#but then in canon i think its implied he goes kind of crazy and loses control of his powers LOL

[summer-oil]

i think that if gojo got drunk (forbidden image . must not happen at any costs) he would kind of go mute and just slump against you like a big rock . either that or he is breaking down and sobbing (while giggling) because you said his name in a cute way

[listless-brainrot]

Hi! I know you love Haru and I'd love to hear your thoughts on what his personality is like? Not his bending or his ships, but just what kind of person he is. He was super undeveloped in ATLA and I'd love to understand him better and write about him!

hey, i'm glad you asked!! super flattering to have you come to me in regards to this question, and i've analyzed this guy to hell and back over the course of nearly a year now, so i'd be more than happy to give you my characterization of him

granted, it's pretty lengthy, and is heavily based on canon, hence why a lot of it ties to his bending, but i'll try my best to make it so that it's more about haru as a person, rather than his service to the plot

also makes me super happy to hear that people do want to understand and write about him!! that really does mean the world to me particularly, so thank you <3

with all of this in mind, here's a collection of my (pretty lengthy, sorry about that) thoughts:

haru being super undeveloped is actually one of the reasons why i find him so compelling- there’s so much you can do with a character of his caliber because there’s not much canon/supplementary material that can discredit your characterizations. canon, however, does actually supply a characterization of him that i’ve managed to compile and accrue over the course of finding nearly every single little detail i can find pertaining to him. this includes his canon episodes in both book 1 and 3, the videogame he appears in (which is straight up called avatar: the last airbender), and even the silly shorts.

(mild disclaimer, i know full well that the latter two i mentioned are considered non canon, but i like incorporating little bits and pieces of what they have to offer, as i don’t really have any other options. also, the videogames are the only supplementary material where he’s treated as a part of the gaang, so it’s the most personality you’ll ever get.)

i’ll start with main characteristics i try to keep in mind when writing him, and then talk about smaller, more innocuous details that i just find particularly fitting for him.

haru is:

emotionally driven. a lot of his decisions are more driven by emotion, rather than logic. this ties in with his impulsivity and morality. he’s aggravated by his position in the village as the only earthbender left, and this culminates into him still bending discreetly despite the inherent risk. he does this not only for himself, but to preserve the (possibly only) emotional connection he has to his arrested father. this is a similarity he shares with katara, who’s emotionally tied to her mother due to losing her, and haru is the one to understand what that loss really means in this interaction: “this necklace is all i have left of her.” “it’s not enough, is it?” by saying this instead of an apology or some other response, he shows that the feeling of loss she’s experiencing is mutually understood in a way that goes beyond just sympathy. there is nothing that will replace who you’ve lost other than the person themselves, and he understand that more than anyone. it’s also implied that haru doesn’t know if his father is still alive, as no one knows where the prisoners go, but it’s clear that he still holds a sort of hope that he’s somewhere out there, and that keeps him going. it just takes a little bit of outside influence for him to fully believe in that, as well as being reunited with his father again. in general, he’s also pretty receptive of other’s emotions, and is quick to come to their aid.

impulsive. not just impulsive, either- he’s got anger and resentment lying beneath his quiet composure. it’s not as bad as characters such as zuko’s, but it’s still worth mentioning. i’ll mention the impulse part first, though- generally speaking, haru reacts faster than he thinks. upon being spotted practicing his bending by katara, he runs away without pausing to consider the harmful repercussions of being found out (nor followed home). he not only runs away from danger as a first instinct, he also runs towards it in some cases, ironically enough- he’s the first one to notice and immediately run towards the mines once he hears/sees the explosion and suspects that someone’s in trouble. he does this without any prompting by katara, even if the act of actually saving the old man needed some egging on from her in order for him to accomplish. his impulsivity comes to a head in the form of his most dangerous act- him attacking the warden. i’ve already elaborated on that specific interaction here, though i will once again emphasize that haru had absolutely no plans past attacking the warden based on his body language, further fueling the idea that this was just a split second decision, one made on nothing but complete and utter impulse. to bring the anger aspect into this, he’s also unable to hold his tongue and insults the fire nation soldiers and even his town once the former leaves, and his instincts swing wildly between running and fighting on a dime with little in-between.

adaptable. instead of completely shutting down in the face of such a negative situation (and over the course of five years, no less), he brings it upon himself to practice bending, accept his role as man of the house and work in both the shop and on the farm, and other responsibilities that go unmentioned, especially when taking into account that his father is apparently the leader of his village. this is where you could start paralleling him well to sokka, which i have done before, but i will make this more haru-oriented. there is definitely a lot more to be inferred with this particular aspect of him, but i will say that it takes someone of strong will to adapt to the situations presented in his episode, and learning to live with the grim reality of fire nation occupation. to run down what we see again- soldiers freely patrolling the villages, soldiers overtaxing the villagers, soldiers entering wherever they wish unannounced, soldiers stealing away people in the night without much resistance, soldiers forcing villagers to work in the coal mines to gather the coal needed for their ships, and soldiers forcing captured earthbenders to build fire nation ships. this is all off of the top of my head, so i could be missing a lot, but again, seeing haru still be as morally oriented and determined as he is after all of this, it’s pretty impressive and telling of his adaptive capabilities. to take this one step further, he’s also extremely adaptable when it comes to working with others, as in the games he fills his role as a necessary component of the gaang without conflicting sokka or other preexisting roles, and in book 3, he finds his place amongst teo and the duke, taking the most initiative amongst the three.

lonely. a snippet from his personality bio on avatarspirit.net calls him “lonely and brave”, and i think that’s especially fitting for his character. he only had his mom for five whole years after every other earthbender was taken away, and this is without mentioning the ostracization he faced simply being one, given how the fire nation constantly demoralizes his country’s benders and likens them to savages. the village he lives in also appears to be full of old folks, so it’s not very likely that he had friends his age that were even in town, especially if we consider the circumstances of following book 2 episodes with the earth army recruiters. (it’s also unlikely that his friends are alive if they did join the army- take a gander at this line from zuko alone: Gow: Just thought someone ought to tell you, your son's battalion got captured. You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners? Soldier: Dressed them up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the frontline unarmed, way I heard it.  Then they just watched.) furthermore, it’s not likely that haru could’ve left his little village prior to its occupation- the games imply he’d been to omashu previously, but the circumstances of the war make this unlikely, unless he was super young. given his not always pleasant attitude and sullen expression we sometimes see him with, it’s not hard to imagine that the effects of him being so alone without the connections he needs has affected him deeply.

some other things:

-he’s horrible at lying (”they’re crazy! i mean, just look at how they’re dressed” is that really the best excuse you could’ve come up with??). -he doesn’t like keeping his hands/arms still (arms are usually crossed, sometimes gestures as he talks, hands usually balled as if expecting a fight). -he’s pretty outwardly expressive (for someone who���s supposed to be hiding most of the time, he tends to wear his emotions/intentions on his sleeve). -he can’t bite his tongue (especially when it comes to something that goes against his personal beliefs). -he doesn’t know how to react to touch (katara hugging him takes him by surprise both times, and he doesn’t reciprocate often, if anything he reacts stiffly) -he’s particular about his appearance (notably in the games, he makes negative comments about people touching his hair, and there’s also. sokka’s comments in book 3. sigh.) -he’s considered dangerous/sensitive by others (note sokka’s comments in book 1, and katara’s comments in the school time shipping short) -he lives a busy personal life (works both in the family shop and on the family farm, and has probably had to work in the coal mines at some point, though this is speculative) -he’s not above poking/having fun (in the games, he’s not above making fun of sokka and his comments about benders, and jumps at the opportunity to ride the omashu mail chutes) -he’s family oriented (count how many times he talks about his parents, it is many times i assure you, it’s important to note that he’s one of the few atla characters to actually have both parents as well as a decent relationship with them) -he has a tendency to idealize. he talks about his father fighting against the fire nation even when horribly outnumbered. it wouldn’t be surprising if he idealized the ideal of rebellion (which would later bite him given that:) -he’s a part of the first successful earth kingdom rebellion. this is mentioned on the wiki, and is unfortunately not shown in the show. it should’ve been, though. -he’s dramatic. he has an entire cliff he brings katara up to just to be dramatic and spill his sad backstory. he needs to be encouraged to save the old man, but he does it in the most dramatic way possible- he really didn’t have to stop the entire avalanche AND push it back into the mines. drama king. -he is very lucky. this can apply to anyone who encounters the gaang, but honestly, given his personality and a few things i’ve mentioned above, it’s a miracle that he’d survived as long as he did without detection nor suspicion. -he’s creative. (this one is much more speculative, but he does create huge statues of katara and ty lee pretty quickly, maybe he’s done similar things before)

to summarize: he’s a lonely impulsive idealist who isn’t afraid to throw hands if necessary and is also very attached to his dad <3 his connection to his dad makes up at least 75% of his personality

[hello-yue-here]

About your atla ship songs, I have a couple of questions (sorry if my phrasing comes out wrong, english isn't my first language and I worry it might across as accidentally defensive): how did you end up with the choices for zukka, jetko and yuekka (note: I haven't seen the great comet, so feel free to obsess over it, I'm intrigued now and the hype is appreciated!)? Sidenote: I think the mailee choice is HILARIOUS and the tokka one just make me sad, I didn't expect to be attacked like this😭

kdjfha;s i love you im gonna obsess SO HARD over great comet now. you may regret this

this is gonna be so long so the rest is under the cut whoops

yuekka: no one else from great comet

where do i even begin. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN

okay so background information on this show: it's based off of a 76 oages excerpt from war and peace and its centered around a woman named natasha (and this guy pierre but he's irrelevant to this song so we wont worry about him) and natasha's bethrothed is off fighting in the war right now. she hasn't seen him in a while but she is in love with him.

every single lyrics of this song SCREAMS yuekka to me. the innocence and purity of their love. the love at first sight. and even the melancholy ending just- i go apeshit for this song. i love this song so much. and denee benton's voice??? kljsdhflwksugf please listen to this song if you haven't already. listen to the whole show. your life will be changed forever.

onto the lyrics (i stg this is ab to be the whole song whoops)

"the moon"

THOSE ARE THE FIRST WORDS ON THE SONG. natasha and andre (her bethrothed) met underneath the moonlight. Sokka and Yue first spoke to eachother at night and always met each other for their most intimate moments under the moonlight. also yue is LITERALLY the moon so like: right of the bat with those two words it's yuekka.

"and i saw your eyes / and i saw your smile / and the world opened wide"

sokka fell in love with yue the moment he saw her in the canal. she literally enchanted this motherfucker. everything about her made his heart go crazy. and 'the world opened wide' to me is from yue's perspective. Yue had never left the north pole and sokka had seen a good chuck of the world at the point. He took her on appa, he told her about his adventures. he saw the world yue wished to see and you know damn well that Sokka would have done anything to give it to her.

"oh the moon /oh the snow in the moonlight / and your childlike eyes and your distant smile / ill never be this happy again / you and i and no one else"

natasha sings fondly about the moon and the snow, seeing as it was where she fell in love with andre. yue and sokka LITERALLY fell in love in the same place: in the snowy nothern water tribe under the light of the moon. childlike eyes: THEYRE CHILDREN!!! distant smile: this is where it gets a little sad. theyre both children with way too many duties during a world that has known nothing but war for the past century. they want to be happy but yeah, theyre smiles are distant and far away because happiness seems out of reach for them most of the time. i'll never be this happy again: the moments yue and sokka shared together were probably the happiest either of them ever were. they were able to ignore the war and the world in the moments they shared together. and with no one else. no one else would be able to give each other this sense of peace and happiness and love.

"joy and life inside our souls / and no body knows just you and me / it's our secret"

Yue and Sokka had to sneak out in secret at night to go and see each other. Yue and Sokka couldn't be together for real because Yue was already engaged, but they were literally in love so she decided to see him anyways in secret. kasdjfhklasjd im losing my mind over them at this point.

"this winer sky / how can anyone sleep / there was never such a night before / i feel like putting my arms around my knees / and squeezing tight as possible / and flying away"

these are my FAVORITE lines in the entire song. yue and sokka had never felt this strongly about anyone before and that's why they are so drawn to each other. they had never experienced love before and they wanted to hold onto it for as long as they could even though they knew they couldnt. Sokka takes yue up on appa and she is wistful and wishes she could live like he does every day: ie flying away. oh my god these two deserved so much better. so much fucking better.

now for the saddes part. the saddest fucking part.

