#( more reason to hate humans amiright)

[onestormeynight]

Rosie vs. Lily

Rosie and Robin were out on a date at the new club in San Myshuno, Under The Dome. Billie's situationship was the bar manager so they got good deals on their drinks. Rosie really liked the atmosphere here. Robin was still undecided, but clubs had never really been his scene, anyways.

Unfortunately, the night was about to take a sour turn. While Rosie and Robin were cutting it up on the dance floor, Lily Waite Canales, Rosie's wicked ex-step mother, made her way into the bar. She was shooting nasty looks at Rosie as she drank by herself. Her life had not panned out the way she thought it would when she left Ricky. The bitterness was eating her alive.

Rosie was a good target for all of her ire.

"Oh, of course, the illegitimate daughter is here," she muttered to herself. Finally she made full eye contact with Rosie and mouthed "hoe" to her very deliberately.

Rosie flared up. She had never done anything to her wicked step mother and she had always been hated. Lily had caused a lot of strife between Rosie and her father. She'd even made it hard for Rosie to have a relationship with her younger half brother.

Most offensively, Rosie was fully aware Lily was the reason her mother and father had broken up when she was a toddler. The drinks made her brave, gave her permission to say the things she had always wanted to say to Lily.

"You got something you need to say to me?" Rosie snapped, going over to Lily at the bar. "Don't be scared, just say it."

"You need to leave, little girl," Lily slurred. "Go back to your hoe Mom and the man she's pretending is your father. Run along, tiny tot."

"I am a grown woman, and you will either speak to me with respect or I will personally reach into your mouth to correct that tone."

Billie's influence on how Rosie spoke when she was mad was very clear. Rosie could practically see Billie with a fist to her lips and the other in the air, cheering her on for the take down. Eat her up, she would say. No crumbs, sis.

"I will speak to you however I choose, you little b-"

Rosie shoved Lily with all her might. Lily was stunned that the younger girl would lay hands on her. She shouldn't have been, considering the souvenir Penny had sent her home with once upon a time.

"Like mother like daughter," Lily hissed. "All you Harper women think you can solve things by violence."

"Oh no, I don't have to solve it by violence, I WANT to." Rosie got up in Lily's face, pinning her between herself and the bar. "You have been a holy terror to my family my entire life. You seduced my father and broke up my family. You insisted he chose between you and me. You keep me from seeing my brother. You've disrespected my mother several times in her own home and you ran around on my father after you were finished ruining everything else! You, Lily Waite, are a plague and on my mother's life if I see you again I will be the vaccine that ENDS YOU!"

"You don't have what it takes, tiny tot."

"TRY ME, you busted up looking run through raggedy SOCK PUPPET of a human being!"

Lily was stunned. Hell, Rosie was stunned. She'd never yelled in her life. Sure, she had her teenage mood swings and she wasn't always the most pleasant first thing in the morning. Yelling, though? Threatening someone? Never once. Billie was the yeller. She was always the one that had thrown hands and Rosie cheered her on. This time, though, she was the mouth piece, and she wished Billie was here to see her shine.

"Fine, I'm going," Lily said collecting her things. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. When she was gone, Deangelo put a double shot down on the bar for Rosie.

"I'll let it slide this time," he said. "Because it really sounds like she had that coming. But don't start anything in my bar again."

"Of course, I'm sorry," she said, downing the shot and feeling more like her mild self. "Wicked step moms, amiright?"

((prev)) ((next))

[hyperfixated-fan]

Thoughts on the 2022 MH Movie

Alrighty, I think I’ve observed enough to throw my thoughts out into the fandom. Obviously, everything g1 reigns supreme in my heart and I personally was not a fan of g2, but g3 seems to be relatively okay so far. Like it’s barely passing, but it’s passing. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to be a scathing or anything, just my random thoughts and opinions.

Now, the movie. Oof. In general, I am not a fan of live action movies and think animated media is the way to go, especially with a show like Monster High that has so many unique character designs, models, and powers. With animation, the show has the ability to get kooky and freaky with its characters’ emotions and powers without it looking tacky or cringy on low-budget CGI and actors. That being said, the Monster High movie was okay, very average.

What I liked or thought was okay:

Going in and watching it, I had to constantly remind myself that g3 is a reboot. Thus, I need to disconnect all I knew about previous incarnations and just observe these characters as separate. That definitely made the watching experience more enjoyable.

I thought the actors did okay and worked well with what they were given, which wasn’t a lot but they worked with it. The dances were hilarious. Some of those backup dancers were putting their heart and soul into their moves. XD

The movie was okay plot wise. Very generic but I was able to follow along and it set a decent basis for the new g3 material and lore.

Frankie. G1 Frankie never was my favorite character because she was such a plain main character, but I really love movie Frankie. Their quirkiness is one of the very few saving graces of the movie. I was afraid they would come off as annoying but I genuinely loved their scenes.

Now, I must admit, I am a greater fan of side characters in most shows than main characters, Abbey being no exception in MH. I personally loved her design and costume. Her hair! I love it! One of the few looks in the movie that were good in my opinion. Also, just the sheer joy and relief at seeing her back after g2 wiped her away. (a huge reason the g2 movies sucked.) (the g2 series was acceptable in my book since those included her)

Those tiny blink and you’ll miss it moments of Heath and Abbey interacting in the background is what kept me going through this movie.

The songs. The only other saving grace besides Abbey and Frankie. I must admit, I generally enjoy musicals so that gets a pass from me. Once again, pretty generic but they’ve all got good voices. Coming Out of the Dark and the Three of Us were my favorites.

Personality-wise, Draculara was okay and her outfit was pretty cute. You just have to remember to separate g1 Draculara in your mind from what we have now. I kind of like the perfectionistic pressure we see her getting from her dad. A very basic trait but I like it because it’s relatable for most perfectionists (me).

Clawdeen’s dad is so sweet and supportive. One of the best original things to come out from the movie.

What I disliked:

While the overall plot was passable, there were so many things that didn’t make sense.

like half human, half werewolf? Really?! Why? She’s 75% human? There was no point!

Also, that whole skatepark scene that shows Clawdeen’s ears? I guarantee no human would’ve batted an eye about that. I just found that whole scene ridiculous.

Monsters hate witches and witchcraft? Frick Casta Fierce, amiright.

but then Cleo mentions she did magic when she used to be human? Like, what?

Then there’s Draculara, a vampire, chilling over in the corner practicing witchcraft in the toilet. Huh? What correlation does she have to witchcraft?

Clawdeen x Deuce?! No. NO! Just absolutely NO!

The entire humans hate monsters thing and vice versa is such a flat plot point. So much for MH being accepting of everyone and their freaky flaws. I really miss that core message.

I seriously miss the variety of familiar characters. I get though that formulating costumes and renewing the rights to all their characters would be tedious, but still! Gimme all my babies back!

Isn’t Heath’s actor older than most of the cast? He definitely looks it.

I’m kinda between on this but I mostly dislike that it’s reminiscent of Disney Descendants quality but on an even cheaper budget. Did they have to do the choreography like that?

Cleo and Deuce break up is a major hate factor for me. There wasn’t enough elaboration or reason given. WHY?!

Also, where are Cleo’s bandages???

Lagoona. I know a lot of the fandom disliked the entire revamp. It’s not my favorite, but I don’t completely despise it. I think they should’ve renamed her to just be a completely different character or Lagoona’s cousin or something.

The Jekyll and Hyde villain was not it. Did not really enjoy it but at least he had reasonable motives I guess. Like, it’s heavily implied his dad got lynched, pretty gutsy move.

Also, the villain power up climax was really anticlimactic for me. Like he drinks the potion and has the ability to take everyone’s powers and no one runs away! The farthest they run is outside. Then, they all just stand there and talk it out and Komos stands there all powered up doing nothing. Bro, if they don’t have the common sense to run, just attack already.

Ghoulia. They’ve massacred my poor girl. I don’t know what else to say. (Not blaming the actress at all.)

Well, that’s all I can think about right now. I’ll probably share my thoughts on the animated series later.

[canirim]

God I forgot I made this post and left it unposted so anyway, this was me screaming right after watching All of Us are Dead .

.

SO yeah I just spent the night binge watching All of Us are Dead and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

spoilers under this cut, don’t say I didn’t warn ya

I really just loved how every character was brought into the story and how they reacted. Even the ones with less screen time and back stories are interesting and the actors where just amazing. Also, the actors that played the hybrids (nam-ra, eun ji  and gwi nam) where SO GOOD - and also the makeup and special effects team, 10/10 great job.

I HATE WHEN THEY MAKE A DECENT TEACHER CHARACTER AND KILL THEM OFF Mrs. Park Seon ily

I absolutely love On-jo and how brave she is, and the fact that even though there was jealousy with Nam-ra involved bc of a romantic interest, she never once tried something cruel or spiteful. LOVE IT - ALSO NAM-RA love her "lack" of expression in many scenes, the actress worked very well. -go girl give us nothing /j- STILL on Nam-ra, I really like her! And I love her romance with Hyeok.  WHICH I HAVE TO SAY, Hyeok became my favorite from the moment he just....he just fucking did that thing where you kick a wall to jump higher and then kicked a zombie right in the face??? insane - love absolutely crazy people fighting zombies with kicks and punches like?????????? I would never I would simply cease to exist really I have no idea how people would stay motivated on being alive during shit like that - the moment I realized my family and friends where dead I would 100% just die that is if I didn't die sooner bc - ZOMBIES MORE ZOOMBIES amiright they run so fucking fast I would be dead in seconds

okay back to the characters: Dae Soo is a blessing and I'm so glad he survived. The scene in the rooftop where they sing is just...THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT RIGHT THERE!!! THAT'S WHAT HUMANITY IS ABOUT BABY!!!! CONNECTION!!! EVEN THROUGH HELL (also the actor is really cute without the character haircut so yeah Dae Soo is top 2 best boy in this series for me)

but talking about the top 1 Soo hyeok absolutely meet all the standards and AGAIN I LOVE HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH NAM-RA THEY ARE SO CUTE

now to the not happy screaming NA YEON WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK - LIKE I GET PANICKING LIKE JI MIN, who ran away when her friend needed help but YOU ACTUALLY FUCKING INFECTED SOMEONE *ON PURPOSE* AND FOR WHAT REASON?! BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT HE WAS ANNOYING AND POOR???? WHAT THE F-  seriously I'm always in awe that people actually hate others for........not being born into wealthy families?? being poor?? like what the fuck but like YOU FUCKING MURDERED HIM and I really liked him - Gyeong was such a good friend...

