#what if i wrote normal corruption arc though

[ancientmyrddin]

mmmm having corruption arc ideas

[mrsackermannx]

trust me with it | choso kamo

choso has experienced so much of what it is to be human already, but you're slowly making him realise that he's far more human than he thought.

word count: 7k

tagging: (ya’ll interacted with my interact to be tagged post back in November🥺) @meownotgood @sixpennydame @tomuraslut @romantichomicide95 @cathybarn @c-h-e-r-r-i-e-s @whatthefucksatan @loveackermannn + @p00pdev1l (have to tag you my beloved <3)

tags: 18+ canonverse choso kamo x fem!sorcerer reader, minor manga spoilers, (nothing plot wise is mentioned other than yuuji and megumi reuniting/implied culling games arc/ post shibuya incident arc), loss of virginity (virgin choso) but still soft dom choso, corruption kink too I guess?? choso has a big dick, breeding kink, size kink, slight praise kink, belly bulge, unprotected sex, use of "human/little human," light love confession/confession of feelings-so sex with feelings? low-key self indulgent, not beta read, vvv intense sex, possessive/smitten choso (slightly yandere at the end??)

author’s note 💌: (nov 23): hope this isn’t a little too ooc, ive been dying to write something for choso and this came to me so i had to write it! virgin characters are my faves to write🤭(june 24): I HAVE HAD THIS SAT IN MY DRAFTS SINCE NOVEMBER AND WANTED TO SET IT FREE😭😭😭

Choso had been plunged into a world of the unknown from the moment he met you. Before you, he liked to believe that one hundred and fifty years of existence meant that his wisdom would always be the indispensable weapon against which he truly feared—the unknown, and the humanity of his heart.

He was hardly a stranger to continuous, repetitive loops of thought but it felt as if his brain had rewired itself. Not even his inner world was safe from the insatiable need to be near you, his own thoughts searched for you when they dared stray elsewhere. 

He thumped the tile before him, hot water scalding his back as he willed his hopeless blood to answer him. It was acting on its accord all the time, his heart nothing but frenzied beating in his chest, not even his body in his own control anymore.

The need to be near you, to feel you and touch you in ways he couldn’t even explain was going to be his undoing tonight. Sharing a room with you seemed to send equal prickles of fear and excitement through him.

You reached out for your reflection in the glass as if you’d throttle it but chose to reach out and trail patterns against the window instead. You wrote nonsense for a few moments, before cursed energy started to zap through your fingertips in minute electric pulses. A shower normally reset you after a day like this, but you supposed this was a rather special circumstance. 

You were glad to be alive even though you didn’t feel you deserved it and the weight of your fellow sorcerers still slugged down your shoulders. The responsibility for your students was an ever present taste in your mouth. You eyed your tattered uniform beside you, all too grateful for the hotel robe Choso had insisted you wear after he picked apart the suitcase left by the last guests. It was soft and fluffy, perfect for how light your body felt after your shower and admittedly around Choso.

You gripped your stomach, the guilt demanding to be free. Your head was still fuzzy from how hot you’d had your shower, as you’d yearned to wash away all that had happened. But that would be a dream, “Satoru, I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” you whispered, laying your forehead against the cool glass.

Thankfully the wailing vibrations of a nearby car alarm rattled through the glass and then your ears, dragging you from the dark edges of your mind. 

You peered down below at the scene, squinting to figure out the cause of the chaos. Cackles of maniacal laughter followed sounds of crumbling concrete as your eyes darted from fire to fire. When one was extinguished another rose up in its place. Yet the neon lights of Tokyo still shone, a loyal audience and an ever present reminder of what life used to be like. 

It was pure anarchy, like waking up from one nightmare and going right back into another. Yet the world was not ending and then starting again it just kept ending instead. 

You weren’t sure what was worse, the hell out there, or the one in this room? Choso wasn’t quite sure either, he thought as much as he watched you intently from the doorway of the bathroom. He found he could often do so and never tire of it because there was a fluidity to your movements that calmed him, something that reminded him of water, like warm waves somewhere safe. 

He liked that about you, he liked a lot about you. 

You glanced at his reflection in the glass, and resisted smiling at how he watched you so attentively. Concern knitted his features into something soft and more approachable than the expression he usually showed everyone else.

He was so cute and serious all at once that it was infuriating. He towered over you in height and his hands dwarfed yours, every feature of his face was dark and perfect, and maddeningly symmetrical like he was crafted in heaven, like some kind of dark, beautiful, fallen angel. 

But nothing about Choso was what you expected, that you learned early. He might have looked intimidating, but he was careful and patient, he stopped to admire flowers when he thought nobody was watching, he didn’t always say a lot, nor did he smile often, but he had an array of expressions that always managed to move you in some way.

You sighed. You resented how he’d managed to send the usually calm waves of your heart into a frenzy, a full blown tsunami. 

But you couldn’t hate him, it was impossible. Not when every interaction you had together, you treasured so sincerely. You casted your mind back to just nights ago, when you were sitting together on a roof in some district, sharing konbini raided food together under the stars. He held his onigiri out to cheers with yours, a phantom smile on his lips before he took a bite. 

Or when your hand brushed his as you were walking back and he frowned at how cold it was, clasping it immediately on instinct with his large, warm hand. You tried to shake his grip but he shook his head and clasped it tighter, urging you to keep up with his pace. You didn’t argue it any further.

Then just this morning after passing through what used to be a department store. You all but yelped when you felt something hook around your throat from behind. But a hand landing atop of your head quickly stopped your thrashing, “It’s just me.” You heard the glimmer of his smile, turning with one of your own.  

He was still smiling, simply as if he was so fond of you that words were futile to express the depth. Your throat went dry as he adjusted the scarf on you, “I found this,” he murmured, before continuing ahead, turning to beckon you when you stood there frozen. 

This person often acted without words and out of pure kindness and it baffled you. You knew what he had done and what he was capable of, but every wordless gesture, reassuring nod, and the warm brush of his fingertips against yours had you rethinking everything about love. 

His deep voice settled through your body and calmed your rising nerves. He’d only said your name but it sounded like the unmistakable call to come home, it made you feel like a child again.

You were still standing at the window, then, he thought, no doubt thinking of other sorcerers, of Satoru, at least you knew Yuuji and Megumi were safe, only a few doors down.

“You should sleep,” he murmured, soft footsteps growing close until his body heat somehow billowed against your nape.

It was easier to face yourself than him right now, so you dared not meet your faces in the reflection staring back at you. “What are you thinking about?”

You wanted to speak but found yourself trembling, silent tears rushed to embrace your palms, staggering where you stood you tried to cover your eyes, but Choso was already there. You felt his strong arms lock around you, stilling the tremors that shook you. You stiffened at first before you melted, the hard pieces of you pooling to his feet like wax. 

“What are you doing, Choso?”

“I felt like it was right,” he whispered, resting his chin upon your head. Instinctively his hands cupped your cheeks, swiping away the warm tears rolling there. “You stopped shaking.”

You couldn’t breathe now for entirely different reasons, being handled so tenderly seemed to make you even more tearful. 

The commotion of the fighting in the distance seemed to unsettle you more, making Choso exhale suddenly through his nose. “I…wish you didn’t have to see that.”

Your lips parted, “I don’t want to think about anything anymore Choso,” you croaked. “I don’t want to think about anything.”

“Can you think about me?” he bashfully asked, stroking his hands through your hair. “I just want to help you.”

“I don’t want to burden you, just go to bed, okay?”

He stiffened against you, unhanding you to head over to bed.

“You don’t have to fight how you feel around me. I’m not one of your students.”

“I know.” You refused to let yourself crumble anymore around him, it was too dangerous, for so many reasons.

“We have to rest so we can fight,” he murmured. You turned to find him gesturing again to the space beside him. You sighed and he countered you with an even louder one. He crossed his arms as you smirked at the sound, “Don’t be stubborn. You need to sleep.” 

His bluntness was something he did to lessen the burden of talking at times, but when he spoke to you it felt as if he did it to protect your heart. It was obvious he didn’t always know how he should say things before others, but with you it came easy. 

You let out a bitter laugh, wrapping your arms around your cold body. “You know, Choso? The more time passes, I can see that you’re an older sibling.”

He decided to take that as a compliment, humming in gratitude before continuing to pat the empty space beside him. “Then listen, come here and sleep. You can’t sleep over there.”

He cocked his brow at you, “Can you?” 

“Listen, I don’t care what Yuuji says, alright? I don't trust you.”

You immediately covered your mouth as if to take the projectiled words back. You turned back quick enough to see the frown on his face before it was gone before he impassively said, “At least trust him.”

Your eyes held each other's gaze until you refused to be lost in the beautiful unsurety of those dark brown eyes. So you stared back at the moon instead, wondering how you found time crumbling into nothing whenever you looked at him. You were trying to ignore the pangs of your heart, asking it why it had chosen now to fall for this half-human, half-curse you found so utterly captivating. 

Even with your back to him the reflection of him was clear beside you, not willing to leave your side. He was wearing whatever clothes the last guests had left. A black t-shirt and some loose sweatpants, and his hair was loose and silky at his shoulders from his shower, and his skin was still flushed from it, too. 

The image beside you, and the reality behind you caged you in, forcing you to face your true desires and the guilt that was tugging at your gut. He was innocently offering you space beside him to rest and your mind was everywhere else. You couldn’t ignore how seductive he sounded when he spoke this late at night, or how the sight of him reclining against the headboard with his thighs slightly spread like that was so sexually charged it was making your thoughts run wild. 

Without his usual clothing you could see how thick his biceps were, and how broad his chest really was. You longed for him to touch you, to hold you, to explore you so he could learn what being human really meant.

His aura and general demeanour was so undeniably strong it had you wondering how much longer he’d play this game with you, and what he’d do to you if you gave him the opportunity. But a part of you also doubted that he felt that way about you, or anyone for that matter.

“It’s cold over there,” he pressed again, no malice at all, only concern. “Yuuji told me that I'm naturally warmer, it must be because my blood circulates differently…So, you really should come and sleep here next to me.” 

You were freezing in your robe, unwilling to put your tattered uniform back on. So, you finally abandoned the window ledge, “What are you gonna do if I do?”

His face furrowed, “Whatever you want me to do,” he sounded more like he was asking. He'd been around you long enough to pick up on the slither of the nuance aching to be acknowledged.

“I’d rather not hear you complaining any more beside me though.”

“Whatever.”

He cracked you a half-smile, happy to see you finally listening to him, even if you were being a brat about it. “Good.” 

You were sure you caught his gaze on your thighs as you neared the bed. You’d been chalking it up to him being curious, but the way his eyes had lapped over your bare skin tonight held something you could feel in your core. 

“Do you think I don’t notice when you do that? Earlier, too?” you blurted. 

His eyes darted to the door as if he planned to escape or as if Yuuji was about to burst in and declare that he room with him instead, rather than the tall black haired boy he’d been attached to the hip with since they reunited.

“I don’t want to fight with you. Yuuji respects you-“

He looked up at you, those dark eyes alight with something reminiscent of relief and perhaps yearning? His unwavering gaze sent flutters through you, it was like he was taking in every detail and leaving everything else alone.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d acknowledge my question at least.”

He pouted, noticing how your arms were tightly folded and how you were looking down at him with an indecipherable emotion. He hadn’t quite figured that one out yet, he thought, but he liked the look of it on you. It excited him somewhere, somehow. 

“Choso?” Your voice was a soft, hypnotising hum whenever you said his name all honeyed like that.

His mouth went dry as he really took you in. How the moon was creeping in to illuminate your skin, drifting down your throat to where your blood pumped. He briefly questioned whether all of these feelings were because your blood was special? How was it that you glowed like the sun and the moon had gifted you their light? Why were you so attractive to him? 

The bathrobe was much too big for you, the sleeves large and encasing your wrists, but it cinched in your waist. You had such an attractive shape, one that was so different to his own. He’d spent far too long trying to conjure up how you must look in his mind, but he could never form the image. Clothes were always in the way, taunting him, teasing him. 

“Choso!”

“Yeah, yeah-“ His eyes widened as you closed the gap between you both, kneeling tentatively in front of him. He quickly brought his legs to his chest and turned away from you. 

You scoffed, “You’re the one that wanted me over here so bad.”

Blood was thundering in his ears and his skin was burning so hot he feared he was about to explode into a thousand different pieces. He needed to hold himself together because he felt like if he looked at you he’d be doomed. Maybe his worst worries were true, he couldn’t be around humans like you, at his core he was nothing but a curse. What if you caused his body to show him yet another reaction? One that was weird? One you would hate?

“I know,” he mumbled, curling up on his side, he appeared to be shaking slightly, as he rocked his hips every few seconds. He was trying to elevate the pressure building in his lower half that was making him feel like he might burst. “I still do.”

You sighed, leaning over his body to assess his face. “Now you’re just worrying me.” You rested your hand on his forehead and he groaned. 

“Why are you burning up like this? Were you not supposed to shower or something? I don’t see how you’re any different from us in that regard?”

He groaned into his fist, “Ever since I lost my brothers, and I met Yuuji. I've been feeling and experiencing things I never have before. I thought the worst and the best were over. But now, you?” 

He was groaning like he was in pain. “I don’t think I can take it any longer.”

“Hey, calm down.” You bit your lip, “Take what? Should I get Yuuji?”

He quickly shook his head.

“Then I guess I’ll keep my eye on you tonight.”

The bed dipped beside him as you laid down, curling your body up like his. He froze, staring at you and your mouth, your lips looked so soft, he ached to touch them.

“Listen, I’m sorry for snapping at you. It’s not like I don’t trust you.” You paused, “You’re interesting, Choso. I’m just intrigued by you. I don’t know what you think of me, I guess that’s why I want to know why you stare at me like you do?”

His brows pinched together.

“Like earlier?”

“Was I?”

You nuzzled closer to savour the sweet treat of his scent. It was nothing and everything human all at once; sweet, and vaguely like metal.

“Maybe Yuuji hasn’t told you this…but like, you can’t just stare at people's bodies so obviously.”

“Their faces are better?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Got it,” he said slowly, but then he noticed you had nothing under your robe. He wondered if your nipples were hard because he could see goosebumps spreading over your skin.

His eyes settled on the space free from your robe. “And I…was staring at your body?” 

“Yeah.”

Your eyes followed his, watching him grow more shameless by the second. With every doubt you had, a shaky breath or a small noise would escape him, that had you questioning if he felt the same desire for you. Seconds felt like minutes, as Choso allowed his gaze to roam freely of you, as you allowed him to. 

“And…you don’t like that?” he whispered after what felt like forever, making your heart beat faster with all of these stolen whispers.

“You don’t like when I stare?” 

Time slowed and all other sounds ceased to exist to him, he could hear every bat of your lashes, and every hesitant swallow. He was watching you so carefully he barely blinked. “I want you to tell me why.” 

Then you did it, the thing that confirmed everything for him as you clenched your thighs together, ever so slightly. His own were locked firmly together, as he could feel something was happening there that he couldn’t explain. Maybe you were experiencing the same thing, he thought. He didn’t want to grapple with doubt when this might be the only time he had with you like this.

“It’s just not something you should do,” you finally replied, curt and crisp, but the way your voice shook suggested anything but. He could feel the heat emulating from you now. You were on fire, too, or at least he hoped you were, because he was finally at bursting point. 

“I want to show you what you do to me. Do you want to see?”

Your lips parted to speak but before you could he was sitting up and gesturing to the thick bulge in his pants. 

“This. This is mine,” he whispered, leaning in so his breath brushed your neck. “You know what’s happening to me, don’t you?”

You throbbed and pulsed for him, weakened by your desire. “You really are getting used to this whole human thing admirably fast. It’s endearing, honestly. You want sex and you’re already figuring it out?-“

“I don’t want to just get you pregnant-“

The tension broke with your laughter, “That’s not all sex is for, Choso. There’s many ways to do it, did you know that?”

“There’s another way?” 

“Choso, if I show you, you can’t go around telling everybody, okay?”

“Is it special?”

“Not every time. But it can be. Shall I explain first?”

“Yes.”

“People have sex because it feels really good. When a man and a woman have sex, yes, they can produce life. But people have sex mostly because it feels good, are you understanding me here?” 

He nodded, “It can be called fucking too. Sex is sometimes called fucking.”

He leaned closer with his eyes glued to your lips. “How did you know that’s what I wanted?”

You swallowed as he studied your face so intently, “Because you’re hard, right?”

He frowned in confusion, rushing to check his stomach, “Where?”

You couldn’t help but laugh again, “Oh you’re too sweet. Sit back.”

He let go of your hand and leant against the headboard awaiting your next move. You couldn’t help but wonder how long he could remain this composed? 

You carefully lowered yourself on his lap, watching him wince, you knew it was because his cock was probably growing more sensitive by the minute. Due to his abilities, his blood was in a frenzy everywhere.

“You’re curious, aren’t you? About my body?”

Your words were all he needed for his body to act for him, as he reached and ripped your robe open and apart, “Choso,” you stammered, “you should have asked!”

His hand cupped your throat carefully, thumbing your thudding pulse point. “I knew you wanted that. Your heart has been beating like this since you laid down. You want to show me your body too, and you want me to touch it. Explore it. Don’t you?”

He smirked at you, and he looked so gorgeous it hurt.

“You want sex, don’t you? But are you sure you want it with me? I don't know what to do.”

You lifted his chin and smiled, making that primal part of him go even crazier, “It’s okay. I still want it with you, Choso.”

In the rush of the moment he suddenly realised what he wasn’t laying his eyes on, and he gasped as he finally did, though all to himself. “I can touch you?”

You nodded and he worked the robe down your arms, he was mesmerised, brown eyes glimmering in the low light. His breath growing heavier at the sight, “You’re so soft,” he stroked you so gently it turned you into mush. His hands rose up and down the dips of your curves, over and over as he appreciated the unique shape of you. It seemed like he wanted to commit your every breath to memory.

“You’re beautiful,” he said under his breath as he cupped your breasts, rubbing your nipples with his thumbs. “They’re so beautiful…You’re so beautiful.”

He leaned forward to rest his face in your breasts, locking a hand with yours. As he listened to your frenzied heart and toyed with your nipple, mesmerised by your body. 

You ran your fingers through his hair and he moaned softly, pulling away to touch and grab at you all over again. His eyes locked on yours, watching the way you were getting worked up from his every touch. He noticed how much faster your heart beated when his hand stroked down your centre and neared lower. So he paused at your abdomen. 

“You’re…exquisite.” His eyes were in yours like they always were, intense and full of anticipation. “Here, this part of you too.” He was flushed all the way up to his ears. “What do I call it?”

You smirked, “My stomach?”

He was trembling, trying to contain himself. Shaking his head, he asked a wordless question. You smiled, and he took that as assurance to venture further, cupping the hot heat between your legs. “You look so pretty like this, when I’m touching you here,” he whispered, watching your teeth sink into your lip as your arousal drowned his fingertips. 

“My pussy? You’re touching my pussy,” you whispered. “Do you like it?” 

He nodded eagerly, “This is where I put mine?”

“Do you want to?”

He nodded again, “Can I…look at it? Closer?”

“You can do what you want with it, Choso.” You cupped his face, leaning close. “I want you to do whatever feels natural to you.” You kissed along his jaw as you spoke, he quivered at each one. 

“I think you’re more human than you give yourself credit for. A curse might have had its way with me by now and I know you must be bursting to try these new things as they come. So we’re going to do something special first.”

“What?”

“We’re gonna kiss. Kissing is done in all kinds of ways, you kiss your family on the cheek, normally. You kiss lovers on the lips. You kiss people you have sex with on the lips. It feels really good. Got it?”

“You’re going to show me though, aren’t you? You’re going to lead me.”

“Yeah, you ready?”

He nodded, “We’ll close our eyes, and then I’m gonna kiss you, got it? My lips will touch yours, and then you’ll let nature take its course from there. Don’t worry about being too rough with me,” you eyed his hands that were now resting at his sides, “You won’t hurt me. I’m a sorcerer, remember? It would take a lot to do that.”

“Then come here and give me your lips.” He tugged your mouth onto his, your lips meeting his eager ones, you thought he’d need a second to adjust to the sensation, but in a single second you were being slammed down onto your back. He clutched your face in his hands so he could kiss you without any distractions, it felt like he’d never let go. Everytime you moaned, he would too, like every kiss bonded you closer together.

He kissed you like he’d been waiting years for this, rutting his clothed cock into your naked, wet centre. You slid your tongue against his and he started to grunt, and his skin grew so hot against yours you wondered if he might set you both alight.

He was quick, and eager, pulling away to rip away his shirt, but earnest as he grabbed and then placed your hands on him. You made sure he felt your desire too, kissing all over him, finding that sensitive place just under his ear to suck and kiss. But then he was fighting you, just so he could kiss down your throat to get your tits once more, learning and learning.  “I can kiss anywhere?”

“Yeah,” you moaned.

His eyes darkened with lust as he gripped both your breasts, running his teeth all over them and sucking until your blood rose to the surface in the shapes of his lips.

“I saw a lifetime when I saw you. I saw you, and I felt it all. I thought that was your technique, that you were going to lure me in and kill me with your beauty. I was wrong. Thank you for giving me your body. Trust me with it.”

He was gasping against your skin, running his hands up and down like you were about to disappear. And if his words were intense, his actions were even more so. “I want to kiss you forever.” 

You had no idea what to reply to him right now, but there was something so beautiful about how direct he was, he loved his brothers, he knew of emotions, like love and admiration. He knew what he felt for you and he could put it into these words.

Falling for this man was hardly unusual when what you felt was so real. 

“I trust you, Choso. I want you to kiss me for as long as you want to.”

“I can kiss here then?” he said, throwing your thighs over his shoulders as he gripped your hips and leered at your pussy.

“It’s so wet,” he hummed in awe, before he closed the space and kissed it. He let out such a loud groan you had to shush him, but then that was just it. He was sucking all over so your juices could dance through his taste buds. He was licking and sucking on your pussy with so much zeal you were surely louder than he was. 

Choso was learning fast. He knew that you surely couldn’t be this wet like this all the time, he gathered it was because your body was readying itself to take him. Which also meant you wanted to take him, he wanted to take you. He’d yearned for you, he’d adored you. He adored this.

“I could do this forever,” he moaned, the grip bruising on your hips, as he locked you firmly in place so he could explore you. “Those noises of yours. Don’t stop. You won’t stop. I’m telling you not to stop them.”

“Yes Choso!”

He never thought the sound of his name could taste so sweet. He was groaning into you, sucking and licking until your swollen clit rubbing against his lips caught his attention. You prayed he’d be gentle as he spread your lips and looked at you, awaiting your reaction as he gave it a softer flick of his tongue. You shuddered so sweetly, squeezing his shoulders and tugging on his hair. 

“That’s a sensitive part of you, isn’t it?” He chuckled to himself, a grin on his lips, “My sensitive little human.” 

Your eyes widened at the words and he watched as more slick oozed from your throbbing sex. He laughed again, the deep sound reverberating deep in your core, he was so beautiful, so hypnotising. He brushed the hair from his eyes and kissed along your thighs, still keeping you spread. 

“I’ll be gentle with you. I won’t break you unless that’s what you want.”

The pleasure you were experiencing from a half-human half-curse should have been illegal, it probably violated some sorcery law somewhere but you didn’t care. Not when he was somehow saying and doing everything to make you tick. 

He kept licking and sucking until he found what you liked, and noticed the way you were shaking, the way your thighs were squeezing him tight so he didn’t stop. You gripped his hair, moaning his name as you came, the sweet taste filling his mouth until you had to forcibly push him away.

“Don’t keep your sweetness from me. That was all mine,” he grunted, travelling up your body with kisses. He took your face in one hand, his voice softening as he looked at you beaming in your afterglow, “Did I give you too much? Can’t take anymore of me?”  

You shook your head, barely able to catch your breath. “You made me feel so good, Choso, you gave me an orgasm. That’s important in sex, to give your partner orgasms, it’s what just happened.”

His thumb rubbed your lower lip, marvelling at the subtle mark he’d left from biting it earlier, and he smiled, “So you keep stimulating your partner until they can’t take anymore, releasing themselves on you.”

“You catch on fast.”

He grinned, kissing you deeply as he rutted himself into you. “Show me what to do,” he said breathlessly. “I need you, now.”

“Fuck Choso your cock, I can feel it.”

You started to tug down his sweatpants, taking the time to admire how broad and built he was, he really was no different from a human at all. He moaned with every press of your lips on his skin, he’d made them so swollen, kissing and biting on them like he was ravenous.

You released his cock from the confines of his pants and gasped, frozen at the sight. “Are you scared of me? Is it different?”

“No, it’s amazing…” you licked your lip, “It’s just so big.”

The warm weight of his hand landed on your stomach, he rubbed there, reassuring whilst also obviously trying to calculate this himself, “But you want it, don’t you?” he murmured, soft, “So we can make it fit, can’t we? We have enough of this together.”

He was so clumsy as he touched himself it made your heart swell, gathering the slick that was pooling down his cock. He took it, and made sure to cover your pussy in it, pausing when his finger slipped inside of you with ease. But then you moaned so deliciously he found his jaw growing slack, eager to keep pleasing you. 

“That’s why you’ve got this little hole haven’t you? It stretches to fit things inside, so it’s going to fit me inside like it’s doing right now.”

You quickly nodded, beyond fucked out by this man as he continued to stuff his precum into your pussy. “Yes Choso.”

“You’re so beautiful like this,” he grunted, stuffing in more of his fingers to fuck you even better. “Naked and free.” 

“You can put it in now, Choso. It’ll fit. I want it.”

“Because you want me don’t you?”

“Yes Choso.”

You watched him, gripping the base of himself and aligning his heavy cockhead to your opening. His face was lost in pleasure, lost to every sensation, he was beautiful like this too, you thought. 

“Only me?”

“Only you, Choso.”

“Then let me see everything,” he whispered against your forehead, large hands folding you and spreading your thighs wide. “You’re so beautiful. I want to see it all.”

“Please be gentle,” You whimpered, feeling him start to push in, you braced yourself, hanging on to him tight. 

He groaned into your cheek as he felt resistance from you, no matter how good you felt he’d rather die than hurt you. “Is there another way?”

“Lie down.”

He did as you said, watching in awe as you were quick to straddle him, oozing slick all over his thighs. You still wanted him just as much as he wanted you and that excited him to no end. Even if he was a challenge and clearly more than you were used to.

You hovered as you aligned yourself with his cock, and he moaned as you finally touched him. And as you sunk yourself onto his cock he gripped your hips so tight you yelped, before your voice melted into a moan in unison with his.

“More,” he whimpered, as you stopped halfway, panting at the sensation. “Let me in.”

“Trying, Choso.”

“I want to feel all of you. All of your pussy.” His voice was low, and close to breaking as you throbbed on him. 

