#people will see the result of someone getting a story made into a movie

[askshivanulegacy]

I guess anyone can twist interpretations of things any way they want. But this is really such a narrow, stove-piped view of fandom AND of "media."

That "media" is someone else's artistic vision. It's not something in need of "repair" because it's not broken. It's someone else's ideas, not yours. You see the result of someone successful in pitching and generating those ideas, and in getting them produced in such a way that a lot of people have access to them and a lot of people talk about them. Neil Gaiman is no exception to that so-called "corporate ownership" or "mass culture" production.

But his stories remain his stories. And that goes for the creator of every other fandom out there. They're just part of the regular folk having been lucky enough to tell their story to a bigger audience.

Sure fan fiction serves different interests, but it's more a form of collaborative storytelling than trying to "pry open" someone else's story in order to "appropriate" their ideas. It's a form of folk art. It's a celebration of an original meaningful story. There's no damage. This isn't a patch job. People have been celebrating stories for as long as people have told stories. This is just more of the same.

💥🙌👏

[whispers-whump]

Some writing advice

that I like to use when I write. None of this is meant to be taken as hard and fast rules, they’re just things I like to do/keep in mind when I’m writing and I thought maybe other people would enjoy! <3

Never say what you mean

This is an offshoot of the very common “show don’t tell” advice, which I think can be confusing in application and unhelpful for scenes where telling is actually the right move. Instead, I keep the advice to never say exactly what I mean in stories.

By using a combination of showing and telling to hint at what you really mean, you force your reader to think and figure it out on their own, which makes for a more satisfying reading experience.

You might show a character getting angry and defensive in response to genuine care and concern. You could tell the audience that the character doesn’t see/talk to their parents often. But never outright give the real meaning that the character feels unlovable because of their strained relationship with their parents and as a result they don’t know how to react to being cared for.

Your readers are smart, you don’t need to spoon feed them.

Be sparse with the important things

You know how in a lot of movies there’s that tense scene where a character is hiding from something/someone and you can only just see this person/thing chasing them through a crack in the door? You get a very small glimpse of whatever’s after the character, sometimes only shadows being visible.

Do that in your writing. Obscure the important things in scenes by overdescribing the unimportant and underdescribing the important.

You might describe the smell of a space, the type of wood the floor is made of, the sound of work boots moving slowly across the room, a flashlight in the character’s hand. And there’s a dead body, laying in a pool of blood in the far corner of the room, red soaking into the rug. Then move on, what kind of rug is it? What is the color, patterns, and type of fabric of the rug?

Don’t linger on the details of the body, give your reader’s imagination some room to work while they digest the mundane you give them.

Dialogue is there to tell your story too

There’s a lot of advice out there about how to make dialogue more realistic, which is absolutely great: read aloud to yourself, put breaks where you feel yourself take a breath, reword if you’re stuttering over your written dialogue. But sometimes, in trying to make dialogue sound more realistic, a little bit of its function is lost.

Dialogue is more than just what your characters say, dialogue should serve a purpose. It’s a part of storytelling, and it can even be a bridging part of your narration.

If you have a scene with a lot of internal conflict that is very narration-heavy, breaking it up with some spoken dialogue can be a way to give some variety to those paragraphs without moving onto a new idea yet; people talk to themselves out loud all of the time.

Dialogue is also about what your characters don’t say. This can mean the character literally doesn’t say anything, they give half-truths, give an expected answer rather than the truth (“I’m fine”), omit important information, or outright lie.

Play with syntax and sentence structure

You’ve heard this advice before probably. Short, choppy sentences and a little onomatopoeia work great for fast-paced action scenes, and longer sentences with more description help slow your pacing back down.

That’s solid advice, but what else can you play with? Syntax and sentence structure are more than just the length of a sentence.

Think about things like: repetition of words or ideas, sentence fragments, stream of consciousness writing, breaking syntax conventions, and the like. Done well, breaking some of those rules we were taught about language can be a more compelling way to deliver an emotion, theme, or idea that words just can’t convey.

Would love to hear any other tips and tricks other people like to use, so feel free to share!!!

[3liza]

plastic surgery photos is one of my stupid hobbies and here are my collected brutal opinions about this

99.9% of rhinoplasties, boob implants and BBLs look worse than before and/or were pointless, horizontal moves. the people in the plastic surgery communities will egg you on and say your results look "better" or "natural" but almost all of them have body dysmorphia brainworms and dont know what anything actually looks like and have television opinions about what looks like a "natural" unmodified human

even though BBLS are usually really bad, fat grafting is usually pretty good, but it seems to be unreliable and resorption is completely unpredictable. this sucks because it really gives the best results in terms of volume transfer

i really really hate BBLs. i have seen one (1) BBL where the surgeon bothered to contour the stomach so it looked like anything other than a blotchy, stretched sheet of drywall. dont get me started on how shitty everyone's hips turn out, its like the doctor has only heard the human body vaguely described by aliens

you shuld be allowed to do whatever surgeries you want for whatever reason you have but most people have bad reasons and are wasting their money and taking pointless medical risks for mediocre results. you should have mandatory "this is what everyone actually looks like" classes starting in preschool and then a booster unit every year until you graduate. idk what the syllabus would be but i could teach it, easy

rhinoplasties IN PARTICULAR are almost always the wrong choice unless you have really really bad asymmetry, a deformity of some kind, etc, and any nosejob that involves a bridge reduction is going to look weird because they cant easily take down your nasion because its part of your skull. so you can ALWAYS tell when someone with a big nose tried to surgically buttonize and has this big prominent nasion leftover

almost everyone who got a chin implant should have gotten a bigger one, and chin implants and jaw enlargement generally should be a much more common surgery if your goal is to "look better". something happened in the last few centuries that made almost all of us develop recessed lower jaws (possibly changes in food texture) and now like 80% of the global north has an underbite. John Mew is a crackpot completely, mewing doesnt work for adults, BUT hes right that human jaw shape used to be really different. i mean we have skeletons of ancient people in large quantities, you can just look at them. this is like the first thing serious celebrities of both genders get fixed in their lifelong processions of plastic surgery but for some reason the general population of civilian surgical clients dont notice or prioritize it even though everyone you see in expensive hollywood movies looks like they can crack walnuts with those things and its universally considered a desirable facial feature. without exaggeration, almost everyone posting their boob jobs, nose jobs, and fillers in plastic surgery communites should have spent the money on a chinplant first before proceding to less important areas

BUT: for some reason chin implants trigger really really bad surgical regret/dysphoria during recovery for tons of people! even if the chin objectively looks completely normal and fine. not sure what the reason for this is, maybe humans are just visually sensitive about our chins

aAND: there seems to be an ongoing problem where surgeons are upselling clients who have already taken pre-anesthesia meds to tack on a chin implant last minute. this is crazy but i just read about ten of these stories on reddit. this likely accounts for some of the high regret rates

most chin implants are angled too far downwards to follow the typical 45 degree angle of the recessed jaw. probably most chinplants should be balanced by rear masseter augs to change the jaw angle itself. this is how celebrities get them installed

fillers continue to be a bad idea, in my opinion. more and more surgeons are starting to find out they are not "wearing off", they're migrating around unpredictably, and i would put $50 on fillers causing autoimmune problems. i think they are dangerous and should be avoided. also they usually look bad

blepharoplasty and minor facelifts starting in your 40s appear to be one of the best investments you can make in terms of long term structural collapse prevention.

if you arent dealing with some sort of actual medical problem or deformity, any facial cosmetic procedure that involves removing fat or paralyzing muscles seems to be a really big mistake prior to your 50s or 60s, because the volume loss, functional interruptions to normal muscle movement, and unpredictable symmetrical issues are going to age you rapidly. teenagers getting facial fat dissolvers is fully insane

botox is a valuable medical tool for migraines etc but imo it is not a good wrinkle treatment. laser and microneedling starting in your 30s to prevent fine lines establishing themselves as wrinkles is the better choice because again, paralyzing your FACE is not a good payoff and makes you look bad and weird. i cannot believe we have normalized this. i mean i can, society loves it when women do not express themselves etc. so glad this is becoming less and less acceptable

arm lipo/kybella should probably be more popular than it is. again, celebrities basically do not have arm fat ever, so its odd that this surgery is not more popular. i think i heard once that the bicep area is just really saggy so arm lipo is tricky because you usually need a bingo wing skin lift and the scars are impossible to hide. maybe theres some way to dogear the slack inside the armpit crease or something idk

here is my all time largest plastic surgery opinion: if you as a parent take your completely normal-looking minor child to a plastic surgeon to have their SLIGHTLY protruding or unusual-shaped ears surgically pinned back or normalized, you should have your children taken away from you and you should be prosecuted criminally. i am dead serious about this

[wcnderlnds]

scared of loving you | choi seung-hyun (t.o.p)

・❥・ summary: spending valentines day with your best friend/roommate is the norm but this year ends a little differently ・❥・word count: 1.2k ・❥・warnings: alcohol mention but that's about it ・❥・ authors note: happy valentine's day!! here's some tooth rotting fluff to celebrate <3

Valentine’s Day always seemed to come around so fast. People always seemed so excited for it, always on the search to find someone to spend it with. It was nice in a way that it spurred people to put in the effort but it had never been a day you looked forward to. It wasn’t that you didn’t like – you did but after one bad Valentine’s as a teenager, you never really cared. It was just like any other normal day. One that you would spend at home sat in front of the TV eating as many snacks as you could get your hands on. 

Love was great, amazing even but you had never experienced it properly. It was like you had closed yourself off from it which was ridiculous because you loved love. Or what you knew of it anyway. People told you it could be one of the best and worst things you could ever experience. Having someone that cared for you no matter what? Amazing but putting all your trust in them only to have them break your heart? Not so great. Maybe it was best you hadn’t experienced it because then that way you didn’t have to get hurt. 

The sound of the TV echoed through the walls of the apartment, your feet tucked underneath you as you rested on the couch, some cheesy Hallmark movie playing. If anyone asked, you’d say you liked to laugh at them but the reality was you always seemed to get invested in them. The stories they told (albeit some of the corniest to exist) were cute. Never in a million years would they happen to anyone but it was nice to dream. 

Popping a piece of popcorn into your mouth, a loud yawn was heard from the doorway which could only mean one thing. Seunghyun – your roommate and best friend of the last ten years – had finally woke up. Yesterday had been a busy press day for him so he’d spent most of the day sleeping. You knew better than to wake up a sleeping Seunghyun so you left him to it. Out of the corner of your eye you could see him padding into the room, throwing himself down on the couch next to you. 

“Not got a hot date today?” He asked, reaching over to steal some popcorn from the bowl you were cradling. You slapped his hand away much to his dismay. 

“You ask me that every year and my answer is always no. You know I never do anything today,” you shrugged, watching as he made a move again to grab some popcorn. Giving in, you placed the bowl on the small coffee table in front of you. 

“Yeah, and? One day you are going to have a hot date and I’ll be all alone.” 

“You go find a hot date.” 

“Why do I need to when I’ve got a pyjama princess right here?” He teased, raising his brows at you as he finally popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth.  

It was hard to stop the blush creeping on to your face. Seunghyun always did this. Through the whole time you’d known him, he always flirted with resulting in you blushing each and every time. He was the only person who could ever manage that feat, something he knew and used to his advantage. Your eyes looked down at the pyjama’s you were wearing, shrugging your shoulders. He was the only person you would ever feel comfortable wearing them around. With Seunghyun, you had no worries. There was no fear of him judging you, it was nice to feel like you could be completely yourself. He allowed you the safe space you had always wanted. It was one of the many reasons he was your favourite person to be around. It was also a massive bonus that he was extremely handsome. Maybe even the most handsome person you’d laid eyes on. You had told him so one night when you were drunk and he’d never let you live it down. 

“Wanna order pizza and watch these stupid movies with me?” You asked, smiling over at him. You might not have had a date but you had your best friend. That was all you needed. 

“Guess I can suffer through these stupid movies for you.” 

It was a few hours later, half eaten pizza on the coffee table, an empty bottle of wine on the floor as the two of you sat laughing watching yet another cheesy movie. The wine in the glass you were holding almost spilled out over the edge onto the carpet but you didn’t care. You were having too much of a good time. Seunghyun was sat right beside you, your head on his shoulder as you lazily grinned at the TV screen. His arm was around your shoulder, his fingers twirling a piece of your hair around his finger. It was the first time in a long time you felt content, curled up beside your best friend. 

But, he was more than just a best friend, wasn’t he? 

There had always been a hint of something more, something deeper between you and Seunghyun. There was a reason that for the last ten years the two of you had spent Valentine’s Day together, why you’d much rather be lazing around with him than going out and actually finding someone. There was a reason he made you laugh harder than anyone else, why your stomach would always do flips when he smiled at you. 

It was a terrifying realisation. Was this actually what being in love felt like? If it was, you weren’t sure if you ever wanted it to stop. The feeling of contentment, of feeling so... cared for and appreciated – it was everything. 

Seunghyun’s cheek rested on the top of your head, the domesticity of the moment making your heart pound. As if sensing you were lost in your thoughts, he decided to speak up, his voice softer than normal. “What’s going on in that head of yours, princess?” 

The silly little nickname he often gave you made you feel dizzy, the corners of your mouth twitching up into a silly little smile. Your free hand rested on his thigh, the contact sending Seunghyun into a frenzy much to your obliviousness. “Thinkin’ about how I think I might be in love for the first time.” 

“Oh yeah?” He lifted his head up to look at you, taking your glass and placing it on the table. “Who’s the lucky person?” 

You could hear the hope in his voice, the way his fingers gently brushed against your cheek now. You met his dark eyes, the gentleness of your voice almost taking him back. “I think you already know.” 

There was no hesitation as his hand rested on the back of your neck, leaning down to press his lips against yours in a kiss. All the hidden feelings finally getting their release. Your hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him impossibly closer to you as his hand tangled in your hair. It had started off slow, gentle but soon turned passionate. Your head cloudy as the feeling of his lips moved against yours in perfect harmony. It was very reluctantly that he pulled away, his breath heavy as he rested his forehead against yours. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he breathed, barely giving you a chance to reply before his lips were back on yours. 

Maybe Valentines Day wasn’t so bad after all. 

taglist: @ldydeath @infinetlyforgotten @justsisse @sherrayyyyy @come-as-you-are-111 @maskedcrawford

[comicaurora]

You mentioned in a previous ask about Arcane that wanting to do something better can be a great motivator, but recently I've seen a lot of discussion about fanworks created out of "spite" like Spiderman Lotus or that Transformers fan film. Do you think these come from different feelings, leading to their end result, or that the motivation just needs to be handled carefully?

Ah, I see the confusion. When you have ideas for what a story could do, and then the story goes in a different direction and bypasses what you thought it would do, that can be an incredibly useful motivator for using that unused inspiration for telling your own story. Taking someone else's completed artwork and saying "move over, idiot, I'll show you how it's done" is a recipe for hubristic self-immolation.

