.

4. This is a narrative structure not a moral guide on how one should live life at all times. Some writers claim ethical, political, and philosophical implications for its use. However, you get to be the judge of when and how to use it in your perspectives as an audience, creator, and a human being just making it through in the world.

5. Thai culture has its own specific traditions around this structure and other plot structures that I’m not focusing on here simply for lack of info in English. I’d love to hear more about that from others more knowledgeable than me. Is it taught in schools or writing classes? Does it relate to other Thai dramatic structures? I don’t have the answer, but my mind is inquiring to anyone who does!

6. As with all my posts, feel free to message me about or correct me on mistakes or add more context where I falter.

Hopefully in isolating and differentiating the 4Act model as much as possible from the Western model here, I can demonstrate the latter’s importance to SOTUS S and many other BLs. From here, I’ll try to do a side-by-side comparison of the elements of that 4Act structure with SOTUS S. Spoilers abound for SOTUS S along with several other BLs.

Qi: Bringing into Being

Premiering in 2018, SOTUS S offered audiences one of the first examples that I know of a BL live-action about an unequivocally established couple. That fact necessitates a model distinct from the traditional romantic arc you’d find in guides like Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes and graphed below by Jenna Harte.

With an established couple, the whole first act of this three act structure is useless. Our pair already met and they like each other. We already watched them fight through this whole mountainous arc to achieve their romantic HEA (happily ever after for those unaware).

Here’s where our 4Act comes in. Qi, our first act, rather than setting up the characters with some spark the protagonist will have to deal with later on, focuses more heavily on establishing the environment the characters exist within. It's less pressed about setting its conflict into motion. As Jay Six explains helpfully in his self-published book, A Practical Guide to: Kishotenketsu, “The story often starts by establishing a detailed, richly textured world. This focus on observation allows readers to immerse themselves in the environment and the characters, setting up a deep connection with the narrative.” In SOTUS S, that means we get domestic fluff with gentle implications about Kongthob and Art sleeping together. We wander the campus to see Kongpob’s friends in the engineering faculty, now in their third year and in the position of hazers (distinct from the American concept for anyone who’s unfamiliar) to a new set of freshmen. We greet Arthit’s friends at the bar. Then, we follow Art to the new setting of an engineering firm where he’s beginning employment after an internship. You will be taken aback if you, like me, expected all of these characters and settings to be relevant to the action throughout the series.

I have a brain trained to expect the beginnings of a story to provide a clear impetus for a central problem, as if the story ought to have an on-switch that starts the gears of the narrative turning. My first instinct when it became apparent SOTUS S had not done that was to ascribe the emergences and dissipations of certain elements at the university as service to fans of the original series—let them get a taste of the characters, coupledom, and little university scenes they loved before moving onto the meat of the plot.

That’s a natural expectation when you’re used to stories focusing exclusively on conflict and individual power. Each piece of the story should link to their effort toward their goal. Bindra describes the ‘dharmic structure’ of the Western narrative arc: “The character is pursuing a specific Dharma, a ‘path’ or ‘way,’ toward a tangible end goal.” Whether they succeed or fail matters greatly under this framework.

In opposition is the ‘Karmic structure,’ where characters “simply go about their lives until they are forced to react to some bizarre, unforeseen circumstance.” All the elements matter in the Karmic structure but not as a set of stairs the protagonist climbs or a steady accumulation of coins to pay off in the end. The general environment has a larger role to play and the individual has less responsibility in the events that unfold, which impacts the opening. Anaea Lay’s description explains the emphasis on thematic development in the beginning over a Western plot ignition.

“You are much less likely to run into an “inciting incident” or similar in this introduction than you would in an X-Act structure. Instead, what you’ll find are the themes and images the work will be using. You aren’t here to find out what kind of wild ride you’re about to engage in; rather, this is setting you up for what argument or ideas you’re about to witness.”

That’s why anime fans have a three-episode rule before deciding on their engagement with a series. Those first three episodes have no obligation under the 4Act to indicate the adventure that’s about to occur.

In the first episode we see Arthit stumble through a disorganized orientation to his first day at work, joining the procurement department at an engineering firm, a stepping stone towards a role at the company more suited to his interests. During an early meal out with his new coworkers, he misses the opportunity to share his relationship with his coworkers. His nervousness is palpable in the moment, and Krist shines in portraying Arthit’s acute anxiety realistically throughout the show. The fear of homophobic reactions isn’t made explicit, but the subtext can’t be ignored with the dramatic music, forlorn expression, and greater context.

Yet, the show is generous enough to present a moment of possibility, too, where Art seems about to share about his partner before getting interrupted. Bravery isn’t a singular character trait, the scene suggests, but a fleeting feeling dependent on circumstance and luck. It renders the ‘coming out’ narrative that emerges for Art a bit different—less individual and insurgent than the classic western coming-out narrative in, say, The Birdcage or Love, Simon. He has legitimate interests in the appropriate setting, occasion, and timing to maintain positive relationships. He didn’t lack courage as much as he missed the proper moment.

I’m not of any kind of Asian descent, but these were major values in my personal family culture. I only came out to my family once I had a partner and a cousin’s new same-sex partner came up in conversation at the dinner table. My family simply didn’t discuss internal emotional states, straight or queer, my parents didn’t kiss in public or in front of me and my sister, so bringing up a sexual identity without any outward indicator of my own sexuality didn’t make sense.

And before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this was some deeper issue of generational repression, know that plenty of research backs up this collectivist-oriented relational style as a broader Appalachian cultural norm (which my family exists within). While no culture exists totally on one part of the spectrum, it like most East and Southeast Asian cultures gets categorized as a high context culture, which prioritizes interpersonal relationships and draws on less direct verbal and nonverbal communication strategies to artfully maintain them when possible. Further research, much of it collected in the fascinating book, Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions by Batja Mesquita, frames psychological well-being not in a single universal way of interacting, but in interactions and understandings that align beneficially with one’s surrounding culture.

“I’m working [at the company] already,” Arthit in bed advises Kongpob, “but I still have to learn to adapt.” There’s the crux of Arthit’s story in SOTUS S: how can he find proper alignment of his own unique characteristics to integrate himself within his new work culture, in a department he had little desire or skills to master? Protagonists in a 4Act are responsive rather than goal-oriented. With the same acknowledgement that you can’t control the circumstances you’re born into, they don’t have control over the problematic circumstances they are thrust into by the karmic plot.

Arthit makes a great 4Act protagonist in SOTUS S. He isn’t the strict senior disciplinarian from the opening of the original series, nor is he the warm, open character healed by that show’s happy ending. The senior is now the nervous junior at the firm, eager to please and conform—these latter traits providing continuity with his original characterization. The junior, Kongpob, is now the authority, the head hazer at the university. These role-reversal topics were already thematically relevant in the first series, but SOTUS S makes them more explicit, bringing us into new territory and depicting an alternative view to linear character growth.

Kim Yoon Mi describes both Japan and Korea introducing a story’s main topic (not to be confused with main conflict) in the first act of this structure and then developing it more deeply in the second, which SOTUS S seems to do. Each character and story element, including the protagonist, is a trickling mountain stream feeding into a larger river of theme rather than plot. In line with that metaphor, some of those elements will evaporate or branch off before reaching the deep reflective pool where the story concludes. We’ll come to see as we reflect back how solidly the show in its first act laid down its thematic foundations: the dynamics between memories of the past (like university life) with the press of time, the blurry lines between private and public, the formation and maintenance of relationships, the privileges of status, and all of them weighted by pervasive queer anxieties that the writing elegantly restrains itself from stating outright. The next act of the show elaborates on all of this, but not in the direct sort of development Western stories prioritize.

Cheng: Understanding

If viewed from the perspective of a three-act hero’s journey, the second act of SOTUS S runs into some major problems. Here’s a graphic from author Patricia Morais (that I particularly like for its regrouping dip) explaining that structure:

Under this model, we could maybe think of Arthit’s failure to come out to his coworkers as the central inciting incident that must be resolved by the end of the story. If you’d like to be more generous, we might instead identify the incident in episode 2 to identify Art’s tag-along meeting with his overly-friendly coworker, John, and a representative from one of their materials’ providers. Then, our main plot focuses around the eventual plastic crisis for the company as the main conflict that will need resolution. However, the fact of dual plotlines that never merge hopefully encourages you to question the familiar expectations of a three-act structure or hero’s journey. Otherwise, you’ll come away from the show believing a lot of fat could’ve been trimmed off in the editing process.

In episodes 2 through 5, SOTUS S has some elements on which action can rise toward a major climax point. John shirks work off onto Arthit over and over again, for example, and another coworker, Earth—who for me so far in my BL viewing is the most grounded female character I’ve seen, not to mention my favorite—slowly reveals her kind heart behind her diligence. On the relationship front, Ai-Oon is running himself ragged trying to balance his work and relationship, losing his patience with Kong at one point when he shows up to the company with a food delivery.

But many other points don’t add to the plot the way they ought to for a hero’s journey. We get introduced to a few freshman, like Khaofang, whose crush on Kongpob gets gently denied, and Day, resistant to Kongpob’s enlightened initiation rituals, thus igniting the persistence of class president Tew. Neither of those freshman will contribute to the main plots for Kongpob and Arthit. On the faculty beach trip, now paired with tree-planting to skirt the stricter regulations, M and May finally confess their feelings percolating since last season for one another. After these confessions in episode 4 and a discussion of internships at the start of episode 5, they will not reappear until the last episode of the series.

So why include them? I showed charts for the Romance Plot and 3 Act structure above, but let’s look at a visualization of the 4Act from writing coach Anaea Lay.

You’ll notice some key differences. The line isn’t really progressing upward, for one. It also changes width in sections and even color by the end? I’ll discuss our squiggly twist and color change later, but for now let’s focus on our second act for cheng, Understanding, or “development” as the above chart has it.. We have this bold line emerge because the point of the second act, as Lay explains, is to create density, flesh out the topic, enrich it.

