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adamsrcnan · 2 years ago

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Wrote a little jerejean thing!!

Jean wasn’t entirely sure what kind of person he was if he was being honest with himself. Most of his life was spent trying not to die, and when he looked back at his life, he wasn’t entirely sure what it was he was holding onto. What pieces of himself wanted to stay.

Maybe it was Exy. Maybe it was the small moments where he’d look out at the fans in the stands with fake 3’s painted on their faces, and Moreau jersey’s on their backs, and he’d allow himself to feel good about the little following he had secured that supported him. Maybe it was the quiet private moments between himself and Kevin, where they’d whisper reassurances to each other in French, and patch each other’s wounds up like sorry fools. Maybe it was the fleeting feeling of control he would experience every so often on the court when he’d smack a ball so hard and it would land precisely where he wanted it to. Or, maybe it was that deep and daunting fear that, if he ever took his own life, Riko would find a way to bring him back and torture him for trying to leave.

Jean wasn't sure.

But, as he sat there on the sidelines of the Trojans' court, grounding himself with the weight of his racket in his crooked hands, he thought maybe his answer could be found in the feeling he got in his chest as he watched his captain glide across the space.

He knew what the feeling was. Had felt it in the quiet, secret spaces shared with Kevin, in Renee's gentle and cherubic nature, but he also knew this was different. This was more. This was scary. This was thrilling. For the first time in his life this had made him want to really truly stay.

The only thing Jean had ever understood about himself was that fear was what drove him. Fear of pain and of punishment was what pushed him to get up after every knock down, every injury, every cruelty. That no exceptions would ever be made for him and no excuse ever valid. That he was never going to make it past graduation, and he was okay with that. It was the only kind of fear Jean knew. He didn't realise there could be any other.

Until he met the force of nature that was Jeremy Knox.

Now as he watched Jeremy jog across the court, gesturing with his outstretched arm as he called his team to action, he understood there was another kind of fear that existed. A good kind, though no less overwhelming. But Jean found he liked that.

Jeremy Knox exuded a natural charisma Jean had never seen before. It filled the space of every room he stepped into. Jean was in no doubt everyone in Jeremy's sphere knew this. It was there, in the way bodies moved towards him like they couldn't get close enough. Arms always thrown over his shoulders and palms always clasped a little too tight, and a little too long, after a hand shake or a high five. Eyes that skittered away but always went back. Because nobody could ever resist staring directly into the sun.

Jean closed his eyes then and leaned his head back against the court walls. Bright spots filled the darkness behind his eye lids, all shaped like Jeremy's face. He breathed in deeply and focused on the sounds around him. Sneakers squeaking on the floor, the swoosh of a racket cutting through the air, the echos of balls smacking against the floor and the walls. His body jumped slightly as footsteps ran past a little too close, but he kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady. He was safe. He was safe here.

"Jean."

His heart stuttered. His eyes opened.

There was his sun.

Balancing himself on one knee, forearm resting on the other. Eyes locked on Jean's, smile filling his cheeks.

Jean Moreau was in love.

Jean Moreau wasn't sure yet what kind of person he was. He thought perhaps he would never know. But he knew now he was a person who could fall in love. A person who could feel a gentle soft thing like this. Jeremy had stilled the raging storms inside him just a little bit more and more every day.

Now, Jean knew for sure that this was something he was holding on to. Because he wanted it. He wanted it fiercely. He wanted it desperately. And Jean had never been able to want before. He thought he'd hate it. But he loved it. It scared him because of the way it made him want to heal, want to reach out, want to find peace. Because of the way it made him want to stay.

The love he felt for Jeremy Knox made him always want to be bathed in his light.

Jean leaned forward pressing into Jeremy's space. Eyes scanning his face. Jeremy's smile never wavered, in fact it got bigger as his eyes stayed fixed on Jean's.

"Ready to jump back in?" Jeremy asked, still all smiles.

It was infectious and Jean's lips twitched.

Their faces were inches apart and Jean closed the gap as he pressed his forehead into Jeremy's. He smiled fully then, as he felt Jeremy press back.