Setting out to "fix" someone's work has to be approached very carefully. Artistic criticism is a complicated skill, but it isn't treated that way. Especially in the age of the internet, several wildly different things have been conflated under "criticism", and I think that's why spite-motivated "fixes" almost always end up tripping on their shoelaces and falling flat.

Art critique - "fixing" someone's work - is about figuring out how to make the art the most effective version of itself. Determine what it's going for, and make suggestions for how the artist could improve the execution of that goal. Clarify a confusing moment, change the score a little to be more emotionally impactful, break up the pacing with moments to breathe, tighten up the pacing to maintain the frantic vibes.

However, the broad perception of what art critique is has been bundled together with several other forms of criticism, including snarky reviews (a judgment of quality rendered after a work is completed and aimed at prospective audiences so they don't end up wasting their money), general knee-jerk mockery (it is easy and fun to score points off of other people's sincerity via a little casual bullying), critical analysis (taking apart how a story works to learn from it, a useful approach for other artists trying to improve their own skills) and, of course, fanfiction.

Ahh, fanfiction! If you don't like a story, you can just take the characters, setting, premise, worlbuilding, and the general shape of the plot - ignoring the fact that at this point you've borrowed about 80% of the work that went into building the original story already - and then you can just make the characters do what you wanted instead. If you think Spider-Man would be better if everyone was miserable and grieving a dead buddy the whole time, you can do that! Two hours of misery for everyone!

This approach is ostensibly trying to accomplish what art critique does - to make a better version of the story. But in practice, it's almost never interested in interrogating what the story was actually going for. In fact, it's actively scornful of what the story was going for. It doesn't take it apart to see what did work, it just says "I didn't like that and I could do better" and produces something trying not to be like the original it disliked.

I kind of think of it like this. If you ate a meal and you were like "there's not enough salt in this," you would not produce a better meal by focusing exclusively on loading it down with all the salt you could find, even if you were starting with all the same ingredients. Do you understand how they were put together to begin with? How the meat was brined, how the vegetables were cooked, what seasonings went where? Do you think all it needed to make it work was salt?

So you get fanworks that do indeed focus on the part that the fanartist thought was missing. You get Spider-Man Is A Sad Jerk For Two Hours. It accomplished what the fanartist wanted, but it fails in its true goal of being Like The Original But Better, because it never actually made the effort to understand what made the original tick. Why do people like Spider-Man in his other movies? Well, there's lots of reasons that work for different audiences - he's funny, he's good-hearted, he's graceful and well-choreographed, his fight scenes are fluid and exciting, his dynamic with the people of New York is lively and comedic, he's hapless and hurting but he always tries his best, he gets knocked down but he always gets back up-- there are many reasons to like these stories. But if all you can focus on is what you wanted them to add, you'll have a lot of trouble parsing out what functional elements you'll need to carry over into your fanfiction to not lose the core of what made it actually mostly work.

If all you focus on is accentuating the bits you wanted them to do without recognizing the parts that were working fine, you end up with a heaping plate of salt.

✨ as the ask states, this post is very specifically about spite-motivated "I can do it better than the writers" fanworks and not fanfiction in general ✨

[girl-lostconnection]

I'm so sorry you have to deal with people being so demanding, and I hope that they actually listen to your post and stop, cause it's just really rude in general.

On the other hand, I, for some reason, keep thinking about your story of reader dying and the 141 grieving and how, for me personally, when it comes to one of my loved ones, no matter how much time passes, I just can't stop thinking about them, craving their love, the way that they loved, and how you can see the similarities in others but it isn't quite right, it still doesn't feel the same, and you're just never left satisfied when you want their love again and no one else can do that, because it's not them. You're still loved, yes, but it's not the same.

Idk. I just was thinking about that and was wondering if that's what they might feel. They still have each other and love each other, but I wonder if there are times when they want or feel like they need it to be like reader's way to feel better on some days, where little things that upset them were originally made better by something reader did, but now that they're gone they're just left with that feeling to simmer.

You know one of the things I had to learn while dealing with grief — it doesn’t become smaller. You just get bigger, you get more experiences the older you get and all of that grief is still there. But grief is just what is left of your love for the person who is no longer there.

I think for them it would manifest differently but I can definitely see Johnny trying his best to keep going because he knows he has three more partners and they have to keep going and they have to keep living. Because Reader wouldn’t be happy with them just ending it all, because there is so much more time left, so many things they haven’t done. I think for him it would be one of the things that would eventually result in early retirement. He already lost a quarter of his heart when he lost Reader, he doesn’t want it happening again. And as much as he loves being demolitions expert, he knows there is a different type of life out there. One that can give him and his partners stability and safety.

I think Johnny would be the person that despite it all still sometimes talks about Reader like they are still there. He mentions references to movies and music and books, he draws them in his sketchbooks, he mentions that “this is the dessert they always wanted to try”. With time it turns into a warm kind of nostalgia, the love that he carries with him, his grief manifesting in trying to compensate for everything Reader wouldn’t experience by living through it himself. And by living on. When his time comes he hopes to see Reader again and say “see? I did well, didnae i? It was a good life. A long life, like you wanted. Bet you are proud of me”

Like i mentioned before Kyle took it in one of the worst hits, he’d keep holding onto Reader’s clothes and mementos as long as he can. He googles obsessively brands of clothes, he finds exactly the same articles because even if these get ruined or good forbid someone throws them out — he will know what to order. It won’t be the same, but he could pretend that it is. He already pretends that he’s alright, he already pretends that the hoodies he’s wearing with Reader’s name and rank are just part of his standard uniform.

I feel like Kyle is a person who has never experienced a loss this big before. He never lost someone who was this close, someone who’s still in his head, someone whose voice he keeps hearing when he talks to himself. Kyle likes to imagine that Reader never passes on. That they are still there, maybe noncorporeal, maybe he can’t see them, but at this point he’d settle for anything.

I think Kyle was never one for religion but whenever he passes church he’d get in to light a candle and say a quick not even a prayer but sort of a wish. Like that’s the only way he can chat with you, like something holy could really pass his “I’m okay, love, I’m eating well. Last mission was shite, but you know how it is. You no longer come to me when i dream. Are you upset, baby? I’m sorry, I’ll be more careful next time, i know you don’t like me getting injured. Just please, come back. I can’t sleep well without you.”

Simon would probably have the hardest times adjusting to the absence of Reader, because he takes the longest time to accept their death. He tries so hard to pull away from the moment where he would need to actually process the notion that it finds him itself and hits him with the force of minivan.

There is aching that he can’t relief, there is itch he can scratch — there is a person who he could tell any of his jokes and who’d not just joke in return but laugh at it and this person is gone. They are not coming back, he can’t even find them somewhere to watch out of the shadows, he can’t stalk them.

Losing people like that is always the hardest because with living people you at least can call/text/send a letter with a carrier pigeon. You can come back and open old wounds, you can pick up the fight, you can look them in the eyes and get some closure. Simon is not getting any. He fights every step of the way, he drags his feet. He’s easily agitated, he feels like hitting his head on the wall every time something stabs him from inside reminding that you are gone.

He comes up with a joke and yeah, of course he can tell it to anyone out of 141, but he wants to tell it to Reader. He wants to tell it to them specifically because they’d have a funny response which they’d choke out of themselves by laughing so hard he actually starts laughing. He misses it. He misses them. He misses their smell, the feel of them, the way he could talk to them and they would just get him so well like no one else would. He doesn’t just lose a partner when Reader dies — he loses a friend.

Price is…Price is complicated. He’s one to bottle it all up and throw it so deep down it may never come up other in his subconscious habits. He makes tea for five people and not four, he shops for five, he still buys the snacks Reader liked, he starts planning celebration for their birthday just on the back of his mind until he catches himself doing it and just forces it all down deeper.

Price would be a high functioning alcoholic in his grief, but still an alcoholic. He drinks a little more than he should, he forces down a drink he’d previously wouldn’t because he knows his limits. But it burns and it numbs and for a few hours he can breathe again. Alcohol allows himself to loosen a lid on everything he feels, it puts safe distance between his feeling and him and he actually allows himself to process some of them.

He cries, he ruins his office, he punches through the wall, he routinely throws up. Once he gets so drunk he actually starts having hallucinations, intoxication so severe he almost chokes on his own vomit. Soap finds him just in time to get him help. After this he gets out on suicide watch for 72 hours and the team would start actually guard him in shifts.

Price still drinks but now next to him there is always someone who also remembers his limits and doesn’t let him overstep them. John hates it at times. He hates himself much more though. He hates Reader sometimes too, because that’s not fair that they are gone. Because look what a fucking mess he is, love, bloody disgrace to drink himself under the fucking table.

Price has the fastest adjustment to Reader staying deceased but at the same time he can’t fully process his grief. Part of him is scared that he will drive himself mad if he does, another part just doesn’t want to. It’s stubborn and unhealthy but so what. He’s a captain, he lost soldiers before, he’s gonna deal with it this way.

But i think he’s also the second person who retires straight after Soap because he finds a new almost obsessively-desperate purpose in keeping his boys alive and well. He may be a fucked up man but his boys already lost one of their own, he doesn’t want to drag them through his death as well

[joongieology]

2U | Jeong Yunho

Pairing: Jeong Yunho X Reader

Genre: Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 2.4k

Tags/Warnings: University AU(?), cussing, mention of violence, possessive!Yunho, obsessive tendencies (please let me know if I missed something!)

Sypnosis: You're sure that your best friend has always been kind and friendly with everyone, so when you found out otherwise, you did not want to believe it, or maybe you're in denial.

Song Recommendation: 2U by Justin Bieber

Note: I've been working on this for a while. The idea behind this story is so good but I'm not sure if I delivered it properly >_< Anyways, happy reading!!

Disclaimer: The following content is a work of fiction and does NOT represent the written member in any way.

You've known Yunho since, like, forever. You can't even remember how you first met him, just that you've known him since you were in grade school. Wherever you are, he'd be there too. You two were inseparable. So when you got accepted to the university you've always dreamt of attending, and he didn't, he was beyond devastated.

You were sitting side by side on the couch of your apartment when you checked the results. You squealed in happiness seeing that you got accepted. You immediately looked over Yunho with a big smile, but it slowly disappeared when you saw his expression. He was just sitting there silently, disappointment evident in his eyes, with a hint of...anger? But his expression changed right away when he heard your voice.

"Yuyu?" You called out to him slowly, gently tapping him on the shoulder. He always loves it when you call him by the nickname you made for him; it sounds almost angelic when it comes from your lips. It's as if he is an angel himself, or so you thought. He looked over to you and gave you a tight smile.

"I didn't get in. I got waitlisted." He almost couldn't get the words out; it felt like something was blocking his throat. Just thinking about you being away from him and being surrounded by other people, especially men, made him want to pull his hair out.

You hugged him from the side, slowly caressing his arm, trying to comfort him.

"That's alright; we can still meet from time to time. Every day, or maybe five times a week, or on the weekends, if we're not too busy..." You tried to sound convincing, but even you were sad with the thought of being away from Yunho. You were always together that you forgot the feeling of being alone, so the idea of not having him by your side in a new school, a new environment, tormented you.

The university was far from where you currently live, so it would be quite hard to see each other much, considering you'll also have to stay at the dorm once college starts. Unless he finds another school in the same city the university is at.

You pulled away from the hug, thinking about other ways to comfort him.

"Would you like to stay over...?"

Yunho staying over is nothing new. He always sleeps over when it gets too late while you're having a movie marathon, completely forgetting about the time. He almost always sleeps on the couch, except that one time.

You were at the kitchen, getting some water because you were parched from bingeing your current favourite TV show, when someone knocked at the door. You looked at the clock; it's currently two in the morning. Who could be here at this hour? You peeked through the peephole to find no one. Okay, now, what the fu— Your line of thoughts was interrupted when you heard another pair of knocks. "Y/N." Someone from the other side of the door whispered, so low you almost didn't hear it. Yunho. You opened the door to find a nearly zombie-like looking Yunho. He was crouching down, back towards the door. He looked up at you from his position and grinned. "Hi." He said with a smile, standing, then hugging you, practically putting all his weight on you. He reeks of alcohol. "Yuyu, can you stand properly? You're so big, and you're putting all your weight on me!" You whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake your neighbours. He giggled like a kid while you're still struggling trying to hold him up. He attempted to stand properly and started walking to your bedroom, but he ended up walking in zigzag. When he finally got to your room, he removed his shoes, shirt, and pants, leaving only his boxers on, then lay down on your bed. Even when drunk, he still remembered how you dislike getting on the bed with outside clothes on. You felt your cheeks flush. You shut your eyes and turned around. Inhale, exhale. This would've been nothing to you if your friendship was purely platonic, which it was until it wasn't. You honestly don't know when, but one day, you just started to look at Yunho...differently. You're suddenly aware of every little thing he did for you that you weren't aware of when you only saw him as your best friend. Like remembering the things you like, you don't like, and doing things for you—for your convenience. But of course, you wouldn't dare confess your feelings to him, fearing that it might ruin your lifelong friendship. You faced the bed, eyes still shut but peeking a little, and you walked towards Yunho and covered him with your blanket. You stared at him peacefully sleeping on your bed, in your apartment, with nothing but a pair of boxer shorts on. He looked like a prince. You went over to the other side of the bed, lifting the blanket to get under it, when your eyes caught something purple on the side of his waist. It was a bruise. What did he do? Where was he? Why does he have a bruise like this? You took note of asking him tomorrow about this and also putting a cold compress on it, then you went to bed.

After that night, you asked him about the bruise, but he just shrugged it off and told you that he just bumped into something and not to worry too much about it. You did not press further because he looked like he didn't want to talk about it at all.

"Would that be alright...?" He answered you with a question.

"Yeah, I mean, you often sleep over anyway; it's no big deal."

He showed you a smile and kissed you on the forehead, like he always does.

-~-

It was officially the first day of college, and you stood in front of the gate, mentally preparing yourself for the new environment you'll be facing. No Yunho, no nothing, just you and the infinity necklace he had given you before you moved over to the dorm—and your things of course.

While walking, you looked around, scanning the buildings, trying to look for the building name written at the schedule given to you, which was saved to your phone.

You bumped into someone looking as confused as you.

"Are you a freshman, too?" You build up the courage and start the conversation. If you want to make friends, better make one now.

"Yeah." she answered, looking awkward.

You glanced at her phone and saw the exact same schedule as yours.

"Oh! We're classmates!" Excitement was evident in your tone. At least you'll have a friend among your classmates, or so you hope.

You looked for your building together, almost getting a headache from going around the campus. When you finally found the building, you immediately went to your room, and class started.

Lunch came, and you went to the cafeteria with your newfound friend. You were peacefully munching on your lunch, thinking about what Yunho would be doing right now—when someone placed their lunch beside yours. You smelt his perfume and instantly knew.

"Hi." He was smiling yet again.

"You—why—what are you doing here??" You don't know what to ask first. You were just genuinely happy he was here. Even when other students that were sitting near your table started to scatter away while murmuring something among themselves, you still didn't care.