“That’s it,” he stroked his thumbs in comforting circles, “Are you going to let me feel you?” 

You quickly nodded, teeth sunk into your lip. His voice was as arousing as his cock, “Give me a minute, Choso. I can do it.”

“Does it hurt?”

You nodded and he pondered for a moment before he took his thumb to your clit, rubbing until you moaned. Then slowly, naturally, as if your body was melting into his, you made your way down the thick inches of him.

“You’re doing good, so good for me. You can take all of me inside. You’re strong.” He was so out of his mind he didn’t even know what he was cooing to you, but he just wanted to put you at ease. 

“You pretty little human. Taking my body like this because you want your pussy fucked? Right? You like my cock inside you? Stretching you out?”

“Choso!” You groaned as he fully bottomed out, hands landing on his shoulders for support. “I love it, you feel so good. You’re making me feel so good.”

He whined at your words before composing himself, his lips trailing down your skin. “I am? Are you too weak now? Do you need me to help you feel good? Yuuji said you were a good teacher. He was wrong,” he taunted, kissing the side of your face as he gripped you.

His hands sunk into your ass as their final resting place, appreciating the softness there too, “You need to show me what to do, just once.”

“I can’t,” you whined, tears of pleasure flowing down your cheeks at how full you were. “Look at yourself. Your cock is so big.” You breathlessly gestured to your stomach. 

His eyes widened as he pushed his palm onto your belly, feeling how deeply he was penetrating you, “You have to use me and make yourself feel good. That’s all, Choso.” You barely managed your words, eyes barely open as the pleasure he was giving you threatened to break you apart. 

“I understand. Leave it to me,” he groaned, kissing your neck, as he started to move you off and on his cock, “We move together until we orgasm. You’ve never had a cock like mine so you can’t move, huh?” 

He experimentally snapped his hips into yours and you whimpered so loudly he soon followed. Although he knew nothing of what was lewd and what wasn’t, he somehow knew that the sound you’d made was nothing but filth and that he’d done something you’d desperately needed. 

He did it again and again, until he was drilling up into you and delighting in all of the sounds you were making, gasping from how good you felt. “Choso, your cock feels so good inside. It’s the best.”

“Then you never need another one, if only I make you feel this good. No other cock will ever feel the same,” he grunted, “You’re mine now, you beautiful woman.”

You kissed him messily in reply, barely able to form words as he fucked up into you until you were shaking and moaning into his mouth because you were coming all over him. “Then you’re mine, Choso. I showed you this, how to feel good. It won’t feel good if another human do-“

You gasped as his hand slammed over your mouth and you were on your back once more. He was folding you whilst holding back on finishing in minutes and he didn’t even know how impressive that was.

“Don’t say it. I don’t want another human near me like this. Only you. I told you, I saw you. I saw everything. I know that I’m different. But I can fuck you better, I know I can. You like what I’m doing to your body. I know, I know, I know, you do,” he chanted as he groaned into you, balls smacking hard against you as he ravaged you. 

All you could do was hold tight and brace yourself as you whimpered. 

“Mine, mine, mine. So, so, beautiful,” he grunted.

Tears pricked your water lines at the intensity, you felt so loved, and safe in his embrace like this. 

You could feel him twitching inside of you, and you could see him holding back. “When you orgasm, Choso. Your cum will be different, it will be messier than mine.”

“Is that the stuff that breeds you? It’s going to shoot inside you, isn’t it?” he stammered. “You don’t want it? How do I control it?” 

“You can’t, but that’s okay, I won’t get pregnant, I take something for that. So when you feel like it’s getting too much, give in. You can let go. You’ve already done so well.”

“I can fill you up with my seed?” He stretched your arms above you to take both your hands in a single clasp, cupping your chin with the other. 

“Look at me. Why won’t you get pregnant? Because I’m not fully human?”

There was a sadness in his eyes, but it was being blown out completely by his desire. 

Why was this man so hot without realising it? His brow as all furrowed, his face flushed, fucking you so hard it was now dawning on you how loud you both were being. “It’s a pill I take,” you moaned as he slammed into that spot inside that had you creaming on him again. “I-I told you.”

“Then I’ll pretend,” he grunted, gripping your hips hard as he fucked into you like he was trying to breed you.

“Like I’m going to fuck my seed into you so I can keep you forever. No man can have you if you’re filled with me.”

“I want your cum, Cho!”

“I know you do! You’re a needy little human taking my cock even though it’s too big for you, wanting my cum to fill up your pretty little hole.”

“I want it, I want it,” you moaned into his ear, wrapping your arms around him tighter. Your voice only made it worse, he pinned you down even harder, kissing and licking up your tears. 

He was whimpering now, all of the pressure building in his core, he could feel it, the very sensation you were talking about. “You’re lucky I haven’t split you in two with my strength. But you take it, you take me in your pussy, waiting for every last drop of me.”

The loud smacks of his hips on yours were no louder than your sounds. He was fucking you like he’d never get the chance again. 

“I wish I could breed you. Then everyone would know, I’d know. That you’re mine, all mine,” he was rambling as he came, holding you tight with his tongue down your throat. 

You felt the insane amounts of cum spurting inside of you until the noises were so lewd it was near comical. Until there was so much cum he was slipping out of you and coming all over your stomach and the sheets too. Your name laced in every breath.

He groaned out your name, falling into your arms so could put him back together again. You kissed wherever you could, praising him through your breathlessness. You both rested for several of these precious moments. It seemed like the night had finally calmed outside of the hotel too, as had you both, after purging what had been brewing between you both since you’d first laid eyes on each other.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he asked, running his lips across your jaw.

“No, not at all.” You continued to soothe him, running your hands through his hair. “But now we have a whole lot to talk about. I wouldn’t normally fuck someone so soon that I saw a future with.”

He made a little hmph sound, “Why?”

“It normally comes after getting to know someone.”

“We’ll have all the time in the world for that,” he said gently, flipping you below him as he caged you beneath him. 

“Won’t we?” he urged, folding up your thighs as he guided himself back inside. His voice was desperate all over again. “So,” he leant close, his lips brushing yours. He tried to resist, but gave in to taste your lips, taking the time to kiss you with so much unbridled affection it made your chest hurt. Before he finally spoke again, “So, stay alive for me, and I will for you.”

©mrsackermannx: do not repost, plagiarise, translate or modify my works.

[cornfields-td-nonsense]

Geoff and Duncan :P

Geoff and Duncan for the character ask game!

Sexuality Headcanon:

Geoff is as bi as the day is long. I haven't fully watched ridonculous race but I've seen how he is with Brody. cmon. "I love you, man"/"I'd marry you all over again" the subtext is just text

Duncan....... eh idk. he's straight most of the time when I think of him. though I could see him being closet gay.

Gender Headcanon:

Geoff can be a trans guy purely bc his colour palette is the trans flag. im a simple man with simple tastes.

Duncan gives nb vibes but also he's like canonically transphobic so 🤷 (im joking, mostly)

A ship I have with said character:

Brigeody. Geoff has two hands.

I don't really ship Duncan with anyone but if I had to pick someone it'd be DJ. Duncan would probably make him worse but I think there's a world where DJ can make him better

A BROTP I have with said character:

Gweoff. Their friendship was SO GOOD in that one episode and I'm genuinely sad they dropped it.

I'm the only person in the world who thinks this but I wrote an entire oneshot where Sierra and Duncan are friends and it unironically made me love their hypothetical friendship. (The Ex-Fangirl and the Ex-Con on ao3 if you're curious) I also really loved him and Gwen as friends but I'll save that for another slot

A NOTP I have with said character:

I don't really have a NOTP with Geoff. all his ships range from "Yeah!" to "ehhh whatever" in my opinion. so. yay

Gwuncan. Yeah you knew it was coming. Like. I don't understand, they were so good as friends and there was a whole thing in Action about people assuming they were a thing and Gwen especially hating it, and then suddenly come World Tour they're into each other??? what??? they were so much better as friends Why Couldn't They Have Stayed Friends. and they didn't even get time to act like a couple and then in AS all they do is argue, obsess over Courtney, and then break up so what was even the point. uuuuuuuurhggrgh I know there's people who love this ship. that's totally fine obvs. it's just a ship at the end of the day. but it really grinds my gears.

ANYWAY RANT OVER

Random headcanon:

Geoff owns loads of sunglasses. like so many sunglasses. every time he goes on holiday somewhere, or anywhere with a gift shop, he ALWAYS buys sunglasses. it's an actual problem lol

Duncan makes most/all of his own clothes and accessories. All-Stars floated the idea of him and Zoey sort of being friends, so let's go with that. they can bond over doing DIY together.

General Opinion:

Geoff's pretty cool. Not my favourite, but pretty cool. I liked how they made him more than just the chill party dude, and showed this mean streak of his during TDA. I love a good corruption arc. and Her Real Name Isn't Blaineley was top tier. overall he's pretty good

Duncan is... ehhh. My opinion on him fluctuates. Every time I think I hate him I remember the DJ's bunny incident, or him and Beth in the finals, and every time I start to like him I remember all of TDWT. I guess it boils down to: he definitely has his moments, but most often I'm indifferent to him or he annoys me, and sometimes stuff he does and says really gets under my skin. I do really like how he is in fanon most of the time, because normally I'm a sucker for the "tough guy with a soft side" trope, and TDA was easily the season I liked him most.

[verycharismaticdragon]

(!!! posted this before noticing the pollrunner remade the poll to a week-long one. so the correct poll to vote on is here !!!)

Last time I wrote Binghe-ganda for this poll I was in the shadow jail but this just means I can reuse it, right?

So, where to start... oh, right, some of you may be wondering: what the hell is a Heavenly Demon? And, well! That's only the most special type of demon there is, in Luo Binghe's world! Unlike normal demons, heavenly demons trace their origins to fallen and corrupted gods. This gives them a bunch of unique abilities, including can-fix-a-broken-bone-in-seconds healing and using their blood as a GPS tracker and/or torture device if they make someone ingest it. Among just general natural talent. Because of how damn OP they are, they became a de-facto imperial bloodline of the Demon Realm... though by the time Luo Binghe's story takes place, no one had been on that throne for a while, as his Heavenly Demon dad happened to get himself into a Situation (imprisoned under a mountain by human cultivators).

Speaking of human cultivators! For those not in c-fandoms, cultivators are ppl cultivating their internal energy/qi/chi to have magic-like abilities. How magic-like those are depends on the genre and particular work; the important thing is, internal energy powers both spell-like stuff (like summoning fire or turning tree leaves into weapons) and general martial arts stuff (moving fast punching hard cleaving mountains with your sword etc). And Luo Binghe's mom happened to be a very gifted cultivator! Meaning that in addition to OP demonic abilities he inherited from his dad, he can also cultivate like a human, and has a great natural talent for it as well! Making him the best of both worlds in terms of power.

Does he sound like a Mary Sue yet?.. Well, he should!

You see, Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, the webnovel Luo Binghe comes from, is a transmigration-into-a-book story. Meaning, the main character of SVSSS is a guy from the modern world who woke up in the world of the book he read. The book in question? A male power fantasy about a downtrodden orphan who discovered his secret powers, took bloody revenge on everyone who wronged him, and got allllllll the girls.

Yep, Luo Binghe is the protagonist of that book. That's why he has the most special boy heritage ever... and a tragic backstory. You see, not only was his dad imprisoned (without ever knowing of Luo Binghe's existence and also led to believe it was Luo Binghe's mom who betrayed him...), Binghe's biological mom also died in childbirth while fleeing the person who set his dad up. And then his adoptive mom died too. And then he managed to get accepted into a cultivation sect (like a school for cultivators) only to be apprenticed under a child abuser who developed an especial grudge against him. So basically, tragic as hell childhood, then a metamorphosis/power up arc, then revenge (and wife collecting).

Of course... this is only a story of Luo Binghe from the original book. In SVSSS, one day, his cruel shifu inexplicably changed his mind about him. (Yep, the MC of SVSSS had woken up in the body of the protagonist's evil shifu. Hence the 'scum villain' in the novel's title.) And started helping him. And protected him at a great cost to himself...................

Long story short, SVSSS Luo Binghe's greatest life ambition is becoming a househusband (he cooks! he cleans! he needs kissies to live!). Unfortunately, the narrative has other plans for him. (Luo Binghe, sitting on his throne in the Demon Realm, aura of darkness around him: "How do you make your intentions clear to a ~special someone~?.." His court of demons: 👹?👹??👹?👹?? ?) (dont worry though, he gets his guy. this is a BL webnovel they get married and all.)

Now, the last bit of propaganda: a picture of a half-demon in his natural habitat (his husband's lap)

Look at he. Could u vote against him be honest

So, tl;dr: 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 a vote for Luo Binghe is a vote for half-demon malewives everywhere!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

(and also for chronically online fans who end up marrying blorbo from their books. Luo Binghe's husband would vote for him in an internet poll and he would not be normal about it.)

(!!! posted this before noticing the pollrunner remade the poll to a week-long one. so the correct poll to vote on is here !!!)

[lucky-clover-gazette]

For the ask meme: Vio and 7, bc while I know you like the ship, I'm curious about the characters individually!

7- What do you like most about this character?

warning i went on an entire meta philosophical Thought Journey with this one and you will literally be able to SEE where it went off the rails. and then it just continued going off the rails until the rails disappeared from my field of vision and i have no idea if anything i wrote actually makes sense but here just take it

honestly i think part of why I love vio so much as a character is i did NOT expect to like or care about him, and then he ended up easily my favorite. the only thing i knew when i picked up the manga was that i would probably enjoy shadow as a character, which. of course i did. bc he's a very specific flavor of character i always gravitate towards, but vio was like... girl what? why are you in this story and doing the things you are doing? and by the end of my first reading i was just BLOWN AWAY by him and shadow and their entire subplot so i went to tumblr because i felt like i was hallucinating it and here we are now.

re: what i like most about vio... i go into it a lot in this post. vio is fascinating to me as a character from several perspectives, as a writer, a gay person, and just... having the philosophy and experiences that i do. there is such an inherent tragedy to his character that i don't think is lost on the authors--like i say in the post, shadow and vio both don't quite feel like they BELONG in this story, especially with how it ends.

like, i often write vio in particular struggling with the ways he deviates from the narrative set for him, both in canon and out of it. yes a lot of that is tied to queerness, but it also relates to themes of self-determination sub-textually tied to his arc. vio seriously just does whatever the hell he wants a good amount of the time, to like an eyebrow-raising degree. when he separates from the others and joins shadow he's on the Side of Good from the start, but i think he also realizes very quickly that there's more to himself than he'd expected. that doing what he had planned to do, especially to shadow of all people, was going to be shockingly difficult, and perhaps not even the correct choice at all. which is why vio's canon ending kind of falls flat to me, even though i can't imagine it could have ended any other way. this isn't to say he shouldn't have tried to betray shadow--it's an internal conflict he's going through, and a character usually makes the choice antithetical to what actually fuck i just boiled it down to the essentials i know exactly and fundamentally why i like vio as a character holy shit okay

SO normally a character in a story will start out Wanting something and Needing something else, and their entire arc is realizing, "aw beans, my Want actually sucks, i Need my Need" and then they pursue that instead. hero's journey etc.

think about the general premise of vio, and to an extent the other three: character is given individual consciousness to serve a specific noble purpose, and then cease to exist once said purpose has been served. and with the others, that's basically it, minor emotional and relationship arcs aside. but with vio? the premise GOES somewhere. oh no! character finds themselves drawn to the dark side by a "tempting" "evil" person or force, who CORRUPTS them into THINKING they WANT to defy that destiny! that they should be selfish, and bad, and turn their back on what they actually Need to do. so says the narrative, the character NEEDS to accept that they're not meant for anything but being used and discarded, because that's what good people do, and these are the Sacrifices We Must Make to Be Good. does your hero have any kind of unconventional or deviant leanings? well either that shit's getting straightened the hell out, or they are going to perish to save the Pure Good Guys, because that's all they deserve. that is a very common way to handle's vio's exact sort of character premise, and at first glance at the manga, one could argue that it's no exception. link still reforms, after all. arguably this kind of happens with shadow, but i think i like his ending a lot more outside of the shipping context. it says something more nuanced than above, but this isn't the post for going into that.

i would argue that almost every fiber of this manga pertaining to vio is actually trying to do the opposite of what i described above, even though it never is able to come to fruition.

quite simply, compared to the typical Needs and Wants of a corrupted hero type, vio's are like subverted. he's given a corruption arc, and it looks pretty basic at first, but it quickly becomes so... unconventional? and fun? and, dare i say, queer? i say it lot in reference to his whole turn of character once he joins shadow, but vio commits to the bit way more than is necessary to carry out his plan. shadow's not that perceptive and vio didn't need to be so close with him, so snarky and clearly enjoying himself, so bizarrely extra and innovative with the means by which he psychologically tortures his friends. his internal conflict, especially towards the end of his villain era, is less "i'm miserable because i'm a good guy and i want to save the world but i HAVE to pretend to be evil and like shadow," and more "i'm miserable because i'm actually enjoying a lot of these villainous theatrics and also i have become genuinely endeared to shadow, but i know i HAVE to betray him and rejoin the others because the world needs to be saved." i don't think it's a reach to say that that's what vio's conflict is, in the text. we see it in his expressions, his dialogue, and his reactions to things that happen.

i think this whole subversion was something the authors did with his character, whether accidentally or purposefully, REALIZED they did with his character, and didn't want to give up. but still, the story needed to end with vio rejoining the others and reforming the hero, because like. duh, of course it does, nintendo and source material and all that. but with the way a himekawa built up their obvious faves' (vio and shadow's) stories, it's like well shit, we came up with something we love but we can't really see it through. because within this brilliant subversion of the typical corrupted hero arc, the WANT is vio's sense of obligation to turn on shadow, reform link, etc, and his NEED is to say, "hey fuck this actually, i deserve to be a person and have relationships and do things i enjoy, and that doesn't make me any less of a hero. i'm smart and resourceful and there's definitely a way to both save the world and preserve who i am and get through to shadow."

self-sacrifice isn't inherently heroism. in fiction, it's often a deeply shallow and underwhelming resolution, especially when the character spends so much time growing and becoming who they truly are. i didn't grow up with religion, but i have a slight suspicion it plays a huge part in this entire attitude, and it sucks how much that permeates into media culture. doing good isn't something you can just phone in at the last second; it is a constant and ever-changing way of life, based on a moral system you develop for yourself as you grow. pretending to be someone you're not, acting solely under a prescribed ethical code especially as a grown-ass adult, makes you hollow and spineless, as well as unhappy, resentful, and unfulfilled.

doing good is hard. staying alive is hard. making decisions and forming connections and constantly being challenged are all very hard. but when you choose to embrace life, to accept failure and flaws but still try to be good, make meaningful connections and allow yourself to be genuine and happy and queer? that, to me, is the Goodest of the Good. and it's unique to each of us, while being something we all have the ability to choose for ourselves. and it's never too late for that. until the narrative tells you to jump off a cliff because that's, like, way too nuanced to be sustainable, and sure the story's resolved and it ended happily for the purest of heart, but what a bleak happiness that is. fuck that.

like, compare to vio to adora from she-ra. adora got the ending revelation i wish vio could have gotten. the whole, "i am worth more than my usefulness to others, i deserve love and self-determination" thing, and THAT's what really saved the day. adora saw her future, living happily with catra and the others, not dead or used but just LIVING, and said "hey, maybe the real answer here? the key to being a hero and saving the world? maybe it's loving, and letting myself be loved, and not sacrificing myself because someone said it's what i'm meant to do." and holy shit, she was right. and the narrative rewarded her for it, with a kiss from her catgirl gf and also destroying Big Evil and saving the galaxy or whatever.

fucking IMAGINE if that could have been the thing to save the day in the manga, just for a second. if you isolated just vio and shadow's arc and made them the Main Characters, like how adora and catra are in she ra. if it was truly allowed to be Their Story, if it was able to transcend the source material, if if if. it wouldn't even have to be just vio and shadow's story, honestly -- the four could realize, each for their own individual reasons, that maybe they can't unring the bell of their own existence. that they can protect hyrule better as themselves, that they deserve to continue the development they're been experiencing for the past 300 pages. and maybe vio would be the one to set that line of thought in motion, because has it not been set up exactly so he could?? if you've read my main au, you know exactly what i'm picturing here. and while i like some of the manga's canon ending, there's a reason most people who love these characters engage most often with alternate resolutions.

i think i like vio so much because he surprised me, and that's because he surprised the fucking AUTHORS OF THE MANGA. even more than a decade after publication, they made a point to say in their note that they appreciated the way people "got" what they were trying to say with shadow and vio specifically. i can't speak for them, and i will concede that i am mostly overthinking just for fun and none of this is that serious, but... come on. do you not see what i'm seeing here. they did something so fascinating and tragically unfulfilled here, and that all hinges on vio. and it's also just. so resonant to me as a gay person, in the same way she ra was.

obviously i could say more, and this is embarrassingly unhinged and maybe delusional, i don't know. i just wrote a lot of words about something so silly and arbitrary, but i took the time to write them because i care and can't get that time back now. so i might as well commit to the bit like gayass purple boy and post anyway

[i-am-baechu]

Title: The Darkness Within | ♞ | | ♚ |  

Paring: OT7 x reader 

Genre: Horror au, demon au, seven deadly sins au, ceos au, and deadly tasks 

Summary: “Sometimes the scariest things in our lives are the actions that we perceive are good, are truly evil. Ignoring past mistakes is easy but facing it is agonizing. Be careful what you do in this house, it could cost your life or... is this all in your mind because of the guilt you have from your past actions. I can’t give you the answer, even if I could, I don’t want to. You're the ones that called for me. Now it's time for you to finish the contract that you started all those years ago but I'll give you a chance. Show me what you got.” A demon never forgets, especially towards those who have done wrong towards them but not all demons are the same; remember that.

Warnings: Gore, violence, bodily damage, knives, sexual content, suggestive themes, horror, body horror, blood, monsters and illusions of domestic abuse 

Author’s note: Halloween my favorite holiday! This story was inspired by games called Dark Deception and Alice: Madness Returns! As I wrote this I listened to Monster by Irene and Seulgi (Dylon Maycel x Bambeast remix). This is something that I worked on for almost two months and hope you guys like it. Happy Halloween : ) 

“A memory, something that can give you so much happiness or make you feel so rotten. It’s amazing how the brain works, it just shows us memories out of the blue. Making us smile or disgusted. The ones that haunt us, are the ones that pollute and corrupt our brains. I think we both know the answer to why it does. At times, Memories are the curses that we put on ourselves more often than the blessings that we so desperately crave for. There’s no need to face it anyways, one shouldn’t be trapped in the past. Unless...you were the one that caused the misery in the first place... is that guilt I sense?

Ah, you can’t go home. Your true home, only a few find the way and if they do it becomes unrecognizable. Is it worth your life to make sure everything goes back to normal? I guess the only thing left to ask is, what exactly is your normal? You’ve caused so much misery and chaos that a normal life seems...boring to you. Every decision you’ve made or declined, I was always there. I’m always there, you just have to open your eyes. 

Welcome to the game of Darkness. Each human has darkness within them, whether they like to admit it or not. The hearts of each human are the jewels of the soul, something so precious and yet so fragile. Each shard contains your best quality or your worst. Remember This part, it's very important. Or don’t I don’t control you...yet. 

The game of Darkness is what I would say to be a redemption arc, if you will. A room or rooms are the sin or sins that you caused or your biggest sin, that takes over your body, mind and soul. I don’t control this room, your soul does. The moment you step in, is where my contribution is over. You must face your greatest demons to prove to me or any other demon that you’ve learned your lesson. Some die and some live...I hope you or whoever lives because it gets tiring seeing people die all the time. Oh, you're not here for that are you... Ah, I see...you want to hear the story about them. I can see your soul and it's promising. People love to make blood circles just to see a demon to save their lives but you…you want to hear the story, that’s it? You made me do my whole speech just for you wanting to hear a story, rude.

Welcome to the story of seven CEO’s fighting their sins to get back to what they presumed to be “normal...” What a delicate topic that must be handled at once. Now remember this, I’m always there. Even when you think I’m not, I am. Maybe this will help you review your own mistakes and accept them before a demon like me gets into your head. No worries though, I was once a human so, I understand more than other demons. I have sympathy towards those who sell their souls in order to save someone because...I once did the same. It’s agonizing... 

Now the story, Shall we start from the beginning or rather where I want to start. A girl needs to have fun sometimes, especially in hell. Now, now...let's tell the story...” 

January 10th 2006 

Namjoon sat at his desk with frustration as all the papers in front of him gave him more stress. He picked up some of the papers and tossed them off his desk and as he did this the door opened to his other business partners. They stared at him with concern as Jungkook went to pick up the documents off of the floor. Seokjin looked at Yoongi and nodded his head as he moved forward to rub Namjoons shoulder in comfort. 

“Do I even have to ask what happened?” 

Namjoon leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh as he gently pushed off his hand, “We keep losing money...No matter what we do.” 

“But we’ve all cut back, hyung.”

Namjoon gave Jimin a sad smile and nodded his head, “I know...I think it's best if...I file for bankruptcy to save you guys from this.” 

“Namjoon, are you crazy? That will ruin your future and no one will trust you being the CEO for any company.” 

“Jin, bankruptcy doesn’t always mean the end for a person. I’m sure everything will be fine.” 

I guess you can say things weren’t fine for Namjoon. Why do humans have a savior complex? Anyways, things were complicated for the group. They were only twenty and everything was new for them but there's more, just wait.

Jin shook his head and took a paper off his desk, “I’m sure we can solve this without filing for bankruptcy.” 

“Can we, hyung?” 

Jin didn’t bother looking at Jimin as he stared at the paper with furrowed eyebrows. Namjoon got up from his chair as he stared outside the window and let out a deep sigh, “There is one thing...but I don’t know if you guys would agree.” 

Taehyung moved past Jimin and went towards Namjoon with a frown, “Whatever it is, we're in this together.”

“Taehyung is right. We're in this together.” 

Namjoon turned around and stared at them with sadness in his eyes. He let out a deep sigh and looked away as he spoke, “I looked into a blood circle...I was thinking that we can ask help... from a demon.” 

They stared at him with wide eyes and Yoongi let out a small nervous laugh, “Are you joking?” 

“No, I read that they will solve whatever problem you have. Think about it, we could become successful and never have to think about bankruptcy again.” 

Jungkook looked at Taehyung with wide frightened eyes, “But-but we would be selling our souls or something to them.” 

“I know but...it was the only thing that came to my mind.”

The silence in the room made everything seem tenser between the seven of them. The stare off they had with each other was tense, but it stopped when Jin opened his mouth, “If we agree to the circle thing, what would happen to us?”