"maybe he'll come today / maybe he came already / and he's sitting in the drawing room / and i simply forgot"

natasha misses andre so intensely at this point. when i first listened to this show and heard this song i was like "wait a min... is andre like... dead?" and im sure i wasnt the only person who assumed that this was why natasha felt so sad by the end of such a beautiful song. (spoiler alert andre is fine)

but this line really exemplifies how sad natasha is, and hints at the fact that andre may never come back. it implies that their relationship is doomed (at least in my opinion) and that's all yuekka. Sokka misses yue intensely when shes gone. Yue accepted her fate almost immediately but sokka was in denial. he thought there had to be another way. but in the end it wasn't meant to be. and sokka will go on, loving yue, wishing for her back, even though it's not possible.

fuck im gonna cry.

zukka: all i've ever known- hadestown

"i was alone so long / i didn't even know that i was lonely / out in the cold so long / i didnt even know that i was cold"

sokka is from the swt so theres where the cold comes in. also in the gaang (initially) it was just him katara and aang. and katara and aang were much closer to each other than sokka was with aang and the two of them were benders so sokka was kind of an outsider with the two of them. He also represses a lot of his emotions and feels the need to do everything himself so i do see a lot of loneliness in sokka. and the fact that so many people in his life have left him (his mom, yue, his dad, suki briefly, etc...) he is known to keep people at an arms length. i see a lot of loneliness in sokka.

zuko's loneliness is a lot more obvious: he has literally been cast out and abandoned by everyone except iroh. and even then he still feels the need to be alone (remember zuko alone? thought so) these boys look after themselves and push others away and revel in their loneliness in order to keep themselves from getting hurt. at least in my opinion on canon and also some fanon because id be a liar if i said fanon didnt influence how i view ALL my ships (not just zukka)

"all ive ever known is how to hold my own / but now I wanna hold you too"

COME ONE MANNNN, they just wanna hold each other. theyre both very big protectors as well and kljhflkasdhg they wanna protect eachother like kljdhfl im gonna lose it rn.

"You take me in your arms / And suddenly there's sunlight all around me / Everything bright and warm / And shining like it never did before / And for a moment I forget / Just how dark and cold it gets"

SUNLIGHT SYMBOLISM. zuko is literally powered by the sun. i don't think i even NEED to elaborate on this one anymore lol. They find comfort in each other away from all of their trauma. when they're together nothing else matters and i personally love that for them. they both deserve love.

"I knew you before we met / And I don't even know you yet / All I know is your someone I have always known"

these two are extremely similar in canon. many parallels. older brothers overshadowed by their prodigy little sisters. longing to make their fathers proud (granted one dad is good and one is fuckin evil), both are pretty bad with emotions. both are seen protecting others before themselves (sokka protecting suki during the serpant's pass, sokka protecting toph on like multiple occassions, zuko protecting katara in the final agni kai), the list goes on. they know who the other is because they see themselves in the other person. they already know each other because they are each other (in a way, not entirely, but the similarities are strong in my opinion)

"I'm gonna hold you forever / The wind will never change on us / Long as we stay with each other / Then it will always be like this"

i just think this line is so cute and sweet (ignoring all the symbolism and foreshadowing that comes with the last line in the musical itself. im gonna pretend this is nothing but happy) and i think these boys deserve happiness so yeah. this song is zukka to me lol.

jetko: thrill of first love- falsettoes

if you've never listened to this song go an do it now. you will know INSTANTLY that it is jetko because of the dynamics alone. marvin and whizzer are pure jetko and i take no crticisms.

marvin and whizzer are both extremely stubborn, and they don't always get along, and they fight a lot, and they get mad at each other a lot, and they are both passionate as hell, and they will bring this passion into everything. they love each other that is without a doubt, but they arent perfect and they are once again stubborn and determined as fuck.

sound familiar? it's literally jetko.

the lyrics aren't what remind me of jetko, but the dynamic itself. the lyrics are too on the nose for a gay couple in 1970's america so that rlly cant apply to jetko all that much. but the way these two characters bounce off of each other and get annoyed with each other and argue with eachother reminds me of jetko. because let's be honest: these two are the most stubborn characters in the whole show. they will fight for what they believe and it will take literally everything to change their minds.

i love jetko but i think they would have petty arguments all the time and get aggravated by one another so easily. and this is even seen in canon: they work so fucking well together but they did not even HESITATE to fight one another after neither of them would give in and let the fight about whether jet was right or wrong about zuko being a firebender. like i cannot say it enough they are stubborn as fuck.

but underneath all that stubborn pettiness and bickering: marvin and whizzer still love each other. and jet and zuko would still love each other. because even though they are stubborn when it comes to arguments, they are even more stubborn and determined when it comes to each other. these two passionate motherfuckers are in love.

(now when i chose this song i decided to ignore the fact that this song literally spells out the fact that marvin and whizzer's relatinoship is doomed because they literally say passion dies. thats the difference between jetko and whizzer and marvin because i dont think passion dies. i chose this song strictly for the bickering lmao)

and i know you didnt ask about tokka but,,,,

i rlly wanna talk about the tokka one

so im going to

tokka: on my own- les mis

look. i KNOW this song is about unrequited love and i love tokka as a couple but,,, the unrequited love in this song just SCREAMS unrequited tokka to me so thats what i went with.

eponine is a girl who has neglectful parents who lives life by her own rules: toph. eponine is shown to be tough and confident and spunky to others but behind all of that she has emotions, she feels love, she hides her vulnerability so much: toph. she is in love with a guy she cant be with because he loves someone else: TOPH

eponine is toph to a t and toph is eponine to a t. this is not up for debate lmao

"without him i feel his arms around me"

toph is always seen grabbing onto someone (and its almost ALWAYS sokka) when she's somewhere where she can't use her feet to see. FEEL and ARMS cmon. look at it.

"and i know / i know that he is blind"

COME ON. IMAGINE TOPH SINGING THIS LINE. this line is already powerful enough in les mis but having toph, a blind character, sing it just makes the symbolism even deeper. toph sees the potential relationship they could have together. toph sees that sokka is oblivious to this. toph is not blind to the truth or the potention, but sokka is blind to her feelings. im about to lose my mind over this line.

"I love him / But every day I'm learning / All my life / I've only been pretending / Without me / His world will go on turning / A world that's full of happiness / That I have never known"

i need to sit down for a moment. toph grew up in a household where her parents did not understand her. she has learned to hide her true emotions and vulnerabilities from everyone. and its the fact that toph knows that she and sokka will never be together and the fact that she still loves him in spite of that is what makes this even more heartbreaking.

"but only on my own"

TOPH AND EPONINE SWEETIES I LOVE YOU

thank you for indulging my theatre kid nonsense. you are very sweet and kind and lovely and awesome and i hope you have a lovely day bestie :) <3

ask me why i think these songs go with these ships

[jubberry]

You said that its Fiveya that inspires you and makes you create. What do you find so fascinating about them in particular? And maybe even as opposed to some of the other ships in tua?

oof i love a lot of things about them so this is gonna be LOOONG, but i think definitely something that sets them apart for me, that i cant say the same for other pairings is i really like them as separate characters. I love getting into Five’s headspace, and I love his pragmatism and his struggle with loving his family, trying to save them and dealing with his trauma from a life of war and survival. I also really like Vanya, I see her as kind despite what happened to her, however she’s ridden with a lot of anger and sadness, I like writing her anger while trying to show who she is as a person (someone who is kind and caring still, despite that). I’m really invested in their characters in the show and I can’t say I ever had that level of care for both of the characters in any of the canon pairings in tua.

Beyond that, their dynamic together from what they’ve shown in the show is soo soft. Despite the fact that the both of them are basically angry bombs, together, they show so much respect for each other, and Five, at least makes so much exceptions for Vanya that he’s never had for any of the Hargreeves. In season 1 alone, the fact that vanya is the first person he goes to for help (the fact that, when he realised saying that vanya was ordinary hurt her, he immediately changed his tone and told her ‘because you’ll listen’), the fact that Vanya dismisses what he says and he’s pissed off and prepared to leave but he doesn’t because Vanya asks him to stay. Like, come on, if Klaus or anyone else had said that he would’ve been gone. But he waits until she’s asleep before he leaves and closes the door silently behind him. He even apologises when she said she was looking for him and she was worried for him, and pretends to admit that maybe he was crazy instead of losing his shit at her (the way he would’ve done for literally everyone else) so he doesn’t hurt her feelings. Even in s2 the way he treated vanya when they first met vs. the way he treated diego is so soft. Its such a big deal, considering five is such an asshole normally

And I’m all for platonic soulmates between five and vanya (hell, i’ve written and drawn them platonically), but its REALLY hard not to see the romantic subtext when Allison and Luther is a Thing, which means that nobody really cares all the much about the hargreeves hooking up in the show universe. (And even if they did, you guys really think Five of all people would care?? He banged a mannequin this bitch does what he wants)

Also its really hard not to see the romantic subtext when Five looks at her like he is getting lost in the eyes of his long lost love

via

I mean this is how he looks at Dolores

And this is how he looks at Luther when they were having a bonding moment over their experience with isolation

He just looks at her differently!

Even with Vanya, the fact that he’s just not there when we see a glimpse of her pysche of the other sibs taunting her and making her feel left out, the fact that five never said anything mean to her in her pysche in s2 has become a trend. And the fact that she was the only one who waited for him for so long, that she was the only one who reacted when he left (and also the fact that in s1, she’s the only one that five was not upfront about letting her know who dolores is), just feels to me like they could’ve been something more when they’re young. It’s just that their time together got cut off and they’ve grown old and become different people now. At least, that’s how I see it.

I dont think theyre gonna be canon (also... i dont rlly wanna see that cause its kinda weird lol), but their interactions and their implied friendship in the past just gives me enough to get the creative juices flowing.

I can talk about the theme of time travel, the fact that Five is hell bent on saving the world and he falls in love with the person who ends it (the fact that it never would’ve happened at all if he’d just stayed).

I can play with the angry murder person whos only soft for the sweetest person in the room dynamic, and it wouldn’t feel ooc.

Theres also the we could’ve had something but we lost our time together, or the dynamic of the star pupil being head over heels for the black sheep of the household. Its just a really fun dynamic to explore, and I like reading peoples aus of them of what they could be/could’ve been. They could be angst and fluff and soft and it would work.

I just get more ideas from these two than I do from any of the canon relationships in the show. And a lot of that stems from the fact that I like them as characters individually, and I like exploring what they would’ve been like as characters growing together. I feel like the canon relationships just never give me the time to really care about the characters by themselves as individuals, so when they come together in the show, I just go like ‘nice’ but it never really gives me any ideas afterwards.

[x0401x]

Why do you think the writers of the Tsurune anime decided to tone down masamina and outright cut out kaisei while pushing for sei/mina instead? It's just so baffling to me why they would alter the canon content from the novels so much. Like, what was even the point?

I’ve answered this question quite a few times before, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever made the point entirely clear, so here we go one last time. Sorry that it turned out so long.

So, in novels and manga or any written medium, creators normally have more freedom to do what they want, but when it comes to TV series, animators have been developing the habit of toning down whatever they can. Most of them have this conviction that the viewers only want to watch calm and relaxing stuff nowadays. Other than this, we get adaptations of popular works that basically exist to promote the source material, most of which rush up towards the end like crazy. It does seem like the Japanese audience has an obsession with comfort animes now, since life in Japan gets more and more stressful with each passing year, but it’s not like they’ve abandoned other genres. This general belief that creators should water down the contents however they can is pretty much destroying the industry, and it’s probably what the animators of Tsurune had in mind when changing the novel’s events into a much less dramatic versions or just cutting them off. That’s issue number 1 with the anime.

Issue number 2 is that animators of adaptations tend to ignore the reader demographic in favor of making the series neutral to please all audiences lately. But that’s only when the majority of the readers are women and girls. If it’s guys, you’d rarely see alterations. It feels like the general conception is that making the contents less “cringy” for men means more people will be watching it and having a positive opinion. It seems to completely slip the staff’s minds that the fans they disappoint mostly won’t feel willing to buy the DVDs or merchandise. This is where most of these adaptations fall flat, by the way. It’s kind of really obvious to me that these series are more prone to succeeding if the studios animate what the readers fell in love with, because the originals are popular for a reason, and it’s that people liked them the way they were. I think it’s only the expected when readers are disappointed not to see animes live up to the expectations, and that whoever picks the source material will feel the difference as well. Still, if the anime isn’t a BL, there’s this unsaid rule that you can’t show too much gay between male characters unless you have an excuse for it. Normally, nakama power and rivalry is what does the trick. I don’t think I need to mention that this is the standard in sports animes.

In the Tsurune novel, most of the gay doesn’t have an excuse. Of course, it’s not officially gay unless canon states it, but the books not only don’t give any justification for it, they get rid of possible justifications, so while you can’t say it’s not fanservice, you can’t label it as just fanservice, either. For a studio that banks off fanservice like KyoAni, that’s a problem, especially since the novel is packed with heavy scenes and even heavier quotes.

I mean, in Masaki and Minato’s case, they don’t have the nakama power or rivalry elements, so one possible excuse for them being so close would be that they’re master and disciple. But Minato makes it clear quite early in the story that Masaki doesn’t have to be his master because just having Masaki’s company is enough for him, and all in all, the two of them have a much more affectionate relationship than the other teacher-student ones from the books. Another excuse would be the found family dynamics, but Masaki already shares that with Kaito, who canonically sees Masaki as the older brother he never had, and their relationship is unlike Masaki and Minato’s as well. Kaito also has a monologue in volume 2 about Masaki treating Minato differently from everyone else in the club, and the way he describes it denotes that Minato is Masaki’s favorite, and that Masaki doesn’t bother hiding it. Just as a cherry on top, Minato often loses his rationality when it comes to Masaki despite being a serious kid, and he’s very verbal about wanting to monopolize Masaki. Add fate to the mix and you have the perfect recipe for anything except an ordinary mentor-pupil relationship.