They were sweaty and smelly and Jean breathed it in.

"Oui," he answered.

Jean spent most of his life trying not to die. He could never figure out what he was holding onto.

Now, as he stood on the Trojans' court in the Tronjans' colours, his big crooked hand wrapped around Jeremy's small soft one, as he took his weight and hauled him up off the floor, he felt that soft thing wrap around his heart.

In that moment, Jean Moreau determined, he would spend the rest of his life living.

#wrote this little thing #idk #enjoy?#jean moreau #jeremy knox #jerejean #all for the game #aftg #the sunshine court #tsc #the foxhole court #tfc #nora sakavic

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sunny6677 · 10 months ago

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Hideaway.

A Shitpost Tom x Kevin fic (OC X Canon).

(A/N: ...oh boy./lh)

Summary: During February, Cupid decides to use an alternative method of making people fall in love this year since he ran out of bow and arrows, and he ends up sort of using it on Kevin—not knowing Kevin already is in love with one woman in particular.

————

It was an ordinary night in the town of Sedonah, as the clouds hung above the various buildings and blocked the stars from seeing in on the view. The moon, as always, hung within the dark cyan sky. And the various vehicles from below moved quickly—rapidly along the stretches of gray road from beneath.

A chill hung in the air. The town did seem normal as always. With the occasional people passing by, and a certain pair of children in Halloween costumes running around. However.. there was one common theme around the town.

On various buildings and signs, there were different themes of pink or red. Different symbols of hearts, chocolates, bow and arrows. Yet—this was sort of to be expected. Along with the chill, there was the tint of romance in the air. For as of now, the month of February hung over the town, and on this current day, it was the fourteenth.

Restaurants were clearly open, fairly lights strung either inside or outside of the buildings, with candles on different tables in the center of different couples. Various flowers of different types were on sale within floral shops. And all kinds of heart-shaped boxes containing chocolates were to be sold within local stores. Along with little cards containing silly messages.

And on this night—in the various sets of clouds hanging over the town, there was.. something. A small patch of cyan. No—in fact, it was an opening. A small, circular one revealing the few specks of stars within the sky.

For a few moments.. there was nothing. The opening just simply laying there in the lumps of dark clouds. And then—a dark shape suddenly forced itself within the view of the opening. A round, but large shape. Almost.. the shape of a head. Well—no. It actually was a head.

Round, blue eyes poked out from the head. Specks of freckles were splattered across its plump, reddened cheeks. A grin was spread across its lips. Curly, ginger hair was sprouted from it's head. And.. ah. Of course.

"Eheheh.. looks like it's my time again!"

Who wouldn't recognize this face? It was merely Cupid, the little cherub who would always appear during this time of year. For each time on this month and on this very day, he would fly around—bearing his bow. And anytime he'd lay his eye upon any sort of lonely person, or any person who seemed in need of love—he'd throw his arm back with his arrow wrapped in the line of his arrow. And once he'd let go, the arrow would shoot, piercing into whatever part of the person he aimed at—and inducing the effects of the romantic magic on the arrow into the person like a syringe.

Of course.. this wouldn't work if he went after people who were already in love. For love arrows didn't work that way. In fact, they were the only thing to do with romantic magic that wouldn't cause any effect on a person in a relationship already. Which is why he so often used it. Yet.. he found himself into a little bit of trouble lately, so, the only thing he could use this year was..

A round, neon-pink ball—which would explode like a bomb once it hit the target and induce the effects. But, because of the possible risks, he had to be completely sure that whoever he was aiming at wasn't in love already.

He shifted on the lumps of clouds where he sat, letting his eyes glance and squint over the bright beams of light from the buildings.

"Okay, Cupid. You're.. probably gonna end up making your boss mad if you throw this at someone who doesn't need it. There's.. lots of things that could go wrong! Hahah! Ha—mm—"

He shook his head.

"No! No. Don't panic. You got this! Just.. just ignore the possibility of getting smited! Let's just try finding someone who needs some loving. Heh.. let's seeeeee..."

He squinted, letting his eyes adjust to the various rays of light that were practically blinding him. And once he did, he let himself look down at the people within the town.