WHICH ALSO BRINGS ME TO I knew this show was going to be good the moment where I cried in the second episode in I-sak's death. In just two episodes they managed to make me care and feel how this impacted the other characters - and I love the show for it. I've seen shows with whole ass seasons that didn't develop nor narrated the characters connections like they did.

also honestly Min Eun Ji just going feral about the school and everyone was a cathartic experience the whole scene where she put fire on the teacher's room, and later left the school on a bike in the middle of the road... not gonna lie my first thought was "ha must be nice being able to go anywhere anytime and not have to worry about men anymore"

[dontfindme445]

Why we shouldn’t call eldrich horror “Lovecraftian”

Lovecraft doesn’t deserve to have anything named after him. Period. Having something named after you is the worlds’ greatest achievement

In fact, he himself IS NOT the reason why he is famous. Wouldya’ look at that!

he actually died with little more than a penny to his name.

he is famous because a bunch of old men from the 50s (years after his death) found out about his work and wrote FANFICTION about it!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

(I wonder if Lovecraft’s books were just meant to be therapy writing. If so, he really shouldn’t have published them. They have so much bias in them! Should have just kept them secret like a diary. I think the “all humans are afraid of the unknown” line was actually him just saying “no- what?! I’m not weird! Everyone is racist!”) 😂

like, dude stayed in his house 24/7! This was before the internet! He must have gone bored-crazy too!!! Call of ca-cuckoo, amiright?

Lovecraft getting famous is an example of the bad guy winning. He won at the game that I, a good guy, am playing. Good thing this game of fame can have multiple winners.

Lovecraft, consider me your rival!

-with hate (but not as much as you can muster, Henry) A local Wattpad writer.

[silvermoondarkening]

Hey, tell everyone about your OCs, coward

🔪

OHOHO ABSOLUTELY, but first a bit of lore!

So most of my ocs are for this own world that I'm making, it's taking inspo from Nimona in terms of being like a semi-modern fantasy world and it still doesn't have a name yet

But!! I've got plenty of characters figured out

The story itself is mainly centered around Cor Addams, a doll-turned-human tasked with making sure their previous owner Anastasia doesn't hurt other people (and damage her family's reputation in the process)

Cor mostly runs away from home, they don't blame Anny for how she treats them because she's just a child that doesn't know better, they're mostly afraid of her parents (Valentino, a weredeer that hates pretty much everyone but his wife, and Morgana, the reason why Cor has a ribbon in their mouth disabling their speech)

Cor and Anny are sent to Nightflame Academy, a boarding school for magic, where Cor meets their friend Camille Piers (who has her own issues she's dealing with at the time, having made a deal with a fairy to make her computer program 'brother' Cameron come to life and not liking how obsessed with her he's become)

She's really smart when it comes to tech, but she's actually pretty bad at magic, of the two of them Cor is better at magic

A few other characters that may show up but are mostly just used in RPs so far are:

Fiona Houndstooth, my werewolf sona/self insert that turns into a cat on full moons

Delilah Baskerville, a kobold who works in the kitchen at Nightflame...by cooking the monsters she hunted while dungeoneering! (She gets paid for both!)

Vespera Lovett, a pest control call responder that likes making friends (and has no idea her supervisor is turning her fired coworkers into mice)

Satchel, a ferret video game streamer that lives in the walls of Vespera's workplace (nobody knows they're a ferret or where they live except Vespera)

Takara Kanemaru, a kitsune who's nice enough if you're nice to her in kind but an absolute menace if you aren't (what do you mean it's hard to tell the difference-)

Strife, a demon with anxiety that was sent to the underworld for the crime of being a people pleaser (he helped people steal and/or murder because he wanted them to like him)

Jimmy (short for Jimothy) Douglas, a demon who works in a grocery store pocket dimension designed to drive people insane (as if regular shopping wasn't bad enough amiright)

Anyways feel free to ask more specific questions abt them if anyone's interested! (Please)

[undinegeist]

The bible is the worst sort of dumpster fire, written like shit…no wonder, how else are the masses supposed to read it? And here, ladiex & gentx, comes the elitist cunt…but it could be true, for real.

That’s the only reason I can think of that it’d be written that way, so fucking simple (which is not my kinda dive, I’d rather read something I don’t get than something so easy there’s no need to think about it) so that people who aren’t in the habit of reading can consume that shit, and internalize it.

And it’s sick, dude, it’s so sick…even me, being agnostic at most, like…there’s some trick there, idk what it is but there were bits I was reading where I went like…oh fuck, I’m doomed, I’m gonna go to hell, and I started getting legit scared. Not of going to hell, I don’t think, just that I was doing something wrong…by just being the way I am…I can’t quite tell wtf that was. But it’s something in there, in the way it was written maybe…something that hooks you, and what creeps me the fuck out is how if you have nothing else you’re holding on to while you’re reading it - in my case a deep hatred for monotheistic bitches and their bitch gods, plus a general mistrust of human-written bs claiming to come from gods - you’ll probably fucking drown in it. And personally? I don’t think that’s cool.

It’s like all the shit in there is teaching you to be a slave, bend down before your master…your master in this instance being god (ick), though it strikes me that it also preps people to obey their capitalistic bosses, gives them a slavery mindset.

This is tenuous ground, I know - mentioning slavery in connection to religion, but like…read it and you’ll see.

It’s like one big let’s-tame-the-masses take…that’s what I fucking hate, that it makes people stop thinking critically to follow blindly, which is exactly what the people who wrote it want (nevermind their god, whether he exists or not - I’m ever more convinced this book has nothing to do with him one way or the other).

Also, excuse moi if you didn’t want to read this. If you did, thanks. I just had some thoughts I was writing down in a journal type thing and thought they might make interesting food for thought for somebody else?

I’d not recommend anybody reading this read the bible though…I’m doing it sort of as a dare - what won’t we do as a dare, amiright? - and also so I can criticise it properly, ‘cause how can you criticise something you haven’t read? Same reason I tried to read After - though I couldn’t, that was too shit even for me, ugh. Anyway.

Please don’t read After or the bible - you’d be better off surfing Booktube. Or…let me think of the last good book I read…yeah, can’t. But I’ve got a lil something for you, that I can’t say what it is to protect us from the copyright gods overlords.

click hell over here - you won’t be sorry, I hope.

[freezethebeez]

Short Reign of Bathory the II:

If you tell people that they can go around murdering these specific humans with no consequence because They Aren’t People in the Same Way We Are, eventually they’ll start thinking Well Why Are You Perfectly Edible Able-Bodied White People Off Limits. Why Don’t We Just Treat Your Whole Species Like You Treat Your Most Hated Members? Hmm?

The Bathory Coven, or rather the Glaswire and Georgia State Coven (Elizabeth Bathory was a human y’all. She was a horrible person who murdered at least 80 people but she was human.) started buying up large acres of land in Southwest Georgia, and eventually consolidated it all and declared it as their estate (this wasn’t sus due to reasons I’ll hopefully bring up later). They then began hiring laborers and three (vampiric) architects to build the not-yet-singular coven a giant stone mansion that was really more of a castle but whatever. 

None of the laborers knew what exactly they were building, but some of them (only the human ones) started to go missing. Most of the construction workers slept on-site since home was so far away, and as the mansion came closer to completion, people started to go missing at night. 

Only the giant deadlock (that only a very well fed vampire could ever hope to lift on their own) was left undone when one of the handymen went somewhere they weren’t supposed be and saw something they weren’t supposed to see. Anyway all the hired laborers stole shit and ran all the way back to town. The deadlock was never finished

No one believed them. The Bathory Coven was very good at selecting humans that wouldn’t be missed. 

Anyway the Bathory coven started funding a little town on the edge of their property around 40 years later (long enough that everyone who wasn’t human forgot). It was a really good town, too. All of the landlords were vampires but no one knew that. It kept being a nice little town for like 4 years until one day everyone went missing. No bodies. 

The authorities did a little math in their death records and figured out that every maid, butler, cook, and other domestic servant that had been hired to the join Glaswire-Georgia Estate had gone missing. No one had looked into it because of who those people were. Poor and desperate. And it was like, a ridiculous amount of workers to serve what was like 23 people. Like 200.

Then the two covens formally joined, declared themselves the Bathory Coven, tried to to secede and create a “Vampire Kingdom”, and issued a formal call for other vampires to join them. 

Fortunately, most other vampires weren’t very gung-ho about murdering beings of equal intelligence and capacity to experience the world, and the ones who were thought that openly declaring yourselves as a threat was the dumbest possible thing you could do. But there were some vampires interested enough that the Bathory’s numbers raised to 40. 

So pretty much the entire human population of Georgia evacuated, and those who couldn’t afford to disappeared into the mansion. 

The U.S government was kind of at a loss of what to do, since the Bathory Coven definitely had hostages in there and were doing god knows what to them, but like. How do you fight beings that have sealed themselves off from their only natural weakness? How do you best something that’s been training in combat for longer than any of your soldiers have been alive? The mansion was a maze that took hours to travel through, and the moment the sun set the vampires would tear them apart. It was pitch black in there; no windows or lighting.

Plus they were all really strong from drinking what amounted to a full human a day.

In the end, they all either left (dissatisfied with the fact that their numbers weren’t growing for some reason), died (the vampiric architects turned on the TV for once and told the army how to get through the maze) or starved (their systems were used to a gallon a day and they went from that to drinking nothing). Thank god for vampiric metabolism amiright. 