As for Kaito and Seiya, there was a lot going on between them since the beginning, but the nakama power excuse only starts applying late in volume 1, because they didn’t get along very well at first. And even then the nakama stuff hardly applies to their interactions, where Seiya often acts like Kaito has a thing for him, for no reason other than Kaito’s reactions being amusing. Their relationship also does some big strides in the middle of volume 1, and Seiya literally migrates to Kaito’s side at some point. They don’t seem to have a friendship as strong as the one between Seiya, Minato and Ryouhei, but it’s Kaito who Seiya interacts with the most in volume 2 and he’s also the one that Seiya leans on whenever he needs any sort of assistance. There’s other unexplainable things here and there, such as Seiya taking a peek at Kaito’s sleeping face when it’s just the two of them in the room, or him implying that Kaito is jealous of the motherly attention he gives Minato. It goes on as far as the novel does. There’s literally no scene with the two of them that doesn’t make it look like Kaito is really into Seiya and that Seiya owns his ass but he’s the last one to know.

Back to the main point, it’s really hard to animate all of this without giving people “ideas”. For KyoAni, any gay exists ultimately for the sake of fetishization, and they often follow the “ship whatever you want, even yourself with the characters” model. If being gay is canonically a character trait in the original, it’s out (Violet Evergarden is probably the best example of that one), and if the gay can’t be interpreted as something else, it’s either out or downplayed. In Seiya and Minato’s case, that’s perfectly feasible. Not only are they best friends, they also have a familial relationship where Seiya treats Minato like a son. Minato has sworn eternal friendship to Seiya in the novel, and both he and Kaito describe Seiya as something like a helicopter parent. There’s more than enough counter-argument to remind the viewers that, whatever happens between Minato and Seiya, it’s all a product of their childhood friend bond. Anyone is free to interpret it differently in fanon, but the viewers (at least the Japanese ones) are ultimately aware that the anime is in its “safe zone”, portraying a friendship. Nobody on the Japanese side of the fandom actually believed that there was romance going on in it. On the other hand, if you search in Japanese for people’s impressions of MasaMina, you’ll notice people often saying that the novel makes you wonder if Minato and Masaki aren’t actually dating, or if Minato doesn’t have a puppy crush on Masaki, at the very least. Basically, everyone seems to agree that what goes on between those two is hard to define, but whatever it is, there’s this very particular, “special” air about them that differs from the rest of the characters, which normally manifests when they’re alone together.

As you can tell, this overall view is the opposite of the animators’ ideal. If the novel had been animated the way it is, it would’ve probably felt like a BL for the people watching. Not only does it come with practically set ships, it also doesn’t give much space for the proverbial “ship even yourself with the characters” option. To put it bluntly, the animation went through those changes so that it could fit the mold. It gave us SeiMina and even some NanaKai (the latter being honestly disturbing, since they’re cousins), while either toning down or erasing the rest of the duo and trio interactions. It made Minato’s accident with his mom actually seem like Seiya’s fault and didn’t really take the burden off his shoulders but instead swept it under the rug. It also made Masaki seem like a two-faced bastard who only became a coach for the sake of revenge, which means he was using his students (actual 15/16-year-olds) for his own personal gains. Shuu and Minato’s friendship went down the drain, Ryouhei was pushed aside as if Seiya was Minato’s only childhood friend, Nanao was never depicted as his own person, and the girls didn’t even exist 90% of the time. So yeah, none of the changes served any good purpose for the characters’ images. All it did was (try to) fill a quota.

Personally, this whole thing feels like we’re being told to the face, “we’ve given you what you want, now give us your money”. It brings me back to interviews I’ve read featuring Stars Align director Akane Kazuki and his statements about the anime industry being in a pinch, specifically because animators nowadays keep trying to make a fool out of the audience for monetary ends. Seems clear to me that the staff thought the female viewers would latch onto anything as long as it looked remotely gay, and that’s why I was so angry back then. Being looked down on like this by people who expect us to consume their media is pretty offensive, in my opinion. I’m glad there’s at least one creator speaking up about this matter and using the exact same arguments as I have been for more than two years now.

[deanssweetheart23]

Against All Odds - Part II

Title: Against All Odds: A Kiss To Build A Dream On (Part II) Series Rewrite

Summary: Dean knows their relationship is doomed when he meets her just a few months before going to Hell. Fate intervenes.

Author: deanssweetheart23

Characters: Dean Winchester x reader

Word count: 2333

Warnings: Fluff. Angst. Implied smut. References to hell, loss and grief. Slight canon divergence (there’s no Lisa).

Author’s Notes: This is the second part of a seven-part series rewrite going from season 3 to season 11. It’s also my submission  for the 31 for 31 Challenge by my love @torn-and-frayed‘s 31 for 31 Challenge –my prompt will be used in the next part. Special thank you to my sunflower @trexrambling for betaing this for me, she is the best <3

Guys, thank you so much for reading and loving this story as much as you do. I’m sorry I didn’t update earlier, but it’s been a rough few weeks. I am back, though, and I plan on posting the next parts sooner (and I’m working on something big to share with y’all).

Without further ado. Enjoy <3

Dean’s used to losing people.

He’s used to seeing the ones he cares about caught in the middle of crossfire because the angels and the demons have petty things to do with their time.

He’s used to being treated as God’s pawn, nothing but a soldier to help him in the greater scheme of things.

He’s used to grief.

In fact, he knows grief better than anyone, knows it in all its depth and darkness, in its hallowing emptiness and terrifying immensity, in the haste of whiskey and its cold, sleepless nights.

Dean knows grief, but when he loses Sam, he loses parts of himself with him, loses chunks of flesh and bits of soul he’s sure he’ll never recover. His entire existence had always been revolving around one simple request: Look out for Sammy.

And who is he if there’s no Sammy to look out for?

He takes a deep breath, runs a hand over his face roughly.

Ahead of him the state line stretches, but he’s not worried; he knows exactly which exit to take.

If anything, he’s stopped by her house multiple times since those three days they spent together over a year ago. He never talked to her, of course, never built up the courage to knock on her door and go inside, tell her how he really felt, how he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her after the nights they spent tangled in each other, those long walks by the beach, the coffee-laced kisses they’d stolen over breakfast in bed.

No, Dean never told her any of it, but he still drove past her house, the home she had without him, to make sure she was okay, safe and happy and cared for.

A car honks its horn behind him.

He blinks, slows down.

He wonders whether he should turn right.

He wonders whether he deserves to turn right, deserves to drive to her house and waltz into her life again, a mess even greater than Jay had been.

He wonders if he has the right.

The car honks again, louder this time.

He promised Sam.

He promised.

Besides, she’s the only person he wants to see.

He makes the turn.

He’s standing outside her door twenty minutes later, ringing the bell two minutes after that. Its sound travels across the rooms immeasurably, followed by the padding of feet against bare wood. The vibrations are familiar and they send him reeling, bring back memories of her in his oversized shirt, pacing the floor as he made dinner, a pout on her lips because he’d just made fun of her feet, clad in a pair of fuzzy socks in the most disturbing shade of pink he’d ever seen.

He waits for one, two, three long seconds, and then.

“Dean?” His name falls from her lips in a whisper, timid and startled and sweet, and it takes him back to the night they’d shared their first kiss, the way she’d called for him as he tasted her on his mouth, certain that nothing would ever feel as good as she did in that moment.

He tries to smile.

It wobbles right off.

“Hey, Doc.”

A shaky breath.

Brows arched in a way he finds absolutely endearing.

“Is everything alright?” she asks, arms wrapped around her middle. “That call you gave me a few weeks ago…” She pushes some hair from her face, takes a step forward. “It got me a little worried.”

He nods.

Their conversation, dragged and raw, echoes soundlessly in his mind.

“Dean?” he hears her ask over the phone, worried, skeptical. “Tahini said you called, but I was in surgery. What’s going on?”

Dean hesitates.

He shouldn’t be doing this, he thinks. Not after the way they left things. Not with the Apocalypse looming over their heads. And yet, he feels like a weight’s been lifted off his shoulders as her voice washes over him, feels like he’s Dean again, not the righteous man or Michael’s vessel, not a warrior destined for great things.

Just Dean.

“Nothing, I just… I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Honestly… Things are about to get really bad, Doc.”

“Bad?” she repeats, incredulous. “What do you mean bad? Dean, what’s going on?”

“I, uh… You’re gonna see stuff on TV. Scary stuff. But I don’t want you to worry. Whatever happens, you’re gonna be okay. M’ gonna make sure of that.”

The silence that follows is thick, taut.

She draws in a heavy breath. “I don’t understand. Have you been drinking?”

He lets out a bitter laugh, shakes his head a little. “No. Look, I know I sound crazy, but I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” she says after a long pause. “Yes. Just… Come over. Please. I’m worried about you.”

“No, don’t… Don’t do that. I know the life that I live, Doc. I know how that’s gonna end for me.”

“Dean–”

“S’ alright. I don’t mind. Not anymore. I just… I wanted you to know… When I do picture myself happy… S’ with you.”

He’d regretted the words the moment he hung up, had cursed himself for sneaking into the shadows of her life again only to say goodbye, but he’d been desperate, about to say yes to Michael and he needed to hear her voice, needed some kind of closure.

“Dean?” she repeats, face sculpted with concern. “Are you okay?”

His gaze slides to the empty space next to him.

Darkness wraps its way around his heart.

“M’ fine,” he lies, a lie that’s been ingrained into his jabbed heart by now.

She hums.

The look she gives him is enough to let him know she doesn’t believe him.

“Tell you what,” she starts, a reluctant smile softening her unease, “s’ getting dark outside and you look like you could use a drink.” She steps aside, lets him steal a glimpse of her empty living room. “Wanna come in?”

He lets out air through his nose, not quite a laugh. “Yeah.” He runs a hand over his face. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

She smiles then, perhaps the most genuine smile he’s gotten out of her that evening, and, with her eyes locked on his, she reaches for his hand, manipulates their fingers until they’re intertwined.

And, just for a second, he swears he can almost breathe freely again.

Six months pass.

Dean moves into the small cottage with her, finds a respectable job at a construction-sight nearby. He tells her everything about his old life the day before he signs the contract, speaks to her about monsters and angels and demons, about Sam’s sacrifice.

He’s reluctant to, at first, worries that he’ll lose her just like he lost Cassie, but he can’t really be with her if she doesn’t know, can’t allow himself to become a concrete part of her life without making sure she wants him, wants every dark and guilty part he keeps hidden.

She does.

It surprises him a little, because he’s not used to people choosing him, not used to being loved so wholly and unconditionally by someone, but he gives himself over to her, trusts her with everything he’s got because he can tell how much she loves him.

It’s written across her skin every time she traces his scars with her fingertips, etched on her body as it wraps its way around him at nights. It’s there when she goes grocery shopping for him and it’s there when she tries to make him laugh, no matter how bad her day had been. It’s always there and it’s comforting and arduous at the same time, because he knows he has her, knows he’s finally managed to have something good in his life while his brother is burning in the Cage.

Sammy’s burning, and he is in love.

Soft lips press themselves against his neck, will his guilt away.

He closes his eyes in a shudder, despite himself.

“A quarter past six,” he mumbles, eyes glancing at the clock etched on the kitchen wall as he places his hand over hers.

Y/N’s just returned from her morning run –a habit of hers that reminds him so much of Sammy it hurts– and he can feel a thin layer of sweat against his body as she stays close along his back, can feel her heat sinking into him.

“Not bad for a slow poke,” he adds when he turns around, enveloping her in his arms.

“Shut up.” She nuzzles his clothed skin, almost sighs in content when he presses a lingering kiss on her forehead. A heartbeat passes, and then, “You’re up early. S’ your day off, isn’t it?”

He hums.

Without looking up he says, “Couldn’t sleep.” He runs a hand over his face, wonders whether he should say more. “S’, uh… S’ six months today.”

The statement hangs between them, dark, heavy, and, for a second, he almost regrets putting it into words, worries that she won’t know how to navigate her way through it, how he needs her to respond.

But she does.

She always does.

She cups the side of his neck, runs her thumb over his skin soothingly. “I know.” Her eyes drift to the griddle in front of them, the ingredients scattered on the counter. “Tell you what, let me take care of this. I got some time before I leave for work.”

He grins a little, pulls her closer. “Yeah, you should use that time to shower.” His fingers tangle in the bandana she’s using to keep her hair in a bun. He takes it off, lets it fall onto her shoulders unceremoniously, wild and unruly like a bird’s nest.

He loves it.

“You stink.”