“All the worries we have will be gone. We just have to give them a heart shard or something?”

“What’s a heart shard, hyung?”

Namjoon looked at Taehyung and gave him a slight shrug, “I’m not sure...It said the heart shards are what makes the person's soul but that’s all I know.” 

Look at him doing his research, why couldn’t he do that to save his business instead of giving me a heart shard? A good question that I don’t have an answer to nor do I think he does or any of them for that matter. It seems like they were desperate to solve their problem and didn’t care about the consequences at the time, obviously.

Namjoon turned around to focus on the raindrops gliding down the window instead of his best friends feeling disappointed in himself that he was the cause of this. All he had to do was record every little detail but somehow he messed it up. He felt a hand on his shoulder causing him to turn his head to see who it was, “Namjoon...we’ll do it...if you think it's the only thing we can do...” 

“Jin-hyung...Are you sure?” 

Yoongi moved forward and gave him a small nod, “If that's the only way to save everything, especially you then yes.” 

Namjoon turned his head towards the others and watched as they gave him a small nod. He closed his eyes as he looked down, “Tomorrow we come together and do it here...no matter what we're in this together.” 

How sweet...it’s absolutely disgusting. As you can see they all agreed to the blood circle and the contract that would come out of it. Maybe that's why their business was in trouble in the first place...could never keep their end of the deal or think things through. That’s what all men do though, be disappointments and selfish... Looking back, they looked so innocent. Like a kicked puppy, but too bad their actions changed that view. Well all men except for him, he's made my life wonderful and vice versa. 

The power that humans crave for creates monsters within their souls, I think this story does a good job on showing that. Even though you feel pity towards them now, remember each of them has sinned greatly. There’s a reason why they made the blood circle but what they didn’t know after the deal was made, I would be watching them to make sure they didn't become worse. I was naive at the time to think they would go through life learning from their mistakes and becoming better people. That's when sympathy turns against you...

January 11th 

The group looked at each other with nervousness as Namjoon was the first one to spoke, “I had to get silver knives...it said they work better.” 

“We’re really doing this...”

Jin looked at Jungkook and gave him a small smile, “I’m sure it won’t be that bad, a quick band aid afterwards and we're good...I think.”  

“Shall we do this...”

“Yeah.” 

Each of them grabbed one of the seven knives that Namjoon had on the table and went towards the middle of the room. They both looked up at each other and Jin decided to get them started when he saw everyone had scared looks, “1...2...3...”

The seven of them cut their fingers and drew a circle together as the blood smeared on the cheap hardwood floor staining it, as if it was a reminder to them of what they were doing. As they finished, the circle started to light up and they watched as the blood circle went into the air spinning slowly, mocking them almost. A flash blinded them momentarily as they looked away but they looked back when they heard a soft demanding voice, “Well, well...It’s not everyday when seven desperate humans summon a demon at once. How unique, that just means your situation is delicate.” 

They turned to see a woman that looked like a human but her eyes were dark purple putting them in a trance at the color and her skin was as pale as the printer paper in the copying room. She was in a black sweetheart neckline dress with sleeves that cascaded down past her knees, the dress showed off her figure perfectly but in a demanding manner. She walked past them and sat on the desk facing them crossing her leg on top of her thigh with the slit showing off her long shapely legs. She leaned forward with a smirk as she saw the scared looks on them, “My name is Y/N, the demon that you called. I’m going to assume you're terribly desperate. Am I correct?” 

They continued to stare at the demon making her roll her eyes, “When someone asks a question they expect an answer. Now, you’re desperate; Am I correct?” 

Jin swallowed his spit and moved forward rubbing his hands nervously as he stared at the demon, “Yes...we are.”

She gave him a smile and leaned back on her hands looking him up and down slightly, “See was it so hard to answer a question. Now, why would the seven of you call for a demon? I just want to tell you, I won’t have sex with you. Even demons have their boundaries.” 

Jin looked at her with wide eyes as he looked her up and down with red ears making her feel flustered slightly. But she returned her attention to the situation at hand when she saw Namjoon walk up to her with him wiping his hands off due to the sweat,“No...we called you because we are in a crisis-” 

“Obviously.” 

“Our business is going down and we have no other options, but to ask for help from..you.” 

She tilted her head and snapped her fingers and seven ornate ebony chairs appeared in front of them, “Sit. Let's discuss things, shall we. You're lucky I’m the one that answered your call...other demons would take advantage of your vulnerability and lack of preparation. I mean really not even a salt circle or protective sigils?”

The seven looked at each other nervously as they glanced at Y/N twirling her finger and they were now in another office. This one had a red haze making it hard to watch the demon but one of them was too focused on the diamond chandelier above them. She sat down at her desk and gave them a small smile, “Your only option was to call me? Interesting. What is it you want me to do? I just want to make sure you want to make this decision.” 

“Mrs. Y/N, we would like it if you can save our business and make it successful as soon as possible. In order to save us financially...of course if you could do that.”

She nods her head at this and takes out parchment paper and gives them a small smile, “Why of course I can do that. However, making a deal with a demon always has its downsides...My downside is, you must give me a shard of your heart. I don’t want an inferior quality shard mind you, I want your best quality. If one is serious enough or rather desperate enough to call a demon, they would give up anything to save themselves. If you're truly serious then, give me your heart shard and you will lose whatever skill or trait is tied to it. It’s possible for you to regain that skill or talent but it could take weeks or years, shit i’ve seen it never come back but know this...if you play a demon wrong, thou shall play the game of darkness. The only thing I ask of you is, to relearn whatever it is I am taking or at least try. If not, I will have to put matters in my own hands.” 

“What-what’s the game of darkness?” Asked one of the troubled men. 

“A very, very dangerous game. If you disobey then you have to play the game, think of it as a redemption arc. I’m the only demon that really tells any mortal this. You have to face whatever great sin you have done in order to save yourselves but I don’t think you guys will be playing that game...right?” 

They all nodded their heads and she clapped her hands. She snapped her fingers and she was in front of Jungkook making him look at her with wide eyes, “All you have to do is sign the contract with your blood and we’ll get started on turning your luck around.” 

Innocent eyes stared back at me, I still remember to this day. I pitied them, I really did. All they wanted to do was to prove that they are capable of handling things themselves, without their parents watching them and their every move. When they signed the contract, I felt a pit in my stomach for the first time. I haven’t played the game Darkness with a lot of my clients because they usually listen to what I say and take it seriously. 

Even though I am a demon, I hate watching mortals play the game of Darkness. It feels so harsh but at the same time it's the final straw for demons. I even told them that I will be watching to make sure they achieve their goal to circumvent it and they nodded their heads but I didn’t tell them I would be watching twenty-four seven. I watched them leave but there was a bitter taste in my mouth, something wasn’t quite right. 

I asked another demon who had the same fate as me (the ones that are cursed with feeling sympathy, a leftover from our former mortal lives) about the feeling I had. He explained to me that it’s the feeling of the future, meaning my demon powers know, they will not do what I said to do. I told him that it hasn’t happened for years to me but I knew I was trying to make myself feel better at that point. 

I understood the difficulties that a person goes through and I didn’t give them a time limit to achieve refinding the trait I took. Maybe that was my fault, expecting mortals to listen. I should’ve known when I saw them treating others the way they did. Jungkook mistreating his wife and daughter, Jimin sabotaging others to win, Seokjin forgetting about his family to try to cure them, Namjoon valuing the club and woman there over his pregnant fiancée , Hoseok treating his workers like they were nothing and making his daughter afraid of him, Taehyung having more greed then anyone I have ever seen, and Yoongi forgetting his place within his work. If George got to them first they would’ve been dead already. 

Each year I watch them get worse and worse, until one of them made me snap. Enough was enough. Over the years all I did was watch them, hoping that they would learn. How foolish of me. Fifteen years and I’ve had enough waiting... 

Mortals truly are disgusting, I can’t believe I was one of them once. At least through this, I got to meet him...

October 31 2021

Namjoon opened his eyes to see a bright light and a somewhat familiar voice in the distance. Has he died? Was this heaven? He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes as he saw a familiar red haze around the room. It was all coming back to him, he recognized this miasma that clung to the air. He looked to his right to see Jungkook waking up. He looked around him and saw all his best friends in an unfamiliar place. He gazed at the walls to see rundown wood and paintings but not only that there were whispers. Whispers that didn’t belong to any of them. Each turn of the head gave him glimpses of a shadow passing through the room or staring right back at him. 

They all slowly woke up and stared at each other with wide eyes, “Where the hell are we?” 

Jin looked up at the ceiling to see blood stains and on the wall he read, “Do you remember what you did?”

“What did you say?” 

Yoongi looked back at Jin with a raised eyebrow, “I didn’t say anything...” 

“Should’ve listened to her...I wish I did...”

“Who's her?” 

“Yoongi, what are-”

“Aww, I’m insulted. You don’t remember me. I’m not shocked, I lost hope in you a long time ago. Just like your loved ones.” 

They all looked behind them to see the figure that gave them everything they wanted, “Y/N....” 

She walked forward making them scoot back away from her with fear in their eyes, not knowing what she would do to them. She shook her head and crossed her arms at them, “Fifteen years and you haven’t attempted the task I gave you. Disappointing but I’m not shocked. You’ve met the shadows, they like to talk don’t they?  Souls that couldn’t make it through the trial are now stuck here for eternity for what they did.”

She snapped her fingers and they all floated up but were restricted from moving making them stare right at her. She snapped her fingers again they were at her will and a group of shadows appeared behind her making their eyes widen, “Welcome to the game of Darkness. You can either face your sins or accept your fate, joining the shadows. What is your decision?”

“Wait, Y/N, please give us one more chance.” 

“Now why should I do that Jimin? When you didn’t even give Sarah a chance. You either play the game or you die, I’m tired of waiting. All you do is take advantage of me and others. NOW YOU SUFFER MY WRATH!” 

As she yelled the room became a deeper shade of red and the room started to feel hot, making their skin burn lightly. Taehyung closed his eyes tight as he yelled out to her in pain, “WE’LL PLAY THE GAME!”

She snapped her fingers and they fell to the floor in a pile making them groan in pain. She walked towards Namjoon and kicked him over so he could face her as she dug her heel into his chest, “Each of you will be playing this game alone I’ve given you enough boons as it is.”

She walked away from him and grabbed Jungkook by the hair as he grunted in pain, “Each of you will suffer your sin and if you live, then you prove to me that you're serious. If you don’t live or don’t escape the room, YOUR SOUL IS MINE!”

She tossed him away and she stood in front of them with her arms crossed, “The game of Darkness is what I would say to be a redemption arc, if you will. A room or rooms are the sin or sins that you caused or your biggest sin, that takes over your body, mind and soul. I don’t control this room, your soul does. The moment you step in, is where my contribution is over. You must face your greatest demons to prove to me or any other demon that you’ve learned your lesson. I would say I want you to escape but some of you disgust me with your sins... Sometimes the scariest things in our lives are the actions that we perceive are good, which are in fact truly evil. Ignoring past mistakes is easy to do but facing them as you’ll learn can be absolutely agonizing. Be careful what you do in this house, it could cost your life or... is this all in your mind? Because of the guilt you have from your past actions. I can’t give you the answer, even if I could, I don’t want to. You're the ones that called for me. Now it's time for you to finish the contract that you started all those years ago but I'll give you a chance. Show me what you got.”

They stared at her as she smirked at the fear painted in their eyes, “Now you have nothing to say. All of you had so much to say over the years to the people that work for you or loved you once upon a time. Loneliness is what you deserve but since you accepted the game, I suppose I should look at it as a step in the right direction,” She snapped her fingers and watched them disappear with an evil grin, “If only I had any sympathy left in my body, well some of you may have my sympathy.”

I know you think this is cruel but I could’ve been crueler, trust me I could. The shadows in that room are the troubled souls of the past mortals that tried the game but failed. Each of them has a different sin and story but they all have one thing in common, they hurt someone. Mortals never understand that their actions have consequences but that didn’t matter to them which is why they're here now. 

Their guilt is sad to see but I can’t do anything more to help. Now they help me teach other mortals a lesson and see if they can make it out alive. Some are different ;however, they like to travel through the worlds of sins and mess with them. As you can see some will never learn their lesson.

Each world the seven enter is based on their sin or sins, I don’t want to explain more because that’s what the story is for. The monsters within this world represent the sins or the effects the sin has on another. Some monsters are so dehumanized they just kill while others are slow and calculated. Each world holds their own mysteries, a story if you will. Mortals love mystery, it gets them excited. Some worlds are more complex than others but some are just blunt like life can be. Welcome to the worlds of sins, hopefully I won’t see you here anytime soon.

Jungkook opened his eyes and looked around the room with confusion looking for the others or even Y/N but no one was there. The room itself was dimly lit because the windows were covered with dark fabric. He stood up from the ground and rubbed his head slightly when he heard a voice in his head, “Welcome to your sin Jungkook... Everyone has pride but too much pride will be your downfall. It’s amazing that your wife lasted this long with you. Doesn’t this place feel like home for you, your poor daughter doesn’t know what that is, thanks to you. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is cloning, to activate this power you have to think about cloning yourself. I know it might be hard for you but you’ve had plenty of practice thinking of yourself instead of others haven’t you? I would use it wisely, especially with these monsters. A hint, tick tock the time goes by fast, how time consuming.” 

When the voice ended he looked around to see he was in his office back at home. He raised his eyebrows when he looked at the walls that had white paint sprawled across them spelling out, THEY WERE A WASTE OF SPACE. He went towards his desk to see documents scattered along the dark wood. The first document he saw was a file for divorce from his wife Alice. He gently picked up the document with wide eyes, I didn’t even know she sent this...I didn’t even know she wanted a divorce... He picked up another document and saw it was Hana’s birth certificate. It was missing his signature because he was busy that day or he had a business meeting. I thought I signed this...Why didn’t Alice remind me to sign it?

The door to his office opened widely and a gust of cold wind hit his face, making him shiver a bit. He walked slowly towards the door to see an empty office, there was no furniture but there were only mirrors on the wall. They had silver lining around them and each of them were at an angle. He looked across the room to see the door to go to the next room and shrugged his shoulders, This is easier than I thought.

He walked forward and glanced at the mirrors but his eyes winded when a glimpse of light made its way towards him and a loud shrill made his ears hurt from the sudden loudness. He ducked away from the light, hitting his forehead on the carpeted floor as he felt like he was being watched but was too afraid to look up. 

When the feeling was gone he looked up to see that he was alone again, “What the fuck was that?” 

He looked at the mirror with squinted eyes and he noticed the mirrors moving slightly but he couldn’t figure out why. He moved back slowly to where he started and stood by the opened doors with a confused look. What the fuck was that? It tried attacking me. The only thing I saw was a bony hand. What the fuck does that have to do with me? 

“Really...you're going to ask me what that monster has to do with you. You're so dense. I thought a CEO like you would at least have some brain cells. Your friend Seokjin figured out what he had to do in a matter of minutes. You spent all your time at work to get higher in a position where you forgot how to use common sense. It makes it easier for me in the end...”

Jungkook shook his head and looked forward to stare at the mirrors. He walked out slowly and looked down to his left to see a smaller door going into another office but there was a mirror right next to it. There might be something in that room that could help or give him a hint to get out of the building. He took a deep breath and sprinted towards the door, feeling the boney hands touching his neck slightly but he closed the door before anything could happen. 

It was another office filled with documents and on the walls with the same white paint from his office, THEY COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND. He walked towards the desk to see more documents scattered. Picking one up, his face fell when he realized it was a journal entry from his wife, 

I love him but I know he doesn’t love me. The way Hana stares at him is sickening, she deserves a father that cares for her. My therapist told me to write down my feelings and show him the entry. She thinks it can create a conversation between us but I know he won't care. It’s not a deal for him to sign or something to review. Hana asks me every night if he loves her and it's gotten to the point where I can’t lie to her anymore because it hurts me but I still do it to protect her. 

His mother told me that he wasn’t always like this but he just became this monster over the years. Hana had a play today and I didn’t bother texting him because I already knew it would go unanswered. 

I should just divorce him but I know that requires him to sign it. Maybe I should just leave and never come back, Hana could finally be happy and I would be free.

He noticed the page itself had water damage confirming his thought that she was crying while writing this. Alice was with him for eleven years and he never imagined that they would let go of each other. How could she think he didn’t care when everything he was doing was for them. He wanted to give them the life that they deserved and what he never had but it all came at a price. “All men think they are doing good to their family. Even my own father thought like you and now look at him, dead. Well, I took his soul for what he did. You want to make it through, right?”  

All of sudden a video started playing on the computer and he sat down to watch it. It was a video of Hana saying her first words and it was dada but he was nowhere to be seen. Another clip was Alice holding Hana as a newborn but once again he wasn’t there. The video went to a black screen and white text appeared, You were never there for them. You don’t deserve a second chance.

He pushes the computer off the desk in a fit of anger but the guilt within him was making it hard to breathe. He wanted to give them the world but instead he gave them pain. Why didn’t Alice say anything to him? He would've changed for his family but they never gave him a chance. 

He looked around the office and the rusted file cabinet pulled his curiosity in. He walked towards them and pulled them open to see bones that he presumed belonged to rather large rats. He fell down and pushed himself away from the cabinet not expecting to see bones with flesh on them still. He gagged slightly but brought himself up and closed it before it made him sick. 

He looked back at the door to see a note that he didn’t notice before. He walked towards it and was surprised at what it said, 

The mirror monsters are the monsters we see inside. They are quick like our thoughts but they also have to process things, making them still for a few minutes. I know why she sent me here but these monsters are not who I am, they can’t be. They change their appearance but the one appearance they keep mostly is the vacant face with their bones visible all over their bodys. They have a black cloak covering their bones that is covered in blood and black goo. I’m not sure if they eat flesh but I don’t want to find out. If I die at least I can write this note to help anyone who's in this room. They only attack when they see something in the mirror or even a glimpse. That was the only thing I noticed from them. 

The more time I spent in this world the more I realized the monsters and their past. Each of these monsters were workers once upon a time but the work consumed them and they died somehow. In other offices I saw name tags with blood on them and unfinished paperwork. Each time I picked up the paper I heard a moan outside the door. Even within death they can’t let go of their work. It’s kinda sad but I understand and I think that’s what makes it worse. 

- T

He folded the note and put it in his suit jacket. He has to remember this game has been played for centuries and there has to be a way to end it. He remembered Y/N telling him that he has her cloning powers. If the mirror monsters only attack when they see something in the mirror, he has to be fast with his cloning or he would get killed. He knows his office building at home had six stories but this can’t be the same for this building. He walked towards the window to see pure darkness outside with no lights showing him how far up he was. 

He went back into the middle and took a deep breath. He realized he has to use the cloning power to get out of this alive and to see Alice and Hana. He closed his eyes and thought about cloning like he was told to do. He had his eyes closed for a few minutes and when he felt nothing he opened them but there he was a clone staring back at him. The eyes were pitched black and the skin was pale, as if the clone was dead. When he shook his head the clone disappeared and he was alone again. He has to think as fast as he ever did in his life but it's hard when there’s so much on your mind. He opened the door and saw that the door covered the mirror making it easier to head back to the office where he started. He stared out in the empty space and cleared his mind before taking a step forward.

Clone, clone, clone....

He ran forward with his eyes closed and the only thing that was heard in the room was the shrills and the gusts of winds from their cloaks. He opened the door as quickly as he could and closed it as he leaned against the doors. He pressed his ear against the door and heard gushing sounds, like someone was eating something. He stared at the room to see a stairwell that was dark but the only thing that lit the way was a flickering light on the top of the stairwell. He looked down at the stairs to see each step had a mirror but it skipped two steps until it reached the top step. 

With the light flickering it made it harder for him to see the mirrors on the steps. He closed his eyes tighter and shook his head from the memory of being with Alice and Hana. He went towards the edge of the railing to look down and saw that there were two more stories left. He could run down the stairs and could finally end this for good. 

Just as he was about to take a step the mirror upstairs started shaking and he heard the familiar shrilling. He looked up and saw the monsters going down the stairs as he just stood there shaking. He walked away from the door when he heard the scratching on the wooden door. He looked down and saw that the drop wasn’t that high for him to jump. He looked up at the stairs to see vacant faces and closed his eyes as he tried to figure out the next move.

He heard the shrilling coming closer and climbed up the railing in a fast motion. He stared down at the bottom and started to take deep breaths. He felt the boney hand combing through his hair and he jumped. The jump happened so fast that he couldn’t process it. He landed on his ankle and he yelled out in pain as the bone crack echoed throughout the stairwell. He tried getting up slowly but fell back down to the ground, “FUCK!”

He wiped the sweat and started to crawl towards the door. He looked behind him to see the monsters making their way down the final story. He started crawling faster, grunting in pain but as he touched the door everything went black.

Jimin stared at the daycare with a raised eyebrow, What the hell? A daycare? He walked through the front gate to look at the small playground in the sand in the darkness of the night. In the sand itself, there were multiple pairs of shoes and a few shirts. He walked towards the sand pit and picked up the shirt to see a blood stain. He turned the shirt over and saw the shirt was cut from a slash of something but he didn’t know what it was from. The play structures themselves were rusted and had dried blood going down the slides. Even the building was decaying and had dry blood on the walls. Perhaps it was just an odd choice in paint? He stood up and jumped when he heard a bell ring,“Welcome to Violet’s Daycare. The poor child was taken because of jealousy, something you can relate too. Their mother, sadly took their life..Everyone has their days where you become jealous but taking it to the point where sabotage or even murder is the only way to solve it..tsk, tsk. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is telopration, to activate this power you have to snap your fingers. I would use it especially with Violet... A hint, she loves playing tag but don’t let her tag you or her doll.”

He stared at the daycare with furrowed eyebrows as Y/N stopped talking. He didn’t understand why he would be here in the first place. Nothing made sense, especially right now. Why would he be jealous of anyone? He’s a CEO and makes thousands of dollars by the hour, if anything people should be jealous of him. He stood there and looked around the place without having anything to focus on. Just then the front doors slammed open and a child’s laughter was heard, “Come in...” 

He wanted to turn around but there was something about the place that brought him in. He couldn’t explain but he also knew if he walked away his soul would be taken away. He slowly walked towards the door when he felt a pressure on his back pushing him forward causing him to trip on his feet but he caught himself from falling. 

He looked around the room and saw it was the check in area for the daycare itself. He walked towards the front desk and all of sudden a little girl appeared standing on the desk holding a doll. She tilted her head and he saw the cut on her neck shining with blood as the doll mimicked her actions. The little girl had long hair that reached her waist and was in a navy blue sailor dress. The dress itself was ripped and had blood stains on it. The doll was a mirror image of her but instead of long hair it had short hair and no face, “She told me I was having guests. Don’t tell the others but I wanted a new friend. It gets boring when you see the same people everyday. I’m excited to play with you and since we're friends I know all your secrets. You haven’t been nice to people have you? No worries, it doesn’t bother me because you're going to die anyways and I get to keep your soul forever. I’ll give you a headstart but I won’t tell you when I’ll come for you, that ruins the fun. Also my doll is going to play with us, I named her...Violet. Go ahead and hide, I’ll be there soon....hehe.”

Jimin stared at the little girl with raised eyebrows as she smiled at him and waved gently at him. He watched her drop the doll and his eyes widened as the doll stood up for itself and waved at him. “I would listen to her before she kills you right there. Remember what I said, she's very impatient. Her doll is the opposite of her though. I would take that into consideration when I run from them.”

He walked forwards towards the door and opened it slowly as he looked behind him to see the little girl is gone but the doll sits on the edge of the desk with its head down. He gently opened the door and looked around to see an empty closet and raised his eyebrow, “I forgot to tell you the place likes to change constantly. She said it keeps the place “fun”, whatever that means.” 

He closes the door and walks back to be in front of the desk with wide eyes. The doll is gone... He walked towards the next door across the room and opened it to see a long, dimly lit hallway with nothing in it. This hallway was longer than the whole building, at least that's what he thought from seeing the building from the front. He walked down the long wall and looked around to see there were white painted words, THEY COULD NEVER BE ME or WHY WOULD THEY EVEN THINK THAT THEY’RE  BETTER THAN ME. He walked towards the end to see another hallway turning right but he saw a note on the wall. He took down the note with a raised eyebrow,

The little girl is the outcome of people’s actions. Deadly actions that can kill innocent souls. I arrived here after talking to her, I figured out that this stage is for the people that have envy. After walking around this ever changing building, I found out the little girl was killed by her mother because her father loved her so much and left her mother in the dust. It's a pity, truly. I also found out the doll’s name is Violet while the little girl’s name is unknown from what I could find but I’m going to assume it's Kat. I found out the doll was her mothers and it carries the soul of an envious murderer that is more calculated then Kat, her mother’s name was Violet Little. Violet is the one that hides while Kat chargers at you, she’s faster than she looks. Violet may look small but don’t let her looks deceive you. When she's in the shadow she grows bigger and has sharp nails that can kill. She can’t talk without the little girl but her moans and grunts will make you freeze in fear. The little girl is easier to run away from because of how impatient she is and she likes to taunt.  

Don’t stay in the shadows and stay away from the bathrooms, that’s where she hides and that’s where Kat was killed. As I walk around here, I see the broken souls from the outcome of people's choices. Most of them are children which makes it even sadder to see. The long nails that Violet has poison at the end, making your death faster and more painful. I watched another die in front of me and I would be damned to die here. Kat's head is nearly off of her body but she can turn it in ways that I can’t.

 Violet gets distracted when Kat is around, while Kat gets distracted when she sees other toys left from the souls. If I die at the hands of Violet, I write this to help any soul that enters this place. I know our soul shares the same sin but I don’t want to die like this nor do I want you to die like this either.

- A

Jimin dropped the note when he heard a sudden giggle from behind him. He turned around quickly and saw “Kat” staring at him but he notices her head is nearly off her body hanging on barely with a twisted smile at him, “I’ll give you five minutes head start. She told me to wait and if I don’t listen I can’t play with the others. So listen to me. Violet is already gone but I’m sure she’ll visit you soon. Hehe...bye bye.” 

He watched the girl disappear and looked away from where she stood to figure out a plan. All he has to do is find his way out of this building and he can live his life. He can finally get a restart in his life. He looked down at his fingers as he remembered what Y/N told him, snap your fingers to teleport. He stared at the end of the curved hall and snapped his fingers. All of a sudden he felt a rush through his family and his chest felt heavy. He leaned against the wall as he caught his breath from the sudden movement. 

He looks at a new door and walks through to see a pastel pink playroom with a bright overhead light. He walked forward and noticed he stepped on a soft light green carpet. This must be her old playroom... The numerous numbers of toy chests were overflowing with toys that had ropes around their necks. Some of the dolls had markings on them with the eyes having X and the necks with black lines around it. As he walked further down, the chests started to tower over him with each step. He sees a piece of paper with writing from a child and he kneels down picking up the note with curiosity, You destroyed them so you could be happy. All they wanted to do was get better but you were scared. You're a monster just like mommy but don’t tell her I said that.