On the bright side, civil rights and bodily autonomy got accepted way quicker because the Bathory vampires would send out a human every six months (usually with bite marks taken out of them, usually malnourished and anemic, sometimes pregnant) to tell the world about what was happening in there (in an intimidating “this will be you one day” way) and Holy Shit You Cannot Treat People Like Cattle Get That Bullshit Outta Here Right Fucking Now Before I Start Having Heart Palpitations. You Know What Everyone Is A Person Now And No One Should Ever Be Made To Give Birth To Or Raise A Child Who Doesn’t Want To Bodily Autonomy For Everyone Now Let Me Go To Therapy

Bloodlettings:

AKA the upper class realized that vampires could hurt them too! Didn’t realize they could bite my face off when I voted for the Bite People’s Face Off Party, et cetera Human Paranoia at its Best

So after the living nightmare that was the Kingdom of Bathory, pretty much all the nations started side eyeing their vampiric citizens and upping the restrictions on vampire behavior when they used to support relaxing them (not because they cared about vampires but so they could “clean out the streets”). It got to the point where full vampires had to wear tracking bracelets in some countries. Suspicions on vampire behavior rose and rose until one day some vampire in Wales was accused of ‘bewitching’ a local child into running away from home (vampires do a lot of shit scientists don’t understand yet but they cannot ‘betwitch’ people). The vampire was staked in the heart by a mob and left to bleed out in a town square. 

This behavior continued, since there was a string of serial killings going across Britain and vampires were often blamed and killed for it. Until the murder was caught. She was a human. 

Essempi was fully established a few years after on a relatively new (200 yrs old) island the size of England situation in the Northern Atlantic Ocean that popped up after a underwater volcano blew. It was meant to be an English Colony, but it gained greater independence during the whole vampire murder schism and no one cared enough to try and reign it back in. It’s current exports are aircraft, communications technology, and wheat.

Now that I’ve gotten over all the doom and gloom and horror, would you like to hear about vampire cultures?

THERE'S MORE?!! ABSOLUTELY YES I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR IT!!!!!!

all of these asks have been wonderful to read. i am absolutely obsessed with the way you write and the way your brain works it is so fascinating to me. like, how the hell did you manage to take my silly little block people fanfiction and turn it into the one of the best pieces of writing i've ever read? i shall forever be amazed by this.

if you desire, i highly encourage you to create a story based off of this. the world you've created is so well thought-out and i can only imagine the kinds of tales you have to tell within it.

but yes, all the doom and gloom aside, i would absolutely love to hear about vampire culture.

[apathycares]

Scared and Alone: Part 2

Hello! This is the long awaited continuation of Bakugou’s mom taking in a mute and homeless teen ask (here!). I’m pretty sure y’all forgot about it considering I wrote it two years ago, but uh...actually I’m sorry bye.

※ Warnings: Swearing (Bakugou family lol)

※ Characters: Short appearances from the Bakugou family, a lil implied Bakugou x Reader

He still hates you

You were still living in his house, and his parents were still adamant on you staying - the Bakugous even bought you a little white board so you could communicate with them 

Precluding him, of course

For some reason, he was always expressing his anger at the situation. Katsuki keeps telling his parents you should be thrown out before they get sued by your folks, demands to know where you came from and why you couldn’t talk.

You’d run away when he starts his usual bombarding

He’d chase you

His mom would destroy him

It wasn’t like you didn’t want to be around him. On the contrary, you didn’t feel too happy about being a burden on them, but the feeling was made especially worse when you couldn’t be in peace with their only son

You tried though, you really did.  

As soon as he’d walk in, you’d light up and start scribbling on your board, wanting to welcome him home, but he’d simply kick off his shoes and barrel past you. 

Katsuki’s first stop would be the kitchen, and as he’s figuring out what to drink, seemingly ignoring your presence when you’d squeeze under him and fill up a glass with ice, up until you’d hold it towards him with a smile. For a moment, you thought you’d finally cracked him when he put his arms around you. You grinned happily, wrapping your arms around him back, being mindful of the glass, before he started crushing you.

A short tussle later, you’re on the other side of the kitchen island, panting and glaring at him. What the hell was his problem?! You angrily flipped the board towards him with a sneer, blinking when he merely grinned and stole your glass of ice.

“Hmph, that’ll teach ya. Stay out of my way, muzzle.”

Muzzle?! He read after you scribbled some more words. Well jokes on you, I like crushing hugs :p

Katsuki lunged for you over the island, screaming profanities as you barely dodged his crackling hands and bolted out the kitchen, hot on your trail. He narrowed his eyes when you skipped over the couch in the living room, and made it on the other side of the long dinner table, matching his position so he couldn’t get you, but just as he put a foot on the table, and you backed away to run past it and back into the kitchen, his mother’s shriek hit their ears.

“What the hell are you doin’ on my table, Katsuki?!”

You really tried.

This game of cat and mouse lasted for weeks, with him getting more and more handsy with you and you getting more and more bold with your words

It seemed like no matter what you tried, no matter how much you tried to make this easy for the both of you, he’d either ignore you or choose violence

At this point, you’d realized there was no point trying to make friends with him, so you just resigned to returning what he dished out to you, or plain old ignoring him back - two can play this game. His family’s approval would just have to do.

But Bakugou wasn’t having that either

You’re just chilling on the couch after helping Mitsuki with the laundry, the TV playing a plague of a drama that you watched when nothing good was on the other channels, barely glancing at Katsuki who took it upon himself to walk right in front of the TV as he made his way to his room. You were a little peeved, knowing he did that on purpose, but you refused to give him any attention.   He kicked your shin as he walked past, his lips quirking when you shoot him a heated glare before tearing the eye contact between you and settling on the TV again. You don’t notice it, but he turned behind the couch, vacantly watching your show for a moment, before tucking his manga under the arm that held his drink and dropping his now free hand onto your head. You whined and clawed at his hand as he pushed you lower and lower by the head, before ruffling it and walking off. And just as he planned, you padded after him.

“What.” He gruffed as you blocked the door to his room, face as impassive as your own. You grabbed his drink, chugged it halfway, and then delicately shoved it into his hand before walking off. You heard a mock, “Ohhhh~! What a rebel!”, followed by a muffled chuckle and a door closing, pulling a little smile from you.

Wait, no! You pushed the smile away, frowning forcibly as you went down the stairs. He wasn’t about to get an iota of friendliness from you ever again! 

His father walked in just as you made a disgusted face, before both of you stared horrified at each other. 

I’m okay! Promise - you scribbled frantically.

Besides his incessant teasing, you remained as unmoving as a mountain, doing what was needed of you and meeting his advances in stride

He eventually stopped telling his parents to send you away, and he started to spend more time at UA on the weekends instead of at home

As much as you didn’t like it, you kind of started missing his looming presence. You thought you were going crazy, but then dismissed it as human nature searching for drama all the time

Or something

After skipping out on coming home two weekends in a row, his mother bothered him enough to come home the next

You carried your day as you would, with a contemplative Bakugou watching you 

It got so bad, the way he was lowkey following you around all of a sudden, so you decided to confront him

You randomly turned away from the running microwave, biting your tongue to hold back a giggle when Bakugou quickly pushed himself off the island and stuffed his head into the fridge, pretending to search for something. Pretending, because he stood there before the whole time you were unwrapping your food and setting the microwave.

Bakugou blinked when he turned around and found you right behind him, smiling as you swayed on your heels, before showing him your board. Welcome home! Do you wanna share the food? he read, before narrowing his eyes at you. “I’ve been here for half a day, are you dense?” 

Yeah, and? 

“What’s with the attitude?!” He seethed, an inch away from your face, before he caught himself and backed off. Rubbing his nape, he stared at the eggs as he mumbled, “What’ve ya been up to?” After a beat of uncontrollable silence, he remembered he had to face you to see what you said, but when he does, his crimson eyes widen when he found you simply staring at him with sparkling eyes and a quivering lip, before you curiously started hitting him with your board.

“HEY- WHAT THE FUCK??” Bakugou grabbed your board mid-air after three and a half hits and took it away, pulling your cheek with one hand with an angry pout and then pausing. “So? What did you do today?” He stared awkwardly at you for a beat, before holding out your board back to you so you could tell him, but to his irritation, you gasped and took a step back. “What’s wrong with you today muzzle?”

You grabbed your board, erasing your words six times before you nervously flipped it towards him.

You didn’t kill me after I assaulted you - does this mean we’re friends now?! 

Bakugou chased you out of the kitchen, his cheeks flushing deeper and deeper as he heard your disgustingly cute giggles when you disappeared past a corner

It took some time, but you think he’d accepted you

Mostly - he had a funny way with consistency you see. You couldn’t really tell with him. 

But you knew one thing: he was comfortable with you now

And how were you so sure? You plopped on his lap about eighteen times after he pushed you off, and on the nineteenth, he just grumbled and left you there! Progress, amiright?

“You probably think you won,” Katsuki’s gruff voice whispered hotly against your ear, eliciting an involuntary shiver from you as he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you flush on his chest. He chuckled as he nuzzled onto your neck, feeling you relaxing against him before he continued, “and I’ll admit, you’ve got me a little confused sometimes myself, but...”

But...? You thought, your heart racing in your chest.

“I guess I’ll take you seriously now.” He declared, sliding his hands from your waist to clasp around your stomach. “Game on.”

Bakugou started crushing you.