Instead of building up a structure or walking up a mountain path and overcoming obstacles along the way, the cheng stage kneads the narrative into interlocking thematic explorations like the structure of gluten in bread dough. Japanese writers refer to it as ma, a kind of slow infusion through time and spaciousness. You can develop a 4Act narrative with intensification, sure, and that will appear pretty similar to the three-act development stage—I personally think Hunter x Hunter arcs provide fantastic examples of second-act intensification strategies in a kishotenketsu model, and The Campfire team do a fantastic job of explaining how the series, Shogun, uses the 4 Act with escalating pressure in this stage. Yet other strategies also exist.

SOTUS S chooses to spread out its thematic question during this phase: to different plots, different people, even different times. Tew and Day, for example, who interact the least with our protagonists’ struggles out of any characters, nevertheless reiterate the values of persistence and faith as people develop ties. Despite Day’s overt resistance to the SOTUS rituals, Tew returns to him again and again, tuned into unstated signs of the freshman’s painful past, like his status as a transfer student, and subtle acts of participation in the events, indicating a secret desire for belonging. Art’s new coworkers provide another example of how much we truly know about others’ inner workings just based on first impressions.

Perhaps the most direct evocation of the main thematic tension occurs not with KongArt, but with M and May who only receive episode 4 for their story. As the freshman walk across their wrists to go receive their gear emblems, May finally demands clarity for feelings simmering since 2016. I’ve slightly shortened the exchange for brevity.

May: “You never bother to tell me your feelings directly.” M: “Do I have to say it out and tell you to make you understand?” May: “I don’t want to assume things.” M: “What I said on the stage…I meant you.” “You know…what it means, right?” May: “I don’t know, M. You could think of me as a close friend.” M: Well, I…like you. I like you more than a close friend. I want to be your boyfriend. I told you my feelings directly. Now it’s your turn to tell me your feelings. May: Are you crazy? There are so many people here. How can I say it?

It’s gorgeous naturalistic dialogue, stuttering and ambiguous, between two reserved characters! Reducing them to their role in the main plot, however, would render the characters and scene meaningless. M and May simply don’t contribute to the issues at Ocean Electric or KongArt’s relationship. They're an indirect illustration of the show's themes.

Indirect communication is central to SOTUS S. We see Kong and Art, open to their friends and on campus but conflicted in how open to be with their affection in public, bridge the gap through indirect displays: a conversation about liking the sea! shared taxi rides! an indirect kiss they share on an Oishi bottle! These coded romantic encounters can be downright erotic. The West doesn’t even have the concept of an indirect kiss, which is emblematic of the kinds of context that one can miss.

The show layers on reason-upon-reason for keeping affections nebulous: personal temperaments, professionalism, financial precarity, collective belonging, cultural mores on PDA, and societal homophobia, too. The show lays these issues out indirectly. For example, Art’s coworkers Som-O, Durian, and Cherry (the kind of lovely overtly queer character SOTUS did so well, played by Gun Korawit) all skirt the line of appropriate workplace conversations and behavior as they gossip and fawn over new employees. The tension of their flirtations against our knowledge about the fears and hidden relationships at the office is thick, but no one will really confront them directly about how close their speech and actions how they stress those in the closet, nor how close they come to sexual harassment.

Instead, other occurrences will cause them to reflect on behaviors. Cherry, for example, addresses his own behavior and his subordinates’ after news about Arthit and Kongpob becomes public. Cultures with high-context communication approaches utilize actions, behaviors, and symbols to convey messages rather than verbal specificity, so passive statements and unrelated events are seen as more effective in encouraging behavior change than direct communication about the issue. That’s why the 4Act structure and the indirect elaboration of ideas that occurs in the second-act align culturally. It doesn’t force its issue on the audience.

The most indirect formal element from my perspective occurred with the use of the ‘special scenes’ at the end of each episode, and they fully blew my mind by the time I realized how they were operating. I assumed these flashback scenes to KongArt moments were meant to give the fan-girlies the cute moments between the cute boys and their throwbacks to the og series. That’s how they often seem to work in other BLs. Stupid me, underestimating the series and fan-girlies, whose desires can be as multifaceted as any film critic or academic. The flashbacks at the end of each episode, in addition to their sweetness, emphasize moments of public affection between our main couple, but even more than that they intentionally throw us back in time, breaking up the linear story and a linear trajectory for Arthit’s comfort with public affection.

The special scenes aren’t simply detached scenes, they’re narrative switchbacks, forcing us an audience to meander like a river in the story. Kim Yoon Mi describes a major element of the East Asian 4Act: “While time is going forwards, the character is returning to a previous point in their life, re-examining it–or forced to reexamine it.” I described the original series as propulsive and unrelenting in its tempo and plotting. SOTUS S, on the other hand, is nostalgic and reflective in both content and its structure.

Arthit, tired from a day of work, rushes to his alma mater to catch the end of the flag ceremony. “When I get to see the atmosphere like this again,” he confides, “it’s like the fuel tank in me is filled. This can fill the feelings I have lost. My tiredness is gone. I have the strength to go back to work now.” For another example look at the contrast as episode 6 ends with Kongpob standing in an apartment hallway alone after an argument with his boyfriend. The show suddenly cuts to a past moment when Arthit let himself fall asleep on Kongpob’s shoulder in the back of a taxi. When we feel broken, worn-down, or lost, when we undergo big life changes, returning to our memories gives us an opportunity to repair ourselves and cherish the relationships we’ve made.

Meandering is the shape of easing—mountain roads that reduce the gradient of a climb, water seeking the least resistance. SOTUS S and its narrative structure explore these shapes. In addition to the purpose of nostalgia for its characters, it uses its position as a sequel to address why returning us to an older work might be emotionally useful and why an indirect path through time and our journeys might be nourishing. After the steady fabrication of its attachment to the original series in the first and second acts, the third act shift is all the more potent.

Zhuan: Changing

In the sixth episode, Kongpob joins Ocean Electric as an intern with the encouragement of his father, the CEO of a manufacturing firm Arthit has met and impressed without realizing his relationship to his partner. Kong had left the required internship applications to the last minute, at ease with the connections his wealth and father’s position in his field of study offer him. And with Arthit’s packed work schedule (not to mention Kong’s impish romantic fantasies that only stress out his partner), our nong doesn’t disclose his decision. Art is shocked and appalled when his boyfriend walks into a meeting and gets introduced as the new intern.

The show also introduces new central characters to the cast in the fifth and sixth episode, which is far too late for introductions of main characters in a traditional Western narrative approach. Wad, whose privilege as the nephew of Ocean Electric’s head honcho mirror Kong’s background, joins the procurement department. Another intern, Nai, also joins the proceedings. These characters and their softly-treaded dalliances at Ocean Electric fill in the space left as the story mostly abandons the university and all but two supporting characters we met there.

I've read complaints about that split in SOTUS S, the university-centered plots in the first half overtaken by the corporate setting. Personally, the viewing experience gave me a sense of how ephemeral life is. Four months pass by in a flash and Arthit’s no longer the junior at the office. The university storylines fall away like cherry blossoms or autumn leaves. If that sounds too poetic for you, I'd recommend you stick to the first series and its fantastic linear storytelling (and you can ignore the poetic elements that elevate it, while still enjoying the show). SOTUS S puts its indirect storytelling strategies at the forefront. That’s why I find SOTUS S such a great example to look at the 4Act. The overt shift here makes it hard to square with the continuity of traditional Western dramatic structures.

In the third act of a 4Act structure, the audience comes to understand a new perspective on the proceedings that the first two acts offered them. The Japanese term for it “ten” gets directly translated to ‘twist,’ but that term is so heavily associated with some plot-oriented ‘gotcha!’ moment in the western canon:

a new piece of evidence in a trial!

the sheriff is in cahoots with the robber baron!

Voldemort’s on the back of his head!

There are many reasons to view two of the most celebrated Western film twists, Star Wars’ paternity reveal and dead Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, as blendings with the Eastern third act’s Change. The overt declarations made by characters to render the twists apparent to audiences in those instances along with the instrumental role the change plays in the character’s journey is rooted in Western storytelling. However, the impact it has on how the audience interprets the story, both preceding events and the purpose of the story as a whole, is more akin to the kind of change that occurs in the Eastern model. The zhuan or Change here is less emphatically about a reveal of information and more about a change the audience experiences in their type of engagement with the story.

Youtuber ‘Pause and Select’ relates the change in the 4Act structure to space. Discussing Attack on Titan, which has the exceptionally clear spatial limit of tightly packed city walls, he explains it as a ‘parallax view,’ a shift in perspective for the audience. Going further, he asserts that the third act shift is NOT meant to be a last-ditch event or realization that aids the story in reaching the conclusions we expected it to reach based on the first two acts. Elle Woods finding out her boss is a skeeve and then taking over to use her knowledge about perms in trial to prove her client’s innocence is a great western ‘twist’ and climax, which includes every feminist element Elle has come to stand for in her development at Harvard law school and brings about the expected conclusion of her success at overcoming all her obstacles to truly become a successful lawyer. However, it does nothing to change the audience’s perspectives about the story’s goals as a female empowerment legal comedy.

“What matters,” Pause and Select argues about the 4Act change, “is that a breakdown, whether you are a reader or writer of [the 4Act structure], ultimately demands coming to a conclusion as to what you think the structure is trying to do.” The emphasis there is mine. A well-constructed 4Act aims to dislodge expectations about the very nature of the narrative it's telling in its third act. At its most obvious, this could be a genre shift—a romcom becomes a tragedy—but it might also be a change in whose perspective the story takes (Peaceful Property), which character is masterminding the events (a favorite of writer/director Park Chan-wook, like in The Handmaiden), or an expansion of who the audience is meant to feel empathy for (a fav strategy of Miyazaki, like in Laputa, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke). A common romantic Kdrama trope of this kind, I hear, is the revelation that the characters previously knew each other. No matter the shift, thematic motifs will remain (a good reason to pay attention to indirect elements!), but the plot-type possibilities and full extent of the theme’s message can utterly transform.