“That’s the price of staying fit, smartass.” She reaches for the cupboards, pulls out her favorite mug. “What are you making anyway?”

He hands her the coffee pot.

Nonchalantly, he says, “Pancakes.”

“Pancakes?”

“Uh huh.”

“Do they have chocolate chips?”

He nods, tries to keep a straight face as he leans in and whispers, “And peanut butter,” like it’s the filthiest thing he’s ever told her.

“Hmmm,” she lifts her mug, sips some of her coffee. “Knew I loved you for a reason, D.”

“C’mere,” he mumbles, a secret smile playing at the corners of his lips as he lifts her onto the counter, clasps a hand at the side of her neck.

He kisses her then, deep and ardent and bold, too bold for it to be a brief morning kiss, and she sighs into it, lets him drag her closer to the edge of the counter until it all becomes too much, and he breaks it off, buries his face into the crook of her neck.

“Thank you about last night, by the way,” he rasps out afterwards.

He can feel her smile at that, can feel the warmth of it seeping into him and his mind drifts back to the night before, the feel of her pressed up against his arms, the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse standing striking, commanding, miles away from him, the way its light brought the ocean to life.

They were supposed to go to her friend’s birthday party, but there was a kid there that reminded him so much of Sam he couldn’t stay for longer than an hour, and she’d agreed to leave without a second thought, had apologized to Tahini and walked out with him, her hand running soothing circles over his back.

A hum.

Gentle fingers stroking his cheek.

“Anytime, D.” She kisses the top of his head. “You know that.”

And Dean does know that, but he hates this, hates being so useless, so absolutely weak, a dead weight wrapped around her body that can only ruin her.

“Alright-” she straightens her back, makes sure to meet his gaze- “what is it?”

His eyes drift to the counter.

He licks his lips. “S’ just…” He runs a hand over his face, lets out a dark laugh. “I know how hard it was to take care of Jay after Iraq and I don’t want… I hate that I’m putting you through it again.”

She leans a bit closer, takes his hand firmly in hers.

“D, you just lost your brother.” The words are a statement more than anything, brimming with empathy and heartache. “I am not expecting this relationship to be all rainbows and butterflies, just like I’m not expecting you to give up on hunting just because you live here. And I’m not comparing you to Jay.”

“Kid–”

“No, I know we’ve talked about this before, but I just–” she juts her chin– “I need you to understand that all I want is to be with you.” Her thumb smooths over his jaw. “I don’t care if you’re a hunter or a construction worker or a frigging astronaut.” She tips her forehead against his temple. “M’ in love with you.” They kiss again, softer this time. “And, for the record–” she jabs a finger at him– “you’re the best man I could have ever asked for, okay?”

He smiles, a smile that’s broken and real and torn around the edges.

“God, you’re…” He takes his hand in hers, and grips. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Doc.”

She laughs.

The sound reminds him of sunlight falling through the trees on a dark path.

“The best?”

“Yup.”

She smirks, slants her eyebrow, and he can feel the tension of the morning scattering around them like dust.

“Better than meeting Dr. Sexy?”

“Obviously.”

“And the Cartwright twins?”

He squints at her. “How do you even know about that?”

“I have my sources.”

“You’ve read the books, haven’t you?”

“Maybe,” she shrugs.

“Doc–” his lips find their way against her throat, familiar, demanding– “you’re so much better than the Cartwright twins.” When she chuckles, he can feel it reverberating deep into his lungs.

He falls a bit deeper in love with her after that day.

Forever tags: @jpadjackles @supernatural-jackles @trexrambling @percywinchester27 @torn-and-frayed @atwistoffate @there-must-be-a-lock @masksandtruths @princess-shurii @lipstickandwhiskey @sunlightdances @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @ravengirl94 @hannahindie @escabell @kathaswings @dreamingdean @becs-bunker @wordstothewisereaders @imagining-supernatural @sgarrett49 @iwriteaboutdean @mogaruke @spngeronimo @ruprecht0420  @pickupthatamulet @imissyoualittlemoreeveryday @wellthatsrandomkek @winchestersnco @jayankles @winchesters-flannels @akshi8278 @persephone-divine @tiny-friggin-human @keepcalmandcarryondean @becominglionhearted @polina-93 @mandilion76 @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @ravenangel33 @holahellohialoha @atc74 @dancingalone21 @dancing-the-hellfire-rumba @juanitadiann @yourvoiceislikearose @sinistersaltqueen @carryonmyswansong-archive @emoryhemsworth @superapplepie @bebravekeeponfighting @carryonmywaywardcaptain @sebastianshoe @kleinkariertebetrachter @stellaa33 @samisimportant-blog @jessilliam-caronday @shutupiminlooove @annoyingpeople-postingthings @caitthejourno @no-shit-sherl0ck @superflurry @mrswhozeewhatsis @starry-chaos @rlawson418 @novaddictx  @caeruli @itssmallerontheoutside-13 @may-darling @jerkbitchidjitassbutt  @adoptdontshoppets @jessikared97

Against All Odds Tags: @mirandaaustin93 @angelessquirrel @chantalkate16 @tryn25 @jbbarnesgirl @jessieray98 @ultimatecin73 @gloriousartisanfancreator @fangirl-and-medstudent-help @kararanae23

[littlespacestars]

Shallura Fic Rec (#2)

Shallura Rec List (#2)

I previously made a list of my favorite Shallura fics, and decided to pull together a new one for you guys!! Hopefully you find something you haven’t read yet. There’s a bit of a lag in Shallura fics lately (and content in general), but there’s absolutely still some good ones! Again, these are categorized to the best of my ability, since some of them can apply to more than one group!

Shallura Rec List (#1) is here

Fluff

Like an Eagle - Revasnaslan

“It turned out that explaining trust falls to an alien was a little bit more difficult than Shiro thought it was going to be.

Written for Shallura Week Day 3 (Trust / Growth)”

Sharing Earth culture, trusting, Allura scares TF out of Shiro

Wingman - thir13enth

“Coran is never subtle. Shallura.”

Supportive Coran, protective space uncle, wingman Coran

 She’s Like the Sun - sdd_writes_things

“In which neither Shiro nor Allura can actually sleep at night and they're super thirsty for each other, turning tentative hand holding into nearly making love on the floor which then somehow turns into seventy miles of blankets and then sleeping in front of a window.”

Almost smutty content, shy handholding to violent necking, insomnia, pining, not explicit

Nighttime - butimnotinthefandom

“Shiro sees to his crew and spends some time alone with Allura.”

Shiro’s POV, space family, minor Klance/Klangst, flirting, domestic, stargazing, pining, sharing stress,  “Innocent Shallura massage”

Where Sleep Will Be Peaceful ; Unharried by Terror - gallantrejoinder

“Four times Allura and Shiro slept side by side and it didn't mean anything - plus the one time that it did.”

Insomnia, four times plus one, sharing a bed, nightmares, sleep, gentle and soft things, misunderstandings, pining, happy ending, slight mature content

 At 2200 Hours - braincoins

 “It's the end of a long day aboard the Castle ship. Time to relax and unwind.”

Shallura Sundays, prompt, domestic, fluff, background Klance, space parents, playful flirting and teasing, tired Shiro

 Sock Sliding at 2am - mantharay

“Allura and Shiro are distraught and stressed after the events of Crystal Venom (S1x09). Through the power of sliding down dark castle halls like children, they learn that to be a leader, you can't be serious all the time.

Oh, and there's some Emotions™.”

Fluff and angst, comfort, PTSD, panic/anxiety attacks, comfort, platonic relationship, sort of, possible pining

 Moments of You - Seliphra

“When Allura gets injured saving the day, Shiro can't help but try to take care of her.”

First kiss, love confessions, canon-typical injury and violence, minor injuries, BAMF Allura, nervous Shiro, hurt/comfort, Shiro is in awe and Allura is amazing,

 Come Down to the Water Where the Sky is Blue and Yellow - armouredescort (Part 1 of A Long Road to Courtship)

“Allura convinces Shiro to go to the beach.”

Day at the beach, beach episode, tooth-rotting fluff, space family, water fight, slow burn

 Working to Relax - IHaveNothingToDo

“Allura's tense and her hair is a mess. Shiro helps.“

Soft, Shiro plays with Allura’s hair, it’s the mice’s fault, short fic

 3 AM - jaztice

“Shiro and Allura are hanging out in Allura's room around 3am.”

Shiro is ticklish, kissing, tickling, hickeys, short fic

 Ancient - juniperallura

 “For prompt "Shallura, ancient. The universe can be very heavy and make you feel very small.”

Fluff, angst, comfort, playful banter, short fic

A Matter of Time - teslatricity (nayanroo)

“The war's over, and the universe is starting to rebuild. As Allura leads the charge in forming new alliances, looking to the future, Shiro considers the kind of future he wants for them. But being a paladin means that your plans tend to go awry and your timing is never the greatest...“

Engagement, Shiro is a bit of a disaster, but he loves her so much ya’ll, background relationships, but only if you’re looking for it, proposal-blocked, supportive Keith, gorgeous scenery, nervous Shiro, Shiro’s parents, new home

 Angst

As You Wish - SippingThatTea

“Every time Allura asked something from Shiro, he merely responded 'As you wish'. Allura does wonder if there was more to that.”

Fluff and humor, angst with a happy ending, short fic

Betrayal (2/2) - YoGrossDude

“Shiro is turned against Team Voltron. Allura must stop him. A life and death struggle, and what comes after.”

Dark Shiro, characters fighting, major character injury, angst, possession, aftermath of possession, aftermath of violence, mind control aftermath & recovery, panic attacks, PTSD, suicidal thoughts

Crown Another - carrotycake

“‘And for every king that died

Oh, they would crown another...’

Allura struggles with accepting the mantle of Black Paladin.”

Angst, black paladin Allura, cool lions doing mystical things, Allura is sad, grief/mourning, Keith is a good friend

Multichapter

Watch Me Lovely (7/?) - realityisiron

“‘What exactly did you think you were agreeing to?’

- - - - -

Shiro could pretend to be Allura’s concubine for a week. After all, concubines were for behind closed doors. There’d be no reason for them to have to do anything crazy.

Except Shiro may have made a huge translation error, one that will come back to bite him in rather… unexpected ways. And places.”

Explicit, eventual NSFW, porn with plot, mutual pining, romance, fake/pretend relationship, comedy, hurt/comfort, Shiro angst, alien culture, alien biology, alien sex, exhibitionism, femdom, world building  

Like Real People Do (5/5) - andtheblueberrymuffins (Part 1 of Like Real People Do)

“Shiro knows this is wrong. Everything is wrong. But they need him. Keith said so, and Shiro knows, he knows, that if they need him he has to help them. It’s what he would do. It’s what he does. (Everything is fine.)

Or: The one where something is very wrong with Shiro after his second escape from the Galra.”

Tragedy, Post-Season/Series 03, Speculation about Shiro post season 3, ‘Shiro’, Implied/Referenced mind control, mind control aftermath & recovery, clone Shiro, prepare your tissues and cry deeply

 The Princess and the Pilot (2/?) - ashesandhoney

“In an alternate timeline, Shiro gets picked up by the Galra before the war starts and eventually ends up being given to the Princess of the Alteans as a joke or an attempt to start a war or as a mistake. Whatever their motive was for sending him, Allura is now left trying to figure out what to do with him.”

AU, prisoner Shiro, slow burn, misunderstanding, strangers to lovers

 Jealousy (3/3) - juniperallura

“As the team forges a new alliance, Shiro must confront a figure from Allura's past, a new challenge, and his own feelings.”

Jealously, pining, mutual pining, light angst, fluff, confessions, Shiro is moody and hopelessly in love 

 Shallura Babies/Children

We’re All Just Stars With People Names - babyfairy (babyfairybaekhyun)

“The space parents become legitimate space parents.”

Post-war, star babies, inspired by art, pregnancy, FLUFF, twins, birthing scene, space family, Coran is going to spoil them

Three Merging Currents - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“One quintessence, two quintessences… and then three. Allura and Shiro have made something unique, but Altean pregnancy is its own special thing.”

Space family, alien biology, dropping the pregnancy annoucement bomb, new parents, Allura is strong AF and has cravings

Creating Constellations - stratagem (stardustandrobotlions)

“Allura and Shiro weren't expecting parenthood to start off with such a bang, but they have to improvise when Allura goes into labor during a space battle.”

Childbirth, space battle, space pirates, shallura baby, space family

Like Bringing Color to Children - distinctive_pineapples

“'Lance,' Shiro started, his 'dad face' already at a maximum (because holy crow, he actually was a dad now, and Lance was about to be very, very dead). 'Is there a reason why you just called my daughter an animated lion?'”

Lance ends up nicknaming Shiro and Allura's newborn daughter after an animated lion. It's met with mixed reactions, but at one point or another, everyone caves.’

Future Fic, Shallura baby

 Who Tells Your Story? - after_midnightmunchies

“‘Do you think history will remember us?’

Allura has some doubts and Shiro quickly dismisses them.”