[goldenpixel]

The scene with Wilbur in Quackity’s latest lore stream made me Think some Thoughts, and I wanted to get all of my SBI family headcanons together in one place, so here’s this post

First thing, this is their age order:

Philza -> Techno/Wilbur -> Tubbo -> Ranboo -> Tommy

- Techno and Wilbur were born on the same day, so most of the family refers to them as “the twins” but they are not blood related

- Philza did not know how old Techno was when they were ruling the Antarctic Empire, he thought that Techno was around 21 when he was actually around 14-16

- this is a fact that haunts Phil to this day, because he committed a massive amount of war crimes with an actual child, and also for reasons that will soon become very clear

Philza and Techno

- they’re married

- they got married with them each thinking that the other was close to their own age (Phil thought Techno was in his early 20’s, Techno thought Phil was in his late teens)

- for more on their marriage, check out this post

- despite Techno and Wilbur being the same age, Techno is mentally much older due to his past and his general status as the Blood God

- Phil did most of the work raising the older kids, but Techno did his fair share, and you can definitely see his influence when you look at the kid’s behaviors

- both of them are immortal

- Techno is a new immortal, the Blood God has only just come into existence, but he isn't leaving anytime soon

- Philza is an old immortal, he was there when the world was born, and he'll be there when it dies

Wilbur

- Wilbur and Philza are the only blood relatives in the whole family

- as much as he loves him, Wilbur has always been a bit bitter towards Techno, because when they were teenagers, Techno was off ruling and adventuring and having fun with Phil during the AE, and Wil was left home with a young Tommy to look after

- Wilbur’s hair is naturally blond, just like Phil and Tommy’s

- no one knows who Wilbur’s mom is (unfortunately mpreg is the norm on this server, so Phil carried him, and he’s got some ideas on who Wil’s mom is, but he honestly doesn’t care enough to look into it)

- Wilbur has wings

- they’re much smaller than Phil’s, he can barely fly with them, but they’re the same color and shape as Phil’s

- because of how fragile his wings are, Wilbur should not technically be able to fly, but he literally sheer force of will-ed it and threw himself off the roof of their house so many times that he can glide when he jumps from high places, and if it’s a really high place, he can get in a few good flaps of his wings to get him some extra distance

- Phil doesn’t learn that Wilbur can semi-fly/glide until one day they’re off adventuring together and Wil is being dramatic and theatrical and walking backwards while he talks, and he falls off a cliff

Tommy

- Tommy has been with them since he was a few days old

- because of his light features, most people assume that he is Phil’s son by blood, and he just didn’t inherit the wings

- (at ages 10 and 16, Tommy and Wilbur did the blood-brothers handshake where they cut their palms and then shook hands, so if you ask them, they’re blood brothers through and through)

- Techno taught Tommy how to sew

- Tommy is a young god, but he hasn’t grown into most of his powers yet

- Tommy is a god of death, the future Death himself, Kristen is his mother

- (this is how Phil comes into possession of him. Phil, being the Angel of Death, was really the only reasonable choice when it came to Death herself finding someone to raise her son)

- Tommy has light features, even though Mumza has dark features, because she purposefully made him out of the light, she wanted him to be good and kind, so she created him from the literal light that you see when you're dying

- because he was born from the actual moment of death, despite Tommy's eyes being blue, they hold the void itself in them

- if you look too closely into Tommy's eyes, it can be easy to lose yourself and fall right in

- sometimes Mumza comes to visit, these are very bittersweet moments for Tommy

- he loves his mom, and he loves seeing her and seeing Phil happy to see her, and she usually takes him along on her next trip, ever so slowly teaching him how to be Death, but he also hates that that is his future

- he doesn't want to be the next Death, he doesn't want to outlive all of his friends and his brother, he just wants to be normal

- because of this, Tommy represses pretty much all of his godly powers, trying to seem as normal as possible, the one he represses the most is his automatic healing, when he gets hurt, he wants to stay hurt

- he represses everything so well that its years before Tubbo finds out that his best friend is a god

Ranboo

- Techno raised Ranboo more than Phil did

- (because of this, he’s the only kid who actually views Techno as his father. Despite him literally being their stepdad, the others see Techno as more of a brother or an uncle)

- Techno found Ranboo when he was around 12 years old on the edge of a warped forest in the nether (if you want some more nether-boys hc’s, check out this post)

- at that age, Ranboo hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet due to malnutrition, so he was much smaller than the average human 12 year old, and everyone thought he was around 8-10 (because of his memory issues, Ranboo thought the same thing until Tommy kept pestering him about when his birthday was and he remembered the year)

- Ranboo is brought into the family when he’s 12, Tommy is 11, and Wilbur and Techno are 17

- as I said before, Techno may have been 17 when he took in Ranboo, but he was definitely a father to this anxious amnesiac preteen

- because of his height, Ranboo is constantly slouching to fit through doorways, inside houses, and to make himself appear smaller, so he grows to need a cane

Tubbo (and Dream)

- street cat

- they fed him once and he just kept coming back

- sometimes he’ll disappear for a few weeks, but he always turns up eventually

- boy’s got some family issues, some real bad family issues

- his dad is Schlatt, who left him and big brother Dream to fend for themselves when he and Dream were 6 and 11

- luckily Dream has an excellent sense of direction and memory, and got them to Aunt Puffy’s current port before she pushed off on her next adventure (but not before getting briefly separated and making some friends)

- (the few weeks they spend separated are when Tubbo first gets found by Wilbur and Tommy and forcibly adopted by Phil, and Bad lures Dream home with food and he meets Sapnap)

- both boys have ram features - floppy ears, horns, etc., Dream also inherited their Aunt Puffy's rainbow hair (he dyes it blonde semi-regularly. It's dyed when he meets sbi, and Wilbur and Techno have the exact same reaction to it when they finally see his natural hair: relentless teasing. Like father like son amiright?)

- Tubbo and Dream are half brothers (same dad, different moms), Tubbo is 1/2 ram and 1/2 human, Dream is 1/2 human, 1/4 ram, and 1/4 what he and Sapnap think is demon (basically Dream had a human-ram hybrid dad, and a human-demon(?) hybrid mom)

- when Tubbo introduces Dream to his new brother-in-law, Dream feels a bit of a kindred spirit, but he quickly brushes it off

- Dream spends most of his time either with Bad, Skeppy, and Sapnap, or on the sea with Puffy, so Tubbo mostly fends for himself

- Tubbo is more than happy to fend for himself, he actually prefers it most of the time. He doesn't like people fussing over him and sheltering him, so whenever his mood switches and he decides that he does, actually, want some family time, he just appears on sbi’s front porch

- Tubbo first meets Ranboo when he comes to visit after a few months away. No one told him that Tommy was with Mumza for the weekend, so when he arrived at 3am, 2 days before he told Phil he’d be there, he just let himself in and threw himself on top of the sleeping figure in Tommy’s bed, only to be met with a startled enderman screech that woke the whole house

- (Ranboo was in Tommy’s bed because he might not be a part of the official Clingy Duo, but the boy is as clingy as they come. He regularly sleeps in his family’s beds, both when they’re home and when they’re away, because his sense of smell is heightened as an enderman and he needs to be surrounded in their scent when he misses them or when he’s feeling sad (especially because these are the only scents he knows, he doesn’t remember any of the scents from before Techno found him))

Big brothers being friends

- one day, after Tubbo’s near-constant raving about how great the Minecraft family is, Dream agrees to visit with him

- this visit happens to fall during the AE, so the only ones home are Wilbur and Tommy

- Dream and Wilbur take one look at each other and their similar situations in raising their chaotic, problem-child little brothers, and never let go

- the four of them live together for a good 5-6 months before Dream gets a letter and he and Tubbo need to leave

- after this visit, Dream and Wilbur stay in contact, and they visit each other even without their brothers around to drag them along

- I know I said that Wilbur makes fun of Dream for dying his hair, but that’s only in public

- in private, Wilbur confesses to Dream that he also dyes his hair, that his hair is naturally blond and he dyes it darker. After this, Dream and Wilbur start dying their hair together, it becomes something scheduled that they both look forward to immensely each month

- the next time Dream and Tubbo visit together, Wilbur is off with a water spirit who stole his heart (I refuse to write about fish Sally, fight me), and Phil is showing Ranboo some cool builds in his current hardcore world, so it's Techno and Tommy who welcome them in

- Techno starts out pretty hesitant of Dream, but Dream almost instantly is like

- "I'm gonna annoy the blood god into being my best friend"

- and whatever Dream sets his mind to, he achieves

- so the visit sort of ends with Dream and Techno making Tommy and Tubbo promise not to burn the house down, and leaving them home alone to go off to cause some chaos together

Father/son relationships

- As I said earlier, Phil primarily raised Wilbur and Tommy, and Techno primarily raised Ranboo, with Tubbo coming in and out like a feral cat

- to Wilbur and Tommy, Techno is more of a cool uncle who brings them valuable trinkets from his adventures, and they want to be like him one day

- Ranboo and Phil’s relationship is almost exactly the same as Wilbur and Tommy’s relationship with Techno

- when Techno brought Ranboo home, Phil pretty much decided that he had his hands full enough with raising his two chaotic boys, and he declared that it was finders-keepers, Techno found Ranboo, so he gets to raise him

- after L’Manburg, Ghostbur and Phil learn sign language, because the explosion blew out Phil’s hearing in his left ear, and Ghostbur’s so soft-spoken that it’s sometimes really difficult for him to hear his son speaking

For more random hc’s I have about these characters and the characters of the smp in general, check out this post

Some quick tags for people who commented on my post asking who wants this post, thanks for the support guys :’) @anotherweirdohere @haveadayasgreatasyou @jupiterjordan

[betrayou]

He hadn’t noticed him.  Eyes fluttering ones, twice and trice before finally occupying the already taken bench.  Shoichi is too tired all to suddenly, a sleepy spell overcoming an already constantly weary body till finally he decides he should take some rest, however he never thinks he’d actually fall asleep, thinks he’d just sit for a quick second and be off and about once again. Shoichi is wrong often, head bopping to and fro till finally he SLUMS and falls towards the child. 

@godlightning  ▮ 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑

[surveillance-0011]

TBOI Headcanons: Horsemen

Death

He/him

He’s...nice. Not a good person by any means but he’s the most polite of the bunch. Kind of strange though. Creepily calm, a bit sarcastic, and he has a pretty morbid view on the world.

Reserved and usually grumpy. He can be rather chipper off-duty, though. Putting up with the others takes a lot of energy from him.

Tired....

A bit neurotic but good at coming off as a down-to-earth guy.

He’s the most book-smart of the bunch and he’s fairly wise. A bit emotionally stunted, but he tries his best to be mature and make the right choices.

Death is more than a bit nihilistic and pessimistic. He has a hard time just... caring, mostly about himself.

Not to say he’s completely apathetic, he can be pretty empathetic but he tries not to act on that too much because if he did his job would have broken him by now.

He likes to think he’s got it all under control, but he does not. He’s more prone to pettiness and stupid decisions than he’d like to admit.