When viewers use Western frameworks to complain about the poor build-up or the introduction of unexpected elements into the second half of BL series, the complaint often comes from a place of ignorance. I’ve even heard unfounded conspiracy theories about studio interference regarding the sense of the unexpected in these sections! When viewed with the goals of the 4Act in mind—and here we ought to note the Korean 4Act model, the giseungjeongyeol, which splits its 4Acts more evenly than the Japanese kishotenketsu, as Kim Yoonmi points out—an audience’s experience of disruption that begins around episode 6 of a 12 ep series can be a sign of successful storytelling and a chance to reevaluate what you assumed the story was going to be.

No wonder I found myself getting weepy around episode 6. Time itself is the core focus of SOTUS S. By the end of the second act in episode 5, the hazing rituals we endured for fifteen episodes in the og had flashed by and completed. I began to fully appreciate the breadth of how SOTUS S intended to instill the experience of no longer being what you were before, the experience of merging into the realm of adulthood where the flowing expanse of life is no longer broken into semesters or organized into class years nor the safety of their forcibly forged friendships. It's an exceptional feat of storytelling to induce that subtle emotional experience for an audience.

With that shift, the problems and consequences shift as well. A third act often introduces an entirely new obstacle. The boss of Ocean Electric announces the yearly product design competition, and the shady dealings of certain employees suggestively simmering in the first half rise to the surface. In a Western telling, the series could’ve easily started right here. It brings the conflict, the battle between good (Earth and Arthit) and evil (John and Som-O), along with the slight moral grayness of Todd to keep it interesting. The pace and tempo of the scenes pick up, especially when the shit hits the fan/the cheap plastic hits the production line. It thrills with the same surge that ran through a majority of the original series. Is this conflict what the story’s about, though?

Some people have described the 4Act as a conflictless plot structure. That’s baloney! You’ll see battle after battle after battle in shonen manga, like Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Jujutsu Kaisen, all organized by the principles of The 4Act. SOTUS S shows off its ability to instill conflict with Ocean Electric’s design competition, too. The difference between the 4Act and the Three-Act or hero’s journey derives from the latter’s centralization of a single conflict compared to the former’s use of diffused conflicts—diffused in the sense of multiple conflicts spread out without a center, and, as I’ll explain for the last act, diffused in the sense of de-escalated.

The issue of the competition is one conflict beside a number of other dating conflicts, with KongArt’s the most prominent, none of which directly impact each other in terms of plotting. In this section, Todd slowly falls for Earth, who gently turns him down (again, with writing and a performance by Proud Oranicha that solidify Earth as a uniquely naturalistic female character in a genre known for campy female caricatures). The other new intern Nai (Nammon) and head of Production, Yong (Guy Sivakorn) begin the most discrete of bromances, or maybe something more…, until Nai feeling slighted draws back. And KongArt have it out about Kongpob’s surprise internship decision before making up, allowing Ai-oon opportunities to show his growing comfort in his secret bf’s surreptitious seductions in public.

And let’s all appreciate that the boys continue to engage in versatile powerplay dynamics with their displays of affection!

To properly center a single conflict for a Hollywood version of SOTUS S, all of these individual tensions would end up relating to one another—perhaps Todd and Nai become bitter about their rejection and join John’s plot to win the competition. Then, as a last ditch attempt to gain support for their own team’s entry, they discover and out KongArt’s secret relationship. Plenty of other options could take place, but the point is that they’re meant to be set up like that meme of ever-increasing dominos, building upon one another to create an even greater singular conflict. Instead, we see jealousies that come to nothing, slights that characters move on from without involving others. SOTUS S lets the different conflicts exist independently to separately emphasize the main theme: relationships take time, dedication, communication, and faithfulness to develop and maintain as people’s circumstances change.

The company beach outing provides the landscape for many of the relationship dramas to come to a head (and strikes a narrative beach episode beat with foundations exceeding the BL genre) before things go awry. If I’m honest, elements of Western Romance plotting seem to predominate this last portion of the third act: a false HEA (happily ever after) at the beach, disaster as the bad plastic goes on the line, and true crisis as office busybody, Durian, outs Kong and Art by sharing pics of them kissing from the beach trip. Then episode 12, as second-to-last episodes in romance series are wont to do, offers us a separation of sorts and a long dark night of the soul for Arthit before he arrives at his self-realization. It’s a beat integral to the 4Act and the Romance arc, but in the 4Act, despite its sometimes momentous occasion, the self-realization is secondary to the initial perspective-shift in terms of expected emotional and overall engagement from the viewer. Art announces he’s dating Kongpob in front of the entire office at the intern send-off. In the romance arc, the self-realization and confession change everything. The villains like Lady Catherine are dispelled; the curse on the beast breaks, Here, though; Love Wins! But here, we de-escalate.

He: Drawing Together

The 4Act sensibilities in SOTUS S resurface after the culmination. Arthit finally announces his relationship in front of the whole office, but no character stands-in for homophobia for him to confront. John was fired earlier for his fraud without a big to-do from the office. No one sings “Ding! Dong! The witch is dead!” In fact, a few of our office gossips get together to discuss John and Arthit but keep interrupting one another before landing on any consensus and finally move onto a point unrelated to our plot. The central issues for KongArt are simply not the center of everyone’s lives and neither love nor coming out were the battle Arthit and we as an audience expected them to be.

Where we might expect fireworks in other structures, the 4Act often brings a sense of pacification. No matter how significant a conflict might seem, the 4Act story structure is not built around a conflict’s upswell and subsequent victory. Patricia Thang explains for Book Riot,

“Whether it is open-ended, whether our characters didn’t go through real development or growth, whether we realize nothing much actually happened at all, it doesn’t matter that much in kishōtenketsu (and is what, in my humble opinion, makes it great). What matters is that the various elements from the different acts of the story come together in a finale, as climactic or as muted as it may be.”

A 4Act story does not attempt to fix but to accept an uncontrollable universe. It's a diplomatic process when division otherwise threatens.

The Chinese character for the he fourth section, 結, apparently refers to the tying of a knot, which presents quite the opposite picture from the ‘reckoning’ expected in Western conclusions. The word ‘reckon’ in addition of its meaning 'to tell a story' etymologically refers to ordering items in a straight line. Instead of straightening out a tangled problem, the 4Act story aims to create an elegant tension between two dissimilar opposing parts by the end.

We can look at a comic panel illustration of this structure from @stilleatingoranges to try and understand it further. Here are the first two acts:

In the first act, the qi, the ‘bringing into being,’ we see a character selecting a soda at a vending machine. The soda plops into the machine’s outlet. In the second act, the cheng, the Understanding, the character grabs the soda from the machine, continuing the story in an expected way without any hitch. There’s no clear obstacle or goal presented here. If we had to guess what will happen in the third act, we might say she’ll drink the soda. If we think the story needs a problem, she might have received the wrong soda. If we knew a twist was coming, we might guess she throws the can. Here’s the third act of this story:

We do not know this character. We don’t know this setting. This is a particularly demonstrative example of the third act, the zhuan, the Changing, because it shows how this act shifts the audience’s perception of the environment and point of this story. It’s not necessarily a twist in what the characters know and expect—we still have no idea about what they’re thinking and/or they’re relationship at all! It’s a twist for the viewer and what they assume they know and expect.

I’ve left out the final panel in my post so that, before you peek at the fourth act—the he, the Drawing Together—of these panels, you can take the place of a writer/creator and consider some ways these two disparate sections can come to coexist in the fourth panel. The girl might walk past this new isolated boy as she downs her soda. Maybe we see him watching as she opens the pop and it sprays all over her. Then, it brings out topics of impatience and embarrassment. You can probably think of more creative versions than me. The final panel the original artist chose to depict has the woman giving her soda to the newly introduced character. These are all acceptable conclusions to the 4Act as long as they reunite the world of the first two acts with the unexpected element of the third act. If you remember the blue color in the final section in the 4Act chart, it’s this combination of elements it represents. It might be helpful to think of the first two acts shaded yellow, with a suddenly blue third act, and a green fourth act.

For SOTUS S, Kongpob is back on campus in the final episode, reuniting us with the first and second act setting and characters from which the third act leapt away. He’s with his friends who’ve learned their own lessons and formed their own relationships during their internship semester. Arthit is back at his office sans intern-boyfriend with the offer of a new job in his preferred department. He turns down for the time being to support his own team instead. Durian goes to apologize to Arthit for leaking his photo, but he interrupts her before she can. It’s already forgiven. He tactfully offers her the opportunity to save face.

I’ve seen these sorts of non-apologies across BL. They often ignite many audience member’s consternation who argue the characters didn’t deserve forgiveness for whatever harm they caused because they haven’t demonstrated a change in their behavior or fully acknowledged their wrong-doing. Unlike some other views of forgiveness, though, they often center around Eastern philosophical goals like the Indic-derived concepts of upekkha (translated as equanimity) and karuna (translated as compassion), for example. The latter is even considered a primary rasa, or aesthetic principle, in classical Indian theories of the arts that have persisted in importance into the cinematic era according to its wiki entry. Both are also part of the four heavenly abodes in Theravada Buddhism, the primary religion in Thailand. Rather than creating a world where those conditions don’t occur, these values focus on an individual’s ability to understand and remain balanced in the face of worldly conditions defined in the atthaloka dharma as “gain and loss, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, pain and happiness.” Good and bad come and go, but one isn't meant to overly celebrate or grieve them. People and events are not meant to be ‘fixed’ in this view but understood.

Arthit’s forgiveness of Durian who continues her gossip demonstrates the understanding he gains in the story. As I said at the beginning, Arthit’s main goal is to adapt to his new environment. It’s a spiritual journey in which he achieves a new-found state of harmony within himself and with his group without directly engaging in conflict in the form of confrontation.