His eyes widen at this and remember what he did at work, something that he himself forgot. Whenever there was a new worker who showed skills that he didn’t have, he made sure they would get fired the next day. No one could be better than their boss because that would be a threat to his job and his living. He also lied within documents about these workers, making sure Namjoon would fire them for good, since he had the last say. 

He took the paper and folded it in his pocket as he stood back up. He walked further down and between the chests he saw a figure moving, Stay away from the shadows. He stares at the end of the room and snaps his fingers to get away from the area. He sees himself in another hallway but this time it was pastel blue with butterflies. The hallway was bright with lights and the drawings. He looked behind him to see a hand with claws against the door windows and swallowed his spit. He took this as a sign to run and made his way down to the next room. 

The new room looks like a nursery, but instead of it being bright it's melancholy. The crib is filled with blood and a doll with the head off as the eyes are X out. He looks around to see if he sees “Kat” but it is answered when he hears a small giggle coming down the hall. He looks around the room in a quick manner and sees a warborde on the floor. He runs to it quietly as he lifts the wardrobe and goes under it as he covers his mouth from breathing heavily. 

“He’s cheating. He’s using that power that Y/N gave him. He can’t get that far, he's not that smart...but Y/N that’s not fair, I want a new friend. Fine, I’ll listen to you because you give me cookies...”

He heard footsteps and heard a door close. He waited a couple of minutes before making his move. He lifted the wardrobe and looked around the nursery to see the place was not fully dark, making his heart beat fast. He stood up and started running towards the door when claws came into view on the door, “Going somewhere?” 

His eyes widened and he took a step back as he watched Violet come forward and the light from the windows. The figure was around seven feet tall and the face was still blank but now it had red liquid coming down the eye area and the mouth area had stitches. He kept walking backwards until he hit a wall. The short hair that it once had was now long and hit the back of her knees. Just like the note said, the doll has long nails that touch the floor making scratching noises echo the room.  

Violet tilted its head and even though she had no eyes, he felt the deadly stare within his body. Violet brought her hand up and started rubbing her chin, “So you can hear my voice...Y/N must feel pity towards you and give you that extra power. How interesting, she doesn’t do that often. Now, now I feel you trembling in fear or is that guilt? I can’t tell the difference anymore but it feels amazing.”

Just then she slashed at him causing him to move quickly but his hand got stabbed with her claws. He groaned in pain but he pushed her claw out causing blood to gush out. Violet let out a groan, “Awww, your poor hand. Wish it was your head.” 

He rolled away from the next attack but she nicked his back. He looked down at the room and closed his eyes. He brought his trembling bloody fingers up to snap and felt the rush come through him. He kicked open the door and started running in the dark hallway without any hesitation. He opened the next door with his back and saw it was a sleeping area. He ripped the bottom of his shirt the best he could and wrapped his hand. 

As he did this he looked around the room to see the sleeping bags had blood within them and he looked up to the chalkboard, WHY CAN’T THEY SEE WHAT I HAVE. He turned around when he heard paper falling to the ground and his eyes widened at the sight, “Sarah?” 

“Why did you fire me? You have so much power but you fired me because I got promoted by your team.”

“Why are you here?” 

“You didn’t know? Your assistant killed me because of you...my blood is on your hands.” 

Before Jimin could say anything the ghost vanished and he stared at the spot she was in with a distressed look. He never told his assistant to kill her, all he did that day was rant about her. Never once did he say kill her, why would he kill her? He didn’t say anything. “You didn’t say the words to kill her but your actions that day did. You broke a glass over her and you also said she's dead to you. Those words could only make another trying to get your attention to do rash things.”

He took a deep sigh and shook his head at this. He walked around the room to see if there was anything for him to use but he found a painting. A painting of a little girl with her head cut off as the sun shines in the corner. He realizes this must’ve been the little girl but he placed it back on the floor. He has to get out of here fast. He opened the door and snapped his fingers slowly bringing him to the next door but this time it led him outside. 

It had to be a sign that he was getting closer to the end. He opened the door to see another playground but this time it looked like it was in better condition probably because no one has gotten this far. The slides had pools of blood from his vision but he didn’t want to find out. He looked around and saw the exit staring right back at him. He started running towards it but was tackled to the floor. He flipped over and saw Kat staring at him with a wide grin, “You can’t run away from me. You should’ve known that.” He tried pushing the girl off of him but her strength was too much for him. He looked up to see a black claw caressing his face gently, “Welcome to Violets...forever.” 

Quiet. Nothing to be heard in the large forest and the only thing to be seen was tall trees that covered the sky. Jin couldn’t even tell if it was day or night time in this world. He went in circles looking around the trees to see if there was anything there that was causing those mysterious grunts and cry sounds but nothing was seen. “This forest has secrets but you also have dark secrets. Having knowledge can lead you to greater things in life but you...you took that to the next level. Your poor, poor mother had to handle your consequences. That’s why she's not here, right? To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is reading minds, to activate this power you have to empty your own thoughts to hear others. A hint, he may be hidden but you can always hear him. Always. He’s actually fun to talk to but I’m going to guess you don’t want that.”

He listened to the voice carefully and realized that this was his stage and he had to figure out how to get out of this forest. What did she mean he was hidden? Since it's a forest, I’m going to assume whoever he is he hides within the tall trees. He walked forward and entered the thick woods slowly as he looked around the trees with a raised eyebrow. The only sound that echoed through the forest was the crunch of the leaves under him and movement of the trees from the wind.

He kept walking straight and he lost track of time but he saw a basic run down cabin in the middle. The cabin didn’t give him a cozy feeling but it was good enough to enter. He walked through the cabin to see all the furniture towards the window, covering any light. The only light in the cabin was a candle that was almost out of wax but it was enough light for him to use. He walked through the living room and entered the bedroom with curiosity. In the bedroom were books scattered all along the floor and there were pages ripped out as well. Some pages had splatter of blood while others were slashed with black goo but one page caught his eye. He picked it up and started reading it, 

This forest hears every thought you have and knows things even before you act upon them. The monster represents the ever growing knowledge that we crave for and all the other shadow monsters are the repercussions for our craving for knowledge. I never saw what the shadow monsters look like but I just know their hands are cold as ice or even colder. You can’t see any of the monsters, only their thoughts and even that is hard to hear. There’s traps around the forest, bear traps and water traps from what I saw but they could be more. The water traps hold a monster that I couldn’t see the appearance of and I watched another die at the hands of. 

He’s as tall as you think he would but he still towers the trees somehow. I only had a glimpse of him and he was only a shadow with sharp teeth. He’s very slow but when he attacks it's deadly. I’m writing after losing so much blood from one of his attacks. Whoever reads this you must know that the exit is in the mountains, they want you to think the exit is at the end of the forest. At the end of the forest is his home and he kills you before you can process it. I found another note telling me about the mountains, it also said the mountains are in the west where the fog meets the ground.

I don’t have much time but stay away from-

The note ended abruptly and he looked behind him when he heard a sudden sound. He folded the note into his pocket and grabbed some of the random pages from the floor thinking they hold some type of information that could help him. Shadow monsters... He’s eyes widened and he was pushed to the ground by a sudden force having the wind knocked out of him when he hit the ground. He looked up and saw no one there but he knew it was the said monsters that the note told him about. 

He watched the pages on the floor moving slightly and realized they were inside the room. He can’t think of anything and he wasn’t used to that. He always had a plan B to his plan A but he realized that couldn’t work in this situation. He closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath as he did so to clear his thoughts. The only thing he heard was grunts but at least he could locate where it was. He gently got up and made his way through the dark room the best he could. When he was in the living room, he ran out causing the candle to be put out. As he ran he felt the ice cold touch of something on the back of his neck but he knew if he looked behind him then it would be over.

He jumped off of the porch and landed on his knees when heard the groans getting closer. He stared down at the leaves with wide eyes as he tried to catch his breath. He got up from the spot and stared at the cabin with no expression. He wondered if the shadows could travel through walls but he didn’t want to stay and found out. He remembers the note telling him to go west and look out for the fog. It would be better to trust the note then to go to the end of the forest and die. That is unless the note was a trap. 

He continued his way towards the west but each step he took the leaves went silent. There was no more crunching making him realize he was heading towards water. He looked up to see a small river going through the forest when he remembered something, water traps. He tried walking around the water but something grabbed his foot before he could. He tried grabbing dirt or anything to stop him from getting dragged into the water. He looked down to see a monster with three bright red eyes and gills but he couldn’t focus on the face because he was too busy trying to kick it off of him. He can tell the hands of the monster had sharp nails as he felt the sting in his ankle.

When he entered the water, he started thrashing around with his eyes closed, nothing was working. The memories of his mother came to his mind as he thought this was it for him . All the moments they shared and every letter he ever got from them hidden away in his office. He wanted to heal his mother, something the doctors couldn’t do. As silence took over his thoughts he realized this isn’t how he wanted to die. He wanted to save his mother and he would be damned if he died in this water trap. 

He opened his eyes and punched the monster causing it to let him go. He swam up in the ice cold water avoiding the other water monsters that were slowly making their way to him. He came back to the surface and pushed himself out with all the strength he had left and laid on the forest floor breathing heavily. 

He checked his ankle to see it bleeding from the claws and his chest had a cut but he knew it wasn’t deep enough to cause any further worry. He slowly got up and went back on his journey towards the west. After awhile, he stopped to catch his breath but his eyes widened when he saw a familiar letter on a tree,

Dear Father, 

I am saddened to hear the news about mother but I am busy with learning about finance. It would help my business in the long run and it can even secure my future further down. The last time I heard, mother was getting better but then again I haven’t seen the old letters you sent me because I was planning for my trip. 

I can’t attend the funeral because the trip is for another month here in Italy but when I'm done I will visit you and mother. 

Your son, 

Seokjin

He crumpled the paper and threw it on the ground as he glared at it with all the hatred in his body that he could muster towards himself, “We're the opposite here. Where you ignored your mothers funeral, I tried giving everything up to have my mother live. That’s how I got here in the first place. Selling my soul to ensure my mother would live but sadly she passed away from my father a year later. I have pity towards you because I know you were only doing this to save your mother. You're good at hiding your emotions but I know everything about you, especially how you cry at night because you were scared for your mother. Don’t tell the others but I want you to find the exit and restart this so you can save your mother. I gave Jimin extra power because I saw he was understanding his sin and I see now, you understand your actions. I’ll give you the power of invisibility to ensure your escape. I guess another reason is, if I was human I would date you... Anyways, to activate invisibility you must draw a triangle in the air and walk through it. The longer you control your thoughts, the longer you can be invisible. I have no doubt you’ll make it through because of how smart you are. Maybe after this, you can call me. A demon can date a human, I’ve heard crazier things.” 

Jin raised his eyebrow and let out a small chuckle, She is attractive...

“You do know I can hear what you're thinking.” 

I know that’s why I said it.

“Ohhh...keep talking like that and you can top.”

Jin let out a small cough and drew a triangle in the air like Y/N told him to do so. He walked through the triangle and cleared his thoughts as he did so. He walked towards the west and as he walked along the forest, he heard the grunts and moans from the monsters but he didn’t give them a second thought. He continued his way until the mountain came into view and the invisibility wore off as he felt excitement through his body. 

He entered the small hole of the mountain as the moans and grunts bounced off of the wall. He drew another triangle in the air and walked through it just in case there were shadows like in the beginning here waiting for him. He continued his way until he walked into the center of the mountain itself. He looked around and saw the exit as a smile escaped on his face. He walked through the cave and the invisibility disappeared. He entered a red lit room with a bed in the middle and he raised his eyebrow when he saw who was in the bed waiting for him.

“See I told you you would’ve solved it. Then again I think you knew you could solve it too.” 

“Y/N?... Are you just watching us go through these “games”?” 

She stood up from the bed, dropping her long black dress train to the floor and gave him a small smile, “I have to make sure they learn unless the contract cannot be fulfilled. I also felt insulted that you guys didn’t even try doing it...You do realize I'm nicer than other demons, they would’ve killed you on the spot. I don’t like killing people, it's...evil. Ironic, I know.” 

“Why give us a chance then?” 

“I pity humans and I understand why people do the things that they do but when you do wrong, you should learn from your mistakes.” 

Jin sat on the chair next to him as he continued to stare at the demon, “I-I guess that makes sense but you helped me, why?”

“A mother’s love is something that can’t be replaced. It heals the soul and it makes you the person you are today. I helped you because you loved your mother. I saw you do research for your mothers sickness and you wanted to cure it. I admire that but as you did this you pushed your family away because you wanted to cure her and you couldn’t accept your mothers illness getting worse so you did the one thing you knew well. Studying.” 

“Is what you said about your mother true?” 

Y/N sat in front of him on the coffee table as she gave him a sad look, something that surprised Jin, “My mother tried killing herself because she found out my father was engaged to another woman who was pregnant. I was twenty-six and I couldn’t bear to see my mother die because of my father's decision. So, I drew a blood circle like you guys did and made a contract with a demon. My contract towards you guys was nice. My contract was if I wanted my mother to live, I would have to give up my soul right then and there. So I did it. But a year later, my father was drunk when visiting her and killed her. The demon told me she would be okay from the incident, not from anything else in life. Out of anger I took my father’s soul and turned it into a gem. I know that sounds evil but he deserved it.” 

“I’m so sorry Y/N...” 

She looked at him with a small smile, “I try to make my contracts not harsh but maybe towards your other friends, I should've been harsher...but it's their fault for not listening. Then again, I never gave you a time limit but-” 

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t do the contract...I honestly thought I was doing okay...Okay enough that I wouldn’t be here nor my mother would be dead. You're right, we did take advantage of your kindness...some more than others...”

“That’s the first time anyone has apologized to me...”

Jin stood up from his chair suddenly causing her to stare at him with a surprised look and he leaned forward to rest his forehead on hers as his hot breath was on her lips, “Like you said when you make a mistake you should learn from it. I’m only showing you that I learned from my mistake.” 

“I-I accept that you learned your lesson and your contract has been fulfilled. You can wait in the room that you first appeared in.” 

“What happens if I want to stay here?...With you? Will you let me?”

“...Yes...” 

The loud music made Namjoon get up slowly and looked up to see flashing lights. He brought his hand up to protect his eyes from the lights as he regained his vision from the fall. He slowly got up and looked around to see posters on the walls of random girls with missing tops or shorts. He ran his fingers through his hair as he stared at the laser light show that was down the hall, “Men like you deserve to be in places like this. Treating women so horribly, you deserve nothing but pain in return. You remind me of my father and my ex lover, that’s not a compliment by the way. Your precious fiancée was thrown to the side because you were scared to become a father, pathetic. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is moving things with your finger. To activate this power just point with your pointer finger at the object you want to move and move your finger. A hint, they're fast, faster than you think but don’t get distracted with their body because that's where you meet your end.”

He looked back at the posters with a raised eyebrow and took a closer look at the girls. One of the girls had short black hair and her face had cuts all over her face, some deeper than others. Her neck had bruises as if someone strangled her or had something around her neck while the other girl was missing an arm. He squinted his eyes and saw the text on the shirt saying Men deserve nothing and All men do is give us pain. 

He walked down the hallway and the music became louder with the lights brighter than ever. He enters a room to see a woman at the front desk talking on the phone. He looked around to see shadow figures sitting in chairs and their voices echoed through the room but he couldn’t make out the words they were saying. He walked up to the desk in a slow manner as he looked around the room. The room itself had two bright lights that made the dest the main focus but other than that the room was dark, as if they didn’t want you to look around the room in the first place. Each wall had a poster and Namjoon assumed that the poster had females on them like the ones he saw coming into this room. The walls were dirty and had hand prints on them but he didn’t think much about it.

He walked up to the desk and the lady looked up at him and he noticed the black eye she had, “No worries. He’s here now, we’ll take good care of him. Yes....Ahhhh, I'll keep that in mind. Okay, bye bye.”

Namjoon raised his eyebrow when the lady leaned forward and top went lower to show off her cleavage to him, “Ah, Namjoon. Welcome to Nemesis, we've been waiting for you. Let me get Jessica and she can show you where to go.” 

He nodded his head and continued to look around the room with a confused look but he stopped when another woman came up to him in a long dress this time but both of her hands were cut off and bruises around her face, “Hello, my name is Jessica. All your worries are gone when you enter, that's all we want...for you to be happy.” 

He didn’t say anything back but simply just followed her with silence through the hall. Each step he took became louder than the music itself as his vision became blurry slightly at the sudden brightness when she opened the door. The music wasn’t loud as before and the lights were bright, so bright that it felt like it burned him. He looked around the room and saw different girls dancing on individual stages in front of shadow figures. He felt something was pulling him in but he didn’t know what. The girls all had white lace bra and underwear with white heels but that didn’t capture his attention. What captured his attention was the cuts and bruises on the bodys of the dancers, some even missing body parts. 

“Right this way, Mr. Kim.” 

He was brought back to his reality and continued to follow the girl through the dance floor. As he walked his eyes landed on the wall and saw a message, LOYALTY MEANS NOTHING TO YOU. His eyes widened at this and shook his head trying to forget a memory that came to his mind. In the next room it was clamer, there were multiple rooms with a dark red light engulfing the room itself. She opened the door for him and he slowly entered a room. The room looked like his study back at his house causing him to turn towards the girl. 

“What is this?”

“Every home has their secrets....”  

With that the door is closed shut and it suddenly disappears from his view. He looked around his study and went to sit in his chair at his desk but fell right through it. He got up from the chair and continued to look around with confusion. He backed away from his desk and went towards his bookshelf trying to see if something was abnormal. It wasn’t until he saw himself walk into his study looking through papers with his wife following back with a desperate look.

“Namjoon, I’m in my third trimester. I need you here more...”

He rolled his eyes and sat at his desk as he placed the papers on his desk, “You have the maids and your midwife to help you. Why do I need to take time off when you have a solution?”

She gave him a sad face and shook her head, “Namjoon it's because I need my fiancée and the father of our child right now. All you do is work and stay all night at your office. I need you more than ever right now.” 

“All you do is bitch. I gave you this mansion and maids to help you with everything in your life. You can’t even appreciate the things I've done for you.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” 

“Just get out and go into the living room and watch whatever you want. I have work to do.” 

She let out a small sigh and turned around to walk out the room. When her footsteps came further down the hall, he took out his cell phone from his pocket with a smirk. 

Are you free tonight? 

Always for you ;) 

Same hotel and time. See you there. Oh, wear my favorite lingerie.

The scene disappeared and he swallowed some of his spit in nervousness. He shook his head at the scene and walked through the door arch and suddenly he was in the hotel room that he became so familiar with. He watched himself sit on the bed as Yuna walked forward with a smirk on her face straddling his waist. 

“When are you going to leave her? I’ve been waiting for months.” 

He ran his hand up and down her thighs as he let out a chuckle, “I have to wait until she has the baby so the lawyer doesn’t think too badly of me also I need an heir with her family ties. I can say the pressure of raising the child caused a rift between us. Patience is a virtue my dear.” 

“Fine...I’ll wait longer. Are you going to make it up to me?” 

“Always, babygirl.” 

The scene disappeared and he scratched the back of his neck as he shook his head once again, not knowing how he felt. “Your poor fiancée . You're the one that wanted a baby with her when she said you should wait but you just wanted to do what you wanted. I despise men like you, so selfish that you would hurt someone that loves you. You don’t deserve the love from her. Did you know she left? She ran away from the house and now she's gone forever. You’ll never see her again or even hold your child and it's all your fault.”

“No....She wouldn’t run away!” 

“Even now you're being selfish. Why would she stay with you when you cheated on her and pushed her to the side as if she was nothing to you.” 

“We would’ve talked about it.”

“Ha. Like you would even talk to her. She tried over and over but you didn’t care. You went to Yuna and the strip clubs because you were insecure about becoming a father now you suffer.”

The room turned into another room with three girls staring at him with their breasts on full view and shorts. One of the girls came forward with a smirk, “Welcome to our game. Men love to play games with us and we suffer heartbreak. We’ll give you a five minute head start to run but surprise, you won’t see us coming.” 

The girls let out a small chuckle and they disappeared right before his eyes. The door behind him opened wide open and he stood there in shock, “I would get going...they love to play games.” 

Without another thought, Namjoon slammed the door open and started running in the club that was suddenly bigger in size. He didn’t know where he was running too but he just kept running forward. He was in a dark hallway but kept going until the lights started to turn on with each step he took. He looked around the hall and saw the girls in the windows dancing and flipping their hairs trying to get his attention but it wasn’t working. 

He opened the door and a girl was waiting for him with a smirk, “I knew you couldn’t keep away from me. Are you going to show me what you can do daddy?” 

The girl picked him up by the neck and gave him a smile, “This is how I died, Men deserve the same treatment.” 

She threw him across the room with his back hitting the wall knocking the wind out of him for a second. He opened his eyes and saw her running towards him with a knife and he saw a table near her. He lifted up his finger and the table followed, he aimed at the girl and heard a slam. He got up slowly and ran away from the scene as fast as he could. He knew he broke his shoulder but he couldn’t think of that right now. 

He saw a room towards the corner and opened the door to see it was a large storage closet. He took a deep depreath and moved one of the shelving units in front of the door to keep them from finding him. He walked down the closest and saw a note taped on the wall and he started reading it,

This club is my nightmare come to life. Everywhere I look I am reminded of the pain that he put me through. The girls here said I fit the criteria of becoming one of the dancers here. I asked how and she explained to me that my soul is the same as theirs because of the abuse I went through. This whole club is the misery that women went through at the hands of a man or men. They all treated me kindly and gave me food when they saw how skinny I was. Their appearances made me feel sad for them because I understand. They all asked me if I wanted to stay but I said I can’t because I wanted to live for myself now. They told me not to go through the halls alone because the shadows might mistake me for a dancer and hurt me. One of the girls showed me the way out but before I left I wrote this letter to anyone who comes to this stage. If you're a man and you're here, you should already know why you're there in the first place. This is the closure that I need but for a man, I don’t know if they even know what closure is other than the grave.

- H 

He reread the letter a couple more times to comprehend what he just read. The abuse... Did I abuse Yuri? The more he thought about his actions the more he thought about his fiancées face and how sad she looked at the hands of his own. He didn’t want to believe that he was the cause of it but with all the evidence in front of him it would be foolish to ignore it even more. He put the note back on the wall and realized that he had to leave this place to prove himself to Yuri and their unborn child. It was the least he could do. 

He moved back towards the door and moved the shelving unit with the powers he was given. He opened the door slowly and listened just in case they were there but nothing. He walked into the abandoned hallways and realized since the note was in there the exit had to be close. He went down the hall taking quiet steps as he continued to listen to the quietness that sent a shiver down his spine but that could’ve been his broken shoulder blade. 

The next hallway that was displayed had clothing racks spread through the room and he realized this room was a mistake. He turned around to walk out but the door disappeared and he felt his hair being pulled by an unknown force. 

“Now, now leaving already?” 

He turned his head and saw one of the girls but this time they had the face of Yuri as her fingers went around his neck so gently, “It’s hard to believe she stuck with you when you deserved nothing.”

She snapped her fingers and more girls appeared behind her but this time it was different. They had wide mouths and sharp teeth that could easily cut anything. His eyes widened when Yuri’s face changed back to the girl as she showed her sharp teeth to him, “Now, shall we have fun?” 

He let out a cough and looked at the clothing rack next to him and brought his finger up to slam all the girls into the wall. He let out some coughs as he tried to regain his breathing but he didn’t have time to do so when he saw them pushing the clothing rack off of them. The door appeared back and ran through it as quickly as he could. His shoulder was slumped and his tan skin was now getting purple within the tones. He kicked open another door and realized he was right at the beginning. With a confused look he made it down the stages and realized the exit was between the stages. 

His eyes widened and he ran as fast as he could but as a dancer was doing a spin on the pole he was kicked down onto the floor, “Sarah!! HE'S IN HERE!!!” 

He tried getting up but a heel was placed on his broken shoulder causing him to let out pain grunt. All the girls on the stages stepped down and looked at him with a sinister smile as they all came in to hurt him. Some pulled his hair and others pressed their heels into his body as torture for what he's done. 

“Thank you Jane. We’ll take it from here. You will never leave us now.” 

Hoseok looked around with confusion when he saw that he was in a theater seat being in front of an empty lit stage. He stood up and looked around to see the chairs covered in red velvet and the room itself was bright from the many lights on the wall. He walked towards the stage but closed his eyes when the lights were suddenly shining on him.``The stage is where you see all the emotions showcased but you were never on a stage once in your life. Interesting. The anger you have in your body made your own daughter afraid of you, how does that make you feel? Your parents know more about your daughter than you do, that's rather depressing. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is Devils run, to activate this power you just simply run, something you're good at. A hint, these puppets have more anger than you, that’s why they're scary...”

The room was suddenly dark and Hoseok felt himself getting picked up by something strong, making his efforts to get away useless. He was put in a chair and heard the heavy steps walk away making him glup. He wasn’t tied down but he knew if he moved something bad would happen. 

Center stage was lit and there stood a puppet but this wasn’t a normal puppet. The puppet had smile carved in the wood but the smile went further to his ears to make the smile wider and more sinister looking, the wood that he was made out of was rotted with dry blood coating it’s fingertips, and another thing was the puppet had no hair or clothes that would show he was someone’s puppet. The only thing that made him recognizable was the number one carved into his forehead. 

He stared at the puppet with a confused look but when the head tilted at him he knew this was a monster especially with the high pitched voice, “Welcome to our show! My name is number one and we’ve been waiting for you Hoseok for a while now. We know everything you’ve done thanks to Y/N and now you suffer. I didn’t take you as a performer but here we are. number six hurry up!”

Just then another light shined on another puppet and this puppet looked more approachable then the first one but it was still unsettling to look at. She was dressed in a little pink dress that you would see in the 60’s with the matching hairstyle, instead a smile on her face there was nothing there and she had button eyes, and the last thing that he saw was that she was missing an arm. 

“This is number six, she’s not much of a talker as you can see. She can’t see either but she feels the vibrations through the ground. Now for number ten.”

The said puppet came out from behind the curtains and this one was the scariest to look at. The puppet towered over the others puppets and he knew if he stood up the puppet would tower over him. The wood on this puppet was painted white making the blood stains more noticeable, the head of the puppet was missing but at the neck part it had blood, and he was dressed in overalls holding a sickle. 

“Number ten taught us everything we know. We’re excited to show you! So please get ready...hahaha.....” 