There was a blonde woman sitting by herself, chattering happily on her phone. She was alone, but she could have easily been talking to someone she was in a relationship with. Though she also could have been talking to her crush. Perhaps he could maybe try listening in.

"—And that's why I think bathrooms are just a scam created by the government! Hahaha!"

Yeah. It definitely wasn't her crush.

He let his eyes scan over an elder woman, who was accompanied by an older man. A pair of women who were obviously a couple. And..

He blinked. In front of a bright pink store which was most likely one that sold candy judging by its sign—and also it's name ('Candy Club')—just simply holding up a trashbag in his hands, was a slim but tall looking man with black hair. Judging by the pink, blue and white uniform he wore—he most likely worked there.

Yet.. his face. There was something about his face that gave Cupid a certain.. feeling within his chest. The circles beneath the man's slim eyes, the rough way he proceeded to drop the trash bag into the can, the frown on his lips. The way he turned and walked with his shoulders slumped. It was sort of a pitiful sight, even if Cupid didn't know what was going on or if he had someone to love.

..but.. someone with that kind of sweaty, awkward-looking, 'used-to-have-dreams-in-high-school-but-is-now-completely-miserable' kind of look couldn't possibly have someone to love right?

..well, he could at least maybe take a shot at it. And hope to God his boss wouldn't get mad at him if he were to be found out.

He inhaled slowly. Reaching his hand back, he grasps the pink ball in his hands. For a moment as the man kept walking, his grasp tightened. Should he have been doing this? He should probably at least spy on him to ensure that whoever this man is doesn't have a loved one already. Otherwise, the bomb might..

..he.. didn't feel like possibly getting caught by a mortal again.

Launching his arm backward, he finally aimed it foward, and the ball fell from his grasp.

...

Kevin was exhausted out of his mind, to be completely honest. The usual work shift had been somewhat of a nightmare. And not only because those damn kids brought him trouble again (this time—somehow managing to knock a whole shelf over despite their small size)—but because of the customers in general. And he hadn't even seen Tom at all today! It.. wasn't like she had to visit him or anything, but not seeing her during a work shift felt kind of unusual.

To be honest.. everything about this particular day of his sucked. He made it late to work this morning, his boss was planning some other stupid event for the store, and.. ugh.. it was just awful.

For a moment, he thought of Tom's round face. She always came to visit him, right? Maybe he'd be able to tell her about everything like he usually did anytime something went wrong.

He then shivered. The chill of the night was practically drowning him with how unbearable it was. Though he didn't want to really have to get to the task of restocking the shelves that hadn't been knocked down, he hated standing out when it was cold like this.

He began to let his feet guide him to the automatic doors, when—

He.. wasn't sure how to describe it. It was like the automatic doors were there just a moment ago. But the next, he found something clouding his vision. A pink, cloudy haze of smoke. Completely surrounding him.

As it surrounded him, he felt something flow through his nostrils. At once, he opened his mouth and began to cough—feeling the smoke slowly come in through his mouth. It tasted like.. something he couldn't describe. Just like a rush of air at first, then an overwhelmingly chocolate-like taste.

He shut his eyes forcibly—grunting and coughing out. Had someone thrown a smoke-bomb at him or something? Was this some kind of prank? The smoke didn't fade for a few more seconds. But the more it eventually faded as he slumped over, there was a strange feeling in his head. A gentle, somewhat euphoric feeling that he wasn't sure how to describe either.

He began to feel a fierce thumping in his chest, so firm it felt like he'd hear his heartbeat in his ears. And a warm flush began to wash over him like a wave. He thought it might have been the smoke, but even after it faded, and he found his vision met with the automatic doors again, it was still there. Despite the chill, he felt as if he were sweating.

"Wh—What the.."

Coughed he, placing a hand over his mouth. He began to nearly tumble foward, his feet stumbling and firmly stepping on the stone ground. He struggled to catch himself so much he nearly went stumbling foward, and he heard the automatic doors come open.

He felt the chill from inside the store brush against him. But no matter how much it did, it did nothing to rid of the chill.