That being said he’s been pretty good with like. Growing and maturing though. He’s changed more than he realizes in just in the past.... decade or so ago. A bit of a late start for an immortal but hey at least he’s slightly less of a scumbag.

It’s usually not easy to anger him unless he’s really tired or something’s already set him off. When something does piss him off badly he’s a bit prone to freaking out. He’s not very good at handling his emotions. 

Sees his own job as a necessary evil, because hey, someone’s gotta do it.

Interested in botany/gardening, as well as literature.

Genuinely nice- or at least polite- to the kids when he’s not supposed to be murdering them. He sees no reason to go out of his way to do so, especially since unwarranted cruelty towards others has only bit him in the ass.

Famine’s older brother. The two have always had each other’s backs.

Diligent, and always considers the logistics to things instead of acting on emotion alone.

Protective of the other horsemen.

Pretty short tbh

His horse’s name is Chili.

Famine

She/he (bigender). You can use both interchangeably or only use one set, she doesn’t care. Fine with they/them too but it’s never really clicked w/ him enough to be preferred.

Usually prefers more masculine terms (brother, sir, mr...) but fine with anything.

.Flips between bouncing off the walls and having no energy whatsoever.

Impulsive, she’s got terrible judgement and has the most idiotic of ideas sometimes.

Fairly easygoing, tries to forgive and forget and doesn’t let little transgressions get to her

Actually pretty damn sad. Needs some self care but never looks after herself.

I mean she’s optimistic and usually happy but like. There’s always just a bit of sadness, you know? He’s dealt with a lot and it’s definitely taken its toll on him.

Disaster Lesbian

Tries to be a graceful loser but she can get a bit more competitive than she’d like to admit.

Has a hard time relating to others and considering how they feel, at least when it comes to anything more complex than “bad thing happened now I’m sad/mad” He’s a drifter by nature, always onto the next big thing for a quick thrill.

Eats a lot. It’s never enough.

Plants and a good deal of food will decay if she touches them, or even gets too close to them.

Like his brother he has some interest in nature. Famine is more on the adventurous side, though. She’s tried to live off the land a few times with varying success.

Named her horse Frisk

Pestilence

He/him

Calm, quiet, but also a pessimistic jackass.

Always in a bad mood. I mean, he’s permanently sick with just about everything contagious and deadly. You’d be grumpy, too!

Surprisingly high pain tolerance. A good deal of his nerves have probably just.. shut down or something. Or maybe he’s just numb to everything after a lifetime of pain.

Sleeps a lot

Dislikes his situation a lot, but doesn’t mind the company of the others.

Lazarus is terrified of this dude. The other kids are mostly grossed out or annoyed by him.

Likes to be alone.

Fairly smart, but comes off as absent minded bc he’s pretty much too sick to function. He slips up a lot and he’s pretty damn clumsy

Probably the most rational of the bunch, when he’s not in airplane mode. 

He’s also got a fairly strong moral compass. He doesn’t really like fighting the kids unlike War and Famine. Or just having to go up against people in general. Hell he hates the fact people get sick because of him. At the very least Pest has higher standards and is fairly transparent

But that isn’t to say he’s a good person. Yeah he doesn’t go out of his way to hurt others for shits and giggles and He’s Not Conquest but he doesn’t ever object to any of the shit the kids are put through and well. Yknow he still does kill them. He will also encourage some of War’s antics when it’s against someone he dislikes.

Tries to be as supportive as he can for the others. He knows he can’t do too much without overexerting so he tries to be encouraging and comforting as he can.

This compassion usually isn’t extended to humans, though.

Not very emotive, the only emotions he ever really expresses would be disdain and mild concern.

Not very fond of Conquest but they don’t hate each other. They actually work together well, too.

Friends with Mahalath. They’re pretty close!

His horse’s name is Moses.

War

He/it

He’s not very friendly, he’s pretty defensive and always on edge.

Out of all the horsemen, he’s probably the one closest with the Beast.

Lots of scars n injuries, it’s practically stitched together

One gold tooth

Impulsive, prefers solving issues through violence than through reason.

He can be fairly clever, though.

Intentionally angers/upsets others, likes causing problems and ruining things for people.

Desires wealth and power

Gets burnt out pretty quickly.

Emotional, insecure, and sensitive, and he hates this part of him. Definitely overcompensates for it.

Explosive temper, quite literally. Catches fire when upset and explodes if it’s more intense. Damage done to him also makes it happen. It’s not entirely voluntary but can be held off, and his “sobbing” sprite is him doing exactly that (but he’s probably also trying not to cry lmao). In the Ultra War fight, however...

Its daily routine leaves a lot to be desired. It wakes up, goes to work, then it goes home and just. Sits and rots.

Also, his diet is god awful. Please just eat a fruit or vegetable for once maybe you’d feel better goddamn.

He cannot remember if his horse is actually a horse or not but uhh he named her Bellum.

Conquest

He/they.

High and mighty sort of attitude. Can be very selfish. Stubborn, set in his ways. Gets defensive if you call him out or tell him he’s wrong.

Gay + nonbinary but in the closet (and denial) about both of those things. They’re trying to unlearn years’ worth of internalized bigotry.

Used to be worse, now trying to unlearn his toxic behaviors. But he’s still awful.

Doesn’t remember anything before their death. However they’ve held very strong Christian (specifically Catholic) beliefs all their life and they have a pretty black and white way of thinking.

Very cold and clinical. He has a bit of a temper but there’s a sort of calmness to everything he does even when he’s pissed.

Just as argumentative and aggressive as War but like more of a threat.

The others call him Connie sometimes, especially Death, who practically almost always calls him by this nickname.

Doesn’t harbor ill will towards Pestilence. They might have been overshadowed, but it’s not Pestilence’s own fault. If anything, being out of the spotlight has been good for Conquest, even if they do miss the attention sometimes. The only reason the two dislike each other is because their personalities clash.

Now if there’s anyone he hates that would be the Headless Horseman. Fuck that guy amiright

Very protective of Death. The two are close, Death is probably the only person who is consistently nice to him.

Utterly terrified of needles (hypodermic, not sewing needles, though he’s not good with sharp objects tbh) and medical stuff makes him anxious

Seems very... off. Just weird vibes but no one can pin point what about him is wrong.

Oh uh and his horse’s name is Josephine.

[hajiwhore]

sun and moon

pairings: oikawa tooru x reader

genre: angst and slight fluff

tw: mentions of mental illness, alcohol, traumatic experience

a/n: this was my very first fic from another blog but i just brought it here because its more suited to this blog’s theme ahahahahaha

The only thing you remember at this point was the pain. No matter how much you tried to drown it out with all the distractions of overworking and alcohol, it was still fresh in your mind; as if it were tattooed to the back of your head.

As you sat at the edge of the shore of a beach you’ve long gotten familiar with, you were reminded of all the incidents that made you who you were today; a depressed suicidal maniac who had a sense of humour that compared to no other. Mental illness really did wonders to your sense of humour didn’t it? It was almost laughable how the things that kept you up at night influenced the things that brought your friends so much joy. Dark humour amiright?

As you sat on the sandy beach – now cooled down by the midnight sky, you failed to notice the sound of footsteps nearing you. Suddenly, you felt light tapping on your shoulder; with a soft voice saying “Hello, is everything alright?” you turn around, shocked to see a boy bent over towards you. His eyes glistening under the moonlight, and brown hair swaying along with the wind from the sea.

You had no idea who he was. Nor the reason why he was at the beach in the middle of the night. You simply nodded and replied “yes thank you”, before turning back to your original spot. He had somehow seen through your reply; somehow seen that you were hurting in some way. And instead of being satisfied with your answer, he proceeded to sit down next to you – the sound of sand shifting under his weight.

“You know, there is a story about the Sun and Moon..” he slowly proceeded. Noting the quirk of your eyebrow, he continued “there is a saying that the Sun once loved the Moon, but humans hated her – only loving the Sun because he brought warmth and growth, yet the Moon only brought darkness and the cold with her. And so, he sacrificed himself every night; just so the Moon could shine in all her brightness and people would learn to appreciate her.”

Thinking you were going to get a serious story about enjoying life – one you’ve heard many times before, you could only laugh at the ridiculous story presented by this gorgeous stranger. “Hey!!! I’m being serious…” he pouted, but giggling at the end.

For some reason, you wanted to thank him. Thank him for bringing you some laughter in the horrible state you were in. Thank him for not making you bear the responsibility of carrying the conversation. Thank him for just being there even though he didn’t even know what was going on in your crazy life. Yet, all you could squeak out was a question asking for his name.

“Toru, Oikawa Toru. And you are?”

[karliesbuzzcut]

(100) Million Dollar Lawsuit

Intro | part1 | part2 | part3 | part4

We are on the last chapter (for now) and this the most chaotic one. Mainly because it doesn’t follow any kind of chronological order (or logical sense), it’s just Russ going in circles for literal years.

But I’ll try my best to condense it for you, so all you need to do is to keep your seat belt fastened until the aircraft stops completely.

Right after the failed Ari lawsuit, Russ goes back to his one and only love: Taylor Swift 💫 And he has learned a lesson — not a good lesson, mind you, but a lesson: small claims courts won’t take him anywhere. If he really wants to punish women for not complimenting his suit, he will have to file a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit.

But, since denying sex from The Russell isn’t illegal (yet), he had to come at it from a different angle. I’m going to give Russ a chance to explain himself first.

Before you ask: yes, the following was Russell’s response to a woman thanking Taylor for visiting an 8 year-old girl who was very badly burned in an accident.

As I’ve always said, it’s okay if you aren’t fluent in Bullshit. That’s what I’m here for.

You see, Russell views human interactions as a series of transactions: I make a tweet worth liking, you go on a date with me; I take you to Olive Garden, you give me a handie for free; I put on a suit, you hug me and smile; I write you a song and sue you, you produce said song. Whenever women don’t fulfil their side of the deal, he becomes enraged.

But the reason he has such a strong hate-boner for Tay, is because she seemed to also follow his same ‘moral code’. A kid makes a cute video, she visits them at the hospital. A fan writes her a letter inviting her to their wedding, she goes to the wedding. A couple of kids fold 1989 paper cranes for Andrea, Taylor invites them to one of her concerts.