You hugged Yunho around his neck.

"I go here now."

"What—how??"

"Long story. Don't worry about it. What's important is I'm here now, right?" He uncapped a drink—your favourite drink—and placed it in your hands.

You nodded, sipping on the drink. You glanced over at your friend sitting beside you, her face pale with shock written all over it, while staring at Yunho.

"What's wrong?" You asked, concerned.

"N-nothing." She gave you a tight smile and went back to eating.

Odd. You gazed at Yunho, and he just gave you a shrug with that infamous smile of his, urging you to finish eating.

The next few days went by. You were thrilled to have Yunho at the same school. You always hung out together, sometimes bringing your friend along with you. Yunho didn't seem to mind, saying, 'As long as you're happy.'.

College was actually tolerable, better than you imagined. Your friend invited you to go to a party on Friday night, insisting you bring Yunho too.

You talked about this with Yunho. At first he was reluctant, claiming your friend is not trustworthy and you shouldn't be hanging out with her too much, but eventually, he agreed.

The place of the party was not too far away from the university. It was a big house with a pool in the backyard and a beautiful garden at the front. It was packed, some people dancing, some just hanging out drinking beer or heavy liquor, some kissing, and some smoking...weed?

Is this a fucking frat party?!

Well, might as well have fun; besides, Yunho is here with you anyway, so nothing will happen... right?

Your friend dragged you and Yunho to the kitchen and handed each of you a beer she got from the cooler.

You drink occasionally, most of the time with Yunho, but you've never really been a heavy drinker. Him, on the other hand, has a high tolerance; that's why you were surprised when he came to you drunk that night.

You were getting pretty dizzy when Yunho snatched the can of beer you were holding. It was your third, halfway done. You leaned onto his chest, and a whiff of his perfume reached your senses, causing you to giggle.

"Gosh, you smell sooo good~~" You were still giggling, looking up at him, eyes half-lidded. He took a glance at your plump lips and gulped.

Oh, you have no idea what you do to him.

He wished he could kiss you right there and then, make you feel good like you've never felt before, claim you as his, and submit himself to you, but he held back, not wanting to scare you away, not knowing you felt the same way he did.

You stared at each other, silently relaying your love for one another, hoping the other would just snap and let go.

One...

Two...

Three...

And you pulled away, excusing yourself to the bathroom. You locked the door and stared at your reflection.

Y/N, just tell him already!!

You wanted to pull your hair out of frustration, but you tried to calm down.

What if he doesn't feel the same way? What if he likes someone else and just sees me as his friend? Never mind.

You composed yourself before going out and heading back to the kitchen. You stopped in your tracks when you heard your friend and Yunho's voice.

"What the fuck is so special about her that you'd do all that for her?" You heard your friend's voice.

"She's everything I want; she's everything to me, something you'll never be." Yunho's tone was so low, it almost scared you.

You've never been scared of Yunho once in your life; he has always been so nice and gentle towards you. He never did something that would scare you in any way, so you assumed he was like that with everyone else.

"I wonder what her reaction would be if she finds out what you're doing behind her back." She mocked Yunho.

"I fucking dare you. I won't even look your way if not for her. She considered you her "friend" that's why I've tried to put up with you, but this fucking stops now. Stop throwing yourself at me and don't show yourself in front of us ever again, or"—you heard him step forward—"I'll fucking make you."

She actually tried to throw herself at him?

Bitch.

You heard footsteps, and then there he is, looking at you with a shocked expression, eyes as round as they can be, mouth slightly agape. Then you closed the distance between you and...

You kissed him.

You're kissing him.

You're kissing Jeong Yunho.

Fucking finally.

You had to tiptoe to reach his lips. When he recovered from the shock, he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to his chest, and kissed you deeper, more passionately. He's been waiting all his life for this, and he wasn't about to let the opportunity pass.

When you ran out of air, you pulled away from him slightly.

"I have something to tell you." He spoke first, gulping, thinking about what your reaction would be. This is it.

He led you to the poolside and sat there, folding his pants so as not to get them wet, then dipped his feet in the pool. He removed his denim jacket and placed it beside him, patting it, signalling you to sit on it. You obeyed, dipping your feet as well, the cold hitting you immediately.

Then he confessed. Confessed everything he's been doing since he met you. Like pushing away other kids so you'll only play with him. Threatening other guys to never pursue you or even look your way. Fighting with other guys when they said something bad or sexual about you. And the most recent thing is having to beat up someone just so he'll get in the same university as you.

You tried to process everything, trying to take in the new information. You honestly don't know what to feel, a surge of emotions hitting you all at the same time. You never knew he was so possessive of you; well, of course you knew that he wanted all your attention on him, but not to that extent.

Were you so naive to not notice all that? How he was so cold towards everyone and only kind to you? How much he dislikes it when someone tries to get your attention? All the subtle glances and hand gestures he does behind your back, trying to warn others to not disturb you? Were you really? You never noticed all that? Or maybe you did; you just never cared because it benefitted you. You never cared as long as he's with you. You never cared as long as you always got your way. You ignored everything for the sake of you and your relationship with each other. And maybe, just maybe, you are just as crazy as him.

Feedbacks are highly appreciated!!

[mach-talk]

JRWI fans, tell me if this is something that makes sense to you: I think Dakota Cole is the first superhero in a VERY long time to feel like an actual superhero.

⚠️Spoilers ahead for both seasons of Prime Defenders, if you haven’t finished it already, what are you doing here?! Go watch it!!⚠️

I think Grizzly did a phenomenal job in his research of superhero media before making Dakota, and that research really paid off for how real Dakota feels as not just a hero, but as a person. Season 1 made me fall in love with the characters and the story, but as an avid Marvel skeptic, season 2 made me believe in the superhero genre again.

I’ve talked about my disdain for modern superhero movies before, but to condense it, I feel like they don’t really feel like HEROES as much as “the lesser of two evils in a fight that’s destroying a city.” A lot of modern heroes feel too gritty and gloomy, not the symbols of hope they’re meant to be, but only focusing on the reluctance of their position.

Dakota Cole’s story is different to me: we’re able to see all sides of it, the good and the bad, and spend enough time in those moments to feel what he feels. His story feels so perfect to the Hero’s Journey, both in what we start out with and what we learn along the way.

First and foremost, I’m grateful to see heroes that WANT to be heroes again, not just to save one person or some moral obligation, but for the sake of wanting to do good and help others. Prime Defenders as a whole is such a breath of fresh air in the superhero genre for its message, and it gets to the heart of what makes superhero movies good. It feels, for lack of a better word, colorful. In a world of low light and gritty heroes making hard decisions, we get moments like the fight for New Haven where the heroes came together with the sword to defeat the planet, or the showdown with Powerhouse, while we get silly moments like the Wasp Vs Bee debate or the chaos portal in the Winnebago. That doesn’t mean we don’t get dark or gritty scenes, of course- I’m still deeply impacted by Ashe’s sacrifice to save everyone, William’s spiral with his brother, and (most relevant to this rant) Dakota’s surgery. But because we got to see the whimsy and the heart behind the heroes, it just made all of those moments so much more impactful.

Dakota Cole, though, feels to me like the result of dissecting the superhero genre and finding what makes it so appealing and meaningful to people. He is, upon first glance, hopeful and confident, optimistic perhaps to a fault, and wants to see the best in people and bring out that goodness. He starts with a very rigid view of what good and evil is, but as his mindset shifts, we see him open up to other ideas of what goodness means to him.

You’d think this would immediately fall apart when he goes through the heartbreak and disillusionment of losing someone to a villain, and that’s what we see with Ashe’s loss in season 1. He is clearly devastated by the loss, but is the first to believe that they can bring him back. He even says it as some of his last words to Ashe before he becomes The Trickster- “Don’t forget that you have somewhere to come back to.” After the loss, though, he’s only more motivated to save his friend. He goes to train and get stronger, and is the one to suggest getting him back. Throughout season 2, as well, we see the backstory that had been set up throughout season 1 come back to the front, and how it impacts him not only as a hero, but as a regular person. His love for his aunt, his attitude towards others, his willingness to sacrifice…

The first thing that he did for himself, in my opinion, was the heart surgery to keep himself alive, and even that wasn’t all for him; it was largely to help William rather than just staying alive. But he was so desperate to help others that he found the thing he needed to learn most in order to be the hero the world needed: patience. His heart surgery and subsequent training with Master Cole taught him the patience he needed to put his abilities to use.

But I think what his training arc taught him best outside of patience- the lesson that stuck with me the most- was that it is okay to ask for help. In fact, one of the quotes that still sticks with me is the quote from Master Cole: “Sometimes, we can’t carry the weight of the world alone.” He spent two seasons up until this point trying to carry every burden on his own, but this was a turning point for him. He realized that he has a team for a reason, and that he doesn’t have to protect them, and that allowing them to help him will make everyone stronger.

In my opinion, Dakota had the most personal growth out of the Prime Defenders from S1E1 to S2E40. He lost a lot of the innocence and pure optimism he had before, but the wisdom and patience he gained from it turned his passion for saving people and his genuine desire to do good into a more productive and successful energy that could save more lives than before. Sure, he had his silly moments- the consistent Fortnite jokes during his training arc, the goofiness of creating The Purps, etc. But his humor served to deepen his character, and the balance of genuine care and compassion for others with the humor and the struggles he faced (and still faces) just make him such a deep character.

He’s a silly goofy guy and he is one of the best written characters in modern hero stories.

[unstable-samurai]

Until You're Mine (Jealous Girlfriend) - smut

Momo x Male Reader

Word Count: 4k

Tags: toxic relationship, jealous girlfriend, non-linear story, possessive girlfriend, first sex, penetration, boobjob, facial

She was awake when he arrived. She heard the door latch turn twice as it was unlocked. There were always two turns, fast and firm. Y/N saw her lying on the couch, watching another animated movie. It was the kind of movie she looked for when she really needed to be distracted, her escape valve or something, so seeing her there in front of the TV close to midnight (it was much later than that, but he had no idea), turned on an emergency light in his mind.

Normally he was the owl of that house.

“Hey baby, why’re you still awake?” he asked. “I said you didn’t have to wait for me.”

“I just felt like watching a Studio Ghibli film. Only that.” She explained without looking at him.

No fucking way it was just that. She was frowning. One of those moments where Momo turned into a bomb and it was up to Y/N to disarm it without it exploding. The problem was that this was an impossible task to do, any wire he cut would result in an explosion. And that was the last thing he wanted. His head was already a battlefield in itself. That damn company party had exhausted his social battery, which wasn’t much anyway. Y/N didn’t have the courage to provoke an aerial bombardment that night.

He sat on the left end of the sofa, Momo didn't mind moving his legs so he could have more space.

"OK. Is the film already close to the end? I can watch it with you.”

“Did you have fun there?” she asked.

"Yes. Was cool."

“You’re watching the movie, I don’t want to disturb you. In the morning I’ll tell you everything.”

"Just that?

"Yes..."

"No details?" she questioned him quite insistently.

Y/N had his head focused on the bath he was going to take in a while and how he was going to sink his head into the pillow. No more plastic masks, fake laughs, shallow people, please.

She paused the movie.

“What a ridiculous excuse. It sounds like you were trying to hide the things that happened at the party.”

“No, it doesn’t sound…” He was almost sure of it.

“Yes it does, you bastard.”

“It wasn’t even a party. We were all among work colleagues.”

“I've been to enough parties to know that it was YES a party. Loud music, drinks, pool, snacks. The complete package.”

“It’s a damn modern company, okay? They please the employees and pretend to be cool so that we forget the slavery we are subjected to on a daily basis. You kids had fun on Saturday and you’ll work overtime on Monday, okay?”

“Wait, I made a mistake. In fact: VIP package. They even hired prostitutes. Five star service.”

“Are you high or what?”

He was too tired to read the signs.

“I saw the way she kept touching you. The giggles... As if you were the funniest clown on the planet and she was a fucking hyena.”

Y/N abruptly stood up from the couch. He had finally understood everything. The last spark of his neurons, probably.

“There were no prostitutes. And I wasn't chatting up with any girls.”

"Oh, really?" She stood up too. “Let me refresh your memory, dear: short black hair, horse smile, lilac dress, can't stand alone unless she's supported by a man, small tits... Seriously, I don't know why she decided to wear that dress with cleavage if there was nothing there to show. Someone should tell her the truth. So, does this remind you of anyone, my love?”

The fucking bomb exploded in his hand.

“That was Rachel, a friend from work. How the hell did you know what was going on at the party?”

Momo laughed sadistically. Her wickedly beautiful eyes looked at him with intensity as she asked:

“Are you afraid?”

"No. I didn't do anything wrong to get scared. Did someone record me at the party?”

"Yes. And it wasn't just that. I also watch the stories of those who were at the party and you appeared in some of them in the corners. I saw everything.”

‡

Here's a little overview of this relationship: A year and a half of dating. They met through mutual friends and the first deep contact was delayed, but when it happened it ended up becoming a path of no return. Y/N avoided her as much as he could, not in a way that would be noticeable and make him seem rude. But we were talking about an incredibly beautiful woman, aware of her attractiveness and unfettered by modesty. She was with a group of eight other beautiful and popular girls. Yes, she was elite. High caliber, my friend. Well, he was... quiet, an avid reader, calm and sometimes melancholic, but he loved being with his friends and enjoying them on the weekends, respecting his limits, of course. When he saw Momo for the first time he cowardly ignored her. She looks stunning in front of his eyes, wearing a short denim skirt, a baby tee that leaves her sculpted abs on display and her hair flowing in the wind as she dances. There was no way to predict that the plan would backfire; by not noticing her, Y/N became one of the few guys who didn't try to flirt with her. Apathetic guy, but handsome enough to take risks, the little boy who only swims in the shallow end, a plastic armor he forced himself to wear.

The reason? Momo didn't know, but she wanted to find out.

On one of the many night outs where they bumped into each other, Momo skillfully simulated an intimacy that clearly didn't exist between them, talking to Y/N closely, fake accidental touches, and killer eye contact. Abruptly, intimacy between them was forged and evolved in a short space of time. After a while it was no longer strange when they were among friends and Momo sat on his lap, or when she felt tired and rested her head on his shoulder. And Y/N could play hard to get, but he loved the attention he got from Momo, the controversial “bad bitch” (as some girls who didn't like Momo called her), the most attractive girl he knew was always glued to him, and the sexual chemistry that grew over time intoxicated his ego. Being with her made him feel good and more confident and also… shit, she was more than a superficial person or 'just another one of those teasing girls' like a lot of guys used to think. She had a unique way, attitude and things to say too.

‡

“Were you acting like a stalker all night? Seriously, watching stories of other people trying to see me from the corners is a fucking weird thing.”

“And you've been acting like you don't have a girlfriend all night? I almost called Jihyo to drive me to this party to say a few things to that bitch. But I’m not that kind of girlfriend.”

“What is the reason we are arguing? This shit doesn't make sense. I'm exhausted..."

“Have you forgotten your promise? You told me you would arrive early...”