The happy-ending version of the 4Act emphasizes reconnection in the relationships between members of a group, which is why the structure works especially well for a romance about an established couple. For each episode, the Japanese BL What Did You Eat Yesterday, about an older couple who live together, uses the 4Act effectively for its characters to grow in appreciation of each other. While Western stories have struggled to tell stories about established couples, the structure most Japanese iyashikei (slice-of-life genre) utilize works beautifully!

In Thailand, you can see the influence of SOTUS S in Aof Noppharnach’s two series about established couples, Still 2Gether and Dark Blue Kiss. He borrows the structure and even elaborates on subtle motifs in the series, like financial privilege, memories and public documentation through photographs, and invisibility of legally unrecognized and closeted relationships (conveyed in one of my favorite moments in all of the SOTUS series as KongArt transform into silhouettes inside a tunnel in a ‘special scene’). Then Aof blows these elements up into full foregrounded spectacles like Kao’s photographic birthday surprise for Pete or Tine’s walk down memory lane through saved vids and photos of Wat. Then, Aof can focus on subtext that’s more philosophical in his own series: “Love has no form,” Pete theorizes at the end of DBK. Lit Phadung and the rest of his writing team for SOTUS S were never so explicit as to put that theory into the script, but it’s all there in the details. KongArt might re-form their established relationship, bringing it ‘out’ into the view of the office, but it’s contrasted by all the ambiguous relationship endings running parallel to them.

Those relationships don’t feel incomplete, at least to me. Open endings are a staple of the 4Act structure. It requires the acts to reconnect, but does not require problems to be resolved or questions to be answered. Instead the 4Act emphasizes structural and thematic unity and harmony, even for what we might call unhappy endings in romance. For a recent and clear BL example, The On1y One ends with its romantic leads separated in a similar vein to how they began the story while one of them literally re-ties the circle of a broken couple bracelet as he asks his beloved to return to him in a non-diegetic voiceover. Then the series cuts to a glass pitcher of lemon-water we’ve watched shatter over and over throughout the episodes, now whole and unbroken, as the other answers him. Our fourth act endings, done well, challenge a dualistic view. The two contrasting halves circle around to reconnect without one winning out over the other. Compared to a Western resolution, it might seem like these are unfinished loose ends, but they can be better understood as a satisfying tension or an equipoise. The On1y One ending refuses to accept that people are either together or apart, that time is either past or future.

If separate narrative ends are looped together in elegant knots, what does this mean for the ‘coming out’ narrative with its journey that requires opposing forces and a protagonist to move from one side to another: in to out, private to public, even straight to queer? Well, in BL you often end up with a version of queerness that resists identitarian approaches. Art, in the most dramatically built-up moment in the series, makes a public statement about dating Kongpob…but he already did this coming out in the original series and he continues to rebuff his boyfriend’s flirtations afterwards. (It’s a part of their sexual foreplay as much as a part of Art’s shame.)

SOTUS S and much of BL depicts coming out as something done again and again cyclically as you enter into new environments or an act that’s not entirely manifesting (think Bad Buddy’s ending). And sexuality is not so simple as defining a gender one feels attracted toward, nor having pride or shame about those feelings. These are aspects of our relationships with ourselves and with others that even after making them public will still remain private, not fully knowable to others—both shared and secret.

Drawing My Own Thoughts Together

Maybe I’m wrong. Throughout writing this, I nearly abandoned the project. I’m no expert in the history of Eastern media or storytelling, and especially not Thai—I’ve only dove into their BL. I can see how you could line up SOTUS S with a Western hero’s journey or romance plot. In fact, more so than other Asian national film traditions, at least according to the authors of Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide, the Thai media industry has a history and aesthetic interest in mashing genres and global influences into heterogeneous, palimpsestic concoctions. Multiple structures can and do coexist in these works.

I also became aware of how flat I and the resources had to render Western storytelling to illustrate the points about the 4Act. The differentiation between the two region’s approaches becomes much more murky when we bring in nuanced and celebrated works because they flesh out the bones more fully, relish ambiguities and ironies about their own nature, bring in broader influences, and take an interest in the unexpected. The structure’s often harder to pick apart. The goal, I’ve found while writing, is not to be wrong or right about the structure of the series here, but to educate myself and hopefully a few others about an influence of which we could learn more to fully appreciate what we’re watching.

I was not surprised when after watching the series, I found an instagram post of the screenwriter and director Lit Phadung teaching different film structure approaches at a university. SOTUS S, in my view, simply can't be interpreted as a whole unless you are willing to see how its structure operates differently than the Western arc. It patiently weaves its medium and story about the office closet into an expansive pattern rather than mounting an epic battle between right and wrong.

Rather than take my words for right or wrong, I hope this gives others some threads to follow and thread in a web of info and interpretations. I know some tumblrinas I’ve connected with over BL and some with whom I’ve yet to connect have language skills, literary knowledge, and personal experiences to add on to what I’ve attempted to present here. Despite the prevalent mentions of kishotenketsu and the 4act as a structure used by Miyazaki, Kurosawa, and Bong Joon Ho, as well as a device in manga, anime, and Eastern literature traditions, there’s a dearth of well-sourced break-downs and explanations in English, scholarly or otherwise. This was simply my attempt to bring together information about the model in a BL context.

Throughout, I’ve highlighted specific Western blindspots I’ve noticed in criticism of BL shows: the perspective shift at the top of the third act, the slow development, the blanket forgiveness, among other things. A show can use these strategies and still be unsatisfying, don’t get me wrong. However, viewers miss the point when they frame the dissatisfaction using Western storytelling expectations. I’m insistent that we’ve gotta develop our language and perspectives to describe the intentions and breadth of what these shows aim for along with deepening our understanding of why.

It’s not limited to how we watch SOTUS S or Asian dramas. One of my favorite films, Junebug, which earned Amy Adams her first Oscar nomination, is a family drama set and filmed in the American South by a writing/directing team from the area, but inspired by the films of celebrated Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu because of how similar his style seemed culturally to the southerners they grew up with. Obviously, cultures beyond Asia emphasize these values and it behooves us to understand how to communicate with and within them, especially when a tendency exists to assume those communication values are inherently conservative. In fact, there are moments in all of our lives when we might need to emphasize social harmony, compassion, slow development, or karmic paths over dharmic ones, and the reasoning can be as progressive as any revolution.

One of the moral values at the core of 4Act structures is appreciating our belonging to one another. “Strive at first to meditate upon the sameness of yourself and others,” reads Shantideva’s writing about the concept of karuna in The Way of the Bodhisattva. “In joy and sorrow all are equal; Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.” Perceived cultural differences between values and plot structures need not be perceived as so separate. Queerness maybe doesn’t need to be ‘the other.’ Relationships and coming-out don’t need to be a battle. We can change and remain the same at once. SOTUS S and stories like it that use the 4Act demonstrate how art and events in our lives can come along to expand our perspectives without requiring we blame ourselves or others for not realizing it earlier. It holds wrong and right together, difference and unity, without flattening them into assimilation. Two distinct parts held together, which is, after all, the shape of a couple.

Tagging some other SOTUS fans who've kept the passion alive while i worked on this @thebroccolination @dropthedemiurge @doublel27 @moutheyes @ginnymoonbeam

#FINALLY putting this out on my birthday weekend!#what will i do with my weekends now???#sotus #sotus s #kristsingto #thai bl #kishotenketsu #sotus meta #bl discourse #thai bl discourse

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befuddledcinnamonroll · 1 year ago

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We Are and the evolution of Thai BL tropes

The QL discord started a rewatch of My Engineer a few weeks ago, and damn, has it been an interesting experience. At the time I originally watched My Engineer, there was little that stuck out to me, because so much of what happened felt so incredibly common in a lot of the (admittedly rather limited) number of BLs being produced. It felt like pretty standard fare.

But going back and watching it in juxtaposition with We Are airing has been so fascinating. This genre has been evolving, y'all.

As much as we all joke about always getting more university BLs, there is something to be said for a format that can be used as something of a metric for the genre. And though there's only four years between My Engineer and We Are, seeing them both at once gives me such an incredible appreciation for the direction the genre is going in, the impact of having more queer voices involved in the creation of QLs, and how there's a lot of good we can find in seemingly simple spaces.

Obligatory disclaimer: This is just my perspective and subjective interpretation of what I have seen as a BL viewer of some time; also I don't have time to go in and do a university deep dive, so this isn't a real analysis, but more of a brief writeup of observations.

Trends are not black and white, of course, there is a spectrum. I'm sure we'll suffer through more Dinosaur Loves. At the same time, having such predominant production companies as GMMTV putting effort into hiring queer creatives and subverting old cliche tropes is an encouraging thing. (Especially as they were the creators of the original university trendsetting BL with Sotus).

Note: For newer QL viewers, I highly recommend @absolutebl for brushing up on trope history. For university BLs in particular, this post and this post are great starting primers.

Let's talk tropes!

Ok, one more note - some tropes are being what I would consider subverted, some more adapted to a newer framework, and some just played with - I'm going to talk about how they appear to me, but I'm not going to be super pedantic over it, because this is just for fun.

Trope: Bullying/hazing behavior

This did not age well in My Engineer, and I would guess hasn't aged well in a number of BLs (and other media, because the whole "he's mean to you because he likes you" bullshit has been around forever). Not just because the behavior was shitty, but because it was played off in the script as cute, and implied that it was completely justified for the seme to do whatever he wanted in his pursuit of his uke.

(There was also quite a strong tone of internalized homophobia, with the lead feeling more comfortable in expressing his interest through harassment than honest emotion, but the show never actually engaged with that in any meaningful way.)

We Are sets up a very traditional enemies to lovers/bullying start to the story, with Phum taking advantage of Peem's economic situation to make him his "slave".

And yet... there's some important elements here that make this more than the standard use of the trope.