What was this? He tried to glance back toward the doors which were now closed, yet there was nothing in sight from behind the translucent yellow besides barely visible splatters of pink on the ground.

Had it been poisonous gas? Did someone just try to kill him in some odd way? Thoughts of whatever this was at all filled his head, trying to think of what all that just was.

And.. yet, his brain didn't come to any sort of thought that was similar to what he was about to experience.

#spooky month #kevin spooky month #tom spooky month #spooky month oc #oc x canon #canon x oc #sweetprincess #skid spooky month #pump spooky month

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skaianet-rituals · 7 months ago

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Attempt at a headm8 count!!!!

Last updated 5/20/25

- Fefeta

·No subsys(?) - Nepeta/NK/Dokuro, "Princess", Flawless, Sarah Lynn, Emberlynn, Devi M, Rei, Lain/Nevada Tan, Birdie/Jack/Rorochan, Christine Chan, Alfred Alfer

·Eddsworld subsystem - Edd, Tord, Tom, Matt

·Adventure Time subsystem - Simon, Betty, Fionna

·Inside Job subsystem - Reagan, Brett

·Alpha trolls/Beforus (A1) subsystem - Damara, Rufioh, Mituna, Kankri, Meulin, Porrim, Latula, Aranea, Horuss, Kurloz, Cronus, Meenah

·Beta trolls/Alternia (A2) subsystem - Aradia/Andrew B, Tavros/Shinji, Sollux, Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, Vriska/Asuka, Equius, Gamzee, Eridan, Feferi/Mabel/Poppy

·Beta kids (B1) subsystem - June (+John), Jade, Josh, Rose, Jasprose, Dave, Crow, Nanna

·Alpha kids (B2) subsystem - Jane, Jake, Roxy, Rox, Dirk, Hal

·Spritebloods + Swapkids subsystem - Davepeta, Fefeta, Erisol, Arquius, Joey, Jude

·Cherub subsystem - Calliope, Alt Callie, Caliborn, Alt Cal

·South Park/HP/SPurb subsystem - Kenny, Karen, Butters/Marji, Leslie/Trixie/Miku/Monika/ENA, Kyle, Stan, Eric/Gumball/Jax, Tweek/Pomni, Craig, Clyde, Token, Jimmy/Derpy/Spongebob, Wendyl/Twilight/Misato/Ragatha/YanChan, Bebe, Nichole, Heidi/Minty, Red, Yentl, Thomas/Gangle/Jon, Christophe/Paul, Gregory/Patryck, Estella, Pip, Damien, Pocket, Rebecca, Mark, Gary, Tammy/Ramona/Laurel, Charlotte, Terrance, Dogpoo, Scott, Kevin S, Mike/Streber, Henrietta, Pete, Micheal, Firkle, Tricia, Ike, Kevin M, Shelly, Randy, Towelie, Satan

#text #fefeta.txt #taggy #sysmate intro #hs subsystem #sp subsystem #system check

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sglgiles · 2 years ago

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Good Omens 2 - it’s all connected, people!!

I can’t rant about this anywhere else. Reddit is being suspiciously well behaved about spoilers, I refuse to use Twitter, Threads is… crap. Facebook is just for memes and checking on my mother.

GOOD OMENS SEASON 2 SPOILERS BELOW!!

First things first, I am fully with the theory that Crowley was the Arch Angel Raphael. The prince of heaven sent to hell was not the Morning Star, it was Crowley. Proof: he still had access to files of Prince grade or above. The Arch Angel Raphael is the only Arch Angel we haven’t encountered yet. He didn’t introduce himself to the lowly cherub Aziraphale because Azi would know who he is!

Azi is poisoned by The Metatron. The Metatron is wearing black, not white. That leads me to be suspicious of his motives to begin with. The glare he gives Crowley is horrid. I yelled when I saw it. Would he really allow him back in to Heaven when he hates him that much? Azi drinks tea. We know he likes tea. He does not like coffee. This is where my skills as a barista come in. Almond syrup would cover the taste of cyanide. Oat milk would also help with upping the sweetness.