“I didn’t look at the time when I was there. I thought it was still early when I was leaving the party.”

A cynical laugh escaped Momo's mouth.

“You didn't even bother to look at your fucking cellphone to check the time. What is your problem?"

Y/N sighed. He should have already known that going to this party wouldn't be a good idea.

“You know I only went to the party to establish some contacts with the other branch. The damn job forces me to maintain a good relationship with everyone.”

"Poor boy! Does it also force you to talk to sluts?”

"This again?!”

“A little bird told me you were too close to each other on the couch.”

“Who was this damn person?”

“Why blow the heroine’s cover? Maybe she’ll be there again at the next parties.”

“Would you like it if I hired someone to follow you around?”

"Go ahead. I have nothing to hide, because I have consideration and respect for you, asshole!”

“According to you, I cheated you just by sitting on a couch talking to a co-worker. A colleague who can help me move up in the company as she has just been promoted.”

“Apparently it’s not just at work where she likes to be promoted.”

"What do you want from me?" he asked, feeling defeated.

"You know what I want."

“Honestly, I don't know. God must be punishing me for some sin I committed, that’s the only explanation.”

“Make me your girlfriend or your tormentor. You decide." She took a step forward. “You know I could be with anyone. But I'm with you ‘cause I love you, idiot.”

If only there wasn't something genuine about it all.

‡

Being alone with her knocking down topic after topic like dominoes was so fucking enjoyable, the way she laughed, the way she listened to him (Momo didn't interrupt him even during the long pauses he took when he needed to organize his line of reasoning, a mere peculiarity of his but which never went under her radar), the way she could be incredibly silly at times and, even without sharing many common interests, Momo liked having him explain things that were previously uninteresting to her. This attention he received was blinding and addictive. Growing up in a harmful and neglectful home, neediness was his compass and his weakness. But he never showed signs. Y/N was good at disguising it... He thought so.

Their first sex was an unforgettable moment, a path of no return, in the same way that a criminal remembers the moment of the crime that sentenced him to prison. It occurred when they were on a camping trip, good friends gathered, each to their own tent, campfire, marshmallows, snacks, stupid horror stories, and wine. One of the few moments where he felt slightly intimidated around her, as he felt Momo watching him like a predator, and after each glass of wine she became more and more intoxicated, grabbing Y/N from behind and wrapping her arms around him. “It’s very cold here” she whispered in his ear. And Y/N couldn't tell if it was the wind or Momo's velvety voice so close to him that made him shiver.

The hours passed incredibly quickly, eventually everyone retreated to their tents, and eventually there was a slow cessation of the noises of people, finally leaving only the cold whistle of the wind, the rustle of leaves in the trees that surrounded the hill where they were camped and the symphony of insects orchestrated by crickets and cicadas.

He heard sneaky footsteps. It was certainly someone who needed to take a piss and didn't want to wake the others. But the footsteps got louder and louder until he noticed that someone was actually coming to his tent, stopping in front of the entrance. The flash on his cell phone was on (he was reading a book and the damn camp lamp was emitting a horrible orange light), so he pointed the light at the entrance of the tent and saw a very familiar silhouette.

“It’s me, Momo. Let me in!" she whispered. "Quickly!"

Y/N lowered the zipper, opening the way for her.

“What are you doing up?” he asked.

“I was sleepless so I decided to come and check on you.”

"I am well thanks."

She was wearing comfortable clothes. Striped pajama pants, a sweatshirt that was too big on her and her hair loose and messy. Y/N noticed that Momo had removed her makeup. It was the first time he had seen her like that.

"What are you reading?" Momo asked as she sat down.

“Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller.”

"Cool! What is it about?!"

How the hell was he going to explain this?

“About a guy living in Paris.”

"It seems good. Read a chapter to me.”

"How old are you?"

“Don’t be annoying. Let's do it like this: I point the cell phone's flash at the book and you hold it while you read to me. This way we can read lying down.”

Hard to refuse, hard to say 'no' to her.

‡

“You know I love you too, Momori.” he said

Momo was wearing his long-sleeved shirt, she loved that shirt and, truth be told, it looked incredibly good on her. The legs so sensually exposed... Was that still a discussion?

“Sometimes you make me doubt this love, baby. Do you like making me look crazy? I swear to God you love seeing me jealous. When I get like this, does it make you horny?”

“No” he lied to one of the questions.

“You know how I am, Y/N.” One more step forward. She could touch him if she wanted. “And I only ask one thing: don’t talk to other girls. We establish a limit and then cross it, what is the purpose?”

Now closer he could smell her, her body that was warmed by the blanket. Nipples hardened through the fabric of her clothing.

“You look so beautiful...” he blurted out of her mouth.

“But I don’t think I’m beautiful enough for you since you try to be with other girls when I’m not around.”

"Is not true. I only have eyes for you, Momori.”

With a decisive gesture she grabbed Y/N by the collar of his social shirt. A noise escaped his mouth. Slowly she ordered:

“Say you are mine. Say you belong to me.”

‡

He felt her head moving on his chest, he thought she was just looking for a comfortable position, until he was surprised by a kiss on the neck. And another one. And another, and they were getting more and more intense.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he lowered the book, the air escaping from her mouth.

“This book is really interesting and even put me in the mood to do something more fun.”

"What are you talking about?"

He had his hands pressed into Momo's arms, but he made no real effort to push her away.

“I know what you think about me. I know what you want from me. Don’t try to hide it now.” Her voice breathy and wavering. “I want to fuck you so bad, fuck!”

"Here?"

"Now!”

Y/N turned Momo around, placing her back on the floor and then getting on top of her.

“Momo…” His head was a hurricane. Was this really happening? “I've imagined the two of us doing this, but I never thought it could actually happen.”

There was a pause that was filled by a kiss.

“I don’t think you know how hot you are. Other girls were also eyeing you, so I decided to act quickly.”

Y/N lifted Momo's sweatshirt, and was able to appreciate and touch her abs for the first time. Kissing her abdomen was like an achievement, she knew how beautiful it was, that's why she never made a point of hiding it. The soft, slightly sweaty skin met his lips in a mix of sensations.

He lifted her sweatshirt a little more, exposing her juicy boobs. They were big, he knew that, but the first glimpse paralyzed him for an instant, he was amazed, and his hand filled with desire wasted no time in grabbing one of the tits while his mouth sucked the other..

“Oh, Y/N” she moaned.

The cell phone's flashlight went out as they rolled from side to side in the camping tent. Surrounded by the weak orange light of the camp lantern, the senses now seemed more heightened, the touches more intense and brazen, the breathing more labored and an uncontrollable lust, noticeable in several ways, such as Momo's pussy that wet his fingers when he touched her down there.

‡

“I belong to you” he declared. “Is that what you wanted to hear? I am only yours, Momori.”

She smiled satisfied.

"Sit down!" she exclaimed harshly, and pushed him onto the couch. Momo certainly knew how to impose herself when she wanted, the mechanism of submitting him to her will through horny never failed. Sitting on his lap, she said: “You like to make me suffer, you know that? You like having your girlfriend mad so she can have hard sex with you and get you back on track. So depraved, baby!”

It was partly true, although he wasn't consciously acting to make her jealous. The problem was that this wasn't a difficult task, the girl was possessive as hell, so the options fluctuated between becoming a puppy on a leash or floating on the waves of a tide that could occasionally get... Aggressive.

"Do not say that. I don’t like making you feel bad.”

Momo kissed him, she felt Y/N getting excited down there.

“And yet you hurt me.”

He couldn't refute it, so her tongue had another use; warm and wet, she played with Momo's tongue. She sighed when he lightly bit her lower lip, slowly removing the pressure, enjoying her taste like a professional taster.

“It was never my intention,” he said. “Your jealousy is sick.”

“Living with you is hell, you know that?” she revealed. “But you always make me feel so surrendered." Momo slowly touched her nose to Y/N's. She whispered: "It’s a fucking hell, baby.”

Instead of responding, he decided to dedicate a series of kisses to her neck. Momo loved it, it was her weakness. She smiled while letting out small moans of satisfaction.

Momo stroked his dick and under the fabric of his underwear and pants he was already completely hard, waiting for her. She rubbed her hand on his dick eagerly while he felt her breasts and left hickey marks on her neck.

“Oh baby, I want your cock in my pussy so bad!”

‡

He covered her mouth with his hand while he penetrated her deeply. The friends' camping tents were close to Y/N's, and Momo was moaning loudly, so it wouldn't be difficult to hear her in the silence of the night.

“Shhh! You can’t make noise like that!” he said breathlessly.

“It’s fucking hard. Your dick is really big.”

At one point she crossed her legs around Y/N's waist and he could feel her pussy getting tighter and wetter. Immediately Y/N laid his body under hers, penetrating her with force, feeling her pussy swallow his cock eager for pleasure. She moaned loudly, Y/N sucked on her tongue in an attempt to suppress some of the noise, Momo's eyes rolling back in pleasure as her legs tightened around him, pulling him deeper, as if she could never have him inside enough. Each thrust was an explosion of raw sensation, her insides wetting his cock urgently as he fucked her with wild love, each movement driven by desire that had been postponed for too long.

“Lie on your side!” Y/N asked.

He watched her with burning lust, his eyes fixed on her pert ass, eager to possess her in a different way. With one quick movement, he positioned himself behind her, his cock pulsing with anticipation as he slid in, feeling enveloped by the warm wetness of her wet pussy. He gripped Momo tightly, his hands marking her skin as he fucked her sideways, each thrust sending waves of electric pleasure throughout her body. Momo's moans filled the air, soft and sweet, mixing with the sounds of the wet friction his dick made as it slid inside her. All the touches, the intimate conversations, the looks that met and lost each other when they were in the circle of friends, the jealousy they hid from each other when one of them was talking to someone else, all these things led them to this moment , and now they assumed this feeling… making love.

Momo showed some of her talent when she rode his dick with her back to him, Y/N's body rippling with desire as she rode him with full force. Her hips moved with an erotic cadence, his cock disappearing inside her with each thrust as if he were plunging into a warm ocean. He squeezed Momo's fat ass, guiding her movements as she gave herself over to the frenzy of sex, her moans intensifying with each thrust – fuck if anyone would hear. The tension between them was palpable, the air in the tent stifling as they neared their climax. And then, finally, Momo squirted, her body shaking with the intensity of her orgasm, as Y/N watched her in wonder in the light of the camp lantern, her silhouette writhing with pleasure, so perfect, so sensual that he could fill her of cum at that moment.

Something he didn't do.

Things happened so fast that Y/N didn't have time to put on a condom. Well, truth be told, he DID NOT have a condom in his tent (not the kind of thing you think about taking on a camping trip with friends when you're a single guy).

“Cum for me, baby” she asked, her voice full of lust. “Where do you want to cum?”

“On your tits.”

It was one of Y/N's fantasies, it usually came to his mind when he saw Momo with cleavage. Now it all seemed so intentional...

Y/N stood on top of Momo, his desire burning so strong he could barely think straight. With shaking hands, he grabbed Momo's massive boobs, feeling his hard-on grow as he squeezed them tightly. Y/N wanted to feel every inch of that soft flesh surrounding his thick cock, he wanted to sink into that delicious sensation until he lost his mind. And then, without further hesitation, he began to move frantically, sliding his hard cock between Momo's breasts with great desire. Loud moans echoed through the tent as he gave in to the pleasure of that sensation, losing himself in the sensation of heat and pressure.

“You gonna cum for me, huh?” she asked between moans, making a point of maintaining latent eye contact while smiling naughty.

“Yeah, I'm gonna cum for you, baby! You're gonna make me cum, Momo.”

“please please, cum for me!! Yeah! Cum for your naughty babygirl...” she begged, hot as fuck, while biting her lower lip like a horny bitch.

And when Y/N finally reached the edge he let out a primal groan, his orgasm exploding in a hot shot over Momo's boobs and face. She looked so beautiful like that in the light of the camp lamp. Y/N brushed her face with his dick, making a nice mess on that adorable little face, and she smiled while this happened, Momo smiled until he finished his art, she finished the job by licking what was left on the head of his dick.

Uninhibited from any shyness, thanks to the endorphins his brain had released, he smiled at her, finding her the most beautiful woman in the world, and into Momo's precious eyes, Y/N confessed: 'I wanna love you.’

‡

It's common to look for culprits in a dysfunctional relationship, who manipulates who, the prisoner and the jailer and all that old story. It's hard to admit that sometimes there is a dark pleasure in predicting events, returning to the same place that is your refuge and your sentence. Most people shoot at "emotional dependence", but few dare to target "connivance". Y/N felt like he was part of the second option. Repeat the fucking pattern, see the wheel spin in the same direction, the same trip as before. It's your pit of lies and acceptance, man, you smell the stench and yet you insist on moving forward, it's not much different than a dog licking its own vomit. At the end of the day, no one will tell you that you deserve better.

If you really deserve it.

"I remember what you said to me that night in the camping tent." She whispered, lying under his chest. "When we had sex for the first time. 'I wanna love you'. That's what you said. Your voice was so sweet and calm. I think that's when I realized that my feelings for you were really special."

The two were snuggled in bed, protected from the cold by the blankets, completely naked after having sex. This was always how fights ended, and the question that arose was: what's the next thing, now? An apology? Unfounded promises about how to improve as a person? Affectionate words to dissolve what was said during the fight? It was a mystery box.

"Those were the words? I honestly don't remember the exact words clearly."

"That's exactly what you told me. I slept with you in the camping tent feeling very happy."

"I was happy to be with you too."

"But at that time I didn't realize that you were actually still trying to fall in love with me. You wanted to love me, but you didn't really love me yet."

"I was a little confused at that time."

"What now? Are you still trying to love me?"

"I love you, Momori. but at the same time... I don't think we work together.”

"We agreed to it then. And honestly, does it matter?"

"I don't know. I feel like it doesn't matter anymore."

"Yeah! And look, we're not the only couple to go through problems like this. We're not alone in this, baby. Forget that Hollywood bullshit about perfect couples. It's not real. It's okay for me to stay like this, as long as we stay together."

"We always fix things."

"Making love is a great way to solve problems. That's our formula."

"Come here, my love" he said.

A/N: sorry for any grammar errors 🖖

[st4rtar0t]

Your love story and the movie it resembles

With your future partner

ever wondered how would your love story be with your future spouse? and what movie would it be similar to? I will be honest as someone who romanticizes love this question as kept me awake on many nights and has made me daydream a lot. SO as a result I have decided to make a pac on this topic. I hope you enjoy this reading and support my blog so that I can come up with more interesting pick a cards.

These pictures belong to their rightful owners.

please like and reblog, I worked hard on this one

Picture 1

Okay so as soon as i started this reading i got the message that most people who chose this picture may not have had an actual relationship in a sense that you might have felt as if something was always lacking or you may not have been treated right in a relationship. And i do see that you have a unexplainable fear that maybe the person you will fall in love with wont fall for you? or you may doubt their affection for you as you seem to have severe trust issues. You may be the kind of person who doubts love but is also dreaming about it. you may show as if you don't believe in love or that money matters more for you but you know deep down that is not true.