Brief mention/view of children, Shallura Week 2017, Prompt: Legacy, Future Fic, married life, canon compliant, established relationship, minor Uncle Klance, one-shot

 A Wonderful Night...? - ebonynightwriter (Part 5 of Shallura Week 2017)

“Returning to the ship after a night out, Shiro and Allura find two very important things are missing.”

Fluff, fun/humor, star babies, space family, love, Shallura!kids, one-shot, future fic, established relationship, Shallura Week 2017

Two Front Teeth - stratagem (stardustandrobotlions)

“Remember that time that Shiro forgot to tell Allura that human children lose their baby teeth, and that might happen with an Altean-Human child, too? Yeah, good times.”

Little humans lose their teeth and that’s disturbing to Alteans, tooth fairy, adventures in child-rearing, Altean-human kids are SO confusing, Allura and Coran are horrified, space family

 Shallura AU

Lead me Home - distinctive_pineapples

“The universes may change, but there's always a familiar face to help Shiro move forward. [Takes place post-season 2 or outside of canon continuity]

My contribution to Shallurazine's "Stars Aligned" issue 2.”

AU, but not really, canon universe, post-season 2

 Hold Onto Me (1/?) - killashilla (shalluravoltron)

“The prestigious Garrison Academy welcomes two royal exchange students from Altea. Whirlwind romances and harsh realities unfold as Allura, Lance, Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge navigate love, life, and high school.

The first day that Princess Allura and her cousin Lance arrive in a different galaxy, thousands of light years from Altea. They'll have to finish their educations here, on an unfamiliar planet with unfamiliar people. Luckily, these royals are quick to find allies...very close, very dreamy allies.”

Don’t Be Scared - thi13tenth

“there's still time.

—shallura. au. (for shalluraweek 2017, day two: hands; names.)”

Beach, fluff, established relationship, flirting

 That’s How You Know - Bleusarcelle

“It takes a while but then the sun sets, the terrace get brighter and Shiro can only stare fondly as Allura keeps talking, eyes wide with excitement and arms flying around vividly at every word coming out of her mouth.

He’s entranced and he doesn't want to look away but his phone beeps besides him, letting him know it’s a quarter before midnight.

He voices his new discovery and he’s met with a confused arched eyebrow and a soft gasp.

‘What? Already?’

Those gotta be his new favorite words.”

Modern setting AU, getting together, established Klance, BG Klance, first meetings, awkward flirting, first dates, pining Shiro, smitten Shiro, mutual pining, marriage proposal, adoptive siblings Keith and Shiro, cousins Lance and Allura

 Wedding - juniperallura

“For prompt "Shallura + Wedding"

The young officers are excited for a gathering outside the Garrison”

 Garrison AU, fluff, dancing, BFF Matt and Shiro, mutual pining, short fic

 Mentor of the Month - RoknRollPumpkin

“Allura is ready but Shiro isn't. And that's ok.”

 Engineering/bodyshop AU, mentor Allura, fluff, soft sexual content, mature

 Drabble Collections

Shallura Week 2017 (7/7) - hatandgoggles

“My prompt fills for Shallura week 2017

Day 1: Dancing

Day 2: Gender/cisswap

Day 3: Roleswap

Day 4: Wedding

Day 5: Cooking

Day 6: Romantic date

Day 7: Free day (Roswell)”

Genderswap, cisswap, rule 63, roleswap, rolereversal, human Allura, Altean Shiro, 50s au, 40s au, wedding, proposal, single dad au, dancing

 Shallura Week (3/?) - juniperallura

“A collection of drabbles based off the 2017 Shallura Week prompts.”

Fluff, angst, Hands/Names, Trust, Lost/Found

Beyond Fading Stars - RukiaG

“Series of one-shots for Shallura week 2017. Some may be AU, some not.

Chapter 1: Time & Space. In a different reality, Shiro and Allura meet at a hospital.

Chapter 2: Hands & Names. Allura teaches Altean to the Paladins and Shiro tries to control his crush on her.

Chapter 3: Trust & Growth. Team Voltron does trust falls.

Chapter 4: Potential & Free. Fullmetal Alchemist AU in which Shiro is a veteran from the Ishval Civil War and Allura is an alchemist. (WARNING: may contain some references to the manga and Brotherhood’s ending).

Chapter 5: Lost & Found. The mice are lost. Shiro helps Allura find them.”

Shallura Week 2017, AU - modern setting, canon universe, language lessons, pining Shiro, trust falls, PTSD, team bonding, FMA universe, mice washing

Hurt/Comfort

She Stops My Bones From Wondering - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“Some nights, Shiro can't sleep. On those nights, Allura reminds him he isn't alone.”

PTSD, weird imagery, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-sex, not enough for a M rating Shiro-centric, introspection, please let space dad rest, short fic

And We Hold On - ebonynightwriter (Part 3 of Shallura Week 2017)

‘“It’s not your fault.” // “How do you know?”’

Drama, Hurt/Comfort, injury, recovery, dark sides, one-shot, canon universe, post-season 2, Shallura Week 2017, this got way more “Avatar state” than originally intended, Allura’s quintessence, magic

Acceptance - rainingWolf

“Shiro couldn't be whole if she just fished his right arm out of the garbage compactor. The Castle had alerted her, as if sensing that she needed to know exactly what was going on within the confines of the pristine whiteness that had never been dark. Allura had reached in, expecting something else, anything else, maybe one of the Mice had been trapped- but then her hand touched something foreign, something familiar, and she pulled, pulled…

She never knew her heart could hurt this much, could twist this sharply at the sight of a material object.”

Shalluraweek, Lost/Found, angst, stressed Shiro, Galra arm, short fic

 Comfort - coralreefskim

“...The moment was so delicate, gentle, that she didn’t dare speak. Both of them didn’t. Their breathing was soft, shallow even, warm brown eyes meeting kaleidoscope ones, and they just stayed there. Stayed there, until they both fell asleep, unconsciously, comfortably, like how it hadn’t been from since the war had been declared.

The paladins found them the next morning, still sleeping, her hand still on his.”

Fluff and angst, mental instability, character study, nightmares, emotional hurt/comfort, could pass as platonic, mutual emotional support

 Something Like Anthrax - pixie_rings (materassassino)

“What started off as a diplomatic mission quickly turns into a 1950s B-movie sci-fi cliché. The Paladins and Allura end up on a planet of amazons for negotiations. Things don't go quite to plan.”

Emotional hurt/comfort, plot, science fiction cliches, unwanted sexual advances, nonbinary Pidge, flashbacks, PTSD, space family, mission, banquet, established Shallura, also Shiro gets the top bunk bed OKAY

 Little Talks - Revasnaslan

“Fascination with Shiro's hand leads to some conversations about names and anxieties about the past.

Written for Shallura Week Day 2 (Hands / Names)”

Hurt/comfort, sharing culture, insecurities, short fic

 Again and Again - TKipani

“Nighttime is for tears, memories, and comfort.”

Hurt/Comfort, Post-episode 9, Shiro comforting Allura, crying, Allura tries to stay strong and hide her emotions, some fluff

NSFW

Don’t Need Anything Else, Just Need You - babyfairybaekhyun (babyfairy)

“She turns to him and her eyes are glowing stars that call to him from behind her helmet. He wants her, he wants her badly, he wants her now.”

NSFW, slight plot, BAMF Allura and Shiro, turned on from the heat of battle, doin’ it in the Black Lion, dom!Shiro, oral sex, post-sex fluff, they are cuties, for littlespacestars

The Edge of Something - ashesandhoney

“In which Shiro has some kind of magical ability and Allura has some kind of Altean mating cycle and there are jokes about Hogwarts letters and bowling and a very slow building, cuddling and self indulgent sex scene.”

NSFW, Slow self-indulgent sex scenes, resolved sexual tension, sex magic, porn w/out porn, Shiro has magic, mating cycles/in heat

Build Your Castle Into Me - nayanroo (teslatricity)

“The night before Allura's coronation, she tells her husband how nervous she is, how worried she is that she won't be a good queen. And, being a good husband, Shiro helps her relax.”

NSFW, Oral sex, throne sex, marriage, established relationship, porn with plot, Allura really likes seeing him on his knees in front of her, but who can really blame her

Sound - Braincoins (Part 1 of the Senses series)

“Allura has an overabundance of quintessence. Who knew that could even happen?! Worse still, the best and quickest method for reducing it to normal levels requires... assistance. But it's ask Shiro for help or resign herself to not sleeping. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

NSFW, casual sex, sort of, convenience sex, contrived excuses, Allura’s trying to make this PWP, not sure if she succeeds, hint of voice kink, language, pining

Sometimes the Wild Gorlax Rides You - Nary

“"Look," he said, "I promise I'll take a break if you will. Deal?"

"Perhaps... It would be nice if we could take a break together," Allura suggested. Her hand ran lightly up his arm, settling on his shoulder almost playfully, in a way that made Shiro confused and more than a little bit warm. "After all," she continued, "with what's facing us, who knows when we might have another chance..."

Non-graphic sexual content, implied sexual encounter, first kiss, first time, before battle, stress relief, a little bit of shovel talk, nervousness, cuddling, Shiro finally gets some sleep, advice from Coran, Voltron Positivity Exchange

Distraction - madamebomb

“Shiro is Allura's biggest distraction.”

NSFW, trying to deny their feelings, pining, Shiro’s bed is way too small

 The Man and the Moon - cupofdaydream

 “A place where I’m intermittently going to dump my Shiro/Allura smut.”

 NSFW, Porn without plot, pillow talk, some fluff

 3:23 AM - RoknRollPumpkin

“They did the thing (AU)”

NSFW, Voltron AU, Shiro’s birthday, established relationship

.

.

.

Please support these lovely writers and give ‘em some kudos and a comment! I still need to go back through and do that for some people, too!! Thank you for the wonderful content, guys. <33

[nebulawriter]

Annhilation

This is as close to a Changeling: The Lost movie as we’re ever going to get, isn’t is?

Overview: Smart movie, I probably want to watch it exactly once more to try and figure out some details, but it’s definitely more of a think-y movie than a sit-down-and-enjoy-stuff movie. But it IS imaginitive, visually stunning, thematically cohesive, and...a little horrifying. Like. More horrifying than I am traditionally comfortable with. 

Note: this review turned more film analysis-ish than even I intended, so I apologize to those on mobile.

Like, as much of a sci-fi nerd as I am, sci fi horror stuff is almost always too much for me. I just can’t handle the gore and jump scares. Because of this, I don’t have INCREDIBLE experience with this kinda genre stuff, so I don’t have a good measuring stick to judge this as well. 

In fact, I MIGHT have not seen this one all together if it weren’t for a) the all-lady cast, b) Tessa Thompson c) the weird shiny fantasy look to everything and d) I have moviepass now and it doesn’t cost me any extra to go to it. 

I think I should do brief summary in case you’re reading this without seeing it for some reason, but uh, SPOILERS. Lena is a former soldier turned biology professor whose husband stayed in the military and went MIA (arguably KIA) about a year ago. And she’s not over it. Then, *GASP* he comes home, but he’s super out of it and sick, and he and she are both immediately captured by weird agents. There, a psychologist named Ventress shows her the Shimmer, a place off the coast that’s changing weird stuff, and no matter what they send in, nothing comes out. Except Lena’s husband Kane. She meets a team of cool lady scientists who are going in, and signs up, hoping to find a cure for her husband. They go in, there’s weird mind-fuckery, there is constant debate over if this is really happening or if they’re going insane, Lena finds clues left by her husband, 2 people get eaten by a bear, one person....turns into a tree I think? And finally they reach the lighthouse, the center of the incidents. Dr, Ventress explodes?ish? and then theres a LOOOOOT of mindfuckery, and I think I get like....60% of it? but, in the end, the lighthouse gets burned down and the shimmering stops. Kinda. 

So! Annhilation. I’m going to go broad and whittle down for the review, going from themes into characters and plot. Annhilation is about one particular concept really that, like all good sci-fi, is over-exaggerated into the fantastical. Today’s concept is Self-Destruction. Specifically this gets focused onto cancer and suicide, and both of these themes are sot of....mutated together, not unlike the creatures in this film. I know it wasn’t but I really hope the shark-crocodile was in the pitch for this movie, like “It’s a think piece movie with a mutant shark crocodile. Money please.”

See, there’s a weird thing about Self-destruction, mirrored in this film, of, is it outside forces, or was it internal, something inside you? And that is the question this movie continues to pose, is the cause internal, or external? 

Now lets look at the characters. The team, minus Lena, was chosen because they all had issues in their lives, and so were not going to be too terrible to lose in the likely event they died going into the shimmer, just like all the previous teams were chosen (this is important)

We’ll go in death-order, starting with Cass, and....kinda Anya. Cass clearly lost a daughter to Leukimia. There’s a story in here that I don’t know if I just caught onto subtext, or missed the reveal, but I’m 70% sure her partner at the time was in fact Anya, (Anya’s canonically wlw, Cass mocks her for hitting on Lena, maybe a bit too passive aggressively, Anya was most distressed by Cass’s death) Now, Anya’s problem was drinking and drugs, likely taken up after their daughter’s death. Through that, Cass left her, and now they’re on this mission together, and likely going to die. So there we have, self destruction before now. Their daughter’s death: External, outside of their control. Anya’s drinking, though, is her choice, how she chose to handle it: Internal. Cass leaving Anya, leaving them both completely alone: Internal. Kind of. 