Russ thought “this is a done deal”. He didn’t write that song for Taylor because he particular liked her; he just thought she’d be the most likely artist to produce it — or at least acknowledge his existence.

I mentioned before that Russ wrote a whole-ass book about this. And I think it’s as good a time as any to talk about it. For a short amount of time, Russell chilled out about the ✨100 million dollar lawsuit ✨ but my guess is that he thought his book would get him the same results as a lawsuit? To be fair, the book is fantastic. 5/5, would recommend. 

He details the harassment he went through after suing Taylor Swift (the first time). Apparently old ladies at coffee shops would scream at him because he dared to sue Our Queen. A Mexican even pointed a gun at him (it wasn’t me, guys! Just a fellow countryman ❤️) and ordered Russ to drop the lawsuit. Computers at his job caught on literal fire because he was sent very powerful viruses. His friend Ken — who definitely exists! — was hit with a Molotov cocktail. Yep. 2016 was definitely the year people were willing to murder for Taylor Swift.

There’s also this brilliant dream sequence that involves an owl with the voice of Morgan Freeman, and Taylor’s agents guarding a tower in which she’s being held captive. 

ALSO ALSO: an entire chapter is called “SHE CHOSE HIM OVER ME”. Taylor Swift chose Joe Alwyn — a man she actually knows — over a man she’s not even aware exists. Women, amiright?

I think Russell would enjoy the Kaylor community to a certain extent. Not the lesbian part, obviously: he doesn’t trust women who don’t want to touch his peen. I just mean the baseless hatred of Joe. Look, I made a little collage of his rants ❤️ tell me if any of this sounds familiar!

You know — I’ve been joking around a lot about Russell just wanting to do the nasty with Taylor. But you know me, I like joking around. In reality Russ only wants what is fair. He wants to put a stop to all these senseless acts of kindness perpetrated by Taylor ‘The Generous’ Swift.

This isn’t about him at all, actually. Shame on you for thinking there’s an ounce of greed in that selfless little body of his. HE’S DOING THIS TO PROTECT THE KIDS WITH CANCER!

There are no ulterior motives here! This isn’t about a date!

THIS IS NOT ABOUT A DATE AT ALL GUYS STOP SAYING THAT.

I think this is my favourite post of his, because– grammatically speaking –he doesn’t specify which of them is wearing the red dress. And that sends me every goddamn time.

Anyway. The book, as magnificent as it was, got him absolutely nowhere. I know, I can’t believe it either. So he went back to focus on his lawsuit. But apparently not enough, because he didn’t serve her properly..? Now, don’t expect me to understand this, because I am very stupid (so it’s quite a good thing that I haven’t sued anybody for millions of dollars) but something about him sending the lawsuit to her old legal team..? And then trying to force UPS to serve her? I think he even said he was going to serve her in the middle of one of her concerts... but I’m guessing that didn’t go as planned 🤷‍♀️ oops.

Of course, Russie wouldn’t allow such an anticlimactic ending. Can you guess what he did? Please tell me that you can guess what he did. HE MADE ANOTHER SONG 😭❤️

This one is called ‘I Don’t Get You, Taylor Swift’. Another masterpiece that we definitely didn’t deserve 🙌

undefined

This was around April, 2019. By then I was being lured away by Kaylors, so I broke it off with Russ. I know that he filed a 3rd lawsuit against Taylor last year, which is just like the second one but hopefully this time he’ll be able to serve. And listen— I know that sounds like an awful thing to wish on Taylor, but I’d rather have Russell occupied suing a rich woman (who isn’t even going to deal with him), than a poor sex worker in Nevada. I bet TayTay would prefer that too.

Well guys, I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but I really had to be selective with the amount of information I was going to throw at you. I’ve avoided some of the shittier stuff he said or did, because I wanted to keep these posts as lighthearted as possible. I also didn’t touch on many things because they would just derail us. Like for example: one of the few lawsuits he has filed against someone who isn’t a woman, was against the state of Utah. I know, right? He’s trying to singlehandedly legalise prostitution in Utah, and even wrote a book (more like a pamphlet) brilliantly titled ‘Why I'm Making It Legal for Your 18 Year Old Daughter to Get In Bed with a Complete Stranger for Only 500 Bucks: A Short Essay from a Pro Se Litigant who is Challenging the Utah Brothel Bans’.

I copy-pasted that title guys, I swear to god.

The book is very graphic. This one I certainly do not recommend as I still suffer nightmares because of it.

Soren is a character who also had to be cut out — which is a shame because he really tried to be a good christian and help Russell. Not as in “I support you, Russell” but as in “why don’t you take a nap, Russell”. Turns out, even cinnamon rolls have a limit. Russ, of course, blames Taylor Swift for the fact that he’s losing his friends. I’m not joking — it’s an article in his lawsuit:

Greer has lost family relationships, friend connections and business connections because of the trauma of Taylor Swift. His family tells him to "get over it," resulting in shouting matches and strained relationships. Greer's friends get annoyed by his focusing on the trauma of it, when nobody knows the pain of getting rejected by a public figure — twice — and the fallout that has resulted from it.

Russell embodies that comic/meme of the little guy who puts a stick in his bicycle’s wheels and then blames Taylor Swift when he inevitably falls.

Sooooo...

Maybe someday I’ll write a post about Russ’ latest antics. I know he still posts stupid stuff on Facebook, which he later deletes. He shined especially bright at the peak of the BLM movement. He also plead guilty to electronic communications harassment— did you see that conviction coming? Yes, yes you did 😌

Regarding Taylor, I read that Russ knew someone who knew Todrick Hall — and Russ sent him a song and video for Taylor. All he got back was a Cease and Desist letter. But I’d have to do a bit of digging to get the details. I was already so overwhelmed with organising the information I was previously aware of, that I decided to leave the newer stuff for another time. You know, once I’ve had some time to inform myself... as well as a really long shower.

Since I left so much shit out, I’ll be taking questions if you have any. And if you can muster the courage to ask them. I’m weirdly proud of being some kind of Russell encyclopaedia. I might not have much going for me...

There’s no ‘but’ — that was the complete statement.

Before I go, I wanted to add this screenshot. I absolutely love it because it summarises ✨The Russell Experience✨. Russ wants Taylor to know pain, poverty and punishment. But when asked “why?” his answer is just “oh, I was ignored lol”

*none of the screenshots are mine

[lassieposting]

What do you think it says that in S1 Lucifer didn’t really have an emotional reaction to Amenadiel wanting/trying to kill him? Manipulating, yes. But not killing? Seems like killing would be the worse of the two, overall.

OK SO

it depends on when in s1 you mean, because his reaction evolves over the season. so let’s start with very, very early on in s1 lucifer. 

this is a man who’s spent the vast majority of his life in hell, in a culture built on violence and power plays. this is a man who’s been on earth for five years and only really formed surface relationships with the people around him - he clearly cares about delilah in his stilted, emotionally backwards way, but they aren’t close the way that he’s close with linda and ella and even dan, and it’s implied he hasn’t really seen her since she stopped working for him. 

this lucifer is deeply traumatised, terrified of rejection, burying himself in sex and drugs to try and cope, and has an entire lifetime of being told how awful and worthless he is keeping him from really connecting with anyone. 

(my personal headcanon is that baby demons will actually attack and kill their weaker siblings in the nest, eliminating the competition for food, so actually, fratricide would not be as unthinkable to lucifer as it is to us. more kind of...vaguely distasteful.)

pretty much every relationship in hell is skewed towards the dark and aggressive. look at maze, lucifer’s oldest and closest friend - their fights are vicious, they don’t communicate well at all, they resolve conflicts mostly by beating the shit out of each other...my point is that this lucifer not only expects the people around him to hurt him, he accepts it as normal. 

(it’s also worth noting that amenadiel’s hatred for lucifer is obvious whenever they interact - he’s treating luci the way he does deliberately, because at this point he sees lucifer as The Reason Everything Went Wrong. lucifer, on the other hand, swings between deadly serious ( “don’t threaten me, amenadiel. you don’t want to start a war.” ) and being almost playful ( “and you, my friend, can go to hell.” 

sometimes it’s a genuinely hate-filled exchange. sometimes lucifer is just being an annoying little shit of a baby brother, hell-style. which, to amenadiel, comes across as open hostility, and deepens the dislike between them.)

it’s important to understand, i think, that lucifer at this point is? basically shut down. he’s closed off all the parts of him that are gentle and loving and good, because those parts of him will either get him killed or pull him apart in hell. he’s running survival.exe, and everything else is closed. he doesn’t trust anyone, keeps his friends close and his enemies closer, and believes everyone is out to get him because for most of his life they were. it’s been five years since he left hell, but he hasn’t moved on from the trauma at all. he’s stagnant.

so at this point in his life? he sees his relationship with amenadiel as normal sibling behaviour. so yeah, no reaction to amenadiel trying to kill him. just sort of, sigh, brothers, amiright? he can’t afford to care, can’t afford not to expect that from amenadiel anyway. he doesn’t know how to stop living in the past. 

and then he meets linda. 

and suddenly we have a lucifer who is starting to get to grips with his own emotions, starting to get some much-needed perspective on what is and isn’t normal. i don’t think he actually realised just how abusive his family - not just dad, but his siblings too - were until he let linda in. 

he bonds with chloe, and for the first time he’s got someone in his life who chooses to support him, who doesn’t take his shit but doesn’t go for his throat either, and now he’s starting to learn the give-and-take nature of a normal, healthy relationship. he watches her with trixie, with dan, and starts to understand what family ought to look like. he’s soaking shit up like a sponge at this point and he’s realising that his family isn’t normal. 

he puts his fist through linda’s wall, the only way he knows how to express how angry and hurt he is by what she’s saying to him, and she keeps seeing him anyway, and he starts to realise that he’s never had that kind of support from his own family, and he should have, and it hurts.

and we start to see him react to amenadiel differently. he goes to amenadiel to ask for help retrieving his wings. that’s the first time we’ve seen lucifer treat amenadiel like a big brother. and amenadiel flings it back in his face ( “clean up your own mess, for once.” ). lucifer wants the sort of relationship he knows he should have with his brother - the human idea of a good sibling relationship - but amenadiel has also been his primary abuser for eons. the trust isn’t there, they don’t know how to care about each other, they’re both dealing with trauma and grief over lucifer’s fall, there’s so much going on there. 