Phum keeps it pretty light in his bullying behavior, and clearly is using it more to keep Peem around as company, versus the kind of bullying in My Engineer, where Duen is literally hit by a car, and yet still expected to keep jumping to Bohn's whims.

As soon as Phum realizes he really upset Peem by leaving him waiting at the mall, he genuinely feels awful about it. It's clear that his intent is not to cause harm, and that he has a conscience. He wrestles with his feelings on it quite a bit, and it ends up being the thing that gets Phum to finally express an honest emotion with Peem.

And most importantly, the script does not let him off the hook. His behavior is bad, and is identified as such by the writing. Peem pushes back and is shown to be right to do so, Beer openly says he disapproves.

So instead of a cliche story beat that's used just to start the action, or a seme who's allowed to do whatever he wants because "passion" (blech), we're seeing it used for characterization, giving us important beats about who both Phum and Peem are in how they engage with each other through the use of the trope.

Trope: Obsessive/jealous behavior

Oh, this one was painful in My Engineer. Duen couldn't even talk to another human being without Bohn getting jealous and angry and dragging him away.

Phum gets jealous, particularly around Kluen, but what makes it feel so subversive here are two key things.

Phum's jealousy has a purpose here, it's not just for drama's sake. It's not the cliche seme doing whatever he wants and being treated as justified. It's deliberately being used to explore his insecurities, and give him a challenge to overcome. Phum doesn't stomp over and drag Peem away, he retreats, he hides. When his jealousy causes him to lash out at Peem, he is immediately aware he fucked up.

And again, the script is making it clear that this behavior is not ok. Peem chides Phum when he acts unkind to Kluen, and Beer makes it clear that the solution is not petty behavior, but actually figuring out a way to communicate his feelings with Peem before he misses his chance. This is portrayed as a barrier for Phum to overcome in order to be with Peem, not an expected part of a romantic relationship.

Trope: Friendship group

There are not enough words to express how much I love the friendship group in We Are. To be fair, this is one of the better historical tropes. We've gotten a lot of amazing friend groups, even in mediocre BLs.

But it's still different in We Are, for one simple reason. In most university BLs, the friend group is a supporting structure. But here?

The story lines may be about the romance, but the point of We Are is the friendship.

I will die on this hill, y'all.

I don't have enough time to go into it fully here, but this show is a love letter to friends. It's a tribute to finding the people who see the real you and have your back unconditionally. Who cheer your successes and commiserate over your defeats, who pick you up when the world knocks you down, who call you out when you make mistakes, and push you to be better.

And romance is lovely, but all of these budding relationships are about being friends first, and then lovers, because that friendship is just as important as everything else, if not more.

Trope: Pink milk

Lol, ok, kinda kidding, kinda not. I know we all got mad over the drink wastage, but also check out these visuals - it's about diversity baby!!

TanFang speed round

My two little trope-busting bebes. These two are already so beautifully non-traditional in their composition, but I love how frequently they are used to make fun of and play with tropes just on their own.

Introduced as pining crush/friend's older brother pair, but actually secret enemies to lovers.

Grumpy/sunshine pairing, where the sunshine used to be a fighter, and grumpy smiles when he thinks no one is watching.

Wound-tending where they keep poking each other instead of acting soft.

Openly mocking the jealous boyfriend trope.

Setting up the possessive trope when Tan doesn't pick up Fang's calls, only to immediately have Fang question if he's being unreasonable.

Setting up their own cute eating scene for kicks.

"First time" sex scene making it clear this is anything but their first time.

Tan holding Fang down in the cliche possessive pose, only for Fang to take the agency of kissing Tan. (And overall saying eff off at the cliche top/bottom roles old BLs were such a fan of).

In Summary

I'm sure there are more tropes that will come to me, and we do still have 5 episodes left of We Are, so there are some potential trope uses that I am keeping an eye on. This is by no means an all-inclusive list.

But I wanted to write this, because I was genuinely shocked to realize how different my My Engineer watching experience was this time compared to my first time. How over the last few years I'd come to expect more thoughtfulness in my QL media, even in the ones that seem shallow on the surface.

Considering how fast and furious the QLs are coming these days, it's easy to forget how recent it was that we were much more starved of content. And I think sometimes we forget to take in the big picture, of how far we've come in just a few years.

Critique is always going to be important, of course, it's part of what helps us make progress. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to take a moment to look around and see some good in where we are.

@sailorbryant thanks for the push to get this written! Feel free to add thoughts!

#we are the series #we are #bl series #thai bl

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rosescore245 · 5 months ago

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Funny Shadow Headcanon

Okay so you know how the Colors wear. Well. Colors. And the Dark World is weird and warped. And how the Palace of the Four Sword has the 4 links in colors just Slightly off? Which has led to theories about the Palace Links being the inverted colors of the 4 elements?

What if

Shadow sees all colors inverted

Trees are shades of magenta. The sky is a soft orange, usually. Shadow is wearing white.

Vio is wearing bright green. Red is wearing bright blue. Blue is wearing orange. Green is wearing bright pink.

So Shadow has no idea why they're named that way.

Just imagine a revival scenario where they bring Shadow back as a Hylian, and he runs straight to Green because Vio Wears That Color

Shadow talking to Vio pre-betrayal, saying something about how the blue one is a wimp. Vio thinks he's being ironic. He is not.

Shadow thinks Vio has the only sensible name. He thinks it's a weird way of saying Vial and he's seen potions in vials that look similar in color!

It is a long, shocking conversation post-revival. Nobody can see anything the same. Blue makes fun of the idea of Green wearing bright pink. Shadow finds out later that even while Hylian he is blue-purple colorblind

Will play with this idea more lol

#four swords #sorry my demons #being silly #vio link #vidow #shadow link #green link #colorblind headcanon

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kkpaaw · 6 months ago

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I got another headcanon on the og4 and their elements cuz fun

Kinda a continuation of this post but also kinda not. I vaguely mentioned a bond they had that was unrelated to the main headcanon, but it's not a necessary read but I still encourage it cuz the overall headcanon is fun

The og 4 are connected on a much deeper scale. A much deeper scale that none of em like but cannot do a damn thing about

Because they have the elements of creation, they originally came from the FSM and as such used to all be together. So when they were seperated into the 4 seperate elements we know today, that "bond" from once being "one" didn't leave and instead traveled into the future wielders

This means that Kai, Cole Jay and Zane all have an inherent bond with eachother that they don't have with anyone else that is directly tied to their elements. Think soulbond essentially

The urge to be around eachother, the feeling of distress and loss and dread when they aren't, that all stems from their elements seeking to be near eachtother

The bond isn't harmful physically but the emotional distress do be there

The further away they are the bigger those feelings of distress and loss etc become. The longer they r away from eachother causes those same feelings

The first time they had to be seperated for longer than a few minutes didn't go well. At all.

That was when Sensei Wu told them about the bond they share snd are unfortunately stuck with as there is no way to be rid of it. Their elements desire to be near eachother and as such act out(and therefore causes the user to act out) when they aren't.

Sensei then had to put them through another series of training sessions to get then used to not being around eachother often. He taught them many methods of calming themselves down and clearing their mind which they still use to help today

They have a much better grasp of their bond now and as such don't freak out as visibly or as bad as they used to. The urge and discomfort is always there but they have better control to not act in those urges recklessly.

Each of the ninja respond differently to being seperated as well

For Kai his temper becomes shorter and shorter. He becomes more snappish and willing to fight. Explosive essentially

Jay's anxiety gets worse and he becomes more paranoid. He's more jumpy and easy to panic. Static shock is common when he's in this state

Cole becomes clingy to an unhealthy degree. He's the one most likely to stop whatever he's doing and leave to seek out the others no matter the situation.

Zane becomes more distant. Like it seems as if he isn't fully there if that makes sense. His emotions take a huge backseat and he seems like a husk

Lloyd is lucky to not have to deal with this. Due to him having all four elements he doesn't have to worry about that feeling of dread or loss when he's separated from the others (though a part of him wishes he did so he could understand what they going through more, but at the same time hes glad he doesn't cuz hes seen how it affects them and he wants none of it)

I wanna make a diagram to show the bond on a visual scale bit that will have to wait till i feel like it LOL

This headcanon also isn't meant to be inherently romantic tho it definitely could be (Especially since I am a Polyninja(or Lifeship) fan) but the concept of the hc is not to imply a romantic bond LOL

There i go making paragraphs again bro no one cares-

#kkpaaw rambles #ninjago #lego ninjago #jay ninjago #cole ninjago #kai ninjago #ninjago zane #zane julien #kai jiang #jay walker #cole brookstone

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weirdmarioenemies · 8 months ago

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Name: Halloween Decor Pikmin

Debut: Pikmin Bloom

Halloween may be over, not to come for another year... but you know what rhymes with year? FEAR! Heh heh... mischief lingers on the air!

Pikmin Bloom focuses on walking and collecting Pikmin wearing all sorts of fun and silly and cute costumes (except for the freeloaders with stickers on their heads), so of course this includes Halloween costumes! What better way to pressure you into spending money than with limited-time events? Don't worry, though, you can tell I'm not a shill because I'm posting this the day all of these STOP being available. If you want to collect them, then wait 11 months, I guess? Sorry! But these Halloween costumes include some of my favorites, so I would like to share them all with you here!

JACK-O'-LANTERN PIKMIN

The very first Halloween Pikmin to be added to the game, and suitably iconic! There is a delightful amount of variety here! No two have the same carved face or QUITE the same color of pumpkin. The most conventional face- the one worn by Rock Pikmin- isn't even the expected orange, but a green pumpkin!

My personal favorite, though, is Purple, whose eyes fit so well into the carved holes, and who has a spooky stitch- or skull-like mouth! Immediately, this one in particular stands out, thanks not only to that, but also to the stark white of its pumpkin!