In Scotland we saw how Crowley reacted to poisoning himself with Laudanum. Ethereal beings act out when heavily poisoned by more than just alcohol. The Metatron poisoned Azi so he wouldn’t act as he should.

Crowley and Aziraphale are too powerful together, too set on protecting the humans, too adverse to war. Of course the arse hat supposed voice of God would need to separate them and get Aziraphale under his control.

According to Catholic Church dogma, God can not be wrong. Everything God does is ineffable and infallible, therefore they can’t forgive a demon who fell (see Kevin Smith’s Dogma….. I will be coming back to this). Crowley can’t be forgiven and allowed back in to Heaven. That would prove God wrong!

Muriel. A wee unassuming lower Angel. Doesn’t do much but only appeared recently. What if it’s an Undercover Boss situation? i was a Mormon during my teenage years so studied the Old Testament to a ridiculous level of detail. The God of the Old Testament is Jesus who then decides to come to earth and there learns what it is to be human. What if God decided to see how the angels are being treated by their higher ups and took on the form of a lower Angel, but then got stuck in the role? It’s a Pratchett thought that things take on the mentality of the things they take the shape of (see any Witches Discworld book). So maybe God got stuck as a lower Angel? (And we are back to Dogma, a film both Terry and Neil liked)

The new plan is the Second Coming. Anyone raised Christian knows that that is the full adult return of JC to earth. What if God is already there? Now running the bookshop, and relearning what it is to be human? What if the Metatron doesn’t know she is God?

these are my unfiltered and not well thought out ramblings.

damn you Neil…..

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #crowley #good omens spoilers #good omens crowley #good omens season two #good omens aziraphale #good omens theory #good omens thoughts #rambles #ramblings

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shellsweet · 2 years ago

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Uhoh! More comfort/angst sketches for your feed!! 👀

@sakuracards

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #sketch #fanart #tmnt oc #oc #donatello #raphael #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #angie #Kevin #cherub #peachy #tmnt fanart #tag more later

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cymorilcinnamonroll · 5 months ago

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CHAOTIC CUPIDS PRE-ORDERS Open!

Coming soon! Chaotic Cupids will be released in eBook, trade paperback, and jacketed hardcover formats on July 22, 2025!

Love is in the air…or is it? When it comes to love, anything can go awry.

What if Cupid’s aim isn’t so perfect after all? What if the arrow finds the wrong target, or the right target at the wrong time?

Romance can blossom in an ancient castle, at a local café, or on an interstellar generation ship. But what happens when magic, technology, planetary alignments, or sheer bad luck turn romance into a disaster?

What if the meet-cute is not so cute?

What if the mystical globe crystals tell you that you have more than one soul mate?

Or what if you’re a robot who has downloaded feelings?

Here is your chance to free fall into a world where love, magic, and wonder can devolve into chaos and confusion. Upgrade your situationship with soul mates, arranged marriages, death personified, terraformers, and deals with the devil you know. These 23 original stories and poems take aim at your favorite romance tropes across galaxies, through portals, even into the afterlife…

Brought to life by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira—and their graduate students at Western Colorado University—Chaotic Cupids: When Love Goes Awry showcases the beautiful chaos of love in all its many and wondrous forms, with unexpected results, hilarious mistakes, and terrifying consequences. (Winged cherub optional.)

Once Upon A Time … Love got in the way. This wasn’t the plan, but the story might be better that way.

Pre-order here!: https://wordfirepress.com/.../chaotic-cupids-when-love...

(Find my poem on Apollo's ill-fated lover Daphne, told from her perspective as a tree!)

#apollo #greek mythology retellings #daphne

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mask131 · 8 months ago

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I was listening to this beautiful video-tribute to "Twisted Nerves" and it made me want to post about something I need to rant about. About AHS, about its downfall, about the mediocrity of "Apocalypse", about how AHS literaly betrayed and sold itself out in the most toxic way.

youtube

I will not make this post long or extensive, because the elditch gods know there is a LOT to cover with the artistic AND moral decay of AHS, so I will remain on the point this video triggered. Tate Langdon.