I also sense that this group is divided into two subgroups as this group seem to have two similar yet different love stories.

group one : you guys may be a Virgo, cancer or Sagittarius sun moon or rising. You guys can have medium to short curly hair. you may have a mole on your arm or right shoulder. You may have a small friend group consisting 3-4 people including you. one of your friends can be of different race or religion. Some of you may be in high school or 1st-2nd year of collage. Pumpkin and grapes may be significant for you.

your love story : There may be a sense of "saving the other" in your love story. you know how a person is suffering and the other person comes into their life and saves them that is the vibe that I am getting from your love story. Your future spouse may enter you life when you will be dire need of help or when you will be suffering or vice versa. You may be the damsel in distress, but i see that You wont ask your future spouse for help intentionally. You are someone who wont ask for help no matter how much they are suffering and your future spouse is someone who WANTS to help other no matter what but they have been used by a lot of people because of this. They are well aware of the fact that people only approach them because of their personal benefit and this makes them quite upset. But but but i also sense that they would want to help not financially but emotionally. They would want to help you with everything they can and this may be the one of the majors reasons why you will fall for them. They will help you find purpose in your life again. They will make you fall in love with life.

SO the movie that resembles your love story is EK VILLAIN. This is an Indian movie and I would suggest you to watch it. i wont spoil it for you if you have not watched it yet, but leave out the parts that don't resonate with you.

Group two : You guys can be a Taurus, Leo or Aries sun moon or rising. you may have a mole of your back or on one side of your neck. You guys may have long dark hair or dark brown hair that reaches past your armpits. You may have a fear of lizards or any kind of reptile. i sense that some of you may be studying business or you plan to start you own soon? You may have gold jewellery that you wear regularly.

Your love story : As I said earlier both these groups will have a similar yet different love story and the sense of "saving the other" is also present in this group but the only difference is that you will be the one who will save your future spouse/partner. They may be really popular or into music because i see that they have a good singing voice. You guys can also work in the same field or profession. I see that you guys will encourage them to give their best when they may feel low or when they may doubt themselves. I see that you will be their biggest supporter and this will make them fall deeper for you. They will admire how passionate you are about what you do. If you are in a creative field, they may use you as their muse. I also sense that they will be writing songs and poems for you because they seem to have a talent for writing. You guys will work together and earn a lot of money and fame.

So the movie that resembles your love story is AASHIQUI 2. This movies was released in 2013.

Noticed how the actress in both the movies is same? so you may have something in common with her.

Masterlist PAID SERVICES

Picture 2

This is the group of misunderstood people lol. I see that people always try to find flaws in you or blame you for the things that have nothing to do with you. But i also sense that you someone who jumps into conclusions and overthinks their situation. Things may not be as they appear. You are someone who has lost a lot of people that were close to you and you don't want to go through the same pain again, so as a result you have put a wall between you and other. And now you don't care if people misunderstand you or spread rumours about you. I also sense that you are independent, you don't like asking anyone for help, You would rather do the things by yourself than ask for help.

Okay so for the people who chose this picture I see that and your future partner may not have a good first impression of each other or there may be some past experiences that you both share that are not so ideal. Or you guys may meet in an environment that is not to ideal for a first meeting? but whatever it may be I sense that you guys will remember your first meeting and laugh out loud.

Do you guys have a one sided love story or have you ever been in this situation? because I see that most of you have liked somebody who already had a girlfriend/boyfriend or somebody they were talking to OR I see that you had a huge crush on one of your friends and he/she were already into somebody so you thought is would be better to forget them.

I am getting friends to strangers to friends to lovers. Its really complex and complicated. But yes it seems as if somebody else was involved in your love story and no I am not talking about third party situation. its more of a "yes I like this person and I am talking to them" from their side and "you are my friend and I like you but wont tell you because you like somebody else so I wont tell you" OR "yes I like you but wont tell you because I don't want to ruin our friendship" from your side. But I sense that they will realise their feelings a lot later and when you wont be talking to them. I also sense that you may move away from them to forget them or you may even move to another country for job or education.

But we all know how the universe works in strange ways that you may have never considered. So you will end up meeting them again but in a different way as compared to before. And they will be the one to express their love for you and will do everything to win your heart.

So the movie that resembles your love story is KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI and a little bit of DDLJ. Both these movies have the same acter and actress. But the plot is not same its similar with slightly different storyline.

Masterlist

Picture 3

Some of you may also be interested in Picture 1

Are you sure you are interested in this love reading? because your energy is telling me otherwise. I am shocked to see you reading this because it seems as you are starting to hate the word love, and honestly I don't think you are at fault because if I was going through the same things that you have been through/are going through, I would hate it too. You have experienced love and I am not talking about romantic love, I am talking about platonic love. The kind of love you are supposed to receive from your family and friends. And now as a result of that, your perception of love is completely messed up.

But I have a good news for you, you have been blessed in money sector of your life and this abundance in money sector will be the love you yearn for. Now you are only focusing on your work and career, you are taking all the required steps to achieve your dreams and goals. And while you are focused on this sector of your life you wont notice how the universe will bless your love life with a partner that will move mountain for you. And the most beautiful thing is, YOU NEVER HAD TO ASK FOR IT. yes there were times when you cried yourself to sleep because you could not feel loved but unknowingly it all made you stronger.

Now lets talk about your love story with your future, So as I have already talked about how you will meet them when you will focusing on yourself and your dreams. And I also see that they will be the first one to fall in love and realise their feelings. And the most interesting thing is they will make all the efforts needed to prove their love for you. They wont approach you with a love offer first and wont shove their feelings into your face as in "Hey i love you, lets get married" no it wont be like that, in fact they will approach with the offer you helping you or being your friend first. They will admire how sweet and caring you are despite the things you have been through, You will fill them with inspiration and hope that there are still nice people in this world who make this world a better place with their existence. They will support you in you work and offer new ideas. Some of you are really intuitive so you will know who person may be or will be. Your future partner will admire the way you handle tough situations and problems thrown your way with ease. You are someone with hard exterior and really soft interior and this will intrigue your future partner as it is really hard to find genuine people with good intentions these days.

You love story gives me the trope of black cat and golden retriever energy with you being the black cat here and them being the golden retriever. Its honestly so cute!! and I am so happy for you guys. You guys deserve the world. okie I think i am getting distracted, so lets get back to the reading, Your love story will be something that will remind people of a fairy-tale.

So the movie/movies that resemble your love story is RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA 2013 and GHAJINI 2008. Yes as i said this wont resonate 100% with your love story but there will be similarities.

Masterlist

[maddyjones2]

On not idolising creative people

In the wake of the various recent allegations involving Neil Gaiman, people have been both very sad that someone who they looked up to as an inspiration has, allegedly, turned out to be something less than entirely admirable, and are now looking to see who is now left that they can rotate into the spot of “the good dude,” i.e., that one successful creative guy who they think or at least hope isn’t hiding a cellar full of awful actions. One name I see brought up is mine, in ways ranging from “Well, at least we still have Scalzi,” to “Oh, God, please don’t let Scalzi be a fucking creep too.” Which, uhhhh, yeah? Thanks?

I have many thoughts about this and I’m going to try to make sense of them here, as much for myself as anyone else, so this may be messy and discursive and long (seriously, 3600 words, y’all), but, well, welcome to me. So, ordered by how these things come out of my head:

1. Stop Idolizing Creative People. Creative people are easy to idolize because they create the art you love, and that gives you permission to feel things, and to see yourself and your desires reflected in that art. That is a powerful thing, and from the outside, it can feel like magic, and that the people who do it are tapped into something otherworldly and admirable. Plus, they often get to have cool lives and get to know other cool creative people. They do things that are removed from the day-to-day aspect of a “normal” life, and they’ll even post about them on social media where you can see them. Sometimes, independent of their art directly, they’ll speak about their life, or life in general, and they’ll seem wise and considered and kind. I mean, what’s not to like?

But please consider that this is all an extremely mediated experience of this person. The art is the edited and massaged result of hours and days and weeks and months of work, into which the work of many others is also added. My novels originate from me, but it’s not just me in there, nor is the final form of the novel an accurate statement of who I am as a person, not least of all for the simple reason that I am not trying to tell my story in my novels. I’m creating fictional characters, and the world in which they make sense, for the purpose of the story.

Despite how it might look from the outside, this is not sorcery. It’s years of experience at a craft. It’s not magic, just work. A completed novel (or any other piece of art) won’t tell you much about the specific, day-to-day life and inclinations of the individual who made it, other than a general nod toward their competence, and the competence of their collaborators. Likewise what you see of their lives, even from the illusorily close vantage of social media, is deeply mediated. Lives always look admirable at a distance, when you can only see the lofty peaks and not the rubble at the base — especially when your attention by design is pointed at those lofty peaks. There’s much you don’t see and that you’re not meant to see. The vast majority of what you’re not meant to see isn’t nefarious. It’s just not your business.

Now, before I was a professional creative person, I was an entertainment journalist who spent years interviewing writers, directors, movie stars, musicians, authors and other creative folks. Since I’ve been on the other side of the rope, I’ve likewise met a huge range of creative people from all walks of life. Please believe me when I assure you that creative people are just people. Richer and/or more famous? Sometimes (less often than you might think, though). Prettier and/or more charismatic? Especially if they’re actors or pop stars, often yes! But at the end of the day they are just folks, and they run the whole range of how people are. By and large, the day-to-day experience of getting through their life is the same as yours. Outside of their own specific field of work, they don’t know any more about life, have no more facility for dealing with the world, and have just as few clues about what’s going on in their own head, as anyone else.

They’re just people. Whose work is making the stuff you like! And that’s great, but that’s not a substantive basis for idolizing them. It makes no more sense to idolize them than to idolize a baker who makes cookies you like, or the guy who comes and trims your hedges the way you want them to be trimmed, or the plumber who fixes your clogged drain. You can appreciate what they do, and even admire they skill they have. But holding them up as a life model might be a bit much. Which is the point! If you’re not willing to idolize a plumber, then you shouldn’t idolize a creative person.

(“But a plumber doesn’t make me feel like a creative person does,” you say, to which I say, are you sure about that? Because I will tell you what, when my sump pump stopped working and the plumber got in there, replaced the pump and started draining out my basement which had an inch of standing water in it, that man was the focus of all my emotions and was my goddamned hero that day. My plumber that day did more for me than easily 90% of the great art I’ve ever experienced.)

Enjoy the art creative people do. Enjoy the experience of them in the mediated version of them you get online and elsewhere, if such is your joy. But remember that the art is from the artist, not the artist themselves, and the version of their life you see is usually just the version they choose to show. There is so much you don’t see, and so much you’re not meant to see. At the end of the day, you don’t have all the information about who they are that you would need to make them your idol, or someone you might choose to, in some significant way, pattern some fraction of your life on. And anyway creative people aren’t any better at life than anyone else.

Which brings up the next point:

2. Fuck idols anyway! People are complicated and contradictory and you don’t know everything about them! You don’t know everything even about your parents or siblings or best friends or your partner! People are hypocrites and liars and fail to live up to their own standards for themselves, much less yours! Your version of them in your head will always be different than the version that actually exists in the world! Because you’re not them! Stop pretending people won’t be fuck ups! They will! Always!

This sounds more pessimistic about humans than perhaps it should be. When I say, for example, that people are hypocrites and liars, I don’t mean that people take every single opportunity to be hypocrites and liars. Most people are decent in the moment. But none of us — not one! — has always lived up to our own standard of behavior, and all of us have had the moment where, when confronted with a situation that would become an immense pain in the ass if we stuck to our guns, or demanded the inconvenient truth, decided to just bail instead, because the situation wasn’t worth the drama, or we had somewhere else to be, or whatever. We all choose battles and we all make the call in the moment, and sometimes the call is, fuck this, I’m out.

Every person you’ve ever admired has fucked up, sometimes really badly. Everyone you’ve ever looked up to has secrets, and it’s possible some of those secrets would materially change how you think about them, not always for the better. Everyone you’ve ever known has things about them you don’t know, many of which aren’t even secrets, they’re just things you don’t engage with in your day-to-day experience of them. Nevertheless it’s possible if you were aware of them, it would change how you feel about them, for better or for worse. And now let’s flip that around! You have things about you that even your best friends don’t know, and might be surprised to learn! You have secrets you don’t wish to share with the class! You have fucked up, and lied, and have been a hypocrite too!

You are, in short, a human, as is everyone you know and every one you will know (pets and gregarious wild animals excepted). And all humans are, charitably, a mess. This doesn’t mean there aren’t good people or even exemplary people out there, since there are, along with the ones that are, charitably, a real shit show. What I am saying is that even the good or exemplary people out there are a mess, have been morally compromised at some point in their lives, and have not lived up to their own standards for themselves, independent of anyone else’s standard for them.

One of the aspects of being an “idol,” I think, is that higher standard that other people expect of you — that in every situation where the aspect they idolize you for is in play, you will act in a manner that is right and correct by their standard, which of course you will likely not know about because you don’t actually know them (or often know that they exist). This is, by definition, an impossible standard to be held to — you didn’t agree to it, or to engage with it — and an impossible standard to hold other people to without their direct consultation. Every human made to be an idol is destined to fail at the job. You don’t even have to have feet of clay! You just didn’t know you were on a pedestal to begin with.

(This does not excuse shitty action. The fact people should not be idols in the first place is not exculpatory for the choices one makes on one’s own. If you’re sexually assaulting people, or being a racist or sexist or homophobe or other flavor of bigot, or using your situational power coercively (as just a few examples), then hell yes you are going to be called out on it. And to be clear, it is not unreasonable, to put it mildly, to expect people not to sexually assault other people, or not to denigrate other humans for being who they are, etc. But this only adds to the point about idols, now, doesn’t it. You don’t know what you don’t see, and you don’t know what you’re not seeing, until it is hauled out into the light one way or the other. If it is hauled out into the light at all.)

I don’t think anyone should idolize anyone, ever. It’s not great for them, and it’s not great for you, they probably didn’t ask to be idolized (and if they did, holy shit, fucking run), and in the end unless you’re so completely wrapped up in their lives that they have no secrets from you — which is never — you don’t know enough to make that call. People do it anyway, and then disappointment happens, but they shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Stop idolizing people. It’s not fair for anyone.

What to do instead? Enjoy their work, if they’re a creative person. Appreciate the kind and good aspects of their life that you can see, and the decent actions they undertake in public, with the knowledge that what you see of them is a mediated and elided version. Understand that we all have a different version of ourself for every person we meet, and that every person we meet has a different vision of ourselves in their head, and very often, those two versions are not the same. Like them, based on what you know of them! Love them, if it comes to that. And when and if you learn something new about them that you didn’t know before, let empathy guide you to a new understanding of them and what they mean to you.