(and amenadiel is beginning to change too, though much slower than lucifer. they banter a little in this episode. he’s very much the exasperated older brother at a few points, but without the loathing from episode 1. linda is already affecting him, too, in very subtle ways; she’s showing him it’s possible to care about lucifer.)

and by the time we have malcolm telling luci that amenadiel sent him to shoot him, he definitely has an emotional reaction ( “so my holier-than-thou brother sent someone to kill me! well, this really is opposite day.” ). 

by now, we have a lucifer with a support system. we have a lucifer who’s been sat on linda’s couch for months(?) having his pain and his fears and his trauma validated, and learning how to deal with the fallout. we have a lucifer who knows what family should look like, who knows his brother is treating him badly, and that it’s not normal, and that it’s not okay. and he’s hurt. he’s frustrated. he’s angry. 

(he’s also putting on a front, because he thinks he’s mortal and someone is pointing a gun at him. and when lucifer is threatened, he makes himself as big and intimidating as possible and bluffs. he doesn’t have time to really sort through his feelings about amenadiel, because he’s focusing on trying to scare malcolm off with his devil face)

i think this - the end of s1 - is really where their relationship began the long slow process of healing. lucifer wants to get in a fight with his brother against campolongo’s men. amenadiel takes the olive branch and there’s even a semi-affectionate moment when it’s all over ( “and to think we spent all those millennia fighting each other.” ). lucifer stops chasing malcolm to try and save amenadiel’s life. amenadiel realises he’s responsible for his own actions and tries to right his wrongs. and lucifer admits fear in front of his brother and shares the burden of their mom having escaped. 

(and can i just scream for a second about how good lucifer is? he’s been rejected and reviled and treated so badly so many times and yet he still keeps reaching out, keeps trying to help his brother, and it hurts my heart so much)

(also i love the progression of this relationship so much, how you can see the tiny little steps they’re taking towards a human-standards Good Relationship. amenadiel's realization that he’s been a terrible big brother and his awkward attempts at being a better one, offering lucifer advice and reassurance. lucifer - trust issues personified - in turn tentatively starting to ask for amenadiel’s input and beginning to trust him more ( “am i boyfriend material?” )

the backslide when amenadiel tells lucifer he loves and supports him and lucifer panics and lashes out hard, because receiving unconditional love from a family member is so alien that the alarms in his head, honed in hell, are screaming wrong wrong wrong wrong and amenadiel’s sad but accepting reiteration that he understands what lucifer is doing and loves him anyway. these two??? kill me)

SO ANYWAY TL;DR: he didn’t react because he was shut down and his Normal Meter was 50 shades of broken. also i have a lot of feelings about amenadiel and lucifer and i love them so much so this got kinda off track sorry

[wetalkinboutbooks]

Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron

Summary: After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is. 

Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible—if it’s something she can bring herself to do at all.

Set in a richly imagined world inspired by spine-tingling tales of voodoo and folk magic, Kingdom of Souls was lauded as “masterful” by the School Library Journal in a starred review. This explosively epic sequel will have readers racing to the can’t-miss conclusion. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:  

 → Geena:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌗

 → Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall: A messy sequel to an amazing series, we get to see the after effects of the fall out of Arrah vs. Efiya from KOS… and when we tell you it is MESS!!!

~Spoiler-Full Review Below~

The Good: 

→ Arrah and Dimma

Geena: One of my favourite things about Reaper was the sprinkle of Dimma’s POVs throughout the story. We got an insight into Dimma’s life before she was Arrah, and how her relationship with the other Orisha and Daho developed. It also really helped build up the suspense near the end and set up plot twists that clocked us near the end. Dimma aside, let’s talk about Arrah. Rena Barron said brooding boys are out, brooding girls are IN! And you know what, we love to read it. The story starts off with Arrah trying to save Sukkar after she snapped all his bones while trying to save him, and she does save him :) Or so she thinks but that’s besides the point. Over the length of the book we follow Arrah’s inner turmoil of suddenly having the power of 10 tribal chieftains and being insecure about whether or not she even deserves it.

I loved Arrah, even when she was holding herself up to a terribly high bar and beating herself up about everything she did. Arrah helped bring her Auntie back from the dead and was like “Damn I suck :/” and thought shattering a girl’s glass (who was flirting with Rudjek) put her on the same level as her mom and Efiya. I was sitting there like NO GIRL YOU’RE PERFECT, YOU, YOUR MISSING TOOTH AND YOUR PETTY NATURE!! 

Kae: YAAAAAAAAAS! Geena summed Arrah and Dimma up perfectly. 

But I would like to add how much I love Arrah and how selfless she is. She’s always thinking about her friends and their safety, the safety of the tribal people, and of course the kingdom. She’s a worry woman, but for all the right reasons. And she also cares about herself; so much even that like Geena said, she beats herself up for the smallest of things. She’s so worried about being evil like her mother and her sister, that she calculates every single move that she makes, debating if it’s really worth it to use strong magic or not. 

As for Dimma, I loved her POV’S. She is a complex character who has been demonized since book 1. We were taught to believe, through the POV of some of the Gods, that Dimma was a horrible Goddess who wrought nothing but chaos. They erased her name from history, LITERALLY. And Dimma became known as the Unnamed Orisha. While reading her POV, we learn that Dimma was quite selfless, much like Arrah (since they are technically the same person). Dimma was full of love and loved even harder. She went out of her way to give Daho immortality as well as his people, because she loved them so much. She defied the rules of the universe for her love, and it only came to bite her in the ass in the end. Like her siblings told her, “A God’s love is a dangerous thing.” And it was, but not exactly for the reasons one might think.

Geena:  Kae’s summary of Dimma and Arrah is AMAZING, you know my ability to connect dots when reading is kinda shit so reading Kae’s summary gave me realization…  Arrah tries so hard to separate herself from Dimma, because she refuses to believe that a part of her is in love with Daho because she herself is in love with Rudjek… but it’s like girl… you have travelled to the ends of the earth to fight and bring back the people you love (the tribespeople) just like Dimma searched the ends of the universe for immortality to give to Daho. It’d be much easier to reconcile your feelings if you just accepted that “Okay, I may have been Dimma but now I am Arrah”

Also another thing I love about Arrah is how she had…. For a time… three dudes in love with her… or at least what she thought was three dudes. Real hot girl shit. 

→ Rudjek and Daho

Geena: You know the character archetype that’s like a snarky boy who knows he’s hot shit and acts accordingly, but when it comes to the person he’s in love with he’s just a bowl of mush. That’s Rudjek, and only Rudjek can pull it off. In KOS, he was slated to be the next vizier because of his father, in Reaper he’s known as a prince because his dad snaked his way into becoming the monarch. So, now he’s the snarky prince…. And the only snarky prince with rights! His POVs were actually so fun to read, like following the politics of the Kingdom and him dealing with his new craven powers…. Which also had him being able to smell pheromones when people were doing the dirty around him 😭

I really liked that Rena gave him a POV, because now we get to see how he develops given the fact that him and Arrah are dangerous to one another, because he saps her magic with a single touch and could kill her. The whole time Arrah is stressing like “Damn, what if he doesn’t like me anymore because we can’t touch” meanwhile Rudjek is like “I’ll fight the Gods if I have to, to keep her by my side” and it’s like 🥺Also, who let a teenager be in control of a whole army… I thought the vizier was a sly and smart man but I digress… Another thing I liked about Rudjek in this book was that he didn’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations with Arrah, regarding the fact that he confused Efiya for Arrah when they did the unspeakable in the clearing in KOS. Like, that was very mature of them and I’m glad they could deal with that misunderstanding… But… hands down… my favourite scene… During the climax of the book Rudjek gets a demon soul shoved down his body, and immediately assumes it’s the demon king…. And his only command to his friends is to not let him near Arrah😭😭😭 I was like PEAK ROMANCE, SOFTEST SHIT, SACRIFICIAL LOVER!!!!! 

Kae: SO GEENA SUMMED UP RUDJEK SO DAMN WELL. LIKE DUDE OMG? Correct. He is perfect. I really don’t have much to add but I just genuinely loved him as a character. He is caring for both Arrah and his friends. He is also one of the few male characters I’ve read that actively tries to go against their father. Most dudes in books are like “Fine puhpa, I shall do your evil bidding.” But Rudjek is like “Sike bitch, I’ll let you think that but I’m doing what I WAAAANT!” 

But okay, let’s talk about Daho. So first off, I love him??? Am I a villain sympathizer now? Tbh, I don’t really see him as a villain. Man’s didn’t commit a genocide or try to scheme Arrah out of her pants. AND HE VERY MUCH HAD THE CHANCE TO and he was like “nah.” And I appreciate that. Because there are a few certain villainous men who I shan’t name, that be on that scant shit. And Daho is just like… genuinely trying to avenge his wife’s death (Dimma) and try to get Arrah to remember that she is Dimma. 

YES, I know he got Arti to bring him back. BUUUUUT, he didn’t tell her to kill a bunch of kids and shit to do it. Arti did all that evil shit on her own and Daho was like “look, i don’t condone that shit. But it’s over and I’m sorry it happened but I can’t change it.” And I’m like… okay, mood. I get it. Daho is sweet and caring. He looked out for Arrah in *redacted’s* body because we didn’t know *redacted* was dead the whole time. And even then, Daho was still like “My bad… But he wasn’t using his body??? So I took it???” Why let it go to waste, amiright? 

Geena: STOOOOP FOR REAL HE WAS LIKE “It was empty, I didn’t think you’d mind” 

Kae: LMAOOO OKAY BUT DEADASS. And like, idk man. He just seriously isn’t a bad person. He was trapped because after the God’s killed Dimma, he was like “BET IMMA JUST KILL THEM” and they lowkey were shook so they trapped his ass in a box for a millenia or whatever. He wasn’t even out to kill all humanity or anything. The God’s were just being some haters and now he’s suddenly the bad guy. Anyway, we stan Daho in this house. 