Cass’s fear she talked about with Lena, getting her to choose to come out first when Lena and Ventress sense trouble. Internal, her choice, almost, but a reasonable one. The bear eating her, obviously External. 

Then, Anya becomes a villain of the piece, blaming Lena for Cass’s death. Internal choice, she suspects Lena, going through her things. External, she finds out Lena HAS been lying about her connection to the soldier Kane, and could very well have gone insane and been the one to kill Cass. Internal choice: She ties up her teammates, trying to determine if they’re crazy, but now we have an interesting pickle, don’t we. Are they crazy, or is SHE crazy for tying them up. 

In my opinion, neither, while they’re all under enormous amounts of stress, and their bodies are LITERALLY changing, it doesn’t seem to be having a direct influence on their sanity. there is logic in Anya’s actions, and Lena’s and everyone’s. but it just...clashes in traumatic ways. 

Finally, Anya hears Cass’ voice. External. She goes to chase it. Internal. It’s actually a horrifying bear monster that eats her. External. 

Moving onto Josie. In a team full of scientists, she’s the nerd, which is sweet, but she’s also overly shy and doesn’t much speak up. Cass informs Lena, and us, that she has self-harm scars on her arms. This is pretty clear-cut (pun not intended I swear) self-destruction. But Cass also states, she wasn’t trying to kill herself. She was trying to live. 

We’re never given a reason for Josie’s self-harm, but...and here’s where it gets a bit personal....as someone who’s struggled with self-harm in the cutting sense, I get it. It’s not about wanting to die. It’s trying to find something to live for. 

Josie throughout the film doesn’t feel like she has that, which is why she’s chosen for the assignment. 

Her fate is the....least clear, though its heavily implied she turns into one of the plant people, a statue. In this sense, she gets to live. She chooses this fate, in some ways, choosing to become part of the shimmering world rather than die in it like Cass and Anya. I think. There’s also her decision to save Lena by killing the weird demon bear, an internal choice, which I’m guessing plays into that, but. thats a bit more detailed for me. 

Now, Dr. Ventress. Ventress is the psychologist who’s been sending people into the shimmer, choosing people who fit the profile of nothing to lose, choosing them, and sending each and every one of them to die. Internal choice, causing extreme guilt. Then, she gets cancer. Sort of an external force. Kinda. Cancer is a weird disease, really. It’s not something attacking you, going in, ripping out your guts and destroying you. No, it’s...it’s you. Its your body, just....making more of itself, doing it’s job to keep you living, but it works overtime, taking over the REST of your body, until it destroys itself. Its a scary condition Hollywood LOVES to use, because it is TERRIFYING and REAL to the general public. Almost everyone knows someone whose had some type of cancer. For me, my mother had Thyroid cancer, and to this day, I am at risk of that from having genes with her, not to mention having ovarian cysts that could turn into cancer if I don’t monitor it and control it. You wanna know how they confirm and monitor your ovarian cysts? Its Not. Pleasant. Everyone has seen the way Cancer destroys lives, and if I were to put money on it, I’d guess one or multiple of the creators of this movie has seen it too. 

Anyway, VENTRESS. She’s going to die no matter what, so she decides to lead this exposition and find the cause of all this craziness thats been killing the people she chooses. Internal choice. She pushes onward, no matter the deaths of her comrades until she reaches the lighthouse.

And then. Weird. Fucking. Shit. Happens. She...finds the source of all this...ish. An alien comet. Kind of. And she says it’s....inside her...the annhilation. AND THEN SHE FUCKING EXPLODES. AND IMPLODES. Sort of both? A light comes out of her and she like...is made into this fiery ball of changing cells and. I don’t. What the fuck. 

*ahem* whatever the fuck that was, I think a combination of implosion and explosion kinda ties back to internal vs external cause pretty decently. 

Now, Kane and Lena. At the beginning, we’re shown that they had a wonderful marriage, full of smiles and happiness. But....later through flashbacks we’re shown...not necessarily so great. Kane is gone a lot on assignment. This leads Lena to having an affair. Kane finds out and gets assigned to the shimmer assignment. So is it Lena’s fault Kane went? Kane’s fault for Lena’s affair? In the end, neither of them, of course, are fully capable of the other’s actions, but, there’s a contributing factor. Internal choices combined with External forces. 

We only see clips of Kane’s mission, film he left behind. In the first film, what I think happens because I couldn’t watch all of it, was him cutting open one of his teammates, right in the stomach. Once it’s open, we see....something....moving inside the man. Anya’s convinced it’s a trick of the light, and that Kane went insane. While it’s true that he never explains himself, like I said, beyond stress we don’t see much indication that these people are “crazy” or hallucinating or anything. The man being cut doesn’t scream, he knows what’s going to happen. Kane and the other living soldier are Concerned. More likely, they were getting footage of what was moving in him as data, data that later teams could hopefully find. 

Now as for what the thing WAS??? I’m not sure. Partially because I was COVERING MY EYES CAUSE A GUY WAS BEING CUT OPEN but partially because I think it could be one of 2 things: 1, a snake that had got inside him (external) or 2, his LITERAL ORGANS coming to life (internal)

Lena makes similar observations. She samples her own blood, seeing that it’s being mutated. She convinces Anya and Josie to keep pushing ahead, both for logical reasons, and somewhat tricking them, because she still hasn’t found what she wants: answers about what happened to her husband. And oh she gets them. Back to the trippy finale. 

See, she finds a tape of Kane blowing himself up. On this tape he shows far more signs of mental instability, but that makes sense as its then shown that the man behind the camera? Also Kane. A duplicate of him, specifically. The duplicate’s existence seems to cause Kane’s distress, causing him to doubt himself. External force. But he blows up the grenade. Internal choice. Here we come to the suicide aspect. Was it really too much to handle? He professed his love to Lena in the end, so did her affair influence his choice? It certainly caused the duplicate to come to her. 

Finally, Lena gets a duplicate made of herself, after Ventress explode/implodes. It mimics her...imperfectly. She attacks it, it attacks her. Not to mention she passes out several times in the fight, so we, the audience, lose track of her. whenever it 

And in the CLEAREST METAPHOR FOR SELF DESTRUCTION I’ve ever seen Lena (?) EXPLODES HER DUPLICATE. Like???? do I need to explain that one???

Okay now onto the murky ending. Kane is suddenly better! but he says...he doesn’t think he’s Kane, preeetty much confirming he’s the alien created duplicate. And Lena....Lena doesn’t say if she’s the duplicate or the real one. I don’t think she knows. And while the change in her eyes would indicate, no, she’s the duplicate....I’m less sure. Is she Lena, affected and changed by the alien? Or the alien, affected and changed by Lena? Does it matter?

Oh but we’re not done yet. Now, for the last character, who I’m dubbing “Annhilation.” It’s the alien, the cause, the sci-fi part of this film. The alien is....cancer, on the land, almost directly. The comet hits the lighthouse. External force. But....

As “Lena” Says at the end, it....it doesn’t destroy, not really. It changes. It changes what was already there. It mimics, imperfectly. The WORLD is self-destructing itself, the comet is just....the catylyst. like Cancer. It’s your own cells that are actually being destructive.

In the end, Loxam smiles after Lena finishes telling her story. “So, it was aliens.” as if that answers everything. 

And...yes? but it wasn’t....trying to kill. It...started something in the world and killed itself. “What did it want” Loxam asked. Self-Destruction is not that simple. Like, it changed things but...all the destruction, REAL destruction, was either self-inflicted (Kane) or inflicted from the beasts in the world (the bear and crocodile)

Self harm....in any of it’s forms.....is strange. It goes against out biological functions, but....it also goes with them. It doesn’t make logical sense, it never has. But there’s only one way to get through it, if at all possible. It’s how Kane, fake or not, got back. And How Lena got back. 

The others, all of them, had nothing to live for. They were WILLING to be possibly killed on this mission, thats why they were chosen. Lena, though, Lena had a goal. She wanted to get out, She wanted to save her husband. She had something to live for.

I do have a negative thing about this showing of self harm, or....i don’t know, maybe a thing I’m not clear on. All throughout, destruction is...made beautiful. sorta. Bodies are arranged in patterns, plants grow out the sides of crumbled buildings and...i don’t know....how I feel about that.....I just. I don’t know. 

ANYWAY in conclusion, very well done movie, if a bit confusing at times, Glad one of the poc didn’t die first, though was sad the lesbians also died. though. They kinda all died. so. at least we got the representation at all? 

So yeah. Sorry for the book report, but I hope it was mildly entertaining?

[whispersandwhiskerburn]

Interrogation

Summary: You have a suspect for your murder investigation—but what he has to say was nothing like what you expected. Characters: Dean, Reader, Sam (mentioned). No pairing. Word Count: 900 Warnings: None. SFW. Canon plot. Dialogue heavy. Author’s Note: Tiny Drabble alert: I needed to write something to get me through the rest of my grading marathon. So I gave myself 30 minutes. This was the result. Hopefully I can go back to writing something in my usual style/length in the next week or so.

“My name is Dean Winchester. My brother Sam and I, we hunt monsters. And we’re damn good at it.”

You raised an eyebrow, throwing your file on the table between yourself and the handsome suspect.

“You know you sound insane, right?”

He smiled, leaning back, his body language screaming ease, despite the handcuffs you’d slapped on him a half hour ago.

“It’s been said before.”

You studied him for a moment longer as he just smiled at you, as if he couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be than cuffed to the table in your interrogation room.

“Let’s talk about facts instead of conspiracy theories for a minute.” Those pink lips of his pouted contemplatively, then he shrugged and nodded for you to continue.

“I’ve got a witness that puts you and your brother breaking into the house of one of my victims the day after she was murdered. I’ve got your car, filled with a ridiculous amount of weaponry and assorted other insane things. I’ve got three homicides looking for a home, and I’ve got this,” you tapped the file with his name on it, “which doesn’t exactly paint you in the most innocent of lights.”

“Oh yeah, I bet that’s a good read.” He winked at you. Actually winked at you.

Who was this guy?

You smiled back, playing along. “Oh yeah, a real page turner. Quite a few plot holes and unanswered questions though—apparently you’ve been dead at least twice now,” he chuckled, rolling his eyes in a way that implied you were missing something, “and you’ve been arrested, what—8 other times?”

He squinted, “Twelve, I think. Kinda hard to keep count.”

You nodded, pretending that statement was completely reasonable.

“Well you say you hunt monsters. So do I. The only kind of monster that’s real—a disturbed human monster. And this particular monster is guilty of killing three women and cutting them open to take their livers, probably for some kind of ritual or sale on the black market. And, the most important fact of all--my evidence points directly at you.”

Dean Winchester leaned forward, shaking his head, “don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen people do some twisted, crazy, horrible things. I’ve seen people become monsters. And I’ve got full respect for you and your job trying to keep everyone else safe from them.

“But that’s not the monster I mean. And that’s not the monster that’s been hunting your town.”

You leaned back, trying to decide if the earnestness you were reading from him really meant the guy was insane. He wasn’t your usual drunk, raving lunatic; you hadn’t noticed any lying tics, and his and his brother’s name, which he’d offered voluntarily had checked out.

“I’ve been straight with you, because I know you’re going to get to the point where you see something that makes you believe me, in which case, you’ll need my help. And because if I don’t, since you’re good at your job, you’ll go head to head with this thing unprepared and it’ll be your liver it takes. I’m in the business of saving people as well as hunting things, so I’ll take the new line on the record for you.”

He waited a moment for you to digest this, and you found yourself interested in spite of the logical part of you that wanted to go ahead and draw up the paperwork for a psych eval.

“I’ve hunted one of these before, in ‘03. Only once though—and I’ve been hunting my whole life. Your monster is so rare, I don’t even know what his name might be. I just know what he does.

“He, or she, was human. Something happened—I don’t know what. A bite, a spell, something.

“And then it was no longer human. Looks human, walks human, talks human—but a human can’t tear an oak door off the frame of a house in one pull like the house you pulled Sam and me out of. A human can’t reach into a person’s body with its bare hand and rip out someone’s liver.

“And a human wouldn’t sit beside the victim as he or she goes into shock, bleeds out, and gasps for air, dying slowly. This monster, that used to be human, sits there and eats its victim’s liver.”

He’d lost his cocky attitude. His face was grim, his eyes haunted, and if he was acting, the man deserved an Oscar because it was the best performance you’d ever seen. Every cop instinct you had said that he was telling the truth, or that he believed he was anyway.

His voice was quiet, intense. “The longer you sit here with me, keeping my brother and me away from this hunt, the more likely it is that you’re going to lose someone else in this town.”