And now, taking all of the above into consideration:

3. Absolutely 100% do not idolize me. I don’t deserve to be idolized because no one deserves to be idolized, but also, holy fuck, I do know me and I’m a mess. There have been lots of things in my life that I’ve done that have not been admirable or kind. I can be petty and shitty and competitive and cruel. I am lazy and inattentive and when I let things slide (which is often), I end up jammed up on my responsibilities, which makes me irritable and no fun to be around. I have a temper which goes from zero to sixty almost instantaneously; if I’m not actively paying attention to it, I can become a sudden, unreasonable rage monster, which is a burden to people I love, and I hate that fact about myself (pro tip: don’t travel with me, the rage monster comes out a lot then).

I can be controlling and demanding but I want other people to handle the details, i.e., executive asshole. I am strategic in a way that can be bloodless. When I’m insecure I brag a lot, which is unflattering. If you cross me, I won’t go out of my way to make your life miserable (that would require effort on my part), but I will absolutely enjoy when you take a literal or metaphorical tumble down the stairs. God knows I’ve enjoyed the failures of the people who have spoken ill of me, almost as much as I’ve enjoyed the fuming, spittling rage they’ve felt when I’ve succeeded. I spent years cultivating a snarky persona online and while that was fun (for me), I’m increasingly aware that when the tally is added up for Who Ruined the Internet, I’m not necessarily going to be where I want to be on that particular ledger.

And these are only the bad qualities of mine I wish to admit to you at the moment. There are others, I assure you.

So, yes: Who wants to idolize me now?

“But you seemed so nice when I chatted with you online/met you at the convention/saw you at that one place that one time.” Well, thank you, I’ve been in the public eye in one manner or another for three and a half decades now and I understand my assignment; my public persona is friendly and engaging and sociable and mostly fun to be with. It’s not a fake version of me — I am all those things! Honest! — but, again, it’s a mediated version of me designed not only to be a positive experience for the people who meet me but also to get my actually introverted ass through a whole day of events at a convention/festival/book tour/whatever. When I’m done I collapse into an introverted hole. When I came back from Worldcon this week, I slept for 15 hours the first day I was home. It wasn’t just because of jet lag or con crud.

I rather famously call my public face “performance monkey mode,” and likewise what I say about my (current) online mode is that I’m cosplaying as a better version of myself, one that is kinder than I used to be online, and more patient than I am in the real world. If you meet me when I am “off” then you will find that, again, these versions of me are me, just with some things dialed up and other things dialed down. But even that is still a different version of me than, say, the version of me which is at home (which is in fact extremely boring; that version of me doesn’t talk much and mostly stays in my office).

Many of you who have followed me over the years are familiar with me saying things like this, of course, and are likewise familiar with me pointing out that there are a number of things about my life that I don’t mention in public, for whatever reasons I choose. But it’s also true that I’ve been actively online for 30+ years now, and people feel reasonably confident that they have a good bead on me and that there’s not much about me that will surprise them or change their understanding of me. So to bring home the point there are indeed things you don’t know, allow me to surface just one previously unaired fun fact:

I have a concealed carry license.

(Or did; it expired this year and I didn’t renew it, because Ohio changed its laws so that you no longer need a permit to conceal carry in the state. These days in Ohio you can just wander about with a handgun stuffed down your trousers without training or licensing because that’s a real good idea, now, isn’t it. Nevertheless, the license is not necessary anymore so there was not much point in renewing it, although if the law had not changed, I probably would have renewed.)

Why did I have a concealed carry license? Well, ultimately that’s not important. The point is I had one. I didn’t talk about it before because, among other things, the point of a concealed carry license (to me, anyway) is that its existence is not meant to be known by anyone other than that great state of Ohio itself. I am aware, and this is a dramatic understatement, that I am not a person most people would expect to have had such a thing. That the fact I had one will cause a number of people to reconsider what they know about me, for better or for worse. Which is also my point. All y’all have just learned this thing about me! Think about all the other things you don’t know!

Oh, God, this is where Scalzi starts admitting to terrible, terrible things. No. I feel pretty confident I live a tolerably ethical life. Part of the reason for this is that I have what I think is a decent operating principle, which is: If I’m thinking of doing something, and Krissy called me right then and asked “what are you doing?” and I would be tempted to lie to her about it, then I don’t do that thing. Because Krissy is the most important person in my life, and I don’t want to lie to her about what I’m doing (I have lied to her exactly once. She knew instantly. I haven’t bothered lying to her since). This is not replacing Krissy’s ethics with my own; it’s me knowing whether by my own ethics, I would be ashamed to tell to her what I am up to. It works very well. As such, the Krissy Test is an operating principle I highly suggest to others, although I’d suggest replacing Krissy with whomever your life is most important to you.

Be that as it may, my ethics are not universal and some others might not find them sufficient, for whatever reason. I am well aware I still disappoint many people, and that there are people who find my life choices, known positions or public statements (or lack of them, as the case may be) problematic, or who simply wish I would be other than what I am. I can’t help them with this, but again, this is the point. Given the fact that I am a fallible human who has an entire stratum of his life not visible to the world — and the strata of his life that are visible cause significant numbers of people to be irritated and exasperated — is it not better just to not hold me up as an ideal person, or the “good dude,” much less an idol of any sort?

I mean, shit. What Would John Scalzi Do? Solidly half the time, I have no fucking idea. I have to think about it, whatever it is. I have to think about whether I know enough to do or say something about it. I have to decide whether it’s something I want to engage with at all, and whether my engagement with it is something that would be of value to anyone, me included. I have to decide whether engaging with it is worth the shit I will get for it. And then I have to figure out what it means that I am engaging with it, since like it or not I’m a Dude of Reasonable Significance in My Field. I try to be a decent human, when people are looking at me and especially when they are not. But I also know me, and all my flaws and weaknesses and compromises.

What Would John Scalzi Do? The best he can, in the moment. Is that sufficient? For me, yes, most of the time. Is that sufficient for you? That’s up to you.

The point to this all is that people are just a big fucking mess, including the ones you might for whatever reason find admirable. I am no different than anyone else, and you should not be under the illusion that I am anything other than a shambling collection of flaws embedded inside a human form, which also, in its defense, has some pretty excellent qualities as well. We’re all this way! You too!

And while I want you to like my work, and to enjoy the version of me that you see here and elsewhere, don’t put me, or any other person, on a pedestal. Pedestals are wobbly and and don’t give actual humans a lot of room to move. We will inevitably fall off. Keep us with our feet on the ground. That way, when we stumble, there’s a chance we can get back up, and keep going.

— JS

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: Superman (2025)

(Thanks to @knightsweeties for the Super GP)

I am someone that loves Superhero movies... BUT Lately most of these movies have been falling flat. This was the first super hero movie since Deadpool (who tbh is an antihero) that I actually got excited to see.

Now does Superman Soar above expectations, was it standard DC movie fodder, OR was it #supers***.

For this review I will be going over the following:

Story

The Choreography (The action)

The Support Characters

Lois Lane

Lex Luthor

Clark Kent/Superman

The World

The Message

Closing thoughts

Obviously, Spoilers below

_____________________________________________________________

Story

The movie starts with a brief narration of how the DC universe started. Metahumans appeared several Centuries ago

Superman arrived as a baby from Krypton 30 years ago

he appeared as superman for the first time 3 years ago

3 weeks ago he stopped an invasion of the fictional country of Jarhanpur by Boravia (another fictional country and ally to America

3 hours ago Superman ended up getting into a fight with some mysterious figure called the "Hammer of Barovia"

3 minutes ago: Superman... losing for the first time.

Superman ended up beaten up bad and was saved by Krypto (a dog with powers like his) that dragged him to his secret base, the Fortress of Solitude.

There he got patched up and we hear the message of Jor el and Lara Lor van (Superman's birth parents) it is a bit damaged but he finds it soothing. The message says that they sent him to earth so that he can help the people there as the world there would help grant him the powers he needs.

After healing he heads back to fight the Hammer.

Superman still loses the fight as he is not at 100%, but thankfully the Hammer wasnt there to kill. But unexpectedly (or expectedly) it was actually Lex Luthor behind this mysterious powerful foe, and he was instructing the hammer how to fight superman, creating moves specifically made to counter, but thats not all, this was all a plot to find Superman's lair just so Lex could prove Superman is a threat.

Clark Kent returns to the Daily planet, the newspaper he works at, where he got the frontpage of the paper for his article about the Superman fight vs the Hammer. Lois gives him some snark over his "Interview" but Clark banters back.

Later on, its revealed Clark and Lois are dating (though not official) and that their banter is actually just some fun banter to hide their relationship. Lois wants to interview Superman, where we get to see a bit more of the innocent mind of Superman and why he does what he does and also that he sucks at interviews NOT done by himself.

Later on, Lex has a Kaiju released on Metropolis to distract Superman while He and his crew , the nanobot filled woman known for her control of nanomachines (the Engineer) and the powerhouse (that was disguised as the Hammer) Ultraman, a silent but powerful figure. They managed to get inside the Fortress of Solitude (how revealed later). and The Engineer discovers the distorted message, where they restore it and find out the FULL reason Superman/ Kal El is here.

Meanwhile fighting the Kaiju, we meet the Justice Gang (name pending) Green lantern (Guy Gardner) Mr. Terrific, and Hawk Girl. Who help Superman Take down the giant Kaiju by killing it. We learn that superman was trying to stop it without killing the creature (which is why he was struggling to beat it.)

After the battle, the message of Superman's parents is decoded and sent out. The message was damaged before and the second part of the message was revealed. They wanted Superman to Rule over Earth, leading it to prosperity while having as many children as possible to repopulate Krypton. Which naturally turns a lot of people against superman.

Superman rushes to the fortress of Solitude to see the mess left by Luthor and his goons only to realize something more horrifying... They stole Krypto, and naturally Superman is pissed.

Superman confronts Luthor, which results in another video that makes Superman look bad.

After the PR nightmare and words from the President of Barovia, we find out the truth, Luthor did the following.

Luthor created a POCKET UNIVERSE that allows him to teleport across the world as well as store things and people he dislikes

Luthor is controlling Barovia like a puppet

Most of the outrage about superman was done by Monkeys (this part was hilarious)

Lex is indeed a petty bitch

Superman decides to turn himself over to the US government for questioning. Only for Luthor to reveal the Government allowed HIM the right to question Superman, and he takes him into the pocket dimension, where he had a metahuman known as the Element man (but his reall name is Metamorpho) create Kryptonite to keep him contained.)

Meanwhile Lois investigates where they took superman, and thanks to Jimmy Olsen (who for some reason has Archie Andrews level of Player energy) manages to get a source that reveals Superman is in a pocket dimension

Lois tells the Justice Gang and despite their protests, Mr. Terrific agrees to help Lois and is horrified to learn about the Pocket dimension.

Superman manages to escape with Metamorpho, they save Metamorpho's son Joey, save Krypto and managed to barely escape, but the portal to the pocket dimension is now unstable, and Luthor decides to let it keep going to distract Superman so Boravia can invade Jarhanpur so Luthor can get half the country.

Superman needed to recover and also deal with his internal struggle after finding out the truth about his birth parents, but thankfully his Jon and Martha Kent were able to talk him out of the funk by telling Clark what he needed to hear.

Superman tries to save metropolis and has the Justice Gang (except Mr.Terrific) go to save the people who are asking for Superman's help.

Superman manages to defeat the Engineer, and now is fighting Ultraman, who we find out was a clone of Superman that Luthor made (which is how Luthor got into the Fortress, as they needed his dna to do so.) (Its Bizarro)

Luthor reveals that everything he had been doing and why, only for Krypto to arrive and help Superman even the odds as now Luthor couldnt instruct Ultraman. Superman defeats the brute and manages to catch Luthor before he escapes, where Mr.Terrific shows up and stopped the black hole. Luthor gets captured and the truth is posted thanks to Lois and Jimmy's investigations.

Luthor is imprisoned, Metamorpho joins the justice Gang. Clark has the Fortress repaired and it is revealed that Super girl, Kara Zor-El is the one who owns Krypto and has been out partying so thats why he was there.

Superman and Mr. Terrific repair the city.

Overall the plot was expansive but it was relatively easy to follow, things made sense on how they led up to things, there were brief explainations about heroes that never felt forced, and there were references galore. The plot was detailed but simple.

Solid 9/10

______________________________________________________________

The Choreography (The action)

This movie spared NO expense when it came to the action. This movie showed the strength yet Gentleness of Superman. Superman going around saving everything he can, from kids, to Squirrels. The fight Choreography between Superman and Ultraman/Bizarro was phenomenal, Luthor calling out moves like it was a fighting game to instruct the brute was a nice touch. Superman knocking the teeth out of a goon was great, there was a lot of good slapstick too. Each hero felt unique in their fighting style too, Guy Gardner's contruct, Mr.Terrific's calculated movements, Hawk Girl's aerial combat. Not to mention, superman was SMART in his fighting. Its nice to see the strategic side of strong heroes.

10/10 no notes.

_____________________________________________________________

The Support Characters

Starting with the support does seem weird, but trust me. the other main characters NEEDED to have their own section. But lets start with

The Justice Gang:

Mister Terrific: Edi Gathegi's portrayal of one of the smartest people in the world is... Terrific. He has a calm approach to most things. His confidence in handling fights, how he explains things in a succinct manner. You dont feel patronized when he is being smart. He is no-nonsense, but he also can be funny while being serious. He has one of the best scenes in the end with Superman that I dare not spoil (9/10)

Green Lanturn: Nathan Fillion's portrayal of Guy Gardner was Perfect. The cocky attitude, the brash talk, the bowl cut. His demeanor of being a jerk but still wants to help is on point. He is a hot head but you can tell he does want to help. Its A+ performance and I never got tired of him off screen. I was unfamiliar with Your game Mr.Fillion and I respect it. (10/10 no notes)

Hawkgirl: Isabella Merced's portrayal was good. Now my personal preference is Shaeera Hal from the DCAU, that being said, Kendra Saunders is the more lore accurate Hawkgirl, and Isabella captured that portrayal better, She is grumpy and done with the BS, but also got that aggression and passion that we come to expect from the Mace wielder. I wish she did get more screen time, but she was a solid character that bounced off Guy and Mr.Terrific. (7/10)

Metamorpho: Anthony Carrigan's portrayal was fine. He was a decent character, though like with Hawkgirl, I grew up with DCAU version of Rex Mason. This version felt a bit more timid and broken, but I do think he was endearing and him wanting to save his son was precious. but he is probably the weakest character on this. (6.5/10)

Now to the rest

Jimmy Olsen: I dont know whose idea it was to make Jimmy a secret player, but it was hilarious and I respect the choice. Skyler's Gisondo's portrayal captured Jimmy's loyalty to Lois and how he can be a reliable friend but also really good at getting the ladies. (7/10)

Lex's GF/ Sara Sampaio: Eve Teschmarcher's portrayal of this Ditzy but smarter than she looked blond was hilarious and I loved how Jimmy was trying to hard to keep her at arms length because she is clingy. Plus the idea that Luthor getting his girl stolen by Jimmy is a visual that will never NOT be funny. (8/10)

Perry White: I greatly enjoy Wendell Pierce and felt he nailed Perry down perfectly. he is a guy that wants to ensure the sources are right and the story gets out, he also aint blind and called out immediately that Lois and Superman were hooking up. No notes (9/10)

The Engineer: Maria Gabriela de Faria really captured this edgy smart villainess. She is cut throat and cruel but also wants to prove herself, She felt like a good balance for Luthor's crew and while dangerous was controlled by Luthor. (9/10)

Solid performances by the side characters. Its clear there was great direction and the actors brought their A Game.