Are you thinking pumpkins are much too large to be worn by Pikmin? Because if you are, you're correct. Don't Worry About It

HALLOWEEN TREAT PIKMIN

Now THIS one may be my favorite decor set in the entire game! The pumpkins were very nice, but wowza! Treats are the reason for the season, and here treats are! All decorated with that delightful Halloween aesthetic of orange and purple with, of course, plenty of cute monster iconography! Bats, pumpkins, spiderwebs, but most of all, oh ho ho. That happy little ghost with the purple hat? Is it possible for something to be TOO delightful? It isn't, but if it was, that ghost would come close!

Once again, Purple is my favorite costume of the bunch, thanks to its showcasing of the ghost, but I also love the purple icing rim, and the spiderweb pattern! Rock is actually a more appealing-looking cupcake to me, though, with bright orange icing and multicolored sprinkles, spooky dripping chocolate, and a very nice purple gradient wrapper. They remind me of the cupcakes my orthodontist used to give out around Halloween, and I love expanding Halloween treats beyond just candy! Both cupcakes are delightful. Even if muffins are better! Autumn Tip: eat a pumpkin muffin. It will make you Smile!

Aside from the cupcakes I do love Red here. A little bag of decorated cookies! For Pikmin, it's safe to be concealed in a plastic bag, as long as your leaf is sticking out so you can breathe. HUMANS THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU! If you plan on going in a bag, please make it a Burlap Sack! *hops in a sack down to the next paragraph*

HALLOWEEN LIGHT PIKMIN

Finally, the most recent Halloween Pikmin! I really hope new ones are a yearly tradition, and there's not yet any reason to think they won't be! These ones are all wearing lights, which is #SafetySmart of them. Maybe not Red, who has an actual exposed flame, but that's ok! Red Pikmin are heat-resistant, and the elemental traits are indeed carried over to Bloom in smaller ways. However, Red should be careful around the others who are all liable to being Burnt To A Crisp!

I may be predictable, but that's ok. Yellow is the Big Winner for me this year thanks to its Goofy Cute Ghost light, which, going by its animations, is actually alive somehow! Maybe it's the Yellow Pikmin's electrical ability moving it around... but I don't think that would make a seemingly inanimate object blink its eyes.

My second favorite here is Blue, who looks kind of terrified in there, but is having fun! I love the spider decoration, especially since it has four eyes, but that fake spider had better be careful. There's fake fire nearby!

And so we have reached the end of our one last little Halloween treat! Which Halloween Pikmin is your favorite? What did YOU dress as, if you had a costume? See you later :]

#pikmin #pikmin bloom #decor pikmin #halloween #halloween decor pikmin #not mario #funky friday #mod chikako

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biocrafthero · 6 months ago

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Project Sekai - White Day AU Card Lore/Story Masterpost

In other words: I've become obsessed with a very niche part of this game for no discernible reason and have decided to make my gathered knowledge into a post...

NOTE: This post was written before the 2025 White Day event, so some parts may be missing information or incorrect. All information being referenced comes from the Sekaipedia fan wiki.

(I have decided to put this under a Read More because this is so ungodly lengthy that it has taken actual hours for me to write. I hit the image limit on browser, which is 30. If I didn't put this under a Read More I would've been killed with hammers.)

What is White Day AU?

White Day AU is based off of a series of cards that began releasing in 2022 with the White Day event titled "The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!?". While at first it may seem like a case of colopale putting the characters in a fun setting with cool outfits, it has become more and more apparent that, with the more White Day events that release, the more this universe is getting expanded upon.

I spent some time last month going over the cards that have released over the course of four separate events, pouring over details in the characters' outfits and the environments that surround them in the illustrations in an attempt to parse what kind of story colopale seems to be telling with these cards.

The events/gachas that all contain White Day AU cards are as follows:

The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!? - Knights of White

Never Give Up Cooking! - Imperial Soldiers

Relax Teatime - What Awaits at the End of War

The Power Of Regret - Noble Knights Fighting for Supremacy

While it may seem odd that a non-White Day event/gacha is here, it may be due to colopale making the decision to start releasing White Day AU lore outside of White Day events in order to ensure they can make at least one card for every major character (both OCs and vocaloids) before the game reaches the end of it's story.

The characters currently missing cards are...

Honami (Leo/need)

Shizuku (MORE MORE JUMP!)

Haruka (MORE MORE JUMP!)

An (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

Kohane (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

Ena (Nightcord at 25:00)

Rin (Virtual Singer)

Luka (Virtual Singer)

MEIKO (Virtual Singer)

It is difficult to guess who would be in which faction (more on that below) due to the fact that, regardless of unit or relationships, it is not uncommon for people to be split between factions even if logically they should've been paired together in the same faction.

White Day AU Lore

The setting of the White Day AU is most likely fantasy, due to the medieval aesthetics and fantastical elements like magic and dragons. Something interesting as well is that there seem to be factions--different groups each of the characters belong to--that may be hinting at a conflict between members of the cast.

There are multiple factions to be aware of:

The Knights of White

The Empire

An unnamed third faction

An unnamed fourth faction

I will go over each faction in this order. They can be distinguished from each other through multiple things such as the emblems they wear, the colored gemstones on their outfits, and the color palettes of their uniforms. These things all work in conjunction with one another to show who is allied with who.

The Knights of White

The Knights of White, which I will refer to as the Knights, is one of two primary factions in the White Day AU. Known characters who are currently part of the Knights are...

Tsukasa (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Akito (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

Shiho (Leo/need)

Len (Virtual Singer)

Nene (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Emu (Wonderlands x Showtime)

The Knights are distinguished from the other members of the cast by the eight-pointed star as their faction's crest and uniforms that comprise almost entirely of white, blue, and gold.

The Empire

The Empire, which I also tend to refer to as the Imperials (even though grammatically that is incorrect it just sounds better LMAO) is the second primary faction in the White Day AU. Known characters who are part of the Empire are...

Toya (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

Rui (Wonderlands x Showtime)

KAITO (Virtual Singer)

Miku (Virtual Singer)

Saki (Leo/need)

Imperial outfits tend to comprise of the colors black, red, and gold. Their crest is of a dragon, likely in reference to the dragon in Toya's card. Their outfits also all include a red gemstone of some kind, a gemstone color that is exclusive to this faction.

It should be noted that Rui's Imperial outfit does not include a dragon crest and instead has the eight-pointed star of the Knights. Additionally, Toya's outfit has a rose on it, which you may have noticed is something that appears on the outfits of other characters from other factions. I will come back to these two points later.

From here, we get to the secondary factions of the AU.

Unnamed Third Faction

Third Faction is currently only comprised of two members:

Kanade (Nightcord at 25:00)

Mafuyu (Nightcord at 25:00)

Third Faction does not seem to have a set color palette (the colors that the two share are blue and gold), but they do have a unique emblem: the four-pointed star. While Mafuyu's emblem is visible in her illustration, Kanade's emblem is viewable on her 3D model. Additionally, despite the emblem having similarity to the Knight's emblem, both of them wear the same distinctive red gemstones that the Imperials wear on their outfits.

These details in conjunction lead me to believe that the role of Third is either as a middle-ground or mediating party between the Knights and Imperials.

Unnamed Fourth Faction

Fourth Faction currently only comprises of two members:

Minori (MORE MORE JUMP!)

Airi (MORE MORE JUMP!)

The faction's color palette likely comprises largely of blue/green, red, white, and gold. Their crest is of four lozenges with a circle in the center. Their colors and crest are distinct from all other factions, meaning they are likely working independently and without the influence of the other factions.

Unknown Alliances

Mizuki (Nightcord at 25:00)

Mizuki's outfit does not appear to hold any similarities to the other factions currently present, her palette consisting of white, blue, and silver. While it does hold similarities to the Knights, the outfit that comes with her card includes a heart-shaped emblem both on the outfit and accessory. However, this could mean nothing, as the outfits that Akito and Tsukasa have from this same set do not include Knights emblems on their accessories.

Ichika (Leo/need)

Ichika's current alliance also remains unclear. Her outfit's color palette consists of white, red, and gold, which does not resemble any of the other factions. Her crest is likely the piece of her outfit that resembles a fleur-de-lis with a gemstone in the center. There are some details from a different card (the upper-left corner of the background in Len's 4* from the "The Power Of Regret" event) that may support her being part of a full-fledged faction, but due to other characters lacking this emblem she is currently seen as independent.

There is the possibility that Ichika and Mizuki are actually part of the same faction, but this lacks concrete evidence. For the sake of the argument though, I will mention that not long ago when I was looking over the details of the cards, the crests on their outfits struck me as suspiciously similar in shape (supported by the banners in the upper-right in the background in Mizuki's card). Still, this theory is shaky at best.

And yes, I made sure to check that Mizuki's banners and Ichika's crest do not resemble the background of the "Knights of White" gacha.

White Day AU Story

This is where we start getting into the nitty-gritty of details in the AU, aside from just talking about the factions. That was an important precursor of information to everything else this post talks about.

Meaning of Roses

My suspicion is that the roses represent nobility. Characters with roses present on their outfits are as follows:

Tsukasa (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Akito (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

Mizuki (Nightcord at 25:00)

Shiho (Leo/need)

Len (Virtual Singer)

Toya (Vivid BAD SQUAD)

At first, it was my assumption that those who wear roses are--or were at one point--allied or part of the Knights. However, upon further inspection of the logo for the "Imperial Soldiers" gacha, roses are not exclusive to the Knights faction.

If roses were associated with the Knights, why would it not only be part of Toya's outfit but also included in the "Imperial Soldiers" gacha logo?

Looking at each of the characters who have been seen with the rose on their uniforms and comparing these characters to their canon counterparts from the base game of Project Sekai (aside from Len, sorry Len), these characters being nobility would check out considering their personal histories in canon.

The Royal Guard

This is where we start getting to the most story-filled cards that colopale as released so far.