Just then the lights shut off and he heard footsteps that sounded far away but couldn’t really think of anything until the light came back on showing him no one. He stood up from the chair looking around the empty seats with a raised eyebrow but he felt nothing. “These puppets have strong feelings because of their past lives. It's sad to see but they deserve to teach people like you a lesson. The game they're playing looks like hide and seek but they like to change games. They leave it to me to let the player know so don’t think I’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart.”

He walked up to the stage slowly making sure no one was there and went to the center stage. He wanted to look out to see how big the room was and wanted to take note where the railings ended and where they started at the many seats in the room. As he studied the room, he didn’t hear the low laugh from on top of him. Number one slowly cut the rope of a sandbag that was directly above Hoseok but he didn’t notice as he studied the room. When he heard something ripped he looked around and looked up when he heard metal clicking. He saw a sandbag coming down his way and he rolled away from the attack. He looked up to see if the puppet was there but saw no one there. 

He moved towards the back stage and realized that the backstage part was bigger than the seating area. He continued to make his way through the dimly lit backstage, he looked at the brick wall to see writing ALL SHE WANTED WAS YOU BUT ALL YOU GAVE HER WAS PAIN. He looked closely at the wall to see multiple pictures of his daughter with his parents looking happy but there was none with him. He frowned and shook his head, there's pictures of us together, why would they not show me those ones? 

He continued to walk further down and kept close to the brick wall as a guide but stopped when he felt a door. This must be the exit! He opened the door slowly but he looked down to see a black abyss and he quickly closed the door with his back against the wood. He took in another deep breath and walked away from the door slowly. The doors have to be different, she did say they like to change games. 

He walked away from the door and the wall to go down further into the room because sticking to the wall wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He moved slowly until he hit a long velvet curtain, he used the velvet curtain to guide himself towards the other side of the velvet curtain and realized that he was on the other side of the stage. 

He heard a small giggle and the lights turned on suddenly. He looked around and saw no one was there but the sound of metal grinding caught his ears. He continued to look around for the side but there was nothing. He wasn’t sure if he should move or stay put just in case someone was there to attack him. 

Before he could make any decision, he saw a silver blade barely missing his face but he felt some of his hair come off. He looked to see it was number ten holding another sickle ready to attack but he used a devil's run to get away from them. As he ran back to the seats, he heard the sickle going against the brick wall, a laugh that made goosebumps appear, and fast footsteps. 

He came back to the seats and went towards the door on top. If the exit wasn’t in the back of the stage then it has to be in the front. He opened the door and saw the entryway was dark, he heard laughter coming closer and he went inside the control room. When the door closed he held his breath and covered his mouth until he didn’t hear the laughter and the sickle grinding. 

He looked around the room and saw a note on the wall, he gently grabbed it and started reading it,

Anger is normal to have but when it consumes, these puppets will show you what happens. I never thought my anger would be downfall but this stage tells me otherwise. These puppets are fast and smarter than they look. The puppets themselves are the souls of the angry but number six is special. She is the child affected by anger and is wilder than the others. I believe that Number one and ten are the parents while number six is the child. Ten cut me with his sickle and I don't have much time left. If you are hit by the sickle know that there's a poison that lingers in the blade itself. I’m dying but at least I can die in this room alone rather than at the hands of six.

- G 

He put the note on the floor and put his ear against the door to listen. He turned his head when he saw his daughter sitting on the floor with him. 

“Yumi?” 

His daughter looked up with a frown and stared at him without blinking, “Daddy, you never wanted me. You blamed me for mommy’s death and since then you have hated me. It's okay daddy, I hate you too.” 

“I-I never hated you Yumi.”

“I wish you did...it would make everything make sense.” 

Just then Yumi's eyes turned blacked and he saw the buttons that scared him in the beginning stare back into his soul. Number six snapped her fingers and the room became dark and everything disappeared. He couldn’t move paralyzed in fear from the puppet but he couldn’t look away. The puppet crawled to him and took a knife from behind her and everything went black for Hoseok. 

The hedges towered over Taehyung as he looked at the tall grass with a confused look. The moonlight was the only light he saw but it didn’t put him at ease. He walked forward as his hands gaze at the hedges and he touched the flowers within them to get some type of comfort. He stopped at the corner when he saw a row of porcelain pots with gold detailing with dead roses in them. He walked down this path with a confused face but continued to make his way until he was stopped by a voice in his head, “Money can only take you so far in life especially with an attitude like yours. It's amazing how anyone wants to work for you or even wants to feel noticed by you. You would be the last person I would want praise from. A selfish man no...a child that never got attention from mommy or daddy. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is being able to control others, to activate this power all you have to do is stare at someone and raise your eyebrows. Sounds easy but yours comes with a catch, you can only control one person at a time and the longer you control them the weaker you get. A hint, you always wanted to be a painting when in reality you should’ve been the frame. Beautiful art pieces but they can be deadly in the end but some can help, remember that.” 

When Y/N stopped talking, the pots around him fell to the floor breaking but each shard had diamonds within them. He tilted his head at this but didn’t want to waste his time on looking at the shards. He continued to walk through the hedges until he saw a diamond statue. The statue itself was a man in a suit, the shirt he was wearing was a poet shirt that was made out of gold and a suit jacket that was made out of porcelain. The statue itself looked heavy and expensive but there was something in the face that made you feel like they were watching you. 

He stared at the statue but he shook off the feeling and continued to make his way. It wasn’t until he turned the corner he heard movement behind him causing him to jump slightly. He turned back around but he saw the statue was now missing. He cursed under his breath and started running from the scene. He realized that the art pieces that Y/N was talking about had to be the statues themselves and if they could move that fast, he was definitely in trouble. 

He kept running through the large hedges but he wasn’t sure if running would solve anything at this point. He turned another corner and he saw a larger statue that was dressed the same as the other statue but this one was more bulkier and half of his face was covered with a gold mask. The mask was just flat and blank with no holes to show the eye nor a mouth to show any expression, it was as if the statue company made a mistake with the face by pouring extra material on the face. 

He stared at the statue but he knew had to get out of the maze in case something happened to him while he idled around. He turned around and started running away from it, not giving it a second thought. He kept running and running but there was no end to it. He realized that he had to follow the vases to exit the maze because of the way they were scattered around the maze. He followed each vase and saw a large iron gate at the end and went through it. He looked back at the gate to see the two statues standing ominously at the exit watching him.

He looked forward to seeing a big mansion that was beautiful, anyone would want this mansion. He walked up the stairs and looked at the tall golden door with admiration. The ornate cravings within the door were something he had never seen before. Beautiful flowers and leaves along with woodland creatures scattered all over the door, making him question if he could commission the same door for one of his residences.

He opened the door and entered a dark hallway with paintings lining the walls . He looked at each one and noticed that these weren't just paintings, they were messages to him. One painting had the words scattered around the art saying “Those who want diamonds are turned” and the next one has “Money and power don’t mean anything when you're dead.”

He entered the foyer and saw the biggest chandelier he had ever seen giving the room a warm feeling from the lights but he doubted that it would continue. Everything was golden and diamond encrusted, from the floor to the stair railing leading to the unknown. Everything was expensive and shiny. 

“They don’t talk but they do laugh…listen to the giggles and you will be safe…for now.”

He walked up the stairs slowly and with cation as he listened to his surroundings closely. There were three doors, one on the right, one in the middle and one on the left. He looked back and forth at the doors and started walking towards the left door. As he turned the jewel encrusted gold door knob that dug into his palm the other doors suddenly disappeared and a soft giggle was in the air now. He had no choice but to go through the door now and so he entered. 

The hallway had no lights lining the ceiling or the walls but it did have natural lighting from the windows. The moonlight was bright and showed him the way through the narrow hallway. He walked down the hallway slowly not knowing what could happen as anything could jump out. As he turned the corner, he saw three different paths from the door frame. He shrugged his shoulders and walked forward but quickly rolled down on the floor when he saw an arrow shot across the room.

He looked down at the tiling and noticed there were tiles that were loose and if he stepped on the tiles, he figured that an arrow would shoot out (it wasn’t that hard to figure out even Jungkook could figure that out). He got up and used his long legs to skip the tiles and was in the middle. He decided to go right this time to look around the house for the exit. As he entered the room he heard a soft giggle behind him and he looked to see the same diamond statue from outside. 

His eyes widened at this and he bolted down the hallway as he listened to small giggles. He ran down the hallway and he looked at the walls to see painted words, WEALTH DOESN’T MAKE UP FOR YOUR HORRIBLE PERSONALITY. He continued to run and looked behind him to see the statue running right behind him. He looked around and saw a door, he ran to the door and closed it before the statue could grab the back of his shirt. 

He leaned against the door taking a deep breath as he looked around the room to see that he was in a library with a massive fireplace that was ablaze. He walked around the room and saw a note on the wall. He picked up the note to read, 

The diamond statutes are the selfishness and greed we have on the inside. There are different statues, in all there are six but I have only encountered five. I know there are six because of the other note that I found in this room but I dropped it in the fire by accident. The two that were outside are the main ones but they're not the smartest ones. The other four are well hidden and they are more dangerous. One statue has holes in them from people attacking it making it weak, another is made out of steel and diamond making them tougher to defend, and the last one that I attacked is a woman diamond statue in a red kimono. The last one was said to carry an ax and is bigger than the other statues all together. This statue is missing a head and an arm but the arm that he has is bulked up. 

This house represents the greed in people and how the soul of the greedy is forever here. Every art piece in this house are the souls that couldn’t find the exit or the ones that accepted their fate. Y/N was kind enough to explain to me that some art pieces also come to life but instead of attacking they tend to help the person out. Each statue represents different greeds, The bulkier one with the mask represents the two faces that a person becomes for more money, the statue with a suit jacket that I saw outside represents greedy CEOs, the statue with the holes is the turmoil that being greedy can cause, the mixed statue with steel and diamond is the outer layer of a person's skin and the lack of emotion they have, and the woman in the kimono is both the greed for physical beauty and the urge to surround oneself with beauty. The ax statue is still unknown and not even the note could tell me but my prediction is the paranoia one gets when they get greedy and tend to hurt others when they try to get close.

I’ve been in this mansion for months it feels like but I have to keep moving to get away from the statues. I don’t know how long I can keep this up. Is it worth leaving this mansion and living my life? I feel like I'm going crazy within these walls because nothing changes. The gold haze within this house is taking over me and making me almost sick. I was already stabbed by the woman in the kimono and I don’t know how long I can keep this up...I honestly want to end it myself but I need to keep going. In the books, it is said the exit is where you entered but you have to figure out how to get back there. I have to get out of this for her. 

- P

Taehyung looked up from the note with a sigh and realized he had to look for help within the paintings. He remembers he took the left turn and tried to think if he just kept going right, maybe he could come out to the beginning. He put the note back and saw the exit for the library and realized the faster he runs, the faster he could get out of this place. 

He opened the door and bolted down the next hall. He didn’t see the paintings that were supposed to help him but he saw another painted word on the wall, A WASTED FACE. He kept running but he was stopped in a living room when he saw a woman statue in the kimono. The face was made to showcase the beauty within every woman and that was clear to him but the face itself was making him feel like he was in a haze. 

He shook his head to get out of the haze and ran out of the room. As he ran he heard the giggles from her but at the same time he heard swishing of her kimono in the wind. As he was running he felt a sharp pain in his arm and he looked down to see a small knife within his arm. He ripped out the knife and remembered Y/N gave him the power to control others. He turned around and stared at the statue and raised his eyebrows. The statue stood still but her eyes moved as he moved. He stared at the statue as he exited the room and felt his chest ache but he ignored it.

He was in a hallway with the moonlight and realized he was close to the end. He stopped running and started to breathe in and out heavily. He walked down the hallway slowly and saw the beginning. His eyes widened at this and ran down the stairs but before he could hit the floor he was pulled back hard. His back slammed against the stairs making spit come out of his mouth. He turned his head to see the statue with the axe and the woman. The woman used her long sleeves to wrap around his waist and pulled him in. Taehyung stared at the two with a scared look. The kimono lady turned her head to look at the statue with the ax and the only thing that was heard throughout the room was a scream. 

Yoongi sat against the wall with his legs crossed on top of one another with his eyes closed. He doesn’t know how long he's been in here but he knows it's longer than an hour. The darkness within this room hasn’t affected him yet, maybe because he was used to it. He was annoyed that nothing had happened yet but realized maybe it was better than something happening. Before he could lay down a voice entered his mind suddenly, “You're the one that shocked me the most. I didn’t think you would be the one that broke multiple people by being lazy. There were so many people that looked up to you in the beginning but now they stay clear of you because of fear they would lose everything. I understand I took your best trait within your heart but I expected you to want the hard working spirit back but alas my expectations were shattered. To give you a fair chance, each demon has to give the player some of their powers. The power you have is Devil’s fire, to activate this power all you have to do is snap your fingers. A hint, in darkness they move but you have the light, use it wisely and you won’t get burned...hopefully.” 

The light on top of him turned on and it blinded him by the sudden brightness but he was brought back when the door slammed open. He let out a deep sigh as he got up slowly, cracking his body to get ready for whatever he had to do. He walked through the door to see a parking lot but before he could observe the lot the smell hit his nose. It was the worst smell he ever smelled in his life, it was a mixture of mold and fish but something else. He brought his suit jacket up to his nose to cover the smell but it didn’t do much for him. He walked into the middle until a dark figure appeared before causing him to fall on his back from the sudden presence. 

The tall man was in a pinstripe black suit and gave him a small smirk. The man had dark red eyes and had black hair but instead had pale skin like Y/N had, his skin was pure black but like a river it was flowing but he didn’t want to find out what his skin actually was. His sharp teeth came into view as he gave Yoongi a smile, “Ah, the last one. I tried going into the other ones but they were stronger, but you...you don’t care what goes in your mind or what leaves it. I guess that's sloth for you.”

“Who are you?” 

“My name is George and I guess you can say I’m Y/N’s coworker. Although Y/N is a demon, I’m a pure demon, there's a difference there as you’ll soon find out. She would tell me every day about the struggle she had watching the seven of you take advantage of her. And now here you are trying to get another chance and for what because you took pity on yourself, pathetic.” 

Yoongi took a step back but George was quicker than him and picked him by his collar with a tilt of his head, “Now, now don’t be scared…be terrified. Y/N doesn’t know I’m here, I made it look like you're attempting to escape this world. Now, it’s your turn to play my game.”

Before he could say anything, fire appeared around Yoongi and he felt the heat against his face. He closed his eyes trying to look away from the dark red eyes that beheld him but George wouldn’t allow him to. Just then Yoongi was thrown to the ground as George stood before him. 

“Welcome to the Shadow realm, my home. I’m the one that kills the mortals and turns them into shadows. What makes you so special to get another chance? Oh, I know…Y/N. Without her here you don’t have a chance.”

“But-but I made a deal with her and if she sees me not at the exit then she’ll figure something out or assume someone sabotaged me.”

George put his hands in his suit pants and started walking side to side slowly, “That is true and she would know it was me…I’ll give you a proposition. Solve my world and I’ll transport you to the exit of Y/N’s trial. I don’t want to fight with her, I just want to make sure you learn your lesson properly.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No, catch. Y/N is more important to me than you, she’s like my sister. The sister I used to have…My world is tougher than hers so, if you pass mine, I know you were true to your word towards Y/N. If you die in my world it will be harsher and I get to play with your soul for eternity.”

“What happens if I say no?”

George gave a loud laugh as he tilted his head and stopped walking to stare at Yoongi, “If you say no, I’ll kill you the way the monsters would have. I’m not stupid, I know how they kill.”

“What’s the point of asking then…I accept your deal.”

“Good choice... There's two pieces of your heart shard around this realm. Collect them all and you’ll be free. Well free from me that is.” 

“It can’t be that easy, what is here?” 

“Smart Ceo for once. In this realm it's the shadows but these shadows aren’t the same ones you saw earlier when you met with Y/N. These shadows are the souls of murderers and all they want to do is kill. You see they haven’t seen a mortal in so long but now I think they deserve a treat. You may keep the power that Y/N gave you to make things “fair”. You may start.”

Yoongi watched George disappear before his eyes and he could finally see the world that he was in. It was a floating cave system that had sharp rocks on all edges and openings to show off the sky that was a dark red with black floating cloaks but with white clear spheres, he assumed they were souls. The cave wasn’t quite the way you would expect it to be. There was a music box tune playing through the different paths and cynical laughs from all directions. 

He walked down the path that he found himself on slowly, now feeling afraid because these monsters were the souls of murderers. People who have lost their humanity which means they are wild and will do anything. He continued walking but he quickly ducked behind a rock wall when he heard loud voices coming down another path.

“You think that mortal is near.”

“George said he's smart, which means he’ll make this hard for us.”

“The smarter they are, the tastier they are.”

Yoongi held his breath as he heard their footsteps getting louder and his heart hit his chest hard. He swallowed his spit when he heard the steps going further away and looked to see whoever the voices belonged to were gone. He went down the opposite hall from the voices and saw blood with black goo dripping down from the rocks. 

He saw a dark purple crystal shard that called to him in the middle and ran towards it. As he grabbed it a voice entered his mind, “Good job on getting your first heart shard. The first one is always the easy one..”

Just then the cave started shaking and he heard a laugh throughout the cave systems, “GO GET HIM!!” 

A dark shadow appeared before him and transformed into a human right before him. The person wasn’t like any ordinary human though. Like George, his skin was pitch black that was flowling but he had a mixture of dark red streaked through, his eyes were pitch black and his mouth was sewn shut.They brought up a knife from behind them and tilted their head at Yoongi. He was so stunned that he couldn’t move and the person lunged forward, the knife cutting at his shoulder. 

He fell to the floor from the sudden attack but got up fast dodging the second attack knowing he wouldn’t be so lucky a second time. He kicked the person down to the floor and ran past them. He ran down the cave but his eyes widened when he saw there were multiple shadows waiting for him, their voices filling his head. 

“They deserved to die.”

“If only they listened to me, I wouldn’t kill them.”

“Why couldn’t they be normal? They did this to me, I didn’t do anything.” 

He ran his fingers through his hair as he tried filtering out the voices but he couldn’t. They only got louder. He ran down the opposite path and was stumbling from the voices. He looked at the wall and noticed a section of the wall was a different color from the rest. He touched the wall and it went up slowly. He looked around him and heard the voices getting louder. He had to go in the hole or he would be dead.

He jumped into the hole and watched it close slowly before him as he felt the voices leaving his mind slowly. He looked around the room and saw some type of shrine with a familiar teddy bear in the middle and a note attached to it. He picked it up and read it,

Dear Yoongi,

We’ve been together for ten years and I have to admit that the whole time I’ve been cheating on you with your brother. I only married you to become close to your brother and it worked. I loved him before I ever loved you. After suffering years of your yelling, me and your brother have decided to run away together. I thought as a peace offering I would give you the first teddy bear you gave me on our first date. Thank you for loving me but I can’t lie to you any longer. I’m sorry and I hope you become happy in the future.

- Sarah 

He remembered when he first read this note and he felt nothing but reading it now he felt ashamed but at the same time angry at Sarah. People always told him that Sarah wasn’t the one for him but he ignored it because at the time he loved her. When he finishes this task, he’s going to make sure to never be with Sarah because he believed that was the start of his downfall. 

He tossed down the note and stared at the bear with a disgusted look. He turned around and touched the wall as the rock came up and exited the hole. The same music box melody played through the silence of the cave. He continued to walk down the path and he turned right for a new path. 

He continued to walk down but it wasn’t until he was pushed against the wall and he saw shadow turn into a human right before him. She had long hair that touched her ankles and her skin was as pale as snow with dark red eyes staring at him. She was dressed in a black cocktail dress and her face was covered in cuts, “Ohhh, a man. I haven’t seen one in years. How exciting.” 

She picked him by his collar and threw him to the ground straddling him as she took out the knife. She licked the blade and stared at him with a smirk, “I wonder if you love this just as much as I do.”

She let out a loud shrinking laugh as she brought the knife down to his head but he turned his head missing it. The girl on top of him was strong but he couldn’t die like this. He thrusted up causing her to fall off of him. He kicked her in the head and ran down the hall as fast as he could, “WHY YOU RUNNING FROM ME!! I KNOW YOU LIKE ME!”

He turned down a path and saw the dark purple shard at the end of the path he's on. He continued to make his way down the hall and heard the loud sherking laugh, “COME BACK, WE CAN HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME TOGETHER!” 

He felt a sharp pain in his back and he knew she threw a knife but he couldn’t stop. He jumped for the shard and everything went black.  

“GEORGE!” 

Was the last thing he heard. 

Y/N stood in the dark red room with Seokjin by her side. She leaned her head onto his shoulder as she waited for the others. He grabbed her hand and she looked up to him, “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing is wrong. It looks like everyone made it through but it’s taking longer for them to come back and I don’t know why. I don’t like not knowing.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine. Like you said, they all made it through.” 

She walked away from Jin and snapped her fingers as she saw Yoongi’s task but something wasn’t right. She squinted her eyes at the scene in front of her and shook her head, “Jin, look at this. He’s been in the same area for five minutes and doing the same thing. Something is wrong...”

Jin looked closely at the scene and noticed a small detail that even Y/N didn’t notice, “This isn’t Yoongi, Y/N.”

“What do you mean?”

“This Yoongi is wearing a wedding band, the Yoongi I knew never wore his wedding band.” 

Before she could say anything to him, five doors appeared and the CEOs appeared right before her. She turned towards them and gave them a gentle smile, “Good job on escaping the different worlds. They weren’t easy.” 

She went towards Jungkook and healed his ankle as she went towards the next injured person as he stared at Jin with a raised eyebrow, “So, why is Jin here before us?” 

“Oh, we fucked as we waited for the rest of you.” 

“HYUNG!?”

Jin let out a small cough as he scratched the back of his neck as he glanced at Y/N to help him but he was met with a smirk as she healed Taehyung. Jin shrugged his shoulders, “I-I just found the exit faster.” 

Jin saw Y/N getting up and he rushed to her side to help her up as Taehyung watched with a raised eyebrow. When she got up they both stared at each other with small smiles on their faces but she changed when she looked back to the screen where Yoongi was. As Jin moved to be by her side Jimin smirked at this and leaned towards Namjoon, “He’s already whipped for her.” 

“I think something is wrong...I think George had something to do with this.”

Hoseok raised his eyebrow at this and crossed his arms over his chest, “Who’s George?” 

“He’s another demon that does the same thing as me but he’s a full demon which means his contracts result in death. He knew everything about you guys which means, he probably did something to Yoongi. We should go now before he dies.”

“Why would he interfere?” 

“George doesn’t like seeing me stressed I guess and he wanted me to kill you guys instead of giving you another chance. See I told you I’m nicer than other demons.” 

“Where would he be? Is Yoongi-hyung going to be okay?” 

“Of course he will be...I’ll make sure of it. I’m sure he’s learned his lesson in the shadow realm.” 

She snapped her fingers and they were now in a cave system that had sharp rocks on all edges and openings to show off the sky that was a dark red with black floating cloaks but with white clear spheres. Jungkook looked around with a raised eyebrow, “Y/N, what is this?” 

“It's the shadow realm. This holds the souls of murderers which means, stay close to me or they will kill you.”

She started walking forward and the guys looked between each other with a scared expression but they were right behind her. A shadow came towards her and transformed into a human right before her. The human was a female with a bob haircut and dark green eyes with black skin that was flowing throughout her body, “Miss. Y/N, you called.”

“Ah, Raven. Have you seen a man running through this cave system? Don’t lie or I’ll turn your soul into dust.” 

Raven who was unfazed bowed her head at Y/N, “Yes, I have. He’s towards the exit.”

“Thank you, now, be gone.” 

Raven nodded her head and turned back into shadow and disappeared. The men behind her watched the exchange with a blank stare. “Y/N seems like the boss…”

She snapped her fingers and saw Yoongi on the floor with blood coming down his shoulder and arm. She glared at the scene before and let out a mighty roar that made the caves shake, “GEORGE!!”

In an instant George came with his hands in his pocket giving her a smirk, “Ah, Y/N. Welcome, I thought next week we agreed on our meeting.”

“Shut up. Why is he here?”

George glanced at Yoongi and shrugged his shoulders, “Looks like he took a wrong turn.”

“Don’t treat me like I’m stupid. Why did you get involved?”

“He deserved Y/N, they all did and you know it.”

She let out a deep sigh and shook her head, “They all made it through each world which shows they learned from their mistakes and this was my job to do, not yours.”

“I was going to send him back, he has the shards.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Because you showed up.”

She rolled her eyes and kneeled down to Yoongi and started to heal his wounds. When she finished he opened his eyes and stared at her, “Y-Y/N?”

“Now that you have your shards you can come back and we can end this game once and for all. George, see you next week for tea.” 

George glared at the boys and snapped his fingers leaving black smoke right before their eyes. Jin looked between where George was standing and where Y/N was with a raised eyebrow, “So...Who was that? An ex?” 

“Jin, he’s just a coworker. Plus, I have you now don’t I.” 

Yoongi let out a loud groan and rolled his eyes, “Can someone fucking help me up.” 

As you can see the story ended in a positive outlook but this doesn’t always happen with the players of Darkness. Each of the CEOs learned their lessons and now they're better people. That’s all I can ask for. 

Jungkook started spending more time with his family and he is even expecting a new addition, Jimin stepped down from his position because of the pressure and decided to just be a worker instead, Namjoon fixed his relationship with his wife and is now a prideful father of twins, Hoseok is in every family photo now with his daughter and parents, Taehyung does charity work and sold some of his belongings, Yoongi left Sarah and is now engaged with a woman named Claire and Seokjin...Jin is doing great. 

The game of darkness takes the damaged souls and pushes them to the limits, limits that normal souls could never go through. Memories can make you feel so special but some memories can mock you-

“Y/N, are you ready to go?”

“Jin, I’m doing the outro for the story!”

“We have dinner plans at eight!!” 

“Good to know. I’ll be there soon. Can I go back to my story!”

“Sorry love!”  

Back to what I was saying...Figuring out the truth is painful but worth it in the end. The curses that we put on ourselves can only be cured by our own well. Being stuck in the past is painful but seeking out a new future will be worth it in the end. Though damaged, our memories can thrive...for now. We all have darkness within but remember this, we also have light. Light that can save our lives and change us for the better but don’t let this light turn poisonous.  

Oh also, Happy Halloween!

[scribbly-dee]

Inspired by this post

I adore corruption arcs, so I graded how well the non-archivist characters would have damned humanity if they had been the archivist.

Sasha James 11/10, would be an ideal archivist, this plus her height is probably why the stranger monster targeted her before she could peak

I have a soft spot for any au that knows Sasha has never seen a brain cell in her life and that any unhinged!Sasha au is really just a regular Sasha au. Picture it with me. Sasha and Jon have parallel archivist tracks, until Sasha (my beloved show off) decides: you know what would make me more efficient at snooping? Becoming a Human Google. And things accelerate. The Web doesn't even need to bother with subtly magic lighters, it slaps all 14 marks on her at once by pulling up next to Sasha in a windowless van with "free secrets 👍" written on the side.