In the first season of American Horror Story, that was later named by fans "Murder House" but which originally was just "American Horror Story", Tate Langdon is a dangerous and toxic person. It is the entire point of the show: he starts out, to the other characters (Ben, Violet) and to the viewers as a mentally deranged but still charismatic, likeable and engaging character. As we discover more about him, we learn of the sad and painful parts of his backstory, of all the factors that encouraged him in his downfall to darkness, we see him do morally reprehensible things and criminal actions, but we also are given the somewhat understandable (in their twisted logic) justifications for these actions. We see him as a misguided lover, as a pained teenager, as a neglected child, as someone in despair for some sort of love, as the product of familial trauma and untreated mental unbalance coupled with the nefarious supernatural aura of the "Murder House" itself...

... but then comes the later reveals, and the later twists, and that's where we see who Tate Langdon truly is. That's when the viewer, and the characters around Tate, lose their sympathy and their pity for him as his own wicked ways and open hypocrisy come to the light. Spoilers alert for anyone who has not watched AHS still and wants to keep the reveals fresh but - we learn that he carefully and coldly raped the mother of the girl he was in love with, we learn that he always knew that he was dead and that he was a ghost - meaning not only he kept lying to his own family and to those that tried to help him, but also that many of his grand displays of tears and self-hatred (like the one he had in front of his own victims) were entirely fake and improvised. That's why Violet, despite loving him, has to reject him, and that's why Ben sternly chases him away: because by the end of the series, the audience is meant to understand that Tate is, indeed, a dangerous sociopath, a person who will emotionally manipulate people to get out of trouble or obtain what he wants, who will lie even to those he cherishes the most, and who - when he is forced to be honest - is cold and remorseless towards the vilest of his actions.

And the dangerosity of Tate, the black heart beating in his chest, is already indicated by the music theme chosen for him. The theme of Twisted Nerves, a movie precisely about a dangerous, psychotic, disturbed murderer who looks like a charming, angelic, innocent cherub of a man-boy. There was a deleted scene in the first season, during Tate's "dream sequence" of shooting the school, where he was supposed to see blood pouring down the staircases of his highschool in an homage to the elevators of blood in Kubrick's The Shining. It was ultimately removed (can still be found in the bonuses), but it would have driven another parallel to a different horror character: Jack Torance from The Shining. Another man seemingly compelled into doing horrible things and hurting those he love by ghosts within a cursed building... but Jack Torance clearly was disturbed and abusive before getting into the haunted hotel, something unhealthy lurking behind his seemingly nice and peaceful facade. The same way Tate's charm is meant to be a lure, and while ghosts did influence his crimes, they still just played on a darkness already there rather than planting some form of evilness inside of him.

[The first season of AHS also came out the same year as "We Need to Talk about Kevin", and the titular character of Kevin needs to be compared to Tate due to presenting both cases of dangerous teenage mass-murderers fueled in their motifs and actions by a toxic relationship with their mother.]

The first season of AHS is really NOT subtle in showing the viewer how evil Tate truly is, deep down. From his actions literaly leading to the birth of THE ANTICHRIST and a prophesized end of the world, to his final shot being side-by-side with Hayden in the darkness of the house. Hayden and Tate are meant to be parallels, disturbed and toxic lovers of the father and daughter of a same family, and the two threats to Vivien in different ways. If the show's subtle displays aren't enough for you, interviws with the showmakers and actors insisted on the fact that Hayden and Tate were "the two masterminds of the ghosts" inside the house - a sentence which did confuse the fans at the time, but that in retrospective makes sense.

Tate, and Hayden later, are the only two ghosts within the Murder House that are fully connected and knowledgeable about the inner workings of its dark power. They are not trapped reliving their life over and over again, they are aware that they are dead (though Tate pretends he is not), they even use quite "deep" ghost powers to assert a form of dominance above other entities (Tate being the most talented at this, as we see him for example use the Infantata as a weapon in the pilot episode)... They are disturbed and dangerous individuals, and by this fact they seem to enter into a strange symbiosis with the house itself and whatever dark force animates the building. The fact the House is implied to have literaly used Tate as its main tool, or "avatar", to perform its final goal of creating some sort of demon-baby, shows how deeply connected he is to the House's evil, how he seemes to have fully embraced it, how the darkness of the curse filled him or matched perfectly his own darknes...