You’d had all you could take—the hairs were standing up on your arms. He was getting to you. You stood up without saying anything, heading for the door.

“Detective Y/N.”

Your hand on the knob of the door, you turned, eyebrow raised.

“I’m sorry.”

You could tell it wasn’t a confession.

“I’m sorry this thing came to your town… and, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I told you the truth about it. Once you know the shadows that go bump in the night are real…it makes the darkness in the world a lot darker.”

Did you like this? Check out my MASTERLIST!  Feedback is life!

To my Forevers, the ones who keep me writing: @2wonderinsighlents, @adaliamalfoy, @alcpegasus22, @andrastesflamingtitties, @angelofwinchester17, @alexastacio, @anokhi07, @ariethegreat98, @atc74, @arryn-nyxx, @autopistaaningunaparte, @avasmommy224, @babypieandwhiskey, @bennyyh, @benjerry707, @boxywrites, @bringmesomepie56, @bucky-thorin-winchester, @but-deans-back-tho, @captainemwinchester, @carry-on-ms-believer, @casownsmyass, @cfordwrites, @chaos-and-the-calm67, @dancingalone21, @d-s-winchester, @deafgirlsarecooler, @deandoesthingstome, @deanfuckingwinchesterrr, @deansarms, @deanscherrypie, @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog, @deanwinchesterforpromqueen, @deanxfuckingadorablexwinchester, @deliciouslyshadowymilkshake, @demonangelimpala, @demondeansdomme, @end-lessnights, @faith-in-dean, @fandommaniacx, @feelmyroarrrr, @fiveleaf, @gallxntdean, @graceforme86, @i-is-for-inspiring, @ilostmyshoe-79, @impala-dreamer, @jalove-wecallhimdean, @jarpadandjensenaremyheroes, @jencharlan, @jensen-gal, @jotink78, @just-another-busy-fangirl, @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms, @katnharper, @kittenofdoomage, @kristaparadowski, @lipstickandwhiskey, @littlegreenplasticsoldier, @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid, @love-kittykat21, @loreleilara, @lunarsaturn88, @luv4jensen, @lynnebla, @marilynnlew, @millaraysuyai, @mogaruke, @moonstonemystyk, @mrsbatesmotel53, @mrsjohnsmith, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mzpearlz, @nicolesyneah25, @nightmaredean, @notnatural-supernatural, @paintrider13-blog, @pinknerdpanda, @plaidstiel-wormstache, @rizlowwritessortof, @roxy-davenport, @salvachester, @seenashwrite, @septicxsoulxdarkxmind, @scorpiongirl1, @skathan-omaha, @spnrvt, @supernatural-jackles, @supernaturalyobsessed, @theafinnerup, @thedevilinthedetails, @thegreatficmaster, @vote-for-pedro, @waywardjoy, @wi-deangirl77, @wonderange, @wheresthekillswitch, @withoutaplease, @wonderless-screwup, @xtina2191, @yoursmilemakesmeloveyou, and @yume-deaimashou

[momantaichi-blog]

The Eternal Digi-discussion: “Koumi or Jyoumi”

After watching the 4th Digimon Tri Movie: Soushitsu, i’m getting the feeling that the relationships between each of the digidestined are taking shape.

From my point of view,  Takari seems to be a very close friendship between Hikari and Takeru, i don’t know if Takeru feels atractted to Hikari in a “romantic” way, but he does feel a great love for her, and he cares a lot about her and what happens to her, like a sister-brother bond. For Hikari, it’s a little different, because it seems she’s starting to develop some kind of feeling for him, maybe a little atracttion outside their brother-sis-kinda-like relationship, maybe they would end up together, but it’s not certain.

On the other side, “Taito” feels completelly like a love-hate friendship from both of them, like a bromance, that could be fueled by their shared interest in Sora.

Sora does have feelings for both of them, in Digimon Adventure 01, we saw a close relationship between Taichi and Sora, and later, on the Our War Game OVA, it’s proved that there’s something going on with them, but it seems like Sora it’s in love with Taichi, but he doesn’t go for it, so Sora just moved on, with her broken heart. Later, on the Diablomon Strikes Back! OVA, we can see that Sora and Yamato are dating, just like it’s told on Digimon Adventure 02, so it’s like Sora was in love with Taichi, but he didn’t make up his mind, so when  Yamato started to ask her out, she just gave the chance.

But in Tri it seems that Sora and Yamato do have something going on, but Sora seems to feel something for Taichi, making their love triangle very complicated.

On the Epilogue from Digimon Adventure 02, it’s implied that Sora and Yamato did had a family together, but maybe on Tri, we’re going to have some Taiora that’s not going to work, ending up on the Sorato canon epilogue we all know. And at last, but no least the girl that is breaking all the ships on Tri, Mimi Tachikawa. It’s very common to find Jyoumi shippers arguing that Joe and Mimi do share many things and have a lot on time together on screen in Digimon Adventure 01 and Digimon Tri, which, in fact, it’s true. But to me, the relationship between Mimi and Joe it’s like a “best friends” thing, in which Mimi feels very confortable with Joe to talk her things and that kind of stuff, because Joe it’s a very comprehensive person, so it’s easy for Mimi to feel confidence with him as a close friend.

Joe, on the other hand, it’s a very protective person with his friends, and he does care for all of them, not only for Mimi, for example, when he goes to visit Koushiro to see how is he doing.

But from my point of view, i don’t feel like Joe and Mimi have interest in a “romantic” way for each other, they’re just good friends, just like the relationship that Koushiro haves now with Takeru.

I am a Koumi shipper since like, the past 17 years, since i watched the Digimon Adventure EP 10, i thought they were a funny couple, althought Koushiro has always been my fav digidestined. But in the Adventure 01, it doesn’t seems to be a lot of evidence from a “romantic” relationship between Mimi and Koushiro, but what it do seems to be it’s the fact that Koushiro it’s a very distant self-centered kid, and Mimi is a very attention needed girl, who always wants to be the center of attention. The fact that in Adventure 01, Izzy doesn’t seems to give a damn about Mimi, gave Mimi a reaction like “Why on earth you don’t see i’m so pretty, but not in a Notice me, senpai, way”. Later, on Adventure 01, Koushiro starts to have more especific weight in the digidestined team, being in charge about taking decissions, and the fact that all the other digidestined rely 100% in Koushiro for what all are going to do. Mimi noticed that, and in some kind of way, she felt secure leaving things on Koushiro. Later, on Digimon Adventure 02, Mimi moved to North America and lost contact with all the digidestined except with Koushiro, maybe because he is like a tech freak and he is always in his laptop sending e-mails and stuff. Maybe, when she was in North America, the fact that she kept in touch with Koushiro made her miss less Japan and the other digidestined.

In the Diablomon Strikes Back OVA, Koushiro was the one who knew that Mimi was coming, and as soon Mimi arrived to Japan, she went directly to Koushiro’s. I guess that she felt Koushiro was trying so hard to find a solution for the conflict, that she wanted to help him being just there as a company. I feel like it’s a cool relationship because Koushiro always is so hard pusher with himself, and Mimi does help him in taking things easy and calm. In all the Diablomon Strikes Back OVA, Mimi and Koushiro were together, Koushiro was so stressed about the situation, taking the boss position, telling everyone what to do, and Mimi was just there for him, trying to make him chill out and relax.

3 years later, on Digimon Tri, things were just too similar, Koushiro was the one who kept in touch with Mimi, and he just invited her in a cassual way to cross the whole ocean just for a football game, which it’s illogic and ridiculous, BUT, Mimi did reply the message and accepted to go, asking Koushiro to book her flight and that stuff. Mimi was joking, but Koushiro did check flights prices, and when she arrives in Japan, as soon that she sees Koushiro, she starts to tease him with flirting jokes and things like that, because she notices that Koushiro has developed atracttion to her, which it’s exactly what she always wanted on Digimon Adventure 01.

It’s pretyt obvious that Koushiro it’s in love with Mimi, and i think that it’s pretty obvious too that Mimi knows it.

When the digidestined hang out all together, Mimi always seems to be close to Koushiro, in the Hot Spring Bath trip, Koushiro was choosing his clothes but was in despair, so Mimi just went by, so chill and relax and told him what to wear, which it’s very funny, and i think that way are going to be the things if those two end up together, Koushiro being in despair for not knowing what to wear and Mimi choosing for him, just like a regular wife. Other interesting things it’s the fact that Mimi it’s always making compliments to Koushiro, like, about his office, his software, and stuff like that, saying that she is impressed. To me, it sounds like she’s in impressed with the man who is becoming Koushiro, and that reinforces the fact that she always had 100% trust in Koushiro and his decissions, aknowleding him as the true leader, instead of Taichi, who appears to be distant in Tri, and clearly not qualified on Digimon Adventure 01 and 02.

I’m not saying that Mimi is in love with Koushiro, but i feel like she is developing a clearly interest on him.

But let’s move on to what matters, the fact that in Digimon Tri, Koushiro and Mimi seem to get along very well, but it’s clear that both of them crash in discussions, mainly for the reason that their personalities are so different.

But to me that’s not a bad sign, i think it’s a good sign for Koumi shippers because both of them have some kind of chemistry thing going on, a love-hate thing, but the thing that makes it different its the fact that Koushiro likes Mimi in a “romantic” way, and she appears to know it.

But that doesn’t stops them from getting in a hot discussion between Koushiro and Mimi, so in a twisted kind of way, it’s pretty much like those relationships between two people that like each other, but no one is going to make a move.

Digimon Tri is a sea of Koumi hidden references:

When the reboot occurs and all the digimon return to the digiworld, Koushiro is trying so hard to keep them all together, which he fails because the digiestined ended up splitting each one from the other. There’s a scene when Koushiro is calling everyone to find a way for them to recover their digimon partners, and he calls Mimi, she sees the phone, and it’s thinking to answer or not, which it’s a curious thing, because Mimi rarelly doubts of herself. But that is maybe because she was sad about losing palmon, or maybe she was still mad with Koushiro from their previous discussions.

But then, there is this other scene…

Koushiro is in his office, working the shit out of him to find a way to recover their digimon partners, on the edge of becoming crazy, and then… Mimi enters to his office.

He didn’t notice her, just like in the past.

But her reaction it’s different, she doesn’t made a scene or any noise, she was just there, watching him, in a confussed way, like she’s is doubting something. Then she cleans off the mess, and leaves him his Tea, and she just walks away, having a sad look, but to me it seems like she was in fact, still mad with him, but she does worry about him, and she is praying with all her heart the Koushiro founds a way to solve this thing, like he has always done in the past.

Koumi in the Digiworld:

The digidestined arrive and found their partners, just like Koushiro planned it, but their partners didn´t recognize them, which makes everyone sad, but Koushiro, who is so energetic telling Mochimon about all the stuff, talking everending just like he always does, and then…

the scene.

Mimi just gets by, on side from Koushiro and starts with that attitude that she always gives to Koushiro like “It’s ok, let’s take a rest, stop talking Koushiro-kun, and relax” and she interrupts him BY FUCKING TRYING TO FEEDING HIM.

I know Mimi it’s a very expressive person, and she always demonstrates her feelings, in special when she loves someone, she just goes there and hug, like Mei, just the opposite of what Koushiro does.

But that, that was just too much…

this time she did worry about Koushiro and wanted him to take a rest, and, in some kind of way, which i don’t clearly understand, she thought that feeding Koushiro was a nice way for her to say thanks for everything, like don’t giving up on recovering their partners, just like all the others.

Koushiro blushes to death and cuts the biggest and best Koumi scene ever, but the message was sent.

Mimi does have feelings for Koushiro.

But we still don’t know if Mimi knows.

Then we have this scene when all the digidestined are sent far from each other (just like in adventure 01, which ended up with Mimi and Koushiro being together), but in this time, Mimi ended up with Tentomon, and then she starts talking good things about him and she says that it’ll be useful if Koushiro was there, with her, because she knows, no matter what, Koushiro always have a way to solve things up, which is proved later when they battled on ice.

For ending up, i still don’t know if Koumi is going to end being a real thing, like in canon, but it my eyes, we have evidence that Koumi IS A THING.

And i will say that in all the ships which Mimi is involded with, Koushiro is taking the lead. Thanks for reading.