Solid 8/10 across the board for the rest.

______________________________________________________________

Lois Lane

Played by the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel herself, Rachel Brosnahan. Lois Lane is a colleague of Clark Kent, and the women that he fell in love with.

Now portrayals of Lois lane vary through medium, some have simply as the love interest, some have her as the one Clark banter's with, some just as the constantly kidnapped woman.

Here, I think Lois Lane's core aspect is captured. Lois is a fiesty Punk rock gal who questions everything, she will always ask motive or intention and thats why she is perfect for Clark, because she makes up for what he lacks, while he also helps her out of her cynical shell. They balance eachother out, they banter perfectly and both have what the other need.

Lois starts out skeptical of the relationship, because... thats her nature she is naturally untrusting of everything, but Clark is a literally Golden Retriever that wants to do the best he can, and even she cant find any dark motive behind it.

Even when the rest of the world turned against him, Lois, the one person that questions everything, never doubted that Clark was trying to do good. Lois did what she could to help Clark get out of his funk or even go find him. She trusted him.

We see how feisty she is when defending Superman, and trying to save him, while also how dedicated she is to finding the truth. She is doing so much in the movie where she is doing her own thing but also doing things to help Clark.

This was a spectacular performance and I think it was Marvelous.

9.5/10

_____________________________________________________________

Lex Luthor

Nicholas Hoult's performance as the Multi-billionaire genius arch nemesis of Superman is without a doubt the best Live Action performance of Lex Luthor I have ever seen BAR NONE.

Lex is a clear genius, he is obsessed with beating superman, he is thinking 10 steps ahead yet also being reckless in his own inventions, he made an army of monkeys to FARM outrage against superman. He locked up his Exes in a POCKET Dimension out of spite. He insighted a war just to piss superman off. Everything Lex did in this movie was to destroy superman.

He found a guy that sold Superman food one time and SHOT HIM IN FRONT OF SUPERMAN Just to interrogate him.

His speech about Envy was one of the best speeches a villain has given in a while. He also gets the Karma he deserves at the end, but every second Luthor is on screen he steals the show. He and Superman have such a great antagonistic dynamic. Lex looking smug and loving seeing Superman suffer, and when things dont go his way Lex has a tantrum like a brat. Its PITCH PERFECT.

I think Nicholas struck gold on his performance, not since The Dark Knight's Joker have I found myself so Captivated by a villain's performance.

10/10 No notes

_____________________________________________________________

Clark Kent/Superman

David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent.

It was exactly what I wanted from this movie.

David' portrayal of Clark was nerdy, a bit scattered yet still somewhat capable. It felt natural, it felt like this was who he really was. Because that is the truth, Superman is a beacon of hope, he is a son of Krypton, but Clark kent is first and foremost who he is, because Clark is in his heart, a guy who wants the best for everyone.

Superman is a beacon of hope, an old fashioned hero that "Wants to save everyone" that is what superman is. He doesnt care for politics, he wants to ensure that people dont die. Thats why he intervened in a war. Superman wanted to save people.

Clark is goofy, likes breakfast food, cant say no when people ask for favors, talks to his parents constantly, feels bad when he says something that hurts another person's feelings, LOVES HIS DOG.

Clark Kent does not care if the world is cruel and out to get him, he will still do what he can to save the day. Though it does bother him, I like how it does because he is very human.

Superman can have doubts, he can get angry, depressed, and knows pain.

But even in that state, Superman will NEVER harm the innocent, its why when he heard the full message about his parents he didnt change who he was, he still went to save the day, save others, he would not rule over the world, he would protect it. Because thats how Clark Kent was Raised to do.

Cause he is the pillar of hope, the example that the world wants to follow. Superman doesnt let politics impact who he saves, he doesnt let people that are bitter and angry stop him. He saves EVERYONE, he brings "truth, Justice and the American way." He brings "Kindness in a world that believes it to be old fashioned." those are quotes from the producer Peter Safran. And the producer is right. That is what Superman is, he is Timeless, and he is the first and GREATEST hero.

And David's performance was exactly that.

David also played Ultraman (which he did very well)

10/10 Perfect casting.

___________________________________________________________

The World

I think they captured the world of Superman perfectly, all the nods and meta references were done with love and care.

The fortress of Solitude was absolutely stunning, The Luthorcorp building was great. The world felt lived in, Metropolis felt like a real place.

That line where "Liberals and Conservatives can finally agree on one thing and its that Luthor sucks" Was the line that made it feel so real. Because yes, Luthor sucks that much.

9/10

I would have loved a bit more building to it, but I did enjoy it and it didnt take away from the movie.

______________________________________________________________

The Message

I think the message for this film really boils down to this. No one can tell you who you are, Only you can decide that for yourself.

The world wanted to tell Superman what he could be, His birth parents tried to tell Kal El who he could be. But it was Pa and Ma Kent that told Clark that this was a decision up to him.

And thats what I love. You choose who you want to be, and you can always choose to be a better version of yourself.

No political bullcrap, no stances, just "Be the best version of yourself you can be" and "Always try to do better."

Thats the moral of the story. Dont let others decide who you are. Be the version you want to be.

9/10

_____________________________________________________________

Closing Thoughts

This is the best DC live action movie I have seen in a LONG time. This was what I wanted Man of Steel to be. This is the interpretation of Superman I have wanted since the End of Justice League. This is superman, this is what it was always meant to be.

Though I do wish there was less fowl language. But thatsa personal gripe.

Superman is a phenomenal movie that I would recommend to anyone that feels that superhero movies are done. Because if this is what DC is cooking up, then I am ready for more.

I give the movie a 9/10

[tobydandelion]

Disabled Villainy isn't Ableism, it's Realism, or; Some People are Wrong about Nessa.

[Some 'Wicked' stage musical/Movie part 2 spoilers]

So I've been seeing a lot of takes about Nessa, (mostly on YouTube since that's the best social media platform for my current neurological needs), and there's a somewhat common one that I have the strong urge to dispute into the void. Some folks seem to misunderstand Nessa's role in the deconstruction of 'Evil'.

The Wizard is Systemic Evil, Glinda is Complacent Evil, and Nessa is Socially Traumatized Evil.

Because Wicked isn't just deconstructing society's perception of evil, but also Evil in practice- which comes from not only bias, misunderstanding, apathy, and greed- but also, the cycle of abuse. And a lot of disabled people don't like to hear this, because there's that lovely statistic that we can point to that says we're "more likely to be victims"- and that's true of abuse that reaches the level of criminality- but I dont think that's true of day-to-day, average, 'just plain mean' abuse. That kind of abuse is a learned behavior that comes from trauma. And, emotional neglect from your peers is trauma. Feeling like a burden is trauma. Watching all the other children playing and feeling left out is trauma. Being made to feel different over your entire life, is trauma.

Nessa isn't an ableist character, she's realistically Borderline for being disabled in a world without Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Her character literally feels like she was written with BPD/NPD in mind- lashing out the most when she's feeling abandoned by a person she perceives as "hers", feeling the need to control the people around her, not caring how she hurts people in the process of that attempt to control their affection- she's literally my ex wife. They're both very extreme examples, but, with an understandable pathology. And the less extreme version of that is someone a lot of us need to actively fight against becoming every day. It's not fair that that's our burden, but it is. It's the thick line between healthy self-loving disabiltyPunk, or just being a dick. And it's a part of our extra personal labor that 'Entitles' us to an extra amount of grace that I don't think I'll ever really be able to properly quantify, because that line can be hard to see in the heat of the moment, through years of gaslighting and guilt and shame and resulting internalized ableism that we have the urge to fight against. The only way we can really see that line is in hindsight.

And while media that more thoroughly deconstructs this cycle is neccessary, so is simple media like Wicked. Especially in the context of an example of another traumatized marginalized character who made the decision to start actively trying to follow their ethics over their emotions despite their trauma. And, once again, the solution isn't limiting the options for marginalized characters, it's just making more marginalized characters in general.

A lot of folks also take issue with the entire concept of depicting disability being 'cured' in media at all, but, and thankfully I have actually seen this rebuttal: nothing about her life gets better once she becomes abled. And that's because she still has all that trauma from those years of severe marginalization that resulted in ostracization and feelings of powerlessness. She's still disabled- just only neurologically so, now. This is a terrific example of how different disabilities can intersect, and be exacerbated, or even created, by the neurological impact of marginalization.

In fact, that brings up another criticism that I've heard- that the characters are realistically ableist... in a society falling to fascism... in a story all about marginalization. I'm pretty sure that's intended, you guys.

Maybe I'll turn this into a script to film for shortform content next year when Part 2 comes out- I hope I'm out of Postpartum Depression by then. But I couldn't get this out of my head until I got it into words this morning. I think that's probably a good sign I'm starting to feel more like myself. Thankfully I had time to sit down and rock and type this morning, since my partner is taking care of our baby in the other room right now. (Not just babysitting, either- he's washing bottles.❤) He's 6 months now, and the most beautiful, funny, amazing person in the world. Meeting the new version of him every day as he gets stronger and brighter has been the light keeping me going. And we're already doing PHONICS. 💪🧠

[sinderbishop]

So, Remmick was a Fili, right? I’m not the only one who caught that, right?

So, I’ve been playing Vampire: the Masquerade for more than half my life at this point, and that has shaped the lens through which I analyze vampire media. It’s a crutch, I know, but it made me connect a few things after my first viewing and after wading through the flood of posts about Sinners.

Just in case you don’t know (and if you do you can skip this paragraph), V:tM is a TTRPG, just like D&D is, but instead of playing an adventurer in a fantasy setting, you’re playing a vampire in a modern real world adjacent setting. Instead of choosing a species and class, you choose your vampire clan. There are a lot of them, but I want to focus on the Toreador.

The Toreador are a clan of beauty, of artists, of gorgeous people embraced (turned into vampires) to preserve that beauty. But the vampiric condition is not the same as the living condition, and it tends to dull the creative spark. When a Toreador is embraced for their artistic expression, they tend to find very quickly that their work becomes repetitive, mundane, and dull. It’s a common problem with the clan that one sees repeated through the fictions set in that universe.

So my theory is that Remmick was a Fili, the Irish interpretation of the dimension-crossing bard that Sammie is and that was mentioned in the prologue. But when he was turned, those powers were lost. That talent faded. And vampires in this setting have something of a hive mind. Remmick doesn’t want Sammie to help him reach his ancestors. He could have done that just by asking. No, he wants his powers back, and he intends to get it by turning Sammie, completely ignoring the fact that doing so would destroy the gift that allows that sort of thing to happen in the first place.

There’s commentary here that I don’t feel qualified to make about how this is a metaphor for the co-opting of black culture, how internet slang is made up of 95% AAVE with little recognition of that source and even less appreciation for it. There’s an idea that I know I’m not qualified to speak on about how racism is stupid and is the result of broken thought processes that infect the racist’s every action, and I’m not making that because I haven’t studied racism and I could be wrong. But the point I want to make is that this is a very effective (at least to me) message about how the industries surrounding artistic pursuits tend to blunt the edge of the art they facilitate.

How many stories from the recording industry are there about songs that were changed because of executive meddling? How many movies were altered because someone with the purse-strings didn’t get the vision? I can’t help but think of the load-bearing “You’re so beautiful” scene from Barbie that almost got cut, or the fact that Saltburn ended with a dance sequence instead of with the servants giving undercooked eggs to Oliver again like Emereld Fennell reportedly wanted. Again, I don’t feel completely confident making commentary about artists turned record producers and label owners, but there’s certainly some to be made.

TL;DR: Remmick wanted to steal Sammie’s talent for his own to get back the power he used to have, without applying the lesson he learned from his own turning that being a vampire kills that creative ability. Because racism and capitalism is stupid.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Kuczo From Emperor's New Groove Refutes the Bs Sheltered Excuse For Stolas

I know people use the sheltered excuse to cover for Stolas' crappy behavior but I see another character who I think refutes Stolas should be given leeway because he's sheltered is Kuczo from "Emperor's New Groove". The reason why I say this is because why he became such a selfish pos is that he was always sheltered and spoiled to think that way. However, one thing that the narrative doesn't do is shield him from being criticized for his selfishness and callousness. The main plot happens because of his shittiness and taking people for granted like his long time advisor (although that one did have justification because she was trying times to rule behind his back).

Throughout the story he's made to reflect on the fact that his actions affect others and that he can't keep acting the way he is or he will end up alone as a result. And even at one point in the story he even tells off his own narration to feel sorry for himself because at that point we saw that he brought everything on himself and is now paying for it. That is something Stolas would never do because he will frequently deny he's not anything but the complete victim and blame everything after everyone else when it's obvious he's to blame for his own misery.

That's the difference between Kuzco and Stolas as characters is accountability from the narrative. Kuzco's ignorance doesn't give him the excuse to be a pos and he has to learn be a better person or be stuck the way he is forever. Stolas on the other hand is babied and we are supposed to find his ignorance charming rather than obnoxious. And even when it's pointed out he doubles down and claims he's done nothing wrong which shows he is adverse to actually learning to better himself. And ironically Kuzco is just a year younger than Stolas' daughter who acts more mature than her dad. And youth doesn't stop him from being someone who needs his actions corrected.

And most of all entitlement both Kuczo (in the beginning) and Stolas are both entitled characters due to their ignorance. Kuczo for example is so entitled he thinks that there is nothing wrong with bulldozing a village to make a resort for himself while leaving many homeless and when turned into a llama he demands one of the villagers who he told what was going to happen to take him back. Meanwhile, Stolas thinks nothing of extorting someone for sex and then expects to have a relationship with that person since he called it off. However, one character manages to show how toxic this mentality is and how selfish they are for it. The other is treated as deserving of it and thus doesn't get admonish for not caring how others feel until he gets what he wants. And ironically even if Kuczo had moral lapses before truly changing, he comes off as more likable than Stolas.

It's interesting that an almost 25 year old Disney movie can get this character right but a supposedly adult animated show can't. It really shows what happens when let a creator pet blind the story and allow them to get away with more and more shit.

[kikibug16]

The Hidden One - KPDH (chapter 3)

summary: The world knows that HUNTR/X is three members. Three hunters that fight demons to protect their fans. But there actually is another member hidden in the background, and she holds a power that is greater than them all.

oc x characters

wc: 3,1 k

a/n: Hi! I went to the 82Major concert so this took me a bit longer to write, but here it is. The iconic scene is finally here with an added twist on my part. This is the longest chapter so far, I hope you enjoy! (Besides the plot of the original kpdh movie, I own any added plot lines and characters. DO NOT STEAL MY STORY)

CAPITALIZED ITALICS = song lyrics

Regular italics = character thoughts

series masterlist

The walk into the city was busier than usual. Constantly, they had to weave through crowds, which wasn’t great. Besides Aera, the others had to wear their disguises. One mistake and they could cause a crowd around them. Well, a bigger crowd than the one they were already in. The girls tried to duck their heads to avoid any one of these people from seeing them.