And that's where things went wrong. Cut to American Horror Story: Apocalypse.

AHS Apocalypse is one of the bad seasons. It feels like a pastiche of itself, almost like a parody of AHS itself, especially since it attempts to recreate the world of its earlier seasons, but in a rushed way, with a lot of the original staff in charge of the visuals and set-building gone (see the video I shared earlier about the visual decline of AHS). "Apocalypse" was literaly first teased by Ryan Murphy as "Murder House and Coven crossover", breaking furthermore the original rule of AHS of not making direct sequels and always exploring different universes. What I want to highlight however is that "Apocalypse" was LITERALY a season designed to be fan-baiting, fan-service, fan-pleasing. It was a product made to be sold to the fans of AHS rather than being an actual AHS season.

And it was not made to be sold to any AHS fans, oh no! It was made to be sold to a very specific demographic. To the younger, teenage, mainly female, audience that got introduced to AHS with "Coven", a "younger" generation of AHS fan who most related and loved "Coven" and "Murder House", and were into the show for something similar - dark humor, witchy aesthetic, edgy teenage romance, angsty teenage drama... So many moments in Apocalypse screamed so hard "MEME ME! I'm a bitch-slaying line, MEME ME!" as opposed to the actual moments from Coven that became memed but still were written in-universe, in-character, and perfectly flowing with the narrative... "Apocalypse" was very clearly not made for the more mature audience that for example leaned more into "Asylum" and was more interested in the cinematic techniques, the homages to the horror cinema, a more serious horror, and the talent of famous actors.

And the handling of the Tate and Violet romance in "Apocalypse" showed so well how this season was made to please fans and feel like a fanfiction come to life. Because that's a fucking bad fanfiction, that even outrights contradicts the worldbuilding of earlier seasons or worse, twists it to fit in a forced happy ending that leads to absolutely toxic reading of earlier seasons. Because that's literaly what the "Murder House" episode of AHS was about - having a fan-favorite (Madison Montgomery) stroll into Murder House, literaly blow some sort of drug into the face of Violet, and offering a happy ending to her ghost as she reunites with a now all good and nice Tate (played by an Evan Peters a bit too old for the role now) and they become a wholesome couple... With the official explanation that all of Tate's evil was actually caused by the house's demonic forces possessing him, and it all went away into his baby, aka the Antichrist, so now he is good and pure and should be forgiven for everything. Farewell careful nuances and complex character portraits of the early seasons!

...

Why did they do that? The answer is so openly simple, so much in front of our eyes. To please the fans (or rather the specific type of fans) who have asked for this for so long and written years of fanfictions about this. Because Tate Langdon is still a sexy, dramatic, Romantic (in the historical sense of the term) lover, a lot of the teenage audience of AHS identified with Violet, Evan Peters was a male sex icon of his time, and a lot of young viewers took "Murder House" at face value and first-degree without any nuance. That Tate is a serial killer, a rapist and a sociopath only adds fuel to the fire, as Tate was also partially inspired by the Columbine shooters and we KNOW how many fangirls these two have. As a result, a true massive dissonance was formed between what the show told you (the final episodes of Murder House clearly showed you everyone rejecting Tate and him joining the only other character as disturbed and dangerous as him, Hayden) and what the fans saw (it's a tragic love story, and Violet is too mean, and the show just robs us of our deserved happy ending, and poor Tate is a little darling we need to cherish).

Most of them got introduced to the "Whistling Song" by AHS and think of it as just a cool song - they don't understand that it is meant to be a sound-clue and cultural-clue to the audience about Tate's true nature, the same way the reason Coppola's Dracula's opening theme is used for the flashbacks to the Montgomery times is to point out to the audience that a crime against God/nature is about to be committed out of despair, and that for this act against all things holy a monster is going to be born. These people sought and seeked a reading of the romance between Violet and Tate as just... 90's "Ghost" meets Romeo and Juliet. Completely missing the fact that Violet and Tate are a perverted version of the story of Romeo and Juliet.