After the Unknowing, Sasha takes over the institute from Elias instead of Martin and Peter. With Tim dead, Jon in a coma, Martin lonely-snatched, Melanie compulsively homicidal, Daisy in the coffin, and Basira on autopilot, she quickly bonds with Rosie, the ultimate nosiness enabler. Sasha is a fully marked archivist for a good long while, but doesn't start the apocalypse right away because she's eager to read ALL the ominous notes Elias left, so the watcher's crown statement is in her to-be-read pile. When the apocalypse starts (Rosie: "Hey, Sasha, I just read something extra fucked up that Elias wrote, wanna see?" Sasha: "God yes."), she books it to become the pupil with Rosie as her anchor. Mayhapse an anchor-archivist polycule with Archivist Jon and Martin? Mayhapse Jon is just a normal eye avatar here and deeply invested in all of Sasha's eyepocalypse statements, so it's Sasha and her plus-three? Mayhapse it's a race across the eyepocalypse wasteland between Archivist Sasha and Archivist Jon to usurp Jonah and become the pupil?

Tim Stoker 2/10 dude's here for a good time, not a long time

The only way I see this working is if Elias disguises not-stranger clues as circus related so Tim is motivated to investigate. Otherwise, his archival assistants are way more curious than him and disobey his direct orders to 🍹chill🏝. Jon, Sasha, and Martin inadvertently bring marks home to him like cats bring home dead birds. He asserts his agency when he decides the best course of action? Actually? Just blow up the archives. This unfortunately puts him in a false sense of security, and Elias makes him read the watcher's crown statement by cat fishing him on grindr and sending the ritual as a dm mid conversation.

Daisy Tonner - 9/10 archivist, would have started doomsday before she was at the archivist job long enough to use her PTO

Daisy already had a lot of experience hunting down fear-entity-related people in sectioned cases, which means she possibly canonically already has all the marks from just hunting avatars who use their powers in self defense. The reason she lost one point is because she's too much of a jock to read, only nerds are culpable to watcher crown statements, so this would be the only delay but oh what a delay it will be.

Melanie King - 7/10 archivist, points awarded for achieving her breakthroughs by smashing her head against a wall until she literally breaks through, points deducted for doing so in full clown makeup.

If Jon got a handful of marks by just asking anoying questions in the same room as an avatar, imagine how much faster Melanie would get marks by bringing her trademark Chaotic Brat personality on fear entity investigations. The apocalypse would have started in like two seasons: one season to hire her off the streets and establish shakey, complex relationships with her new assistants (Jon and Sasha put in the time with the institute but were passed over on this promotion for some random YouTuber (plus they're tighter with Tim and Martin, so proletarian solidarity against the boss)).

Then a second season to stab every mark and get stabbed in return. Melanie would blitz through all 14 marks because what precious little impulse control she starts with is slowly replaced with slaughter juice. One fun moral ambiguity to explore could be if Melanie tries to use her new, dangerous Eye/Slaughter powers to revive her reputation and platform in the supernatural community now that she can, ya know, identify supernatural things for the first time ever. Does she acknowledge her entire career up to her hospital episode apparently only investigated fake sightings? A better question to ask is whether Basira, Tim, and Jon ever let her live down how Ghost Hunt UK's professional dignity was contingent on the legitimacy of her sCiEnTiFiC gHoSt eQuIpMeNt in those episodes, so the temperature spikes set to dramatic music were well and truly just temperature spikes and dramatic music. Sasha found a clip of that music playing as Melanie narrates "it's a message... from the other side..." and made it as her text tone.

Also, it would be hilarious if Melanie tried to kill Jonah on sight in the panopticon, once again botched assassination attempt number 1,963,538, and then Jon quietly snuck in to finish the job on his first try just like in canon.

Jon: "What, like it's hard?"

Basira Hussain 3/10 archivist, her eye alignment manifests as office gossip, like a normal person

Basira has the most formidable super power of all: the power to nope tf out of any conversation or plan she wants. She therefore would probably take 10x longer to start the apocalypse than any other archivist because her fatal flaw is refusal to directly engage with a lot of personally difficult things (like the slaughter bullet surgery she organized, Daisy In General, etc). The marks will be slow going if she resists putting her safety on the line or invests time in making good plans (which is smart, but unhelpful for dooming humanity). She would for sure still get marked and end the world because once she's convinced of a plan (aka Elias convinces her of a plan), she's ruthlessly efficient. So I'd stay out of her way that last year or two, she marks the entities right back at them.

Martin Blackwood 2/10 archivist, considering a prerequisite for creepy eye avatar staring is the ability to make eye contact.

S1 Archivist Martin would probably dote too much on the employees under him to be hugely susceptible to Elias' isolation-dependant manipulation. Any progress Martin inadvertently achieves toward the watcher's crown goal would have to be contingent on it helping his loved ones, which is perfect fuel for a "corrupted by good intentions" arc. This would be key because Martin has superb bullshit and manipulation detection, making the marks are tricky but not impossible to orchistrate considering Jon can't stay put in a safe corner for 10 minutes and Martin's mother would refuse to stay with him where she's safe from avatar threats.

Imagine the petty drama when Jon and Sasha learn he got the promotion they wanted because he lied on his CV.

Other than that, Martin would be even worse about pit stops on the apocalypse road trip than Jon because his Kill Bill mode would have no off switch. Does Archivist!Martin and his anchor Jon ever reach the panopticon? Eventually, but not until after they lose points for significantly reducing the apocalypse fear quantity. Would Annabelle survive to deliver her cryptic MaCHiNAtIoNs and achieve the Web's goal? Hard No, additional point reduction for neutralizing the multiverse invasion. Points potentially earned back if Martin's Web connection is strong enough to come up with the multiverse invasion plan on his own, though.

Georgie Barker 4/10, as a fearless coward, all the fear she feeds to the entities would be khaki flavored. They'd get their apocalypse, but they probably wouldn't enjoy the meal.

Similar to Basira, Georgie has the super power to Fuck This Shit I'm Out. She would overall be a subpar humanity damning archivist; a major archivist success factor of Jon's is that he has enough affective empathy to be afraid with every statement giver he reads, so when Jon archives a statement, he unintentionally contributes to the fear soup seasoning. Combined with how Georgie doesn't want anything to do with entity drama, so any corruption specific to the watcher's crown would stagnate. Even her casual exposition conversations would go like

Georgie: "I've connected no dots."

Melanie: "you've connected a lot of dots??"

Georgie: "I've connected shit all dots."

The reason she gets one more point than Basira is because Georgie's fatal flaw is the passive observer quality the Eye tried to stoke in Jon. Her level of engagement oscillates between two extremes, impulsive over commitment and judging from a distance. This would probably lead her to geting involved just long enough for her involvement to become irreversible, at which point she would try to cut that shit out of her life after it's trapped her. She'd linger, barricading herself on the margins of this problem as the marks that are targeted at her slowly tally up until boom. Apocalypse is on and she only half understands what's happening.

Georgie would wander around an apocalypse hellscape confused, but vibes and physical health fully intact. Anchor!Melanie would have quite the emotional journey starting with Georgie on that pedestal Melanie placed her, and ending with a slaughter avatar stabbing the person who convinced her to work on her slaughter inclination.

[sydmarch]

OK I hope my readmore on mobile works. SPOILERS FOR INFINITY PIOL OBVIOUSLY these are just my post initial watch word vomit thoughts.

OK SO FIRST off god the arsthetic. obsessed. he has such an eye for framing. definitely felt extremely similar vibes to possessor with all the saturated blues & the cameras flipping upside down & the doubling scene. definitely similar vibes to the Vos possession scene. & huge similarities with the sex scenes too but that sex scene was ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE???

& god there's nothing like those moments where you get to be like I FUCKING KNEW IT!! he didn't lose his passport. the execution was from the doubles perspective this time around. he was never really one of them. it was a double not the detective under the sheet. kind of insane that it never came up that he couldn't afford more doubling on his own I was SO expecting at some point for it to come up that without em he couldn't afford it.

the fucking. commodification of violence. what are you willing to be complicit in if you can convince yourself what your hands are clean. the identity and personhood. how DO you know its the right one. like was the James who lived ti the end even the original James? it's possible that the dog was the original. he didn't know they had made a other double. they could've been switched out anytime.

& the way that all the "zombies" were so just. NORMAL at the end. compartmentalized everything. like their vacation selves are another kind of double. & how James is just not able to do that ig? even in the end after killing his double he's still not like them and never was. canr move on & go back to normal. at least that's the interpretation I came away with on an initial watch. I'll definitely jave to watch it more times to REALLY dig into it like with all of Brandon's stuff there's sooooo much going on its hard to get it all on one go.

& ok two small things that were just CRAZY to me. the scene w the pee splashing on the ground and then the cum on the ground. BONKERS!! & that fucking weird thing with the nipple during the hallucination coming back around with the bloody breastfeeding near the end. INSANE!!!

& probably a topic I'll dive into more another time but god I am thinking so much about the similarities between Syd & Vos & James. the way Brandon's protagonist are all these like. perpetual outsiders. these people who are just like INCAPABLE of being on the inside maybe not from the start in every case but by the end absolutely. the like. corruption arcs. all 3 of them get worse.

and on a less serious note James absolute candidate for new most pathetic man on earth. Jesus christ. even though I knew what was coming when she was like bring out the dog. Jesus fucking christ.

absolutely have to go see it again. one of the movies of all time. you crazy boatyard LOL I MEANT CRAZY BASTARD rereading whatbi wrote on the train without my glasses on god. you've done it again. my god I can't believe the scene where we we're watching the whole group getting executed and it pans over and we see them in the audience people in the theater were LAUGHING? one thing I think I learned from seeing crimes of the future in theaters 4 or was it 5 times. is that people are uncomfortable with their discomfort. because there was NOTHING funny about that scene it was fucking HARROWING!! that they could witness somwthing like that as if it was like. dinner theater.

the choice to open that scene on the doubles chatting & being dragged out as if they were the originals was just brilliant BRILLIANT GENIUS I CANT GET OVER IT like showing us what it's like from the other side which it seems like they just so easily dismiss. to the doubles it IS like they're the originals just being dragged to their deaths. so fucking crazy one of the best scenes absolutely.

ok I thibk that's all I've got for the moment but god. wow.

[incoherentbabblings]

Hi!

I love your content, your love for TimSteph, and I was actually going to ask what you love so much about them. I, for extra credit for English, decided to write an analysis of Stephanie (and why I love her so much), but I just got into comics, and cannot really put my feelings for her in words ... which is odd, considering how much I love her and writing. Also, I was going to do a section on why TimSteph is narrative genius, and I needed help elaborating on that too.

Could you help me out, please? Thanks!

(I feel the need to mention that I have read quite a lot of comics with Stephanie in them, though not all. I'm not much of a comic book fan, but I'm really interested in the Batfamily!)

I'll be very happy to write out bullet points that you could talk about, and feel free to go through my ask and I'll babble/TimSteph meta tags for anything that you think may be worth discussing in your own words - there's like four or so years of stuff there to spark your brain.

HOWEVER!!!! Keep in mind though that much of what I have written is half based on textual evidence and half me just writing what I like/wish would crop up in canon.

For example, yes I like to draw comparisons between Tim being cold and Steph being warm, moon and sun and so on, but there's genuinely nothing in text to hint as this being an actual character trait or symbolism. If anything Tim's stated to be warm several times, more than Steph.

So, and I am sorry to be so blunt, but if I take your request in bad faith for a moment, don't use either directly or indirectly what I've written for your work. Especially without actually going and reading the arcs I talk about. A lot of the time it doesn't hold up under genuine textual scrutiny, and we want to be good academics here! There's Death of the Author and then there's me making crap up because I want to include it in a fanfic. Not the same thing! My blog is called IncoherentBabblings for a reason after all!

I will therefore say this: If you want to write about Steph as a character, I would use the below video as a point of reference. Using the below, you can then go into why she resonates with you the way she does, or why her relationship with Tim is so interesting to you.

If I were you: focus on her dynamic character development: cynical to idealistic. And use three points in her publication history to do this: her introduction in Detective Comics, War Games, and Batgirl. I am sorry to recommend War Games as something to read but it is important to her character. Use the Stephanie Brown Wiki to help!

That lends itself to a biography of her character, a look at her motivations and values, her role within the batfam, and so on. You can also use this to make comparisons with her peers, specifically Tim moving in the exact opposite direction development wise; Babs and Cass in their approaches to Batgirl; and the other Robins through her similar character progression as Dick, which in turn allows her to be a good mentor to Damian, and finally how her character arc runs perpendicular to Jason's. Does that make sense?

Anyway, let's get going! If I were to write an academic piece on Stephanie, these are the main points I would work through. In other words, this is what I would do. You probably will not need nor want to go into this level of depth, and you will want to make it much more personal about why she resonates with you, which may be different to why I love her. So don't worry about touching base with all of them. This is like... 10,000 word essay level stuff. And don't get overwhelmed. I've taken your request far too seriously is all.

Again, I can't write it for you! You gotta do the reading and writing I'm afraid.

...But I still wrote 1,500 words anyway. Gosh darnnit.

Steph’s Character Development

Always keep three points in her character history in mind – her aged 14/15 in her introductory arc in Detective Comics, her aged 16 in War Games, and her aged 18/19 in her Batgirl run.

How does she change? How does she grow as a character? What events caused these changes? Compare that angry 14-year-old trying to choke her father, to the 19-year-old crying happily on the roof. A lot happened between those two points! Outline the main plot beats.

Steph's Role as a Batfam Character:

Protagonist or Antagonist: Supporting Protagonist

Static or Dynamic: Dynamic (think of her character development - angry to alturistic; she softens in her life outlook and in the way she treats others as the years go by)

Minor or Major: Minor and we all mourn that fact :(

Foil or Symbolic: A foil to Tim Drake (and to a lesser extent the other Robins, specifically Jason Todd)

Importance of the character/Position in Society: Fourth Robin, third Batgirl, own superhero. Tim's girlfriend, Cassandra's best friend, one of many of Bruce's 'children'. Initially introduced just as a one-off character for a small arc in Detective Comics, brought back with the intention of being a supporting character to Tim Drake, and eventual love interest. Eventually gained enough popularity on her own terms to support her own solo comic, but has since returned to a supporting role. The character she supports, at the end of the day, is Bruce Wayne.

Motivation

What influences their decisions?: Stephanie's dynamic characterisation comes in here. Compare her motivations during her introductory arc, versus why she does what she does in War Games, versus why she dresses up at Batgirl - Stopping her father, getting Batman's approval, need for redemption.

What do they value?: Values emotional openness, vulnerability, second/third/fourth chances.

Goals/Hopes/Dreams: No long term goals/hopes/dreams in the domestic sense... Continue to be vigilante. Be respected by her peers. Continue to improve self worth through deeds. Graduate college?

What are their views: Views the justice system and police as corrupt, but still trusts in the inherent goodness of people. Focus is usually on the individual, rather than societal or structural.

Actions

Behaviour, Attitudes, Impact on Story and other Characters, Internal Struggle (Wants versus Needs): This is why I think you are best to look at three points in her story - Intro Arc, War Games, Batgirl. Focus on her Wants versus Needs - Steph's take a very long time to align, but they finally do in Batgirl.

Character development is usually driven by the conflict between what a character wants. The plot forces them normally to confront the fact that what they want is not gonna work out, and what they needed instead takes priority.

Everything usually goes tits up for Steph when she is in the driver's seat of the narrative because what she wants from a situation is rarely what she actually needs to happen. See every time she seeks Bruce's approval. She wants it. She absolutely does not need it. And only as Batgirl do we get that acknowledgement, which coincides with her being at the healthiest point in her life emotionally. Look at what she wants as Spoiler during her introductory arc, as Robin/Spoiler during War Games, and then as Batgirl. Why is she so unhappy in the former two? Why have her wants finally aligned with her needs with her time as Batgirl?

Character Traits

Personality: Cynical but perky. Sardonic but sincere. Think about how she changes over the time. This can be attributed to her different writers, but - for example - is there a universe reason for why Batgirl Stephanie is so much more socially awkward than Spoiler Stephanie?

Strengths & Weaknesses: Link these two together because Steph is a very good example where her strengths as a character can simultaneously be a weakness. Her determination can lead to her making ill conceived decisions. Her empathy can lead to her putting her trust in the wrong people. Her forgiving nature can lead to her being taken advantage of. Her temper, whilst landing her in hot water, can also just as often get her out of it.

Relationships

How do they interact with others: Focus on which characters pop up in all three arcs – Steph and her parents; Steph and Bruce; Steph and Tim. I am chucking Cass out the window here, sorry Cass, but if you’re focusing on these three arcs, Cass doesn’t really fit in.

How others view them: Conditional love/affection from her father and Bruce. Unconditional love/affection from Tim and her mother (though both are not without serious pitfalls).

How they view others: Stephanie has explicitly never loved her father. She has also never explicitly hated him either. What does that say about her? Look at her changing closeness with her mother. What changed between them, and again, what does that say about Stephanie? Crystal got sober, supported Stephanie through her pregnancy, Arthur was removed from their lives, Stephanie makes a conscious effort to be closer to her after returning ‘from the dead’, though continues to lie consistently to her. Stephanie admires Bruce, whilst also right from the get go insisting she does not answer to him. She never quite lets go of wanting that approval.

How does society view them: Her outsider role within the Batfam. She never quite belongs, and at points her closest relationships are actively discouraged from seeing her. Which Tim specifically never entertains. This outsider nature bites literally everyone in the butt during War Games. Her outsider status is still in place by the time Batgirl concludes, due to its largely self-contained nature as a book, but this is less being an outsider more having earned to right to operate independently. Trust has been given and earned.

Dialogue

What does she say and how: A teenage girl in New Jersey from a working class background has a very distinct voice. She does not mince words, nor does she hide what she is feeling. If she is happy, she will say so. If she is annoyed, she will say so. What she won’t do is ask for help when she needs it, due to her background formulating a need for her ‘to do things on her own’.

Think of famous/important Steph quotes from the three arcs I keep talking about – the excuse me if I don’t jump when you bark, the I really was part of the legend, the only variable you can control is yourself. These show how Steph views others and herself.

When I was writing I Would Have Loved You, I literally made a spreadsheet where I have picked out what I think are pertinent quotes from every New 52 issue featuring Tim or Steph along with a synopsis that explained what they were up to/what the main theme of the issue was. Not saying you should do the same because I’m just that goddamn anal when it comes to this sort of stuff, but the point is – look for quotes by/about Steph which highlight the above things we’ve talked about. You have thirty years to go through!

Author Intention

What purpose does this character serve?: A character that young female readers could get attached to – the every girl/girl next door archetype or a character that young boys could have a crush on – the kind of girl who’s into the same sort of stuff as you, I think Chuck Dixon once said of her, from her initial appearance. Fodder for Bruce and Tim’s man pain in War Games. Batgirl it’s a combination of filling the void for a female lead solo character in the batbooks, but also tonally taking on a much lighter and self-contained book that new readers could jump into very easily, directly compared to the more lore heavy Batman, Detective Comics, and Red Robin books.

What is the author trying to communicate: Steph’s character shows that determination can only get a person so far, a support system and doing things for the right reasons (again remember that want versus need argument) is the only way a person will genuinely succeed.

What is her main theme?: Balancing cynicism and idealism – doing acts for the right reasons, and discovering what these reasons actually are.

...

Is this even usable for anyone but myself? Possibly not!

Still... Go write! And good luck!

[lovepsychothefirst]

hello! i wanted to ask, you said that in mdzs, it was never said that demonic cultivation harmed the spirit/body, it was just the lack of golden core. i'm reading a translation of mdzs (tamingwangxian version on wordpress) and in chapter 7 it says "Wei Wuxian’s method of cultivation might have been denounced by the rest of the cultivation world, and would also affect the practitioner’s constitution in the long run. However, one could achieve results quickly, as this form of cultivation was not restricted by spiritual powers or innate talent. Many were hence drawn to it and those who pursued shortcuts to cultivation privately practiced it."

would you say it is wwx's bias bc that's what happened to him or...? what do u think. i dont think it was just because of cql that people thought demonic cultivation was bad (other than like, the cultural connotations re daoism lol) genuinely just interested in ur thoughts!

Ooh interesting...

I think it’s more to do with how like, most cultivation has a risk. There is a risk to what you are doing, even with normal cultivation. Generally qi deviation. Also there’s something to say about how a lot of what is said is a red herring in a way? It’s easy to forget but the novel is structured as a fake out on a first read.

According to normal xianxia standards, Wei Wuxian would be a villain given a second chance to reform, away from the “toxic influence” of demonic cultivation with a new “purer” body. But by the final flashback arc it’s like “HA NO they hate him because of classism and the fact he’s righteous and refuses to bow to a corrupt society”.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t any risk to demonic cultivation and how it could effect your body, just that there is a way for Wei Wuxian to counter that.

Honestly all these people having bad side-effects from demonic cultivation who aren’t Wei Wuxian makes sense simply because he didn’t write manuals! He just wrote out personal notes and did personal experiments for night-hunting past the Sunshot Campaign. He never intended to teach anyone and drove out anyone who tried to get taught.

The final nail in the coffin to possible bad things to Wei Wuxian personally because of demonic cultivation is that anything that looked like he was having trouble from that turned out to be because of that big secret about not having a golden core anymore.

So it’s more yes there are risks, but Wei Wuxian did, in fact, have it personally handled. But no one else has all the details on how he managed the side effects and countered the problems.

I mean the narration isn’t fully Wei Wuxian’s POV (though it seems that way, it merely leans into his POV most times; we do slip over to other characters even in flashback arcs) and again, lots of tricks about how Wei Wuxian traditionally would be a villain character given a second chance. The whole original twist is that he isn’t. So this is probably meant to be vague enough (since we do see WeI Wuxian in the third flashback arc not having trouble in his constitution outside of the fact he doesn’t have access to much food and has no golden core) to play into that twist.

TL;DR version is this: there are probably risks like in normal cultivation, but Wei Wuxian knew what he was doing (that’s a major twist in fact) while since he didn’t leave any proper manuals behind it’s doubtful anyone trying demonic cultivation after him knows how to account for that in full (except maybe Xue Yang and that’s a big maybe).

[ask-paradox-and-friends]

If not that we'd go full RPG

Also I'm looking over TV tropes and a lot of tropes can fit to most of the crew.

I mean there's already Ragtag bunch of misfits(obviously)

Anime hair:Mai(rainbow isn't a normal hair color) bun(green) joan(im basing her off her majo tenshin design so bright blue hair.) Paradox (his hair is so unkept it looks like it.)

Beware the nice one and Beware the silly one:Tsugu and Ruby.

Boreing but practical:Pico's skills are just 'I cast Gun prepare to meet god' Dearil is overwhelming strong so his attacks that aren't the shadows are just him swinging harder or throwing his sheild.

Defeat means friendship:due to the big bad trapping everyone outside their reality and wiping their minds you have to choose someone to play as and go around beating them in fights to get them to join the party but there are ways to have them join peacefully.

Kid hero:Bun is 14 ruby is 16 joan is 19 and tsugu JUST turned 17. (Good thing the other half of the party are adults.)

Unskilled but Strong:Ruby and Bun both SUCK at hand to hand but that won't stop them from shoving a metal boot or dagger heel into your face.

Cool old guy:Derail is in his 60s Sunblood is in his 50s and Paradox thank to how time works on his home is technically 132

Everyone calls him "barkeep":Sunblood is almost always called Doc or doctor. Meanwhile Dearil us refered to as sire sir or your magasty (he is a king after all.) Paradox isn't even Paradox's Real name. (Spoilers the credits would show its Cornelius.)

Mugging the monster:you meet ruby in her chapter by watching her effortlessly beating 4 robbers and in buns chapter he manhandles several death row villains when they think they can kill him.

One man army:outside of Tsugu almost everyone can take on numerous foes without help.

Speed blitz:Sunblood Mai and Paradox have a skill so quick the description that fits. (Paradox 'teleports' mai 'goes so fast time stops' Sunblood 'cloned' himself)

Action Girl:Half the crew are girls (Mai Tsugu Naruko Saito ruby Joan and if you consider chapter only party members Overseer Dolly Lucy and the rest of Rwby)

Good is not nice:Pico Paradox and Bun can be asses. (Though all three are nice to kids and Bun is an animal lover. You also meet Paradox by having him kill a bandit in one punch cause they kicked his sister's dog.)

Good scar evil scar:Bun might be horrifically burnt but his burns are from accidents or sacrifice joan also has scars from an arrow in the shin and shoulder though both cover themselves up.

Would harm a senior:Bun fighting Afo counts as he's at least 150 and Paradox dosent care he'll punch whoever he has too.

Dynamic entry:in Bun's chapter when you have to play as just Maki Bun crashes through a metal door to reach her. Dearil enters his chapter's boss room by punching a 2 foot thick stone door down with little effort.

Been there shaped history:Two party members are alternate versions of Ryoma Sakamoto and Joan of Arc

Screw the rules I'm doing what's right:Bun Ruby and Pico (Pico actually points out he was raised to ignore all the rules if they are corrupt.)

Badass normal:Saito and Pico just have weapons (Yes Saito has Chi attacks and Pico has a metal hand but that dosent detract from that.)

Bilingual Dialog:Joan can't wrote but can understand English and French Paradox can speak 4 languages (Elf dragon English and Void) Mai thanks to being on of the first humans means like Cain Able adam and eve is omnilingual (meaning she can speak and understand anything. Dosent mean she can read it.)

Bottomless magazine:everyone with a firearm never runs out of bullets. Complete with Kaito never running out of arrows for his bow.

More dakka:Ruby can have her scythe become a rifle or a shotgun and Pico's bag on his back contains several guns.

The quiet one:Kaito is completely mute so he can't talk and Saito only speaks when spoken too.

Your mom:Almost everyone makes a comment like that. (Mai:*looking at Ra* hate to be his mom. Ruby:Hey, what can I say? Mothers love me! Bun:*points to bakugou* BITCH YOUR MAMA LOVES ME YOU TAKE THAT SHIT BACK!)

All your powers combined:Mai Kaito and Garou can use their foes powers (Mai is magic garou is physical attacks Kaito is weapons)

Cuteness Proximity:Dearil will join the party in the final chapter if you're playing as Tsugu cause he thinks she's a young child meanwhile the rest of the party act this way with Bun's rabbit Ruby's dog and Dearil's cat.