“So where is this tonic guy?” Aera asked Zoey, who was walking beside her.

“It’s just down the street!” she responded loudly. Mira and Rumi quickly shushed her to not draw any attention.

Aera was about the speak again when she was interrupted by someone on her left.

“Excuse me,” the voice said, causing her to turn towards it.

 There she saw a girl looking at her, “Yeah,” she responded, confused.

“I just wanted to say that I love your outfit,” the girl complimented with a smile on her face.

“Oh, thank you,” she lit up at the compliment, looking down at herself. She didn’t put much effort into it today. She just wore baggy blue jeans, a black, white graphic tank top, and some keychains on her belt

The girl continued to walk away, and Aera walked back in line with the other girls. “Aw, I wish I could go out in my best clothes and get compliments,” Zoey said.

“Come on guys, let’s hurry up,” Rumi quickly said, walking faster.

They continued on their way, still encountering crowds. The farther they got into the town, the more difficult it was to keep their disguises.

“So tell me again what this tonic can do,” Aera asked Zoey to try and distract herself from the crowd of people.

“Apparently, it can heal anything from sore throats to relationships,” Zoey animatedly explained.

“And it’s totally legit?”

“Totally legit!”

“Shh! Zoey,” Rumi quickly shushed her to avoid attention from passersby.

“Why are there so many people today?” Mira asked, finally noticing.

“I know right, there’s never this many people at this time,” Aera agreed.

“It’s down that alleyway,” Zoey diverted them, finally out of the crowded sidewalk.

The walk wasn’t much farther, as soon as they entered the alleyway, they made it to its entrance. It was a little building with glass surrounding its entrance, and even the door was made of glass. On the front window was a poster of the doctor who owns the place holding his tonic. The photoshopped poster gave away exactly the credibility of the place.

“Yep, about as legit as I expected,” Mira commented immediately, sharing similar thoughts with Aera. But the other two didn’t agree as they decided to head inside.

Aera had a feeling that this probably wasn’t going to produce the best results. Rumi was going to need something that would work for sure. She was going to need some good food.

“Hey girls,” she quickly called out before they could walk inside. “I’m gonna go buy some food at the markets real quick.”

“Okay, just text us when you’re done,” Zoey called out before heading inside, with Rumi and Mira following.

With that, she walked out of the alleyway and back onto the busy sidewalk. The walk to the markets wasn’t far, luckily, it was just down the block from the tonic place. As she walked, she looked around to see why there were so many people. She had been here on multiple occasions at this time, and it never looked like this. Was there some sort of event happening?

Finally, her eyes settled on a yellow piece of paper that someone was holding. She didn’t think anything of it until she noticed that more people were holding the same paper. Almost everyone in her sight was holding this yellow paper. She started moving towards the person closest to her with the paper when a voice suddenly stopped her.

“Would you like to come to our performance later?” a voice said, causing her head to turn towards it.

Standing next to her was a man with light pink hair that reached just below his shoulders. His bangs framed his face in a perfect heart shape. His whole appearance just screamed brightly with his colored hair and vibrant yellow shirt. Aera didn’t realize that she was staring for a bit longer than normal until she finally met his eyes. He was looking at her the entire time she was zoning out. Quickly, embarrassment filled her body, her face slightly grimacing.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” she tried to recover by speaking.

His smile grew larger, obviously noticing her staring. “I just asked if you wanted to come to our performance later?” He repeated, handing out a flyer to her. She didn’t notice it even in his hands at first, but immediately she recognized it. It was the yellow paper that everyone was holding.

“Your performance later?” she continued to ask questions.

“Yes, my group will be performing our debut in the square today, and I would love for a pretty girl like you to be there,” he said smoothly, maintaining eye contact with her.

She was immediately flustered, clearly caught off guard. Why was this random man suddenly starting to flirt with her?

“Um,” she thought it over. Obviously, she was curious about why people were crowded. She was going to go ask someone about it before he came up and talked to her. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she said, “Sure, I’ll try to see it.”

“You’ll try?”

“Yes, I have to meet up with my friends soon-”

“You can bring your friends along. The more people, the better,” he continued to push, clearly desperate to see her attend.

“Okay,” she said, trying to end this uncomfortably long conversation.

“Great! Can’t wait to see you in the crowd, beautiful,” he finished, giving her one last look before walking away.

Aera stood in place for a moment after he left. Her mind just kept replaying that strange interaction. Eventually, her body slowly started to walk towards the markets. Her feet were just carrying her the rest of the way. Her focus however, was on the yellow paper in her hands. It read:

SAJA BOYS

LIVE PERFORMACE

11:00 AM

MYEONGDONG SQUARE

She folded the flyer, putting it in her back pocket, focusing now on getting her ingredients.

She didn’t spend much time in the marketplace before heading back to the girls. She texted the girls immediately after she finished. They were still at the tonic place, so she would meet them there. Turning into the alleyway, she saw Mira and Zoey waiting outside. They saw her quickly greeting her with a smile.

“Hey Aera, what did you get?” Zoey immediately asked, seeing her bags.

“Just some stuff for Rumi. I’m gonna make her some food to heal her throat.”

“Perfect! Who knows if this tonic will even work?” Mira quietly said, still not trusting the legitimacy of it.

The three didn’t have to wait long before Rumi came out. She was holding a box, supposedly with her tonic pouches. They all cheered when she walked out, moving to meet up with her.

“Once your voice is fixed, we can get back to the important stuff, like the fans,” Zoey immediately assured, excited for Rumi to heal.

They didn’t get to celebrate for too long until a group of shadows started walking closer to the alleyway. Instantly, the girls started to fix their disguises, not wanting to be seen by the passing fans. Zoey and Mira quickly hid behind Rumi. They fixed her hoodie, which was resting on her shoulders. They made sure it covered her recognizable purple hair. Aera quickly moved in front of Rumi. She knew she wasn’t going to be recognized, so blocking them could help if no one looked at them closely.

The shouts to hurry quickly cut off as they started to discreetly walk forward. However, when the group rounded the corner, they weren’t met with fans. Instead, it was four attractive men walking their way. Their colorful hair shone under the sunlight. Right away, Aera caught a glimpse of familiar pink hair. It’s the guy from earlier. These must be his group members. She took a quick glance at everyone. They certainly looked like a boy group.

Turning her head briefly towards the girls, she noticed that they had come out of hiding behind her. Both Mira and Zoey were looking at them with awe. Their gazes locked onto the boys walking towards them. Rumi, on the other hand, was staring at them in confusion, her eyes darting back and forth between them and the boys. Amused by their reactions, she turned back ahead of her, making eye contact with the one she spoke to earlier.

He gave a sly smile, recognizing her. She looked away from him when she noticed the one next to him stretching, the buttons on his shirt popping off. She heard a small squeal come from beside her, causing her to look away. Zoey was completely locked in. Suddenly, a button hit her smack in the face, causing Aera to get concerned if she got hurt. But that sympathy quickly went away when both Zoey and Mira started gushing about how hot it was.

She and Rumi both shared the same exasperated expression, clearly finding the other girls’ behavior ridiculous.

“Ugh, you guys are so gross…” she trailed off, catching sight of someone else behind the previous four. Aera watched as Rumi also went into awe. Staring at the dark-haired boy trailing behind. Her mouth dropped as he approached closer. By this point, Aera was done. Not only did Mira and Zoey seem hypnotized, but Rumi did too. They were boys. Pretty and attractive boys, but still just boys.

She moved herself to the side of the alleyway for them to pass. Not wanting to be trapped standing there and cause another awkward interaction. But the girls didn’t share the same idea. Painfully, she watched as Rumi got thrown to the floor by a soft shoulder shove from the dark-haired boy. Making all of them look at her on the floor. Aera moved to help her up but stopped when the boy extended his hand slightly. Thinking he was going to help Rumi, she stopped moving. But she was ultimately thrown off when he brought his hand back to his shoulder.

All he said was, “Watch yourself,” snickering with his group as they walked away.

How dare he! All the girls moved towards Rumi, immediately helping her as any nice person would do.

“They’re not even that cute,” Zoey said, releasing her frustration.

“They’re so bleh!” Rumi contributed. Setting off a series of thrown noises from all four girls to represent how awful those guys were. They would have continued if they hadn’t heard music coming from behind them, “What’s that?”

Grabbing the rest of the pouches, they jogged towards the end of the alleyway, peeking around the corner. A puff of pink smoke caught their attention in the square. Noticing that people were also interested, they decided to get closer to investigate. As they stopped in the center of the square, they saw it, five silhouettes in the cloud of smoke. Aera knew exactly what this was: those guys’ performance.

“It’s those stupid jerks again!” Rumi said, recognizing them. “These guys are a boy band?” she continued, echoing the confusion of everyone except for Aera.

They continued to watch as the boys continued to perform, each taking turns in the song. Aera was about to start bobbing her head when she noticed the dark-haired boy drinking something. It was one of Rumi’s pouches! Looking at the girls, she saw that they noticed as well. Rumi was counting the ones in her box, realizing that he indeed did steal one of them.

Looking back towards the group, she watched as they executed their practiced choreography. She had to admit the dance was very thought out, and they were perfectly in sync. They must have really practiced for this moment. Suddenly, as she was watching, she made eye contact with the one she spoke to earlier. He looked at her as he sang his line, holding his hands to his chest. Aera stared back confused. Why did this guy keep looking at her?

Finally, their song reached the chorus. If she thought the song was already good, then the chorus was even better.

YOU’LL ALL I CAN THINK OF

EVERY DROP I DRINK UP

YOU’RE MY SODA POP

MY LITTLE SODA POP

The song was undeniably catchy; this was a perfect debut song. Her body started to move to the beat. It started off slowly but gradually started to get bigger. She didn’t notice but Zoey also was starting to get infected by the beat as well.

“The song is pretty good,” Aera said with a smile, her shoulders moving up and down.

Rumi glared at them both since they started to move too excitedly. But she ultimately succumbed to the beat. “It is annoyingly catchy, though,” she admitted, her shoulders moving in sync with the two girls.

It wasn’t long before Mira joined them as well, saying, “It’s infectious.”

The boys suddenly started kissing hearts into the air, which wouldn’t be surprising if it weren’t for the solid hearts forming in the air. The pink haired guy she talked to earlier was throwing hearts at the crowd, and they were hitting people hard in the face. She watched, surprised, before turning back. Quickly, she noticed one of the hearts coming straight for her head. Luckily, Mira’s hand shot out, catching it before it could smack her.

“They can make hearts out of thin air,” she said catching Aera grateful gaze. But they didn’t see another heart coming their way, this time hitting Zoey right in the face. Aera quickly went to help her friend up, concerned about the heart’s speed.

“You alright?” she asked.

“Yep, totally fine,” she responded, her voice grunting with slight pain.

Bringing her back up, they looked back towards the boys, trying to find the culprit of the heart. However, they saw something entirely different. Patterns ghosted the boys’ skin, fading in and out. They were disguising their patterns, which only meant one thing.

“Their demons!” three of the girls said.

“Their magicians,” Zoey said at the same time.

They all turned to look at Zoey in confusion. Realizing her mistake, she quickly said, “Demons, obviously demons,” she finished, glaring at the boys, like she understood the whole time.

It made sense to Aera now. The solid hearts, the immediate attention from the crowd. They could do all of that because they were demons. Right then, she noticed a weird energy coming from the crowd. Taking her attention away from the boys, she looked at everyone around her. Wherever she went, she could see each person’s soul shining in their chest. Every time it would shine a bright blue color, but right now, she noticed something different.

Her eyes narrowed in on someone, trying to see what was different. Suddenly, she saw it. It happened so fast, but their soul flickered purple before returning to blue. Alarmed, she went to look at someone else. She didn’t blink as she stared at this person, not wanting to miss it. After a few seconds, it happened, the flash of purple before going back to blue.

“Dang, they’re good,” Zoey said to her left, interrupting her thoughts.

“Incredible,” Rumi agreed. “But a demon boy band? Why?”

She brought up a good point, why were they here like that instead of their usual schemes. She didn’t have time to think about it when Mira spoke up, “I don’t care. A demon’s a demon. We kill them,” she said, starting to walk forward.

“No,” Rumi quickly stopped her, not wanting to cause a scene

“What if they try to kill these people?” Mira tried to reason.

“It doesn’t look like they’re gonna hurt anyone,” Zoey chimed in, causing the rest of them to look back at the boys.

There, they saw them helping a girl at a food stand and giving toys to children. “Yeah, their acting completely different than other demons,” Aera said, a little confused.

“It almost seems like they’re nice demons?” Zoey observed. Aera quietly nodded, agreeing with Zoey.

“Demons are never nice!” both Mira and Rumi told them, shutting down their observations.

The three girls ran off, leaving Aera alone, to get rid of the things the boys touched. She didn’t go with them because she noticed the purple flicker happening again, this time to more people. She turned her body into a circle, trying to get a glimpse of a bunch of people at one. She saw the flash of purple happen to at least ten people, and it all happened at once. She knew that this must have been happening because of the boys, so she quickly turned to look at them again.

She caught them as they suddenly got lifted in the air by a soda can platform. Where the heck did that come from? They danced elevated before a shot of color extended from them, hitting the crowd.  It brightened every building and person standing in the vicinity. This action caused even more people to pay attention, and more purple to flicker in their souls.

“They’re coming after the fans,” Rumi said suddenly next to her. “We gotta stop this now,” she continued, moving forward to get closer to the boys.

Aera stayed put, instead of going to fight the boys, she wanted to observe them. What were they doing to these people? How were they doing it? The song continued to play in the background as she watched them trying to find anything.

YOU’RE MY SODA POP

MY LITTLE SODA POP

YOU’RE MY SODA POP

GOTTA DRINK EVERY DROP

The song finished, and the boys stared into the crowd. She noticed that the dark-haired boy continued to mock Rumi, who was standing a little in front of her. Aera thought that it was over until they announced that they would be on a variety show later tonight. Quickly after their announcement, they disappeared in a puff of smoke. With them gone, she walked up to Rumi with Mira and Zoey behind her.

“To be fair, that’s also something a magician would do,” Zoey broke the silence, still on about her previous explanation.

“Oh, those are demons.” Rumi quickly shot her down. “And we’re gonna kill them.”

The girls could already tell where this was going. “Let’s get battle ready,” Rumi announced, confirming their predictions. They quickly went home, ready to get rid of these guys before more damage could be done.

Aera however, was still focused on the color changing souls. She was going to find out if it would happen again, following the girls, she hoped that they would let her join them this time.

thank you for reading!

taglist: @your-favorite-god @faefanatic @forgetfulsmols