Geena: Daho is how you write a sympathetic villain. He owns up to his own mistakes even while his demons run free terrorizing people. Kae said it best that he just wants justice for his wife and unfortunately history is written by the victors so the Orisha painted him out to be a bad guy… My dude was just chugging that respecting my wife juice and they killed her… and he also thinks they killed his son… Guess me and Kae are just villain sympathizers now 

The Bad:   

→ The Ending 

Kae: Okay, let’s get it. And I also just want to clarify that when we say “the bad”, we don’t mean we hate it. This is just something that was like “oh fuck, this is BAAAAD! THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GO DOOOWN.” 

But like, good Lord. The ending? That shit was crazy. First of all, we find out that *redacted* aka, SUKKAR. OUR SWEET, PLAYFUL, SARCASTIC SUKKAR. IS DEAD. HE HAS BEEN DEAD THIS WHOLE TIME!? Excuse me while I *SCREEEEEEEEEEEAM*. Like, what an unforeseen twist. This mf kicked the bucket back in KOS when Arrah tried to save him. Turns out… She maybe… Totally… possibly… Absolutely killed my guy on accident. He dead-dead. And this is how we find out that Daho took over his body, once Sukkar’s spirit ascended. It was a really sad reveal and my heart kind of hurt reading it. I straight up wasn’t expecting that to happen. THEEEEEN. GOTDAMN EFIYA. IS BROUGHT BACK. 

Geena: No joke, the ending of Reaper was just one sucker punch followed by another… At first you think Tyrek (the prince from KOS who joins Arrah and her crew on a journey to save the tribespeople) is the demon king, then you think it’s Rudjek because he’s getting possessed, and then you learn it’s Sukkar… The final punch to the gut was Daho bringing back Efiya because his close general asked for her… because she’s his daughter. We were like, DAHO ARE YOU SERIOUS YOU SAW THE DAMAGE SHE DID TO THE HUMANS!!! Like Efiya may have grown quickly in a few months but her brain isn’t fully developed, like that girl is UNHINGED!!! I thought we were done with the Efiya chapter but here we are, and I’m scared to see what role she’ll play in the final instalment of the series. I guess this is the case of bringing back an old villain that can work out really well…  I trusted Rena with the messy Arrah/Daho/Rudjek love triangle, so I trust her with this too 

The Ugly:  

→ Tyrek 

Geena: Remember how I said Rudjek is the only valid snarky prince… Yea, Tyrek can CHOKE!! In KOS he sides with Efiya and she wreaks havoc in the Kingdom, and in Reaper he’s brought to his knees. Rudjek’s dad wants to execute him for his crimes, but Arrah sympathizes with him because she knows how Efiya’s mind control worked. As you read, you get a sense of “Okay, maybe he isn’t bad, he’s helping Arrah and them” but then you get to the climax and you’re like okay nvm this boy was insane… Imagine travelling to a whole other dimension and making deals with demons, because you’re in a fucked up sort of romance with a half-demon girl. He managed to lie to Arrah that he was being controlled by Efiyah, when he was really with Efiya the whole way…. Even when she told him to murder his whole family… this man was vile!! He’s also one of our first fake outs, when he pretends to be the demon king I was kinda disappointed… I was like no this ruins the messy love triangle I’ve been waiting for! But it was just a fake out, Tyrek was just trying to scare Arrah into freeing Efiya, whose soul was in the demon dagger that Arrah used to kill her in KOS. Overall, 1/10 for this man… the 1 point is for when he figured out “Sukkar” had a crush on Arrah before Arrah even knew.  

Conclusion 

Kae: So, I don't have much to add to Tyrek’s snake ass. He really was ugly in the end. I’m glad he’s dead. 

But to conclude, this was such an amazing, refreshing read. Reaper of Souls was a wonderful sequel to Kingdom of Souls. Rena writes so beautifully and she didn’t hesitate to have us readers shaking in our boots. Getting more background information on Dimma, the Gods, and their old ass war, was really fun and insightful! IT added to the story in a way I hadn’t even thought about until I was consuming it all! 

Arrah and Rudjek are perfect angels and I can’t wait to see where book three leads them. I also want to give a shout out to Essnai and Majka for being such good friends to Arrah and Rudjek. Same to Kira and the Cravens. This is a really close knit group of friends who will go to the ends of the Earth (and literally new dimensions) for each other. THAT’S LOVE, BITCH. And we LOVE to see it. 

Geena: For real! Rena Barron set up such an amazing cast of characters, and she really emphasizes the power of friendship in her series and it’s one of my favourite things to read. With Reaper, from the very start, she sets up the story in such a way you’re literally screaming by the end… I think it requires a special kind of skill to be able to set up a story so well that while you do make predictions about what’s going to happen, it still shocks you when you realize you’re right. Cannot wait to see the absolute mess that will be the final book, with Rudjek/Arrah vs. Daho… and the drama it will bring now that the Orishas realize that Arrah is Dimma’s reincarnation.  

[ellaofoakhill]

My Thoughts on Stakes...

I’m thinking this’ll probably be shorter than my usual posts on writing and storytelling, but we’ll see. Anyway, this is just my personal take on stakes.

Which is that *drum roll* you don’t actually need stakes to tell a story that people will read. Crazy, right? But I mean, the slice-of-life genre exists for a reason. Is it an outrageously popular genre? Maybe not, at least not in the West; Japan has s-o-l and a related genre, iyashikei (I’ve previously reblogged a definition of the latter if you’re interested), and both are more popular over there. Why? I dunno, but I suspect there’s less of a stigma against escapism in Eastern cultures; Miyazaki talks about the concept of ma in an interview, and how he works that space for breath into his movies, and it makes me think that there’s a relation between the two. I could talk about how Western culture, from our schedules to our media, encourage a constant state of doing without stopping to rest and simply be, but that’s a subject in and of itself, and I’m already off-topic.

The purpose of stakes is to introduce tension to your story, or to escalate tension. Your character(s) want x, or want to prevent x from happening; the greater the impact of not getting or preventing x on your characters, the higher your stakes. And the higher your stakes, the more invested your audience will be, so the logic goes.

Popular media of a more adventurous persuasion often takes this very literally, and puts the entire world/galaxy/universe in jeopardy, because what will affect your characters more than the entire world blowing up, amiright?

...

... No, actually, you’re not.

Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions (yes, I know, I reference her a lot, her stuff is just SO GOOD you should watch it) has a video on Youtube talking about the end of the world, and if I may summarize/paraphrase her, stakes don’t work like that; chances are, few things will affect your characters more than the blowing up of their personal, subjective world. In Andy Weir’s Artemis (spoilers ahead), the highest stakes throughout the book are whether or not the protagonist can save the inhabitant’s of humanity’s first lunar colony, comprising at most a few thousand people. According to the above logic, that should be a “Yeah, sure, kinda interesting”, but it was pretty suspenseful because the lives of people we knew and liked were at stake, not the whole world.

Humanity is growing more interconnected than ever before, but most of us have a few hundred people whom we perceive as having impact on our lives; everyone else is mostly treated with indifference. Not because we’re a cold, apathetic species, but our conscious minds aren’t capable of making deep emotional connections beyond that point.

Another part of this is that the audience is taking something of a gamble with every story they pick up. Does it end happily, or sadly? Marriage or death? And while there is certainly some satisfaction derived from a well-written tragedy, that’s really hard to pull off when the story’s entire world is destroyed and stays destroyed, to the point that I can think of precisely one example that did make it work: The Cabin in the Woods (and there are a few asterisks there, like it being a horror movie). So unless you can pull off one of the most difficult tasks any writer has ever attempted, you probably won’t write the end of the world, or even the end of your characters’ world, though that’s a more realistic goal. Remember that gamble the audience is taking? If you put forward the End of the World in a full-length novel (short-stories have more leeway because the audience investment is usually in the low tens of pages, and not in the mid to high hundreds), the odds of you writing it and satisfying your audience are so astronomically tiny that most authors aren’t going to actually write it. So the audience bets that your protagonists will prevail in preventing it. And they’re almost certainly right.

Let’s say you pick up a book, regardless of genre, set in a small town. There are good people, and decent people, and a few creeps. Most of the book takes place in this small town, and the author really writes characters well, to the point that there are a few characters you adore despite deep, nuanced faults, and some you hate with a fiery passion, even if they have redeeming qualities. This small town feels real to you, and while the story alludes to a wider world, grounds itself in this wider world, the meat of the story is here, wherever here is. We grow with our characters along this journey, and love this beautiful tapestry the author’s woven for us.

And then we find out that one character we love is going to die.

The world will keep on turning. This town will keep on living. In that literal, objective sense, the stakes are pretty low. But this light that’s kept us reading for five, six, seven hundred pages, will soon be snuffed out. And if the author has written this story half so well as I’ve described, the ending could be good even if, or perhaps because this character dies. In short, this character’s death is a very realistic outcome.

I’d bet the farm you’re more invested in this one character than in any number of worlds. In fact, a lot of those stories know the audience knows the EotW won’t happen, and so the suspense and shock, and plot twisting, if they’re written well, comes from which of our beloved characters will die.

And they don’t even have to die, really; even a protagonist not getting what they want can devastate your audience.

I once heard (and I wish I could remember the source of this) that in poetry, anyone can write of grand and noble ideas and objects, and sound wise, even profound, but it takes a true master of the art to appreciate and bring forth profundity in the mundane, the small, the innocuous. I think the same can be said of fiction; not that we all need to write literary fiction (good luck prising the dragons from my cold dead hands), but that maybe rather than writing grand sweeping vistas and great armies, we could write all the little happenings in a single tree. Travelling the length and breadth of an entire fantasy world can be a fun time, don’t get me wrong (Paolini was one of my favourite authors growing up), but if writing grand adventures ever gets stale for you... maybe try writing about that tree. Its breadth might not impress, but them roots might grow deeper than you ever imagined.