Hidden depths:Saito and ruby made their weapons Kaito and Pico know a lot about animal care Paradox is skilled in alchemy

Know when to fold them:Pico knows better then to try fighting Kaito or saito after he sees him cut a sniper round in two ("Yeah...no fuck that I ain't going to do that again.") Meanwhile Paradox can tell Sunblood and Mai are stronger then him. ("I'm crazy not stupid")

Power copying:Mai Paradox garou and kaito

Accidental pervert:Bun met his partner by falling on her and she thought he was like mineta and kicked him. Meanwhile Paradox has Accidentally walked into awkward spots (*Walks into a room. You hear a slap off camera he walks back in* "Yeah...Dolly was showering. And she threw a towel at me....ow.")

Bad powers good people:Dearil controls darkness bun can steal powers ruby is half gluttonous monster Kaito is a demon and naruko is a devastating yokai.

Breaking the fourth wall:Sunblood being a god Mai being a seraphim goll in a dlc story being a Valkyrie and Paradox being a demigod are all away of the fourth wall. (Goll is even the narration for Kaito to describe what he's doing and what he's feeling she also is the one who gives you the tutorials on how the charathers work complete with button presses)

Dark and troubled past:Paradox and Sunblood if you think about it.

First person smartass:Everyone has diffrent item descriptions and both Paradox and Pico sometimes snark.

Guardian angel:Mai and Goll though Kaito thinks Joan could be one.

Lazy bum:Paradox is asleep if not in your party in the final area Naruko meanwhile is playing cards with some summoned Clones.

Master of illusion:Paradox naruko and Mai can use illusions.

Precision F-Bomb:Kaito and saito don't cuss but when they do it scares their parties as they're known for being level headed.

Real men wear Pink:Saito despite being a woman is masculine enough to look like a man wearing makeup. Bun also is wearing a pink cape in his art (He actually nearly murders a bully for mocking it as it was from eri and maki) Paradox reveals he's wearing concealer under his scarf to hide a burn and he's unashamed of the fact his boxers are neon Slamon.

Welp. If there was a god of war style game based off our Einherjars.

Two things.

One the games are built like the Norse saga. So more rpg elements more open world. With stories and funny moments.

The hero would be Göll who thanks to time hijinks (aka stealing Cronous's sickle hoping to help save mortalkind from hell and heaven) finds herself unable to get to heaven but she can get stronger and stronger with more godly ascension as she gains new titles and roles as she helps the champions and because the gods are dicks she has to find various weapons and powers the contain the powers of the heros.

There will be two sagas.

The monster saga:(Hell opened up and is causing mayhem and goll works with the heros powers and weapons to defeat the monsters and demons.)

The heaven saga:(goll became a god and made the champions the new gods of mortal kind meanwhile various gods are trying to kill her cause goll kinda uprooted heaven's dynamic.)

But here we go. Hardest boss fights. And why. And again, just random ideas. For a game idea. If you want, I can make the easiest fights? And these are what it's with what I know about these fandoms and mythologies, so plz be nice.

10:æta (the monster Saga) this is a massive troll that's resistant to the weapons Goll should have for this story being bun's claymore Ruby's Scythe and Paradox's battleaxe while wearing Garou's gauntlets it's also immune to the only fire and ice spell Goll knows. Dosent help it's huge club hits hard.

9:nukalaweve (monster saga) this large demonic centaur is a oceanic deamon so it's resistant to fire and dark magic it's also really quick. Thankfully it is a big target and using Pico's rifle you can hit the monster from long range.

8:Set (the god saga) the EGYPTIAN GOD OF CHAOS is good at magic and spear fighting WHO KNEW? Dosent help that he is also a storm and desert god so he can whip up sand and lighting to blind and blast you back. Be prepared to get poked. A lot.

7:The helldrake (The monster Saga) It's a gaint f u metal dragon powered the soul of a deamon and is a deamon engine, so it's powered by chaos To make this one worse, it's just the random broken bits of various broken deamon engines held together by sheer spite. It's also chaos undivided, so you have poison tendrils boiling blood and a shit ton of magic. Dosent help it's fast. Thankfully, you have Sunblood's anti mater Singularity canon, which, if you aim right, just melts it's health (looked them up. Gonna say this now. These things better be rare.)

6:Tezlapoka (the god saga) the Aztec jaguar god whos in charge of darkness. So it's immune to your only fire attack and Dearil's shadows so and being a night god he'll randomly make the whole area go dark making it harder to see him and at half health he makes a large dark black sun that starts coating the floor in fire.

5:Be'lakor (god saga) a deamon prince with the powers of the runinous four. And you did just fight Abadon the Neverchosen and his fire horse. To make the problem worse half way through the fight he just steals the sword of Kaine which makes his stronger and gives him new powers also he starts useing his blade of Shadows be glad he has that glowing chest scar. (If you played total warhammer this would be a major 'OH COME ON!' Also you should know this is a problem when the chaos god literally stop fighting just long enough to trick you into killing his ass.)

4:The Tarasque (monster saga) problem one unlike every other time you have to fight a gaint monster you don't have a gaint of your own. (The helldrake you have a mech to help hold it off the chaos dreadnought ambush ruby sends her 'eldest baby' who is a large trynaind that both Penny and Weiss coated in armour and guns to help you. Before you ask she named it Numnum) this thing is bigger then a building. And between the scorpion tail and the fact it's a 'dragon' it barfs fire on you. Thankfully between Jaunne's sheild and Mai's spears it's weak light based attacks. (It got beat in the myths by saint Martha who splashed Holy water on it then whacked it with a crucifix.)

3:amaterasu (The god saga) the sun goddess of Japan is simply testing you so she is holding back but you are forced to use Naruko's rope dart Kaito's sword and Saito's gun blade to hold her off due to her wanting to see what they can do. Thanks to you having Tsugu's cloak you should have a teleport dodge and a fire resistance. But be warned. She will absolutely whack you around with her prayer beads and chakrams.

2:The Crystal Hydra (the monster saga) this post game boss fight has a lot of loopholes to go through. You need all the weapons find a secret dungeon kill the other hydra bosses and the whole time goll will fell a odd feeling that being Paradox (the man who flipped off a sun god roasting him and laughed at death and destruction gods trying to kill him) being terrified of this thing. It's immune to everything by Holy and dark magic and has high hp and defense. It also has 3 heads that won't let up. Half health it and it's skulls start flying like made and loose the darkness weakness and somehow they still are durable and the heads can revive each other and they HEAL (bonus they're immune to most magic.)

1:Uranus (god saga. Look I don't want to jib God of war and record of ragnarok by having the bbeg being ra Odin or zues. And themeing here is fun Uranus is the embodiment of the sky and heavens. So the final fight against heaven's corruption leads to you fighting well. HEAVEN) let's see. He's strong enough to scare The titans who nearly killed the Olympic gods and was created to be Gaia's equal. Gaia like Nyx and tartarus scares the shit out of the gods. You need everyone and everything you can get. H A V E F U N

@hazawatsugu @splatoonfan88 (tagging friends.)

[deonideatta]

hi hi i heard you like chief kim and i'm here to get all the intel on why it's a good drama 😊 and what you love about park jae bum's other dramas 😊 pls let me know if there's romance bc that's the oxygen i breathe when i watch a show 💕

Hello!!! Thank you for asking me about Chief Kim!!!! I can go on about it for ages lol. This got a bit long so i’m putting it under a cut

Chief Kim (aka Good Manager) is a comedy office drama with 20 eps, and it aired in 2017. There isn’t a main romance plotline, but don’t let that put you off! It’s an incredible drama in so many ways. (tho there is a subtle romance side plot, but it doesn’t involve the main character and it’s never the main focus, though it is cute). It does feature a bromance that was so great that the two actors literally won an award for it tho lol, so there’s also that!

In a way, the general premise is somewhat similar to Vincenzo in that it’s the main character and an unlikely team of others fighting a big corporation. The comedic tone is also more or less the same. The drama follows Kim Seong Ryong (the titular Chief Kim, played by Namgoong Min), a man with a talent for handling numbers who goes from running a seedy accounting firm to quite accidentally becoming a champion of employees rights in one of the biggest corporations in the country. He originally joins the company with the goal of embezzling a lot money and moving abroad, but he gets swept up in office politics surrounding high executives and the sinister goings on surrounding the position he was recruited for, as well as the shady things the higher-ups want him to do and the suspicion of the other members of his department. Eventually he starts to work alongside them to fight the corruption of the higher ups, and quickly becomes the bane of top management’s existence by being so incredibly annoying that they begin to regret hiring him.

It’s the kind of drama that really gets you to laugh, while still being incredibly heartwarming. The main character is so unashamedly funny, and the character dynamics are all so warm, and none of it ever seems forced. The first tag for the drama on MyDramaList is “character development”, and that says a lot! There’s so much growth that goes on for all the characters, even some of the villains! It’s especially funny because to begin with all the good things Kim Seong Ryeong does are completely by accident, and he’s annoyed but also pleased with all the attention it gets him. Over time he begins to own it, and begins to actively try to stand up to the corrupt people at the top of the company. The other highlight for me besides the humor is definitely the characters. From the eccentric main character, to the no-nonsense second in command in his department Yoon Ha Kyung, to the aggressive finance director Seo Yul who is always eating (one of my all time favourite characters, played by 2PM’s Junho), to the janitor lady who always roasts everyone, there isn’t a single dull character, whether good or bad. And Seo Yul gets one of the best character arcs I’ve ever seen in a kdrama. You get to watch the characters struggle and triumph, and you feel for them because their struggles feel so real, and the drama really gets you invested in them. You see the ways in which they fight to survive as normal working class citizens and you want them to win.

It differs from Vincenzo in that the main character isn’t considered evil and loses his less savoury traits over the course of the drama (his character arc is one of becoming a more upstanding citizen), and the message is one of fighting against corporate greed using the corporate system against itself in order to make things better for the average working citizen. But there’s the same plotting, and the same feeling of rooting for the protagonist team to win as you watch them plot and plan. I never rewatch things, but i’ve rewatched Chief Kim twice already and i’m looking forward to rewatching it again soon (just writing about it is making me want to rewatch it right now lol). It especially hits well for me because i love office dramas, and the humor and the bromance are just right. (Also, not entirely related, but it’s the first drama Kim Seonho was in!)

Another Park Jaebum drama i can definitely recommend is The Fiery Priest! It’s also a comedy action drama with 20 eps (released in 2019), and it follows Kim Hae Il (Kim Nam Gil), a catholic priest with a real temper, as he works to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a senior priest. No romance there either, but it’s got the same humor as Chief Kim and Vincenzo, and the same overarching found family trope (that really shines for this one). It’s darker than Chief Kim, but not as dark as Vincenzo. The plot is very intriguing, and it’s the kind of drama you feel compelled to keep watching to see what happens next. And the host of characters in that drama is still one of my favourites to this day. Every character was incredibly written, and they all played vital roles in the overall story. Again, lots of character development all round, and great character arcs not just for the main character (even for a few of the villains!). Plus it was lovely to watch the various characters interact, get closer, and build relationships. Such an iconic squad. Not to mention how funny it is?? And the fight scenes??? In fact, I enjoyed it so much that when I checked Park Jaebum’s page on MyDramaList after watching it around June last year and saw Vincenzo as an upcoming project, I added it to my plan to watch list immediately even though there was only a single line of synopsis lol. It’s also got an absolute banger of a soundtrack!

When you think about it, all three (Chief Kim, TFP and Vincenzo) can be simplified to “guy with dubious past sets out to fight corruption and creates a great support circle in the process”. All three are dramas of finding people who care about you and are willing to fight alongside you, and fighting for your convictions/what you think is right. Each main character starts out as a somewhat solitary figure, and you get to watch as they each find people who are willing to fight alongside them and support them. What exactly those specific convictions are varies in each drama, but Park Jaebum writes the character development arcs incredibly each time, and the relationships between the characters are so real and so satisfying to watch. And yet the integrity of the main character in each drama is never compromised either, it’s shown that they can grow and become better without losing themselves. The growth is also in the way that they learn to work with and rely on others, because teamwork makes the dream work. And then to cap it all off he lets them have victories, and he makes it SO satisfying??? There are highs and there are lows, and you feel all of those right there with the characters, which makes the victories feel so so good. In each we see the ensemble cast get involved with the fight and the plotting, and we get to see all their epic plans and their execution, and the victories they win that build up over time. And it’s so satisfying to me! I love it a lot, just thinking about it is making me smile lol. It also shows how well humor and darker/more serious plotlines/events are balanced in the dramas, neither is compromised in favour of the other, but it always works so well that the humor never feels forced or out of place. As someone who doesn’t like overbearingly dark shows, I really appreciate that. They all give you lots to laugh at, while not losing any of the plot to the funny.

Of course there are differences, notably the romance, and the fact that Vincenzo is bad vs bad rather than good vs bad like the other two. They deal more with redemption (especially The Fiery Priest), but that works for the stories that are being told, and it’s very well executed.

It’s worth noting that Park Jaebum also wrote Good Doctor and 4 seasons of God’s Quiz. I haven’t checked those out yet, but I’ve heard good things about all of them. He also wrote Blood, I haven’t seen that one either but opinions seem to be split on how good it was. All of those are medical dramas (which is the reason I haven’t watched them lol, i can’t stand medical dramas) from before 2017, when he wrote Chief Kim. It seems he’s been on a roll since then, good for him and good for us lol. You can see everything he’s written on his MyDramaList page.

Overall I enjoyed the Park Jaebum dramas I have seen for first and foremost the comedy, but also for the warmth of the character relationships and for how well developed/written each character is. And I love how he balances the humor with more poignant/darker moments, I laughed a lot watching all three dramas, but I’ve cried over each of them as well. It’s a good balance to have, it gives you a good plot to be interested in, but doesn’t keep you stressed and sombre the whole way through. I’ve seen people say that Vincenzo wouldn’t be as good if it wasn’t so wacky, and I fully agree. It’s the same for both TFP and Chief Kim, and that balance is definitely what I appreciate most in Park Jaebum’s dramas. I know I will laugh, but I also know I will get an incredible plot and incredible characters, and that’s really important for me. Plus I know I can trust that there will be a good ending because the writer cares about his characters.

I definitely recommend checking out both TFP and Chief Kim after Vincenzo is done, especially since they’re so similar in terms of comedic tone and basic plot direction. If you ever get to watching either of them feel free to hmu to chat about it!! There’s lots of plot stuff that can be can discussed.

lol this got v long (i have lots to say about how much i love these dramas haha), but I hope it’s helpful!!!

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Happiness Is

This is possibly my favorite episode of season two. Yet, it is also the point the where the series starts to fall off a cliff. Only that’s not something that you would realize upon a first watch; just in hindsight and only with some basic knowledge of the behind the scenes drama that led to this and the fall out with the fandom that followed afterwards. 

Summary:  Rapunzel begins to feel homesick for Corona when she finds an old letter written by her father in one of the many lanterns sent from her previous birthdays. In attempts to uplift her spirits, Rapunzel explores the island and comes across a magical idol that brings instant happiness to whomever possesses it. Rapunzel begins to hallucinate her family and friends back in Corona and soon shares the idol with the rest of the group. However, everyone starts to become obsessive over the idol, desperately wanting it for themselves. Rapunzel tricks everyone into giving her the idol, but when the Lorbs try to help Rapunzel, they fall under the idol's control and soon begin to terrorize the village.

Let’s Start with the First Elephant in the Room; Frederic 

So throughout the episode Rapunzel is struggling with being homesick. Which is fair enough, that’s an understable reaction to being on the road for months by now. However, to showcase this Rapunzel keeps seeing hallucinations of her father. There are some other characters too, but her dad is the first person she sees and the only one in Corona with speaking lines. He’s the one to tempt her with the idol. 

Did we just forget that Frederic is her abuser? 

Look, even if you accept his apology in Secret of the Sundrop and believe he has learned his lesson, that doesn’t just erase the pain he caused her. Her thoughts about her father should be more realistically complex then this. Now add in how she makes a such a clean break from her other abuser, Gothel, but still holds him on a pedestal shows a disturbing bias on the part of the writers. 

Also where’s this love for Arianna? You know the only real mother on the show? The show that’s aimed at little girls? The one parent who hasn’t flat out abused the main character yet? 

Seriously, Chris, what the fuck? 

This is a Missed Opportunity 

So part of the reason why I like this episode is that we get insights into each of the characters and their desires. As such this is one of the few episodes where the group actual feels like a group friends. However, Cass’s vision is wasted here. 

So at first glance this seems to aline with what we know of the character thus far. She loves her dad and wishes to impress him. That’s only if you take season one into account, though. Later episodes will contradict this goal. If you wanted to set up praise and validation in general as Cassandra’s motives, then here is where that should have happened. 

Show her getting a medal, have cheering crowds surround her, have her be a hero, or something. You can’t claim her relationship with her parents as the driving force of behind her later actions if you don’t actually involve one of those parents as part of the resolution to her arc. 

Either she lacking attention from her dad or she’s jealous of Rapunzel. You can’t have it be both because those two things don’t intersect. Rapunzel is not and never was a threat to her relationship with her father. 

So Umm...I Don’t Think This Plot Point Has the Impact That the Writers Think It Does 

So this hilarious, and it is intended to be funny, but it’s not for the reasons that the show gives. 

The idea is that this is some shocking revelation. That Rapunzel would never do this under normal circumstances and it’s a hint that the idol is corrupting her. 

Only the rest of the series doesn’t aline with that at all. This is just the real Rapunzel behaving as the she normally would but without the usual veneer of excuses. 

It’s funny because it’s the show calling out Rapunzel hypocrisy for what it is plainly, not because it’s out of character. 

But funny only gets you so far. The show is perfectly happy to play up Rapunzel’s awfulness for laughs, but then conventily ignore it when it comes time for the characters themselves to call her out on it so that she can grow and learn.       

The show runs under the sitcom idea that comedy excuses all sins; which then backfires horribly when it tries to be serious and mature. 

You can’t joke that the king threw a random person in a stockade for little reason and then expect us to still like him when he persecutes a child. Same applies here. 

The sitcom set up only works when there is minimal at stake and all parties involved are equally awful in their own ways. 

Then Why Not Just Go Home?

Once again, there’s nothing at stake in season two. Rapunzel has no real reason to be on this trip. Nothing is stopping her from just going home if that’s what she wants. The idol only makes her happy because it shows her want she wants, but she could actually have what she wants as soon as the next ship arrives. So what’s the issue here? 

This is why you need external conflict in order to make internal conflicts work. There’s has to be something preventing the main character from achieving her goal or otherwise she just comes across as a dumbass. 

And Now Here Comes the Second Elephant; Varian 

I have several things to talk about here, and none of them actually concern the scene itself but the creator’s treatment of the character and the show’s fan base.

For you see, Chris did a very, very stupid thing.  

He wrote the character driving the plot out of the show. The character who also happens to be the most popular person in the series. Only to then use said character’s VA and this one cameo as promotion for this whole season. 

Needless to say, fans were disappointed.   

However, the Tangled fandom is exceedingly polite; more so than most. The lack of Varian was met mostly with confusion, and maybe a few off handed jokes, rather than anger. When opportunity arose people naturally had questions concerning the character.     

And that’s when Chris put his foot in mouth. 

This Tumblr post details how Chris got kicked off the Tangled The Series Discord by bullying a bunch of Varian fans while on there. 

https://starxapple.tumblr.com/post/617852117763391488/zhantiri-uuugh-fine-since-people-are-getting

I shan’t get into it fully, but for those who discovered the show after season two had aired, this caused a massive backlash from the fandom. 

A good chunk of the fandom just walked away, and rightly so. The few that stuck around despite these remarks found themselves harassed by certain sections of the fandom who saw Chris’s bullying as permission to pursue the same behavior. However, most importantly, the ratings plummeted. 

Season one hovered around the the 1 million mark, give or take a five point difference. The first part of season two dropped to half of that, and after this episode and the hiatus it sunk even lower, down to the mid-thirties. That’s over 20,000 people who just jumped ship over this. That’s not a normal decline. 

No matter what your personal feelings are of the character of Varian or how he was handled in the show, that’s still a massive PR fassico that cost the series big time. 

To add to this mountain of bullshit, there was also a massive walk out of crew members after season one had finished production. Most of them women. They even desperately threw out ‘we’re hiring’ calls to cover this. Which given that’s it’s Disney and that nepotism is usually how one gains employment in the entertainment industry, something unusual must have happened behind the scenes. Especially if most of the people who left were women. 

We’ll probably never know what really happened. People don't usually talk about behind the scenes stuff like that due to contracts and the aforementioned nepotism. However, all clues point to Varian.   

Something changed at the last minute concerning his story. Chris himself had confirmed as much when discussing the note and the Brotherhood. We also gotten other hints that content was edited out at the last minute. Plus the writing becomes more shoddy as the series goes along, showing how slapped dashed everything is together.  

Then there’s the rumors. 

I must stress to you that this is only a rumor. As pointed out earlier, most animators aren’t in a position to talk freely about what goes on behind the scenes. Do NOT harass them over it or make things awkward by asking them to clarify this. However it’s been suggested that the female crew warned Chris that removing Varian from season two and re-writing his story, along with making Cass the villain, would be a bad idea before they left and Chris didn’t listen. Much to his folly. 

Chris is no longer a Disney employee and has yet to move on to any other projects. He says he left, but I more suspect that Disney just didn't renew his contract and no one has picked him up since. I take no joy in the idea that someone may have lost their job, but if true, then Chris has little to blame but himself. 

So What Did Change?

We don't know anything for sure. We know from discussions about the note that there was a proposed Brotherhood plot that involved Varian that was then cut. There was also talks about a Cass and Varian team up in season three. 

This was then changed to the Saporian take over, which is foreshadowed in this scene. However even that got edited down and under the flimsiest of excuses. 

One of the writers, Ricky, suggested that they thought cutting back to Corona would be too confusing for the audience; which is a load of bull. I mean how poorly do you think of your audience’s comprehension skills that they wouldn’t understand a change of scene or a flashback? Yet you fully expect them to pick up on your lazy foreshadowing involving the mirror? So much so that you sent them on a quest to find it between seasons two and three.

Then there’s this gem from Chris. 

Ok ignoring the fact that you so totally could have featured both Gothel and Varian, seeing as they serve two different functions in the story and mean different things to Rapunzel.... What guilt?!!! 

Rapunzel doesn’t ever act guilty over anything involving her treatment of Varian. 

That’s when you realize Chris isn’t talking about her feeling guilty about Varian’s predicament. He’s saying that Rapunzel feels guilty of leaving her father behind with this ‘dangerous’ criminal. Which is a big fuck you to everyone. 

That’s why Frederic is the center focus of Rapunzel’s hallucinations. Why she’s more concerned for his safety over Varian’s trauma. Chris really be out here trying to use the abused 14/15 year old orphan as a scapegoat for the grown ass dictator who ruined countless lives. Because he thinks a grown woman should feel guilty for leaving her abusive father behind and pursuing her life’s dream.

Dude, I try not to assume the worst of people just cause they write fictional characters that I dislike, but Chris really makes things hard not to when he treats his self insert this way. 

Oh but we’re not done yet. 

When Varian Fans Complain About the Lack of Varian; We’re Complaining About the Lack of a Coherent Plot. 

Certain sections of the fandom, bolstered by Chris’s BS, try to act like simply being a Varian fan is grounds for dismissal of any criticism of the show and it’s writing. As if having personal preference for something makes you automatically ‘entitled’ or some such bull. Yet doing so ignores the fundamental complaint that they are making. 

We’re not whining about our favorite character not getting enough screen time. No one would have complained about his lack of presence in season two if they had properly resolved his story in season three and had Chris not been a dick to the fans. But it becomes evidently clear as the series goes along that removing Varian left a major hole in the plot. One that makes the entire story and the rest of characters suffer as well. 

Think season two is boring? That’s cause they cut out their main villain at the last minute and failed to replace him with anything. 

Upset that Hookfoot was brought along for zero reason?  He’s the replacement character for Varian who no doubt was going to appear in season two originally. 

Wish there was more on the Brotherhood and the Dark Kingdom?  Their story impact was greatly reduced when Varian was written out.

Are you a Eugene fan and mad about how the Dark Prince plot went nowhere?  That’s cause the original Brotherhood/Dark Kingdom plot was dropped when Varian was.

Dislike how Cassandra’s character was ruined with her villain arc?  She was originally meant to be possessed but was changed last minute to be a Varian rip-off in the hopes that she would gain some of his popularity.   

Wish Zhan Tiri, Demantius, and the Disciples actually went somewhere and that ZT had coherent plan?   That plot were changed last minute to make Zhan Tiri a scapegoat for Cassandra now that her story was changed to replace Varian.

And of course let’s not ignore the character who suffers the most from lack of Varian.... Rapunzel. 

Chris’s defense for leaving Varian out of S2 is that it’s “Rapunzel’s Story” and that Varian was only ever a plot device meant to push her along on her quest.  Which means that Rapunzel no longer has anyone pushing her along on her quest!!!

All characters are plot devices. If they aren’t there to serve a story function then they need to be cut. Even Rapunzel herself serves a plot function. She’s meant to be the protagonist of a coming of age story. Which means she needs both an external conflict to face and an emotional arc where she grows as a person. Varian is the plot device that serves both of those functions but he’s now been removed and is no longer allowed to serve his original purpose. 

Chris reached into the machine while it was running and pulled out one of the main gears and acted like he always meant to do that. He legit sat there and pretended that everything was running smoothly even as smoke poured out and warring alarms blared. He then tried to shove bubble gum in its place hoping no one would notice as everything fell apart around him. 

Cause he’s the thing; no idea is without merit. It’s all about presentation. Removing Varian from season three still could have worked, but it required A.) replacing him with another foe and B.) making sure his arc still got a proper conclusion. 

I’ll talk more about Varian’s half-arsed redemption when we get to it; but for now let's focus on the more immediate problem. No one thought to give season two an actual overarching conflict in light of Varian’s absence. 

That’s a fundamental oversight that pretty much signals that season two was re-written at the last minute. You have an overarching plot in an action adventure show but no main adversary? I refuse to believe that everyone involved was too stupid to do that on purpose; but if they were rushed and lacked a crew because they walked out due to last minute story changes....yeah that’d I buy. 

Because there’s more than enough options to go around; Lady Caine, The Baron and Styalan, Hector and/or Adria, Zhan Tiri’s Disciples ect. were all options. So was keeping the rocks a threat, or have Cass start her villian arc earlier; with proper motivation this time. They could have even come up with someone entirely new. 

You had over four years to plan this shit out; why is it not more well put together?! 

How Come Rapunzel Can Easily Admit Fault to Pascal But Not Anyone Else? 

Pascal should have sat perched on Varian’s and Eugene’s shoulders giving Rapunzel ‘I’m done with this’ looks all throughout season three. It’s apparently the only thing that she responds to. 

Why is the untalkative camelanion the only one allowed to call out the main character’s BS without going villain? 