This unit of characters, which I have personally been referring to as the royal guard, consist of the following:

Nene (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Emu (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Len (Virtual Singer)

Tsukasa (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Rui (Wonderlands x Showtime)

Notably, (almost) all of the characters here are from the canon unit Wonderlands x Showtime, which is likely due to the fact that the event they come from, "The Power Of Regret," is a Wonderlands x Showtime story event (specifically Nene focus). It is because of the fact we got all of Wonderlands x Showtime in this card drop we get the most story, since we have three returning characters.

The royal guard uniforms have the Knights emblem and color palette, clearly displaying the fact that they are a part of that faction. The most distinct parts of their uniforms are their crown-shaped belt buckles, the crown on the back of their gloves, and the shield with a crown engraved on it that they wear as a brooch. Their outfits even have gemstones that correspond with their character colors that we see in-game, which to me only emphasizes their status as high-ranking knights.

Earlier, I pointed out how Rui has the Knights emblem on his Imperial outfit, despite noticeably not being part of the Knights. This is likely because, at some point between these cards and the cards from the "Never Give Up Cooking!" event, Rui deserted from the Knights to join the Empire.

An assumption could be made that the cards are being released in chronological order, however I disagree. Rui would be more likely to defect from the Knights but still carry their emblem with him when he joins the Imperials, rather than holding a connection with the Knights before deserting from the Imperials to join the other side. It is unclear why he would leave the Knights, but I personally believe it may have something to do with the fact that in his 4* from "Never Give Up Cooking!" he is a magic user, while here in the "The Power Of Regret" cards he is not. In other words, I think he joined the Imperials so he could use magic.

This causes the other cards of characters who were part of the royal guard to have very interesting additional information. Tsukasa likely went up in ranking from royal guard to something else entirely, based off of how his 4* from "The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!?" event has him in a much more regal outfit.

While it is unclear what happened to Len, it should be noted that his 2* from "The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!?" event is named "Innocent Squire", so maybe something also transpired with his character to lead to his change in position.

There is some speculation among people I discuss these cards with about what exactly Nene and Emu are doing in their cards, but we highly suspect they are actually fighting each other. The tears in Nene's eyes and Emu's determined expression imply that there may be some kind of heartache occurring during whatever clash they're involved in, which would be most likely to happen if the two of them were in combat against one another. The backgrounds of their cards match up well enough to suggest that they are in the same space, as well.

It is unclear what exactly the two of them are fighting about, but it is of my own personal belief that the conflict between them has to do with Rui's desertion from the Knights. It is realistically the only thing I can think of that could possibly push these two into conflict with one another.

It can also be assumed that after Rui's desertion, the royal guard subsequently dissolved since they make no other appearances outside of this set of cards.

It is unclear what Tsukasa and Len are doing in their cards, but they also appear to be in the same location as one another.

Toya's Dragon

In a blog post by colopale, they refer to the dragon as his "aibou" (partner). While it may seem like they're drawing parallels between the dragon and Akito (considering the fact that Akito and Toya are partners in canon), I don't think that Akito is supposed to be the dragon considering the differing allegiances. I think the dragon is just Toya's friend :)

Separated Tenmas

Saki and Tsukasa seem to be on two entirely different sides of the war--the Empire and the Knights respectively. While it remains unclear as to why they're on opposing sides, maybe something happened between them that caused this divide...

Leo/need in Conflict?!

Other than the fact that Saki is a member of the Imperial Army, I'm very curious about what's happening in Shiho and Ichika's cards. Based off of the backgrounds, and while it doesn't look like it at first, they appear to be in the same location. You can see in the background of Ichika's card, on the other side of the courtyard, you can see a set of windows that are the same shape as the windows light is being cast through in Shiho's card. Assuming the courtyard is symmetrical, you can reasonably guess they're in the same hall. Additionally, the pillars appear to be similar at the very least. If they're fighting, I wonder what its about?

Details about the outfit names...

I want to take a moment to talk about outfit names for each of the characters since I couldn't find anywhere else to talk about this. I will be dividing these by the event/gacha they were released in.

The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!? - Knights of White:

Tsukasa - Chivalrous Chevalier

Akito - Noble Paladin

Mizuki - Optatio Eques

None of these are exactly notable aside from the name of Mizuki's outfit. The name translates from Latin to "Knight's Choice" (machine translation), which adds some information to her character that, while I have trouble parsing due to the lack of information about her whole deal in this AU, I still find interesting.

Also note that the world "chevalier" just means "knight" in French.

Never Give Up Cooking! - Imperial Soldiers:

Toya - Chevalier Noir

Rui - Mad Sorcerer

KAITO - Wandering Gunner

KAITO's outfit name is intriguing to me and leads me to believe he may be more of a mercenary type of character rather than someone who is absolutely loyal to the Empire.

Relax Teatime - What Awaits at the End of War:

Kanade - Fleeting Light Knight Attire

Ichika - Illuminated Courtyard Knight Attire

Mafuyu - Abyss Knight Attire

There's not much of note here, but I am of the personal belief that Kanade and Mafuyu are matching.

The Power Of Regret - Noble Knights Fighting for Supremacy:

Nene - Fier Chevalier

Emu - Sourire Chevalier

Len - Hability Chevalier

Two of the names here are French. Nene's translates to "Proud knight" and Emu's to "Smile Knight" (both machine translated). Len's name means "Able Knight" (could also be read as "Skillful Knight"), the word "habile" just being an obsolete form of the word "able."

My personal thoughts...

I just know the AkiToya divorce is insane. Couldn't be as dramatic as whatever L/n and WxS are going through right now tho tbh... At least it looks like KanaMafu and MMJ are having fun times in yuri land

Also in the next White Day AU card drop if Ena isn't part of the Knights faction I'm gonna--[remembers suicide jokes are bad for my mental health]--I'm gonna surpass RAD WEEKEND

Why does KAITO have a gun btw???? Maybe its magic idk

#rambles #project sekai #this is my most normal post of all time #my writing #<- BECAUSE IT MIGHT AS WELL BE.#i need to sleep now I stayed up for actual hours putting this together

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therealmrrobinson · 19 days ago

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PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS Spoiler-Free Review

The Predator series has had an interesting history. Though Predator 2 has gained more appreciation over the years, no sequel has ever made it to the heights of the 1987 classic! That was until 2022’s Prey from Dan Trachtenberg. Prey was the only film in the franchise that is not only as good as Predator, but it can be debated if it’s the better of the two. It brought a fresh new approach to this franchise while delivering on what fans of this series come to a Predator movie to see. Which is exactly what Predator: Killer of Killers does as well.

PROS

Given that this is the first animated film in the franchise, it has its own unique look. Like the best animated movies in the past seven years, it takes heavy inspiration from Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. While the quality of movement in the animation isn’t always perfect, the art style more than makes up for its shortcomings. Plus an animated format allows this franchise to do things that the previous films weren’t allowed to do. One of these elements is in the level of violence.

This movie is unapologetically violent with people dying in some of the most brutal ways imaginable, whether it be from other people or the Predators themselves, hence the films subtitle. Every time this movie violently kills someone I found myself shocked, but then kept telling myself that it wouldn’t be a proper Predator movie if the deaths were toned down. The violence is brutal, but is also fun to watch considering how over the top it gets at points. It wasn’t disturbing to watch in the way the kills of Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem were.

Another great thing about this being both an animated film and an anthology film, is that the scope is massive. The movie is set in three different time periods and four different locations. All of them feel grand and couldn’t have been allowed in a live-action Predator movie considering the franchise doesn’t bring in the same amount of money as something like Star Wars or Jurassic Park. This movie is essentially a Predator fans dream come true. Seeing the Yautja hunt down different warriors throughout Earth’s history is really cool. A great expansion on the idea of what Prey set up three years ago.

CONS

The idea, the animation, and the action scenes are all exceptional. I just wish I felt more invested in the human characters. This is where being an anthology story hurts the film. Since the movie bounces around between three different stories that culminates into a pretty epic conclusion, you don’t really spend much time with the human characters. Some stories are compelling like The Sword segment that takes place in Japan, but the other two segments, The Shield and The Bullet don’t really give it’s human characters enough time for us to get to know them.

OVERALL

Fanboy films are often really hard to pull off. A lot of the time a movie of this type gives the fans something they’ve been clamoring for at the cost of a good story or they just regurgitate all the same beats from the original film. Predator: Killer of Killers however manages to successfully pull this off. The characters could’ve used a little more work, but this movie takes the Predator franchise to new heights. Not just with being an animated Predator movie, but by expanding the Yautja mythology and taking the idea that Trachtenberg did with Prey and building upon that. He truly has a good understanding of why this franchise works and it makes me all the more excited to see him bring the series back to theaters with Predator: Badlands later this year!

RATING

WORTH SEEING IN YOUR LIFETIME

#predator #predator franchise #predator killer of killers #prey #alien vs predator #dan trachtenberg #hulu #predator badlands #movie review #movies #writing #alexander robinson #2025 #science fiction #horror #action

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highdio · 1 year ago

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Pleeease, write your thoughts about the musical lol. I really like your Dio meta posts <3

Just a disclaimer: this is really opinionated but I don't like to drag media for its own sake. There were lots of things to like in the Phantom Blood musical, just ... Dio wasn't one of them. Also, Mamoru Miyano threw himself into the performance he was asked for, so it's hardly his fault. It's just always amazing to me that people feel the need to rewrite Dio into someone else when the way Araki's written him is already perfect, complete and a lot of fun.

So, where to start? Basically, the Phantom Blood musical re-writes Dio, giving him a different personality and different motivations through OOC stage direction along with a bunch of original dialog and scenes. What results is a version of Phantom Blood where "Dio" is just a normal guy without charisma who had a bad childhood and spends most of the story being miserable. Dio as he's written in canon has an uncommon charisma and appeal that's allowed him to remain relevant as one of those 'all-time great' villains. Scene after scene in the musical prove that its creative team either didn't read the manga or just really didn't like Dio.

fwiw Araki wrote Dio as thoroughly fleshed-out, with consistent traits and behaviors and consistent motivations behind his actions. He also left a paper trail of interviews and author's commentaries that develop Dio even more fully beyond the manga. So there's really no excuse for media that treat Dio as some sort of empty vessel waiting to be filled by narrative cliches we already know and expect.