[cookinguptales]

update: lmao I am so fucking doped up right now. sorry to the world that I got behind on shimamatsu translations, but have you ever tried to translate while on muscle relaxants? it’s a bad scene. god, I’m in a lot of pain rn.

gonna talk about some of the movies from the film festival below the cut. doped up af but I’ve seen like 14 movies so far, hella. tomorrow I probably have to skip bc I just took two cyclos and that is gonna fuck me the hell up.

movies I’d recommend:

thelma a norwegian film which is basically a coming-of-age story for a fundie christian girl who goes to college and realizes she’s a lesbian. oh, and that she has insane supernatural powers. (it’s kind of carrie-ish but with canon f/f, but imo a lot better than carrie.) the love story is really interesting, if incredibly dark. like if you’re in the mood for dark, kind of mindfuck-y f/f, this is your film. despite the very long upcoming list of potential triggers, it’s not as scary or brutal as it sounds. lmao. highly recommended, probably the film I’ve enjoyed most so far. (tw: violence, nudity, drug use, death, [spoilers] child abuse, possible mind control, child death)

custody a french film based on a short film that I saw a few years ago, and it’s fantastic and gut-wrenching. the short film was about a woman running away from her abusive husband with her children; this feature-length film is about what happens when a stupid judge ignores what both the wife and children have to say and gives him joint custody. (spoilers: it doesn’t end well.) interestingly, it has all the same cast as the original short film, though the kids are markedly older. idk if it’s meant to be a straight sequel or if one just inspired the other. really well done, tho, I was fuckin white-knuckling it in the theater. people were like. yelling. the climax of that film is INTENSE. probably the best quality film we’ve seen so far, though I think the plot could’ve been tightened up a little. (tw: very explicit depictions of physical and emotional abuse, very terrifying moments. [spoilers] but no child death.)

I, Tonya tonya harding biopic. I’m not really a big one for biopics, but this was a good one. it tried to explain how harding’s life led her to where she got, but didn’t necessarily paint her as some innocent victim. it was sympathetic where it needed to be, empathetic where it needed to be, but rarely let her get away with bullshit. lot of good performances here, but Margot Robbie (even though she looked way too old for the part) did a great job. (tw: explicit child/spousal abuse)

the villainess Korean lady-gets-revenge-on-shitty-men bloody action flick. not really my genre, admittedly, but I feel like anyone who likes this kind of movie would really enjoy this one. very Kill Bill-esque. it’s the story of this girl who basically gets passed around between illicit assassination organizations, in-fighting, revenge on all those who wronged her, etc. it is Very Bloody and many people die. the action scenes are HQ if you are into that kind of thing. I was mostly invested in the huge amounts of f/f potential. like at one point she joins an assassin organization where all the operatives are female and that whole part of the movie!! was very gay!! the actual canon relationships are het, but there is a strong potential for dark f/f murderwives here. (tw: haha oh boy if it’s a problem it’s probably here. implied CSA, child abuse, creepy relationships, violence, gore, nudity, child death, everyone else death, non-con facial surgery...like it’s bloody af okay...)

love means zero this is a documentary about nick bollettieri, who’s this super famous tennis coach. (apparently.) I knew next to nothing about the world of professional tennis going into this documentary, but I still enjoyed it bc wtf this guy is a piece of work. it’s basically all about how he fucked over a ton of people (especially kids) when he was trying to make tennis champions. and how he succeeded! by fucking over a ton of people! the interviews with him are honestly kind of wild bc he’s just such a crazy narcissist. this was especially weird for me to watch bc I grew up in the sarasota/bradenton area and never even knew all this shit was going on there. it was weird seeing my hometown on the screen like that, but also interesting. (tw: child abuse, just generally being a fuckboi)

MOVIES THAT WERE OKAY but like I had Issues

brimstone and glory I feel like I really recommend going out to see this one if you can see it on the big screen. it’s a documentary about a fireworks festival in Mexico and honestly the cinematography is stunning. it’s just so, so, so cool. but the actual documentary part is kind of boring sometimes, and you gotta have a strong stomach bc it also shows some of the injuries people get at this insane festival. like I don’t think showing that is a bad thing; I think it’s the only responsible way to make a documentary about this festival. like it’s amazing, it’s so cool, but also these people are like. going blind, losing hands, dying. and taking their kids!! like if you cannot handle watching kids in dangerous situations, don’t go!! dad was freaking out, lmao. (tw: graphic depiction of real-life injuries)

radiance a Japanese film about a woman who writes audio description for blind movie-goers. the same director made An (Sweet Bean Paste) a couple years ago, which was notable for its depiction of what Japan does to its citizens who have Hansen’s Disease. (leprosy.) it was weird to me when that movie came out that none of the reviewers really talked about that aspect of the movie; they were all like “UGH IT WAS SO POINTLESS AND CLOYING” and I’m like “did you miss the point of the movie?? which was critiquing the social ostracization of these people in Japanese society??? did that completely go over your heads????” anyway, I appreciated the depiction of PWD in Japan bc having lived there while disabled, I know that shit isn’t easy. that’s why I went to go see radiance. it was...okay? I think the most interesting part was when they let the blind characters talk. the movie was otherwise pretty pretentious and self-indulgent. lmao. like... it’s a rent, don’t buy situation.

marlina the murderer in four acts this movie was not bad! it’s an indonesian film about a woman whose home is invaded and she kills all the invaders. it’s definitely a film that critiques misogyny in indonesian culture, but I feel like it undercut its own message by showing such incredibly graphic rapes. like honestly, I don’t really ever recommend movies that have very graphic rape scenes, but I guess she does end up killing her rapists during the rape scenes. I just. I feel like it could have been done in a way that won’t get people all sexually excited while watching a violent rape. : / y’know? other than that, though, I really liked the female characters in the movie and sympathized with marlina’s journey trying to get society to help her and realizing she had to just go it alone with her female friends. bc like. she’s attacked by men, but she’s also revictimized by shitty ordinary men all the time she’s trying to get to town, report the attack, etc. and so are the other female cahracters. so they just. have to be vigilantes. (tw: GRAPHIC rape, violence, mild gore, spousal abuse)

newton Indian film about a guy going out to the jungle to get votes in the main election. but like. none of the people out there even know who the candidates are, there’s a lot of anti-government violene, the villagers are caught between anarchists and the police, it’s just a mess. and I do think the movie was good at showing the futility of it all and showing how the people who really end up getting fucked over are the poor people in rural areas, but at the same time like. pacing was uneven, tone was ???, and I found the protagonist irritating. and there was what appeared to be some pasted on het which made no sense. (like honestly I cannot figure out why she ever wanted to talk to his dumb ass again.)

blade of the immortal it’s takashi miike making blade of the immortal. I mean. I feel like if you are familiar with those names, you already know if you want to see it or not. if you aren’t, idk how much you’d like it anyway. after already having watched miike’s ace attorney adaptation, I sense a pattern. the guy just looks at a HUGE corpus (like a VG with 5 cases, or a manga with 40 volumes) and is like “welll....then I guess we better make things fast.” so you have Big Bads being introduced in the same breath that they get killed, 30-second backstories, just a frenetic pace and a huge amount of information, and it’s confusing and overwhelming if you don’t already know it. and honestly, I haven’t read BotI so I can’t say how faithful this was. but if you already love the characters and just want miike’s trademark bloody action flick style, then I mean. fair enough. this here’s a bloodbath. I had a hard time getting emotionally invested as a fresh viewer, tho. highlight of the evening: an old man walking out grumbling about how he only likes classy martial arts movies, and apparently this did not qualify. having seen a lot of classics of the martial arts genre, still unsure what a “classy” martial arts film looks like. (tw: offscreen rape, death, blood, gore, just an unreasonable amount of killing honestly like it was funny by the end, attempted CSA)

gemini this is a “neo-noir” thriller. so essentially a murder mystery. unfortunately, the title of the movie basically gives away the entire story lmao. so while the build-up wasn’t bad, the entire last 15-20 minutes of the movie are a total letdown. it was nice to see canon f/f, I guess, but I feel like the movie never went in hard enough on that. like were they trying to make a point about how hard it is for celebrities to have same-sex relationships? I’m not sure!! I can think of a lot of things that would make this plot more interesting, but they just didn’t do them. acting was fine, I guess. John Cho was in it, even if his character was pointless. Zoe Kravitz is always fun. (tw: I mean it’s a murder mystery. so...murder.)

DID NOT ENJOY

scaffolding (israeli film, boring af)

the workshop (french film, kind of boring, makes questionable points about neo-nazis)

[sinnhelmingr-a-blog]

AG post-canon fic idea I’ve had for Hel under the cut. Beware of potential spoilers from the book.

Hel laying low in a small town after everything’s gone to shit. She traveled to Scandinavia a few months before, tried to browbeat her original into giving her back her family, but the original told her American counterpart no. So the American Goddess Hel is apathetic, hardly leaves the house, is in a lot of ways low-key suicidal. She’s not trying to kill herself, but she’s not exactly going to fight it if something else comes for her. You think having a death-seeking death goddess in your town is what makes things weird. It’s not.

Enter the actual main character of this bullshit, a local teenager, whose friends are all involved in writing stories and posting them on the internet. One of their clique has gotten very popular for her horror writings, mostly centered around a vaguely Ctuhlhu-esque creature who is extremely monstrous and kills unsuspecting characters in her stories. She has a very small cult following, but the story of the monster spreads. Mythos springs up around it. People photoshop it into old pictures and make up fake accounts for it -- mirroring a lot of real world reaction to certain creepypasta or internet stories. A lot of people get exposed to this thing through the stories and apocrypha. People start to believe.

It starts stalking the town. Belief makes something real, after all, is the lifeblood of gods and heroes and ideas and yes, even monsters. The teenagers try to go Stranger Things on its ass, or IT, or whatever parallel you want to draw. Reality ensues when this thing straight up murders its original creator. Hel gets involved the day of the funeral. There’s something weird going on. She wants to know more.

The kids start talking about their crazy ‘Our friend wrote a thing and now it’s alive and killed her’ plot like Hel’s going to laugh them off. She doesn’t. She wants them to print her off a copy of the story to examine. (Oh, it’s all posted online, Ms. Lokadotter, I’ll link you-- I don’t have a computer. What? I don’t have a computer. Never trusted the little bastards.)

The kids do as asked, however, wasting a complete printer cartridge to bring the story folio to her. She leaves them a twenty and plugs in the home phone in case they want to ordera pizza or something while she reads. The kids are even more horrified to realize she has no phone and no TV.

(Ms. Lokadotter  how do entertain yourself? It's called books, Karen, what the fuck. Do none of you read anymore unless it's backlit by a screen?)

The team gets to sit in silence once Hel strips them of their phones and other electronics and dumps them in the potted plant on her front porch. They can have them back once they leave. As she’s thumbing through the stories, the main character starts wandering. Thinks they hear their dead friend in the spare bedroom. They make the mistake of opening the door. Hallways. a long, long series of hallways, and smoke on the floor -- no, wait, that's mist. Mist, and a long hallway, and lots of doors-- Hel, out of nowhere behind the kid and tugging the door shut again. 'What the fuck is wrong with this generation-- I finished the story, come on, we're all going to have a little sit down.'

So, nice death goddess has to explain to the kids that if enough people believe in something, it’s real. It’s how things work, if you worship them, believe in them, make some kind of offering to them, they are real. Their friend made her own folk spirit. It derails into a hundred little questions as these teenagers want to know how far that goes, how does it work, can we do that to anything, is Santa real or does he keep dying every time someone grows up, is this like that one Guardians movie someone’s little brother likes, did enough ignorant racists believe Trump into the White House-- Hel, screaming into her hands, especially when one kid gets a Hob Gadling idea of ‘IF I DON’T BELIEVE I’LL DIE CAN I BE IMMORTAL???’ She doesn’t answer that one. The main character eventually gets everyone back on track, with the decision between ‘Make people believe this thing can/is dead’ or ‘Let Ms. Lokadotter handle it on her own since she’s kind of like the monster maybe wait what are you again???’

Hel shoos all the kids out to go home and try not to be alone for a while, and yes you can get your phones back from the porch plant now.. The only issue is main character’s mom works nights, so they would be all alone for the evening. Hel just sets up the couch for them. They have a nice heart to heart about losing people, and sometimes the people you love are jackasses but you still love them, and about belief and gods and all sorts of things. The kid learns her name is Hel, which means nothing to them, but they make a note to look it up later. They go home in the morning feeling like they’ve really been touched by the ‘other side’ of things, more than the thing they’ve been hunting has done.

After the first attempt to kill belief in the monster fails -- the deletion of all the original stories, if anything, kicks everyone into a frenzy -- it falls on the kids to ask Hel to do whatever she can. She tells them to wash their hands of it, try to forget about this, tells them again not to go anywhere alone. Leave it all up to her.

The main character does anything but, always helping her out, trying to put this thing that killed their friend in the fucking ground. Hel does eventually corner it, this younger and far more widely believed thing, and it’s implied they fight, but the thing is already warping the main character’s mind, the way their friend wrote that it could drive people crazy. Hel brings the kid back from the brink once she’s killed the thing, steadies them. Says she's going to be going, now. There's a lot of questions that are going to be asked in the next few days. She'll feel a lot better if she's not around to be questioned. Take care of yourself, kid. Tell your mom thanks for the job offer, it was real nice of her.

Kid has had their first real taste of weirdness. Weeks later gets a letter in the mail. A postcard from Florida. 'Don't stop believing xo.' But the best part is the photo attached in the envelope. It looks like their dead friend, pressed to the window of some beach house, looking out at the sun and waves. Hel's a gremlin, she's not fucking cruel.