AHS had already capitalized on the VioletXTate story, while making it more "positive" (as much as anything can be positive on AHS): with the Zoe and Kyle story. Interviews and commentaries by the writers and showmakers openly and frankly confirmed this: they said, repeatedly, that they wrote Zoe and Kyle purposefully to mirror and echo Violet and Tate. To bring back a similar chemistry between the two actors, so as to drag a bit something for those that loved Murder House, while also playing in a more straightforward way the "Romeo and Juliet" angle to their couple as more positive and *cough cough* "healthy" *cough* "star-crossed lovers" (Kyle even being qualified as a "Romeo" character). But these two were NOT Tate and Violet, so the bad fans (because I'm going to say it, they're bad fans) were not satisfied, and by the time of Apocalypse Ryan Murphy had started to go a bit morally bankrupt and so he decided to literaly give the fans what they asked even though it gave the counter-message to what Murder House stood for.

Just have a bit of dust spat in your face by a random stranger, and you'll see, you can go back with your emotionally manipulative boyfriend! The guy you like is a serial killer? Just have him make a baby with your mom and you'll have a happy ending!

And this little thing is just the TIP of the iceberg when it comes to a LOT, a LOT of problems related to Murphy productions. I could go on so many different directions from this single example, but I will just mention two. On one side, you see this later habit of AHS of justifying, glorifying, excusing or morally "washing" characters NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKED and who are meant to be pathetic monsters. Tate went from one of the main villains of Murder House to being a sort of wholesome side-characters? I see this a prefiguration of the HUGE huge fuck-up they did with the character of Richard Rimarize in 1984. Taking a real-life serial killer that had only very recently passed away, and depict him on screen as justified in his insane belief and disturbing modus operandi, by painting him as some sort of evil super-powered messiah, instead of just the repulsive killer and rapist and scum that he was? This is sick. Like puking sick. But it is one step away from romanticizing Tate, from an angelic-faced sociopath to an ideal Romeo-like teenager, with the difference being that by 1984 Murphy had started to think romanticizing or glorifying real-life monsters was a cool thing to do.

Or rather, to be fair, I do not think Ryan Murphy intended to glorify these real-life monsters. The feeling I have from watching his shows is that he is the kind of person who doesn't see where he should draws the line when making real-life events fiction, and who imposes himself no moral limit when it comes to using historical figures as tools for a narrative or characters for a drama. He thinks he can pick-up real-life monsters like Ramirez and play them around like a puppet in a puppet-show with no consequences. The glorification and romanticization of it all only comes later, as a side-effect of his carelessness.

Which comes to my second point: "Dahmer". His Dahmer show did the mistake of hiring Evan Peters as Dahmer, to play him right after "American Horror Story", where Peters' main job was to play the seducing face, the sympathetic character, or the evil but still pleasing murderer. Plus, it was on AHS that Peters got his main fanbase and the fangirls, and that's where he became a sex-icon of teenagers of the 2010s. So to have him under another Ryan Murphy production, quite connected to AHS (Dahmer also appears in AHS), and playing DAHMER himself... already that was a bad move. No matter how much you want to "focus on the victims" and show how much of a monster Dahmer was, if you deliberately chose an actor known to make monsters sympathetic and who has gathered a large fanbase who treat him as a male pin-up... You are bound to undermine yourself at best, to unveil your hypocrisy at worst. Because you should know people will not come to this show to watch the suffering of the victim - they will come to see Evan Peters as Dahmer, and to thirst over him cosplaying an actual serial killer and rapist.

And there are many more things to say about the many, MANY problems surrounding "Dahmer", and the treatment of historical characters in later seasons of AHS in general... But I think this post is already long enough as it is, so we'll leave it right there! Unlike AHS, I know at which point I need to stop.

#tate langdon #american horror story #twisted nerves #ahs #murder house #ahs murder house #violet langdon #evan peters #ahs coven #coven #ahs apocalypse

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