It's annoying too, because, along with its OOC content, the musical is peppered with occasional manga-consistent moments. It's like the musical is camouflaging its Very Bad Take on Dio by having Mamoru Miyano periodically re-enact the canon character's most famous panels. The musical wants simultaneously to take credit for bringing Araki's vision to life on the stage, while at the same time completely undermining its most important element: a capital V "Villain" who, according to Araki, "accepts and embraces his evil nature, and follows his dark path without hesitation." This is the biggest change the musical makes to Dio: musical!Dio has none of the confidence that allows canon Dio him to move so decisively and destructively through the narrative.

Musical Dio is introduced by a scene where he's bullied on his way home, before breaking into a song about how terrible his life is, where "everything is always taken from [him]" ("it's hell …I feel nauseated …[I'm] under a cloudy sky.") The song is alternately tearful and hopeful. "I'm going crazy from being robbed!" he laments and then pollyannaishly muses, "hey, Joestar, can you turn my [cloudy] skies to blue?"

If Dio being introduced as a sad sap and self-described perennial loser hoping for any break sounds attitudinally unfamiliar that's because it is. Araki went in the opposite direction: he started his story by subverting the cliche - wide-eyed poor boy victimized by circumstance leaves his sorrow-filled life hoping for a new start - and instead gave us a kid with surprising, even sinister agency. Dio is not just given a hero's upward narrative arc (something Araki crafted very deliberately), he's introduced improbably in his first scene from a position of control. This fact is important because in the manga it's a position he won't lose until four chapters and nearly 100 pages in, when Jonathan finally fights back. From the time young Dio is introduced - reading a book with his back turned to his bed-ridden father who he's secretly poisoning -

- to the time he's systematically broken down his adoptive brother's spirit by alienating him from his friends, taking Erina's first kiss, and of course kicking his dog, Dio is shown as being in control and on top (Erina drinking the muddy water is the only exception). It's OOC to imagine 12-year old Dio feeling sorry for himself because at the time he's introduced, he's already made a habit of getting what he wants. By the time he sets off for the Joestars after killing his first dad, he's already developed full confidence in his abilities and the inevitability of his rise to riches (something Araki has him explicitly state and then underscores with a panel illustration of a steam train signaling the rise of Modernity).

But the writers and director of the musical don't find this characterization interesting enough or something. So they lose the canon entirely and in its place they invent a version of Dio who's despondent. And they didn't get Araki's steam train memo so they miss the Modernity theme (even though Araki's tied Dio so tightly conceptually to the idea of the Modern that he has him "use a 20th century boxing technique in the 19th century"); instead they double down on class difference being determinative. It never occurs to them that Dio is written specifically by Araki with the freedom to move outside of his social status because he sees it as artificial (the "evil elite" monologue later reveals Dio thinks of the whole social contract thing is arbitrary and voluntary).

Throughout the musical, Dio (although it's not fair to Mamoru Miyano since he isn't responsible for writing this mess, let's use mamoDio from now on because it's easier) seems to idolize the Joestars for what he calls their "beautiful blood." Not "beautiful" because usable calories for the vampire he will become but "beautiful" because noble. The Joestars' noble status and the honor that's apparently behind that status become the shining "star" toward which mud-bound mamoDio flailingly, failingly reaches. I don't need to tell you that in canon Dio doesn't have respect for nobility.

"Mud and stars" is heavy-handedly introduced as a dominant theme of the musical. According to the play, Jonathan, noble and bright, looks to the stars while human Dio, pathetic, conflicted and even confused, can only see life as a mud-soaked prison.

Now, the mud and stars thing was only used in Part 1 as a single text element on a Volume 1 illustration but, in spite of its marginality, it's becomes a liturgical text for some fans looking for an explanation for Dio's actions beyond what Araki gives them in the actual narrative. To this sort of fan, a guy who embraces his inner talent for evil and never had the misfortune of developing a moral compass isn't the right type of villain because he's unapologetic. If the villain doesn't have excuses how can you apologize for him? So they need Dio and by extension Araki to give them a "good enough" reason to accept Dio's ever-escalating atrocities. If the reasons Dio has for doing the things he does lie outside of what's considered good or acceptable, they are simply rejected and new reasons are invented in the hope of making Dio much less objectionable.

Now, like I said earlier, Araki's repeatedly told us in his writings that Dio has an upward narrative trajectory, not a downward, "mud"-bound one. The mud and stars duality fails to describe the narrative journey of the two main characters: both look upward to transcend their circumstances and travel along a shonen manga hero's rising path. (In fact, it's Jonathan who needs a good push to realize his potential, something Dio happily provides). And it's Jonathan, not Dio, who Araki first gives a downward arc, being handed defeat after defeat for those first four chapters before gaining his footing and progressively rising to Dio's challenges. "Mud and stars" isn't just a bad choice of metaphor, it's a misleading one.

Back to the musical, mamoDio is the exact opposite. An air of sadness and insecurity haunts his performance. An original scene where George presents the mud and stars dilemma as a lesson highlights Dio's lack of confidence and the depression that lurks behind it, as Dio bemoans how people doomed to "struggle and die" cannot possibly summon the hope it takes to look up to the stars (he's talking of course about himself).

Likewise, and here's where mamoDio's failure as a character really comes into full relief, seven years after this, when Dio's machinations are revealed and he's about to be arrested, before he uses the stone mask, mamoDio drops to the floor and spends the better part of a musical number in tears, bemoaning his sorry life ("I'm trapped in a prison covered in mud… no matter how hard I struggle I'm crushed…") and his lack of noble blood.

(btw this is after the manga scene where Dio fake cries; here, mamoDio is genuinely distraught).

Contrast this to the actual scene in the manga. His expressions in these panels are memorable because of how assured Araki draws him. Dio's entire world - his poisoning scheme, his grab at what one can assume would have been the entirety of the Joestar estate - is about to end but instead of despairing, he launches into a philosophical soliloquy. His body language is haughty: this isn't mamoDio crawling on the ground and decrying his upbringing and lack of noble blood, instead this is a man who apparently, almost irrationally, perceives himself as noble. When he uses the mask, Dio is smiling widely. Metaphorically speaking, he's looking at the stars.

When mamoDio uses the mask? He's on his knees. He's in tears. On one night he interjects, "Mother…" In short, he's conflicted.

One of these depicts Dio. The other does not.

Now obviously the writers and director of the musical must think making these seismic changes adds something to Dio's character. But (and I feel like this is a theme whenever I write these things) I'd argue it only makes him more basic. It makes him predictable and formulaic, someone we've seen in countless other stories.

(Oh! and did I mention mamoDio repeatedly calls himself "useless"!! Because he does this.)

Now, because mamoDio has no confidence and as a human acts out of desperation, when he becomes a vampire he still isn't Dio. Mamoru tries to make his vampire Dio evil and scary by expending a lot of energy, running about the stage and sticking out his tongue ad nauseum. When you look at how Araki has Dio move physically throughout the manga, it's the opposite of kinetic. Dio is a point of fixity who's charisma draws others toward him (ask me for more on this if you want because there's enough here for its own post).

Now for the worst of the worst: at the very end of the production, after the manga ending that features Jonathan's death and Dio's (presumed) defeat as a head imprisoned in Jonathan's arms, the musical takes an original twist in which, following a finale number featuring most of the cast, mamoDio is lead offstage by Jonathan. You read that right. mamoDio is hunched over, resigned, and Jonathan seems to take on a paternal role. Although the lyrics would have you believe this has something to do with "two fates becoming one," it's clear from the stage direction that any embers of Dio's ambition are being tamed and extinguished as Jonathan takes Dio's grasping hand, subdues him, and leads him docilely into the darkness.

It turns out Dio's vampire arc was just a phase, a hurt and lonely child lashing out and making a mess for attention.

His body language here is obscenely out of character. Consider the following because, as I said in the opening, in spite of what all these re-writes of Dio would have you believe, Araki crafted Dio with specificity and consistency: Araki only draws Dio (with very few exceptions) 1) standing tall, looking down at you; 2) back turned, looking back and down at you; or simply 3) back turned, (performatively?) ignoring you. Dio is never on the ground except when he's knocked down (think, young Jonathan finally fighting back in the Joestar home or, much later, Jotaro stopping time and landing those punches). By constrast, mamoDio has spent an incessant amount of time of the ground, crouching, kneeling,, bowing, hunched down. Who is this guy? So his hunched-down exit in the final moments of the production, literally being led by Jonathan (controlled??), is so amazingly stupid that if I didn't have a gif as proof, you might think I'm just making this stuff up:

There's plenty more to unpack that I won't address here: ghost Dario. The lack of grave-spitting. The complete absence of true joy or leisure expressed by Dio especially during his vampire era: no woman eating her baby, no owlcats, no Poco's sister. No chaise lounge. No roses(!). No fun. Not for Dio. That would be too manga-consistent. That might mean Araki wasn't giving us the appropriate message that bad guys are actually just sad guys.

tl;dr Dio isn't in the Phantom Blood musical. He's replaced by a normal guy who's motivated by a lack of self-esteem and despair that he wasn't born into an upper-class household, or something. He's boring. The result? There can be no Part 3 in this musical's world (and presumably no Parts 4, 5 or 6, no Giorno, no Jolyne, … you get the picture) because mamoDio just gives up. It's a nicely produced little tale about Jonathan Joestar and some random other guy who at some point gets a funny green coat.

#Anonymous #replies tag #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #dio brando #mp #dioposts #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jojo #phantom blood #phantom blood musical #dio talk #long post #the fact that media that's otherwise faithful to the text goes out of its way to rewrite Dio and only Dio consistently sends me

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