Conclusion

That’s all there really is to talk about in this story. The actual episode itself is good. It’s the behind the scenes crap that bubbles underneath its surface that needed to be discussed. That way when going forward with the marathon you’ll better see what I’m talking about when I explain how future episode suffered from the lack of planning and foresight. 

[scoutception]

Yet again ranking the 5 animes I’ve watched most recently

After losing the will to just sit down and watch it for quite a while, I’ve finally gotten through 5 anime series yet again, and, as is tradition for me by now, I’ve decided to just type out my thoughts and rankings of them, with my first two posts of this nature being here and here. As usual, this is just my personal thoughts, and the only other thing worth noting before I start is that, unlike last time, I do think everything listed here is at least decent on its own. With that, I’ll just get to it. 5. Robotics;Notes

Number of episodes: 22. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Funimation. Robotics;Notes is an adaptation of a visual novel, which I actually just wrote a review on, which can be found here. Long story short, it’s the third entry in the Science Adventure series, the same series Steins;Gate is part of, unknown to most people, with Robotics;Notes technically being the sequel to it. Originally aired in 2012, the same year as the visual novel was released, and made by Production I.G, Robotics;Notes is in an interesting middle ground between the acclaimed and popular Steins;Gate animes and the downright awful and obscure Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child animes, and until 2020 was the only option those who didn’t speak Japanese had to experience it at all. Since I went into so much detail in said visual novel review, I’m mostly going to focus on how the anime holds up both by itself and as an adaptation. Ever since its creation nearly ten years ago, the dream of the Chuo Tanegashima High Robotics Research Club has been to finish Gunbuild-1, a lifesize recreation of Gunvarrel, the titular mecha of an insanely popular anime that’s credited with starting a “robot boom” within Japan, and the club’s current president, Akiho Senomiya, the little sister of the club’s founder, Misaki Senomiya, is extremely determined to see this dream achieved. Unfortunately for her, the club has fallen on hard times, with its funding being cut, its advisor being completely unreliable, and the few other members it has, namely Kaito Yashio, Subaru Hidaka, Junna Daitoku, and Kona Furugoori, aka Frau Koujiro, being quite difficult in their own ways, and often more than Akiho can handle. While Akiho puts her all into finally bringing the club to greatness, the otherwise apathetic Kaito finds himself involved with a mysterious AI called Airi, who exists within the augmented reality app IRUO. Airi’s creator, the deceased Kou Kimijima, turns out to have also created several AR annotations scattered throughout Tanegashima, titled the Kimijima Reports, which warn of a grand conspiracy that will utterly devastate humanity if unopposed. I’m not the most unbiased viewer, since I had played, and enjoyed, the visual novel months before watching this anime, but generally, it’s actually an enjoyable time. Some of Robotics;Notes’ biggest strengths were always its cast of characters and lighter tone, and for the most part, the anime preserves both well, keeping it mostly silly, but endearing early on. The artstyle actually matches up fairly well with the VN’s CGs, and the dub, which I watched just to spice things up, since I already knew the Japanese voice cast was quite good, is overall solid, with Clifford Chapin as Kaito, Lindsay Seidel as Akiho, and Monica Rial as Junna especially sticking out to me. As an adaptation, on the other hand, it falls short in quite a few places, namely when it comes to characterization. While obviously, no adaptation could feasibly fit in every detail from its source material, the Steins;Gate anime managed to preserve almost all of its cast’s characterization, whereas in Robotics;Notes, several characters lose prominent details to their backstories or personal conflicts, or act differently in scenes unrelated to that, making quite a few of them come off different. While instances of the latter case, such as Junna coming off as less shy and hesitant, don’t necessarily worsen anything for the most part, the former definitely does, as it makes the affected characters much less developed and interesting. Nobody suffers from this worse than Kaito himself, who loses most of his backstory, motivations, and arc, to the point of one of his best moments being changed from something intentional to completely accidental, with the end result making him come off as a completely different character, and an inferior one, at that. Additionally, around episode 16, the anime starts diverging pretty significantly from the VN, and not in ways that are improvements, to the point it even leaves a few otherwise preserved scenes in earlier episodes without context. Overall, I can imagine the Robotics;Notes anime still being a decent, if unremarkable watch on its own, and was certainly an interesting and fun way to reexperience the story, and definitely fares better than many visual novel adaptations, but I can’t quite say I’d recommend it. If Robotics;Notes interests you, the visual novel is very much preferred. 4. Nichijou

Number of episodes: 26. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming options: Funimation. Here we have one of the most acclaimed anime comedies out there, an adaptation of Keiichi Arawi’s surreal sketch comedy manga series, produced by Kyoto Animation, a name that’ll be showing up here again later. Nichijou mainly focuses on two different trios of characters. There’s the ordinary high school girls Yuuko Aioi, a rather dim and reckless girl with terrible luck, Mio Naganohara, the most relatively normal one of the cast, whenever she’s not having explosive freak outs that involve beating people up, and Mai Minakami, a stoic girl who enjoys messing with people just for their reactions. On the other hand, there’s the far less ordinary Shinonome Laboratories trio of Professor Shinonome, an 8 year old girl who happens to be capable of building incredibly advanced machines, Nano Shinonome, a robot built by the Professor who desperately desires a normal girl more than anything, and Sakamoto, their pet cat who, thanks to a special scarf also made by the Professor, is capable of talking. The series focuses on their would-be ordinary lives, were it not for the seemingly daily chaos they get involved in, from witnessing the school principal wrestle a wild deer, to being trapped in an elevator for hours, to the school science teacher attempting to capture Nano for study. It also follows the antics of several other side characters, such Koujiro Sasahara, the seemingly upper class student who is actually just the son of a family of farmers, to Misato Tachibana, a very typical tsundere towards Sasahara, whose tsun side manifests as assaulting him with military-grade weapons, to little effect, to the equally quirky teachers of their school. Needless to say, it’s a very silly and chaotic series, and that’s exactly what makes it so memorable. The humor is pretty hit and miss in the first half of the series, but from episode 14 onwards, they thoroughly master it, with every episode having at least a few scenes that got me laughing. Beyond the silliness, though, the series actually has a lot of heart to it. There’s a few moments that change up the status quo, or even develop the characters just a bit, and some scenes are surprisingly sweet, if still played for laughs more often than not. There’s also a lot of continuity, which in later episodes often provide the punchlines to some of the best gags, which definitely encourages watching the whole series. The Japanese voice acting is fittingly crazy for each character, and the animation fits perfectly, as while the character designs are quite simple, there’s many would be mundane moments that have contrasting overly impressive and exaggerated animation that makes them very memorable. All in all, Nichijou is a very enjoyable series once it finds its groove, and about the only reason its not higher on my rankings is just because pure comedies aren’t really one of my favorite genres. Still, if you ever want a good laugh, you can’t go wrong with this. 3. Soul Eater

Number of episodes: 51. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Funimation. Soul Eater is yet another adaptation, this time of a manga by Atsushi Ōkubo, produced by Studio Bones, who also did the Fullmetal Alchemist animes, and is quite similar to the original FMA series in that it outpaced the manga and, rather than simply overloading itself with filler, decided to go in an entirely different direction by the end. The Death Weapon Meister Academy is a school founded by Death himself, dedicated to the training of Meisters, who wield Weapons, humans with the ability to shapeshift into weapons, for the purpose of destroying Kishin Eggs, evil beings who have consumed the souls of others, and pose the risk of transforming into extremely dangerous demons. Any Meister who can collect the souls of these corrupted beings, as well as the soul of a Witch, can transform their Weapon into a Death Scythe, the personal arms of Death. Among the students of the DWMA are seven Meisters and Weapons who stand out in particular: the teams of Maka Albarn, a kind hearted and responsible, though temperamental, girl, her Weapon, Soul “Eater” Evans, a laidback and snarky wannabe “cool” guy, Black Star, a prideful and loudmouthed ninja who’s seemingly always out to make a spectacle of himself, regardless of how it hampers him, his Weapon, Tsubaki, a humble and levelheaded woman, Death the Kid, the son of Death and one of the top students in the cool, held back only by a crippling obsession with symmetry, and his Weapons, Liz and Patty Thompson. While these seven gradually come together as a team, a Witch named Medusa begins to put an ambitious and destructive plan into motion, one involving her “child”, Crona, and the strange, insanity inducing black blood that courses through their veins. Soul Eater has a lot going for it. A likeable and crazy cast of characters, even the side ones, like the maniacal Doctor Stein, or the surprisingly goofy and casual Death, or the tragic Crona, or the hilariously egotistical Excalibur, to a lot of fun action scenes, to its great animation and overall unique visual design, including the sun and moon having giant, creepy laughing faces. It has a lighthearted, comedic tone that doesn’t detract from the serious moments, and the main characters get some pretty good development as the series goes on. The dub is also great, with Laura Bailey as Maka, Micah Solusod as Soul, Brittney Karbowski as Black Star, and Todd Haberkorn as Death the Kid especially sticking out to me. In general, I don’t have a lot of significant criticisms, besides how the story is handled once the villainous organization Arachnophobia is introduced, which is also about where it begins to deviate from the manga. Most of the villains part of it never really feel like a threat, and the story becomes much more simple and typical compared to how the manga went, and when the ending arrives, it just kinda, happens, with several notable subplots just kinda left unfinished. It definitely feels like an underwhelming ending, and is a big reason why I place this lower on the list, but Soul Eater is still a pretty entertaining watch that’s worth a try if you want a decently lengthy, but not horribly long shonen. 2. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Number of episodes: 28. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Funimation. Here we have the big one, an extremely memetic and famous series by Kyoto Animation, based on a series of light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, a series that was finally completed back in November 2020 after its start in 2003. Kyon is a lazy and down to earth high school student who wishes for little more for himself than an uneventful, normal high school life- a hope that’s abruptly shattered when, on a whim, he becomes involved with Haruhi Suzumiya, an eccentric, hyperactive, and thoroughly self centered girl, who claims to have no interest in ordinary humans, and instead wishes to discover things thoroughly unusual, such as aliens, time travelers, or espers, and forces Kyon to form a club, the SOS Brigade, with her to achieve this. Haruhi quickly pulls three other students into the brigade, those being Yuki Nagato, a stoic and quiet bookworm, Mikuru Asahina, a shy and passive girl often subjected to humiliation and abuse by Haruhi, and Itsuki Koizumi, a calm transfer student who acts extremely subservient to Haruhi. While Kyon initially writes off the club as an unreasonable use of his time, his fellow members reveal an unexpected truth to him: the subjects of Haruhi’s fascinations actually do exist. Yuki is an alien, of a sort, created and controlled by an entity known as the Data Overmind, Mikuru is a time traveler from some point in the future, and Itsuki is an esper, and member of an organization of similar people. All three of them have been sent to observe the oblivious Haruhi, who appears to have the unconscious ability to change reality itself according to her desires, and is at threat of remaking the entire world if not placated. With Haruhi apparently having taken a unique interest in Kyon, he finds himself taken along for all sorts of supernatural adventures spawned from Haruhi’s whims. There’s a lot I could go on about regarding Haruhi, but in the interest of not turning this into a full on rant, I’ll keep shortish. It’s more or less an insane mishmash of several different genres, from slice of life, to science fiction, to fantasy, just depending on what each individual story feels like being. The episodes are mostly adapted from the early light novels, mostly the multiple stories from the third and fifth novels, The Boredom and The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, respectively. It’s not often you’ll have any idea just what to expect from each individual episode, which makes the series very chaotic, but interesting. The characters are likeable and memorable, including the side characters, and the sheer ridiculousness of what goes on makes for many amusing moments. At the same time, the series is surprisingly complex, with many possible interpretations of its characters and the events they go through, furthered by the antics Kyoto Animation pulled when it was originally airing, such as airing the episodes out of chronological order, meaning the plot would often jump from the middle of an arc to something else. The end result is a very unique and enjoyable product, helped by the fantastic dub, with the actors capturing each character perfectly, from Crispin Freeman as the grounded and snarky Kyon, to Wendee Lee as the aggressively energetic Haruhi, to Stephanie Sheh as the gentle, yet secretive Mikuru. That said, there is one pretty disappointing part of it all, and that’s the second season, mostly thanks to the infamous Endless Eight arc, an eight part arc that’s more or less the same things happening over and over, with only the first and last episodes having anything noticeably different. Regardless of its own uniqueness, more than half the season is taken over by this, and something that may have worked if cut down to three or four episodes instead singlehandedly killed off the series’ goodwill. About the only redeeming factor of the second season is the five part adaptation of The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, which has some of the funniest moments in the whole series. Overall, Haruhi is still a very fun series, and I’m really gonna have to watch its movie, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, one of these days. 1. Trigun

Number of episodes: 26. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Funimation, Hulu. Finishing off this list is an adaptation of a manga series by Yasuhiro Nightow, produced by Madhouse and another adaptation that overtook its source material. Compared to how Soul Eater handled it, however, Trigun went down much, much better, to the point Nightow himself had nothing but praise for how the anime turned out, and the series is generally considered one of the best animes of the late 90′s. On the harsh desert planet of Gunsmoke lives a wandering gunslinger known as Vash the Stampede, the “Humanoid Typhoon” with a large handgun known to leave tremendous destruction in his wake, who amassed a bounty of $$60,000,000,000 after destroying the city of July, leading to an endless trail of bounty hunters out to collect the price on his head. In the middle of all this, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two representatives of an insurance society which is often forced to pay for damages caused by Vash, track him down for the purposes of minimizing the chaos he causes. Upon catching up with him, however, the duo discovers that, contrary to his reputation, Vash is a kindhearted goof, and self proclaimed hunter of love and peace, who absolutely refuses to ever take another person’s life, even at great personal risk to himself. Vash continues his travels carefree, helping out whoever he can, with the occasional assistance of Meryl and Milly, as well as a traveling priest known as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, only to one day have an encounter with a mysterious and cruel man known as Legato Bluesummers. Vash soon learns that Legato has hired a group of assassins known as the Gung-Ho Guns to kill Vash, and leave a trail of bodies wherever they go, seemingly for the sole purpose of tormenting Vash. As Vash hunts down Legato, he is gradually forced to face his past, and consider whether he can truly stay committed to his pacifist ideals. In general, Trigun is just a very, very well made series. It has a likeable and developed cast of characters, with special mention going to Vash, who is a very compelling and sympathetic character, and Wolfwood, who makes a great foil to Vash with very interesting development of his own, with characters outside of the main cast being memorable as well, from Legato himself, to even some of the more minor villains, such as the varied members of the Gung-Ho Guns, or Brilliant Dynamites Neon, who makes an inexplicably strong impression for a one off villain not even important to the overall plot. The space western setting is quite good, and the designs are great, with many villains having distinctive looks that further help them make an impression. The action is great, and the animation is also quite good, and has that 90′s anime charm. The dub, while a bit rough around the edges, is generally solid too. From Lia Sargent as the ditzy but kind Milly, to Dorothy Elias Fahn as the hotheaded Meryl, to Jeff Nimoy as the weary Wolfwood, to Richard Cansino as the calculating and disturbing Legato, with special mention needing to go to Johnny Yong Bosch as Vash. Despite it actually being his first voice acting role ever, he does a great job in portraying the many sides to Vash, and absolutely sells many of the biggest moments in the story. Speaking of which, the series started quite lighthearted and wacky, with the first four episodes actually being filler, but gets gradually darker as it goes on. The earlier episodes are still quite enjoyable on their own, though, and manage to slowly reveal new aspects to Vash in each one, before finally setting his nature in stone in episode 5. What really sells the series and makes it so memorable, however, are the themes it explores, of the practicality of unwavering pacifism, and whether taking a life, whether for heinous crimes committed without remorse, or with the purpose of protecting others, is ever justifiable. While quite a few series have touched dilemmas like this before, what makes Trigun stand out with it is the emphasis placed upon it throughout the whole series, with many episodes touching upon it in some regard. It genuinely fairly looks at the different sides of it all, and the consequences of each, with many emotional moments coming from it as a result. While the manga did ultimately take a very different turn from the anime, the anime actually preserves several of the most important plot moments, and manages to come to a satisfactory conclusion of its own regarding the themes. Ultimately, Trigun makes for a very fun and interesting watch that I highly recommend. And with that, my ranking is complete. With the exception of Robotics;Notes, I can pretty confidently recommend every show on this list. Got some more shows I plan to get through soon, so another ranking like this may be soon in the making. Either way, till next time. -Scout

[blooms-of-ice]

Wyda is officially retired...for now. She had a good run, and I loved writing for her! GOD the existential dread I felt as I drew closer and closer to running the event that would end her.

Her story continues through another. Give a follow here! :D

I’ll be keeping this blog up as an archive, although I might still post every now and again. But since her arc is done, here goes! An unedited, unfiltered slurry of words-directly-from-brain-to-keyboard about Wyda! I’m warning you, this is true farm fresh to you stuff. And spoilers for many events in FF14. Read on if you dare.

Strap in, it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride.

Did I say that I love Primals?

Primal lore gives the FF14 devs a lot of creative freedom when it comes to designing bosses. Want the arena changed? Want something/someone to look absolutely wack? Want to spin up a threat without having a villain train for years prior? Bam, primals.

It also gives us, the players, the same creative freedoms when it comes to roleplaying!

The requirements to summon one are humorously low. At first, primals result from misguided and zealous beastmen shenanigans. Ifrit, Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan, Garuda...but then we get a bunch of weird summonings. Like when Ga Bu summons a funky version of Titan through his despair alone. Or when Yotsuyu brings forth Tsukuyomi because she really, really wants to see the world burn. Hell, Gilgamesh just thinks about his friend Enkidu in the presence of some crystals, and that’s enough to bring forth a primal. So I guess the only requirements for a primal summoning are 1) crystals and 2) thinking kinda hard? Strong feelings, especially negative ones, seem to be more effective but then again! What the heck happened with Gilgamesh? Who knows?!

But this is one of my favorite things in FF14. It’s a powder keg of a situation that will, and HAS, gone off multiple times.

Being tempered, meanwhile, is a fate worse than death. You’re forced to change sides and fight for the enemy. You don’t even find peace when you die - tempered souls linger in Eorzea thanks to how messed up they are by the process. But you don’t become a mindless servant either. *Points to Emet-Selch who is....kinda...on your side (???) but also on Zodiark’s side*

Things aren’t nearly as dark now that tempering can be cured. I’m very thankful, since otherwise my campaign would’ve had a very, very depressing ending. One that I originally planned for but STILL. I’m weak. ;_;

Riding off the Rails

Primal lore is flexible. In ARR, the rules are established, but later expansions took those rules and went “Well, what about this? And this? And this?” In other words, this is me admitting that I’m shameless and will stretch this lore until I reach the moon.

Developing Wyda was a ‘chicken first, egg later’ sort of situation. Though trite, I gave her amnesia in order to give myself an excuse for knowing nothing about FF14 lore (and because I was new to roleplaying). When I finally sat down to flesh her out, my mind kept returning to primals. I love ‘em and their potential for drama! So yeah, I was determined to make it work.

There were a lot of questions I had to answer. If Wyda is a primal, then why isn’t she tempering everyone she meets?! How is she getting away with being a ‘normal’ person? And how do I avoid power creep? I know, for a fact, that if I walked into an RP event and just said...hey. My character is a primal, are you cool with that? The answer would be a solid no. Nooooo! I’d tell that to myself! So I wanted to solve these questions in a fair way that would allow others (and myself) to remain immersed in the roleplaying world. Luckily, FF14 lore is like a bottomless chest of building blocks. It was just a matter of stacking them carefully.

Primals are summoned when someone thinks around some crystals (Ah, Gilgamesh...)

The primal’s purpose is based on the summoner’s desires, but with a monkey’s paw twist (Ga Bu’s Titan punching the other kobolds away is indicative of this)

The amount of aether used in the summoning determines how powerful the primal will be (Shinryu being beefy as hell)

Primals can be summoned out of thin air, or be channeled into someone’s body

When a primal is channeled, the summoner needs the Echo to resist (Ysalye and Ryne). Otherwise the summoner is tempered by their own creation.

Now, with those blocks in hand, I started spitballing...and it led me to this thought. If a primal’s purpose is to NOT be a primal, what happens?

Would they know that they’re a primal?

Can they still use their primal powers?

What happens when the primal is based off of someone who still exists?

For Wyda, I chose to swing this way.

Her memory is garbage because she’s a primal based on someone else. Even if you know someone really well, you can’t perfectly recreate/emulate them.

She’s normal-powered because all her primal magic is going towards suppressing her powers. Extremely inefficient. And she’s very human-like because she’s possessing someone else’s body, as opposed to being made purely of primal aether.

Primals temper whether they want to or not - aether leaks, and it corrupts. To solve this for Wyda, instead of leaking aether out of the wazoo...thanks to the nature of her summoning, she just leaks a tiny bit all the time. Not enough to temper.

But I also wrote myself into a corner. If Wyda isn’t going to behave like a primal, then how does she exist for so long? They need a constant source of aether to survive, and she’s not doing primal stuff since she’s too busy being human. And so...the answer is that she doesn’t. Once her aether runs out, then poof.

See? Fun! (But also pain. So much pain.)

Playing with Fire

Eorzea (like most fantasy RPG settings) is a nightmare factory. Most, if not all, who make their living ‘adventuring’ are scarred from what they have to face. For every success story (WoL), there are countless more tragedies (Avere). And even if you survive...who wouldn’t get trauma if you were an adventurer and it was normal for your buddies to be eaten by a beast, tempered by a primal, possessed by a ghost?

Which is to say, Wyda's scars run deep. Shit goes down. 

To repeat that in slightly more words: Wyda is an accidental byproduct of Cravendy’s grief and longing. At her lowest moment, Cravendy (a Seawolf pirate) thinks of her friend Dots and the unfairness of it all. And oops, there are crystals nearby. So now, we got Wyda walking around in Cravendy’s body, thinking that she’s someone named Dots. By the way, Dots is still alive! Very awkward.

Wyda is a denial incarnate. She is Cravendy’s dream for safety, family, and happiness for Dots. But denial does not erase the past, nor does it change how you feel. By existing, Wyda suppresses those feelings for Cravendy and freezes the other woman in the past. With the both of them like this, Cravendy will never accept her trauma and Wyda will be plagued with a stranger’s guilt.

Primal souls are weird. I have no idea where they come from, but they seem separate from the summoner’s. So as Wyda’s influence wanes, Cravendy’s soul begins to resurface. This forces Wyda into a cycle of self-discovery and self-destruction that, unfortunately, convinces Wyda that she ought to disappear. It’s a tragic conclusion she reaches after having her worldview shattered. She’s a copy of Dots, she’s a primal. What’s real, and what’s not? What even matters?

The Power of Love

Love is a persistent theme for all of my characters. For Cravendy, love is why she hurts, so she would rather forget it than bear any more pain. But Wyda is the opposite - she loves too much. When all else is a sham, Wyda trusts that the love she feels is real. And ultimately, this love dooms Wyda and saves Cravendy.

Wyda’s fatal flaw is her self-destructive selflessness. Thanks to being mistaken for Dots all the time, Wyda develops a low sense of self. Then events of the campaign erode that into nothingness. She’s a second rate copy full of brittle memories, she’s a fake! And discovering Cravendy’s sleeping soul only pushes Wyda further into her flaw. Here is my purpose, she thinks! My original! And I’ll save her no matter what, because she deserves to live!

But it’s a mistake. Certainly, Cravendy is saved, but Wyda deserves to be saved too. Although she loves with all her heart, Wyda never learns to love herself and see her own self-worth. She doesn’t understand that her friends don’t share her view of herself - as a worthless copy that can only find value in saving another. Her selflessness loops into selfishness.

Maybe Wyda will come back...She certainly has a lot to learn still!

The TLDR version of all this is that I accidentally pulled a Kingdom Hearts plot with this character, and now I understand, Nomura. I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU BRING BACK YOUR CHARACTERS. ;_;

[autumn-foxfire]

(Someone: *mentions the hood fight* meanwhile me, vibrating at a frequency that can shatter glass: yes I like this arc a normal amount.) That aside, if Hawks let people die, could he have gotten into the League sooner? Without 'killing' Jeanist? But that would make the incident much worse, and it won't help Endeavor as much either. It speaks for itself that people were already comparing it to Kamino, but look, in the current war arc no one even mentions it? (1)

The news helicopter in 276. Dabi was there! There was a Nomu! Yet it's not in the same category as Kamino, Hosu, and Deika. Why? No one even died in Hosu, it's on a much smaller scale than what happened in Fukuoka, so why???? I suppose the Hero Killer and his kill count + Shigaraki and Kurogiri's appearances are a little more, especially after once the Lov became infamous, not to mention the fires and the media coverage of Stain's defeat. That makes it a little more clearer. (2)

It's about the negative effects from these incidents. All Might's fall, an entire decimated city, ect. And what that did to society to witness. Meanwhile, thanks to our top two (and Hawks' meddling) Hood fight had zero casualties, gave people belief in a new No.1 after the symbol was gone, and inspired the other heroes and impacted the civillan reaction to Deika, which was directly mentioned in the story. This is a heroic overcoming the challenge to victory sorta thing. (3)

There's nothing for people to despair over. That makes it different from the other incidents involving the Lov. Except it might just be a temporary relief, a delay. We'll see, you think Prohero arc will help Endeavor at all if the truth comes out? Because I'm pretty sure if such a thing happened before it, the reactions would be much worse. Or would it be better, because All Might would still be around? (4)

It’s not really that he would have gotten into the league sooner (I’m pretty sure Dabi was just pulling his leg at the start and Hood was less of a test for Hawks and more of a way to kill two birds with one stone... literally), just that him saving people isn’t really ‘villainous’ and makes his infiltration story questionable. Really though, it wouldn’t have mattered to Dabi whether he did or didn’t as he always knew he was a spy, all Dabi would have saw it as was another mark against corrupt heroes (so he can justify himself.)

My guess as to why it’s not mentioned as often as the other incidents is because the villains failed to make an impact this time around. Sure, the Nomu was much stronger then they’ve faced in the past but the now Number One Hero managed to defeat it. No one died and no new fear was spread, in fact the incident did the opposite and lifted the faith people have in heroes. (Oops, wrote this and then just read the next part of your paragraph XD So, yeah, we basically came to the same conclusion!!)

Personally, I think that if the truth comes out about Endeavor it’s not going to get a great reaction but the threat of the League of Villains and the PLF is so strong that the public would be wary to get rid of their Number One defender. I think it would get mixed reactions and people will certainly blame Endeavor for helping create such a dangerous villain, however they might also want him to be the one to stop him too. ‘Cleaning up his own mess’ so to speak. I really can’t say if the reaction he’ll get would be better or worse if it had come before All Might’s retirement because people are unpredictable.

Only time will tell, really.